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They care so much about me that I can’t help but think it might be all calculated. They don’t really bring up the past when interacting with me, they look at me as I am in the present. It’s an abnormal class, in various ways.

「Still, there’s no telling where the rumors will pop out from.」
「That’s true. It’s not strange for you to suddenly pop up in rumors unrelated to you either.」

Rumors about Kotone doing something in the dark are common. And Kisaragi Kotone being behind bad stuff happening has become a commonly accepted fact in this academy. While last year was terrible, I have no idea how it got this bad. Did she really leave that terrible of an impression?

「Now that I’m thinking about it, you seriously have nerves of steel, Kotone.」
「I just don’t care about it much. I’ll be crushed if I do, you know.」

Since my image has changed so much, people don’t recognize me at first but the stares after being recognized are seriously, seriously harsh. If I care about them all the time, it’ll wear my sanity down in no time.

「It’d be great if you have that kind of attitude towards being seen naked too.」
「Don’t talk about that.」
「It’s a shame that I won’t be there to see how you’d react during swim class.」
「Don’t be disappointed about that.」

Rather than being seen naked, it’s seeing someone else naked that makes me feel embarrassed. Since I’m still not completely female mentally, I seriously can’t look at other people’s naked bodies with a straight face. That’s why it makes my face go red.

「You’ll be teased later on anyway, so give it up.」
「Since when did I become a teased character?」
「It’s because your reaction’s so innocent. You should just be unfazed about it.」
「I wouldn’t be suffering if I could do that.」

What if I stare too much and people get weird ideas? There are already some yuri-ish people as it is, I’m not giving new material that might stir them.¹

「Right. Kotone, there’s something I want to ask you.」
「What?」
「The rumors about this year’s ball games having a different 1st prize, is it true?」
「No, I haven’t heard about anything like that at the Student Council? But I’m not there everyday either, so I can’t say for sure.」
「I see. So I guess this was just a false rumor. I was sure that the president might do something like that though.」
「It’s that president after all. It wouldn’t be surprising, but is there any point in changing it?」
「Maybe he’s just tired of cafeteria meal tickets every year?」
「It gets replaced every three years, so I don’t think that could happen. 」

Still, I can’t read the president’s thoughts and movements, to be honest. I guess I’d better give him a warning. After all, the ones that’ll take the most damage are the student council members, me included. I really hope it’ll be peacefully uneventful.

「Well, I’ll be going home soon.」
「You’re not staying for dinner? I think mom made enough with you in mind, though.」
「Then I’ll check with Saori first, I guess. It’ll be rude to just go home after being cooked dinner.」

I’ve stayed for a pretty long time, so I guess I’ve had her be considerate about me. I would’ve been stumped if not for Akane being on night shift today. I can eat dinner twice no problem, but it’ll be bad if I don’t back it up with more exercise. In the end, since Saori prepared a share for me, I ended up eating dinner there. As usual, food other people make is weirdly delicious.

The next day, I dropped by the student council room and the thing Kaori told me about has become a reality.

「What are those writings on the board?」
「Naturally, it’s the list of prospective 1st place prizes.」

Hearing the president’s confident reply, I let out a deep sigh as though to hold back a headache. No, seriously this is making my head hurt already.

「What is this “Photo Collection”, to be exact?」
「A Cosplay Photo Collection of the Student Council Members.」
「Who’s idea was this!?」
「Why mine, of course!」

Yup, let’s stop trying to hold back this time around. With all my irritation, I had the president’s face on an eagle grip and clutched with all my strength.

「If you don’t stop messing around, I’m going to get angry.」
「Owowow!? That’s already present-tense angry, isn’t it!? M-my face is getting crushed!?」
「It won’t be crushed with my grip strength. It’ll only be painful.」

Physically strong as I may be, there’s no way that I’d have the strength to crush a human skull barehanded. Honestly, it’s about time for you to feel some pain for your actions if you ask me. Because otherwise, my patience is going to run dry.

「The real reason! I’ll tell you the real reason, so let go!」
「Geez. Please do that from the start.」

I release my grip on the president and he then rubs the aching parts that I squeezed on. I did it with the intention of bringing pain, so that’s natural. Still, seeing how no one stopped the violence happening, I guess everyone thinks he deserves it as well.

「Us Student Council members only have about half a year remaining, you see? So rather than just staring at paperwork, it would be nice to fool around occasionally, to make some memories.」
「Aren’t you always fooling around anyways?」
「How mean. That’s not true, right everyone?」

Seeing how everyone looked away, I’m sure they agree with me. To begin with, it’s a mystery how his train of thought ended up with doing a cosplay photoshoot to make memories. Isn’t adding pictures on the activity logs good enough for that?

「And for the resulting pictures, we’ll still look at it and decide which to use for the prize.」
「What about the costumes? And the pictures, we don’t have a camera here for those either.」
「For those, we’ll ask for the cooperation of the theater and photography club.」
「In that case, other people will see us then. What if they end up leaking pictures then?」
「Naturally, we’ll take measures against that. After all, those leaked pictures would probably sell for a good sum.」

There’s practically no chance that Kishita would have a cosplay picture taken, after all. Photos of the president likely would be popular too. To begin with, is there even a demand for pictures of me? Well, people did take pictures of me eating at one occasion.

「That’s why, would you please help us make some memories?」
「I have issues with you trying to appeal to emotion as well. Kishita, you objected to this, right?」
「I did but since I was the only one that objected, I lost.」

A betrayal from Kozue!? You’re with us cosplaying too, so why did you agree? Did she get bribed or something?

「I couldn’t win against my desires to see Kishita and Kotone cosplaying. But I don’t regret it.」
「Please do. And please don’t show me that thumb’s up.」

I didn’t expect an ambush in this place. True, doing that would be a good memory and keeping it as photos is fine. However, I don’t understand why it has to be exposed to the winning class.

「You’re not seriously considering it as a prize, right?」
「It depends on the resulting photos. If you object to it then, I promise that I won’t have any complains.」
「First of all, have you gotten the principal’s permission? We’re changing the 1st place prize, so wouldn’t it be necessary?」
「When I went to him this morning, he seemed to be unwell. He probably only understood half of what I said, to be honest.」

He’s still got a hangover, huh. Just how much did he drink that day. He’s put too much of his energy in romance and it left a big side effect. Think a bit more before you act, please. I’m already scared of hearing what happened after.

「I understand, I’ll cooperate. However, no suggestive clothing.」
「I fully agree with Kotone here as well.」
「I’ll keep that in mind. You don’t have to wear the ones you don’t like.」

Okay, I got his word. I definitely won’t wear any weird costumes. Still, ever since I joined the student council, I feel like I’ve been heading into a weird direction. How did it end up like this?

1. Lyly: Damn Kotone, lol