The very next morning, Shujinkou was in the middle of searching for Mali.
"I wonder if she's actively avoiding me," he thought aloud.
Not too long after that curious thought, Shujinkou suddenly remembered something the girl he was assigned to keep an eye on said to him the day before.
"It's amazing how little anyone actually looks up or down, huh, Senpai?" those words circulating through his head once again, Shujinkou looked up and found Mali rocking back and forth on a nearby tree branch. Slowly and carefully, Shujinkou approached the tree she was perched on like she was an enemy he had to perform a stealth takedown on. He continued his stealthy approach until he noticed Mali start to tip too far back.
"Mali!" letting his instincts take over, Shujinkou quickly lunged forward and caught the first year student before she could hit the ground. He exhaled a relief filled sighed before asking, "Are you okay?"
"Senpai?" curiosity flashed on Mali's face as the young girl jumped out of his arms. "What was that for?"
"What was what for?" he asked, confused by her question.
"Catching me," she clarified.
Shujinkou scratched his right cheek as he tried to understand her own confusion. "Well, it's not like I could just let you fall and not do anything about it."
Mali silently stared at Shujinkou before smiling. "You're weird. First you don't turn me in for what I did yesterday and then you save me. Senpai's very weird."
"That wouldn't be the first time I was told that…" Shujinkou awkwardly chuckled.
Mali continued to stare at Shujinkou. Feeling like he was being analyzed, Shujinkou decided to use the opportunity to think up a potential counter strategy for whatever she may come up with.
Suddenly, Mali reached into her pocket and approached him, prompting him to try and come up with a plan faster.
"Here," she pulled out the necklace she stole from him the day before and dropped it in his hands.
"You're just giving this back to me?" Shujinkou asked, surprised by the sudden action.
"It not that fun using this as a get out of jail free card when sneaking around," Mali explained.
Shujinkou silently glanced down at the necklace.
"Still… Even if that's true, she still didn't have to give it back." A small smile snuck on his face as he realized this.
"Anyway, see ya, Senpai," Snapping out of his thoughts, Shujinkou watched Mali turn around and walk away.
"Wait!" Mali wasted no time in turning back to him, waiting for the young man to continue. "Uh. I've got a surprise for you."
"Senpai has a surprise for me? What is it?"
"I can't show you now. But if you can get through the day without pulling any pranks on anyone, I'll show it to you."
"You'll show to it to me if I'm good?" a big smile stretched across Mali's face; it appeared that she was intrigued by his proposal. "Senpai's not even trying to be subtle. That's interesting."
"It is?" Shujinkou questioned.
"Really interesting. All right, Senpai. I'll be good for the day." With that innocent declaration, Mali skipped off into the school, leaving Shujinkou alone with his thoughts.
"I hope this works," he fretted.
To his surprise and delight, it did. By the end of the day, there were no complaints of someone pulling pranks. "Alright, time for Phase 2."
"Senpai must hate subtlety or something," a thin smile crossed Mali's face as he watched Shujinkou nearly jump out of his seat. "So, what's this surprise you cooked up to make me good for the day?"
"Right, it's at the club that I'm in," he explained.
"The club you're in because it has cute girls?"
"T-That's not why I'm in it!"
"So you still won't deny that they're cute."
'Ugh…"
"Senpai really is cute when he's all flustered."
"…Let's just go."
Shujinkou grabbed his things and led Mali to the Literature Club. The moment they arrived, they found Natsuki holding Sayori down with a small pillow.
"What timing…" Shujinkou chuckled. Though that laughter wasn't because he found the situation funny, but because he was struck with disbelief over that being the first thing Mali would see. He knew that she could easily take it out of context.
"She ate more than Natsuki was willing," Monika explained with a giggle.
"This is so unfair, Natsuki! I don't have a pillow this time!" Sayori complained.
"That's the point," a satisfied grin crossed Natsuki's face as Sayori continued to struggle for freedom. "I knew it was good idea to bring this with me today."
"This is a strange surprise, Senpai," Mali said.
"Actually, the surprise is…"
"Cupcakes," Mali interrupted as she approached a tray of cupcakes topped with pink cat-shaped frosting. "Senpai's trying to manipulate me with sweets?"
"She was aware of your plan?" Yuri questioned Shujinkou.
"I wasn't really being subtle," he explained, scratching his right cheek.
"Senpai still has a long way to go," Mali chuckled before taking a bite from one of the cupcakes.
"Not like it's something to aspire to," Natsuki said as she released her grip on Sayori. "Not to mention he just piggybacked the idea from our VP here."
Mali silently stared at Natsuki and Sayori then shifted her gaze to Monika. From there her field of vision shifted to Yuri before finally stopping at Shujinkou. Suddenly, she grinned. "Senpai really is a womanizer. Look at all the cute girls you surround yourself with."
"Eh?!" the girls exclaimed.
"With Senpai being such a womanizer the only explanation I can think of to why you're still here is that they're all in love with you," Mali continued.
"EH?!" the entire club exclaimed.
"W-What kind of assumption is that?!" caterwauled Natsuki. "Why would that make you think we're in love with him?!"
"Because it's the only explanation that makes sense when you consider why Senpai is here in the first place," Mali explained.
"That doesn't make sense. Besides he didn't even want to be here in the first place," Natsuki pointed out.
"But he changed his mind when he realized he would be the only boy in the club, I know," Mali nodded her head.
"Actually, he had more noble reason than that," Yuri interjected.
"Really? Like what?" Mali questioned.
"Like being the best friend anyone can ask for," Sayori eagerly answered.
"That's a bit of an exaggeration," Shujinkou said as he scratched his red right cheek.
"Hmm…" Mali nonchalantly plopped down on top of a nearby desk and took a bite out of another cupcake. "So you guys are saying that Senpai isn't a womanizer?"
"He's the farthest thing from a womanizer there could possibly be," Natsuki asserted.
"Yeah," Sayori agreed. "In fact, I realized that it was a bad plan to get Shujinkou to join."
It was then when the other members of the club shifted their gazes to Sayori.
"You considered using that fact as a selling point?" Monika asked.
"Eh… I did consider it," Sayori nervously giggled. "But I quickly realized that it would have had the opposite effect."
"It honestly did," Shujinkou confirmed.
"Like I said, farthest thing from a womanizer ever," Natsuki confidently repeated.
"Senpai seems really popular here," the first-year student finished her last cupcake then turned her attention to Shujinkou. "But, even if Senpai isn't here for obvious reasons, aren't you still attracted to your club mates?"
"Huh?" Shujinkou's entire face grew red as all eyes directed their gaze at him. With no idea what to say, all he could do was direct his field of vision to his feet.
"Senpai is so easy to tease," Mali chuckled as she jumped off the desk. "Well, this was fun. Time to head home."
"Huh?" spurred on by surprise, Shujinkou looked up to find Mali heading for the classroom door. "You're leaving already?"
"Yep. I enjoyed the surprise you had for me and that's all I wanted and what you promised me so…" Mali smiled and waved at Shujinkou. "See ya tomorrow, Senpai."
With a giggle, Mali skipped out of the class room, leaving the Literature Club speechless.
"…Now I see how she gave you a hard time yesterday, Shujinkou," Monika suddenly said. "She's really good at keeping others off-balance."
"'Off-Balance?'" Sayori queried, perplexed. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well…" Monika remained silent as she wondered how she could define her observation. "Let's use what just happened as an example. Shujinkou's plan was to keep Mali in one spot long enough for him to get a chance to talk her out of pulling pranks. To achieve that, he'd figured that the curiosity of a surprise would entice Mali enough to follow him to a place where he is more comfortable and hopefully change who was the dominant one in their relationship.
But he also knew that trying to be subtle with his plan wouldn't work with Mali so instead he flat out told her that he would show it his surprise if she didn't pull any pranks today. So not only would Mali be interested by the surprise itself, but also be intrigued by the upfront nature of the plan, which brings us to now."
Monika reached for one of the cupcakes and took a bite out of it before continuing. "When Mali arrived, she wasted no time in saying things that would not only throw Shujinkou for a loop, but us as well. At the same time, she was indulging in a few cupcakes as well. By keeping us off-balance, Mali could keep us from achieving the goal Shujinkou wanted to, but could also be justified in leaving once she got what she was promised for keeping her side of the bargain."
A conflict of emotions swelled in Monika. While disappointed by the results of the plan, she couldn't help but be somewhat impressed by Mali's ability. "In the end, she effortlessly negated the entire point of the plan."
"How ironic. The power of words was used to keep the Literature Club at bay…" Yuri lamented.
"Ugh… I can't believe we were toyed with by a first-year like that," Natsuki groaned.
A dreary atmosphere hung over the club and would remain with them until Natsuki swung her pillow at Sayori, denying the Vice-President another cupcake.
"Ah! That reminds me," springing back on to her feet, Sayori turned to Shujinkou with a look that he could only describe to be a mix of eagerness, curiosity and a hint of neediness. "Did you bring it, Shujinkou?"
"Hm? Oh yeah," Shujinkou raised his backpack for her to spot a rolled up medium-sized paper sticking out of it.
"All right! Our first club poster!" Sayori beamed.
"You made us a poster?" Natsuki asked Shujinkou.
"Yeah, Sayori asked me to make one last semester," Shujinkou confirmed. "I haven't really came up with something until I one night asked what I liked most about the clu- Ah!"
At that very moment, Shujinkou once again found himself face-to-face with a familiar foe: embarrassment.
"I was so preoccupied by everything else that I didn't realize what I was doing!" he fretted.
"Let's see what it looks like," Sayori said as she grabbed the poster.
It was then when the world felt like it drew to a crawl for Shujinkou. Every inch of the poster that was revealed was like a sharp knife thrusting and just missing his heart.
"Wow!" Sayori bubbled before presenting the poster to the others. "We're on the poster!"
Yuri, Monika and Natsuki each examined the poster from top to bottom. Not only was the poster well-designed but it did indeed feature the girls of the club in a super-deformed style.
"It's so cute!" Natsuki gushed. "I didn't realize that you could make something like this by yourself, Shujinkou."
Her excitement didn't last long as the pink-haired student quickly noticed that her friends were staring at her, surprised.
"What?" Natsuki diverted her gaze as she mumbled. "It's good…"
"Ah. Natsuki's right," Yuri agreed. "It really does look great. It's actually very endearing in a way too."
"Um, Shujinkou…" Monika looked up at Shujinkou wearing a nervous expression on her face. "I don't think we can use this as an advertisement."
"Eh? But why?" Sayori questioned.
"Well, it's just that…" a nervous giggle slipped through her lips as the club president began to stumble over her words. "This is going to sound really vain but… It's because I'm on it."
A droplet of sweat crawled down Monika's face as the club silently stared at her. No words needed to be said; she could tell just by their expressions that the wanted further elaboration.
"To be honest, I'm kinda afraid of what would happen if the knowledge that I'm club president became widespread," she explained.
"Still sounding kinda vain there," Natsuki replied.
"I know… It's just that… When I left the Debate Team and decided to make my own club, I really wanted to be able to actually be friends with the people in it. The problem was that I was sure that if I advertised the club, then a lot would join just to be in 'Monika's Club'." That's the reason I spent the first week alone."
A solemn atmosphere hung over the club.
"…Geez, that still sounds so vain. All you're talking about is you," a knowing grin crossed Natsuki's face. "What if we also didn't want to be on the poster? Last thing we need is an actual womanizer catching wind of the club, which apparently is a real concern according to our Vice-President and Mali."
Shujinkou awkwardly scratched his right cheek. Though it was a light-hearted remark, Mali's earlier comments made it more awkward then it should have been.
At that point, he was just tired. The past two days have been nothing but work and he has yet to even get a glimmer of success. "Back to the drawing board, I guess…"