No one is more worthy than another; it simply happened that I met you.

On Friday, October 2.

A soft, lingering rain tapped at the classroom windows. Resting his chin on his hand, Moon Jinguuji stared blankly at the clouds beyond the glass.

Every so often, he would come back to himself and glance at Sakura Sakurakoji, who was diligently taking notes in the front of the room.

Though not especially bright, his childhood friend’s attitude toward class was impeccable; it was hard to begrudge her less-than-stellar grades, and there was no teacher who disliked her.

Thinking back to yesterday, Jinguuji could not quite label his own behavior as a passing whim or something else entirely, but the desire to change himself had surely arisen from his true heart.

After he said those words, Sakurakoji had first gone blank, then lit up with delight. After all, for the first time in three years, Jinguuji had invited her on a date of his own accord.

She did not know what had changed in his heart, only that she felt herself gradually drawing closer to him.

As for Jinguuji himself, he was happy to see her smile, and anything that could make her happy was something he would do his utmost to accomplish.

And yet, after saying those things, he had thought he might be able to confirm his feelings for Sakurakoji within his own heart.

On that point, it was a little regrettable.

At the front of the classroom, the girl turned around without warning, meeting his gaze. Embarrassed and delighted, she quickly averted her face.

...

...

After school.

Jinguuji came to the student council room and set about his work for the day.

Before long, Hoshinomori Hoshino, the student council president, walked in.

A greeting, a kettle fetched, water boiled, tea brewed. All of it done in one fluid motion.

Jinguuji paused his work and accepted the black tea Hoshinomori Hoshino offered him.

Something suddenly occurred to him, and he said, “President, you have not worked at all these past few days. It seems you have dumped everything on me.”

“How could you say that? I have been making tea for you, Jinguuji. That is also part of the student council president’s duties.”

She wore the face of someone deliberately pretending not to understand. Jinguuji truly had no energy to argue with her, so he said no more and silently sipped his tea.

“Is it good?”

“...It is.”

Hoshinomori Hoshino beamed. “I am glad.

“From now on, I will teach you little by little. Do not think making tea is such a simple thing.”

“Honestly, I do not want to learn.”

“That will not do. This is a student council tradition. After I graduate, you will be taking over the student council, Jinguuji. This is called the art of rulership.”

“What sort of art of rulership is that? What exactly do you take a mere student council for?”

“Oh? Is it useless?” Hoshinomori Hoshino said in surprise.

“Of course it is useless.”

“But that rebellious Jinguuji from back then is already obedient to whatever I say now, is he not?”

“I have absolutely no memory of that.” The boy replied at once.

She thought about it again.

“According to Yomiya, is it called hypnotic tea?”

Jinguuji pressed a hand to his forehead in pain. “President, please stop learning such bizarre things.”

“I think it is rather interesting. Maybe I was given something similar by you before, and that is why my good memory went bad.”

“Why do you think like that? You should go write light fiction.”

“Oh my, that does seem like a way out. Perhaps one day, Jinguuji will be my devoted solo supporter.”

The boy no longer paid her any mind. He lifted the cup in his hand, only to realize he had already finished it.

Hoshinomori Hoshino smiled and raised the teapot. Jinguuji, somewhat crestfallen, set the cup down on the desk and waited for her to fill it with the brown tea.

Outside, the fine rain that had fallen for the entire afternoon continued to tap at the windows.

Hoshinomori Hoshino stood by the window, gazing out at the rain-soaked campus, the whole school veiled in a gray, misty filter, while she sipped her black tea with obvious contentment.

Because of the rain, the baseball club, the soccer club, and the other sports clubs had not held practice. Deprived of the usual shouts of boys outside, the room felt especially quiet, with nothing to hear but the boy’s pen scratching across the paper.

At length, Jinguuji set down his pen and placed all the completed documents on Hoshinomori Hoshino’s desk.

She still stood by the window. The patter of raindrops was like tiny spirits drawn to the girl’s figure, each one impatiently plunging down in turn, endlessly striking the transparent pane.

Looking at her back, with its long sea-blue hair stretched through the space like a taut line drawn by an inked plumb string, he felt it burn itself deep into the boy’s eyes.

Today was Friday, October 2, an utterly ordinary after-school hour from any high school life, the sort of thing found everywhere.

No memorable event was in sight. He only remembered the rain outside, the scent of black tea, the neatly worn uniform she carried so gracefully, and the clock on the wall, stopped at 3:46:08 in the afternoon.

Nine.

Ten.

Eleven...

An unremarkable everyday scene, yet for some reason he remembered it.

It was a scene Jinguuji would never forget, even without a perfect memory.

“About the weekend... was it a date?”

Suddenly, the girl’s gentle, calm voice reached his ear, pulling Jinguuji’s thoughts back from her lovely back to reality.

“What?”

Hoshinomori Hoshino turned to him with a smile. “Pretending not to know will not help, you know. I heard it from Sakurakoji, junior.”

Jinguuji realized it at once, then sighed in resignation. “That girl... does she tell the president everything?”

The girl thought for a moment, her eyes lively as they turned, and said with a faint smile, “Not everything. Only things related to you, Jinguuji.”

“For me, that does not seem much different from telling everything.”

Hoshinomori Hoshino immediately broke into a radiant grin.

Then came a long silence.

Jinguuji suddenly understood what made today’s ordinary moment special.

Without the noisy first-year student beside him, there was the rain outside that darkened the heart, and the fact that today was Friday, meaning he would not see her again until two days later.

It was not that he desperately wanted to stay by her side. Though Jinguuji did lie to girls, he did not want to lie to himself.

It was fine to fool girls. Just do not fool yourself as well.

Unable to deny it, he found himself trapped in a corner on the fourth floor of this old school building, beginning to savor a brief peace amid campus life, not because this place stood so far from youth.

He did not find school unbearable. Once, he had believed himself deliberately isolated by everyone; now he realized that some people simply did not care about him.

If he had to trace the cause, it was probably this student council room he now occupied.

Or rather...

Jinguuji gazed at the girl’s back, unable to guess what she was thinking at that very moment.

Well, something like that.

“I wish the sky would clear,” the girl in his eyes suddenly said.

Jinguuji looked at her in puzzlement.

“Rainy-day dates are romantic too, but sunny weather always makes one feel happier. At least, that is how it is for me, and I think Sakurakoji junior would feel the same.

“She and I have rather similar tastes.

“In matters of books, that is.”

Jinguuji did not know what to say, so he gave a soft “Oh.”

“You are not looking forward to it?” Hoshinomori Hoshino asked, turning back toward him.

“Looking forward to what, President?”

“Anything will do. The weather on the day of the date, what the other person will wear, where you will meet, whether you should walk on her left side or her right. Are none of those worth anticipating?”

The boy thought for a moment, then said, “At this point, it seems I can no longer feel that sort of thing.”

“At this point?” She was puzzled by the phrase, then understood it immediately and could not help showing a touch of irritation.

“Jinguuji, let me correct your warped nature once more, since I am such a kind-hearted person.”

Jinguuji made a gesture that seemed to say, By all means.

“Girls always want to be treated specially, no matter when.”

After Jinguuji heard that, he waited a little longer.

“And your thoughts?” she asked.

“Huh? That is all?” Jinguuji said in surprise.

“Is that not enough?”

Seeing that Jinguuji did not react, Hoshinomori Hoshino grew furious at once, marched toward him with hands on her hips, and flicked his forehead with one finger. Then she winced and clutched the finger in pain.

Jinguuji watched the little performance in silence, saying nothing.

Hoshinomori Hoshino gently blew on her finger, gathered herself, and continued, “You, Jinguuji, always claim to be good at talking to girls, so how can you not understand something so simple?

“What sort of feelings have you been bringing to your dates with girls all this time?”

At those words, the boy’s eyes shifted away, and he would not meet Hoshinomori Hoshino’s gaze.

In Jinguuji’s heart, the upright Hoshinomori Hoshino might tolerate a rake who loved one woman after another, but she would never forgive malicious deception for the sake of amusement.

I have never once looked forward to a date with any of them.

If he said that aloud, she would surely fly into a rage.

“Listen carefully. A girl who wants to be treated specially will naturally treat you specially in return, otherwise why would she agree to go out with you?

“Can you even imagine how many times a girl changes clothes before going out? How much she puts on her face?

“And her hair has to be arranged perfectly too. If even a single strand is out of place, she will stand before the mirror for ten minutes, fighting with it until it submits.

“If she is lying on her bed at home reading manga alone, who cares if her hair is sticking up.”

“Going on a date with such a girl, if you do not bring your full expectations to it, then everything she has done becomes meaningless.

“I want you to face a girl’s sincerity honestly, not because you want to prove something.

“In that case, Jinguuji, I swear you would become a more upright and sincere person than you are now.”

“Sincere... me...?”

“I said it long ago. You do not need to keep belittling yourself in front of me, Jinguuji. You are far more delicate and kind than you imagine.”

Jinguuji opened his mouth, not knowing what to say. It always seemed that ever since he joined the student council, Hoshinomori Hoshino had been lecturing him, endlessly lecturing him.

And yet her words always pricked at him, as if she wanted to straighten him into a normal person.

“President...”

“Mm?”

“Why do you tell me things like this? I still do not understand. If the president is such a meddler, then I think there are more students in this school worth your concern.”

“There is no one more or less worthy than anyone else. It just happened that I met you, and I could not leave you alone, so that is how it is.”

Jinguuji gave a slight, wry smile. “That can count as an answer?”

“Jinguuji, not everything can be explained by reason or clarified by an answer. Otherwise, tell me why I cannot remember anything from last semester.”

The boy had no reply, and Hoshinomori Hoshino seemed uninterested in dwelling on it.

“Perhaps I am forgetful, perhaps I am too easily deceived, but I will not alter my way of being just because I have forgotten something.

“More importantly, I trust the choices my past self made.

“I believe with all my heart that you are a boy who lies a little, but is kind enough.

“Can that be called an answer?”

Jinguuji found himself unable to speak. Even after reading countless books and memorizing their tales word for word, he still could not describe what he felt at that moment.

As expected, he still did not understand her.

He did not understand how she could be so composed, did not understand why her expression was so light, and did not understand why the smile she now wore was so beautiful and moving, so dazzling that he could scarcely look straight at it, and yet he could not bear to look away from that most pure smile.

No one had ever spoken to him like that, not once in those three years of utter ruin.

Of course not. Even Jinguuji himself had believed he was beyond saving, so how could he expect anyone to rescue him?

If even a worthless man deserved redemption, then the world would be far too terrible.

And yet the person before him could speak so lightly of words that made him feel embarrassingly warm, as though every long-winded speech she made had only one purpose: to watch him flounder.

To keep his heart from wavering, Jinguuji always kept a cold face, a posture that said, Fine, say whatever nonsense you like.

But that mask seemed to end today.

“...President.” The boy was silent for a long while.

“Mm-hm?”

“I never managed to apologize to you.”

Hoshinomori Hoshino looked at him with a faint smile. “It is all right. I do not remember it anymore.”

“I did things that hurt you, then passed myself off as a stranger and remained in the student council as if nothing had happened.”

“It is all right. I do not remember it anymore.”

“I am always lying. Then and now, I always have lies on my lips, and rarely any truth.”

Like a grown elder, she placed her hand on the boy’s head, her fingers slipping through his hair, gently smoothing his jet-black locks as though stroking a sleeping infant.

“It is all right. I have... already forgotten it.”

The boy closed his eyes in sorrow, savoring the cadence of her words, trying to discern the true meaning hidden within them.

“So...

“Sakurakoji junior must never be made to feel humiliated.

“Jinguuji, you must use your heart, do you understand?”

“...Yes. Thank you, Hoshino... Mori President.”

Damn it! Because my grades are so bad, if I post anything at all, people assume I am a eunuch!

Damn it, damn it, damn it!

If I were a eunuch, I definitely would not post a notice.

I would post an update note, along with some grumbling.

Those who know, know.

Heh.

The end.