After the French exchange student welcome party, the gym had to be cleaned up and everything packed away.
Naturally, this kind of job fell on the student council.
But it wasn't all that tough—they had the principal helping out, too. And the reason the principal was helping with manual labor? It had something to do with Takamine Rinji.
He didn't say a word—he just held a utility knife to the principal's throat the moment the guy tried to say, "I'll leave the rest to you."
"Put signs and banners in the student council storage room. We might need them again."
"Tablecloths too."
"Got it."
Everyone worked in an organized fashion.
Rinji and Ishigami were packing miscellaneous items. When Rinji saw Ishigami struggling to lift even one box, he walked over and picked it up for him.
"Ah, thanks."
"No problem." Rinji smiled. "Ishigami, it's too bad you missed the party yesterday."
"I don't speak French."
"Neither do I, but I still got chatted up by a French girl."
"Seriously?"
"Totally true," Shirogane added as he passed by carrying a box. "A girl really did talk to Rinji—said a whole bunch of stuff right off the bat. Too bad we couldn't understand a word."
"That's great, though… If it were me, I'd probably be too nervous to say anything." Ishigami chuckled.
"Rinji's already planning to study French with me. You wanna join?"
"Eh… I'll pass."
Shinomiya Kaguya was folding tablecloths nearby and overheard the conversation.
She looked at Rinji with a slightly exasperated expression, hesitating to speak.
'That girl was insulting you… and at the level of a slap to the face right from the start. I have no idea how you mistook that for flirting.'
She really wanted to explain, but she also knew Rinji might not believe her—and if he did, what if that girl suddenly ended up "accidentally dead"?
'Yeah… better to keep this one to myself.'
---
While the boys were still cleaning, Chika Fujiwara and Kaguya returned to the student council office with some supplies.
"Hm? What's this?"
Kaguya pulled something out of one of the boxes from the party.
It was a book—with "Girl's Comic" written on the cover.
"Looks like a shoujo manga. Probably someone's stuff that got mixed in during the event. These are pretty popular with students."
Fujiwara's eyes lit up. She glanced around to make sure no one was watching and whispered to Kaguya, "This is a rare chance. Wanna take a peek?"
"I remember you told me your dad is super strict about that kind of stuff."
"Totally," Fujiwara whispered. "He has to screen every single romance manga I read. I can only keep reading if he gives it the OK."
She looked at the manga in her hands.
"If he finds out I'm reading this, I'll definitely get chewed out."
"That's… tough."
"Anyway, let's take a quick look~"
Fujiwara couldn't resist. She placed the book on the coffee table and opened it up.
"They never teach you this in textbooks~"
"Eh!?"
The moment they opened the page, both girls stared at the contents.
…
A disheveled boy had cornered a blushing girl against the wall.
'I'm going to eat you~'
'Ah~'
…
Kaguya: (slams the book shut)
Fujiwara: (opens it again)
Kaguya: (snatches it away)
Fujiwara: (grabs it back)
"What the heck is this!?"
Kaguya could not make sense of what she was seeing.
Fujiwara stared at the book, nose bleeding.
"This is bad, Kaguya! This book is terrible! No wonder my dad banned this kind of stuff!"
"I saw that coming…"
Click!
Just as Fujiwara was reading with a red face and a bleeding nose, the door to the student council room opened—and Takamine Rinji walked in, done cleaning.
He entered to find Kaguya turning her head away in embarrassment, and Fujiwara reading a manga with a nosebleed.
"...You two were reading manga while we were busy cleaning?"
"No, no, no!" Shinomiya Kaguya quickly shook her head. "Only Fujiwara-san was reading. I wasn't involved at all."
She hurriedly distanced herself from it—there was no way she wanted to be seen as the kind of girl who read such indecent material.
"Whatever. Anyway, everything's already cleaned up."
Takamine Rinji sat down on the sofa across from them and pulled out his French travel handbook to start studying.
"Takamine-kun, are you planning to start learning French now?"
"Yeah. I got talked to by a girl yesterday and couldn't understand a single word. I don't want that to happen again, so I figured I should learn a little."
"Hmm?"
Fujiwara Chika suddenly perked up and looked excitedly at Rinji.
"Takamine-kun wants to fall in love, huh?"
"Well, I do, but I'm not in a rush..."
"Then I strongly recommend this book!"
"Huh?"
Rinji took the manga from her hand with a speechless expression and handed her a box of tissues to wipe the nosebleed.
"Why would I learn about romance from a manga? Isn't this just for laughs?"
"You can't say that!"
Having wiped away the blood, Fujiwara pointed seriously at Rinji. "Shoujo manga is targeted at girls. If you want to date one, you need to understand how they think. So this is actually a great reference."
"...I see."
Rinji was successfully roped in.
He casually flipped through a few pages.
…
"You're going to belong to me."
…
His expression changed from surprised to confused. Then he closed the book and fell into deep thought.
"Do girls actually like this kind of aggressive attitude...? I really don't get it."
"Of course~"
"Alright then, let's do an experiment."
Rinji stood up and pointed at Fujiwara. "Secretary Fujiwara, could you stand by the wall for a moment?"
"Okay~"
Not knowing what he had in mind, Fujiwara skipped happily to the wall.
Just as she got there, Rinji suddenly stepped forward and slammed his palm against the wall beside her with a loud thud.
"Eh..."
Fujiwara's face turned red instantly. Rinji leaned in close to her ear and whispered in a low voice, "You belong to me. I'll never let you go."
"!!!"
"Alright, experiment complete. Secretary Fujiwara, you really react to this kind of thing… Whoa, your face is super red."
Fujiwara, usually so bubbly and innocent, now looked completely flustered and shy.
"...No way. I just copied the lines straight from the manga."