In a World Where Chastity Is Reversed, I Kept Provoking Girls Until Things Went Too Far - Chapter 5-6

Chapter 5: Club Recruitment

In the classroom during lunch break

It had been only a week since I started school. Just as I was getting used to the classroom, I spread out my bento and tried to relax.

Today’s bento was my favorite omelet rice. Lately, not only Mom but also Mio seemed to be helping with making the bentos.

However, because I had praised this omelet rice, it had been omelet rice for three days straight.

Well, I liked it, so that was fine.

By the way, big sis’s cooking was disastrously bad.

Aya slammed her hands on my desk with a thud.

“Hey, Kouta, join the light music club! Come on, a male vocalist is super cool! We could sing together after practice, or chat in the clubroom until night… Kyah♡”

Otowa smoothly cut in.

“Instead of the noisy light music club, come to the literary club. It’s quiet and relaxing, and there are lots of books. …Besides, reading together just the two of us… wouldn’t be bad.”

(In a small voice) “Going to another girl’s place… I won’t allow it.”

Yuri rattled my desk as she joined in.

“No no! It has to be the basketball club! It would be the best if Kouta were the manager supporting us! I’ll prepare all the towels and water bottles!”

“With a reward hug after club activities every day!” she shouted, making those around her recoil.

“Anyway, Kouta, with the light music club, you can perform on stage at the cultural festival, right? Getting bathed in the spotlight and hearing ‘Kyaa’—isn’t it already thrilling just imagining it? You sing, and we jam with my guitar!”

“…How stupid. What good does making a spectacle do? In the literary club, you can quietly read books, and after school… we can be alone together.”

“Hey, Otowa, don’t casually say something so dangerous like being alone together! Kouta wouldn’t find reading every day fun either! With the basketball club, you’d be surrounded by girls cheering every day—wait, no! Being surrounded is bad! No no!”

(I had only been here a week, and I hadn’t even memorized the locations of the clubrooms, let alone the classroom and the bathroom! I just wanted to be in the go-home club and relax at home quietly.)

“Hey hey, if you join, would you sing exclusively for me? Or put ‘Aya’ in the lyrics? Come on, like a love song.”

“…If you put a name like ‘Aya’ in it… I would tear up that sheet music.”

“Whoa, that’s scary! Kouta is my exclusive manager! Wait, there’s no such club? No, anything goes now! Anyway, let’s sweat together every day!”

The gallery girls whispered among themselves.

“Otowa is kinda scary, isn’t she…”

“Yuri’s gotten pretty airheaded too.”

“And Aya’s starting to show heavy dependency, right?”

The three simultaneously grabbed the protagonist’s arm and tugged back and forth.

“Light music club!”

“Literary club!”

“Basketball club!”

My desk shook with a clatter, and the surrounding classmates started getting rowdy too.

“Kouta is going to have fun playing guitar with me!”

“How stupid. Being alone together in silence is more special, isn’t it?”

“Being alone together is dangerous! Wiping Kouta’s sweat for him would make him the happiest!”

The gallery girls chimed in further.

“I wish he’d come to the baseball club~”

“Whoa, the fighting over him has started again.”

“Depending on which club he joins, the school’s power dynamics will shift, right?”

“This… is going to spread throughout the school.”

“Then how about this: specially join all three clubs? Light music, literary, basketball—all of them in rotation! Then… see, we could be with Kouta every day!”

“…How idiotic. Holding three clubs would make Kouta collapse.”

(In a small voice) “Besides, my exclusive time with him would decrease…”

“Rotation is fine! I’ll carry you home on my back to make up for it! Right, Kouta, that sounds good!”

“No no no no! I’m fine with the go-home club!!”

Even after the lunch break chime rang, I hadn’t taken a single bite of my bento.

The classroom atmosphere had shifted from “club recruitment” to a debate on “who cares about Kouta the most.”

(Club activities, huh… I planned to be in the go-home club, but since it’s high school life, joining something might be fun.)

—

Chapter 6: Joining the Photography Club

During after-school hours, as I walked down the hallway.

“Phew, I finally survived today too…”

The moment I let my guard down, there was a dry click of a shutter.

“…Huh?”

When I turned around, a beautiful woman stood by the hallway window, holding an expensive-looking camera.

She had tied her semi-long hair back in a ponytail and wore a black camera strap diagonally over her uniform. Her gaze was unusually serious.

“That was a good expression.”

A low, calm voice echoed.

“Wh-wait a minute, who are you!? Did you just take my picture!?”

“It was a coincidence. I was shooting the sunset outside the window, and you entered the frame.”

“Uh…”

She said it with a straight face. No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like she had aimed for me.

She was probably a second-year senior, judging from the color of her indoor shoes.

“What’s your name?”

“…Kouta Takeda.”

“Hmm. Kouta. You have a good face.”

With that, she clicked the shutter again. I frantically waved my hands.

“No no no, don’t take pictures without permission!”

“Sorry. Reflex.”

She didn’t seem sorry at all. In fact, she looked amused.

“I’m the president of the photography club, Mashiro Takai. Feel free to call me Senior Mashiro.”

“The club currently has two members… well, actually, the third one has just been decided.”

“Huh, no way.”

“Yes. It’s you. You’re highly suitable as both a model and a subject.”

The senior crept closer. The camera lens gleamed strangely.

“I’m not good at that kind of thing…”

“Don’t worry about it. Just stay still and exist.”

“That’s the one that puts the most pressure on me, right!?”

“Come on, over here.”

Senior Mashiro grabbed my arm and dragged me behind the school building.

I had a bad feeling about this.

“Look here.”

What the senior pointed to was a small white flower blooming on top of a brick wall. Bathed in the sunset, it did look beautiful.

“…A flower?”

“Yes. Just a flower that bloomed naturally, but in the sunset, it looks like a gem.”

With that, the senior raised her camera.

Click, went the shutter.

Then she showed me the LCD screen.

“…Whoa.”

I was surprised.

An ordinary roadside flower had been captured like a painting.

The colors and the lighting were far more vivid than what I had seen with my own eyes.

“Photography changes things this much, huh…”

“Yes. And the same goes for people.”

Senior Mashiro looked straight at me and aimed the camera.

“No matter what kind of face you usually make, if the light and angle are right, you shine. …Like you.”

“Wh-wait…”

She clicked the shutter again.

On the screen, I was scratching my cheek in confusion.

Yet somehow, it felt oddly “artistic.”

“…Huh? Don’t I look kinda cool?”

“Right?”

The senior grinned.

“A subject doesn’t need to do anything. Just be there. …Sounds easy, doesn’t it?”

“…Yeah, it might actually be a bit fun.”

The honest thought slipped out of my mouth, surprising even me.

“Fufu. Good answer. —Come to the photography club, Kouta.”

I hesitated for a moment at her outstretched hand.

But strangely, I didn’t feel like refusing.

Because I had grown a little interested in the world seen through a camera.

“This is the photography clubroom.”

Led by Senior Mashiro, I entered a small room in a corner of the old school building.

When I opened the door—faint light filtered through the curtains, camera magazines scattered haphazardly on an old desk.

And in the corner, one senior stood up hesitantly.

“Um… a freshman? …Ooooooh, a boy!!!”

She had bobbed hair to her shoulders, round glasses, and a slight hunch.

She gave off a quiet vibe, like “I’m not good with people.”

“Let me introduce her. Narumi Yuki, a second-year. She’s the other member and the vice president of the photography club.”

“Y-Yuki here. P-please take care of me…!”

Senior Yuki’s bow was so awkward that my mouth moved on its own.

“Wh-whoa… no need to be so formal. I’m just a first-year.”

“E-even so…! A boy… coming to the clubroom is so rare…!”

Her cheeks were slightly flushed.

Whoa, she’s totally on guard against me.

—Alright, let’s tease her a bit.

“Your face is all red. Did you fall for me just looking at my face?”

The moment I said it, Senior Yuki’s shoulders jerked with a twitch.

So obvious!

“N-n-n-no! I-I just… not in that way…!”

“Huh, really? You looked like you were hoping for it just now.”

“N-no…! That’s why you say things like…!”

Senior Yuki averted her gaze, her ears turning bright red.

Senior Mashiro chuckled and interjected.

“Kouta, it seems you like teasing girls.”

“Huh, I didn’t mean to…”

“No, it’s fine. Yuki probably doesn’t mind it that much either.”

“~~~~!”

Senior Yuki covered her face with both hands and huddled down.

…Looks like I hit the mark.

I hurriedly tried to smooth things over, but deep down, I was enjoying it a little.

“W-well, please take care of me from now on. Feel free to do whatever you want with me.”

“Wh-what’s that… saying stuff like that again…!”

“Good grief. Yuki, you’ll just have to get used to it.”

Senior Mashiro shrugged.

And I—realized I was inexplicably excited about this strange atmosphere in the photography club.