Chapter 7: More Hands, Less Progress

Yukinoshita POV

I woke up to the familiar tune of my alarm clock. Comically, I found I would sleep through any alarm clock I set…unless the clock played Pan-san. Since I've lived in my own apartment, there was no reason to feel any sort of embarrassment. As I got out of bed, I felt like there was something I had to do today that felt different from the past week…but I couldn't put a finger on it…

Right, service club.

Today was the first meeting between Sobu and Kaihin Sougou High to plan for the graduation festival. To be honest, the project was an uphill climb, considering just the logistical problems that would most certainly arise from hosting two senior classes for one giant event. In terms of location, both committees agreed beforehand to hold the event at Sobu, since our school had the size to host the event. This was a logical decision, but it also meant that Sobu's student council will have to bear the heavier load in order to pull off the festival. I would say that the reopening of the Service Club was definitely a welcoming favor for Isshiki-san and the student council, especially after what occurred the last time around. It is in the best interest of both schools that these next few meetings are as productive as possible and without any of that roundabout nonsense.

With a clear objective for today's meeting in mind, I got out of bed and prepared for the day ahead, school bag and all. After leaving my apartment, I walked the usual path towards the school, filtering out the mundane information around me while focusing on the task ahead.

I'm pretty confident that Yuigahama-san, Isshiki-san, Hayama-kun, and I will be able to hold our ground and somehow complete this project, but with all the bizarre occurrences recently, I'd like to stay cautious about this.

Honestly, I couldn't pay attention in class with all these thoughts racing through my mind. The festival, the still absent Hikigaya-kun, all drawing my eyes away from… Japanese history? I guess I wasn't missing too much then.

After school:

"Yahallo Yukinon!"

"Hello, Yuigahama-san." I looked over to her as we prepared to leave school for the meeting. She always has that bubbly smile on her face, and today we needed all the motivation required to get through the next few hours. Isshiki-san and Hayama-kun would be waiting for us downstairs, so we both exited the clubroom and headed towards the exit.

Honestly, I was somewhat optimistic about the upcoming project, although this seems a little out of my character. The service club has been a sort of social experience that I enjoyed for most of the year, meeting Yuigahama-san and...even Hikigaya-kun. Through it all, I felt closer as an individual towards the people around me, something I probably wouldn't have done without the right set of conditions. The service club successfully fulfilled these conditions, and I have no words to explain how I am...grateful… of being part of this club.

"Yahallo Iroha-chan, Hayato-kun!"

"Yukino-senpai and Yui-senpai!"

"Hello Yuigahama-san, Yukinoshita-san"

"Good afternoon Isshiki-san, Hayama-kun"

After the short greetings, we headed towards Kaihin Sougou High.

A chill breeze brushed past us, reminding me that even though spring was supposed to be blooming in Chiba, that winter still refused to leave just yet. The trees were still bare, flowerless branches, and the night still felt bitter. On top of all of this, the snowfall from last week still remains in dirty brown clumps along the edges of the street, no longer an admirable spectacle but more of a pain to the eyes. However, I knew that beneath that ugly layer of dirt-caked ice was an untouched sheet of clean snow, pure and tranquil. I didn't really know how, but I've felt many things in life were akin to this pile of snow, seemingly rotten because of its outside, but beneath the surface is a totally different view… maybe my name had something to do with it. Besides, this statement holds true in certain cases, like a certain rotten-eyed loner. I mean, he probably is the epitome of this example, his outward personality making him one of the most hated characters in school. Everything about him, from his rotten eyes to his tired posture reeks with his loner status.

But still...underneath the surface, part of him most people don't know about is revealed. His ways of helping people, albeit twisted and self-harming, ultimately have good intentions. The only person he's really directly harmed in his entire career at the service club was himself, and he perfectly knew that. People may have seen this as masochism or ultimate pessimism, but I found it selfless of him to do so...not that it matters anymore.

He's gone, and that's the end of it. It's the best that we move on and start again, with the service club, with school, with everything… that's what he wanted.

But why do I still feel in the wrong about this? It's almost as if…

"Yukinoshita!"

I stopped in my tracks, seeing myself about to cross a busy intersection, right into oncoming traffic. Someone saved me from an inevitable collision with an automobile...but it couldn't have been him. He's not here.

But I heard him.

"Yukinon! Are you okay!?" Yuigahama-san yelled from about ten feet behind me, where the rest of the group apparently was. I must have unconsciously walked in front of them.

"Yukinoshita-san, thankfully you didn't get hurt. We weren't paying attention after Isshiki-san dropped her phone on the sidewalk."

"Oi, it wasn't my fault...Yui-senpai wanted to show me something and the phone slipped out of my hands! Yukino-senpai, I saw you stop like right before you were on the street, but none of us called to you. That was like so lucky!"

"But, I did hear someone call my name." I was as puzzled as ever now…

"Well, it must have been an inner voice of yours, and you're lucky it saved you today." Hayama-kun replied.

So it was in my head...his voice...I was saved again…

"Oi, Yukinon...let's keep going! We're almost at the meeting place...um are we?"

"You're right Yui-senpai! The school's just a few more blocks. Let's go Yukino-senpai!"

Without further thought, I walked along with the other three to the front steps of the school campus, and so began the first of several meetings.

We finally made it to the meeting room after climbing too many flights of stairs to reach the fourth floor of the school. While Hayama-kun, Yuigahama-san, and Isshiki-san were practically unfazed by the journey, I felt my head starting to spin before steadying my balance on the sliding door. As nobody noticed, I politely knock on the glass before sliding the door open, revealing the members of the Kaihin Sougou student council. The rest of our student council was already there, so that makes us the final piece of the puzzle to start the talks.

On one side of the room sat the Kaihin Sougou student council, led by intelligent but quite loquacious Tamanawa- kun. Next to him was Hikigaya-kun's former classmate Orimoto-san. Judging the looks of our student council, it seems that they may still have some residual PTSD from the previous joint-meetings for the Christmas celebration. I do not blame them, since it took a lot of effort with both the council and the service club to cut the "logistical" bull out of the meetings.

"Alright, we're glad to have everyone back together for this monumental project." Tamanawa-kun starts, signalling the start of the joint meeting. "Now, since we have a limited amount of time to prepare for the festival, I believe we should work as efficiently and effectively as possible to ensure the success of our venture."

"Agreed." one of their members chimed in. "Therefore, we should create a detailed outline of what we need to avoid any tangents in the future and so we can streamline the process straight from the beginning."

"Excellent point. The outline will allow us to focus on the important aspects, so let's discuss these points and how we can bilaterally approach this. Any starting points?"

"Well, setting a definitive theme to go well with a farewell-type event would build a positive vibe and help create a more appealing event for all students to find."

"That is a very interesting point, someone please write this down so we have a running list to rely on in further meetings.

"Noted."

"Fantastic, keep this going."

I felt a tap on my right shoulder, so I turned to see Yuigahama-san with that look on her face, the same one from the first meeting for the Christmas celebration. I leaned in as she whispered in my ear. "Ne, Yukinon… it's like the Christmas thing all over again right?"

I nodded. Right from the get go, things were already starting off on the wrong foot. At this rate, I doubt the committee would finish the job by our years graduation, or even Isshiki-san's. It was time for an efficient intervention, so I quickly raised my hand to speak next.

"Eh… Yukinoshita-san"

And the room suddenly falls silent. Surprising how one meeting in the past made such an impact on both student councils.

"I understand that a detailed list would be good for listing everything out for a long term project, but our time constraint requires a more direct approach. I recommend skipping a general what we could do list and get to the core parts of the task: entertainment, food, fireworks, budget. That's how we'll hopefully pull through."

I scanned the room, noting a vast majority of students nodding in agreement; even Tamanawa-kun showed an expression of hesitant approval. Yuigahama-san was trying to control her excitement of this little "victory", and Isshiki-san sighed in relief.

"A-Alright, thank you Yukinoshita-san for your input. I agree our limited time may require us to just nail the basic points and directly address the task ahead-"

"On the contrary," a male voice sounded, giving me a slight pang of worry as I recognize his voice. The voice belonged to Hayama-kun, and I suspect he was on the verge of countering my direct manifesto.

"I do not see a point to really rush to the finish line, since the end goal is to give the seniors the best farewell festival our schools can produce. There is still a good number of weeks before the date of the festival, so a plan on what to accomplish for our meetings and for the graduation festival will ensure a quality outcome."

While the rest of the room processed his answer with increasing approval, Isshiki-san, Yuigahama-san, and I sat there in shock. It took a few seconds for our council to realize the effect of Hayama-kun's proposal, after which their enthusiasm morphed into worry.

Why-why would he even conceive of that idea? I believe Isshiki-san informed him about how "effective" this council is at these types of projects, so he should be fully aware of the consequences his proposal will cause. If Hikigaya-kun were here, I'm sure he'd take no time to rebuke his words and find some twisted combination of words his rotten brain concocts to somehow influence the meeting in the right direction. Hayama-kun does the exact opposite; he forms an eloquent speech which sounds like a good idea but in reality brings the meeting to a standstill…

And in no time, Tamanawa-kun jumps on the opportunity. "Excellent point Hayama-kun, we'll start formulating new points after a quick ten minute break." As the other students gradually shuffled around the room, Yuigahama-san and I rushed outside to politely discuss the current situation.

And Yuigahama-san spared no ounce of politeness in her rendition of today's events.

"Yukinoooooon, what are we GOING TO DO!? To be honest, I have nothing against Hayato-kun, but he kinda messed like the whole thing up!" I agree, Yuigahama-san.

"Well, we can't do much about what already happened, so we just have to keep pushing the meetings forward."

"Mou….this wouldn't have happened if Hikki"

"We can't do anything about that either, Yuigahama-san. If we can't bring him back, there's no point in talking about it". I noticed Yuigahama-san staring at me with a scared expression, so I immediately wiped whatever expression I had on my face.

"Yukinon…"

"I'm...I'm sorry Yuigahama-san." I suddenly felt a pang of guilt for venting on her. "I didn't mean to be so cold right now. I guess it's still sensitive." Why was I acting this way though… it's not like I've been as down as Yuigahama-san or Isshiki-san about everything. "Let's just go back and get this thing back on track."

That should take our minds off these trivial matters, looking at the future rather than back at the past.

"We can do it, Yuigahama-san."

It'll get better.

"Okay Yukinon."

But I hope I'm not lying to her or to myself.

I stand corrected.

"Okay, I believe that has been a very productive meeting. Not only have we completed our overall plan for the project, but we have gotten into some crucial aspects and hammered them down. Good job guys."

A moment of hesitant silence, before a forced round of applause, meaning everyone knows these meetings are going nowhere.

That is meetings with an s, because it has been two weeks and three meetings since planning began. Yuigahama-san has been slowly losing her sanity at each meeting, and so has Isshiki-san. Hayama-kun has been as useful in the council as a fork is for eating cereal.

I excused myself from the room and found a place to sit down the hallway. You could say I felt tired, defeated, strained, worried, more or less all of the above. There was really nothing that I could think of that would rescue this Titanic-type mission… it was really past the point of frustration.

On the verge of tears, a part of me gave some empty comforting statements. Sometimes it's okay if this fails, failure isn't the end of the world. Maybe it does take a godsend to get something like this done. I shouldn't blame myself or anyone for failure….especially myself, even though I feel I could've done more.

"Yukinoshita-san?"

I turned to see a familiar third year student, the former student council president to be exact: Shiromeguri-senpai.

"Shiromeguri-senpai? Why are you here?"

She chuckled and gave a warm smile. "To help you guys, of course."

With what?

"With the festival, silly. You guys seem to be in a little trouble with all the planning, so I thought that I could be of use."

"But… how did you hear of the senior festival? We haven't contacted anyone about actually preparing for the event since we're so far behind."

"Oh, Hi-Hi-Hiratsuka-sensei, she told me about it." Of course Sensei knew when even the service club needed assistance. Was this a sort of wisdom that comes from age? Perhaps. Of course I wouldn't dare to say this out loud after witnessing her abuse of Hikigaya-kun after his comments about her age.

"Anyways, let's head to the council." Shiromeguri-senpai chimed as she began to walk down the hall. It was almost dream-like...how everything might be okay again.

At the door, Shiromeguri-senpai turned and smiled at me again before sliding the door open. The room became quiet and I heard a few excited gasps, mostly likely from a revived Yuigahama-san. I made my way past Shiromeguri-senpai towards my seat next to our council, and I was pretty spot on in my assumption. Our council was pretty ecstatic.

"Good afternoon, I would like to formally introduced myself as Shiromeguri Meguri, former president of the Sobu High student council and leaving 3rd year. I've heard of your plans to host a senior farewell festival in a week, so I would like to do everything I can to help you guys make this a huge success. Of course I want my friends and classmates to have this nice festival, so let's get to work!"

A round of applause from our council, which steadily spread across the room, converting into cheering and motivation not seen for the duration of the project. I never thought this day would come. I looked over at Yuigahama-san, who was pretty much bouncing off the walls in excitement. Isshiki-san and Hayama-kun were trying to calm her down, but they were both visibly happy about this set of good news.

"It seems that things have gotten better." I spun around to see Shiromeguri-senpai accompanied by another woman, older, still singl-better stop there- none other than Hiratsuka-sensei.

I walked over to her in order to officially thank her for bringing an end to this nightmarish ride. "Sensei, thank you for bringing Shiromeguri-senpai to help us with the festival preparations."

For a second, her expression looked as though she didn't register what I've said to her, but she quickly replied. "Oh yes that… Ne Yukinoshita-san, I'd like you to come with me now."

In the commotion of voices behind me, I believed Sensei may have said something about accompanying her somewhere, but that was highly unlikely. "Sorry, I believe I misheard you, but did you say you would like me to accompany you somewhere?"

"That is correct." Her tone implied this was not a light-hearted matter.

"Why so sudden, could this wait until tomorrow?"

"I believe this may be important to you, so let's go."

A/N: Well, I'm back. 2 months is too long… basically all of summer summed up in no inspiration. But this chapter is really a lead into something bigger. The drama (or not), suspense, feels, romance, everything. This next chapter will be a big one, that's all I have to say. See you later.