Komari tapped my shoulder to get my attention. She held out her phone. “I’m on your side. It’s Mishima first. Mishima then Dazai.”
This debate was not for me, unfortunately.
“What sorts of books catch your eye, Nukumizu-kun?” the vice president asked as she set the tea down.
“Uh, mostly light novels these days,” I replied.
“Light novels, eh? Well, we’ve got plenty of those. Feel free to borrow any.”
That was welcome news. Thanks to a certain someone, my shopping schedule had been thrown out of whack.
“So who are the other members?” I asked.
“The president’s out right now, but there’s him,” Tsukinoki-senpai said. “He’s the third-year who showed you around during the tour.”
The description rang a bell. A tall, friendly, and handsome bell, as I recalled. Senpai took a sip of tea. Wait, was that it?
“Nothing like a hot cup of tea to spite the heat,” she sighed.
“Are…are there any others?”
“Nope.” She placed her cup on the table, grinning smugly for some reason. “The student council’s been riding us about that lately. We’ll need you to be present for the time being, at least until the heat dies down. You can help yourself to the tea, of course.”
I glanced at the shelves full of light novels. I could live with that.
“If you say so,” I sighed.
Tsukinoki-senpai grinned and then hopped up. “I should get going. Komari-chan, be a good host, will you?” Komari made a nasty grimace from behind her book. “That doofus Shintarou forgot he was on duty today, so I’ve gotta save his bacon.”
She had a boyfriend, huh? These high schoolers and their hormones. It was like they always said: In junior high, romance was an elective. In high school, it was pretty much a prereq. Whoever “they” were. Someone had probably said it. Either way, I was missing that credit.
“And again.” Tsukinoki-senpai stopped just before the door and turned around. “No Dazai or Mishima. I cannot stress that enough.”
With a wave, she left. Not seconds later, there was another phone screen in my face that read, “Mishima THEN Dazai! Don’t forget!”
Short on credits too, huh?
“I got it,” I said. “Mind teaching me what this club’s all about?”
“O-oh…” Komari made no effort to hide her displeasure.
“Who else am I gonna ask? The vice prez ran off to get her boyfriend or something.”
“H-h-he isn’t her boyfriend!” she yelped. “Sh-Shintarou is the club president. Tamaki Shintarou! They’re just childhood friends!” She started fiercely typing something on her phone but froze midway. “M-my battery!”
Komari began rifling through the nearest bag, which happened to be mine. I was about to make a quip when a knock came at the door. When it rains, it pours.
“It’s Shikiya,” a voice said slowly. “Student council… Is now a good time?”
“Uh, not—”
I shut up as soon as she entered. She was like a flash-bang, her hair wavy, bright brown locks adorned with little flower accessories. Around one wrist she had a scrunchie, and both sets of nails were loudly decorated. Her unkempt uniform and short skirt hung loosely from her body. At a glance, you’d assume she’d gone light on the makeup, but her eyelashes definitely popped. The white colored contacts were a nightmarish touch to cap off the look.
This was a gyaru. A genuine, true, in-the-flesh fashion freak. And an existence far removed from my own.
Shikiya scanned the room, then marched up to me. I gulped. Whatever she wanted from me, it couldn’t have been good. I was face-to-face with a gyaru of all things. My heart raced as I awaited the verbal lashing that was sure to come.
“Nukumizu-kun…” she breathed. “Club member?”
“Y-yes? That’s me,” I answered in the same sluggish way. This girl was throwing me off. This wasn’t the energy I was expecting. Not that I was complaining.
“I apologize… My duties require me to be thorough,” she said, slowly again. “Tell me… What sort of activities does the literature club conduct?” Shikiya-san leaned against a nearby wall like she was out of breath. I waffled between concern and confusion.
“I, uh, wouldn’t really know.”
“No? Are you…not a club member?” Her pale eyes pierced me.
Whoops. I’d nearly forgotten it was kind of my fault the lit club was under scrutiny to begin with. I looked to Komari for a lifeline. Unfortunately, she was too busy cowering in the corner, gripping her poor dead phone and shaking like a leaf. Very reassuring.
“Well, we’re the lit club, so we, uh, read books,” I said.
“Just read?” Shikiya-san tilted her head at me accusingly. What in the world else did these clubs do? “So…no activity.”
She started to step closer, swaying, her steps deliberate yet unsteady. Why was today such a horror movie? Was zombie-aesthetic in or something?
“We write too!” I blurted. “Write stories and stuff!”
“You write?” she repeated. “So you don’t just read.” Shikiya-san looked up at the ceiling, pulled out a notebook, and jotted something down without even looking. “Noted… Thank you.”
She shut the notebook with a thump before twirling around and leaving just as quickly as she’d arrived. It felt like I’d barely escaped with my life. Komari might not have been so lucky. She was absentmindedly tapping at the dead, black screen on her phone, and frankly, I didn’t blame her. That crap had shaved days off my life span.
I knelt down to my bag, which had spilled onto the floor in the chaos, and grabbed my charger. I offered it to Komari.
“I-I need that!” She snatched it from me and, after a few failed attempts, plugged it into the wall with shaky hands.
And then it hit me. I was a pretty normal dude, thank you very much.
✦ ✦ ✦
I scratched out an entry in my schedule. I was hunched over my desk that night, completely redoing all the plans I’d made. Some fiend named Yanami had thrown a wrench in my light novel purchasing agenda.
I leaned back, glanced at the collection in my room, and ran a few numbers in my head. Food expenses would be down, so I could funnel those funds into grabbing more new series if I slowed down on keeping up with ongoing stuff.
“I’ll start with Do You Love Your Big Sister and Her Close-Combat Skills? for now. The anime was pretty good,” I muttered.
Maybe this was a sign to get into My Smol Senpai finally. I’d been reserving shelf space for that plus the manga.
As I began to write, a small hand overlapped with mine. “The Dark Maiden is an Innocent Mistress must stay. Volume five is when my favorite character turns to evil.”
“What are you doing in my room, Kaju?”
“I’m most places. You’re just bad at noticing.”
The freak was my little sister, Kaju. She was two years younger than me and actually pretty cute, just objectively. Not even from a brother’s biased perspective. Last I’d heard, she had joined the student council too. The family resemblance was getting slimmer by the year.
“I’ve really got my eye on My Smol Senpai, though,” I said.
“That one’s good, but a little too naughty for my liking,” said Kaju. “I don’t approve of you consuming that sort of content, Oniisama.”
“How do you even know that?”
“A friend let me borrow it. Too naughty.”
What the heck, how come I didn’t get to check it out? I silently complained.
Kaju stuffed my mouth full of cookies before I could vocalize my protests. Not bad. Next she forced my lips around a straw. Iced tea. I was feeling somewhat infantilized.
“I know how to drink things,” I said.
Kaju stepped directly into my personal bubble. “Have you made any friends at school?”
“Uh, no?”
“I was afraid you’d say that,” she sighed solemnly. “You worry me, Oniisama. You’re in high school now. You’re not allowed to have no friends anymore.” I was officially an outlaw. “How many people did you even talk to today? Not counting teachers.”
That was a good question. There was Yanami, Komari, Tsukinoki-senpai, Shikiya-san from the student council…
“About four,” I replied.
“Four?” Kaju’s eyes went wide as saucers. I was pretty proud of that number. She couldn’t bring me down from this high. “Oniisama, having no friends is nothing to be ashamed of.”
“You just said I’m not allowed.”
“That doesn’t hurt me. What hurts me is that you would lie to me. Your own flesh and blood.”
“I…wasn’t lying.” She’d brought me down from that high.
“But what hurts me more is knowing I drove you to such tragic measures.”
Kaju shoved yet more cookies into my mouth, tears pooling in her eyes.
“Kaju, please,” I grunted through crumbs.
✦ ✦ ✦
“It’ll be okay, Oniisama.” She held me oh so tenderly in her arms. In the height of summer. It was way too hot for this. “I’ll find some friends for you. I promise.”
Nukumizu Kaju—obsessive brother-lover or just a worrywart? I wasn’t sure how to frame it. Either way, this was par for the course for her.
Was having no friends really so terrible? I wasn’t unhappy or anything, personally. Aside from little things, like not hearing about schedule changes (which would occasionally make me late to class) and being unintentionally excluded from most communication, I didn’t much care.
I sipped some more iced tea, grateful, at least, that things couldn’t possibly get any worse.
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