This happened during the Homeroom after all the classes were over.
"Umm… as everyone knows, the cultural festival will start around the middle of the next month, so we are going to decide on the members of the committee."
Hearing that everyone immediately groaned.
Before I became friends with Asanagi and the others, I was a full-time loner, so I didn't pay much attention to the school events. Like other high schools, our school had plenty of events to be held.
The events were the Sports Festival and the Cultural Festival, both were scheduled to be held in November. But due to the time constraint and the fact that holding both events would conflict with the class schedule, our school held both festivals in turn every other year. The Cultural Festival was scheduled to be held this year.
"We will need representatives from each class, one male and one female to participate in the meetings held by the committee… And the people who would represent our class would be ~"
Yagisawa-sensei looked around the classroom, maybe expecting someone would volunteer themselves, but contrary to her expectations, no one was dumb enough to raise their hand.
"No one is volunteering huh? Then, I've already prepared this! Lottery boxes! Boys, draw your lottery from the box to your right! Girls will draw from the left box! Now, let's test your luck ~"
The other classmates' groans were getting louder seeing the teacher's antics, but since ignoring her wasn't a viable option, everyone decided to get it done quickly.
There were 18 boys and 17 girls in our class, 35 students in total. For me, there was 1 in 18 chances for it to be a bust, a low chance, I just need to not hit that low chance.
I shouldn't be proud of this, but my gacha luck is poor, so the chance that I would hit that 5% should be really low, but it is still a 5% rate, I shouldn't let my guard down.
"Then everyone, please come forward and draw your lotteries! If you hit the jackpot, don't cheat and report it properly, okay ~?"
Because of the position of my seat, my turn would come earlier than the rest of my classmates. That means the box will still be filled with a lot of misses, my chance of hitting the jackpot would be lower than the rest of the class.
Heh… I got this, let's go!
[Jackpot]
Ahh…
"…Sensei, I got the jackpot."
"Eh? Ah, yes, yes, then, Maehara-kun will be the male representative!"
Curse you, desire sensor.
Well, let's look at this on a more positive note, it's the first time that someone has ever written my name on the blackboard save from the cleaning duty list. Seeing my name up there felt refreshing.
The boys, especially the jocks, looked relieved at my misery, some of them even did their victory pose. Well, it was understandable; being a member of the committee will just give you more work to do, and balancing committee work and club activities would be a major pain for them. This kind of work should really be assigned to the people who were in the go-home club like me.
Since it was decided that the sacrificial lamb from the boys' side would be me, now everyone turned their focus on the girls.
"…Please don't be me, please…! All right, let's go!!"
Nine girls had drawn from their box, but none of them had drawn the jackpot yet.
By the way, Amami-san was among the nine girls while Asanagi hadn't pulled hers yet.
However, the girls, including the girl who had just drawn her lottery, had been making serious faces.
I noticed they had been doing this ever since I announced that I pulled the jackpot.
Well, they wouldn't want to work with me, it's understandable…
If the one who pulled the jackpot was someone like Seki-kun, they would never act like this, but since it was me, a loner, instead, of course things would be different. After all, not only did they have to deal with their duty, but they also had to deal with someone who they thought would be a burden, increasing their workload.
Well, sorry for being so unlucky, but can't you guys at least try to hide your feelings? It isn't that hard.
But anyway, wouldn't this problem be solved if Asanagi draws the jackpot?
"I'm next then… Ah, a miss! Here's the proof, sensei!"
"Mhm. Nitta-san is out then."
"'Kaay ~ Sorry to whoever wins! Don't worry, I'll have your back, just ask me and I'll be there to support you!"
I thought Nitta-san would blatantly make a victory pose or something, her reaction was milder than I thought. She even tried to appeal to other people about it, huh? Not bad.
Maybe she was showing consideration for me since I hung out with Amami-san a few times? No way, right?
"…Sensei, may I have a word?"
"Mm? What's wrong, Amami-san?"
"I have something to say to everyone."
No one had hit the jackpot yet, and right before Asanagi's turn came up, Amami-san stood up from her seat.
"…Hey, everyone, do you hate Maehara-kun?"
Hearing her words, the classroom immediately went quiet.
From the moment she stood up, it was clear that her usual cheerful atmosphere was gone and the sentence that came out from her mouth confirmed her current mood.
She was angry.
"I've been watching for a while now… ever since Maehara-kun pulled the jackpot, everyone had been praying that they wouldn't get the jackpot as well… Why are you guys trying to avoid him? Do you guys hate him? Just what did he do to you? C'mon, answer me."
To most people in the class, even if I did nothing to earn their ire, I would still be a stranger to them. Since that was the case, the stranger danger rule applied here. They would try to avoid communicating with me as much as possible. It was depressing that they treated me like this, but it wasn't like I didn't understand where they came from.
However, Amami-san wasn't a part of that group of people. After all, we hung out a few times and she thought of me as a friend.
Anyone would feel bad if their friend was being treated harshly like that; her anger was perfectly justified.
Nitta-san and the other girls who were close to her probably noticed the change in her mood, that was why they didn't squeal in happiness or make any victory poses.
They were surprisingly perceptive, huh? Amazing.
"Sensei, I didn't hit the jackpot, but can I volunteer to be the representative? I want to work together with Maehara-kun."
"Eh? W-well, if you want to, sure, you can do it… Are you okay with this, though, Maehara-kun?"
"Uhm, if Amami-san wants to, sure…"
The thought of working together with Amami-san made me feel a little nervous, but at least the atmosphere between us wouldn't be awkward.
After a little bit more conversations, it was decided that the representative would be Amami-san–
"Ah, Sensei, I hit the jackpot."
–If not for Asanagi's sudden words… She went up to the teacher and showed her lottery result.
"Eh? But…"
"C'mon, sensei, isn't the rule whoever won the lottery gets the role? I'm not busy anyway, so I'll do it."
"Wait, Umi, I said that I'm the one who will– Ow!"
Before Amami-san could finish her words, Asanagi hit her head with a hand chop.
"Yuu, calm down. I know you're mad because your friend is being mistreated, but you're being unreasonable right now… Take a look around."
Asanagi is right.
In this class, angering Amami-san means angering everyone around her as well. When this happens, those people will be shunned by Amami-san's group, and since her group was the center of the class, the unrelated classmates would inevitably avoid them as well.
If no actions were taken, their treatment would become worse over time and they would become the subject of isolation from the rest of the class.
That was the reason why the group of girls that Amami-san scolded looked so pale.
Amami-san only noticed this after Asanagi pointed that out to her.
"Ah… S-sorry, Umi… I…"
"Hey, I'm not the one who you should apologize to, c'mon, do it properly."
"Uhh… I'm sorry everyone, suddenly lashing out like that. Also, I'm sorry Maehara-kun, I scared you, didn't I?"
"Ah, no, it's fine, don't worry about it."
I answered Amami-san before sending a glance toward Asanagi. When our eyes met, we secretly nodded our heads.
"Then as per the rule, the winners of the lottery will be representing this class as the members of the committee. The winners are, me, Asanagi Umi, and Maehara Maki, we'll be in your care. Also, Nitta-san."
"Y-yes?"
"You will be helping us, right? You don't need to attend the meetings like us, but you'll be helping us out, right?"
"Y-yes."
Asanagi fiddled with her phone. Not long after, Nitta-san's previous declaration could be heard from her phone.
Gotta admit, that's pretty sick, I feel sorry for Nitta-san.
The class was dismissed and everyone scattered, leaving me with Asanagi.
"Asanagi."
"Hm? What's up Maehara?"
"As expected, you're pretty good."
"Hehe, I know, right? Praise me more~."
"Don't get carried away, you fool! But, yeah that was pretty cool."
Calming the enraged Amami-san, reassuring the other classmates, and even roping Nitta-san in. It was unthinkable that this girl who was currently wearing a dumb smile did all that.
"Right? Hehehe… Thank you. Though what I did isn't anything special, I was just trying to calm everyone down… The amazing one was Yuu…"
"…Asanagi?"
"…Yeah, I'm not amazing. She's more amazing than I am…"
Asanagi continued.
"I can never do that, you know? Getting angry at everyone while trying to protect someone dear to me… Only Yuu could ever do something like that… I couldn't even help you out back there… I was just focusing on calming everyone down…"
"No, you did well, you know?"
"…Well, let's go home quickly. We'll get busy soon, we have a lot of things to prepare, no?"
"A-ahh… Yeah…"
After that, we went home together until we had to part. Along the way, we ended up only talking about trivial things like games and manga. There was no chance for me to bring the previous topic back up.