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It was the following morning after visiting the nursery. Once homeroom ended, I did a light stretch. There was still a residual feeling of exhaustion from yesterday. It wasn't like I did anything particularly physically demanding, but that meaningless period of time was mentally draining. As for what was accomplished, ultimately, we were only able to get an estimate on the number of participants from the nursery and a hearing of some of their requests.

Although we made some progress with updating the minutes, we didn't actually have a meeting. When I thought about how I was going to spend today in that way again, a rather big yawn came out. I let out a sigh as if to push away the melancholic feeling. After I wiped the slight tears at my eyes, I noticed Saika who was about to place his hands on the sliding door. It looked like he saw my yawn. Saika made his way to my seat and covered his mouth with one of his lightly gripped hands and made an amused smile.

"You seem tired, huh?" He must've said that because of the big yawn earlier. I really was tired, but there was no way I could show off my exhaustion to Saika. The 'exhausted' appeal was on the same level as the 'I drank too much' appeal which was downright irritating. Why did that make them popular anyway? I thought that made them look really lame instead. In fact, I think the 'I don't drink sake' appeal would definitely be more popular. As followed from the above, I think the 'I'm not tired' appeal would be super effective against Saika!

"It's the same like always."

"Now that you mention it, that might be true."

Yui came up to me. "Going to student council?" She asked.

"Sure am," I agreed.

"Great. I'll grab my stuff and we can walk there together." She left for her seat for her stuff.

I shuffled my way outside and to the door. I just waited leaning against the wall.

"Hey you went on without me!" Yui burst from the classroom and came up to me.

"Not so. I was just waiting here. That's all."

"Hm I suppose that's true… say Hikki…?"

"Hm?" I responded.

"How's helping Iroha going?"

"Fine. Slow but fine."

"You're not… you're not hurting yourself with it. Are you?"

"What's pain?" I made myself sound deadpan curious. "I don't know what that is."

"Pain is an uncomfortable sensation Hikki."

"Then I'm in pain all the time. Being awake feels weird. It feels wrong."

"How so?"

"Existential angst. All I know is that I'm alive and it makes me nauseous. Sartre said it."

"Oh Sartre?"

"French existential philosopher."

"Ah. I see."

When we arrived at the student council room Yukinoshita was already there with most of her staff. We waited a couple of minutes for the rest to come trickling in and then Yukinoshita went down to business. She called the meeting to order and then addressed both the raffle and bake sale. Both were coming along well. She set tentative dates for both and commanded that tickets start being printed for the raffle. Easy enough. I kept notes on my laptop. Somebody else would print the tickets. Then they'd be handed out to students who would agree to sell them. A couple prizes would be bought. Gift cards and the like. A trip to a luxury resort being first prize. Yukinoshita squared it all away. She was good at that nonsense. A meeting which may have taken hours under somebody else took thirty minutes with her.

"I want to throw a prom." Yukinoshita decided. "We'll need a venue and a band and decorations. Start looking into costs. Maybe the band club could step in."

"For sure," Ao-san agreed. "What's a prom?"

"It's a school dance. Everyone gets dates and shows up together. In America they rent limos and go out to fancy restaurants." Yukinoshita clarified.

A prom huh? Great. I had no idea how to dance. Not that I'd find a partner-ack! Open minded. Come on. Be open minded. I quickly caught up on the meeting minutes.

"I think that's everything…" Yukinoshita began to trail off. "Any new business? Any old business? Meeting adjourned."

Everybody stood up except Yukinoshita and I. I was still typing. I squared away the minutes and linked them to Yukinoshita.

"Hikigaya?"

"Hm?" I wondered.

"Oh it's nothing."

"Sure," I responded to Yukinoshita.

"That is… I mean to say… could we… I mean if you wanted to…" Yukinoshita wrestled with herself. Yui bounced to attention.

"Oh! I'll leave you both to it!" Yui exclaimed.

Yukinoshita reached out and grabbed Yui by the hand. There was a look of sheer panic on Yukinoshita's face. I'd never seen her with that expression but the thought of Yui leaving herself and I alone terrified Yukinoshita. I started.

"Yukinoshita?" I asked. Yukinoshita didn't let go of Yui's hand. The panic never left her face. Yui gave her a look of pure confusion.

"Don't you want…? I mean Yukinon and Hikki…? I mean…" Yui stammered off. Yui glanced at me. I gave her a look which belayed my own confusion at this whole ordeal. I didn't know what Yukinoshita wanted from me. I didn't know what it had to do with Yui that would leave her so terrified of Yui leaving.

"Yui don't go…" Yukinoshita whispered so softly I almost didn't hear her.

"Okay… I'll stay." Yui squeezed Yukinoshita's hand back. She sat down beside Yukinoshita again.

I was floored. The sheer terror in Yukinoshita's eyes had me shook. It wasn't an expression I thought the young woman capable of making.

"I'll send you your minutes…" I stammered off into the silence when Yukinoshita said nothing. She just hunched in on herself. She wouldn't meet either of our gazes. Yui's eyes met mine and she gave me a minute nod. I took that as my signal to go. I got up and packed up my laptop. It still had my notes on hyperreality on it. I had documents full of notes on the far reaches of time.

"Best of luck to you both," I decided to say. Yukinoshita was still making herself look small. She looked fragile. I'd only seen her look so fragile when I visited her apartment and instructed her to tell Yui how she felt about her, when summer ended.

As I left I watched Yui embrace the other girl and whisper something in her ear. It was none of my business to listen to that so I didn't. Yukinoshita flushed and shook her head rapidly at Yui's words. She looked like she was in a tizzy. I didn't have any clue how to help her but maybe Yui did. I left them to it.

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I got on my bike. "Hikigaya, wait a second." I froze. I turned around. There was Hayama with a towel over his shoulders. I suppose I was near enough to the soccer field. He must have jogged over to me while they were breaking.

"Sounds like a lot of trouble."

I wasn't sure what he was referring to. I tilted my head, questioning what he meant. Judging from what my expression was like, Hayama made a smile.

"You're doing a lot of things after getting asked for help by the student council right? Take care of Iroha."

"What, so you knew?" I thought for sure that Isshiki kept silent about this incident this time from Hayama. Hayama made a bitter smile.

"Yeah. She didn't say anything specific about what she was doing, but she seemed quite busy."

I see. So this was the complex maiden circuit where she wanted to avoid being a bother while making sure what they were doing was known to others. I totally get it. No, I don't. What I didn't get was Hayama's attitude.

"Yeah? So if you knew about it, then you should help her out." In the first place, Hayama's relationship with Isshiki was a lot deeper than mine. Isshiki did say the reason why she didn't ask for Hayama's help, but if it was the Hayama I imagined, then if he noticed that she was busy, he would've mentioned a word or two about lending a hand. But when Hayama narrowed his eyes and wore a smile on his face, he said something surprising.

"It's not like she asked me. The one who she asked was you."

"She's just using me as much as she can."

"If you're asked, you don't really refuse after all." A tone that gently reverberated as if it sounded somehow impressed. But although it may have sounded pleasant to my ears, it also dripped with sarcasm to me. Because of that, my speaking became sharp.

"That's the kind of club it is. There isn't any particular reason to refuse. Unlike you, I have free time after all."

"Is that it?"

"…What're you trying to say?" His probing question made me irritated. Although I returned the question, Hayama didn't answer with his bitter smile keeping its shape. For how quiet it was, I could hear the loud voices of the other clubs. Even so, the spot that Hayama and I were standing at made it feel like that noise was far away. The silence stung my ears so I tried to fill it by speaking up.

"…In the first place, you can't refuse either. It's not like it'd be because of club too."

"I wonder about that…" Hayama turned his face away from me and looked west of the sky. The lingering clouds were beginning to be dyed in red. Hayama looked like he was thinking of something as he sealed his mouth shut and returned his gaze to me. Although the evening sun was beginning to reflect on his face, there was a mysteriously lack of warmth to it.

"…I'm not as nice of a guy as you make me out to be." He then said that with a provoking tone. His cold penetrating eyes glared at me in place quietly. My voice wouldn't come out. It was a tone that was layered with a severity despite being so calm. It felt like I had heard that at some point during summer vacation.

In the darkness of that night, did he make this very same expression back then? I stood there without answering and so did Hayama who didn't say anything further. The only thing we exchanged were our gazes, with not a single other thing being passed between us. Time stopped just like that. Only the incessant voices of the people in their club activities continued which also served to indicate the passage of time. Amongst those voices was a considerably loud one that could be heard.

"Hayato-kuuun, neeext!"

"I'll be right there." Tobe's loud voice brought Hayama back to his senses and he replied to Tobe who was inside the court. He then lightly raised his hand to me and began walking.

"See you…"

"…Yeah, sorry for bothering you." Not bothering to see Hayama off in the distance, I straddled onto my bike. Unconsciously, the feet that I kicked out with had a lot of strength into it. The revolting feelings towards that attitude that tried to dig for the truth and the following sense of discomfort that I had overlooked something. Both of those planted themselves in the bottom of my stomach to the point that it made me sick. I felt this lingering feeling of discontent in regards to Hayama's attitude.

Did I mistake something in regards to how I recognized Hayama Hayato? I thought he was a good guy. But I also realize that he wasn't just anybody. That heartless expression he would show for the purpose of having everyone get along. I thought that was the kind of guy Hayama Hayato was. However, that smile was slightly different. On one side, it was a gentle and kind smile, essentially perfect. But it was exactly because of this flawless perfection that there wasn't a limit to its coldness.

It was something similar to what I had seen before.

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-WG