After lunch break, the afternoon classes weren't very long. Before they knew it, five o'clock arrived, and school was over.
"Starting at 5 p.m. today, a club orientation will be held in the First Gymnasium. Students interested in joining clubs, please gather at the First Gymnasium. Once again. Today—"
The announcement that had already played once during lunch was broadcast again. A cute female voice repeated the promotional message over the loudspeakers.
Club orientation.
In short, it was the time when all the school's clubs recruited new members.
They used every possible method to promote themselves, luring freshmen in however they could, then sorting everyone by seniority afterward.
Honestly, Asakusa Tōru found it pretty boring.
The only thing even remotely interesting was the student council.
At the Advanced Nurturing High School, the student council actually held some real authority.
Whether it was mediating conflicts between students or giving suggestions on future special exams, the school usually took their opinions into account.
It was worth mentioning that the current student council president was the "low-budget Yukino" he had written about in his diary last night—Horikita Suzune's brother, Horikita Manabu from Class A, third year.
"But the student council, huh…" Even though he knew the two situations weren't exactly the same, whenever he thought about student councils, Asakusa couldn't help recalling something he'd seen online before.
"Q: What happens if you offend the student council in university?
A: It's like the math world losing Yamauchi Haruki and Ike Kanji. You probably don't even know who they are. They're defective products from Class D, first year, and in a few days they'll score less than half the class average on a quiz."
University student councils and the one here were definitely different, but Asakusa still found it hard to feel any respect for them.
"…Forget it. I'm not going." Shaking his head, he turned toward the dorms.
He was going back to write his diary early.
The diary never said he could only write at night. The first time, it was because he had spent so long figuring out the rules that it ended up being nighttime. The second time, he had done it deliberately—waiting for that specific hour so that certain people wouldn't be able to sleep after reading it.
Namely, Horikita Suzune.
He couldn't be sure whether she was a holder of a diary copy, but if she was, she definitely wouldn't have slept well.
Logically speaking, he should've gone to the club orientation.
Even if he didn't join anything, he could observe Horikita's reaction up close.
If she was a reader and had seen what he wrote, she'd probably start seriously searching for some damn "impostor."
She might even go to her brother and randomly report someone she thought was suspicious.
…Wait.
Yeah. Go there!
Once he thought it through, everything became clear.
Wasn't this the perfect chance to confirm whether Horikita Suzune was a reader?
Suppressing his urge to write today's diary, Asakusa turned around and headed toward the gym.
...
Horikita Suzune had been observing her classmates all day.
And the more she observed, the more convinced she became that her judgment was correct.
That was it. The impostor had to be among them.
"Hey, Haruki, don't you think Horikita's been looking over here a lot today?" Even though school was over, Ike Kanji didn't leave right away. Instead, he stuck together with his buddies Yamauchi Haruki and Sudō Ken.
They called themselves good friends, but honestly, it was just because no one else talked to them. They had ended up grouping together without realizing it.
It was basically the unpopular trio.
And yet, today, they'd been getting Horikita Suzune's attention over and over!
"Hey, could it be…?"
"…No way, right?"
"Maybe, though?"
"No, no. I'm not into that kind of woman. Sure, her face is nice, but her personality feels totally rotten, doesn't it?"
"Then just answer me—if she confessed to you, would you accept or not?!"
"Well, I guess I'd reluctantly accept, hehehe…"
Yamauchi and Ike laughed stupidly. Meanwhile, the bored Sudō Ken stood up.
"I'm leaving," he said.
"Where to?" Ike asked, looking up.
"The gym. Didn't they say there's a club orientation? I'm joining the basketball club."
"Whoa, basketball? Makes sense. With your build, Sudō, you'd totally be popular after joining." Ike started fantasizing on his own and sighed. "There'll definitely be cute girls coming up to you asking to date. Must be nice."
"Quit the nonsense. Are you coming or not?"
"I am, I am! Let's go!"
The trio disappeared from the classroom.
At the same time, a voice came from beside Horikita.
"So, is what they said true? Do you like someone?" Ayanokōji Kiyotaka asked calmly.
Horikita replied irritably, "You know that's impossible, right?"
She could understand impostors misinterpreting her observation as interest. But why would Ayanokōji think that too?
"Eh? It's impossible?" Ayanokōji seemed a little surprised, yet not that surprised.
"It's impossible," Horikita said, shaking her head as she stood up.
Seeing her rise, Ayanokōji asked again, "Are you going to the gym?"
"I'm not interested in clubs," she replied.
"You're not joining any?" he asked again.
Horikita took a deep breath.
"…I think I've already said I'm not interested."
"Even if you're not interested, that doesn't mean you won't join, right?" Ayanokōji persisted, still trying to get a definite answer.
"Talking to you is such a waste of time." Giving up on explaining herself to him, Horikita walked straight out of the classroom.
After a day of observation, she had gained a basic understanding of the trio.
Sudō, who was crude and violent and gave off delinquent vibes, could probably be excluded. Even though he seemed hard to get along with at first, people like that weren't rare. The key was that he had a clear passion—basketball. He had even competed in middle school, and his performance matched his background. He had a definite personal history.
Most importantly, she had interacted with him yesterday afternoon while shopping after school.
Sudō's temper snapped easily. Just a few words could provoke his anger and make him resort to violence.
If someone were an impostor pretending to be human, they probably wouldn't choose such an explosive personality that easily led to conflict.
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