Chapter 14 – This Club’s Policy is Insane

On top of suddenly declaring she was joining, Chifuyu was now aiming for the vice president’s seat.

My ex-girlfriend Chifuyu had stood up as if to follow me, and now the class was in a whirlwind of excitement.

‘Maybe Hasebe-san is still totally hung up on him?’

‘Hang in there, Aki.’

‘She’s definitely still into Aki.’

‘Did Yamabuki-kun really get dumped?’

Who the hell is that “Hang in there, Aki” bastard!

A triumphant smile crept onto Matsumaru-sensei’s face as she listened to Chifuyu’s declaration.

“My, my, Hasebe-san, you’re Akira-kun’s ex-girlfriend, aren’t you? Won’t it be awkward being in the same club as your ex?”

“It won’t be awkward.”

Uh, yeah, it’ll be awkward for me. This whole situation is.

“I see. Well, as the advisor, I’m happy to have more members, so I suppose it’s fine.”

“So, will you make me the vice president?”

“That, I cannot do, Hasebe-san. It’s already been decided that Akira-kun’s older sister will be the vice president. A shame, isn’t it?”

“It’s not too late to change that, is it?”

“But as the advisor, I’ve already approved it, so the matter is settled.”

Chifuyu puffed out her cheeks and pouted.

Wow, that’s cute.

I should try to copy that sometime.

While Chifuyu and Matsumaru-sensei were arguing, I quickly scribbled my name on the document that looked like the official form.

I write the character for “Yamabuki” as compactly as possible, and the character for “Akira” a little bit bigger. It’s a quirk I’ve had when writing my name since kindergarten.

“Sensei, I’m done writing.”

“Thank you, Akira-kun. And congratulations. With this, the Go-Home Club can officially begin its activities.”

“Since it’s the Go-Home Club, it’s okay for us to just go home right after school, right?”

“Go home right away? Then you couldn’t call it the Go-Home Club, now could you?”

Uh, yeah, that’s exactly what you’d call the Go-Home Club.

“Besides, you seem to have the wrong idea. We have activities on holidays, too.”

“Huh? On holidays? The Go-Home Club does?”

“Of course. It’s already been decided we’ll have a training camp eventually, so look forward to it. It seems a joint training camp is still a bit out of reach, though. The school won’t give us the budget for it.”

I have no idea what a Go-Home Club training camp would even be. I can’t even imagine it.

And the reason for no joint training camp isn’t the budget, it’s because no other school has a Go-Home Club. I wonder what a joint training camp would even entail. Honing our go-home techniques together?

“Matsumaru-sensei, first period is about to start, so please wrap this up.”

The man with perfect timing, Ryuuji, made the announcement.

He’s the only source of order in this chaotic classroom.

He says things that get on my nerves sometimes, but other than that, he’s a pretty solid guy.

“Oh, still the same old Spartan, I see. But unfortunately for you, first period is my class, so it doesn’t really matter if we’re late—”

“There was a schedule change today. First period has been switched with math.”

“…Math?”

“I hear that Taguchi-sensei is strict with the other teachers as well.”

The color drained from Matsumaru-sensei’s face.

It turned blue in an instant, and by the end she looked like a malnourished banana.

The math teacher, Mr. Taguchi, was a strict, middle-aged man who I’d heard was feared even in the faculty office.

He wore sharp glasses that were anything but for show, and he was constantly on the lookout for problematic behavior like tardiness, sleeping in class, or private conversations.

As someone who had recently witnessed Mr. Taguchi completely lose it on Matsumaru-sensei, I felt incredibly sorry for her.

—Hang in there, Ten-chan.

I’ll just say that in my head.

Incidentally, Souichi gets chewed out by him almost every time, and has been flagged as a person of interest, so he’s always made to sit in the very front row during math class.

I got yelled at once, too. For looking away just a single time.

“I’m sorry, everyone. It seems I must urgently exit this classroom. Because, you see, Mr. Taguchi is so loud when he gets angry, and when I pointed out that he had a nose hair sticking out—”

“Matsumaru. Repeat what you just said one more time.”

It’s over.

Right, right, Mr. Taguchi is absurdly good at entering a classroom without making a sound. This is exactly what they mean when they say letting your guard down is a big mistake.

For the next twenty minutes, we were all forced to watch Matsumaru-sensei, on the verge of tears—no, she was half-crying—as she got yelled at by the demon teacher.

A lot happened, but at any rate, it was now after school.

As soon as closing homeroom ended, I was, as expected, caught by Matsumaru-sensei, our homeroom teacher and the Go-Home Club advisor.

Hinami and Chifuyu were with me, too.

“Our club activities finally begin today.”

“We just go home, right?”

“Yes, but I think we should have some more Go-Home-Club-like activities. Something more proactive.”

“Isn’t the proactive activity going home?”

“You just don’t get it, do you, Akira-kun? Hayasaka-san, would you explain it to him?”

Asked by Matsumaru-sensei to explain, Hinami looked at me with a refreshed expression, not a hint of sleepiness in her eyes.

“The Go-Home Club’s activity is making detours on the way home.”

I think that’s not the Go-Home Club, that’s the Making Detours Club.

What is this beauty saying with such a cool expression on her face?

“I think if we go shopping or grab a bite to eat on the way home, it’ll be more like a Go-Home Club activity.”

“A Go-Home-Club-like activity… a Go-Home-Club-like activity…”

I muttered it twice, but it didn’t really help.

I understand it even less now.

“So, where do we end up going home to? Can I live together with Akira?”

“Using his first name…”

“It’s fine, isn’t it? Listen, Hayasaka-san, I’m the only one who gets to call Akira by his first name.”

That’s up to the individual.

Forcing that rule on Hinami is wrong.

“I don’t care about the first name thing, but for now, let’s do activities that aren’t a disgrace to the name ‘Go-Home Club.'”

I’m the president.

I should have a certain amount of say.

“The Go-Home Club is a club where you go home. That means making detours is the wrong way to go about it. So how about we make ‘go straight home’ the club’s slogan?”

“Akira-kun, what makes a club part of your youth is overcoming challenges with your friends. So you will make detours. This is an instruction from me as a teacher.”

This is definitely power harassment.

A teacher should be discouraging detours, not recommending them.

Her beatdown from Mr. Taguchi must have been pretty bad. No, wait, even if that hadn’t happened, this is Matsumaru-sensei we’re talking about.

What she does and says never changes.

“Fine, we’ll make a detour for about ten minutes and then go home.”

“I’ll let you off with that for today. But let’s gradually make it longer, and aim for three hours in the end. Also, about the holidays, I’ll be participating too, so you’d better look forward to it.”