The Story Of How I, A Gloomy Guy, Ended Up Surrounded By the Top-Tier Beautiful Girls In Class After A Seat Change - Chapter 207-208

Chapter 207: What Rui Is Aware Of [Major Announcement at the End]

The day after the candidates were announced and the election campaign began — Friday.

I headed to school still carrying the exhaustion from yesterday.

Yesterday had been a total mess: standing in front of the shoe lockers in girls’ clothes, drawing tons of attention from students leaving school. It got to the point where it was hard to tell whose campaign we were even doing anymore.

But apparently, my crossdressing was a big hit with Rui’s fans (way too weird), and a lot of students kept asking to take pictures.

The fact that Kuroki Rui’s campaign supporter was crossdressing had become a hot topic even on the anonymous message boards — Tanaka’s main battlefield. Right now those boards were basically a battlefield between ‘Natsuhama’s Ad●,’ aka Tanaka, who publicly declared she’d fight only online without showing her face, and the crossdressing pervert ‘Kuroki Rui (♂),’ aka me.

“Seriously though, is it really okay for me to be doing this when I’m supposed to be Tanaka’s nominator?”

While I was thinking that, I reached the school gate — and there was some kind of mysterious crowd gathered there…

Right in front of the gate stood Rui and Himesaki, both wearing their election sashes, and students had stopped in their tracks to surround them.

“…………”

“…………”

Rui and Himesaki faced off in a silent staring contest intense enough to rival a boxing press conference.

Rui wore a calm, confident smile, while Himesaki, looking adorable yet desperate, openly showed her burning sense of rivalry.

“I’m not going to lose. Kuroki-senpai.”

“I won’t lose either… especially not to you.”

The onlookers around them got hyped up, and some even whistled.

W-Wait, no, why is this happening!

“Hey Nozomi-chan! Why are you two glaring at each other like that!”

“Rui, what are you doing?”

After a while, a third-year senior who was Rui’s nominator and one of Himesaki’s classmates who was her nominator stepped in, separated the two, and the situation calmed down once they moved to different spots to start campaigning.

Even so, I felt worried about a lot of things and headed straight toward Rui first.

“Hey Rui, that wasn’t like you at all. What’s wrong?”

When I got close to where Rui was, she was just being calmed down by her nominator — a delicate-looking, boyish senior — under the shade of a tree.

“Good morning… Senpai, and Rui.”

“Ah, look who it is. Boyfriend-kun showed up.”

“B-Boyfriend-kun?”

“Well then, I think I’ll head to the self-study room like this. Can you campaign with him today?”

“Yes. Thank you so much as always, Senpai.”

The senior gave me a wink and left the spot.

A boyish yet delicate senior… yeah, that type works too.

“Senpai already has a boyfriend, so don’t look at her with weird eyes, okay, Ryota-kun?”

“I keep telling you not to read my mind… but anyway, more importantly—”

I cleared my throat lightly and got back on topic.

“What was that just now? It’s rare for cool-headed you to get into a staring match.”

“I was just… glaring at her because she kept campaigning really close to me. Then it turned into that… Plus, that girl seems way too aware of me.”

Of course anyone would be aware of you… I set aside that perfectly normal retort.

“Aren’t you the one who’s aware of Himesaki? The usual Rui would just focus on what she needs to do even if an enemy is nearby. But glaring? That’s not like you.”

“…Hehe, of course you’d see right through me, Ryota-kun.”

“Well, yeah.”

Rui looked up at the sunlight filtering through the trees and took a slow breath.

“I’m putting way too much pressure on myself to be perfect, so this student council president election has me really nervous inside. Elections aren’t like sports where luck can swing things, and there’s no excuse when the results don’t come.”

“Rui…”

Even in sports, where she had racked up championship after championship, Rui had somehow turned even luck into her ally.

“The first-years’ votes are going to flow heavily toward Himesaki-san. That’s exactly why I need to lock in every single vote from second- and third-years. So after school, I really have to—”

Rui looked more serious than usual, her eyes carrying an almost frightening intensity.

After school… meaning track practice…

That’s no good. Especially at a time like this, I… I have to tell Rui.

—

Chapter 208: The Outcome of the Election

“Hey Rui, I get that wanting certainty is probably necessary. But ‘what-ifs’ happen all the time. Like those two times in the past when I helped you. The thing with the cat you were raising, and the time you forgot your paper — stuff you never expected ended up happening, right?”

“What-if…? Are you trying to say I might lose?”

Rui turned an even sharper gaze toward me.

There seemed to be something like hostility mixed into those eyes.

“N-No! That’s not it! What I’m trying to say is there’s no such thing as absolute certainty.”

“No such thing as certainty?”

“Yeah. Right now, you’re chasing certainty too hard because you want everything to be perfect. People’s feelings can flip-flop like crazy right up until the very last moment of the race.”

That’s how I was last year too, but for a student council president election, it’s pretty common for even the uninterested swing voters to change their minds after hearing the final speech.

“So… even if there are people supporting Himesaki during the campaign period, you’ve got the power to turn it around with your last speech, Rui. That’s why I just don’t want you pushing yourself too hard trying to lock in certainty during the campaign.”

That was my honest feeling.

I understood the urge to seek certainty because of her perfectionism, but I wanted her to have at least a little faith in her own strength — enough confidence to sway the students who were supporting Himesaki right up until the end.

“…Sorry, Ryota-kun. I might have been panicking a little.”

“No, I’m the one who’s sorry for butting in all high and mighty! It was probably none of my business!”

“No… You’re the only one who can give me advice like this, Ryota-kun… And because it’s you, I can listen honestly.”

“Rui…”

“You can be pretty clueless sometimes, but you always think straight and give me honest, straightforward words. That’s why I… No, never mind. It’s exactly because you can give me that fresh perspective that I want you as vice president. That’s all.”

After saying that, Rui suddenly turned her back to me.

Huh? Is she actually mad after all?

“So… can I leave all the after-school campaign activities to you, Ryota-kun?”

“Y-Yeah! Leave it to me, Rui! I’ll strip down one layer, two layers, whatever it takes!”

“Hehe… Are you just saying that because you want to wear my uniform again?”

“Ah—well, yeah, that’s part of it.”

“Jeez, pervert.”

Rui turned back around and showed me a smile brighter than usual, flashing her white teeth.

When I saw that smile, all I could do was smile back along with her.

From then on, once the official campaign period really kicked in, every morning I stood side by side with Rui, Airi, and Yuria to campaign together, and after school I got dressed in drag again and campaigned as basically Rui’s double.

Online, Tanaka kept rolling out bold, innovative promises one after another, building up mysterious popularity and name recognition without ever showing her face.

Was it Rui’s overwhelming popularity, the excitement around Himesaki, or maybe the dark horse Tanaka who captured the casual voters?

No one would know until election day.