Chapter 7 – Multitasking

My migraine could not possibly have been any worse. I had a new flood of paperwork to deal with, I had gotten little sleep, I left Neko-chan at home, and Akoya proceeded to scold me for arriving so late to Ibushi's house last night. As if that wasn't bad enough, this paperwork was due in a mere three hours to the principal, and I knew that there was no way under the sun it could get done in time.

And to think, that if I had actually confessed to Yumoto last night, all of this agony could have been averted. I wanted to think of a new way to confess to him, but if a wonderful date couldn't do it, what could?

I soon decided to depart my thoughts from Yumoto for a while, because in the middle of my contemplations, Akoya forced my attention to him. "So anyway, Kinshiro-sempai, that's the whole of it. The Gay-Straight Alliance is going to hold another pretty boy contest, and there's a total uproar as to who's going to win it. Not that there's a need for an uproar, because I'm going to win, hands down."

"Yeah, yeah…" I passively waved a hand, but the words "pretty boy contest" interested me. "What?"

"Anyway, the club's president has given us ballots that we are to distribute to the school." Akoya handed me a stack of papers. "If you could get everyone you know to vote for me, that would be dandy. Bonus points if you vote for me, too."

"But what about the paperwork?"

"You can have Ibushi-sempai take care of it." Akoya gestured for Ibushi to do this. "Ensuring my victory in the pretty boy contest is far more important."

Typical Ibushi, not showing a care in the world that Akoya simply used him to do his bidding. "So, who are the other candidates? Er, I mean, so I know who not to vote for, of course."

"Nobody you probably know." It was evident that Akoya had only seen his own name on the ballot and didn't even bother to look at the other candidates. "There's no write-in option, either, so that will help to further ensure my victory."

Unlike Akoya, I actually wanted to look at the names of the other candidates. I found that there were quite a few stupid names, like Heywood Jablomie and Justin Aswhole. Heck, I even found my own name on the ballot, not that I dare ask Akoya how it ended up on there in the first place. Ibushi's name was also on it, as well as the imbeciles of the Defense Club. Not showing much interest in the other candidates, and already deciding that I was going to vote for Akoya anyway, I proceeded to stow the ballots away in the cabinets for the time being…

That was until my eyes chanced upon the last name on the ballot: Hakone Yumoto. Without a second thought, I took the ballot from the top of the stack and immediately filled it out, voting for Yumoto in seconds.

"Hey, what did you just do?" Akoya eyed me with suspicion. "Are you that eager to vote for me?"

"Y-Yeah…" I tried to hide my ballot in the mess of papers on the desk, hopeful that Akoya, Ibushi, and especially Yumoto would not get to see it. This wasn't the way I wanted to confess to him. "I mean, who else could I vote for? I don't know anyone else on here, and it would be pompous to vote for myself…"

"Excellent." Akoya smiled, somewhat evilly, as he left Ibushi to do the paperwork all by his lonesome. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I better campaign a little bit, before buttmunch Zaou tries to woo everyone over with his 'skills.' Whatever that entails."

"That Akoya…" I muttered, in slight disappointment of my secretary. "I bet he'd vote for himself. Not only is he too narcissistic for his own good, but he's left us to do all of the paperwork our… selves!"

"My, my, Kinshiro…" To my horror, Ibushi had somehow located my ballot and, as if to tease me, gazed upon it with more interest than I was comfortable with. "Voting for your 'friend,' hmm? I didn't know you thought of Hakone that way."

All right. Apart from Atsushi, Ibushi was my closest friend, so maybe telling him would be okay. "Okay, I admit it – I've fallen in love with Yumoto. You got a problem with that?"

"No, and I don't blame you at all." Ibushi chuckled as he began to fill out his own ballot, and put the both of them at the bottom of the stack of blank ones. "He's a total cutie. I'm just surprised, because I thought you really loved Kinugawa."

"I did, but… Let's face it, he and Yufuin are way too much in love. They go on curry dates and are essentially joined at the hip, for crying out loud. It's what I get for distancing myself from At-chan, just because I somehow didn't like the idea of him having more than one friend."

"Oh, Kinshiro…" Ibushi offered me a cup of tea – and a consoling side hug. "There, there. Did you tell Hakone yet?"

"No, not even on that date we went on last night. I was too chicken." I arose from my seat, assured by my dear friend's kind gestures. "But I will today. I know I'm going to be nervous about it, and I know it will be far from easy, but I will profess my feelings to him, come hell or high water. I'm not going to make the same mistake I did with At-chan, I am certain of that."

"That's the spirit!" Ibushi encouraged, a gesture that I couldn't be any more thankful for. "You go and do that, while I take care of a bit of paperwork."

"But Ibushi… It's going to take you ages!"

"Kinshiro." Ibushi took on a stern tone, but it was more friendly than it was scolding. He soon "forced" me out of the student council room, with the stack of ballots in my arms. "You look like you'll just erupt at any second if you don't see Hakone soon. Go."

I had no idea what Ibushi meant by "erupt," but if he meant displaying an uncouth show of emotions, there would be none of that. I didn't know why it was suddenly my duty and not that of the GSA president to distribute the ballots to everyone, but it was my duty now. Nothing to do but complete it…

"Hey, is that Kusatsu Kinshiro?" spoke a voice from a group of first years. He led his clique towards me, as if I were a leader of a boy band, and they a bunch of overly excited teenage girls. "So it is!"

"Kyaa!" squealed another kid from that group. "He's even cooler up close! And he's got the pretty boy contest ballots with him! Awesome! Hey, give me one, will you?"

By this kid's lead, the entire group soon swarmed me with requests for ballots, and in doing so touched me a lot more often than I wanted. They obviously didn't know that there was a more civilized way to get the ballots, and that was to wait until I handed them some! To further annoy me, another first year asked, "I didn't know you were both the student council president and GSA president, Kusatsu-sempai."

"What… Where did you get such a crazy notion?"

"I don't see why that should surprise you! It's the GSA president's duty to distribute pretty boy contest ballots, after all."

"…So, that's how it's going to be, huh? If you'll excuse me, boys, I've got to look for someone."

As I departed that first year group and its irritating squealing, I had the notion that someone had to have set me up for this. Probably none other than the GSA president himself, who decided that the task of distributing ballots was far too exhausting for his lazy lifestyle. Someone who probably didn't like me much, either, and thought that I did nothing besides stare at myself in the mirror and let my vice president shine my boots.

…Wait. "Lazy lifestyle…" That could only mean one person. Knowing immediately the dastard that was responsible, I marched towards the Defense Club's meeting room, fully expecting everyone to be doing nothing productive, as usual. Slamming that door open, I shouted, "All right, Yufuin, this is the last straw!"

Io and Ryuu didn't seem daunted by my presence at all – not that I gave two figs about them, anyway. Atsushi, for some reason, was the only one in that room who feared me even a little, and he shook Yufuin from his nap, saying, "Hey, En-chan. Wake up."

"Eh?" Yufuin needed some gentle slaps to the face to fully awaken from his nap. "Atsushi, what?"

"Kin-chan's here," Atsushi pointed at me, "and he's very angry with you."

"If it's about Atsushi, you can't have him." Yufuin held Atsushi protectively. "He's mine."

"No, you imbecile!" I held up the stack of ballots to Yufuin's face – and to my chagrin, the guy still played dumb. "Why did you give me these? Now, thanks to you, everyone thinks I'm the president of the Gay-Straight Alliance."

"That shouldn't be a problem," Io cut in. "They've done lots of profitable things, I hear."

"Yeah, well, I couldn't care less," Ryuu added as he took a ballot. "If they're going to make me more popular with women thanks to this pretty boy contest, so be it."

"And anyway…" Yufuin now fully sat up. "I know you won't believe me, but I didn't do this. It was Yumoto."

Speaking of that kid, I only just noticed his lack of presence in this room. How odd, considering that I half-imagined him to be cuddling the hell out of Wombat by now. "Why would you say that?"

"He's the president of the Gay-Straight Alliance," Atsushi began, "but he has an Animal Rights Club event that he has to attend to on campus. That club is promoting animal adoption for today, and Yumoto's got his hands full trying to manage all the requests for animal adoption coming in. So, he's asked the student council to take care of the ballots for him. Why, you didn't know?"

No, I didn't know that Yumoto would do this without telling me. I didn't know that he actually attempted to multitask, when indeed he needed help.

But I did know that I was going to bolt out of the Defense Club meeting room, right now, to find the boy and ask him why I was the first person he turned to when he needed help.