Kenkyo, Kenjitsu o Motto ni Ikite Orimasu - Chapter 161

Chapter 161

“Is something the matter, Mizusaki-kun?”

I mentally ran through anything I might have done to piss him off . Mn . Probably something to do with the Pivoine again .

While we were standing together in the hallway I noticed him shoot a harsh glance in the direction of the classroom .

Fellow Stalking Horse shifted his position so that he was shielding me from it .

“Are you okay?”

Okay? Huh?

“Whatever do you mean?”

“…Aren’t you being extorted?”

“Hah?”

Extorted? Me? By Umewaka-kun and the others?

“Um, might I ask how you came to that conclusion…?”

“I’ve had reports about them using coupons with the Pivoine’s crest . At first it was something to just keep in mind, but I was patrolling just now when I saw them pester you for something, so I stopped them just in case . ”

“Aahh…”

So that was it . It wasn’t just the tickets that set him off, but the coupons with the red peony symbol . After all, given the brown hair and piercings, they didn’t exactly look the part of somebody closely acquainted with a Pivoine member .

“Kisshouin, if they’ve been pestering you for money but you’re finding it hard to refuse, I’ll talk to them . ”

“Umm, Mizusaki-kun, it seems that you are misunderstanding, but those people over there are actually my friends . ”

“Friends? Yours? Those guys?”

I didn’t know a face could look so doubtful .

Yeah, they were my friends . True, when we first met I thought they were annoying, and loud, and gaudy-looking, but even after I was cold with them they kept trying to befriend me . I considered them real friends now .

“Kisshouin, are you sure you’re not being tricked? A lot of the students here at Suiran are sheltered, so they make for easy targets . You might not even have realised . ”

“Hold on, Mizusaki-kun . ”

Fellow Stalking Horse really didn’t think well of them . Look more carefully, Stalking Horse . Umewaka-kun might be wearing gaudy silver earrings, but those are actually pad pads, you know? And none of the group are all that uncultured . I think you could say they’re well brought up, relatively speaking . It’s easy to get the wrong idea at a glance though .

“I am grateful for your concern, but not once have they pestered me for anything . We interact a lot at cram school, but never have they asked or expected me to treat them . Actually, they are the sort of people who gathered in the middle of the sweltering summer in order to help me with my exhibit for the Handicrafts Club . And I cannot know how exactly you see them, but let me tell you now that every one of them is a better student than I am, with far better grades . ”

And it was true . Even though they knew that I was a rich girl, nobody had ever asked me to shout them . Actually when I gave Umewaka-kun that bag for Beatrice he even treated me to some popular convenience store treats as a thank you .

“Incidentally, what you overheard earlier was my friend begging me to give him the dog plush toy I made . I modelled it off of his beloved dog, but apparently it looked so close to the real thing that he could scarcely help but ask for it . I suppose without context it might have been easy to misunderstand though . ”

“Plush toy…?”

“Indeed . In fact, he has been waiting quite excitedly for this day . As for the coupons, every Pivoine member ends up with much too many to ever spend on their own, so since they were coming here anyhow I wanted them to enjoy it . ”

I peeked into the club room for a moment only to find Umewaka-kun still being restrained by everybody . Hadn’t stopped him from burying his face in Bea-tan though .

Yeah . That guy was not giving up until I agreed .

Spying on the same scene from behind me, I think Fellow Stalking had finally seen the truth .

What’s wrong, Fellow Stalking Horse? Is this your first time seeing a Dog Maniac? You’re naive if you think this is his worst . Shall I show you the Bea-tan role-playing emails? Ah, but if I showed you those you’d probably be wary in a different way, and try and convince me to break it off anyway .

“I hope that this has cleared things up . ”

“…My bad . Sorry for doubting your friends, Kisshouin . But as the Student Council President I have an obligation to protect the students . ”

“I see . Well, I sincerely thank you anyhow for your concern . I must say, however, that I am a tad surprised . I would never have expected the Student Council President to concern himself over a Pivoine member like myself . ”

“That has nothing to do with it . If a student at Suiran is in trouble, then it’s the Student Council’s job to help . ”

“…Even if this was the Pivoine’s President?”

“Of course,” he nodded .

There was no hesitation in his eyes .

Hmmm~ But he’d gone through a pretty hard time because of her . Not only had she completely thrashed him with her mouth, he even got in trouble with the school staff because of her . In his position I definitely wouldn’t help her .

With that in mind, I realised once again what an impressive person Fellow Stalking Horse was . I thought a little better of him .

“Well then, since things are clear, please excuse me . I have to return to my post . ”

“Sure . If my behaviour has upset them, please let them know that I’ll be happy to apologise . ”

“I understand . ”

“Also Kisshouin, I might have overlooked it last time, but you’re not allowed to bring that fan to school anymore . I doubt anybody would disagree with me now that it’s a weapon . ”

Eeehhh!? It’s not a weapon, it’s just a Rococo Queen’s prop!

“That guy just now was so cool! Who was he? Do you know him? Doesn’t the hot-guy ratio seems higher in Suiran?” the girls asked me, the moment I stepped back into the classroom .

Moriyama-san, what happened to Umewaka-kun…?

Speaking of Umewaka-kun, since he was still begging to adopt it, I told him to wait until the School Festival was over .

Umewaka-kun was overjoyed, and finally parted after giving it a kiss goodbye .

Anyhow, apparently everyone was going to the Science Club next for the planetarium . Also I think Moriyama-san had completely given up on him . Not that anybody could have helped it… He loved his dog so much that the love even extended to plush toys that resembled her . You’d be hard pressed to find a high school girl willing to accept a boy like that .

“That was an experience…” Minami-kun murmured after the left .

Sorry .

*

*

Once my shift was done, I met up with my group to tour the School Festival again .

“Reika-sama, apparently Kaburagi-sama went to Enjou-sama’s class again and had some of Takamichi-san’s biscuits . ”

“My, I see . ”

Kaburagi, huh… I suppose that settled things then . Things were going to get bothersome again after this school festival…

But I could enjoy what time I had left . Umewaka-kun’s crew said that the Soccer Club’s piadini was good, right? Maybe I’d try some .

So I suggested it to my group and we headed right over . When we arrived the Soccer Club President began pushing food onto me .

“You don’t need to pay!”

The same thing happened when we arrived at the Baseball Club and Basketball Club .

Eh-, wasn’t I doing the extorting then? Now it looked like I was travelling from place to place collecting protection money, didn’t it?

Maybe Fellow Stalking Horse had a point about the fan…

*

*

When I returned to my classroom I changed and began serving again . I was going to do my best for the remaining hours! Oh, huh? Umewaka-kun and the others hadn’t contributed to the Xu Fu’s sales? Tsk, what worthless friends .

“Kyaa! It’s Kaburagi-sama and Enjou-sama!”

The squeals of girls filled the store as the pair entered . What were they doing here . Oh, right, we were selling tea here .

Although the room suddenly got a lot noisier, at least the number of female customers was increasing . I suppose that was all right then .

Then I realised it wasn’t just these two . Popping out from behind Enjou was Yukino-kun . Immediately my mood soared .

“Good afternoon, Kisshouin-san,” began Enjou, “Yukino said he wanted to come here, so I came with him . I see you’re wearing a cute Chinese outfit today . ”

“Good afternoon, Reika-oneesan!” said Yukino-kun .

“Good afternoon~ Yukino-kun, I am so glad you came! And welcome, Enjou-sama, Kaburagi-sama . Is it okay to leave your own class’ café, Enjou-sama?”

“My class has been packed since morning, so we’ve already sold out . That’s why we closed shop . ”

“My, that is certainly…”

Tch . Thanks to the Enjou Effect, no doubt .  My café still had plenty . If we still had some by the end we were going to split it between us .

“What the hell, Kisshouin,” Kaburagi exclaimed, “Where’s the dragon on your back? The road to completion is harder than it looks, isn’t it . ”

“I do not harbour such an eccentric ambition, so…”

What the hell! Stop saying weird things in front of Yukino-kun! And look! Enjou was sniggering to the side! I knew it! That rabbit from the other day was some sort of harassment!

Anyhow, Kaburagi went with Tieguanyin tea, Enjou with chrysanthemum, and and Yukino-kun with the flowering tea . Their orders reflected their personalities, didn’t it .

When their orders were ready I added some mooncakes on the house . After all, harassment or not I was still treated with a latte art without a ticket . Not that Kaburagi ate any .

“I’ve had enough sweet things for today,” he said .

Kaburagi, did you have too many of Wakaba-chan’s biscuits?

Still, although Kaburagi didn’t eat any, he didn’t ignore the moon cakes either . I watched him still some into his pockets . I guess he was taking them home . He was surprisingly dutiful about these things .

Yukino-kun was watching his tea flower in the water, so I couldn’t help but smile myself . Maybe he’d like some annin tofu as well .

The time passed with mostly Yukino-kun and I doing the talking . When it was time for them to leave, I saw them off in the hallway .

“I had a lot of fun today, Reika-oneesan,” he smiled .

“I was glad to see you too, Yukino-kun,” I smiled back .

We shared a little laugh . How on earth was this little angel born to the same household as that scoundrel Enjou?

Kaburagi was headed back to his own class, since they were holding a party to celebrate their hard work . I guess Kaburagi wasn’t as anti-social as I thought .

I had only come out here to see them off, but somehow I ended up in another chat with Yukino-kun . He was just so darn cute after all . Enjou just stood to the side with a smile on his face .

That was when a girl’s voice interrupted .

“Shuu . ”

Shuu?

I looked on reflex, only to find Bird Brain Katsuragi, and some delicate-looking girl with black hair down to her shoulders . Eh? Who was this?

“Yuiko,” Enjou noticed her, looking a little surprised .

Was it somebody he knew?

Enjou smiled gently and approached her . Standing beside me, Yukino-kun gripped my hand . Hm? What’s wrong, Yukino-kun?

“What are you doing here, Yuiko?”

“I heard that you were doing latte art at your school festival so I had Haru bring me,” she said with a soft voice . “Was I a little too late?”

She tilted her head a little in question .

It was a striking sight, with her stark white skin and faintly moist eyes .

The previously noisy hallway was silent now, and all eyes were on Yuiko-san . Even the ordinarily noisy Katsuragi Boy was behaving himself .

“My class’ café closed quite some time ago . But if you wanted to see some latte art there was no need to come here . I’ll draw you as many as you want at home . ”

“Really? Then I’ll look forward to it . ”

“Got it . ”

The two of them seemed rather close . I wonder what this meant…

“Yukino, it’s about time to go home . Yuiko, what are you going to do?”

“Hmmm… I think I’ll go home with you too, Shuu . It wouldn’t be very fun without you, anyhow . ”

Yukino-kun let ho of my hand and returned to his brother’s side, his expression a little stiff .

“Well then, Kisshouin-san . Thanks for today . ”

“Gokigen’yoh, Enjou-sama . Good bye, Yukino-kun . ”

“Good bye, Reika-oneesan . ”

Yuiko-san gave me a smile before comfortably slipping her arm around Enjou’s, the two of them leaving the hallway .

I stood there stunned for a little as the subdued Katsuragi Boy ran over to me .

“Yukiko-san is Enjou-san’s lover, and don’t you forget it,” he whispered in my ear before running after them .

When the four of them were out of sight, the hallway erupted .

“Who the hell was that!?”

“Don’t tell me that was Enjou-sama’s girlfriend!?”

“Nobody told me about this!”

“She was so beautiful… ‘Yuiko-san’… I wonder if we’ll meet again…”

That was when, oblivious to their surroundings, my cram school friends happily approached me, having had their fill of the planetarium .

“Whoaa! Kisshouin-saan! You’re wearing a cheongsam! Camera! Where’s my camera!”

“Wearing a cheongsam with your ringlets is kind of fresh in its own way . ”

In the face of all the excitement and their care-free mood, I kind of just gave in and stopped thinking as I started striking poses for them .

“Maybe I should get Beatrice to wear a cheongsam too…”

Hey . Why not .