Only now did it really hit me—the girl standing in front of me was so stunning it was almost blinding.
“—Hmm.”
A voice came from behind me immediately after.
The moment I turned around, Shiranui shrieked, “Wha—WHAA!?”
“This is the first time I’ve seen something like this.”
“WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT OUT LOUD, MINA!?”
Through the window, I could see two figures having that exact exchange.
“…So you were eavesdropping.”
I muttered under my breath. Isago, flustered, cried out:
“What do we do!? We’ve been caught, Mina!?”
“We weren’t exactly hiding in the first place.”
“WHY NOT!?”
—Come to think of it, I’d done the same thing from the exact same spot before.
Well, regardless of whether they thought they were hiding, the one who casually spoke up knowing full well they’d been noticed didn’t seem the least bit sorry.
“By the way. Need a hand, Kageyuki?”
“…Yeah, actually. I was about to ask you the same thing, Minase.”
“Hmm. That’s what I thought. So, Isa?”
“Of course! If Kage-kun’s asking, the answer’s already decided!”
“…Right. Because—”
Minase gave a small nod.
Isago flashed a full, beaming smile.
“It looks super fun—”
“—We’re friends, after all!”
“Ah. Y-yeah, that’s the reason. Because we’re friends.”
“Nah, your real thoughts already slipped out, Minase.”
—Either way.
Right now, they were the two trump cards I needed most.
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4
“They saw me, so embarrassing—!!”
Leaving Shiranui’s groaning aside for now, I ushered Isago and Minase inside.
“You were following me?”
When I asked, Minase nodded plainly.
“Well, yeah. If you rush off like that, of course we’d be curious.”
“Still, I didn’t think you’d just hide—wait, no, you weren’t even hiding…”
“That was Isa.”
“Wha—WHAA!?”
Just as Minase was about to say something, Isago cut in with a yelp.
Minase pinned her down with one hand and calmly continued.
“Isa was panicking about how you’d hate her if you found out.”
“WHY WOULD YOU SAY ALL THAT!?”
Man, the power dynamic between these two is a mystery… I thought to myself.
Meanwhile, Isago peeked at my face anxiously, flailing her hands.
“I-It’s not like that, Kage-kun! It’s not!”
“Nah, it’s fine—”
“I just wanted to swoop in dramatically when things got really desperate!”
“—Never mind. I wish that had been the case.”
“Huh!?”
I had my doubts, but if they were willing to help, I’d let it slide for now.
Making them upset would just complicate things. I waved my hand dismissively.
“I don’t mind. If anything, this speeds things up.”
Minase turned her gaze to Shiranui.
“Well, Shiranui-san didn’t seem to want anyone overhearing.”
“That’s on her, so don’t worry about it.”
“W-Wait, Kageyuki, you’re NOT on my side!? Why am I being treated worse and worse!?”
“…………”
“DON’T IGNORE ME! YOU’RE BREAKING MY HEART!!”
Shiranui’s mental fortitude remained as fragile as tofu.
Either way, I turned back to Minase and Isago to wrap things up.
“So, how much did you two hear?”
“Pretty much all of it.” “Yeah.”
“Wow, bold. Alright, here’s the main issue—we need permission to form a troupe.”
According to Shiranui, the student council had already rejected her request.
But then Isago suddenly spoke up.
“Kage-kun. Is that premise even solid?”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“If you can’t do it within the school, why not just do it outside? If it’s an external activity, the student council can’t interfere, right? Or is that not an option?”
“…Whoa. That’s… surprisingly sharp.”
I never expected Isago of all people to bring up such a perspective.
“But the goal is the play, right? Then you could just do it as an extracurricular activity.”
“…Yeah. Honestly, that’s not a bad idea.”
If the only priority was “Oshimi-senpai and Shiranui performing together,”
then this would solve everything. The student council had no authority over external activities.
Of course, that would still mean openly defying their decision.
But more than that—I really didn’t want to go that route.
“But no, I’ll have to reject that idea. It misses the point. The performance itself isn’t the only goal.”
At the very least, I knew Oshimi-senpai wouldn’t want that.
If she just wanted to act with Shiranui, she could’ve invited her to the theater troupe she was already part of.
For Oshimi-senpai—who once failed to give Shiranui a place in the drama club—
—This had to be done within the school.
“Right, Shiranui?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah… I guess? I dunno.”
“Exactly.”
For some reason, the person in question didn’t seem to fully grasp it.
But this wasn’t something I could just explain outright. Maybe it was better she didn’t know.
“Anyway, the point is—this has to be a school-sanctioned activity.”
“Got it. S-Sorry for suggesting something irrelevant…”
“No, now that I think about it, it was a fair question. I appreciate any input.”
Isago shrank back apologetically, so I quickly reassured her.
My knowledge of this school was still limited—I needed their help for that.
Meanwhile, I’d focus on leveraging what only I knew.
“By the way—how common is this? The student council restricting activities like this?”
When I asked all three of them, Minase was the one who answered.
“No, not really.”
“Yeah… I figured.”
“I’m still new to the high school division, but Seishinkan’s always encouraged extracurricular activities.”
“The entrance exams even emphasize specialized talents… That’s what I heard before enrolling, too.”
“Unless the activity’s outright harmful, most applications get approved.”
“I see… Wait, did you just say applications?”
I repeated the word instantly. Minase nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Of course you’d need one for a school activity… But did we even submit one?”
Shiranui blinked slowly.
“Uh… I didn’t.”
“Same. Obviously.”
“Maybe Senpai did?”
“…No.”
It was hard to imagine Oshimi-senpai submitting an application when the schedule and cast weren’t even finalized. I’d double-check with her later, but…
“If she had applied and got rejected, the notice would’ve gone to her, not you.”
“Right… They wouldn’t tell me first.”
“So Shiranui got preemptively rejected before we even applied… Shiranui.”
“Huh? Yeah?”
“Are you sure that rejection came directly from the student council?”
“I… think so? The vice president personally called me in.”
The vice president—Suruga Kono-senpai, then.
That composed upperclassman didn’t seem like someone easily swayed… but still, something was off.
Honestly, I’d had doubts from the moment Shiranui first told me.
—It didn’t make sense for the student council to interfere.
Because that would directly contradict the request they had given me.
If anything, the council should want Shiranui to focus on her talent—acting. They should be supporting her, not blocking her.
So what was really going on?
Was their request to me a lie? Had they always been against Shiranui’s involvement? No, that couldn’t be—then there’d be no reason to involve me in the first place.
“More importantly, the student council wouldn’t have any motive to actively suppress students’ independent activities, right?”
“Then was there a disconnect between the president and vice president—some policy I wasn’t aware of?”
Unlike the president, who advocates for student activities, the vice president was against them. So maybe she unilaterally restricted Shiranui’s activities using the council’s authority… No, probably not.
Even if she did, the president would find out eventually. It’d be pointless.
The ban definitely came from the student council, but it contradicts their official stance—
It might seem contradictory, but this was the only explanation that made sense.
“……In that case, this is……”
I muttered the words under my breath.
—The real problem was how to explain this to the three of them.
If I laid out my reasoning honestly, I’d have to mention the student council’s request.
But I’d rather avoid that.
Telling them,
“Hey, I only got close to you guys because the council asked me to” right before asking for their cooperation would sound awful. It wasn’t just that, but explaining wouldn’t help.
What should I do?
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