a/n: The dialogue of this chapter was a pain to write but i tried to keep my interpretation of yukinoshita as close to canon as possible, despite all the inconsistencies with hikigaya on the other hand.
Quick note that a harem will be unlikely to happen here since i want this to have a primary focus on yukinoshita and her relationship with hachiman.
Hiratsuka-sensei grins, thumping me on the back abruptly and nearly making me fall over, "well, I'll be leaving you two to get acquainted, then. Good luck!"
And with that, she's out the door faster than light. A good five seconds pass as I contemplate the polished wood, considering whether or not I should just slip out on my own as well. The idea is debunked fairly quickly with the realisation of Hiratsuka-sensei's administrative position to mean her owning my parents' contact details. The possibility of causing my parents any more notice of me makes my toes curl inwards in cringe. Blinking away my memory of the last time I had a conversation with them, I sigh quietly.
"Are you going to just stand there or have a seat?"
Oh right, she's still here.
I hum in response, grabbing a chair that had been stacked off to the side and seat myself as far away from her as I could, feeling her gaze burning into the side of my head like a bullet onto a shooting mark.
"Sorry, what was your name again?"
"Yukinoshita Yukino," she answers after giving me a strange look, regal air amplifying itself around her family name, and a niggling familiarity brushes my mind. Have I heard of her before? I push the thought away for later.
"Where are the other club members? Are they performing club activities-"
"As of now, the only members of this club are you and I."
I blink. "...Is a club with a single member even allowed to hold?"
"There were special circumstances," Hiratsuka-sensei's grinning face pops into my mind, "Moreover, didn't I just tell you there were two members?"
"Please refrain from including me in something I was forced into against my will."
"It was a necessary action. Your poor quality of life is immediately apparent to me despite us having met less than several minutes ago. Some initiative was clearly required."
"My quality of life is just fine with me."
"Hikigaya. When was the last time you spoke to a girl, I wonder?"
"A moment ago, I believe you were present." I haven't held a conversation with anyone aside from random people on the internet in months, not that she needs to know that.
She in question shoots me an unimpressed look. I respond with one of my own before turning my attention elsewhere.
This girl, Yukinoshita, seems to insist on the idea that I am to receive some form of rehabilitation, as Hiratsuka-sensei stated. An unofficial punishment in the form of interacting with this rude, condescending character of a girl under the guise of being 'fixed'. It's a ridiculous situation. Curiously, I glance at Yukinoshita and wonder if she cares about the ludicrousness in our mutual teacher's logic as well.
She's transfixed completely by the book in her hand, dark hair curtaining her eyes, and I suddenly realise how lonely it all looks.
Another thought occurs to me.
"Why aren't there any other members?" I ask, turning towards her in my first display of visible interest since entering this room, "I don't claim any experience in club management but wouldn't the first order of business be recruitment?"
"The Service Club was introduced fairly recently, so it's lack of popularity as of now needs no justification," She tilts her head, smiling disingenuously, "Is my lone presence dissatisfactory to you in some way?"
"Uh, no, that isn't what I meant," She completely avoided the question. Steeling myself, I take a leap, "Do you have any friends?"
"...That depends on how you would define one."
The answer is obvious. This woman can't possibly maintain relationships with normal people. The thought that someone like this is in charge of fixing the very same problems she herself has nearly makes me smile at the irony.
"It's okay," I assure her blandly, "It's not like I have any either."
"Oh?" Her face smooths itself into a pleasant expression, "While I don't doubt your self-assessment, I must correct you on your assumption that my situation is what I view an unwelcome one."
"So it was self-inflicted then?" Sure, I believe it. "I can understand wanting to be alone but frankly, I can't imagine you're well-liked for it." If she truly wasn't shunned from the beginning, someone as conspicuous as her would have had to turn down at least a few invitations for fellowship. I pray for their damaged souls.
"Someone with as little social expertise like you has no business commenting on such things."
"And yet you've taken it upon yourself to criticize me so rudely despite not having any yourself. It's hypocritical."
Her eyes narrow. "Whatever hypocrisy you interpret me to be exuding is a fallacy based on your idea that we are similar. The way you submit yourself to drying up, withering away and dying is pitiful. We're very different in that regard, Hikigaya, I assure you."
"Submitting myself? Is that how you see it?" I huff in sharp amusement, ignoring the look of deep condescension she's directing towards me. "There's nothing that elaborate behind my being alone. Some things are just often more effort than their worth."
"Your misfortune is a byproduct of your own laziness, then, and your refusal to act against your situation is the root. Whatever way you prefer to phrase it, the meaning does not change."
"I'm doing fairly well on my own despite everything. The way you disregard that fact along with summing me up as lazy for wanting to be comfortable is frankly offensive."
"You'll never be able to live in a society such as this with that attitude, which is the fact of the matter."
"And what about you then? You might not like it, but we're exactly the same," I keep my tone light, matter-of-fact. Lazy. The image of my mother crying into my shoulder burns itself onto my retina. "A fallacy my ass. Whatever the fuck the motivations or traumas that led you to this are, you're doing the exact thing I'm doing, aren't you? Accepting it, not making an effort to change for the sake of the world. Personally, I find it a commendable trait but you view it differently in me. You're a hypocrite, Yukinoshita."
The person in question is frozen, a look of outrage on her delicate, pretty features. Some inexplicably present intuition informs me of the rarity of such a moment.
"How presumptuous." The temperature of the room drops several degrees, "You're in no position to assume such things-"
"Neither are you."
"In accordance with what was requested of me, I am to analyse your behavioral traits in order to rectify them. Your sensitivity to the truth is no fault but your own."
"There are better ways to get someone to change. You could stand to be more tactful."
"The world is a harsh place. The idea that someone would be willing to hand-hold you through life is a delusional fantasy."
"I'm well aware."
"Hikigaya." She looks at me, eyes glinting in challenge. "I do not need another person to forge my path for me. Therein lies our fatal difference, for I do not nurture my weaknesses."
"I don't either," my voice is steel-like in quality, the quiet absolute of it striking, "You're very wrong for thinking differently."
And isn't that just the crux of the matter? Her belief that I was simply accepting my weaknesses, her blatant disregard for all that I agonise over, the nerve she had to suggest that I was cultivating my shortcomings for the sake of continuing to be in the state. It irked me in no small amount of ways. And perhaps that too is a shortcoming in itself, but right now there is only my disillusioned anger at being interpreted so wrongly by someone who I had subconsciously believed to be capable of understanding to some extent.
Upon my declaration, Yukinoshita opts to silently study me instead of responding, regarding me with rapt fascination as if I were an extraordinary species she had just discovered. I sit still, observing her with the same tenacity.