"President, let me introduce you. This is Ishigami Yuu."
"Hello, President Shirogane."
"Oh, hello, hello."
After school, Takamine Rinji brought Ishigami to the student council room.
Meeting Shirogane and the others, Ishigami looked a little nervous. The student council at Shuchiin Academy had a reputation for being full of elites. For someone like him, who was almost invisible in his class, it was only natural to feel out of place.
"Don't be so nervous. The student council's not that serious of a place." Rinji patted him on the shoulder.
"Rinji's right. No need to be tense." Shirogane smiled.
"Truth is, we've got a lot of work lately, so we were hoping to find someone to help with miscellaneous tasks."
"I'm honored to be invited to the student council, but… Can I really join? I'm not much of a leader, and my grades are terrible…"
"President."
Before Ishigami could finish, Fujiwara Chika stepped up. "Just let him join. I think it's totally fine."
"…You just want someone with worse grades than you in the council."
Among the four current members, Fujiwara had the lowest grades. If Ishigami joined, she'd no longer be at the bottom.
"What matters is your opinion, Ishigami-kun," Shirogane said. "Would you like to join?"
"Yes, I would."
"Great. You'll be handling general duties in the student council."
"Got it."
"Perfect. Ishigami," Rinji said, patting him again, "we'll be working together from now on."
"Right."
"Let me introduce the other members."
Rinji pointed at Shirogane.
"This is the president. You've probably seen him giving speeches before."
"Mm."
"The one with pink hair is Fujiwara Chika, the secretary."
"Hello, Secretary Fujiwara." Ishigami bowed.
"Welcome to the council~ Ishigami-kun, our new errand guy."
"Okay, now that you've met everyone, we'll show you around—"
"Wait a minute!"
Kaguya, sitting on the sofa, suddenly stood up.
"You haven't introduced me yet!"
"Do I really need to?"
"Of course you do!"
"Nice to meet you, Vice President Shinomiya." Ishigami said quickly. "I've seen you during student assemblies. You're the one standing next to President Shirogane."
"Well…"
There was no hidden meaning in his words. At school assemblies, it was always Shirogane speaking while Kaguya stood beside him. But to her ears…
'Standing by the president's side… I thought Takamine-kun was bringing in some random guy, but he's actually quite a good kid.'
Kaguya drifted into her own thoughts.
"Anyway, that's Shinomiya Kaguya, vice president of the student council. Her job is drinking tea."
"Drinking tea is not my job!!"
"Every time I walk in here, you're drinking tea. Isn't that your job?"
"Of course not! I assist the president! Just because you don't see me working doesn't mean I'm not!"
"Wow! You actually do work?"
"…That look of shock is really getting on my nerves."
"Shinomiya's helped me a lot. She takes her work seriously," Shirogane interjected with a smile. Then he pulled out his phone. "Now that you're in the student council, let's get you in the LINE group. Makes task assignment easier."
"Okay."
Ishigami nodded and took out his own phone.
Seeing Shirogane's phone, Fujiwara was stunned.
"Huh? President, you have a phone!?"
Not just Fujiwara—even Kaguya looked surprised.
Back when the student council had only three members, they'd never seen Shirogane use a phone.
"Oh, it's Rinji's. He lent it to me. Works pretty well."
"Eh… never seen that model before."
Fujiwara marveled at the unfamiliar phone. It didn't even have a brand logo.
Kaguya didn't think much of it—she wasn't very knowledgeable about electronics. But Shirogane suddenly having a phone did throw a wrench into some of her plans.
In her original plan, she was going to have her estate's staff pose as vendors along Shirogane Miyuki's usual shopping route and trick him into buying a phone that was priced even below manufacturing cost. This would serve as a starting point to guide him into giving her his personal information. Later, she could even swap parts like the battery under the pretense of "malfunction" to further her ends.
But now that Shirogane had received a new phone from Takamine Rinji, her meticulously crafted scheme had completely collapsed.
'Takamine Rinji… He always seems to accidentally ruin my plans… Could he be doing it on purpose?'
Definitely not—it was all just an unfortunate string of coincidences.
'And now that the president's added everyone directly into a group chat… it means he doesn't even need to ask me for my contact info anymore…'
Still, Kaguya Shinomiya took out her phone.
But the moment she did, the rest of the student council stared at her in shock.
"Wh-what's wrong?"
"Kaguya…" Fujiwara Chika said softly.
"Huh?"
"That's your phone?"
"Yes, is there something wrong with it?"
"Well…" Chika hesitated, "That's a flip phone, right? You can't use LINE on that. LINE only works on smartphones."
Indeed, the phone in Kaguya's hand was an old flip phone. It might've been high-end a decade ago, but in today's smartphone-dominated age, it looked completely outdated.
"EHHHH!?"
"Why don't you just get a new one now?"
"No way! I've had this phone since I was a kid—I'm too attached to it to replace it!"
At that moment, her eyes lit up.
'Right! If I can't use LINE, then I can get the president to contact me directly by email instead. That could work too…'
"Miss Shinomiya," Rinji interjected, "Just exchange email addresses with the president. It's for work, after all."
Kaguya: "..."
'RINJI! Why is it always YOU!?'