"Some people don't like it when someone refers to them by their first name on their first meeting with each other," explained Arisu. "Most girls I know don't like it when a guy they don't know talks to them casually. There is this thing called personal space that girls take into consideration when talking to people for the first time."
The slight raise in Arisu's voice when she voiced her last sentence elicited a response from Ryo who sat next to her. Ryo scratched his head and forced a smile. He felt that Arisu was talking about him, for some reason.
"You called me by my first name back then, Nishihara," said Arisu as she grabbed her white cup of scented tea on the glossy table.
"W-Well, to tell you the truth, I called everyone by their first name back in middle school," said Ryo.
"Hmm, I called Aoi by her first name for as long as I can remember."
Klaus nodded to himself as memories of his childhood slipped into his mind. If he was not mistaken, Aoi approached him one day when they were in elementary. He couldn't fully grasp how they got close to each other, but since then, they began walking to school together. There had never been a time when one of them would go to school without the other. They had this unspoken rule between both of them.
"You two have known each other since elementary?" Arisu raised her eyebrows as she brought her tea to her lips.
"Not to brag or anything, but I have a lot of childhood friends," Ryo said with a grin. "Try to ask our classmates for their phone number, Klaus. You can get an invite to all sorts of events once they've got to know your number."
"You have everyone's number?" asked Klaus curiously.
Ever since he started high school, Klaus had not tried to get to know his classmates. He'd been too distracted by the Personal Dimensions, Draugrs, and Freda. A month had passed since the start of the year, and he barely knew anyone in his class.
"Yup, I even have Kitabayashi's phone number right here. So, let's exchange our phone number!"
Deep in his heart, Klaus felt like he wanted to jump out of joy. Now he had both Arisu's and Ryo's number in his list of contacts. In the spur of the moment, his imagination ran wild, and he began to picture the rose-colored school life he was about to experience.
He imagined Ryo and his friends asking him to join them for karaoke. At one point, he even started seeing the possibility of a girl in his class confessing her feelings for him in private. No, calm thy self, Klaus Weber. To reach that point in your school life, you have to be invited by a girl to a social event in the first place.
"Romance, romance, romance..."
Klaus kept mumbling to himself as he stared at his smartphone.
"Now, how about you, Akeno? Would you mind giving me your number?"
After she had finished adding Klaus's number to her list of contacts, Arisu switched her gaze to Aoi, who sat next to Klaus. She repeated her question when the bespectacled girl didn't respond the first time. However, Aoi merely bit her lip and lowered her head, somewhat staring at her food on the table.
"...I'm sorry, but I don't have a phone," Aoi muttered emotionlessly. "My family prohibits me from using a phone since I was little."
"Huh?!" exclaimed Ryo.
"Yeah, she doesn't have a phone," said Klaus. "That's why she would come to my house when she wants to have a chat."
"That's cruel! Harsh! Dictatorial!"
"Ryo, your voice. Keep it down," Arisu warned Ryo when she realized a few other students turned to look at him. "Anyway, Akeno, you haven't joined a club yet, right? How about you come with me to the theater club after this?"
"Huh?" Akeno shrunk in her seat as if she was afraid of being taken away or something of the sort.
"Theater club?" Klaus figured that Aoi would grow to be more confident once she joined a club that requires its members to participate in events actively. The theater club would be a perfect choice!
"Yeah, you should join the theater club, Aoi--"
"NO!"
Aoi grabbed Klaus by his uniform and buried her face in his shoulder. "No, no, no, no... I don't want to go! Don't take me away, I swear I will behave, so please, let me stay with Klaus..."
"A-Akeno?" Arisu's heart began to sink when she saw Aoi suddenly began to cry. She was merely asking the girl if she wanted to join the club she was in, but instead, it elicited quite a negative response from her. Ryo didn't say anything and watched as Klaus tried to comfort his friend.
"Um, you don't have to join the theater club if you don't want to, Aoi," said Klaus softly. "I did say that we'll scout the clubs after this, so let's just proceed with that plan."
Klaus floundered for the first few seconds when Aoi began to cling to him and started crying without him knowing exactly why. He wanted to ask her, but that would have to wait until after she had calmed herself.
And so, the duo walked along the corridor on the third floor of the school after lunch. Arisu apologized relentlessly to Aoi afterward, since she was seriously bothered by the fact that she had made her cry. Who would have thought that Aoi would turn out the way she did?
Even as the two best friends walked next to each other, they found it hard to start a conversation after the little incident minutes ago.
"..." Klaus took a glance at Aoi once a while to check on her well being, and he let out a sigh when he saw her looking out the window as they walked.
"Aoi..."
"I'm fine now, Klaus. Thanks for worrying about me. Anyway, hmm? Look, isn't that a board game club?"
"Hey, this school has a Mahjong Club!"
Klaus grabbed Aoi by her hand and led her to a spacious room being used by the Mahjong Club members. Aoi followed his gaze, and she realized he was staring at a tall female student playing mahjong with her opponent.
"That girl must be our senior. She's quite a looker, don't you think?" Klaus asked as he swept his gaze throughout the room.
"I suppose so."
"Oh, wait, that one looks like the Sewing Club!"
Klaus was about to run over to the next classroom when Aoi squeezed his hand in protest. He looked over his shoulders with a frown.
"...Let's check the clubs on the fourth floor," said Aoi.
The fourth floor was the top floor of the school, so by common sense, there should be fewer clubs to check out. And yet, Klaus and Aoi stumbled upon more clubs than they had initially expected.
The Literature Club seemed to fit Klaus, but Aoi didn't like how the room provided for the club members felt cramped just from walking inside. Then there was the Manga Club, which had the most members compared to the other indoor clubs the school have. Klaus wanted to join this particular club, but Aoi didn't like how the boys to girls ratio of the club members appeared to be lopsided.
"They are mostly girls in the Manga Club," commented Klaus as he observed the few boisterous members chatting among themselves. "It should take no time for you to fit in."
"You should think of yourself too, Klaus. Do you want to join a club that has little to no boys?"
"A man travels the world over, in search of what he needs, and returns home to find it."
Aoi's mouth twitched when he heard Klaus muttered the quote without so much as a stutter. He had it memorized perfectly. "That's a quote by George Moore. It's not related to our topic now, isn't it?"
"Huh?" Klaus was doubly sure he had picked the perfect quote to help change Aoi's mind. "A man returns home only to find what he finally had been seeking is there all along. Home, in this context, is a club that had the most members where anyone could fit right in!"
"...That's quite far-fetched, to the point where I'm not even sure you understand that quote you just said."
Klaus sighed heavily and sat down on the foot of a staircase leading down to the third floor. Aoi stood in front of him, wearing an expressionless face. He tried to help Aoi get a friend, but she didn't seem willing to cooperate with him. She refused to join any club even though Klaus had promised he would join the club of her choice as well. She wouldn't be alone all by herself.
So, what was wrong here?
Aoi noticed Klaus was in a bad mood and looked away out of guilt. Klaus wanted to accompany her and was willing to give up on his club of choice.
"...Klaus."
After what happened yesterday night at home, Aoi had been trying hard to maintain her invisible mask, so that Klaus wouldn't notice the emotions bubbling up inside of her. Unfortunately, her actions reflected the negativity she was hiding from her best friend.
"...Klaus."
"Yeah?"
"The Tennis Club is the only sports club that has practice today, so we might want to continue checking out the clubs again tomorrow. I'm sure once I've seen what all the clubs look like, I can choose which club I want to join in the end."
"I see... Well, how about we go over to the first floor, and check out the Theater Club? And then we'll go home."
"Alright."
○ ○ ○
"O' Prince of the West, is this what you want?! A war will break out if you choose to rescue the Princess! A lot of people will lose their life, so please consider this thoroughly!"
The auditorium hall had fifteen to twenty students practicing for an upcoming roleplay event. It was supposedly a charity event for the Neighborhood Association, where the student council would oversee it from start to end. A member of the student council observed the practice while writing down a report.
"I don't see Alice anywhere," said Klaus as he watched the practice from the side.
"...Alice?" Aoi couldn't believe Klaus had just given Arisu a nickname!
"Alice, as in, Arisu. She has a long surname, and her given name sounds the same in English anyway. I'll start calling her Alice from now on--"
Bump!
Arisu ran into Klaus from behind, and they fell together. Immediately, Arisu stood up and apologized to him before she realized it was Klaus.
"That hurt, you know. What's the rush?" Klaus patted his shirt to flatten the nasty wrinkles.
"So sorry! I was thinking about something, and I got too excited that I ran, and before I could see where I was running, you were there in my way, so..."
"How come it's my fault?"
"Huh? No, I didn't mean it like that!"
"Forget it. What got you so excited that you find someone like me worth triggering a flag for?"
"...A flag? What? Now that you mention it, I wanted to meet the vice president!"
Arisu tried to search for the vice president, but she was nowhere within sight. Had she missed her? She was confident that the famous vice president would be here.
"Vice President? You mean, the Unparalleled Beauty, Vice President of the Student Council Fukutsuchi Emiko? I think she'd already left since I didn't see her when I first came."
As much as Klaus wanted to see the Vice President up close as well, she was quite a busy individual herself, to the point where most of the student body could only see her figure during lunchtime.
The same goes for the President of the Student Council. He'd never attend the morning assembly held every week, so the student body had a general assumption that he must be occupied with various matters himself.
"So, you two want to join the Theater Club? We could use more first-years since we have a charity event coming up."
Klaus pointed his index finger at Arisu with a scowl. "Hey, you're also a first-year. And we're here just to scout."
"Scout, eh? How about you two join as temporary members, at least for a month. We could use more hands for our upcoming event."
"Are you serious?" Klaus caressed his temples and winced. "The deadline for the club participation is just around the corner! We can't change our club after that! You're trying to do us dirty, are you?"
"Ugh... Don't look at me like that." Arisu turned to look at Aoi and put up a warm smile. "If you two have a change of heart, join the club, okay?"
"You just lower your chances of having us in this club," Klaus stated as he grabbed Aoi and started bolting out of the hall.
"K-Klaus!" Arisu threw a mineral bottle towards him, and he caught it with one hand.
"Thanks!"
"H-Hey! Give that back! Hey! I need that for my prince-saving-the-princess-who-was-drowning scene!"