The floor where the Service Club was located was as quiet as ever. Returning to this classroom after two weeks, Mori Shinra felt a sense of surreal displacement, as if ages had passed.
Knock, knock~
Mori Shinra made a decision that went against Hiratsuka Shizuka's methods—he knocked.
However, after waiting for a long while with no response from inside, he took a step back and looked up at the nameplate on the door. It was empty. This should be the right place, shouldn't it?
Shinra didn't think he was old enough to forget a place he had been to just two weeks ago, especially when this place was the club he had just joined.
Fortunately, he wasn't the type to just sit and wait. He decisively chose to emulate his wise teacher, Hiratsuka Shizuka, and open the door directly.
Click~
Unsurprisingly, he couldn't open the classroom door. Contrary to what one might expect, Shinra was actually relieved by this outcome.
"Let me." A crisp female voice sounded from behind him, making the hairs on Shinra's neck stand on end.
How does this girl walk without making a single sound?
The person who had arrived was none other than Yukinoshita Yukino. As the president of the Service Club, she naturally held the key to this classroom.
Yukinoshita skillfully inserted the key into the lock, the bolt clicked, and the door opened.
"The teacher delayed us for a few minutes after class," Yukinoshita explained, giving her reason for not arriving before him.
The International Liberal Arts class where Yukinoshita was a student was geographically closer to the Service Club, so under normal circumstances, she would have already been in the classroom brewing tea by now.
"It's fine, I just got here too." Shinra felt that this sentence was the most cliché of all cliché social platitudes used on a date.
The woman arrives later than the man, shows an apologetic expression for being late, and then the man, to display his gentlemanly demeanor, replies, 'I just got here too,' even though he's been standing in the cold wind for a while.
Fortunately, Mori Shinra was not the man in the above description. The windows on this floor were closed, so there was no cold wind to be had, and he had, in fact, just arrived.
"Please, come in." Yukinoshita slid the door open and, as she walked in, she also turned slightly to the side, signaling for Shinra to follow.
This gesture made Shinra feel less like he was attending a club activity and more like he was a guest at Yukinoshita's home.
Come to think of it, there wasn't much of a difference. After all, before he joined the Service Club, this classroom had always been occupied by Yukinoshita alone, making it her private territory.
Thinking of this, Shinra said solemnly, "Pardon the intrusion~"
Yukinoshita Yukino was taken aback by his words and couldn't help but smile as she reminded him, "This is a classroom, not my home."
"No, it was mainly because of your 'please, come in.' If I didn't follow it up with 'pardon the intrusion,' it just felt like something was missing."
He took his seat, still at the familiar safe social distance of two to three meters.
It was as if the seat hadn't been moved since the day he left, but judging from the lack of dust, Yukinoshita must have cleaned it.
However, it probably wasn't a special cleaning, but rather her just wiping it with a cloth during her routine tidying.
Shinra wasn't so self-absorbed as to think she would specially wipe a chair for him.
"How is... your leg?"
After they sat down, Yukinoshita Yukino hesitated for a moment but still asked the question. It was clear she was still bothered by it. This was normal; for a person with a conscience, guilt isn't something that's easily dispelled, even if the victim has clearly stated their forgiveness.
Especially when that person was Yukinoshita Yukino.
Although he hadn't spent much time with her, Shinra could glimpse the girl's character from certain details.
"The doctor said I can't run or jump for now and need to let it rest a bit more, but normal walking is no longer a problem."
"Is that so? That's good."
Yukinoshita felt a little more at ease. Then, she remembered Hiratsuka-sensei's request. Since it involved recruiting a new member, Yukinoshita decided to ask for Mori Shinra's opinion.
"Recruiting a new member? Of course, that's fine. You're the president, you call the shots." Shinra had no objections. His goal was to help people solve problems to earn Wish Points. One new member was equivalent to another free laborer.
Seeing that Shinra didn't object, Yukinoshita felt she could accept this request. Of course, she first needed to see what kind of person Hiratsuka-sensei was introducing.
"By the way, besides Hiratsuka-sensei, has anyone else come to our club to make a request?" Shinra asked.
Yukinoshita Yukino's hand paused as she was pouring tea. She placed the paper cup on Shinra's desk and shook her head regretfully. "I hate to say it, but no, there haven't been any."
"I see... May I ask a question, Yukinoshita-san?"
"Please do."
"Do you have any friends?"
As soon as these words were spoken, in Shinra's vision, the aura representing the girl's emotions began to change colors constantly, and her gaze shifted away.
Flustered, embarrassed, awkward, annoyed...
Hmm, it seems she doesn't.
Seeing the information sent back by his Emotion Perception, Shinra understood.
Indeed, sometimes people who are too outstanding end up not having many friends.
However, for someone like Yukinoshita to have no friends at all was quite rare.
Thinking this, Shinra planned to speak up and give her an out. After all, he wasn't intentionally trying to embarrass her. In fact, he had simply wanted Yukinoshita to use her circle of friends to drum up some business for the Service Club.
He didn't expect her to not even have a circle of friends!
"Well..."
"Um... could you first define what constitutes a friend?"
Just as Shinra was thinking of how to offer her a way out, Yukinoshita spoke up, sounding a bit flustered.
Mori Shinra: ...
He sighed. "Never mind. Usually, people who say things like that are the ones with no friends."
Yukinoshita Yukino was getting a little heated.
But she didn't know how to react. If it were anyone else, she would have probably switched to her sharp-tongued persona by now. The problem was, the person in front of her was Mori Shinra. Her family's car had sent him to the hospital just half a month ago, and he had only just recovered. This made it really difficult for her to be sharp-tongued.
"What does this have to do with whether I have friends or not?" Yukinoshita was a little indignant.
"We can build our reputation by handling requests from friends. Otherwise, if we just sit here in this classroom, we'll probably never get any requests," Shinra explained.
It wasn't that Yukinoshita hadn't thought of this problem, but the key issue was that she had no friends!
No, wait. She didn't have friends, but did that mean Mori Shinra didn't either?
If he didn't, that would be even better. She could perfectly reflect the 'mockery' she had just received right back at him.
"Don't you have any friends?" Yukinoshita retorted.
"I do, but he probably doesn't want to see me right now," Shinra said, rubbing his chin.
He definitely had friends. Under normal circumstances, as long as one's personality wasn't too awkward, even if you couldn't make many friends, you'd still have one or two.
"He doesn't want to see you? Can that be considered a friend?" Yukinoshita Yukino felt there was a problem with Shinra's statement.
Yukinoshita thought he would try to explain, but instead, Mori Shinra simply replied, "Sigh. You don't have friends, you wouldn't understand."