"So, Class Rep, you're here to persuade me to join the Literary Club."
"That's right. All the old members of the Literary Club are third-year students, and next year, the seniors will graduate. They've already started not showing up for club activities, and soon the Literary Club will face a crisis of insufficient new members. Since I've been designated as the new Literary Club President, I should try to expand the number of members before the Student Council gives us a warning."
It turns out the Class Rep wasn't just the Class Rep; she was also a club president.
But the Literary Club… it's basically what's commonly known as the Literature Society.
In Akira's impression, the Literary Club was a club with a weak sense of presence, even serving as mere background in most works, like the Service Club, which Da Laoshi initially mistook for the Literary Club, or the SOS Brigade, whose nest was taken over by the omnipotent God Sparrow.
"So, is that why you're at High School during the summer vacation, Class Rep? Because of club activities?"
The Literary Club's activities seemed to involve reading books, writing book reviews, and feeding book-eating monsters, or something.
The main reason for the gradual decline of the Literary Club in reality was the significant change in modern people's reading and writing habits.
Nowadays, everyone is accustomed to reading novels on their phones and looking up information online. Even Neon, where the publishing industry holds a large share, has been impacted, which is why traditional clubs like the Literary Club face the problem of insufficient members.
Just like Akira, if he hadn't transmigrated back to being a student, he would have gone almost ten years without properly writing anything. The most he usually wrote was his own name.
Because his name subtly changed after transmigration, Akira often used to write his name incorrectly for a period.
"Kuroba-kun, are you very curious why I'm at High School during the summer vacation?"
Answering a question with a question… she was clearly changing the subject. Could there be another reason for her being at High School?
However, since she didn't intend to tell him directly, Akira wasn't interested in pressing the issue and honestly answered her question.
"A little, I guess. It's pretty rare to see a classmate in uniform during the summer vacation, after all."
Then Akira pointed his thumb towards the playground on the other side of the teaching building, where he could still hear the boys laughing.
"Like those guys from the Soccer Club, they come to High School every day to practice and play, but they don't wear their uniforms to High School during the summer vacation."
One must wear a uniform to attend High School—only a rigid, straight-laced student would probably think that way.
And while the Class Rep's academic performance was top-notch, after talking with her, it was clear she wasn't rigid; on the contrary, she was quite playful.
"But Kuroba-kun, you're also wearing a uniform."
"I'm not wearing a uniform because I like it; I don't have a choice, okay?"
Akira looked disgusted.
It was so hot, and Akira also wanted to wear shorts, but he had no extra clothes, only the two sets of uniforms and sportswear provided by the High School.
In fact, throughout the entire summer vacation, Akira mostly wore his summer sportswear, but due to needing to wash it, he had no choice but to wear his uniform, and it just so happened that today was the hottest day of the entire summer vacation.
"Hmm… I originally wore the uniform to leave a good impression on you, but now it seems I worried too much. Kuroba-kun seems very interested in my casual clothes too."
"As expected, Class Rep, you were after me from the very beginning, weren't you?"
This was no romantic encounter, no fated meeting. Anri Hitomi had approached Akira with her own agenda from the start, even considering her attire for their first impression.
So, the question was:
"Why me?"
Before their conversation began, Akira was the gloomy guy at the bottom of the class, while Anri Hitomi was the excellent Class Rep at the top of the class. There was no intersection between them whatsoever.
Akira truly couldn't understand why Anri Hitomi would be interested in him, or even invite him to join the Literary Club.
"Class Rep, you're quite popular in class. If you asked everyone in class, many of the students who haven't joined a club and just go home after school would probably be willing to join the Literary Club."
"I'm not looking for nominal ghost members, and I also don't want people to join the club just to help me. Furthermore, I don't want to bring class relationships into the club."
"Oh…"