My Stepsister is My Ex-Girlfriend - Volume 7 - Chapter 3.11

Logic Conquers All

“When did I ever say I haven’t kissed anyone?!” Aso-senpai exclaimed. “Sure...I haven’t kissed Senpai yet, but...I’ve never said I haven’t kissed anyone!”

“This is what’s called a logical fallacy,” President Kurenai explained. “You assumed that since neither of us is in a relationship, we’ve never kissed anyone. Words are your lifeblood as secretary, so you should be more careful with them.”

“Uh-huh. So sorry.”

The two of them spit excuse after excuse until we finally reached the student council room. Has it always been such a long walk? Why do I feel so tired? All we’ve done is walk over here for lunch.

“Oh, now that I think about it, where’s Asuhain-san?” I asked.

“Isn’t she eating with her classmates?” Aso-senpai replied.

“Should I invite her?”

“I’m not sure she’d enjoy our conversation topics...”

She had a point. We were about to discuss romance. There was no way that Asuhain-san, as staunch a hater of romance as she was, would enjoy herself. We also didn’t want to out President Kurenai’s crush on Haba-senpai.

“Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to reach ou—” Just as Aso-senpai opened the door to the student council room, we saw Asuhain-san sitting at the meeting desk, her lunch box open.

“Ah,” Asuhain-san said, turning around, dropping the rolled omelet that she’d been holding with her chopsticks.

“Ah,” I said, noticing her.

The lights in the room hadn’t even been on. She’d been sitting in this dark room with nothing but the rays of sun illuminating her small frame as she ate her lunch.

President Kurenai peeked inside the room and noticed Asuhain-san. “Oh, there you are. Perfect timing.”

Huh? Is she not picking up on how awkward a situation we’ve walked into? She flipped on the lights and walked into the room.

“We’re just about to have lunch too. Is it okay if we join?”

“Uh... Yes. Of course...” Asuhain-san awkwardly replied.

Aso-senpai and I leaned towards each other and began whispering.

“Does she have any friends in her class?”

“I-I have no clue... I don’t know much about her class.”

I’d assumed that she only avoided guys but had no issue chatting with girls. If she’d gone through the trouble of leaving the lights off, though, wouldn’t that mean she was trying to hide? Maybe she was different from Mizuto and Higashira-san, who weren’t really a part of their classes because they were always off doing their own thing. Maybe she was just a loner at heart. I saw my past self in her, making my chest hurt.

Not knowing what else to do, Aso-senpai and I entered as well and sat in our usual seats. Surprisingly enough, President Kurenai didn’t take her usual seat at the head of the table, but on the other side of the table, diagonal from me, right next to Asuhain-san and across from Aso-senpai.

She put her lunch box on the table. “You’re in class six, right?” she asked Asuhain-san. “How’re things going?”

“Yes, I am. Things are...okay.”

Why are you asking about her class?! I felt like I’d said this before, but...President Kurenai really didn’t understand people. If only Haba-senpai had been here!

“Uh... More importantly,” Aso-senpai said energetically, trying to change the atmosphere. “You had something you wanted to ask for advice about, right, Yumechi?! That’s why we’re all here!”

“O-Oh. Right.” You’re not wrong, but why did you have to deflect to me?!

Asuhain-san looked at me calmly. “You don’t have to worry about me. Pretend I’m not even here.”

Urgh... This is so sad! That’s the line of someone who’s always in the corner when the rest of the group is having fun.

“W-Well, since you’re here, I think it’d be nice if I could get your opinion too, Asuhain-san,” I said, trying to include her.

She exhaled. “I’m not sure how helpful I’ll be...”

I’m not gonna back down! You’re a fellow student council member! I’m gonna drag you into this conversation kicking and screaming! If she gets angry at me like Mizuto did back then...well, I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.

I took a moment to organize my thoughts before speaking again. “Well, I have this friend...”

“Pfft!” Aso-senpai tried to stifle a laugh.

Yes, I know! I’m talking about myself! Leave me alone! Fortunately, Asuhain-san didn’t seem suspicious at all, so I began talking about what had happened with Mizuto earlier when I’d run into him—about how I’d tried to tease him and not only had I gotten firmly shot down, but he’d also run away from me.

“Things have been getting better between them recently...or so I’ve heard, but now this happened, and I—I mean, my friend is apparently not sure what to do.”

Aso-senpai let out a pensive groan. “Maybe there’s something else at play. Maybe he had something urgent come up?”

“Maybe?”

“Hm,” President Kurenai snorted. “He must be quite dense if that kind of forward approach doesn’t work. For a guy like that, the best thing to do is try, try, and try again until it gets through his thick skull.”

“You think so?”

If anything, I would say that Mizuto tended to be pretty perceptive, but also there had been a lot of misunderstandings in recent times. Breaking past those might have required me to keep up the attack. But seeing two real-life examples of people who had been trying to persistently break through to their crushes for an entire year worried me.

And then finally, Asuhain-san tilted her head in confusion. “Um... In the first place, isn’t it rude to tease others?” Our bodies froze like statues. “All your friend is doing is ignoring his boundaries and forcing her desires onto him. Sorry if this sounds mean, but maybe your friend has no common sense?” Cracks formed in our bodies. “If she’s fond of him, then it’s even more befuddling why she feels the need to try and assert her dominance. I think that will most certainly result in him hating her.” Our hearts broke.

“‘Rude’...”

“‘No common sense’...”

“‘Hating’...”

Is that it? Is that how it is? Did I make him hate me?

“Uh, did I say something wrong?” Asuhain-san tilted her head in confusion.

No, you didn’t... You’re completely right. It was logical—extremely logical. So logical, in fact, that my heart couldn’t take it.

“Hm.” The first one to recover from the knockout punch of Asuhain-san’s logic was President Kurenai. I knew I could count on her. “That’s a very coolheaded, logical opinion. It’s a very on-brand way of thinking for you, Ran-kun.”

“Th-Thank you very much.”

“You should treasure that. You should never, uh... Never let your objective viewpoint, um... Never let it be swayed by temporary feelings.”

You sound so uncertain! Your own words are hurting you!

Asuhain-san, though, was practically beaming after getting a compliment from the person she looked up to so much. “Thank you! I will stick to my guns no matter what others say and swear to never do anything that would besmirch the honor of the student council!”

“Urk...” The student council president, who’d done something that would besmirch the honor of the student council in the documents room, silently died on the inside.

“B-By the way...” I mustered all the courage inside me, suppressing the damage I’d taken, to ask Asuhain-san something. “In your opinion... What should my friend have done?”

“Hm? Well, romance doesn’t really interest me, so my answer might be generic, but...”

“Uh-huh...”

“Wouldn’t it be best if she was just honest about what’s on her mind?”

There was a bang as Aso-senpai dropped her head to the table. I could almost hear her screaming about how she would’ve done that if it was that easy.

“I’ll...tell her that.”

“I-I’m aware how hard that is, but...she can’t just keep him in the dark forever. Every now and then, she should be clear with her words and actions...or at least, that’s what I think.”

“Every now and then,” huh? She had a point. It was wrong to just tease him forever.

“Sorry if I’m being presumptuous,” Asuhain-san said softly, hanging her head.

“Huh? No, you’re not—”

“I know I’m not very convincing. I just used my own, personal logic, so you can just forget I said anything.” With that, she went back to focusing on her lunch.

The way she ended things and turned to focus on something else really reminded me of how Higashira-san used to be not too long ago.