Vol 1 Chapter 12 – The New Member Welcome Party

Clap, clap. I clapped my hands.

All four members of the “Modern Culture Research Club,” including myself but excluding Kajiwara-kun, were gathered in the clubroom.

“Alright. Now that Kajiwara-kun’s mother has happily approved his membership, I’d like to officially hold a new member welcome party. I’ve gathered you all here today to figure out how we’re going to prepare for it.”

Kajiwara-kun’s mother had been absolutely right.

We retook the photo, this time with Kajiwara-kun smiling and holding a sample copy of our new issue while flashing a peace sign. Toudou, our club’s head of advertising, posted it to our social media.

The ad’s effect has been outstanding.

Even my phone—I, Takahashi Chihiro—has been blowing up with calls from friends in other circles. “Heard you got a hot guy to join? How’d you manage that? Do something good in a past life? Or did you sell your soul to a demon? Was it money? How much did you pay? HOW MUCH WAS IT!?”

They were delirious.

Of course, I patiently explained to each of them that he’s a dyed-in-the-wool otaku and that they should be nice to him if they run into him at a doujinshi convention.

They’re all good people, so I don’t think anything weird will happen.

But anyway.

“Well, since Kajiwara-kun is the guest of honor, we asked him to sit this one out today. So he’s not here.”

I looked around the clubroom. We may only be an association, not an official club, but still.

What should we do with this space, an empty classroom given to us due to the declining birthrate?

“Should we do decorations?”

“Nah, Kajiwara-kun already told me he’d prefer we didn’t do anything too flashy. He said it’d be different if other members were joining besides him.”

Kajiwara-kun really is a good kid.

He said it would be fine if there were other members, but he’s being reserved since it’s just him.

I wouldn’t have minded forcing it on him a little, though.

“Here’s the plan: I’m thinking we take a little from our profits from the last convention and just fill our bellies with snacks and juice.”

“We’re not getting catered sushi?”

“Were you listening to me?”

I’m saying we can’t do anything too expensive because Kajiwara-kun will worry about it.

I shot down the suggestion from Emma, our resident blonde, blue-eyed sushi fanatic.

She has a thing for ikura gunkan maki; she just can’t get enough of it.

Apparently, the fish roe tastes of sin.

Be that as it may.

“No one else joined besides Kajiwara-kun, did they?”

Emma said, a worried tone in her voice.

No new members had joined besides Kajiwara-kun.

That’s what she was worried about.

“I handed out the club recruitment flyers, you know? But it seems like there weren’t any other otaku this year besides Kajiwara-kun?”

I thought there’d be at least one.

You know the type.

I figured there’d be at least one otaku who spends their middle school breaks with their face buried in their desk, pretending to be asleep.

I thought for sure some student would nervously come talk to me while I was distributing the welcome flyers to each classroom like last year.

But not this year.

The only prospective member was Kajiwara-kun.

“I wonder if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

I tilted my head.

I suppose it’s a good thing that there aren’t any new students who are nerds, persecuted by the rest of the world like us.

At the same time, it’s not great when you consider the club’s survival.

Then again, we only started the club a year ago, so it’s not like it would be tragic if it fizzled out down the line. Maybe I don’t need to worry about its continued existence.

“Who cares about that? It doesn’t interfere with our club activities at all. What you need to watch out for are the harlots who’ll try to join from now on. I guarantee you some girl who isn’t an otaku in the slightest will try to force her way into the club.”

A different worry from Emma’s.

This one came from Toudou.

She’s a realist, and I can understand what she’s getting at.

“You think prospective members will show up just for Kajiwara-kun?”

“They absolutely will. Be careful.”

Toudou stated it as a fact.

She’s a realist with a thing for butts.

“His classmates are already hitting on him, right? He’s the one guy in a class full of girls. You know, like the athletic types who are sure of themselves. Thinking they’ve got a shot.”

“I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. It’s not like we’re in any position to complain if Kajiwara-kun gets a girlfriend.”

“We can’t complain about what he does in class. But I don’t want it happening in our club.”

Her point was that the hot, popular gals who think, I can totally get him, would undoubtedly swarm him like ants.

That’s what Toudou was concerned about.

“Wouldn’t that type of girl just talk to him outside the club? They wouldn’t go out of their way to join a nerdy club.”

“Do you think Kajiwara-kun would give those women the time of day? And, well, setting aside the ones who are serious about their sports, do you really think the half-assed ones who are left wouldn’t try to join the club?”

I couldn’t say she was wrong.

Taking Toudou’s words at face value, yeah, she was probably right.

Fundamentally, while his exterior is that of a super-buff, muscle-bound macho man, his spirit is just that of a nerd who loves card games and is interested in doujinshi activities.

No matter what anyone in his class says to him, his replies are probably limited to, “Ah,” “uh-huh,” “is that so,” “yes, that’s right,” and “yeah.”

That’s fine, but…

The fact that people with ulterior motives might try to join the club?

That’s a problem.

“Okay, so applying for official club status is a no-go. If we do, the president can’t just turn down applications at their own discretion. We won’t be able to use the excuse that we’re just an association for hobbyists anymore.”

If we become an official club, it would be difficult to reject membership applications from people like that.

That was my judgment.

“Let’s just stay an association.”

I understood exactly what Toudou was getting at.

I accepted her reasoning and agreed.

Well, that solves that.

As long as we’re an association, if someone wants to join, I can turn them down based on my own judgment.

As I said so…

“Are you sure? Can you really turn them down?”

“You’re underestimating me. Of course I can.”

I, Takahashi Chihiro, have a shitload of nerve when it comes to things like this.

I won’t get scared even if I’m surrounded by a bunch of hot gals.

“Well, if I get harassed or things get messy, I’ll just call you, Hatsune?”

“Leave it to me, Chihiro.”

And so it was decided.

That was fine.

The important thing was the new member welcome party.

“We don’t have to do anything flashy, but let’s at least clean up a bit.”

“Kay.”

We took out the cleaning supplies we’d prepared and started wiping down desks and sweeping the floor.

We kept talking as we cleaned.

“Does Kajiwara-kun have any allergies or snacks he can’t eat?”

“I don’t know… hang on, I’ll ask him on my phone.”

I launched the messaging app on my phone.

I already had his contact info.

Oh, right, I forgot to ask.

“Should I invite him to the ‘Modern Culture Research Club’ group chat? Or not?”

“…That is…”

I’d actually been wrestling with this.

It’s not that I want to exclude Kajiwara-kun by not inviting him to the group chat.

It’s just that there are some things I’d rather he not hear, you know?

I mean, we casually post lewd pictures in the app and have conversations that only girls would get.

I don’t want him seeing the past history.

“How about we start a new group chat and invite him to that?”

Segawa-chan quickly came to a conclusion.

“That’s it. Okay, I’ll set up a new room. Everyone, don’t write anything weird in it, okay?”

“You don’t have to tell us.”

Chattering away noisily, we each continued our cleaning.

You know, this is kind of fun.

It’s not that our past club activities weren’t fun.

In its own way, that was our leaden, gunmetal-gray spring of youth.

But somehow, doing things that involve a boy makes it feel like a true blue spring.

It creates the illusion that we’re living out a genuine story of youthful romance.

Of course, the chances of Kajiwara-kun ever looking our way are low.

That’s not what he’s looking for from us.

Still.

“I hope Kajiwara-kun likes it.”

Segawa-chan spoke my thoughts aloud.

I hope he’s happy!

With such pure feelings in our hearts, we solemnly proceeded with the preparations for his welcome party.