I'll Take Nanase-san, Who Is Small And Adorable, Away From Her Cheating And Clueless Ex And Make Her Happy. - Chapter 302: The Basketball Club Gets Shut Down—Because of That Girl!?

The Basketball Club Gets Shut Down—Because of That Girl!?

“Wha…!?”

Neither I, nor Hiyori-san, nor even the usually calm and composed Hachimura-san could hide our shock at that announcement.

We stood there, eyes wide, words stuck in our throats—until Hachimura-san recovered first and leaned in to whisper back, her voice as low as Kumakawa-san’s.

“Wait, seriously? You sure you didn’t mishear something?”

“I thought so too at first, but… Tanuma-sensei looked completely crushed. It felt pretty real.”

Kumakawa-san could be a little scatterbrained at times, but given what she’d seen—and Gakuto’s gloomy state—it seemed unlikely that she was mistaken.

The basketball club being suspended wasn’t just a rumor…it was almost certainly true.

Still processing the unexpectedly heavy news, I listened as a disheartened Kumakawa-san continued.

“This is because of what happened at the cultural festival, right?”

By what happened, she meant the complaint incident caused by Shibamura Nina from our class.

She had tried to frame Hiyori-san with lies, dragging along upperclassmen from her basketball club to create a full-blown uproar.

Thanks to her self-destruction and the help of Takatou-senpai from the second year, the issue was resolved smoothly…

But Shibamura and the basketball club members who backed her had drawn the ire of the school and the public eye.

The cultural festival wasn’t just internal—people from outside the school attended too. Some of them were probably prospective students checking out the atmosphere.

And during all that, those girls caused such chaos that it spawned the legendary phrase “The Complainer Maid.”

Given the impact, some kind of punishment wasn’t surprising.

I’d heard since then that Shibamura had been treated coldly by classmates, spending her days like she was walking on nails.

But she hadn’t been suspended or anything. I had assumed the school had settled the matter with just a stern warning.

Never did I expect a punishment like this to come from such an unexpected angle.

“But, like… the festival was a while ago, right? If that incident was the reason, wouldn’t the punishment have been handed out sooner?”

“I think so too, but… I still don’t think it’s completely unrelated. At the very least, it must’ve sparked something that led to this.”

I found myself nodding in total agreement with Hiyori-san’s reasoning.

About three weeks had passed since the festival. Sure, it felt late for a punishment to be issued.
But still… it was hard to believe the incident wasn’t connected.

Just like Hiyori-san said, it must have had some influence on the decision.

“After hearing that, I got worried about Yusa-kun… and when I came to class, well… he looked exactly like I feared. I want to cheer him up, but I don’t know what to say…”

Letting out a long sigh, Kumakawa-san slumped slightly.

Her explanation made everything click into place.
Worried for Gakuto as well, the three of us instinctively lowered our voices and slipped into a miniature strategy meeting.

“I want to comfort him too, but yeah… I don’t know what to say either. If we pick the wrong words, we might just make it worse…”

“It’s not like this is something Yuuki can solve just by talking to him, either. What do we do…?”

Listening to their concerns, I sank into my own thoughts.

That was when something I’d seen a few days ago resurfaced in my mind—something that might actually help.

“…I think it’s better if I’m the one who talks to him. There are things he might not feel comfortable saying to girls, you know?”

“Yeah, you’re right. I think Yusa-kun would find it easier to open up to you than to us.”

“But what about after that? Do you have a way to push him in a positive direction?”

“Well… something like that. I’ll ask him about it during lunch. See what he says.”

I wasn’t fully confident, but I did have an idea—one I thought might actually work.

Either way, the first step was to hear Gakuto out directly.

Carrying the expectations of the girls, I began piecing together a plan in my mind.