Chapter 03 — Meeting the Infamous Telepathy Club
A young brunette female made her way through the hallways, trying to find the room of a certain club. She was struggling to find her destination and was again acting casual — trying to appear that she knew what she was doing. As to why she's alone, she refused Ritsu's kind offer for him to accompany her, seeing that just by talking to him alone made the girls eye her with hostility and concluded that if Ritsu was about to go with her, they won't stay silent.
'Kageyama-kun is scary,' Yumei thought to herself, 'I'm not scared of him but the fact that he has an unspoken fan club is scary.'
The brunette knew without confirming it that they were, indeed, his admirers. She may not have been in the school long enough but one with perceptive eyes could figure that Ritsu was that typical popular freshman student in every school. She was wary of those types because back in Meat City, in her previous school: Steak Middle School, she befriended a boy who happened to be one of the school's popular guys, so she was bullied a lot, making it one of the reasons she and her family moved.
'I've seen this before...or not...' She pondered, staring at the infirmary sign above her and debated with herself if she went this way before (although she knew what the answer was deep inside.)
Firstly, the instruction she got was that her destination was near the room 3-1, so of course she went towards the 3rd floor to look for it. But then, when she saw the hanging sign "3-1" indicating the third years' class, she saw another one just above the sliding door, which had to be insignificant she told herself, but when she read the small plaque on the wall, it read "2-3" — meaning there had to be also another plaque reading "3-1", right?
She removed her glasses and wiped it clean before putting them on again, glancing back at the two signs to see if the problem was her dirty glasses, but that wasn't the case.
Now let's analyze.
A passing teacher told her that it was near the room 3-1, and because he was in a real hurry she didn't get to ask the specific location. (She didn't get the chance to ask Ritsu either because he was needed to do something urgent and left). Now the teacher told her it was near the room 3-1 and not class 3-1, so she was the one who misunderstood, therefore, she was at fault for her predicament. But, the real problem starts here. Because she convinced herself that looking for a single room in a small school like Salt Middle School was a piece of cake, she did not ask for anyone's help. Used to being independent and not relying on anyone was what made her school life easy, so she unknowingly adapted that mindset when she arrived in Seasoning City.
Except that only made her suffer.
She was running out of patience now, at this point she may just give herself a full tour around the campus on her first day. Yet she wasn't giving up, she had to be close now, the plaque was nearing to the number 3-1.
2-6...2-7...2-8...2-9...
"Found it!" sighing in relief, Yumei quickened her pace towards the room beside the room 3-1 and place her hand on the sliding door and peek inside. In the room, what first caught her eye were the numerous gym equipment neatly placed on the floor but her dark brown eyes shifted to the four students sitting around a rectangular table which was full of...snacks and empty wrappers. The four students in question were composed of three males and a girl, all of them lazying around.
"President, what's our club activity for today?" a male with close-shaven black hair, thick eyebrows and a cleft chin who's reading a manga asked aloud, his eyes not leaving the page he was reading.
"Idiot, we don't have one...Oi, Inugawa! That was cheap, planting a bomb there!" the only girl in the room responded, her straight bob cut hairstyle flipping in the air as she turned sharply to look towards the male sitting at her left.
"Don't call it cheap, president. It was a strategic move." the male with light brown hair which was parted in the middle and had round eyebrows (that strongly reminded Yumei of a dog) retorted calmly, his attention focused on the game.
The girl tutted in annoyance and glanced towards the male sleeping soundly on her right, his drool making its way to the surface of the table. "Oi, Kijibayashi. You're sleeping too much!" At the mention of his name, the male with spiky black hair and high cheekbones (that which makes him look undernourished) blinked his eyes slowly, trying to regain his senses from his nap.
Yumei wondered if she got the room right. Yeah of course, she might have been mistaken. After all, she wasn't good at directions so she convinced herself that this was the case; and besides, they called the girl "president", which means whoever she is, she's the club president of this club room. She once again removed her glasses and wiped it clean with her handkerchief and put them back on. She looked up to the sign above the sliding door, and had to pronounce every syllable of it just to make sure she got the room right.
"Body Improvement Club" the sign says.
Obviously, the brunette was deeply confused.
"Ah, president. There's someone at the door."
Yumei quickly snapped her attention towards the voice and find the freshly woken up male was directly pointing at her, which made her jittery at the fact she was caught peeking.
The "president" then looked up languidly towards the said direction. "Hm? Who is it..? Don't tell me it's the Student Council President—!"
Yumei blink in shock as they all stood up in a flash and abandoned all of their previous task at the mention of the Student Council President. The three members who didn't immediately see her wore an alarmed expression. Yumei didn't know if she's to be impressed or not as she saw all the mess on top of the table were all cleaned up in record time. They could make a Rubik's cube master ashamed at the speed of their hands.
"No, no. It's just a girl." Kijibayashi dismissed with a wave of his hand and they all visibly relaxed and sat down. "You could've said so earlier," Tome sighed, bringing out her handheld gaming console from her pocket which she deftly hid. Yumei couldn't help but feel she was treated like a harmless bunny that scared the group making camp in a dark forest and was dismissed, with how the male phrased it.
"E-excuse me..." she opened the door a bit more since she was found out and decided to speak with them, straining her voice to project louder. The four simultaneously looked at her as she spoke. "Is this the club room for the Body Improvement Club?"
"Yeah," Tome nodded uninterested.
"Th-then are you also a part of this club?"
"Nope. We're the Telepathy Club."
"Eh? Telepathy?" Yumei glanced at the sign again. "You mean, like...the telepathy?"
Tome looked up to stare at the short brunette since she heard something from her that piqued her interest. The female ravenette then put down her gaming console and propped her chin on her interlaced fingers. "You seem to be interested in our club," she told her, face becoming serious.
"Huh?" Yumei asks, genuinely surprised.
"Saruta! Give her a seat." Tome demanded and the male with the close-shaven hair immediately gave her one.
"Uh, I'm not really..." the brunette's sentence trailed off as Inugawa pushed her gently towards the chair and sat her down. "Do you like tea?" he asked her, which surprised her but nodded anyway.
"It's nice meeting you, I'm the club's president: Kurata Tome, from class 3-5." the female introduced herself as she stood up, looking down at her.
"I'm Kijibayashi from class 3-1," the one who was previously sleeping said.
"I'm Inugawa, from class 2-3." the doggy eyebrows (she can't help but compare) said, while handing her a cup of tea which she received and thanked him.
"And I'm Saruta from class 1-5." the one who offered her a chair said.
"We're the Telepathy Club!"
"Um...hello. My name's Shizuma Yumei from class 2-1." she couldn't help but introduce herself as well since it will be viewed as rude.
"So, Shizuma-chan. Are you interested in joining our club?" Tome asks her as she made her way towards the trapped brunette.
Yumei felt intimidated by this misunderstanding as she raised her hands in front of her. "Wh-what does your club do, exactly?" She asks, trying to at least clarify what their club was.
Tome struck a pose, one of her hand on her chest as the other flew to the air dramatically. "We try and develop our brains so that we can achieve telepathy and communicate with the aliens outside our world!"
Yumei couldn't believe that she easily said that with a straight face, and what bewildered her was that they even went to the point in creating a club. They must be touched in the head to seriously believe that.
"Have you been successful so far, senpai?" the brunette asks the older female, as she took a sip from her tea.
Tome's optimism deflated as she mentioned it and looked down. "...No, that's why we're searching for espers and do the deed for us."
Yumei's dark brown eyes widened and choked on her tea when she heard a familiar word.
"O-oi, are you okay, Shizuma-chan?" Tome asks the younger female as she coughed hard, setting down her cup of tea on the table as the older female placed a hand on Yumei's back to alleviate the pain.
"E-e-esper?!" Yumei repeated, pushing back her oval glasses with a finger as it slid down. "Do you seriously believe that Kurata-senpai?"
"Espers exist." Tome nonchalantly replied.
"Yeah, they do." Kijibayashi added with a straight face.
"Ehh?" Yumei couldn't believe her ears. They were serious about this, and they actually believe in espers like an unwavering devotee. Their eyes all held that same gaze, like they have something they knew that she didn't.
"More importantly, why are you so upset about it? You an esper?" Tome joked, an eyebrow raised.
Yumei's heart stopped at the accusation and visibly froze (which Tome noticed) before laughing uncharacteristically with a big smile. "Y-y-you've got to be joking, Kurata-senpai! Haha, me? I-I don't even know e-espers exist!" She then shakily reached for her tea once more and took a sip to calm her nerves.
"Huh? You're from class 2-1, right?" Saruta asks her in which she nodded. "Then you should be Kageyama's classmate...so why," he trailed off. Yumei raised her eyebrows since she didn't know how that was connected to their current topic.
"Ah!" doggy eyebrows said. "She's a new student!"
"Oh!" They all simultaneously exclaim.
"That explains why I didn't see your face before when we went looking for recruits." Kijibayashi mused to himself.
"And that explains why she didn't know Kageyama was a..." Saruta trailed off before looking to the others with an uncertain look, as if he was asking for permission from nobody in particular. This left Yumei extremely confused especially since they were being cryptic out of nowhere and purposely leaving her out of it as they share a look between each other, well maybe except for the club president herself.
"Anyway, this has dragged on long enough, will you join our club, Shizuma-chan?!" Tome extends her right hand to her as if she was expecting a handshake.
Yumei stared at the hand in front of her and bit her lip. She originally came here to join the Body Improvement Club, and not this...weird club. (She needs to improve her vocabulary if that was the only word she can think of to describe them.) But she'll admit, they were pretty interesting to say the least. Their objective wasn't far off when they plan to search for an esper instead of killing their brain cells to "develop" their brains to achieve telepathy. However, the idea of extraterrestrials were a bit too much for her. Though, 'If espers exist then so must do aliens...'
This tense situation was gladly interrupted by the opening of a door, making them all jump in surprise because they weren't expecting it. Yumei welcomed the interruption with open arms as she turned to look around and saw the group of males she saw jogging earlier, entering the threshold.
"We're back!" a tall and muscular teen said with a booming voice, wiping a sweat on his thick eyebrows with a hand towel.
"Ah! Musashi-san! You're early today." Tome remarked.
The said male only nodded, "We'll take this time to rest since we'll carry weights tomorrow."
Then, as if there was a magnet attached to her, all of their eyes landed on Yumei who was sitting on a chair with a cup of tea on her hands; and since she was in that position, she was immediately in the center of the crowd, with the Telepathy Club in front of her and the Body Improvement Club blocking the door as they entered, it made her visibly shrink at the amount of eyes on her.
Meanwhile, a certain short male was peeking through the tall bodies in front of him by standing on his toes since they were blocking his view. He wondered what was the commotion was all about, considering he was dead tired and only wanted to sit down, rest, change and then go home. Fortunately for him, he didn't get to collapse because (thankfully) Musashi called it a day.
"Hm, who's this? A new face?" a male with unnaturally pointed pompadour hairstyle asks the one question they have in mind as they stare at the newcomer.
Tome perked up at that, "Oh, she's our new—"
"I would like to join the Body Improvement Club!" Yumei interrupted, standing up abruptly and lowering her head with her arms straight on her sides as she faced them.
"—member...Eh?" Tome trailed off, trying to process what she heard.
Silence reigned the room for a moment, letting the words sink in...
.
.
.
.
"EH?!"
"Oh, you want to join us?" a short stoic man with a shaved head asks rhetorically.
"Good to have you!" Musashi exclaims with a smile, holding out a hand for a handshake which she gladly took.
"...You've got to be kidding me,"
"I-I'm experiencing Deja vu."
"That's the second time..."
Was the only words the shell-shocked Telepathy Club kept repeating over and over.