"I never thought this was a problem, Hikigaya-san. What are you worried about?"
Though their meeting in the afternoon had been a little shy and reserved, by evening, Yukino and Hachiman were sitting in the same room again.
They weren't there just for a meal, nor were they celebrating anything. Instead, they were discussing a matter of great importance: should the two of them walk to school together tomorrow morning—and in the future—or should they go one after the other?
"Yukinoshita-san, in my humble opinion, doing this on the very first day of school is a little too conspicuous," Hikigaya Hachiman answered, choosing his words carefully.
"Conspicuous?" Yukino's tone was perfectly calm, betraying no trace of joy, anger, or sorrow. "When you take out that pink lunch box in front of the other students at noon, won't that also be conspicuous? Are you going to tell your curious classmates that it's just your personal preference, Hikigaya-san?"
"Isn't that the same thing..." Hachiman said helplessly. He had many reasons in his mind, but to voice them would seem incredibly hypocritical.
"Don't worry, Mr. Hachiman. I have plenty of confidence in myself. I won't embarrass you, a great writer, by walking with you," Yukino said with a hint of mischief. She then picked up her chopsticks, plucked a chicken wing from a dish, and placed it in Hachiman's bowl. "Now, let's eat. The food is getting cold."
On April 8th, Chiba City's Sobu High School officially opened its doors for the new semester, welcoming three hundred new first-year students.
As a school with a highly developed club culture, Sobu High naturally had welcoming teams from various clubs and departments lined up at the school gate on the first day, holding up fancy display boards to attract the attention of the freshmen.
"Hikigaya-san, is there any club you'd like to join?" Yukinoshita Yukino asked as she and Hachiman walked through the welcoming gauntlet.
"A club? Forget it. I don't have the leisure time for that." Hachiman had no interest in joining a high school club. He didn't think club activities were meaningless, but he couldn't neglect his job to waste more than two precious hours every afternoon.
"But from what I know, Sobu High's school rules require students to join a club. And there's no such thing as a 'Go-Home Club' here," Yukino explained. Her sister had told her many stories about the school, so she was very familiar with its rules.
"Oh, so it's one of those forced things that I hate the most," Hachiman said dejectedly. He didn't think he had any special privileges to escape the school rules. "Even if there's no Go-Home Club, isn't there a Daydreaming Club or a Sleeping Club?"
"Just accept your fate, Hikigaya-san. If all else fails, how about I set up a club for you to write in?" Yukino proposed a solution that sounded ridiculous but was, in theory, completely feasible. All one needed was a clearly defined club theme, at least three members, and a faculty member to serve as an advisor to apply for a classroom from the student union.
Hachiman seriously considered the idea. Gathering three people would be the easy part; many clubs recruited placeholder members just to meet the requirement. The real problem was finding an advisor. The faculty at Sobu High weren't easily fooled. Without a serious reason, no teacher would agree.
"Do you have an idea, Yukinoshita-san?" Hachiman believed her proposal wasn't groundless.
"An idea? Actually, I've had an ideal since I graduated from elementary school. Maybe now is the time to finally implement it. I want to set up a club to help others, Hikigaya-san," Yukino said, seeming to recall something from long ago.
"Helping others... isn't that definition a bit broad? If I'm short on money, can I ask you for it? That counts as helping, right? Ouch, that hurts!" Hachiman was still talking nonsense when Yukino delivered a sharp pinch to his waist.
"Even at a top high school like Sobu, students aren't without their worries. They have all kinds of problems to solve," Yukino answered patiently. "I think I can set up a club like that, just for the students of our school, to help solve some of the problems they encounter in their daily lives. It could also be a form of self-realization."
"Is that so..." Hachiman said, suddenly serious. "My apologies for my frivolous behavior just now, Yukinoshita-san. My level is too low."
"...That's not necessary, Hikigaya-san. Just be normal. You're scaring me," Yukino replied, momentarily speechless at his sudden shift in tone.
"By the way, Hikigaya-san," Yukino suddenly said in a very small, cute voice, "what you just said is... alright."
"Yes? Yes to what?" Hachiman was a little confused.
"If you are ever really short of money," Yukinoshita Yukino said, covering her face with her hands as she leaned close to his ear, "you can come to me for it."
Hayato Hayama stood alone beside the Sobu High football field, sighing.
"I knew the level of football here wasn't very high, but I never expected it to be this bad," Hikigaya Hachiman said, walking over to him. Hayama's expression softened a little upon seeing him.
"Yes, Hikigaya-san. If there's one sport I must stick with for the rest of my life, it's soccer. But the situation at Sobu High... ah..." Hayama sighed again. Though Sobu High was the top high school in Chiba, its football team had always been relatively poor, a fact he had known for a long time.
He had come to Sobu with great enthusiasm, vowing to use his superb skills and deep passion to reverse the team's fortunes. However, after seeing the school's football field for himself, he realized it was all just wishful thinking.
Football fans often call a field with poor grass quality a "vegetable patch." Based on that, the Sobu High field could only be described as a "harvested vegetable patch." There was no grass at all; how much grew seemed to depend entirely on the mood of the earth itself.
"This shows that the school has completely given up on the football club. Training will probably be completely uninspired," Hayato concluded pessimistically. "I love soccer, and I want to see Japanese soccer get better and better. But last year's World Cup... you know how that went, Hikigaya-san. It was hard to watch." Hachiman certainly knew. In the previous year's World Cup in Brazil, the Japanese team was eliminated in the group stage after one draw and two losses. When their plane returned, the airport was filled with angry fans shouting "Incompetent!" and "Resign!"
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