"Huh? I never really paid attention to that... But Shirakawa never brings lunch to school. Usually, he goes to the cafeteria or the store."
"He should have one, right? Doesn't Shirakawa have a girlfriend?"
"How could that be? If he has a girlfriend, why would he confess to Hayakawa? That's terrible!"
"I told you, it's a misunderstanding~"
"Girlfriend... it should be that department director, Tsukimi, from the Calligraphy Club, right? I often see them walking together..."
The girls chattered on endlessly about it while Asano Nazuki quietly stepped back, coolly extracting the information he needed from these fragmented conversations.
What weaknesses does this damn siscon have?
Asano Nazuki secretly investigated his whereabouts, while on the other side Shirakawa Sawahei was blissfully unaware. At the moment, he was holding a lunch bun, briskly heading towards an activity room.
He rented a small room by himself, couldn't even gather a complete set of pots and pans, let alone make a bento to bring to school. Although cooking at home would be more economical, in terms of time cost, buying it directly was more convenient.
"Pardon me." Shirakawa Sawahei called out symbolically and pushed open the door to the Calligraphy Club.
"Shi... Shirakawa..." a timid voice sounded out, as its owner shyly lowered her head, and the rest of the "Good afternoon" gradually faded away.
Those were a pair of extremely pure and adorable eyes, like a newborn fawn in spring, filled with curiosity and a hint of caution.
Her black hair barely reached her shoulders, with a thin braid on the side tied with a light pink ribbon at the end, just revealing her delicate, soft earlobe.
As she lowered her head further, the blush on her cheeks gradually spread to the tips of her ears.
The two had known each other for almost a year now, yet the girl still seemed hesitant to greet Shirakawa Sawahei proactively. That "Good afternoon" earlier had already used up all the courage she had painstakingly gathered.
"Hmm, Tachibana, is Department Director Tsukimi not here?" Shirakawa Sawahei didn't plan to let the girl keep her head down and took the initiative to speak.
Tachibana Tomoku steadied herself, cautiously clutching her school uniform skirt as she replied, "The director's not here; I think a teacher called her away..."
Apart from the initial greeting, Tachibana was able to converse relatively normally with Shirakawa Sawahei, whom she'd known for a long time.
Upon hearing this, Shirakawa Sawahei nodded and didn't pursue why the Calligraphy Club's department director was out. He moved aside a pile of chaotic xuan paper in the activity room, cleared a space on the table, and sat down, ready to focus on his lunch.
The activity room was as messy as usual today, but it's better to bear it. Mustn't bolster the Paramecium Minister's arrogance too much.
He had barely sat down for two seconds when he frowned, stood up, and went to find cleaning tools in the activity room.
Tachibana, seeing Shirakawa's familiar actions, let a small smile slip in her bright, gentle eyes, then quickly got up to help Shirakawa clean up.
Shirakawa, still the same... can't stand untidy places~
He usually liked to spend his lunch break here. Not that eating bread alone in the classroom embarrassed him, but rather he found a tranquil sense of comfort in the Calligraphy Club's activity room.
Perhaps it was due to the Chinese characters written all over the room and on the xuan paper, or maybe it was because of a certain doe-eyed deer in the Calligraphy Club. This past year of high school life, he'd spent most of his free time here.
Interestingly enough, the reason Shirakawa wanted to join the Calligraphy Club was just to find a study partner good at writing, to boost his Japanese writing skill proficiency.
He just hadn't realized that the Neon's Calligraphy Club practiced Chinese characters instead.
No wives in wife cakes, no lions in lion's head meatballs, no Japanese in Neon's Calligraphy Club—truly one of life's great tragedies!
Fortunately, Tachibana Tomoku's talent boost did not disappoint his efforts. With her skill bonus, Shirakawa's Japanese writing became elegant and majestic, no longer embarrassing as it had been before.
But speaking of which, it's been a year since he tagged Tachibana as a target for study partner gains. In the meantime, even Hayakawa Kashi had been passively confessed to four times, yet there seemed to be no hint of progress on Tachibana's side.
How on earth is this confession block feature determined anyway?
Even with Shirakawa Sawahei's intelligence, he couldn't comprehend the principles this low-level system operated on. As he slowly chewed his bread, his mind drifted, pondering all kinds of random thoughts.
For him, this was considered a rare break.
Tachibana Tomoku, sitting opposite Shirakawa, nibbled her bread. Initially, she would bring a bento to school, but ever since Shirakawa began spending his lunch breaks in the activity room, she had only brought a piece of bread for lunch.
The lunch break was not long in Neon High School, and when Tachibana closed the book in front of her, Shirakawa returned from his daydreaming.
"See... see you after school!" Tachibana nervously waved at Shirakawa, not yet used to giving such proactive goodbyes, making her movements appear a bit stiff.
"Mm, see you after school."
Tachibana turned away, quietly exhaled a breath, and clenched her small fists tightly.
Good job! You managed to say goodbye! Keep it up, Xiao Mo!
A thin pink envelope slipped out from the book as Tachibana's waved hand stiffened...
Without thinking, Shirakawa swiftly caught the envelope, called out to Tachibana.
"Tachibana, wait a moment."
In the instant he naturally handed over the envelope, a light flashed in Shirakawa's mind.
Oh shoot, crap!
As expected, from Shirakawa's perspective, when Tachibana saw the pink heart-shaped envelope, she was first stunned, then her face quickly turned red.
"Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh... Shirakawa... I-I-I..." Tachibana's tongue tied in knots.
"This... I have to ask my family... After all... At this age... marriage and all that..."
She tightly shut her eyes, daring not to meet Shirakawa's gaze. Her long, fine eyelashes trembled slightly, seemingly holding a little crystal tear, and biting her lip, she looked on the brink of tears.
"Marriage?" Shirakawa was astonished by Tachibana's leap of thought.
From his understanding, such a bizarre coincidence clearly had to be the system's fault—probably some guy slipped a confession letter to Tachibana, which she hadn't noticed yet...
If it's a misunderstanding, it should just be cleared up... But why would this study partner think of marriage right from the start?
"No... that's not it!" Tachibana hurriedly waved her hands.
"I'm not saying I don't want to marry you, Shirakawa..."
As soon as she said this, Tachibana realized her slip instantly, and flustered, she added, "Nor am I saying I want to marry you, Shirakawa..."
Seemingly unable to clarify no matter how she tried, she simply covered her face with her hands, squatted down, and let out a sound akin to a small animal's wail.