Chapter 63: Approaching someone

Morning at Aoyama Holy Academy.

Suzuki Yuu, wearing the student council work uniform, yawned as he followed the other members of the Disciplinary Committee to set up the venue.

Because the school was so large and there would be a lot of visitors, he basically didn’t get a single moment of rest the entire time.

Just as he was feeling a bit dizzy from all the work, Tanaka’s annoying laugh suddenly rang out beside him.

He turned to look and saw his group of mischievous friends, each with a bottle of chilled drink in hand, watching him with great interest.

“Hey, Suzuki, it’s finally your turn to do the grunt work!”

“Get lost.” Suzuki Yuu wiped the sweat from his forehead and rolled his eyes weakly. He was so tired he barely had the energy to complain. “If you’ve got drinks, just hand me one already and stop with the cheap shots.”

“No can do,” Sato pushed up his glasses and deliberately spoke in a sarcastic tone, “The student council’s mission is to better serve the students, it says so right on the bulletin board.”

“So, technically, it shouldn’t be us bringing you drinks, but you, the ‘Student Council Auditor’, bringing them to us ‘students’ instead.”

“That’s right, that’s right!” The others nodded immediately, faces full of schadenfreude.

“Is that so?” The fatigue on Suzuki Yuu’s face suddenly vanished, replaced by an exceedingly “kind” smile as he slowly straightened up and dusted off his uniform.

“If I remember correctly,” his voice was not loud, but it made the smirks on Tanaka and the others freeze slightly, “You guys all signed up for the athletic meet’s events to impress girls, didn’t you?”

“So what if we did?”

“I know exactly which events you guys picked. All I have to do is rig the drawing a little, and your ‘showing off’ will turn into ‘making a fool of yourselves’.”

“You bastard, you’d stoop to such a dirty trick.”

“After hanging around with you scumbags for so long, I can’t survive without a few tricks of my own.”

As Suzuki Yuu spoke, he continued, threatening:

“So, what now? Still not going to get me a drink?”

“Damn it…” Tanaka and the others, gritting their teeth, handed over a bottle of unopened chilled soda.

“Don’t forget what you promised us before.”

“Relax, I won’t go back on my word. I’ll keep an eye out for the girls from Mei no Hikari Girls’ Academy for you.”

“And remember, you’ve got a girlfriend now, so don’t compete with us for the girls.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah…”

Seeing how hopeless they looked, Suzuki Yuu rolled his eyes and replied perfunctorily.

Just as he twisted open the bottle cap and was about to take a drink, someone suddenly shouted:

“Look, the bus from Mei no Hikari Girls’ Academy is here!”

“Where?”

Tanaka and the others immediately forgot the earlier conversation and craned their necks like a flock of hungry geese, all staring toward the school gate.

Suzuki Yuu also followed their gaze, and saw a bus slowly pulling up.

At that moment, he noticed a familiar figure with a tennis bag on her back aboard the bus.

“Suzuki—!”

Ayaha also spotted Suzuki Yuu then, her energetic face bursting into a brilliant smile as she excitedly waved at him.

The air around them instantly fell silent.

Tanaka, Sato, and the other friends’ expressions shifted from expectation to confusion, then to shock.

Their necks turned back toward Suzuki Yuu’s face like rusty robots, their eyes zeroing in on his now-twitching expression.

“Explain yourself, Suzuki.”

In the afternoon, Suzuki Yuu touched the bruises on his body and looked helplessly at the people around him.

If he hadn’t promised to help these guys talk to girls from Mei no Hikari Girls’ Academy, his face would have been beaten up too.

“You guys really don’t hold back.” Suzuki Yuu said, glancing at Tanaka and the others as they handed him some medicine.

“Well, what do you expect from someone as scummy as you? Come on, how many girls from how many schools have you set your sights on?”

“I’ve told you a million times, she’s just my coworker at the café, we’re just ordinary friends…” Suzuki Yuu grimaced as he twisted open the ointment and rubbed it on the bruise on his arm.

“Ordinary friends would wave at you from that far away?” Sato Tadasuke looked unconvinced, “Ordinary friends are that cute? How come I don’t have such ordinary friends?”

“Believe what you want…” Suzuki Yuu felt his headache getting worse.

He knew these guys were just using this as an excuse to vent their long-standing frustrations at being single.

“No matter what, the fact that you’re a scumbag is absolutely true!”

Seeing that they were about to start up again, Suzuki Yuu sighed and decided to play his trump card:

“Enough. Do you still want my help or not? If you keep making noise, the girls from Mei no Hikari will all head to their assigned fields, and then you can go hit on them with that useless ‘sense of justice’ of yours.”

That line immediately struck their weak spot.

“Ahem…” Tanaka instantly calmed down, replacing his anger with a sycophantic smile, “Come on, Suzuki, we’re just worried about you! We don’t want you getting tricked!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sato quickly pushed up his glasses, “How could we blame you? We’re best friends!”

“Heh.” Suzuki Yuu sneered at their two-facedness.

“So Suzuki, what’s your plan for later?”

“You guys leave here first, and let me sit here and daydream for a while.”

After saying that, Suzuki Yuu closed his eyes, looking half-asleep.

“Huh?”

“If you guys are really here to pick up girls, then just do as I say.”

Hearing this, Tanaka and the others exchanged glances, but went along with it anyway.

Suzuki Yuu sat there for quite a while, then started playing video games out of boredom.

Tanaka and the others thought he was just messing with them, and were about to go over.

At that moment, a group of girls in PE uniforms from another school walked over together.

They clearly didn’t fit in with the well-behaved students around them. Their gym uniforms had been altered beyond recognition, and their shorts were rolled up so high they exposed a generous amount of pale skin.

The lead girl had striking permed hair and was chewing gum without a care.

They had obviously noticed the handsome boy resting alone, whispering amongst themselves, and finally, one of them pushed the leader forward.

“Um…” the leader suddenly spoke in a syrupy voice, “Are you here alone?”

Suzuki Yuu looked up at them.

“Wow!” another girl let out a suppressed gasp, tugging at her friend’s sleeve, “A-aren’t you Suzuki Yuu from the ‘White Birch Café’? I saw that video!”

“Eh? Really? You look even better up close!”

“We’re from Mei no Hikari Girls’ High!” the lead girl immediately became more familiar, “We heard you and Ayaha are coworkers, and we’re good friends with her! Can you buy us coffee later?”

Normally, Suzuki Yuu had no interest in being picked up like this, since even at Aoyama Holy Academy, he often found himself in these situations. Previously, Shiina Chisa was around, and now he was just too busy, so he encountered it less.

Seeing their typical “queen bee” style, he instinctively wanted to keep his distance. He figured he’d say a few words and then toss them to Tanaka and the others.

But when he heard them mention Shiraishi Ayaha’s name, his expression changed slightly.

Would Ayaha have friends like this?

He looked at them and then put on a warm, caring expression, replying:

“Sure, since you’re Ayaha’s friends, if you need anything, just let me know.”

He spoke naturally.

Tanaka, who was watching this unfold from a corner, sighed:

“I’ll say it, no one plays the gentleman act as smoothly as our school’s biggest playboy.”

Those around him nodded in agreement.

Right at that moment, they heard Suzuki Yuu say:

“I don’t mind going with you all, but I came with my friends, so I hope they can come along too.”

He said it loudly, waving at Tanaka and the others.

“Huh?”

Just a moment ago, they’d been cursing him, but now, hearing Suzuki Yuu’s words, their eyes brimmed with grateful tears.

“We really are lifelong best friends!”