#40.5: The Club President’s Impatience and Failure

Let me rewind time a bit…

This is bad.

Following Suzu’s failure, even with Mikan and Lemon working together, we couldn’t get Norio-kun to fall for us and join his harem.

After the advisor, Kyouko, was seduced by Norio-kun, we held an emergency meeting.

“If things continue like this, the damage could spread even further.”

“Um, well, ‘damage’ is one way to put it—but didn’t the teacher look really happy? I feel like we could just leave it alone…”

“But Mizumoto-senpai is dating his childhood friend too, right?”

“And there’s apparently someone in third year he’s dating as well?”

“That’s right. If Mizumoto-senpai continues dating the teacher on top of all that, we’re looking at a high probability of three-timing. That’s not acceptable! He’d be an enemy to all women!”

“But if they’re both okay with it…”

“Suzu, you’re being too naive! If the situation stays like this, if I and… wait, huh!?”

“What’s wrong, president?”

“Your face is all red!”

“N-nothing! It’s nothing!”

“So what are you planning to do, Fujiko?”

“W-well, that is…”

The truth is, even though we felt a sense crisis, we had no effective countermeasures.

Should we tell him straight up about the Romantic Comedy Syndrome and ask him to focus on treatment? No… I couldn’t imagine Norio-kun simply saying, “Yes, I understand. I’ll get treatment.”

So what could we do? What did we have?

“…What if we became heroines in Norio-kun’s harem ourselves? Then we could control him from the inside.”

“Hmm?”

“That actually sounds kind of fun!”

“Mizumoto-senpai probably doesn’t get a lot of attention anyway, so anyone would work, right?”

“We’d just be pretending to be his girlfriends! Once we make him fall for us, he’ll listen to whatever we say, won’t he?”

“Hmm, he doesn’t really seem like the type to be that easily manipulated…”

“If it’s Suzu, it’ll be fine! She’s popular with the boys too. Norio-kun will definitely be a goner in one shot!”

“Yeah! Time to show off that healing beauty routine!”

“That’s right! Show it off!”

“Well, might as well give it a try…”

And the result was a complete and utter failure.

“I’ve never had a guy brush me off that coldly before…”

We had Suzu keep her phone on call so we could listen in on their conversation, but Norio-kun’s behavior was clearly different from usual. That self-proclaimed protagonist who sweet-talked girls left and right didn’t speak a single flirtation.

An indescribable sense of unease washed over me, but I couldn’t back down now.

“Next time, we’re doing a revenge round with Mikan and Lemon!”

“Roger that!”

“Roger that!”

And once again, the result was a crushing defeat.

“Ugh, that guy’s tough.”

“Mizumoto-senpai, doesn’t he like girls or something?”

“No, no, no, that can’t be right! We saw him up close with Kyouko! That proves it!”

“Yeah, but… we’ve never been turned down that cold by a guy before.”

“Usually when the two of us approach a guy, they get all excited and lovey-dovey, but…”

So even the three beautiful girls of the literature club were met with indifference…

“That settles it. I’ll go myself. At least Norio-kun has recognized me as a heroine!”

But then Monday morning came around.

I approached him with extra charm, ready to make my move.

“Good morning, Fujiko.”

Wait… where were the usual compliments?

What’s going on?

Does Norio-kun not want to flirt with me anymore?

He answers when I talk to him, but unlike before, he doesn’t initiate conversations with me anymore.

When I brought up today’s club activities as a test:

“The other three members are taking the day off, so it’ll just be you and me.”

“Oh, then I’ll take the day off too. Let’s cancel club activities for today.”

Wait, what?

He’s giving up the chance to be alone with me, a main heroine candidate, and leaving on his own?

What’s happening?

Did he lose interest in me?

I don’t understand. Was I not a main heroine candidate after all? And now he’s avoiding being alone with me? What on earth is going on?

In the end, nothing progressed, and before I knew it, it was after school. In desperation, I called out to him.

“Norio-kun! Are you going home?”

“No, I’m heading to the literature club.”

Whew… relief.

I managed to keep him from leaving.

But this is where the real battle begins.

No matter what, I’m going to become a heroine in Norio-kun’s harem and successfully control him.

And so I resorted to drastic measures.

I sat beside him and hugged him with a sorrowful expression.

I have some confidence in my appearance, after all. If Norio-kun called me a main heroine candidate, then…

So, how about this? Surely Norio-kun is completely smitten with me now.

But…

The strategy backfired spectacularly. And worse, I had angered him.

Norio-kun knew about the Romantic Comedy Syndrome. And he was convinced it was all just my delusion.

Worse still, he said I wasn’t a heroine.

And most catastrophically, he misunderstood our recent approaches as us mocking him for fun.

We weren’t mocking him. We weren’t making fun of him.

But being rejected and hated by Norio-kun… I never knew it could hurt this much.

I’ve been watching Norio-kun since first year. This has never happened before. To give up after just one failure… but I’ve been feeling… wait!?

The last words Norio-kun said as he left the classroom:

“I thought Fujiko was the most fitting person to be a main heroine. Too bad.”

Disappointment and rejection directed at me.

Left alone in the classroom, I waited for the others to arrive. And the whole time, Norio-kun’s words echoed endlessly in my mind.