Thorn Club

　　The next day.

　　Under the bright morning light, early in the morning, five tour buses parked in the square in front of Shuchi'in Academy's school gate. About 150 2nd year students got on the bus one after another according to their class order.

　　The bus door closes. Itsuki scanned the inside of the car. The students sitting in pairs, talking and laughing. Stand up and distribute to students around.

　　Seeing such a lively scene, Itsuki breathed a sigh of relief: "It's great that Asada-kun's propaganda was effective..."

　　After all, before this, almost half of the students weren't interested in Forest School, and some even planned to find excuses to ask for leave first. If Shinichi didn't announce some interesting aspects of the activities on the radio first, then let Nino ask someone to do the promotional activities, Itsuki was worried she wouldn't be able to see the lively scene now.

　　A good start is half the battle. With anticipation and hope for today, Itsuki walked towards the back of the bus.

　　The luggage had already been placed in the coach of the tour bus, so she picked up her carry-on bag, sat down in the only empty seat at the back, and greeted the familiar classmate beside her.

　　"Morning, Kashima-san.'

　　Kashima with short curly hair smiled gracefully while closing the paper fan. The mole at the corner of her eye makes her look quite mature.

　　"Morning, Nakano-san."

　　Itsuki glanced at the other seats, and exhaled happily: "It's good to be sitting with friends… After all, the city has to spend three or four hours in the car. I really didn't know how boring the whole way was..."

Her thoughts are also the thoughts of most people, so most of the buses are shared by same-sex friends, and only a few known couples will sit together.

　　Of course, there are also friends of the opposite sex who are purely friendly and will sit together, so you can't just generalize.

　　"Yeah~" Kashima nodded sympathetically, with a faint smile on the corner of her mouth, "It's nice to meet with such a coincidence."

　　"?" Itsuki tilted her head, confused by her odd tone.

　　The order of getting a seat is in the order of getting on the bus, and getting on the bus is in the order of the number present. As a transfer student and also the last one, if Itsuki didn't ask someone to help her book a seat first, who could sit with her? In the end, it depended on whether the person in the class was the quietest and friendless one, or Itsuki was just trying her luck to find the remaining students.

　　As for Kashima, her elegant and chatty personality is very popular among her friends. Both the men and women in the class had a good relationship with her.

　　Even if she didn't speak, many people would be willing to sit next to her. That's why Itsuki lamented how lucky she was to be able to sit with Kashima who happened to be alone. Even though she didn't know what topics the two of them could talk about, at least they wouldn't feel embarrassed.

　　After thinking about it, there was nothing strange about it, Itsuki took out a meat bun for breakfast from her carry-on bag, and started eating it happily.

　　Kashima glanced at the flesh-filled monster beside her, turned to face the window, tapped on the bluetooth headset hidden in her short hair.

　　"Thorn Club, are you ready?"

　　She said in a low voice, and from the corner of her eye, she confirmed that Itsuki had not noticed her movements.

　　『Subordinate finished, awaiting orders. 』

　　Kashima nodded, and looked at the chair in front of her diagonally.

　　"Come on, snacks are mandatory for recitation outside of school! Everyone has one, don't be so polite, it's good to eat together~"

　　Fumino stood up from her seat and handed out the sticks.

　　She is also the object of the protection of the Thorn Club, Furuhashi Fumino who is known as the "Sleeping Beauty of the Literary Forest".

　　"Asada-san, you want too?"

　　"No, I'm not used to eating snacks in the car."

　　Beside her were rumors of Fumino's boyfriend, Shinichi, whose title actually didn't matter at all.

　　It was during this time that the Thorn Club devoted themselves to gathering information, analyzing his interpersonal relationships, and trying to set him up with Fumino.

　　"Furuhashi, you better sit down quickly, if the car starts suddenly..."

　　Before Shinichi could finish speaking, Kashima snapped her finger beside her ear, and said, "Do it!"

　　*BAM*

　　The bus shook violently, and sped forward a certain distance, and then the driver hurriedly apologized on the radio in the car.

　　No matter what the contents were, Kashima focused on looking ahead with.

　　In her view, Fumino's body was unstable due to shock. With her hands full of snacks, she didn't have time to reach out and grab the back of the chair, so she could only fall on someone beside her.

　　Thus, Kashima finally saw the expected picture.

　　Fumino sat on Shinichi's lap with a red face.

　　The two looked at each other in embarrassment, the distance between them was less than thirty centimeters, the atmosphere around them seemed to be ambiguous.

　　The Thorn Club members sitting around them all turned their heads as if nothing had happened, and the lively chatter stopped, giving them space to be empathetically alone.

　　Kashima nodded in satisfaction and tapped on the earphones.

　　"Goal accomplished, thank you for your hard work."

　 『Princess Furuhashi, and the Thorn Club will last forever!』

　　Kashima temporarily turned off the Bluetooth communication, turning to look at Itsuki, who was already devouring the meat bun.

　　Kashima showed a graceful and friendly smile again.

　　As it happens?

　　No, everything is a calculation.

　　Including trying to get Shinichi and Fumino to sit together with everyone they know.

　　Including pretending to be coincidental, but actually making room for Itsuki, planning to ask her about Shinichi along the way, and testing if there's any trick between the two.

　　Of course, including the "accident" just now, that was all in their plans.

　　Thorn Club members are talents.

　　To get Fumino to sit on Shinichi's lap at the right time and angle, to deepen their relationship, for the Thorn Club, it was only a matter of calculation and simulation several times.

　　For Fumino's sake, and given her shy appearance, this was nothing.

　　This Forest School was an opportunity not to be missed by the Thorn Club which had been prepared for a long time.