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"That's truly a shame. I was actually thinking, since I don't have any experience managing a club, I was planning to hand over the club's management to you."
"Really?"
Yukinoshita Yukino's hope rekindled.
Kisaragi Rin walked to the window, looking at the blooming cherry trees outside, and sighed.
"Yukinoshita Yukino club member, you're not even willing to call me president."
"Is this a Godfather cosplay?"
Hachiman Hikigaya secretly grumbled.
After a moment of hesitation, Yukinoshita Yukino still chose to save her Service Club, and with a cold voice, she called out: "President."
Hiratsuka-sensei, hiding outside the door, let out a sigh of relief and relaxed. She was about to pretend to pass by to ease the atmosphere, but Kisaragi Rin proactively took a step back, preventing the conflict from escalating. Hiratsuka-sensei felt that her invitation to dinner was not in vain.
The situation had now stabilized. Yukinoshita Yukino read her book, Hachiman Hikigaya zoned out, and Kisaragi Rin searched for part-time jobs online, waiting for the afternoon classes.
After achieving his strategic goal of gaining power, Kisaragi Rin decisively began to retreat.
What he wanted was to be a ghost member who could slack off freely, not to actually become the busiest club president.
Kisaragi Rin occupied the title of president in name only, and returned all club affairs to Yukinoshita Yukino.
Yukinoshita Yukino was very surprised and puzzled by his strange behavior. If he wasn't going to manage club affairs, what was the difference from giving up the president's position?
She couldn't possibly imagine that Kisaragi Rin did all of this just to slack off.
"Perhaps he just wanted to teach me a lesson."
"He never had any intention of taking over the club; it was only because of my sharp tongue that he made a bet with me."
Yukinoshita Yukino, using her top-of-the-class brain, came up with this explanation.
This made Yukinoshita Yukino feel a bit flustered. She sat in her chair, looking at a literary book, but she couldn't settle down and couldn't help but look up at Kisaragi Rin.
"Saying he has no experience managing a club."
"Is he perhaps trying to protect my self-esteem? Is that why he's using this method to return the Service Club to my hands?"
Thinking this, Yukinoshita Yukino gently bit her lip, and the feeling of guilt in her heart grew stronger.
But she couldn't bring herself to apologize. After struggling for a moment, she finally decided to get up and make a cup of black tea for Kisaragi Rin and Hachiman Hikigaya.
"Thank you, Yukinoshita." Kisaragi Rin politely took the teacup.
"Thank you, Yukinoshita-san." Hachiman Hikigaya also thanked her.
"You're welcome." Yukinoshita Yukino felt a little better and regained her calm demeanor.
...
Time came to after school in the afternoon. Kisaragi Rin bid farewell to Kato Megumi and walked towards the Service Club. He remembered that this afternoon was Yukinoshita Yukino's famous scene.
Kisaragi Rin's classroom was next to Hachiman Hikigaya's, and they happened to meet on the way and arrived at the Service Club together.
Yukinoshita Yukino was still sitting by the window, reading.
Seeing Kisaragi Rin and Hachiman Hikigaya enter, she politely greeted them.
"Good day, President, and Hachiman Hikigaya."
Yukinoshita Yukino looked at Hachiman Hikigaya with some surprise and said, "I thought you wouldn't come. Are you a masochist or a stalker?"
Under Yukinoshita Yukino's self-conceived notions, her attack power against Kisaragi Rin was lower, but she was still sharp-tongued towards Hachiman Hikigaya.
"Why is the premise always that I have a good impression of you?"
Hachiman Hikigaya found a seat and sat down, saying rather unhappily.
"Isn't it?"
Yukinoshita Yukino tilted her head, showing confusion.
"Your narcissistic demeanor, even I can't stand it."
"You, do you really have friends?"
Hachiman Hikigaya questioned Yukinoshita Yukino.
Yukinoshita Yukino turned her head and said earnestly, "First, let me define what counts as a friend..."
This made Kisaragi Rin unable to help but laugh.
"To be able to say something like that, you really don't have any friends, do you?"
Hachiman Hikigaya also couldn't help but laugh, and asked with even more confusion, "Aren't you very popular? How can you not have friends?"
Yukinoshita Yukino closed her book and stood up.
"You wouldn't understand."
"I've been cute since I was little."
"All the boys who approached me had a good impression of me."
Hachiman Hikigaya suppressed his laughter, listening to Yukinoshita Yukino's rather narcissistic words, then interrupted and asked, "If everyone likes you, why don't you have friends?"
"If everyone truly liked me, then perhaps it would have been better."
Yukinoshita Yukino said somewhat dejectedly.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Hachiman Hikigaya asked, puzzled, while Kisaragi Rin silently turned on his phone's recording function, intending to record Yukinoshita Yukino's famous scene, planning to show it to her later to make her cringe.
"In elementary school, my indoor shoes were hidden about sixty times."
"Fifty of those times were done by girls."
"Thanks to that, I had to carry my harp and indoor shoes home every day."
Yukinoshita Yukino slowly recounted these absurd events.
"Is that bullying?"
Hachiman Hikigaya suddenly felt a little sympathy for Yukinoshita Yukino.
"No, those idiots didn't dare to bully me openly."
Yukinoshita Yukino said disdainfully.
This broke Hachiman Hikigaya's state of sympathy. Before him was still the defiant and sharp-tongued Yukinoshita Yukino. Aside from some petty actions, no one dared to truly bully her.
Yukinoshita Yukino stared out the window and continued to speak.
"Because I'm cute, there's nothing that can be done about it."
"No one is perfect."
"Both pathetic and weak."
"It's easy to become so jealous that you want to set traps for others."
"It's incredible how the more outstanding a person is, the harder it is for them to survive."
"This is too strange."
"So, things need to change."
"Change this world, along with its people."
"That's why I established the Service Club."
"That sounds truly grand."
Hachiman Hikigaya thought for a moment, then tactfully expressed his opinion.
For ordinary people, simply maintaining their true selves and not being changed by the world is already quite remarkable.
And Yukinoshita Yukino wanting to change the world sounded truly arrogant.
Perhaps only naive and arrogant young people who haven't experienced the world would harbor such thoughts.
"Even so, it's better than you being lazy and doing nothing. Casually affirming your own weakness, that's why I dislike you."
Yukinoshita Yukino responded to Hachiman Hikigaya without ceremony, causing him to fall silent.
Kisaragi Rin stopped the recording.
He felt a bit emotional about Yukinoshita Yukino and Hachiman Hikigaya.
In his previous life, he was not as good as Hachiman Hikigaya, because he was helplessly swept along by the world, gradually becoming a stranger to himself.
Fortunately, he was living well in this world.
Appearing at Soubu High in Chiba and becoming his current state also had other reasons.
Kisaragi Rin glanced at the paradise bracelet on his wrist.
This was what paradise referred to as 'qualification'.
Breaking the limitations of the world, and even truly changing the world.
"So, neither of you has friends?"
Kisaragi Rin asked them.
Yukinoshita Yukino and Hachiman Hikigaya fell silent, because they truly had no friends.
"Don't you also not have friends?"
Hachiman Hikigaya was no longer as afraid of Kisaragi Rin. After some time together, he felt that Kisaragi Rin was not as unapproachable as rumored.
"Let me clarify, even not counting my friends before university, I have Kato Megumi as a friend at Soubu High."
Kisaragi Rin's words shattered Hachiman Hikigaya's illusion.
He and Yukinoshita Yukino, let alone at this school, didn't even have friends before.
Meanwhile, Yukinoshita Yukino was thinking: Who was this Kato Megumi that Kisaragi Rin was talking about? Is there such a person at Soubu High?
Among the three of them, they could only gather one friend, Kato Megumi, who attended the school.
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