Chapter 63: "Plastic Sisters"
Hikigaya Hachiman posted a handwritten notice board on the bulletin board on the first floor. This area was equivalent to a general services spot where anything could be posted. It was also an area with quite a large amount of traffic, where students passing by could usually see it.
Hikigaya Hachiman wrote down Yukinoshita Yukino's original intention for creating the Service Club as well.
"Those who have it offer their compassion and give it to those who lack..."
After Hikigaya Hachiman finished posting it, he said to Yukinoshita Yukino:
"Congratulations. Our Service Club officially starts operating today."
Hearing Hikigaya-kun's words, Yukinoshita Yukino's lips curved slightly upwards.
"Yes, it is our Service Club."
Hikigaya Hachiman didn't forget to tell Yukinoshita Yukino that he had already found the Service Club's first client last week. That was Wakaba Mutsumi.
Although Hikigaya Hachiman didn't know the exact problem Mutsumi had, the conflict was serious enough to create such a troublesome contradiction between two girls who clearly had a good relationship.
"I scheduled her for this Friday; she will come here to seek help."
Hikigaya Hachiman told Yukinoshita Yukino, "I don't know the specifics, but we should find out when she arrives."
"Can't Hikigaya-kun help her either?"
Hearing Yukinoshita Yukino's question, Hikigaya Hachiman replied:
"There are always areas I'm not good at, right?"
Hikigaya Hachiman still remembered the scene of Nagasaki Soyo and Wakaba Mutsumi's one-sided argument.
Women arguing was boring; they wouldn't actually fight, at most they would just engage in verbal sparring. Wakaba Mutsumi's character was not bad.
While she might have some issues with communication, her dull, Mu-Mu-like demeanor when doing things meant there was really nothing malicious about her. But he had also seen Nagasaki Soyo, who was clearly a good kid too. There must be some point of conflict that Hikigaya Hachiman was unaware of.
Mediating conflicts between girls was obviously not Hikigaya Hachiman's strong suit; it fell into his blind spot.
"In this kind of situation, brainstorming is what our club should be doing."
"That's true."
However, Hikigaya Hachiman saying that he couldn't possibly know everything surprisingly improved Yukinoshita Yukino's mood a lot. Having some flaws made him feel more like a human. A seemingly flawless Hikigaya-kun was incredibly distant in Yukinoshita Yukino's eyes.
"By the way, Yukinoshita, our club's budget is around 120,000 yen per semester.
The remaining amount is calculated at a standard of 8,000 yen per person."
Hikigaya Hachiman saw Yukinoshita Yukino's expression and thought she felt it was too little.
"'Is it too little? I can increase it by about 100,000 yen."
"No, I just simply think it's a bit too much."
Yukinoshita Yukino was quite surprised when she heard Hikigaya-kun quote these basic budget figures.
"It's actually alright. Our total club budget is only about 130,000 yen."
Shuchiin is, after all, an elite school. The money provided by the school is the cheapest part of their support.
"The club with the highest budget at Shuchiin is the baseball club, with an annual budget of 3.64 million yen.
They have a lot of members, so their basic budget is also very high."
Their club's budget didn't even amount to a fraction of the baseball club's budget.
Although Yukinoshita Yukino was a rich young lady, an annual budget of over 3 million yen for a club was truly exaggerated.
"What kind of hardships are clubs at other schools experiencing?"
"That's why the so-called Club Union exists, born out of self-interest."
"And with such a large amount, isn't Hikigaya-kun's workload very heavy?"
Yukinoshita Yukino also knew that Hikigaya-kun had the duty of an accountant.
"As long as their club's monthly accounts and balances match up, I don't interfere with the rest."
Hikigaya Hachiman primarily audits the expenditures of various clubs during large-scale school festivals. Shuchiin has quite a few activities on weekdays, and every club or class needs to use school funds. However, the money comes from the students; Shuchiin's annual
tuition fee is not cheap to begin with. Furthermore, some parents make large donations to the school so their children can attend Shuchiin.
"Yukinoshita, when a club is newly established, there is also a 50,000 yen subsidy for purchasing necessary items for club activities."
"But I feel like our club doesn't need much."
The Service Club founded by Yukinoshita Yukino doesn't require equipment like sports clubs, so it really doesn't need anything else.
"Don't turn down free money."
Hikigaya Hachiman replied, "We can buy tea, teacups, and so on. You weren't planning on bringing these from home, were you?"
"Okay."
Yukinoshita Yukino, who seemed to have actually considered that, mused for a moment and asked, "Shall we go shopping after school then?"
"We can."
Hikigaya Hachiman nodded.
"But I have quite a bit of work to handle in the student council room, so let's go out after we return home.
I have to go to the student council room now, too."
Even though they had a few days off last week, the accumulated work in the student council wouldn't decrease.
"That's fine, Hikigaya-kun."
Hearing that the workload for auditing the clubs alone was so huge, Yukinoshita Yukino didn't expect Hikigaya-kun to stay all the time.
"The matters of the Student Council are more important.
The Service Club can wait a bit."
Hikigaya Hachiman shook his head.
"Just like you said before, it is our Service Club.
I will also take responsibility for it.
See you after school, Yukinoshita."
When the activity room door closed, Yukinoshita Yukino was left alone. She couldn't help but sigh while looking at the empty activity room.
"Responsibility."
If she could, she wished for something less heavy than "responsibility" to keep Hikigaya-kun by her side.
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Hikigaya Hachiman walked out of the activity room, preparing to go to the student council room to deal with his work. Suddenly, he received a new message.
Cucumber Flower? It must be Mutsumi.
Why would Mutsumi send him a message at this time?
Hikigaya Hachiman tapped on it and saw that the short message from Cucumber Flower only contained one thing: "What should I do?"
Hikigaya Hachiman sighed when he saw the message.
"What do you mean, 'what should I do?'
If you don't tell me what happened, how can I understand?"
Unexpectedly, Wakaba Mutsumi called him directly using the social media platform's built-in video chat function. Hikigaya Hachiman immediately pressed the answer button.
"Mutsumi, what's wrong?"
Wakaba Mutsumi's figure quickly appeared on the phone screen. However, unlike her usual unemotional face, today's Mutsumi looked exceptionally sad.
"Hachiman."
The scene displayed on Wakaba Mutsumi's screen was in a lush courtyard. Behind her, the bucket usually used for watering flowers had fallen to the ground. The water from the bucket had spilled all over the ground, creating a mess. Wakaba Mutsumi was squatting amidst the mess, and the hand of the girl touching the cucumber seedlings was trembling.
"What should I do.
They broke off their friendship."
What had happened earlier was this: Wakaba Mutsumi was originally tending to the cucumbers she had planted in the courtyard, quietly watering them. Although she didn't grow as many at school as at home, the ones at school were all planted by her personally, whereas the courtyard at home had the help of servants.
But all of a sudden, Soyo rushed up to her as if she had gone mad.
The way Soyo looked now was quite terrifying in Wakaba Mutsumi's eyes. Her facial expression was unprecedentedly gloomy, as if she had come directly looking for her. This Soyo even made Wakaba Mutsumi feel scared.
"Mutsumi, only you can help me now."
A distraught Nagasaki Soyo forcefully pulled up Mutsumi, who was squatting on the ground. She was still holding the watering can in her hand. The immense force made Wakaba Mutsumi frown, and the watering can in her hand dropped directly to the ground. Plop, the water in the can spilled onto the ground.
The hideous splashes of water were like Nagasaki Soyo's current mood—a complete mess.
"Please, Mutsumi.
Tell me Sakiko's home address!
Sakiko deleted me.
I can't find Sakiko anymore."
Facing Soyo's pleas, Wakaba Mutsumi's mind went blank.
'Sakiko deleted Soyo?'
Nagasaki Soyo was only routinely sending Sakiko Toyokawa messages of greeting. Soyo had always thought that as long as she persisted, Sakiko would definitely come back.
But today was different. When she sent Sakiko a short message, a few red exclamation marks suddenly appeared in the chat box: You are not a contact with this person. Please add them as a friend first.
Nagasaki Soyo instantly felt like her world had collapsed. Her vision went black, and she nearly fainted.
Realizing that Sakiko had deleted her as a friend, Nagasaki Soyo found it hard to breathe.
Nagasaki Soyo ignored the concern of her friends nearby and rushed to the courtyard with her phone in hand. Because there was the only person there who could contact Sakiko: Mutsumi.
"Mutsumi must be there."
She should be watering those cucumber plants now.
Sure enough, Nagasaki Soyo quickly saw Wakaba Mutsumi squatting there, watering the cucumbers. So she pleaded, asking Mutsumi to reveal Sakiko's home address.
"I can't tell you."
Wakaba Mutsumi shook her head. She had already promised Sakiko that she would never disclose any information about Sakiko Toyokawa to others. This included her school, her address, and even any changes that happened to Sakiko Toyokawa; none of it was allowed to
be revealed. Therefore, the same rule applied even to Soyo, whom Wakaba Mutsumi greatly valued.
Although it was the answer she expected, this time Nagasaki Soyo was different. She had a feeling of crisis that she would completely lose Sakiko.
"As long as I can talk to Sakiko face-to-face, the misunderstanding can definitely be resolved."
"I don't think so."
Wakaba Mutsumi spoke a second sentence, which completely broke Nagasaki Soyo. Sakiko had already deleted Soyo. Nagasaki Soyo tightly gripped Wakaba Mutsumi's collar.
"Why! Mutsumi is always like this, never considerate of others.
Even though I already..."
Nagasaki Soyo lowered her head. The hands gripping Mutsumi were trembling. She leaned her head against Mutsumi.
"Forget it!"
Nagasaki Soyo couldn't get any answers from Wakaba Mutsumi and left without looking back, going nobody knew where. She only left behind the fallen watering can and spilled water on the ground, and a helpless Wakaba Mutsumi.
At this moment, Wakaba Mutsumi remembered what Hachiman had said: "If you can't solve something yourself, don't hesitate to rely on others."
So Wakaba Mutsumi called Hikigaya Hachiman.
"So, one of your two friends has unilaterally cut off contact, while the other is still trying to mend the broken relationship.
Mutsumi is stuck between these two."
"Hmm."
That was why Hikigaya Hachiman felt it touched his blind spot. In his opinion, the person who was being persistent was indeed in the wrong. Since they had already cut off contact, continuing to pester them relentlessly would only cause distress to the person being pursued. Being blocked and deleted could only be said to be deserved.
"I want to go find the friend who asked me to keep the secret."
Wakaba Mutsumi spoke after a period of silence.
Hikigaya Hachiman shook his head.
"No.
If you force yourself into this now, you will only draw the fire onto yourself."
If Wakaba Mutsumi went to find the friend who did the deleting, just think about it—she would only be perceived as coming to seek justice for the person who was deleted. She would not be welcome.
"Both parties need time to cool down."
Hikigaya Hachiman's advice to Wakaba Mutsumi could only be to give them the cold shoulder.
"You've already been yelled at once. You don't want to be yelled at a second time, do you?"
Hikigaya Hachiman's words also made Wakaba Mutsumi calm down.
She had been thinking of going to Sakiko to ask her the reason for deleting Soyo. Sakiko had indeed told her not to casually look for her. Based on Sakiko's personality and her own clumsy communication skills, Wakaba Mutsumi should have realized the consequences; it might indeed be like Hachiman said—she might be yelled at again.
Being caught between two parties and unable to please anyone was exactly Wakaba Mutsumi's situation. Asking someone who can barely string a few sentences together to handle such a matter was truly difficult for her.
"In short, for the next few days, don't do anything. Just pretend it didn't happen.
We can discuss the specifics in detail when you come to our school.
Give them some time for both of them to calm down."
However, Hikigaya Hachiman had no idea that the current situation was exactly what he had engineered.
"Friendships between girls are truly strange."
Hikigaya Hachiman couldn't help but sigh a little. Why can't they just say everything they need to say all at once? Refusing to communicate clearly won't solve any problems.
"Ah, Hachiman, found you!"
"Fujiwara-san, don't shout loudly in the corridor."
Hikigaya Hachiman didn't even need to turn his head. Just by hearing the voices, he knew it was Secretary Fujiwara and Shinomiya. In his view, this pair was also a very troublesome friendship. To be honest, Hikigaya Hachiman didn't even know how Secretary Fujiwara had lasted so long around Shinomiya.
Hikigaya Hachiman was very sensitive to homicidal intent. He could clearly perceive the biting killing intent often contained in Shinomiya Kaguya's gaze towards Fujiwara Chika. Although he didn't know why, no, it seemed to happen quite often on weekdays. She would inexplicably reveal killing intent, and then it would immediately disappear, reverting to her usual cold demeanor.
In Hikigaya Hachiman's current line of sight, Shinomiya Kaguya's eyes looked at Fujiwara Chika as if she wanted to 'knife' her at any moment. The desire to 'knife' someone cannot be hidden. Shinomiya Kaguya's eyes were incredibly cold.
The cause of the incident stemmed from the dinner party last night, where Fujiwara Chika sent Shinomiya Kaguya a photo—a photo of her and Hachiman eating dessert together.
"If you die tomorrow, it'll have nothing to do with me, you know."
Shinomiya Kaguya was very angry, so her mood was even gloomier today than yesterday. The dinner party last night was hosted by Shinomiya Kaguya's older brother. The Shinomiya family is quite traditional; a proper young lady like Shinomiya Kaguya would generally not appear at such dinner parties. She would only appear at more formal occasions and not often show her face. This meant that without the permission of Shinomiya Kaguya's father or her eldest brother, Kaguya Oko, Shinomiya Kaguya could not attend such an event, even if it was a party hosted by her own family.
This led to Shinomiya Kaguya being unable to show up on the spot, unlike last time, when Hayasaka just informed her.
"It's a real pity you couldn't come to yesterday's dinner party, Kaguya-san. There was so much good food."
"Annoying!"
Shinomiya Kaguya saw the attached comment. It looked even more like a victor's declaration being announced to her. It was Fujiwara Chika's victory!
Her brother was the one who wouldn't let her come, not that she didn't want to. So Shinomiya Kaguya was super upset, but unfortunately, Fujiwara Chika was completely oblivious to this. She kept poking her wounds inadvertently. Consequently, in Hikigaya Hachiman's opinion, Fujiwara Chika could be 'knifed' by Shinomiya Kaguya at any moment.
He suddenly realized that Yukinoshita and Yuigahama were still relatively normal girls.
"Speaking of which, Kaguya-san."
Fujiwara Chika looked at the photo of her and Hachiman on her phone screen and felt a strange sense of emotion.
"I don't think we've ever taken a picture together."
"Huh?"
Shinomiya Kaguya frowned.
"It's just one photo."
"Well, of course not. We're not that close, are we?" Shinomiya Kaguya said coldly, hugging her arms tightly.
"Aw!"
"But I like you the most, Kaguya-san."
A discouraged Fujiwara Chika's eyes became teary, but Shinomiya Kaguya underestimated Fujiwara Chika's ability to act.
"What are you doing, Fujiwara-san?"
Caught off guard, Shinomiya Kaguya was pulled along by Fujiwara Chika for a distance. Fujiwara Chika displayed the surprising arm strength she had developed from walking Pes. She actually pulled Shinomiya Kaguya in Hikigaya Hachiman's direction.
"Hachiman, photo time!"
Fujiwara Chika linked one arm with Shinomiya Kaguya and grabbed Hikigaya Hachiman's arm with the other.
"Why are you pulling my arm just to take a photo?"
Fujiwara Chika was always spontaneous and acted on a whim. It wasn't strange for her to suddenly make unexpected moves. What puzzled Hikigaya Hachiman was: Why are you taking a photo, getting so close, and holding my arm as if you're afraid I'll run away?
"How am I supposed to take a picture of you two like this?"
"Well, Hachiman has to be in it too, of course."
Fujiwara Chika looked at him with an expression that said, Hachiman, you're so silly, and said earnestly, "Hachiman is our friend too."
"It's perfectly normal for friends to take photos with friends."
"Huh? Hikigaya-kun, you too?"
Shinomiya Kaguya's pupils trembled. The look in her eyes, which had been hostile enough to 'knife' Fujiwara Chika just a moment ago, suddenly softened.
Although she was still muttering, "People with no sense of boundaries are annoying," the feeling of resistance she had just had vanished without a trace.
Hikigaya Hachiman also noticed this; Shinomiya had reverted to normal again.
"Ah, Hachiman is too tall!"
Fujiwara Chika had stretched her hand as far as she could, but she still couldn't fit Hikigaya Hachiman entirely in the frame.
"Darn it! What did you eat to grow so tall!"
"I'm truly sorry for being so tall."
Hikigaya Hachiman sighed, took the phone from Fujiwara Chika, and took the picture himself.
"I'll do it."
Thus, Shinomiya Kaguya, Fujiwara Chika, and Hikigaya Hachiman took their first photo together.
The heart Shinomiya Kaguya had been hurt yesterday was mended once again today, and her gaze towards Fujiwara Chika was no longer filled with homicidal intent.
"Don't forget... to send it to me."
Shinomiya Kaguya, this time, was incredibly honest in saying what she thought. However, her voice was too soft for Fujiwara Chika to hear.
"Hm? Kaguya-san, what did you just say? I couldn't hear you?"
"Nothing!"
Shinomiya Kaguya's good mood from earlier vanished again. She thought about going back and having Hayasaka photoshop Fujiwara Chika out of the photo where she was positioned between her and Hikigaya-kun.
Hikigaya Hachiman then said to Shinomiya Kaguya, "Shinomiya, let's go to the Newspaper Club and sort out the matter with Ishigami Yu."
Shinomiya Kaguya also remembered the home visit for Ishigami Yu she had entrusted to Hachiman and the President last week. It seemed the incident had been completely resolved.
"Thank you for your hard work, Hikigaya-kun."
"Understood."
Talking about the Newspaper Club, Shinomiya Kaguya inevitably thought of the place where she and Hikigaya-kun first intersected. More accurately, it was the Newspaper Club's president, Shizuku Asahi, who created a connection between Shinomiya Kaguya and Hikigaya Hachiman.
Meanwhile, Yuigahama Yui happened to see the notice on the bulletin board:
"Service Club?"
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