Chapter 8: This Art Club
After finishing the club registration, the three left the Softball Club and followed the recruitment notice they had seen earlier, arriving in front of the Art Club's activity room.
"It's a bit quiet."
Standing at the door, they noticed there was no sound inside, a stark contrast to the Softball Club earlier. However, considering there was a recruitment notice posted, it shouldn't be empty.
So, Kaede raised his hand and knocked on the activity room door.
After a few seconds, a boy's voice came from inside.
"Coming, coming..."
The activity room door opened, and a messy-haired boy who was clearly just sleeping appeared before the three of them. Judging by his face and his height of nearly 180 cm, he was likely a second or third-year student.
The boy saw the three standing at the door, yawned, and said, "Freshmen? You're here to join the Art Club, right? Uh..."
His voice trailed off, clearly having noticed the fierce look in Takasu Ryuji's eyes.
"Just so you know, I don't have any money for you guys."
"..."
After exchanging a glance with the helpless Takasu Ryuji, Kaede said, "Senpai, you're overthinking it. Takasu just has fierce eyes, but he's actually a very honest person."
"...I would appreciate it more if Asakura didn't use that kind of description."
Hearing the two of them talk, the boy generally understood and stepped aside, saying, "Don't talk by the doorway, come in first."
"Excuse us." (x3)
After entering, Kaede looked around the room.
This room was slightly smaller than their classroom, but he noticed a door in the corner, suggesting there was another room inside.
On several shelves, there were various sculptures used for sketching, as well as different painting tools.
Chairs, easels, and canvases were all readily available, making it a well-equipped club room.
"Just sit wherever you like. School just started these past few days, and the Art Club hasn't officially begun activities yet." After saying this, the boy sat down directly on a sofa—a piece of furniture that shouldn't typically be found in a club room—yawned again, and said, "I'm the president of the Art Club, Harukami Akira from Class 2-A. Are all three of you planning to join the Art Club? The third-year students all quit, so we're quite short on members."
(T/N: Harukami Akira from "Kono Bijutsubu ni wa Mondai ga Aru!", he doesn't have a real name in original and just called "President", or I think, correct me if I'm wrong)
Shaking his head, Kaede said, "I'm the one who wants to join the Art Club; they just came along to look. But... short on members?"
Looking around the club room, Kaede asked, puzzled, "This is clearly a very nice place, so why are you short on members?"
"Mainly, the third-year students joined the Art Club purely out of interest and weren't planning on choosing art colleges in the future. Once they entered the third year, they needed to focus seriously on studying for university entrance exams, so they all quit. Then several second-year students left too, leaving only me."
Leaning back on the sofa, Harukami Akira paused, then said lazily, "Hmm... I guess it's partly due to my personal reasons. I really like sleeping, and the club room is quite quiet."
"..."
The three of them felt speechless after hearing the Senpai's words.
So this large activity room was now occupied by only him?
Kitamura Yusaku looked at Kaede and said, "Asakura, are you still planning to join? If the Art Club doesn't gain more members, this club definitely won't be able to continue."
"It's fine, it's a minor issue, and it's impossible for a club like the Art Club to have no one join." Shaking his head, Kaede said, "President, I want to join. Could you give me a club application form?"
Harukami Akira looked at Kaede with some surprise, nodded, and pulled an application form from a drawer in the cabinet, handing it to him.
"Thank you."
Taking the application form, Kaede took out the pen he carried with him and immediately started filling it out.
Finishing quickly, Kaede belatedly remembered to ask, "President, don't we need to do some kind of entrance assessment?"
"Assessment? No need, no need."
The President took the application form, checked it, found no issues, and shook his head, saying, "Even complete beginners can join. Although I'm no genius, I can at least teach a novice without much trouble. So, can you draw?"
"Yes, I've studied it for a while."
"Then it's settled." The President clapped his hands and said with a smile, "As long as you're not a complete beginner, it's good. That way, when the faculty advisor comes to check, it'll be easier for me to report."
Takasu Ryuji looked at the unreliable President, leaned toward Kitamura Yusaku, and whispered, "I have a feeling Asakura joined a slightly problematic club."
Although Kitamura Yusaku was also a little worried, seeing how unconcerned Kaede was, he could only say, "Asakura probably has a plan. At most, we can just drop by occasionally to check on him."
Registration complete, and with less than half an hour left of lunch break, Kaede and the other two said goodbye to Harukami Akira and returned to their classroom.
Just five minutes after the trio left, people started arriving at the Art Club one after another, applying to join... That afternoon, while attending class, Kaede recalled his visit to the Art Club during lunch and felt like the President looked familiar.
He thought about it for a long time but couldn't recall where he knew him from.
"He's probably a main character from that anime, just like Takasu, but I really can't remember who he is."
After classes ended for the day, although the club still didn't have many members, Kaede felt that since it was his first day joining, he should at least show up. So, he said goodbye to Takasu Ryuji and Kitamura Yusaku, finished tidying his things, and headed to the Art Club.
However, things didn't go as he expected. He had planned on the President sleeping while he finished his homework in the Art Club, quietly writing for a bit, so he could happily play games when he got home that evening. Instead, three more people had shown up today.
Aside from the President, who was still leisurely resting on the sofa, two girls were sitting next to each other in front of easels and had begun painting, while another boy was curiously looking around the activity room.
Seeing Kaede enter, the President sat up and greeted him, "Oh, Asakura, you're here. We're really lucky today; the Art Club got three more new members. With five people, the club won't be disbanded. Our faculty advisor will be coming over soon, too."
"Is that so? That's really good."
Looking at the three people on the other side, Kaede said, "Hello everyone, I'm Asakura Kaede from Class 1-C."
"Class 1-A, Sawamura Spencer Eriri." The blonde twin-tailed girl looked at Kaede, a hint of recognition flashing in her eyes, and politely introduced herself.
Next to her, the cute short-haired girl wearing a rabbit hairpin said a bit reservedly, "Hello, I'm Usami Mizuki from Class 1-A."
Finally, it was the boy's turn. He said quite calmly, "Class 1-B, Uchimaki Subaru."
"Hello, please take care of me."
Aside from the blonde tsundere twin-tail, Kaede finally remembered everything after sitting down.
It looked like this Art Club... was truly problematic