Reiji opened the utensil cabinet in the Cooking Club and took out a kettle, planning to make some tea with honey to soothe Haruna's throat as he promised.
The theoretical class didn't last long today, so he had time to do this while cooking a dish.
He returned to his station and started to boil some water, and Haruna at the adjacent station leaned over with curiosity.
"What're you gonna make today?" she asked, her voice still raspy.
"I'm making tea for you first, and then I feel like cooking something Italian for a change. Might add some Japanese flavor profiles, though I'm not sure on that yet."
Haruna's eyes widened, and she came over with a smile.
"Right, I forgot about that! My throat still hurts a little."
"Then stop talking," Reiji snorted, rolling his eyes in exasperation.
She was too much of a social butterfly, and despite her current predicament, she talked to a bunch of people who'd come to congratulate her and Hina.
Though she was only close to Hina before meeting the Gluttons, she was still the type to be at least surface-level friends with everyone around her.
But in comparison, not a single person had congratulated Reiji or Airi aside from the friend group.
He could understand his own lack of commendation, but he found it strange that none had approached Airi.
'Maybe it's because of me?'
He did warn them at the start that they might become outcasts, but seeing Haruna still mingling with the others made him reconsider that being the reason, especially since Airi also had friends before hanging out with him.
It just seemed strange.
"What're you spacing out for?" Haruna piped up.
"Ah? Oh, sorry."
The water had already started boiling, so he unplugged it and looked around for a cup.
But he froze when he saw a few of the upper-years staring at him, both with fear and indignation.
There were also some that had conflicted expressions, such as Nene Senpai.
Haruna also noticed the oddity and spoke up nervously.
"Why are they looking at us like that?"
".....I don't know."
Just then, Ren came running towards them from inside the pantry, a basket of ingredients in one hand and his phone in the other.
"R-Reiji-kun, this is bad! Read this!" he panted, shoving the phone towards him.
He took it with a frown and saw a post on the unofficial school forum on the screen, and Haruna gasped when she read the title.
'This.....This isn't right,' he pondered.
But he discarded the churning thoughts momentarily as he focused on the contents, his eyes darkening as he kept reading the ridiculous claims that were made.
When he finished it, he finally understood why the upper-years were glancing at him like that, but that was the least of his concerns.
'This wasn't the scenario in any of the routes for Noa's main event.....'
Though there were multiple ways Tadano could target Noa, Reiji wasn't supposed to be related to any of them, nor were they supposed to be this scandalous.
After all, his desire for the President's seat was somewhat deterred by his twisted obsession with her, which grew worse over time.
So even though he hadn't fallen in love with her yet in the game, he still only used smaller tricks to slowly erode the stability of her position.
This first main event was supposed to be much smaller in scale.
The 'worst' route Reiji had played was when Tadano had hidden a set of important paperwork for an upcoming event, which had forced her to apologize to the school management, work tirelessly to fix the delayed process and coordinate vendors, as well as rewrite some of the documents.
Tadano would hide this paperwork in different locations depending on the player's previous choices, and their task was to find it using clues and some detective work before it got to that point.
Reiji knew most of the hiding places due to his previous knowledge, but not all of them.
And yet, none of that mattered now because the scenario was completely different and far worse than in the game due to it being made public.
Reiji had already expected his actions to derail the game, so he wasn't surprised by the change itself.
His confusion lay in why the severity was so different.
Obviously, this was also because of him, but why would his interference affect how much he liked Noa?
'Did I fuck with him too much?'
The only thing he could think of was the fact that he himself had clashed with Tadano more than in the game, at least at this point.
'Screw it, I'm focusing on the wrong things. I need to plan how to fix it, not why it happened.'
"This is complete bullshit!" Haruna yelled, her small face scrunching up with complete fury.
Reiji flicked her on the head, making her yelp with bewilderment.
"Stop shouting, why do you keep torturing your poor throat?"
"But! Thi-"
"It's fine, I'll figure something out," he interjected.
He was angry as well; there was no denying that.
But after considering everything, he also held a hint of anticipation.
The tricks Tadano used in the game were small in scale and also impossible to track back to him, so he got away with it consistently due to a lack of evidence.
And now that this had happened, maybe there was a way to tie him to this, allowing Reiji to get rid of future troubles with one go.
As he leaned against the counter to think, ignoring the stares from the others in the club, the door to the large room opened.
A girl stepped in with the student council's armband, her eyes scanning the room carefully.
When she saw him near the back, she exhaled with relief.
"Yagami Reiji, please come with me to the Student Council," she called.
"Reiji-tan....." Haruna panicked, grabbing the sleeve of his uniform.
Ren also wiped away the sweat on his forehead with a napkin, turning to him with worry.
"Calm down, the President probably just wants to talk about this. You keep cooking, I might join you guys later at the rooftop," Reiji sighed.
He untied his apron and placed it on the counter, exiting the clubroom with the girl after bowing to Tomoe Sensei, who was sitting in the corner with a baffled look.
"...I assume you're aware of the post?" the girl asked on the way to the Student Council.
She was the same girl who'd guided him a few weeks ago, so they weren't complete strangers.
"Yep. How'd Prez take the news?"
"She was...I'm not actually sure; it was hard to tell."
Reiji chuckled as he thought about Noa's usually expressionless face.
"So what's your opinion on all this?" Reiji suddenly inquired.
"....I don't know about you, but the President would never do such a thing."
"Ouch, but fair enough."
With the girl walking at a fast pace, they soon arrived at the Student Council in silence while Reiji shifted his thoughts on what he could do about this now.
The girl approached Noa's office quickly and knocked on the door, opening it once a response came from within.
The two of them entered, with Reiji following behind, and saw two others in the room.
Aside from Noa, Riku was also there for some reason, which caught him off guard but didn't shock him.
'Yep, the Protagonist's gotta get himself involved somehow, I guess?'
"President, I've brought him as you requested," the girl said.
"Mm, thank you," Noa nodded before turning to Riku. "Kazama, you can take your belongings and leave for today. Make sure to come on time on Wednesday."
Riku's face lit up, his head bobbing up and down vigorously.
"Of course! Leave it to me!"
'Huh? Leave what to him?' Reiji wondered.
"You misunderstood. I haven't agreed. Let's leave it at that for now," Noa replied with an imperceptible frown.
"Oh....Okay."
Riku bit his lip and grabbed his bag from a desk in the corner, leaving the office in a hurry while avoiding eye contact with Reiji.
Once he left, Noa turned to the girl.
"Nozomi, you leave as well. I'd like to talk to him alone."
".....I understand. I'll be in the common room if you need me."
Reiji sat down in the chair once she left, and it was just the two of them in the room.
"Why was he here?"
"Kazama? He had mandatory supervised study," Noa shrugged.
'...What the fuck is that?'
But he could guess the details after remembering that Riku had failed the midterms.
"So.....How're you holding up?" he asked, feeling a little guilty now that he was in front of her.
Most of this was indirectly because of him, after all.
Noa didn't reply immediately, taking her time to stare at him instead.
"....Do you think the target is me or you?" she finally questioned.
"Um...I think it's both."
"Both? Why would that be the case?" Noa asked, her brows furrowing in contemplation.
"Well, it can't just be me, because there are plenty of ways to screw with me without involving you, which would just be unnecessary and would also dilute my presence. And if it's someone who has a grudge only against you..... including me would make the problem bigger, sure, but it would also make an enemy out of me for no reason. Of course, maybe they're confident that it can't be traced back to them, but it's overly risky unless they have an irreversible agenda with you. Hence, it's probably someone who has issues with both of us."
Though Reiji seemed like he was using logic to explain, he was 100% sure because he knew who was behind this.
Clearly, the fact that Noa was defending him against Tadano had struck a nerve.
"That.....makes sense. So, do you have any ideas on who it might be?"
Noa clutched the arm of her chair, but Reiji shook his head, dashing her hopes.
"I do have my suspicions, but accusing someone without proof won't do us any good. Once I manage to get some evidence, I'll let you know."
He needed Noa to believe him 100%, otherwise it might tip Tadano off and make him even more careful.
"Then what do we do now? Should we clarify things publicly first or....." Noa asked, hiding her disappointment.
"Hm?" Reiji raised an eyebrow. "Why're you asking me? Shouldn't the smart, wonderful, and beautiful President have a solution?"
"I will stab you with a pen."