My eyelids kept drooping shut.
I shook my head and pinched my thigh, forcing the drowsiness away.
It was lunchtime.
On any normal day, I'd have spent it studying at a leisurely pace in the student council room — but today, the mountain of documents Lee Sae-a had handed me made that impossible.
I'd been promised a drink from Lee Sae-a, but that was looking increasingly unlikely.
I turned a page.
— *Click!*
I read through the documents in the frozen world.
Released the ability.
Corrected what needed correcting.
Turned the next page.
Repeating that cycle, the towering stack of paperwork began to visibly shrink.
Each time I used the ability, a sharp headache rolled in — but I bore it without complaint.
It was a familiar pain.
Then, at some point, a common thread among the documents caught my eye.
*Every single one is related to the exchange event.*
The exchange event.
In the original story, it served as the stage for a fairly significant arc.
I wonder if anything's changed from the original.
Out of curiosity, I looked more closely at the documents.
*Doesn't seem like anything's different.*
An exchange event jointly held between Asahi High School and its sister school, Seichi High School.
Seichi High School was a prestigious institution — three of the Five Genius Freshmen of Academy City were enrolled there.
In the original, this exchange event was the catalyst that brought the Five Genius Freshmen into the spotlight, and Hirose ended up forming connections with three of them.
*Well, Hirose can handle that on his own.*
Whether Hirose hit it off with the Five Genius Freshmen or crashed and burned was none of my business.
My interest lay elsewhere.
Specifically, in one of the main events of the exchange — the quiz competition.
A three-person team event, something like a quiz bowl.
Strong results would go on your academic record, and more importantly, the prize money was nothing to sneeze at.
*The student council can enter too, so I'd like to give it a shot — make a little pocket money.*
Just then, I sensed someone nearby.
I snapped my eyes over.
"…!"
It was Arisu.
The moment our eyes met, she startled and took a step back.
It was oddly endearing.
*Ahem.*
She cleared her throat and approached again.
She was doing her best to look casual, but the flush spreading across her face was impossible to hide.
I felt a sudden urge to tease her.
"Are you feeling okay? You looked rough this morning — shouldn't you see a doctor?"
Arisu froze at my words, clenched her fists, and started trembling.
"Th-that was because you said something weird yesterday!"
"Strange. I thought I was perfectly clear. Maybe you just heard it wrong?"
"Ugh…"
She scrunched up her face and opened and closed her mouth a few times before finally letting out a long sigh.
She seemed to have realized that pressing the matter would only make things worse for her.
I turned back to the documents and asked.
"So what's up? What about lunch?"
"Today… I just didn't feel like eating."
"Did the sun rise in the west today?"
"Shut up."
— *Bonk.*
A light tap on the top of my head.
It didn't hurt at all, of course.
"…The student council president came by during first period break today."
"She did."
"So… what's your relationship with her? You two seemed close."
So that's what brought her here.
Nothing to hide, so I answered directly.
Oh, I almost made a calculation error.
"We're in the same student council."
"…Student council?"
"Yeah."
"Who?"
"Me."
"Since when?"
"A while now. It's been a few weeks."
Arisu grabbed both my shoulders and started shaking me vigorously.
"That's so unfair! Why didn't you tell me?!"
I'm getting dizzy.
I can't work like this even if I wanted to.
I set down my pen and caught both her wrists.
She flinched and drew in a sharp breath.
Arisu pulled back on her own, as if fleeing, and glared at me with a deeply flushed face.
She seemed genuinely hurt that I hadn't told her about joining the student council.
"You never asked."
"…That's true?"
She blinked a few times, then nodded.
Whether it was her intelligence or just her nature, her self-awareness kicked in remarkably fast in moments like this.
"But how did you even get in? My friends tried to join and all got rejected."
I silently pointed to my own head.
Arisu narrowed her eyes at me for a moment, then muttered quietly.
"Insufferable."
"Can't help it if it's true."
"Hey, don't go around saying that in front of other people, okay? I'll let it slide because it's you, but if you said that to anyone else—"
"I only say it in front of you, so don't worry."
"……!"
Arisu's face turned red in an instant.
After that, I could hear her fluttering about beside me, but I pretended not to notice and turned another page.
A moment later, her voice — which had gone quiet for a while — returned.
"So… you're just in the same student council, right?"
"Yeah."
"Hmm."
"Does it bother you that much?"
"I-I just… thought maybe you'd caused some kind of trouble again and the president came to deal with it. So I was a little worried…"
"So you were worried about me."
"I don't know, you dummy."
Listening to Arisu fuss, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
The quiz competition required teams of three.
In that case, wouldn't it be smart to recruit Arisu now?
She was one of the Five Genius Freshmen of Academy City, after all.
Better to bring her in early than risk losing her to another team later.
"Arisu."
"Hm, yeah?"
"There's an exchange event with Seichi High School coming up."
"Oh?"
"There's a quiz competition — three people per team. Want to join?"
Arisu blinked a few times, then nodded.
"Sure, I don't mind. But I've never even heard of an exchange event, let alone a quiz competition. Did a teacher announce it?"
"No."
"Then how do you know about it?"
"It's written here."
I pointed to the documents I was nearly finished with.
Arisu's face went pale.
"…Are you sure you're allowed to tell me that?"
"As long as we don't get caught."
"Ugh~ This is an abuse of power. Corrupt student councils, wake up!"
"Abuse of power?"
Someone might overhear and get the wrong idea.
"There's a much nicer phrase for it — the privileges of the student council."
"Wow, you genuinely sounded like a yakuza just now."
"Did I?"
I stretched, then neatly stacked the finished documents and slid them into an envelope.
"You're done already?"
"More or less."
"…Is paperwork normally supposed to go this fast?"
"When you're used to it."
I shrugged and tucked the envelope into my bag.
Then I took out my lunch.
Opening the container, I was greeted by the same familiar lineup.
Starting to get a little tired of it, honestly.
"…Is that your lunch?"
"Now, now. The lunchbox will hear you and get its feelings hurt."
I glanced sideways at Arisu.
Her eyes were trembling slightly.
As if my lunch were something that had no right to exist in this world.
"Do you… always eat like this?"
"Yeah."
"…Why?"
"It's cheap. Nothing beats it for saving money."
"Th-this is an insult to lunchboxes everywhere."
— *Grab.*
She took hold of my wrist.
"Let's go to the school store."
"I told you, I don't have money."
"I have plenty."
"I already owe you a lot from yesterday."
"Yesterday was yesterday. Today is today. I'm just buying it for you — you don't have to pay me back."
"……"
"If it really bothers you… think of it as an apology for jumping to conclusions yesterday."
Arisu hesitated for a moment, then broke into a bright smile and gave a thumbs-up.
"We're friends, after all. Friends help each other out when things are tough!"
Friends.
Strangely, that single word lodged itself somewhere deep in my chest.
Is that right.
It's okay because we're friends.
I turned the word over in my mind for a moment, then nodded.
Right — when someone's going this far to offer, refusing would be its own kind of rudeness.
"Then… I'll let you treat me one more time."
"Anytime. Let's go!"
Still holding my wrist, Arisu strode forward without hesitation.
The students passing through the hallway naturally turned to look our way.
But Arisu didn't seem to care in the slightest, smiling brightly as she kept talking.
"They sell garlic bread at the school store, you know? It's so crispy and good. Oh, and there's also this other thing—"
For now, I didn't pay any attention to the stares around us either.
"Sounds good."
This ordinary moment — walking to the school store with a friend.
It felt precious in a way that was almost strange.
***
Time flew by, and before long, it was time to head home.
I walked the now-familiar route home in silence, and somewhere along the way, exhaustion caught up with me.
— *Psst.*
I popped open the canned drink I'd kept in my pocket and took a sip.
The drowsiness eased a little.
After Arisu and I had come back from the school store, there had been a canned drink sitting on my desk.
*Here is the compensation I promised.*
A short note on a sticky note.
Such a Lee Sae-a thing to write. A small smile had slipped out before I could stop it.
"…I should rest as soon as I get home."
I hadn't slept properly, and today felt especially draining.
I'd play with Snowy for a bit, take a shower, and go straight to sleep.
I planned to skip dinner.
Arisu had shoved everything in sight into my mouth like a grandmother at a holiday gathering.
Thanks to that, I was still full.
I sipped the canned drink whenever drowsiness crept in, and kept walking.
About thirty minutes later.
I arrived home.
Right. I arrived home.
I definitely arrived — but.
"……?"
In front of the entrance, my belongings were piled up in a mountain.
And more than anything, the door wouldn't open.
The passcode had been changed.
I let out a long sigh and scratched the back of my head.
*So it's finally come to this.*
It seemed Ryuzaki Genma's patience had finally run dry.
— *Meow~*
Snowy's cry came from inside one of the boxes.
"Are you okay?!"
I quickly scooped her up and checked her over.
She didn't seem hurt.
I was about to breathe a sigh of relief — when.
— *Click, click.*
A familiar sound of heels approached from somewhere.
"Looks like you could use some help."
A sweet voice that seemed to draw people in.
I reflexively turned my head.
"Hello. We've met before, haven't we?"
There stood Beatrice, giving a small wave.