The journey from home to school felt somewhat difficult for Murakami Yuu. It wasn't only Tachibana Rui who felt sore all over from certain excessive activities.
Because he was mostly the one "exerting force" in most situations, this post-activity feedback feeling was even stronger for him, especially his thighs. Having been in a tense, exerting state for a long time made it even more so.
Being too rowdy for a whole night was still inadvisable. A steady flow was better.
His movements when walking were somewhat off. When he met up with Iizuka Takeya at school, he even noticed this abnormality. Although he explained it was caused by practicing squats, that mysterious smile of his showed he didn't believe it at all. After all, he was also an experienced veteran driver. It was normal he couldn't be fooled.
Whatever, believe it or not. It didn't matter whether he knew or not.
For most of the morning classes, Murakami Yuu was mentally wandering elsewhere, propping his chin with his arm and struggling to look toward the blackboard direction, drowsy. The consequence of overdrawing today's energy in advance last night was like this - exactly like a frost-struck eggplant.
He didn't know how Rui was doing now.
Murakami Yuu thought of her and sent a message of concern, but it sank like a stone into the sea. After a long time passed, she hadn't replied even with a single punctuation mark.
He wasn't angry though. He knew urgency couldn't be rushed. The fact that the message could be successfully sent was already a great signal. At least she hadn't deleted him as a friend. This represented that subconsciously she still didn't want to break contact with him, hoping he would take the initiative to contact her. In a sense, this was also a good omen. Her not replying to his messages was troublesome, but also no big deal.
Even if she unilaterally broke contact between them, Murakami Yuu could still obtain information about her from the lookouts arranged through Iizuka Takeya. Just knowing roughly how her mood appeared on the surface was enough.
Recently, Kiso Yukina had to focus on studying because her monthly exam scores weren't passing. The next exam results would determine her allowance and free activity schedule time. So after being extremely apologetic to Murakami Yuu, she also temporarily stopped providing love-filled bentos. This made Murakami Yuu rather dejected, after all, those foods in the school cafeteria weren't very to his taste. No help for it - he'd eat bread for a while.
After lazily lying on his desk to spend a fulfilling afternoon, dismissal time arrived.
At this moment, his energy had recovered to an overflowing state due to the supplementary sleep behavior on his desk. After being invited by Anna Kinomiya, the two came to the student council room together.
Having been teased twice in a row and forced to get wet both times, Murakami Yuu now always maintained a trace of vigilance when interacting with the outwardly dignified and solemn-looking Anna Kinomiya. This vigilance manifested in various aspects.
When walking, he would slightly widen the distance, trying not to create scenes where the two were alone. And now after arriving at the student council room, he deliberately chose to sit in the position next to the one next to Anna Kinomiya.
"Eh~ Why is the Vice President sitting so close to me?"
Secretary Ibuki Yuki, who was organizing documents, looked up to tease him.
"Of course it's to build a good relationship with Ibuki-san. After all, we'll be working companions from now on."
Murakami Yuu smiled and casually answered. He could tell she was just joking and didn't have any particular thoughts about him.
He understood that even as handsome as he was, there would still be women who were immune to his charm. This was unavoidable.
"Vice President, there's something I'd like to trouble you with. Can you come with me to the doujin game club?"
Before long, after simply reviewing several documents and completing signing work, Anna Kinomiya picked up the black tea on the table and took a light sip, then extended an invitation to Murakami Yuu.
"No problem."
Murakami Yuu nodded. He had thought about it from the start. This was what he had hoped for.
"I won't go then. I still have some reports to organize. Can't those sports clubs' venue application forms be filled out neatly according to the format? Really..."
Ibuki Yuki's head was buried on the desk, complaining softly.
After the two comforted her with a few words, they walked out of the student council room and slowly headed toward the doujin game club.
Today wasn't like last time with rainy weather. There were many students in the school building corridors - some on cleaning duty, some holding books going to the library to study together, and others seizing time for club activities.
The youthful vibrancy coming and going - the colorful rose-colored campus life - cast admiring glances at them.
But Murakami Yuu quickly noticed something was off. The gazes that surrounding students directed at him and Anna had something wrong about them. He could even hear certain whispers.
"Drifter in the wind... haha..."
"That new vice president..."
"That arrogant and rude guy trying to make a move on the president..."
The content being said was not much different from what the news club had wrongly written in the newspaper before.
This was the so-called importance of first impressions. The news club had long since reposted the truthful report on the bulletin board, but it was completely ignored by students. They could only remember what they saw the first time.
Many people who didn't understand Murakami Yuu now only had bad impressions of him.
Murakami Yuu didn't care. Sitting calmly and turning a deaf ear, other people's views were like passing clouds to him - not something worth caring about.
But Anna Kinomiya was somewhat uncomfortable. She didn't want to hear any bad words about Murakami Yuu. This was standard protective behavior.
She had wanted to rebuke those students who were spreading false rumors without distinguishing right from wrong, but after seeing the unconcerned Murakami Yuu, she dismissed this idea.
Making enemies for Murakami Yuu again for no reason wasn't a wise approach. Although her starting point was good, it still wasn't quite suitable for specific implementation.
After thinking it over, only by having Murakami Yuu help solve some matters for students and letting people at school understand what kind of person he was, then spontaneously clearing his name - this was the proper approach.
"The news club's Ono Miyuki has already withdrawn from school."
Anna Kinomiya thought for a moment and informed Murakami Yuu of this information.
"Eh?"
It had only been the second day since the incident, right? The school's directive came this fast?
"Don't be surprised. Ono Miyuki probably felt she had gone too far. The school's general punishment was too light for her. She felt she had no face to see Yuu, so she voluntarily made this decision to make up for the mistake she committed. A very admirable action."
As Anna Kinomiya spoke, the corners of her eyes slowly narrowed. She looked quite pleased.
But Murakami Yuu detected some other sharp meaning from her gentle expression.
As expected, having such an "excellent" politician mother, she had more or less picked up some of that swift and decisive temperament.
Had to say, the action was really fast...
The two soon arrived at the doujin game club's classroom. Anna Kinomiya stepped forward and knocked on the door.
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