The next day at lunch, I hadn’t brought anything to eat, so instead I went to the school store to buy a sandwich. I didn’t invite anyone to tag along with me; no point when I was just running there and back. Surely no one would think I was a friendless loser. After all, I had a group I ate lunch with in the classroom.
That said, we only ate together because we sat next to each other, and there was no telling if they’d actually wait for me to get back. Granted, this errand wouldn’t take long... but I’d already told them they didn’t have to wait for me, so they probably already started... I decided to hurry.
There was no chance of me inserting myself into that group of guys I visited the CRC with, so my best bet was to form connections with my current group. Here at this school, it was the one place I could claim to belong.
Traveling from the East Wing, I cut through the courtyard. During lunch, the place was buzzing with activity, and a few clubs were recruiting. I knew before I enrolled that Yamaboshi put a lot of emphasis on club culture, but it still wowed me every time. Some were simply handing out flyers, but others were actively inviting people to hang out and eat lunch with them.
As I made my way through, two voices rang out through the din:
“Why not sit down and hear us out before you go?”
“J-Just for a minute or two!”
It was Uwa and Enjouji from the CRC. They were facing a different direction, so they hadn’t spotted me. And since they were busy talking to someone else, there was no reason for me to talk to them... so I walked right on by.
There were no other people in the way, so I could hear their conversation clearly.
“Um... what kind of club is it?”
“Whatever kind of club you want! Join us, and you can do anything you like.”
“Anything...? So basically, you don’t do any one thing in particular?”
“Y-You could say that, I guess...”
“Then why have a club at all? Give me a break!” the first-year scoffed, with a look on her face like surely you must be joking.
“To be clear, we do publish a monthly newsletter called the Culture Bulletin,” Uwa clarified when he realized things weren’t going well. “We make articles about parts of culture that interest us. In the past, we’ve even published paparazzi photos.”
“So it’s like the Newspaper Club?”
“K-Kinda, but not really...? The newsletter isn’t the main focus...”
“I don’t really get it. Anyway, I gotta go to the cafeteria.”
“Okay. Sorry.”
“Right. Sorry for holding you up. Take a flyer with you, though, in case you change your mind.”
And so they were shot down spectacularly. Good grief... Wait, why did I slow down to eavesdrop on them? I gotta hurry. This was no time for me to be worrying about other people. I needed to go buy my sandwich.
Be it settling into high school or choosing a club, it felt like I was always running behind. Why hadn’t I chosen a club yet? Some students had submitted an application on the first day of school. Others had already settled into the respective communities of their clubs. The longer I took, the harder it would be to insert myself.
Out of nowhere, a gust of wind kicked up the dust, and a sheet of paper blew up at me, landing square against my chest. It was a flyer. Someone had dropped it, either on accident or on purpose. Since it had touched the ground, I was going to crumple it up into a ball and throw it away.
But then I saw the words: Be A Part Of The Culture Bulletin!
There were sample images of past issues, too. Top 5 Coolest Pro Wrestling Moves. This Year’s Ultimate Cute Championship.
This was followed by the tagline: Turn Your Passion Into An Article!
Compared to the flyer I was given, this one was more heavily focused on the club’s actual activities. It was accentuated with some artwork, and it actually looked pretty good, if a bit on the girly side... Was it Enjouji who made these? No, that didn’t matter.
Frankly speaking, if someone wanted to make a newspaper, they would join the Newspaper Club. And if they had one specific interest, they would join a club focused on that interest — because, with the massive number of clubs here at Yamaboshi, it was guaranteed to exist.
So what was the point of the Culture Research Club?
Who the hell would join this club?
After I started thinking about the CRC’s purpose, I found myself watching Uwa and Enjouji the next day at lunchtime as they passed out flyers in the courtyard. I could see two CRC third-years standing a short distance away — Yaegashi and Aoki, watching over their kouhai.
But this time they weren’t distracted talking to someone else, so they spotted me right away. Our eyes met, and Enjouji waved at me eagerly.
“H-Hi there! I remember you came to see us the other day!”
“Y-Yeah...”
I couldn’t just ignore her since she was technically my senpai, so I walked over to her.
Enjouji Shino... She hadn’t commented on our accidental hug since the day it happened, so she must have forgotten about it by now. To me, it was a pretty wild incident, but given her natural klutziness, maybe that sort of thing happened to her every day.
—Remember that time you hugged me out of nowhere? That was so crazy.
—I’m so sorry about that!
—For a minute I thought you were flirting with me.
—Oh my gosh, you’re so silly! It was an accident, I swear!
But this imagined conversation would never actually happen.
“Wanna come see us again? We won’t ask you to join,” said Uwa. Apparently he was bored enough to join in.
That said, I did have a question I wanted to ask them.
“I’ve been wondering, um... how many second-year members do you have?”
Supposedly the third-years had all retired, which meant the second-years were in charge of the club... but I’d only ever seen these two.
“...Well, it’s no secret, but...” Uwa began awkwardly.
“There’s actually just the two of us,” Enjouji finished.
“Oh.”
They both looked downcast. Was this a sensitive subject for them? Seriously though, just two second-years? Yikes.
“Don’t you need a minimum of five members to keep your club...?”
“Ah, I see you’re familiar with the rules. This year we’re safe, since the third-years are still included in the member count, but if we can’t get our hands on some first-years, we’ll be in real trouble next year. So it’s kind of a life or death situation!” Uwa joked.
But to me, this wasn’t a joke at all. Their club was a sinking ship. Was there anyone out there who would climb aboard?
“Well, um, do you have any prospective members so far?” I asked, purely out of curiosity. I was interested to see what would happen to them.
“W-Well, we don’t know yet. We’ve had plenty of people come see us, but no one’s promised to join... What about those boys who came with you?” Enjouji asked.
She didn’t want to know about me — she wanted to know about them. But to be fair, anyone would be more interested in those who were actually sociable.
“Hah. As if they’d actually join,” I replied, more aggressively than I meant to for some reason.
“Oh... Right...”
Enjouji slumped her shoulders like a scolded puppy. Then Uwa scowled at me.
Wait... Is it my fault? Why? What did I do? Oh, crap.
“I just mean, uh, they’re probably more interested in the sports teams. Just a guess, though. Probably.”
Before I knew it, it was Friday once again. It was like one minute I was planning to turn over a new leaf, but then I blinked, and an entire week had gone by.
In that short timeframe, I managed to visit four other clubs, but none of them really grabbed me.
Sure, only two weeks had passed since the start of the school year, but two weeks was still enough time for cliques to form. In my class there was one big co-ed group which consisted of several smaller groups, plus some guy-only and girl-only groups which had zero overlap.