When we noticed Nakamura-san's presence, we immediately put some distance between us.
Thankfully, she was the only one here, so as long as we could convince her to keep this as a secret, we should be fine.
"Hello, hello, Maehara-kun~ it's been a while, hasn't it? Nice to see that you two are still so close. How have you been?"
"I've been fine… You look tired, Nakamura-san."
"Hehe, you can tell? Well, there's just too many things to do for the council. Tomoo-senpai and other members helped, but the amount of paperwork I had to do was just endless."
I could tell that she was having a hard time by the look on her face. It lacked her usual vigor and she looked slightly more haggard than the last time I saw her.
By the way, student council members still had to participate in the sports festival. So, aside from her regular workload, she also had to practice for the events on top of that.
That kind of schedule would exhaust even the most energetic people.
"Anyway, what's up? Since you seem to be looking for me… Did something bad happen?"
"…Yeah. Uh, my hubby— No, I mean, the vice president is sick. I took him to the infirmary just now. It was only a cold thankfully, but now there's no one left to do his portion of the work…"
"I see. Well sure, I'll help you."
"You're a lifesaver… We have to finish making arrangements with our sponsor by the end of the day…"
Since the new student council was formed, Umi and some of her classmates had been helping them out since they were short-staffed. Umi was good with management and such, so she helped whenever a member of the council was sick or unavailable.
"Anyway, sorry for disturbing your sweet time with Asanagi-chan, Maehara-kun. I'll be borrowing her until the vice president is well, okay? Can I have your permission?"
"I mean, Umi already said she'll help, so go ahead… By the way, about the vice president…"
"…Haha, I was hoping you wouldn't notice that. Oh well, not like I could keep it a secret forever."
I was about to let it slide, but she had a concerned look when she talked about the vice president. Also, she called him 'hubby'…
"Oh, right, Maki doesn't know, huh? Can I tell him, Nakamura-san?"
Nakamura-san, with a slightly red face, nodded silently. From my impression of her and her behavior so far, I thought she wouldn't be interested in such things, but it seemed like I was wrong.
I didn't expect this, but it wasn't a bad thing or anything.
"You knew about them, Umi?"
"Yeah. Well, I didn't find out until the end of the summer vacation. Apparently they were in the same club in middle school. Moreover, they were the only members of the club, isn't it sweet?"
"I see, so they were on good terms from the beginning."
According to Umi, Nakamura-san and the vice president (a first year named Takizawa Souji), were in a mystery club together. Their relationship developed beyond that of a senpai-kouhai relationship.
Apparently, they would read books and discuss them together, study together whenever an exam was coming up and go to the library together on their days off as part of their club's activities. Honestly, I couldn't see them as anything other than a couple by that point.
By the time Nakamura-san graduated from middle school, you would have thought they were already dating, but it seemed like that was not the case. Before Takizawa-kun enrolled in our school, they actually didn't really stay in contact.
The reason was because in Nakamura-san's lockscreen…
"…Woah, he's handsome."
"Right? He even said that people kept hitting on him on the street."
He was a head taller than Nakamura-san, who was taller than the average boy. His face looked so good that I wouldn't be surprised if someone were to tell me that he was a model. With that intelligent and calm look, if Nitta-san were to see him, she would immediately fangirl over him.
Apparently, there were a lot of cute girls around him, from his childhood friends, classmates, kouhais and even students from other schools as well. That was why Nakamura-san decided to back down when she graduated.
"But, the vice president, Takizawa-kun, had been in love with Nakamura-san since the first year. Just this spring, he entered our school without telling anyone. He joined the student council because his homeroom teacher asked him, but in truth, he just wanted to relive his middle school days with Nakamura-san."
"…So that's why Nakamura-san became the president, huh?"
So that was the 'good reason' Nakamura-san mentioned back then.
When I turned my gaze to her, she immediately averted her gaze while blushing.
"…S-So what? I-I'm a normal high school girl too! Actually back when my homeroom teacher asked me to be a member of the council, I refused, but when he asked me to… I just couldn't refuse…"
And now that same boyfriend was sick. Because of that, she got annoyed after seeing us flirting in the open. Which was why she approached us instead of just pretending not to see it.
I felt bad for her.
"So, in exchange for listening to my embarrassing story, lend me Asanagi-chan for a bit, please… Asanagi-sama, you're my only hope! Everyone else already refused me, so please!"
"Can't be helped then. Sorry, Maki, I'm going to give her a hand. You should go back first, you're exhausted, right? This will take a while."
"I can wait for you. It's getting darker earlier these days, so it would be safer if I walked home with you."
Also, Sora-san had been telling me that she missed me, so I should stop by her house for dinner.
"Alright, I'll finish it as soon as possible. You should wait in the cafeteria, they should be open for a while."
"Roger. Message me when you're finished, okay? I'll pick you up right away."
"Mm, alright then, see you, Maki."
"See you."
And so, Umi went to the student council room with Nakamura-san and I went to the blue team's place as previously planned.
I could wait two or three hours for Umi, but in the meantime, what should I do?…