Chapter 170: So How Do You Treat Secondhand Embarrassment?
Friday.
The sports festival would be held next Tuesday.
After school, Sakurai Saki sat on the sofa drinking coffee. The movie he had filmed with Ichika had finished shooting — no idea when it would premiere. His role wasn't very big, so it probably wouldn't make him famous anyway.
Sakurai Saki had no interest in standing out, and his mother thought the same — her greatest wish was for Sakurai Saki to inherit the family's wagashi shop.
Just like many ordinary mothers, she simply hoped her child could live a peaceful life.
"Shirogane, your dark circles have gotten worse lately. If people didn't know better, they'd think you were working long hours in some sketchy factory," Sakurai glanced at Shirogane.
This guy had been overdoing it lately. Wasn't he afraid of sudden death!?
His level of diligence had everyone in the student council kind of scared.
At the moment, Fujiwara Chika hadn't arrived yet, nor had Kaguya.
Ishigami Yuu had cheer squad training.
He'd seen him once in the hallway today — judging by the look on his face, he seemed pretty cheerful. Maybe it was because there were good people in the cheer squad?
Whether it was that fiery, passionate team captain, or Koyasu Tsubame, they all had good reputations — people who wouldn't judge others based on their past.
"Is it really that bad?" Shirogane Miyuki asked while rubbing his eyes.
He was just adjusting his regular schedule.
Once summer break started, or after the sports festival ended, he'd relax a bit.
People couldn't stay tense all the time. Studying ten hours a day was enough.
"You really should get some rest." Sakurai Saki had given him this advice countless times already.
But it was pointless.
Truly hopeless.
Knock knock!
Someone knocked on the door.
"Come in!" Shirogane Miyuki shouted.
A moment later.
The person who stepped in was someone familiar — Tanuma Tsubasa, Kashiwagi Nagisa's boyfriend.
"Sakurai!!! Shirogane!!!" The moment he walked in, he shouted at the two of them.
.·°՞(っ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥)つ՞°·.
"Help me!!!" The second thing out of his mouth exploded like a bomb.
Wait a minute — wasn't the first time he came here also to yell for help?
Sakurai suspected this guy was scared of girls.
"What happened?" Shirogane looked up at him.
You've got to be kidding — the last time he came here it was to ask which girl he should choose — and that was already weird enough. What now?
Don't tell me… he wants to start a harem?
Sakurai aside — that guy had always been eccentric — but Tanuma Tsubasa had always seemed normal. At least in Shirogane's eyes.
"Well, I'm dating Kashiwagi-san now, right?" Tanuma Tsubasa sat down next to the sofa and let out a long sigh.
Just when Sakurai and Shirogane thought he was about to announce something huge——
"I… I want to hold her hand. What should I do?" Tanuma Tsubasa covered his face.
"I really like her, I really want to hold her hand!"
Shirogane & Sakurai: ༼ ಠ_ಠ༽ ༼ ಠل͟ರೃ ༽
'This sour smell of love is about to flood the entire student council room…'
Tch. The nauseating sour stench of love.
"Holding hands, huh~" Shirogane stroked his chin, thinking. "After becoming a couple, holding hands is definitely the first step…"
Even though he looked like someone with experience, in reality Shirogane had never held anyone's hand. He hadn't even liked anyone before.
"Holding hands?" Sakurai Saki scratched his head.
That? Friends do that too, don't they?
When he and Hayasaka Ai weren't even officially dating, and they'd already skipped past base one and landed right on base two.
"Don't you guys think it's really hard? Even when we're walking next to each other, when I want to hold her hand, I just can't bring myself to reach out." Tanuma Tsubasa sighed.
Shirogane Miyuki nodded, feeling the same: "That itchy feeling in your chest, but you're too shy to make a move."
"Exactly! That's love!"
The moment they said that, they both received an icy, merciless glare from Sakurai Saki.
What a pair of damn virgins…
A bunch of cowards…
Sakurai Saki silently cursed the two of them in his heart — completely forgetting that he himself had only just lost his virgin club membership less than half a month ago.
He still remembered how, back during the opening ceremony, he'd declared, "Virginity is a symbol of purity, a badge of honor for men," and now, just two months later, he'd done a complete 180 — people really do change fast, especially men!
"EHHHH!! A love topic!?"
A familiar voice echoed from outside the door.
Wearing her signature black butterfly ribbon, Chika-chan walked in with a detective hat and a magnifying glass in hand, her expression mysterious. "I smell the scent of love…"
Chika: ヾ(｡✪ω✪｡)ｼ
She scanned the room: "The culprit is among you!"
"Fujiwara-san? You came just in time!" Tanuma Tsubasa was eager for advice from a girl's perspective.
Even though Secretary Fujiwara often seemed unserious, she was still a girl after all.
…Was that a bit rude to say?
Whatever! No turning back now!
"So it's you!? The love criminal!" Chika-chan brought the magnifying glass right up to his face and pointed her right index finger straight at him.
"Hmph hmph, there's no escape! Speak! What do you want to talk about?"
Tanuma Tsubasa blushed and said, "I want to hold hands with Kashiwagi-san…"
Chika fell silent for several seconds, as if her system had frozen like a robot—
"…That's it?"
She instantly lost all interest.
Just holding hands?
Too simple.
Chika: (¬⤙¬ )
"When it's just the two of you, just reach out and grab the hand." Someone else standing outside the door had overheard the topic of conversation.
Shinomiya Kaguya walked in.
"Kaguya-san, you don't get it." Chika's face lit up with girlish charm, looking extremely cute, "It's scary exactly because you're nervous."
"You're afraid your palms might be sweaty, afraid you'll scare them off, afraid of being rejected. That's why you don't dare to hold hands."
Kaguya closed the door.
"Is it really that difficult?"
Her question was immediately met with objections from everyone — except Sakurai Saki.
"It's really hard!" Tanuma Tsubasa shouted.
"Umu, it does feel difficult." Shirogane Miyuki nodded in agreement.
"…It's super embarrassing." Chika recalled a time when it was just the two of them in the student council room, and she had wanted to hold Sakurai's hand but didn't dare to.
Kaguya slightly lifted her chin, resting her right hand on her cheek, looking at the group of "monkeys" before her with contemptuous eyes, "Scared of even something like this, O' kawaii koto ne~"
Kaguya: ( •᷄ᴗ•́)
Chika: (๑`^´๑)
Hearing that, Chika puffed up her cheeks in frustration: "If you say so, Kaguya-san, then why don't you try it!"
"Shinomiya doesn't even have a boyfriend, Secretary Fujiwara, don't be so hard on her," Shirogane stepped in to mediate.
He was always stuck resolving these student council squabbles.
With such a bizarre group of members, he really was turning into a shelter for problematic kids.
"Uh, I… I'll be going now." Tanuma, sensing the situation was spiraling, was about to cosplay Joseph Joestar.
"Don't go." Kaguya stopped him.
"If no one believes me, then I'll show you."
It's just holding hands, this bunch was seriously overreacting.
"General affairs Sakurai, come here!" Kaguya called loudly to Sakurai Saki, who had been eavesdropping nearby.
Sakurai didn't move.
He wasn't her servant, why should he listen?
"Just this once. Next time I'll bring you some of my home-roasted coffee." Kaguya offered a deal.
Sakurai Saki stood up, "What for?"
He spoke as he walked over to her.
"Give me your hand." Kaguya sighed.
This guy seriously never does anything without getting something in return.
Sakurai Saki complied.
Then, Shinomiya Kaguya placed her hand on top of his.
Sakurai Saki naturally closed his fingers around hers.
"Why am I not feeling anything?" Kaguya glanced at Sakurai's face. "Sakurai-san, is it because you're not handsome enough?"
That didn't seem right either, he was actually pretty close to her type — especially with the expression he was giving her right now.
[Trash, what the hell are you saying?]— Kaguya read that meaning in his eyes.
Sakurai Saki let go of her hand.
"Kaguya-san, because we don't like each other and there are no fluttering feelings, holding hands isn't difficult at all."
After saying that, Sakurai glanced at Chika beside him, who looked deeply regretful.
She didn't want to see Sakurai Saki and Shinomiya Kaguya holding hands.
"What's wrong?" Chika-chan asked Sakurai, curious.
"Come here…"
Sakurai Saki extended his hand.
Fujiwara Chika looked around at everyone — with all those eyes on her, she couldn't bring herself to take his hand.
Several seconds passed. Chika still stood frozen in place, her cheeks slightly pink.
Chika: (⁄ ⁄•⁄Д⁄•⁄ ⁄)
"Kaguya-san, now do you understand?" Sakurai withdrew his hand.
"I see. Sorry, everyone. That was a misjudgment on my part."
Shinomiya Kaguya gave a small bow.
"If I did like Sakurai-san, I'd probably feel nervous too. I can understand that a bit now."
Before she could finish her sentence, Fujiwara Chika's face turned bright red, and she bolted out the door.
"KAGUYA-SAN NO BAKAAAAA!! FLAT CHESTED!!!"
She was dying of embarrassment. No way she could stay in a place like this.
What Kaguya said was no different than pointing directly at her nose and saying — 'You like Sakurai, huh, O' kawaii koto~' — there was literally no difference.
...
"She ran away." Shinomiya Kaguya tilted her head in confusion.
Shirogane didn't say anything, but his face was red too — he was feeling secondhand embarrassment for Fujiwara Chika.
This "secondhand embarrassment" illness… how do you even cure it?
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