27 It Was Just A Whim

You know, I said a lot of things before.

Mendou: [I will make you interesting!]

Yes, I said that. I had an idea, and it was good, but why did I just put myself into more work than necessary?

**

It was the next day.

Mendou: [W-We have two people willing to be members.]

Before I knew it, I had both Mayu and Migi joining the club.

They were standing behind me, and Mayu was almost the usual her today again.

She seemed more determined, looking at Hoshoujo with just a bit of hostility.

Hoshoujo: [It seems like you never learned your lesson.]

Mayu: [Hmph. Like I was just in a bad mood that time. Don't think that today will be the same as yesterday!]

The straight-laced girl versus the stylish gyaru.

They exchanged words as lightning struck each other from their eyes.

I explained everything to Migi yesterday including the reason why Mayu ran off crying, and seeing this will believe it.

Migi: [I-I can't believe that Hoshoujo was actually like this as well...]

Mendou: [Welcome to my world, buddy.]

He whispered to me before I sympathized with him, tapping his back as he was signing up for something troublesome.

Mendou: [But don't worry, this is how you'll become interesting.]

Migi: [——Eh?]

I said with all the confidence I had in my body.

I promised him that I'll be the matchmaker for him and Mayu, so all I needed was a little faith from him, and myself to make this all work.

And lastly, fighting the boss, Najimi Kai.

Najimi: [Welcome then, you two. Our club hasn't started official activities yet so you've come at the right time.]

Najimo feigned a smile, but it wasn't fake. He attempted to create a hospitable aura around the club as he didn't want the new members to feel as if the club was stale with someone that couldn't feel emotions.

Mayu: [L-Likewise!]

Mayu was swept from her feet by that smile, turning red just from it. She would even use a formal word instead of her usual informal speech in responding to that.

Najimi, despite his emotionless condition, was a tough one to beat.

Migi: [L-Likewise.]

Migi responded, and as if captivated by Najimi's smile as well, he turned a bit red.

Mendou: [H-Hey, you're not supposed to be blushing as well!]

I had to pull and snap Migi out of it. To think that Najimi's charms would go out of bounds and make the line between genders barely visible.

Hoshoujo: [Hmph.]

Hoshoujo couldn't carelessly speak hard words to push the two aspiring members away as they were going to ruin the club's purpose as their haven.

Having other members would mean that Hoshoujo and Najimi wouldn't be able to have the club to themselves, unable to flirt freely.

But if you think for a second, I'm still there.

They're just disregarding my presence as a guy there and despite wanting to be a mob character, I still have feelings, you know!

Najimi: [You guys must have filled out a form already, right?]

Mayu: [Ah! Yessiree!]

Pulling out a piece of folded paper from her bag, Mayu opened up a club registration form that was days old from the crumbled quality of the paper.

All the other stuff was filled in as early as the paper was received and the club name was just filled in yesterday as if she had anticipated joining this club.

Migi: [Ah, I haven't...]

Migi had the registration papers in a folder, labeled, and was safely protected from tearing or scrunching.

Migi's paper was basically in the complete opposite condition of Mayu's.

Sometimes, I wonder if genders still follow their stereotypes nowadays.

Migi filled up the paper shortly after. Even his handwriting was much cleaner than Mayu's.

I expected Migi's handwriting to be crass since he's in track and field where the fastest is the winner, but he sure did take his time to make his writing clean.

It was exactly this that made Migi think he was uninteresting.

All of his other skills are something a man isn't supposed to master. He was tidy, had pretty writing, and not only that, he was a renounced calligraphy master.

He and Mayu had been friends since before he would even start, but after he began to practice more to try and impress Mayu, she became mad at him.

Migi thought that Mayu hated boys that did calligraphy, but as soon as he quit, Mayu became mad and more distant from Migi.

Migi told me that he couldn't understand anything at that time, but he had concluded that he was boring and didn't match up to Mayu's standards.

So, he went and did Track and Field with Mayu to try and make up with her, and went as far as taking combat lessons to protect her as they became high schoolers.

I'd think the same way if I was in his shoes, but seeing the whole picture from both sides, it wasn't like that.

Migi wasn't uninteresting from the start, he was almost talented as Najimi, but comparing Najimi to him would be an overstatement.

All Migi lacked was just one thing that Mayu wanted.

It was time. She must have wanted to spend time with Migi back then when they were younger, but Migi was so hell-bent on impressing her that he spent his time doing stuff he thought would impress her until now.

He was trying to impress her the wrong way.

Migi: [I'm done.]

Handing the papers to Najimi, he signed them without hesitation, only waiting for the advisor to arrive for the last signature to make them official members of the club.

Najimi: [For now, you guys can go home! We can wrap up from here so...]

Hoshoujo: [...]

Huh? For some reason, I felt like there was something behind those words. He took a glance at Hoshoujo for a second there.

It was for the first time, I felt like Najimi's words had an underlying reason to be said.

He was trying to make the two of them leave and have the club to themselves!

Migi: [Ah, is that fine?]

Mayu: [I'll stay——]

Mendou: [Ah! That's right! Can you guys come with me!? I need some people to win a prize at the convenience store! I'd invite Najimi and Hoshoujo but they still have something to do! Please?!]

In such a time like this, all I can do is a little improvisation, helping out both parties to attain a goal.

I pushed both Migi and Mayu out of the club as I dragged them to the corridor with me.

I'll be leaving the rest to Najimi.

**

Migi: [Awh, shucks. I lost. How many of these are we going to eat anyways?]

Mayu: [I'm not eatin' anymore. Too much of these is gonna make me fat!]

I brought the two of them to the convenience store that I always went to and bought a lot of popsicles where there was an event where one can win a Nintendo Switch.

Mendou: [That's fine. Migi and I will just go and eat them then. You can just relax there.]

Mayu: [I'll just go to the restroom.]

She stood up and made her way to the restroom.

Although we're doing this, the chance of winning one is under 5%. So, out of the twenty popsicles we won, there could still be nothing but just another reward such as:

Migi: [Oh. Look, I won another popsicle——Hey! Why'd you even have to do this? Can't you just buy it?]

I kept on eating the popsicle, looking for it.

Mendou: [Well... it's not about the prize really.]

Migi: [What do you mean?]

Mendou: [I like spending time and money on it cause not only I'm able to eat popsicles, but I can also win something else in return. Straight out buying it just to show off, is boring, you know?]

Migi: [...]

Mendou: [Spending time with someone or something you love is the best. Don't you ever forget that.]

I pointed at him using the popsicle, smirking at him as I hinted at something about what he needed to do.

Mendou: [Oh, look. I won another popsicle. Sweet.]