Chapter 4: As I thought, even Hiratsuka Shizuka can be rotten, too.
"Here's your Hamburg curry rice, Hikigaya-kun." Hiratsuka said as she handed me the food she promised. She did so with a disturbingly illuminating smile. This girl had been all but empty for the past three days that I have known her, but today things are somewhat different. This morning she came up to me and greeted me as if we were actual best buddies, and she had that very same optimistic look on her face. While she may have been genuinely happy, her positive emotions were borderline uncanny.
The cheery Hiratsuka placed both of our portions on my desk, leaving barely any room for the individual items. It was a lunch set consisting of the Hamburg curry rice main, miso soup, pickled radish, and is that kimchi?, each packed in a paper bowl.
Hiratsuka grabbed the currently vacant seat in front of mine and settled down. She gave me a pack of disposable utensils, said her bon-appetit and dug into her portion while I opted to skip the etiquette altogether. I opened the lid off the disposable bowl containing the curry rice, and I was immediately hit with an insanely pleasant aroma.
Once again, they were gourmet level. Texture-wise, the burger was definitely store-bought and reheated, but the amazing curry more than made up for it. I don't know why they were two different pickled menus on the table, but given my circumstances, it would be idiotic to throw them away. Mind you, I didn't get them for free – I still had to help her per the agreement, so this curry rice wasn't as good as it could've been.
"These are good." I murmured.
Content with my definitely well thought out feedback, she smiled at me. "Is that so?"
"You two seem to be having fun, hehe."
..And so, my lunch was interrupted by the dreaded voice. It was Hanasaki Saki (as opposed to Kawasaki Saki), the girl who got me into this mess. She approached my desk and stood over us.
"We're just having lunch, Hanasaki-san." Hiratsuka said.
"Ah, I'm so jealous of you, Hikigaya-kun. You get to eat all that food!." she said as she yanked my upper arm.
Hey, let go!
I took my arms back and said to her, "..I'm just getting my part of the deal."
The girl simply grinned at my statement.
"By the way, Hanasaki-san." Hiratsuka said, "Hikigaya-kun just transferred here three days ago, how did you find out so quickly that he's poor?"
Hey, I'm not poor! To begin with, there's nothing wrong with being poor!
"Oh, it was so obvious. On his first two days, he went to the cafeteria during lunch, but he didn't buy any food. Then he brought out his five-hundred yen coin and just kept staring at it, haha."
"Really?"
"Like, he kept looking back and forth between the coin and the menu, like– it was so surreal.. I.. I can't.." Hanasaki said as she tried to contain her amusement and failed. "Oh, help me.. my sides.. haha"
You're lying, I only did that on my second day! I did buy food the day before, begrudgingly!
The girl stood there, laughing at my misfortune as Hiratsuka tried to match her rhythm. Hanasaki laughed until she almost collapsed, but was able to grab my shoulder before that happened. After a moment of recovery, she took a deep breath and panted briefly. "Haha.. but this is an unexpected development. You really went ahead with this, Shizuka-san. Isn't it a bit of a hassle to be making food for someone else everyday?"
"Not really, since I just make more of whatever I'm making for myself." Hiratsuka said.
"I see." the other girl said, and immediately after that she started grinning like a child. "In that case, could you make some for me, too?"
"E.. eh?" Hiratsuka said as her face went completely pale.
"I mean, I'd be so happy to eat Shizuka-san's cooking everyday!" Hanasaki then held Hiratsuka's hand up and continued in the most whiny tone, "C'mon, won't you, Shizuka-saaaan? Pleeaaase.."
"Umm.. uhh.." Hiratsuka swung her pupils around a bit before they ended up pointing at me, saying 'Help!'
So this is what the food is really for, huh?
"Hmph, this is merely an agreement between Hiratsuka and I. If you have something to offer to her, she would no doubt also have something to offer to you."
"Hahaha, I know, I know! I'm just joking." She said as she let go of Hiratsuka's hand, prompting the latter to sneakily breathe a sigh of relief. After a short burst of giggles, the short-haired girl continued. "Oh right. Would you two mind filling these out after you're done eating?"
Hanasaki picked up something she had placed on the vacant seat next to mine before interrupting my lunch. She held her hands up, revealing two pieces of documents that appeared identical to each other from a distance. Hiratsuka and I were each handed a form titled Student Council Membership Application.
Immediately as the girl who sat across me saw what was on that paper, her hands started to shake. Hiratsuka spent the next few seconds staring at the form. In that time frame, she wanted to open her mouth multiple times, but no matter how hard she tried her lips would come crashing at each other.
I turned to Hanasaki and said. "And why exactly do I have to fill this out?"
She smirked at me. "Don't you want to become a Student Council member, Hikigaya-kun?"
"No, working in any capacity makes you a loser."
"You think so? If it was me I'd fill that out in a heartbeat."
Yeah, that's because you're insane.
The Student Council – aka a bunch of self-righteous, arrogant pricks coming together to pretend to contribute to society. Most people run for office because it gives them the excuse to take the moral high ground and talk down on others. At best it's a circus, and the student president is the star comedian.
"I can tell what you're thinking just by looking at your face, Hikigaya-kun.."
"Hanasaki-san," Hiratsuka said after she pulled the paper away from her face. "I think Hikigaya-kun was right to ask. Why do we need to join the council for this?"
Hanasaki returned a defeated smile.
"You know this better than I do, Shizuka-san, but Student Support is under the Student Council now. If you want to perform the duties of a Support Officer, then you're going to have to join the council..."
"But.. is there really no workaround for this?"
Hanasaki shook her head gently before she explained further to both of us. "I'm afraid I really can't do anything about that right now, so you'll have to contend with it.. But hey, look on the bright side. You'll be receiving member benefits like transportation and food allowances, so try not to scoff at the idea entirely, alright?"
Once again, Hiratsuka's eyes were filled with disappointment.
"I see.. I understand.."
"Anyways, I've kept you two long enough. I'm starting to get hungry myself, haha. Be sure to fill in the form and hand it to the Secretary soon, yeah? Alright, bye! I look forward to seeing you guys this afternoon!"
The girl waved at us before gleefully hopping out of the classroom. When the footsteps and the annoying humming died down, the air suddenly became uncomfortably heavy.
Hiratsuka put down her food and casted her sight over the application form she received. Her pupils stayed put, as if they weren't trying to absorb the contents of that paper, but using it as a frame to play out the events of the near past. Her eyes were not cloudy, they were simply focused on something else.
"Hikigaya-kun.." Hiratsuka said.
"What?" I said as I continued eating.
"What do you make of this situation?"
To be frank, I couldn't care less about it; whether or not I join the council doesn't really matter – I only have to fulfill my end of the agreement, and then she'll fulfill hers. That's all there is to it. If she ended up accepting this "offer" as a requirement, I'd consider it part of the deal. Plus, I don't find the member benefits to be completely unhelpful.
Initially, I thought it would suffice if she was at least provided with a back up chess piece – after all, Hiratsuka didn't have that many options. She would eventually have to accept the proposal should the need arise. Never would I have thought that Hanasaki would force Hiratsuka to bring out that back up piece right away.
I put the food down and thought about it for a bit.
That Hanasaki girl is the one recruiting us.. that means that if everything is rearranged a bit, her own tricks can be used against her.. Hiratsuka is planning to start working right away, and she doesn't seem to care for the benefits. Also, since Hanasaki said to give it, not to her, but to "the Secretary", there is a chance that this might work.
"It's not a hurdle by any means." I said.
"Huh?" Hiratsuka took her eyes off the paper and focused on me. "What do you mean?"
"All you have to do is hold on to your paper. If you don't hand it in, you are not a part of the Student Council. It's as simple as that."
"But obviously Hanasaki-san would keep asking. So sooner or later, we'd have to hand them in, wouldn't we?"
She knew about this from the beginning, didn't she?
I held up my form and said. "Hiratsuka, do you remember what that girl told us to do with these?"
"She told us to hand them in soon."
"Soon, which means the deadline could be next Monday. Or it could be the day after tomorrow. Hell, It could even be tomorrow morning. As long as she can forget about these until 5PM today, everything will work out in your favor. Why? Because by the end of today, you would already have something to barter with her."
"..Something to barter with Hanasaki-san?"
That is right, in the form of an earned favor, or more precisely, spent-labor.
I nodded.
"Next time she asks you for the form, whenever that may be, tell her to back down and let you go on without joining the council. If not, you would tell everyone that you're working without receiving any of the council member benefits. She would then be left with two choices. One, allow the status quo to continue in secret. Two, risk having the rumor spread that she is using free labor."
As she listened to my plan, Hiratsuka realized something.
"But.. doesn't that mean that I'm also not really a part of Student Support?"
That is true, but if something as trivial as that really is the hold up, then does she really have the drive for it to begin with?
Hiratsuka started to fiddle with her disposable utensils. For quite a bit, she was lost in her own world, presumably to play the events out in her head. The plastic spoon in her hand tottered around dozens of times before it came to an abrupt stop.
Hiratsuka looked up, shifted her eyes to and away from me several times before saying in a tone that lacks any resolve, "This feels like it'd certainly work, but at the same time it just seems.. I don't know.. rotten?"
I shrugged and said with a proud smirk. "Why thank you."
Suddenly, I saw a plastic spoon fly my way. Luckily, I was able to channel my inner middle school dark flame power and dodged the deadly projectile. The person who sat behind me, however, didn't enjoy such luck. The used spoon had landed on their desk, and that person's face immediately turned an ugly shade of green.
"H– Hiratsuka-san! Why did you do that! Please be ca– "
That person gasped mid sentence and gulped down his saliva right after. I turned back and was greeted with the hand that functioned as the trebuchet. While the initial target was most definitely me, the girl had shifted her attention to the guy one seat back. She was staring at him – If her looks were a knife, it would have been hideously chipped, and getting stabbed by one would make you beg for death.
"I– I'm so sorry for disturbing you.. P– Please enjoy your lunch… Gah.. this is disgusting."
The person carefully picked up the plastic spoon before wiping the top of their desk with their sleeve. They did that until things were reasonably clean and hurried out the door with the utensil.
Hiratsuka then turned back to me, still angry.
"That's not a compliment! You're suggesting that we go and hold her hostage! She's been nothing but helpful for the past few days, and this is your way of repaying her!? You're really rotten, Hikigaya Hachiman!"
I sat there with my back stuck to my seat, and a drop of sweat running down my cheek. I knew Hiratsuka Shizuka too well to say anything at that moment. First, it was just the spoon, but what if the next thing that comes this way was her fist? Would I be able to dodge that? We stared at each other for a moment until Hiratsuka came to her senses. She continued staring at me with her guilt-filled eyes and slowly allowed herself to slide back onto the chair.
As the heavy air lifted, and Hiratsuka's emotions mellowed out, I continued.
"Heh, "helpful"? She isn't doing this for you."
"What are you saying, now?" Hiratsuka said in an exhausted tone.
"She knew about your objections but chose to ask you to join anyway. Why do you think she's doing you a favor? She's probably just in desperate need of manpower."
Of course, there has to be more to it than that. Hanasaki saw what I was doing and decided to act – that couldn't have been a coincidence. Even the girl herself admitted as much. I just don't know what exactly she's planning.
"Hikigaya-kun, I.. really need to think about this. Hanasaki-san is a friend of mine."
A friend so dear that you need another person to help you handle her?.. Ha, and you have the audacity to call me "rotten". At least I took that up with pride!
With that, Hiratsuka retreated into her own head, and stayed that way for a while. The only thing left to do right now is to wait for Hiratsuka to choose.
