Epilogue
The pre-election campaigning continued all the way until the second-to-last day of the week: Thursday. Keiki and Mizuha were leisurely walking to school, the same as always.
"It sure is cold today."
"It's December already."
Time passed as quickly as always, and there was about a month left until the end of the year. Right after the election ended, it would be time for the end-term exams. After that was Christmas, New Year's Eve, and winter break. The sky looked a bit grey today, as if it might start raining every second. It was even enough to make you feel cold. Mizuha was wearing a thin coat over her normal uniform, but her cheeks had already turned a bit red shortly after leaving the house.
"I wonder if it will snow this year," Mizuha said.
"Maybe," Keiki gave a vague reply.
They had been living in this city for a long time now, but it never really snowed that often. If it did, it happened maybe two to three times every year. And even if it did, it melted pretty soon afterward.
"There seems to be a lot of snow at grandpa's place."
"I saw it in the news. They seem to have almost too much snow every year."
"I bet you couldn't even live there, Mizuha, since you're so sensitive to the cold."
"Ahaha, probably not."
With a faint laugh, Mizuha changed the topic.
"Nii-san, are you helping again with the election today?"
"Yep, that's the plan."
"Tomorrow is voting day, after all."
The day after this marked the final day of the election week. The plan was that the candidates would give a speech in the gym hall, and everyone would vote immediately after.
"Do your best, okay? I'm cheering for you."
"Thanks."
Of course, Keiki was planning on helping Ayano win. However, there was one thing still stuck in his mind.
..Is Onizuka-san going to be okay?
He had exchanged contact information with Inui-senpai, but it sounded like Inui hadn't managed to contact Megumi at all. She had turned down any sort of communication, as if she completely intended to ignore him. That probably meant that it would be even more difficult for Keiki to approach her. Odds were very high that she would even run away from her classmate. Only Keiki knew that the two of them actually had feelings for one another. He had tried his best to get them together, but it had spectacularly failed. If anything, they were even further apart now. He had to take responsibility for that.
He couldn't just allow Megumi to become student council president with her current misunderstanding. He had to help them discover each other's feelings and help guide Fujimoto to victory.
"I guess I have no other choice but to power through the final day, huh…?"
The day before, the newspaper club had put out another approval rating poll, and it hadn't changed much from the one revealed on Monday. Just as Airi had suspected, the anti-romantic-relationship group hadn't grown any further. If they managed to get through the speech on Friday, Ayano should win with more than half of the votes, and she should become the next student council president.
As for Megumi, they would just have to calmly explain the circumstances later.
"…Hmm? What's going on?"
"There's a lot of people gathered there."
When he arrived at the school building with Mizuha, they found a large amount of people crowded around the blackboard at the student entrance.
"Ah, Kiryuu-senpai! We've got trouble!"
"Nagase-san?"
"Please look at this!"
Airi quickly grabbed Keiki's wrist and pulled him over to the blackboard.
"Look!"
"…Eh?"
Two pictures were hung up, intentionally covering Ayano's election poster.
"What is this…?"
The right picture showed Keiki being hugged by Ayano next to the vending machine. The left picture showed Shiho grabbing Keiki's head and pushing it into her bosom.
Beneath both pictures, there was a bold black caption:
'Kiryuu Keiki from Class 2B is two-timing!'