My Stepsister is My Ex-Girlfriend - Volume 7 - Chapter 3.01

The Way You See Me

The Darkness and Adoration of the Serious Girl

Yume Irido

Asuhain-san and I were currently in the student council room, hard at work brainstorming what prompts we could have for the sports festival’s treasure hunt.

“How about ‘a family member’?” I proposed. I’m really grasping at straws here.

Asuhain-san looked at me, unamused. “What if they’re an orphan? What then?”

“Huh? We have to consider that many possibilities? But...yeah, I guess I can’t say that it could never happen.”

“But more importantly, why are you proposing people? This is a treasure hunt. Keep it to inanimate objects.”

“Well, we gotta keep things interesting,” I argued. “Treasure hunts are all about the entertainment factor.”

“Hm, this is tricky...” Asuhain-san murmured, going back to her thoughts.

Our school had a special rule by which participants started by drawing the hardest prompts. That being said, if the prompt they drew was too difficult, they could go to a different box and exchange it for an easier one. They could keep going to different boxes with progressively easier prompts until they found one they could handle.

However, if someone wanted an easy prompt, they’d have to consider the trade-off of running to the next box with easier prompts versus using that time to complete the harder prompt. It was a fairly well-balanced game, but it fell on us to prepare the prompts, and we’d decided to start with the difficult ones first. This is hard... We were completely stumped.

“No matter how hard we make the prompts, we have to make sure that they’re fair and doable for everyone,” Asuhain-san said.

“Then what about something standard like, ‘person you like’? That way, they could choose a friend too, not just someone they have a crush on.”

“What about people who don’t have friends?”

“W-Well... They could get a new prompt. I don’t think we have to overthink it that much...” But also, if I’d gotten that prompt in middle school, it would have upset me. As a first-year middle schooler, I hadn’t had a single friend or boyfriend to my name.

“Then let’s keep it simple with something uncommon,” Asuhain-san continued. “How about ‘person who’s won a spelling bee’?”

“Oh, criteria-based prompts might not be a bad idea. But if we want to hype up the crowd, we need more personal prompts...”

“Do you want to put in romantic-type prompts that badly, Irido-san?” Asuhain-san glared at me through half-closed eyes.

I reflexively let out a nervous laugh. “I-It’s not that I want to...but some people really enjoy them, so...”

“I just don’t get it...” Asuhain-san muttered, pouting. “Like, hate, boyfriend, girlfriend—where’s the fun in stuff like that?”

“Well...I think it really depends on the person, but...”

From what I understood, Asuhain-san was completely turned off from romance due to being bullied in the past. I was very aware that people like her existed. If I hadn’t met Mizuto, I might have turned out the same way.

“Well, what do you find fun, Asuhain-san?”

“Huh? W-Well...” She pressed a finger to her plump lips. “I think there might be nothing more enjoyable than when guys who’re bigger than me look at the grade rankings and see that they’re below me.” Her expression darkened, and a creepy smile spread across her face, making me tense up. What kind of darkness is she hiding? “You should start studying, you know. I’ve already begun to prepare for the midterms.”

“Huh? Really? Already?”

Midterms were scheduled to begin after the sports festival—the end of October. Sure, they were on my radar, but I was putting everything I had into getting used to my work on the student council. I hadn’t even begun preparing for them. Plus, there’s an even more important event after midterms...

Suddenly, the door to the student council room opened. “I’m back. Making progress?”

“O-Oh,” I stuttered, caught off guard. “Welcome back, President Kurenai.”

“W-Welcome back!”

President Kurenai had entered with Haba-senpai right behind her, who promptly walked to his seat and opened up his laptop without a word. Meanwhile, President Kurenai came over to peek at our notes.

“Looks like you’re having some difficulties.”

“Yes... It’s hard to make prompts that are simultaneously difficult and fair to everyone.”

“I see... A fair prompt...” She put her hand to her chin. “Do you have any good ideas, Joe?”

Haba-senpai momentarily stopped typing. “Since it’s up to the judges to decide whether or not the participants successfully fulfilled the prompt, one option is to keep the wording vague.”

“Hm. In essence, broadening the room for interpretation may make it less difficult to satisfy the prompt. It does bring up the risk of the judges rejecting everything that doesn’t meet their criteria; however, it also fits the criteria for a difficult prompt. For example, you could do a fill-in-the-blank style prompt of ‘X person,’ such as ‘tall person.’”

“It goes without saying, but you’ll also have to avoid prompts that might be misused as insults,” Haba-senpai added.

Oh! I see... That’s a smart way of going about it. It’s a good way to simultaneously display the personalities of the participants and get the crowd excited.

“In that case, allow me to submit a prompt.” Kurenai-senpai then took a marker and wrote something, neatly folded it up, and put it into the box.

“What did you write?”

“That’s for me to know and for you to eagerly anticipate,” she said with a wink.

The way she said that was both cool and cute, and I couldn’t help but think it was unfair that she could be both. Asuhain-san was practically melting. Her face had gone red, and she was clutching her chest. She might’ve been anti-romance, but it seemed she was still capable of getting pangs for people.

President Kurenai sat in her chair before calling out to us again. “How about the two of you take a break and go out to help Aisa? She’s meeting with the cheer squad, and I think she could use some backup.” She flashed a glance at Haba-senpai.

Oh? She then looked right at me, and that was all I needed to instantly understand what she was getting at. She wanted to be alone with him.

“But we’re in the middle of work. We shouldn’t—”

“Asuhain-san,” I started. Oh, okay. Twist my arm, why don’t you. “We don’t necessarily have to be here to continue thinking about prompts. We’re not exactly pressed for time, so let’s go help Aso-senpai.”

“Okay. I guess...” She reluctantly stood up and left the room with me.

As we left, she shot a look behind us—not because she’d suddenly come up with a prompt but to look at President Kurenai’s face.

After I shut the door, I turned to Asuhain-san. “Did you want to spend more time with President Kurenai?”

“Huh?!” Her small shoulders jumped, and she turned around, frowning. “O-Of course not! I’m not a kid...”

Suddenly, I thought back to the conversation I’d overheard between President Kurenai and Haba-senpai in that empty classroom during the cultural festival. I had no clue what President Kurenai would try doing to Haba-senpai in the student council room with nobody around, but I knew that if Asuhain-san caught wind of any of it, she’d faint.

Asuhain-san’s innocence was so precious and endearing yet so fragile. I found myself reaching out and patting her on the head. “You’re a good girl.”

“Are you making fun of me?!”

Aw, she got mad at me. But now I kinda get why Aso-senpai dotes on her so much.