Chapter 6

I was waiting for the club fair to start. There were around 100 first years in attendance paired with the rather large gymnasium; it made for easy movement even with the number of people. I started reading the pamphlet that was handed out with all the details of the clubs and found nothing that really interested me. I saw Tachibana approach the microphone on the stage and waited for her to start speaking.

"Thank you for waiting, first year students. A representative from each club will explain their activities and how to join. I am Tachibana, the secretary of the student council and the chairman responsible for this club fair. Nice to meet you." I was right that the cute voice on the PA system was indeed Tachibana. After her announcement she gave the microphone to none other than the Student Council President. He stood unmoving, unwavering in front of the crowd of first years. Most of the freshman misinterpreted his stillness as a sign of anxiety. I heard people making fun of him.

"Do your best~"

"Did you forget to bring your notecards~?"

"Ahahaha!"

I heard the crowd say. I knew better that was not the gaze of someone who was scared of speaking in public, that was the gaze of someone who wanted to be respected. Once the Student Council President started talking the crowd soon went silent.

"My name is Horikita Manabu, and I am the student council president. The student council is also looking for first-years to replace the graduating third-years. There are no strict requirements to apply for the position, but those who are interested should not be affiliated with any other clubs. Generally, we do not accept any candidate involved in other clubs."

He used a soft tone with a tense mood that silenced the whole gym within the first sentence, everyone was interested in what he had to say in the moment. This effect was due to him being the Student Council President but also thanks to the individual known as Manabu Horikita. His aura was dominating, his presence could be felt by anyone within the school grounds it felt like. He continued talking.

"Also, we, the student council, are not looking for anyone that has a naive way of thinking. Not only will that kind of person fail to get elected, they will inevitably become a stain to this school. The student council is only responsible for regulating the students, but the school expects much more. Those of you that understand can become potential candidates." It felt like that first comment was directed at me somehow. I decided to ignore it for now.

"Everyone, thank you for coming. With that, the club fair has just begun. I hope that you find the club that you would like to join." He signed off and exited the stage, opening the floor for us first years to explore the wide variety of booths that housed different clubs. I started my search.

After an arduous search I ended up finding a quaint booth that only had the space for one chair since it was squished between two other larger booths. It kept getting overlooked and I don't think anyone has approached to join. It only had two people, two girls, present within the booth which is less than the average club. One had to stand behind the other because of the tightness, but what really spoke to me was the small banners on either side of the booth with the name of the club, 'Literature Club'. I steeled myself and approached the booth.

"Excuse me." I got the attention of both of the girls at the booth. They looked at me with a bit of hope.

"I would like to join the Literature Club" I say and I see both of their faces suddenly gain some brightness. The girl with coral pink hair, cut chin-length and slightly curled at the ends, with a large red bow on the upper left side of her head, who is sitting down excitedly questions my decision.

"Oh my god! Like really! Like actually, you wanna join our club!?" The pink-haired girl exploded. I'm surprised she was able to sit for the duration of the club fair, but I digress.

"I would like to join." I pause as they look at me dumbfounded.

"Don't tell me you guys just filled in the last spot" I say while wiping away a tear that just showed up. Now it was the standing girls' turn to speak. She had extensively long coral brown hair that she kept tied up in a high ponytail tied back with a large white bow, curled slightly at the ends, and paired with emerald eyes, she seemed way more composed than her counterpart.

"Please Fill out the form in front of you, to register for the club, we will meet on school days after school at 16:00 and on Saturdays at 13:00." I started to fill out the form while listening to the emerald eyed woman explain to me the rules of the club. She seemed none too pleased but continued.

"Tomorrow we will meet-up in Classroom 1-A to decide where we will be meeting up on the school days. On Saturdays we will meet up at the Cafe Pallet." I finished filling out the registration form and restarted looking at her to show that I was still paying attention. She still continued like nothing happened.

"Failure to meet up with the club for an entire week will mean that you will be kicked out of the club. Clear?" Oooh an indirect threat, feisty.

"I understand Senior. Please continue explaining." I say calmly. She takes a deep breath back in and explains how the club will work.

"Since this is a literature club we won't be heading out of the school for competitions instead each month we will be given a writing challenge to complete and judges will pick the best one across all high schools, and in our case the winner will get points" Quite cutthroat for a Literature Club, but I like it.

"Sounds like tons of fun" I say with a polite smile. The emerald eyed lady seemed to be defeated in her efforts to thwart me from joining the club and introduced herself while bowing.

"I'm Monika Osaki, the Club President of the Literature Club. I welcome you to the club." She said like she didn't try to reject like 3 times indirectly. I return the introduction.

"I'm Doi Katsu. Thank you for having me." I say and I see her bright emerald eyes flash with recognition of the name but she doesn't speak up, and I reply in kind with a bow of my own. Suddenly the forgotten third spoke up and introduced herself joyfully.

"I'm Sayori Aoki, the club's Vice-President." She said as she threw up a peace sign from her seated position.

"We'll introduce you to the other members tomorrow." Osaki said matter of factly, and I nodded and left the booth seeing as I think everything was explained to me, and I had no questions. I was about to make my way back to my dorm when I left the gymnasium and somebody stood in front of me. It was Tachibana. I made some guesses at what it was for. She spoke up.

"The President would like to meet with you. Follow me." She starts walking, and I sigh inwardly. I don't wanna deal with this, but I guess I will. I follow Tachibana to just behind the gym where Manabu is standing there waiting. She brings me face-to-face with him. I'm within arms reach of him. I put my arms into my pockets and waited for Horikita to take action.

(Tachibana POV and flashback)

The air around President was tense, no doubt thinking about the freshman that just passed by. I let him sink into his work. To my surprise he called for me.

"Tachibana, can you get me Doi Katsu's file for me please." he says while still working on whatever he works on. The student council does actually have access to the new students files but we aren't giving any details related to what the interview that the students had, the only things we can see is the overall grade and a few short sentences.

I get to fetch them from the filing cabinet that I recently organized thanks to the new students' entries and the old students' exits. Doesn't take long until it is within my grasp. I take a peek at it since he has also spiked my curiosity. What I saw did not do much other than feed it. After reading the simple sentence that was not redacted I handed it over to the President. He quickly went over it himself. No doubt we shared the same reaction when we read over it. Complete shock, the best average I think a student has ever had.

[Academic Ability: A+

Intelligence: A+

Decision Making: A

Physical Ability: A+

Cooperativeness: A+]

Now it doesn't really make sense, if this student is this special why did he just waltz into the Student Council Room, there must be something more. President spoke up again.

"The club fair today after he leaves brings him over to behind the gymnasium, and don't leave, stay there and observe." President seemed sure that he was going to the club fair. It must be because of his social aptitude and the club fair being a large gathering paired with the only information we have about him courtesy and the comments on his file.

[He has an ever growing interest in writing.]

…

Katsu stood an arms length away from the President and the tall young man with black hair with a couple snow-white highlights at the front as well as black eyes looked relaxed. His posture screamed not being afraid. President also didn't seem to be pressed.

After the "staredown" President was the one to initiate conversation.

"Would you like to join the student council?" President asked, even though I was a little shocked not that much though, what I heard next shocked me thousands of times more.

"Nah, I think I'm good. I just joined a club ya see. I hear you guys would rather I don't do that. I would rather the club over the student council, seems like a lot of extra work" While his argument could be dismantled knowing him he already knew that so that means that he just doesn't want to join, which I find weird. Why not be a part of the student council, it's such a good experience, at least for now.

"I see" President responded deadpan, not wanting to hear more than necessary for now. Now it was my turn to be surprised by President since instead of walking away he made a feint and went to kick Katsu in his jaw. Katsu was forced to dodge instinctually which made him bend his back backwards, as a result his phone fell out of his blazer pocket hitting the hard ground with a klang!

"Ah! Crap! Pleasedontbebroken, pleasedontbebroken" I heard him mumble while checking on his phone, I saw him wipe it with his sleeve to make sure it was alright, putting it into his pants pocket this time. He resumed the conflict with President.

"Is this really how you treat people who reject you, you beat them up?" Katsu asks, instead of answering, President goes for a left hook to which Katsu responds by blocking the hook as well as retaliating with a left hook of his own and it hits square in the shoulder and pushes President away from Katsu. I think now I can guess President's idea for testing him. Instead of getting up stays down while clutching his shoulder. I play my part in the play.

"How Dare You Just Punch President Out of Nowhere Like That!" I say louder than my normal voice but not a yell for fear of attracting attention. Weirdly I don't see Katsu shaken by my addition.

"Everyone here knows it was self-defence." He simply states at President. Oh, how cute, I think. The President says it best in response.

"But does that matter? I have a testimony against you, and we have more power in the school than you do. We can make it go to the higher-ups at the school, and bruise your reputation claiming you to be a liar." I stay calm even after President bluffs about being able to take it to the higher-ups, the school will just trust our word, with proper reasoning of course.

"And? You have a testimony from someone you are closely associated with. I have a video recording of the incident." Both I and Horikita are shocked. How would he have a video recording? We clearly saw him drop his phone, I saw his screen was not taking a video. He took out his phone and showed us the video. It was a video taken from the pocket on the opposite side of me that I couldn't see well. It did indeed show President going in for a left jab and getting parried. President just shrugged his shoulders and got up and readied his hand for a handshake.

"Join the Student Council, You'll be the Vice-President." Weirdly enough this was the thing that surprised me the least about this interaction. I would much rather Katsu over Nagumo as the President next year, especially with the poise he showed today, and it's only up from here, it must be nice being in his class.

"Like I said, I'm good, I wanna focus on my club." He gave an answer that we could really poke holes in and for now, President decided to call it quits and leave, I followed. I also saw Katsu start leaving.

(POV Change back to MC)

Well, that was weird, to say the least.