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"You should be grateful you have anything to eat at all."
Yukino first shot Kai a deeply exasperated glare.
After a brief silence, she still offered a begrudging explanation.
"I've completely run out of meat at home, and I haven't had the time to go grocery shopping yet."
Previously, Yukino had always purchased ingredients strictly based on her own small appetite. But recently, with the addition of Kai's massive portion sizes, her usual stockpiles were depleting entirely too fast.
By the time she realized it this morning, it was already too late to go buy more.
"I see. Well, that's fine. Just remember to buy more next time, Little Yukino!"
Kai said it with absolute, shameless confidence.
Watching him, Yukino couldn't stop her hands from balling into tight fists beneath the table.
'How can a human being's skin possibly be this thick?' She was normally a master of icy composure, yet whenever she had to deal with Kai, that absolute calm always managed to violently shatter.
Sitting off to the side, Hitori Gotoh shrank back in sheer terror, absolutely terrified of getting caught in the crossfire.
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"Oh, right!"
After they finished their lunch.
Remembering something important, Yukino took a small sip of water and suddenly spoke up.
"This morning, Hiratsuka-sensei told me she would be introducing a student who requires assistance to the Service Club. They should be arriving shortly."
"Is our Service Club finally open for business?"
It wasn't just Kai who looked surprised—even Hitori Gotoh's eyes lit up with sudden anticipation.
Are we finally going to have actual club activities?
For the past few days, she had been forced to suffer through Yukino teaching her how to play the guitar from scratch. Several times, Hitori genuinely couldn't hold back and was right on the verge of shouting out her true identity as the "Guitar Hero."
But the memory of her utterly humiliating performance on the rooftop had ultimately forced her to bite her tongue and swallow her pride.
Now that they finally had real club activities, she surely wouldn't have to keep pretending to be a clumsy beginner anymore, right?
"Speaking of which, do you know what kind of help they need?"
"I don't have the specifics yet."
As she spoke.
Yukino crossed her arms, her tone returning to its usual, unwavering seriousness.
"However, regardless of the nature of the request, there is absolutely nothing to worry about."
"That's true. After all, we have the omnipotent genius, President Yukinoshita, leading us!"
"..."
'How can you say something so embarrassing with a perfectly straight face?'
However.
Despite feeling a deep sense of secondhand embarrassment, Yukino still couldn't completely suppress the highly satisfied smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
————————————————————
They didn't have to wait very long.
Soon enough, the door to the Service Club room was suddenly thrown violently open from the outside.
"Ta-da!"
In the very next second, Shizuka Hiratsuka boldly strode into the room.
"Not bad at all, Yukino. The Service Club already has this many members!"
Initially, she had just assumed this was a phase of youthful arrogance—a child playing house.
If it hadn't been out of respect for Yukino's older sister, Shizuka never would have authorized the establishment of the Service Club in the first place.
She genuinely hadn't expected Yukino to actually manage to recruit real club members.
"Hiratsuka-sensei, I believe I specifically asked you to knock before entering!"
Seeing Shizuka waltz in and immediately start evaluating the room, Yukino's eyelid twitched violently.
Her tone grew dangerously sharp.
"What does it matter? I'll make sure to remember it next time!"
"..." Knowing Shizuka Hiratsuka's personality perfectly well, Yukino knew that arguing was a complete waste of breath. Shizuka simply wouldn't listen anyway.
"H-Hiratsuka-sensei."
Seeing the teacher's gaze sweep over her, Hitori greeted her with a highly timid, trembling voice.
"Mhm!"
With Shizuka's seasoned eye, she instantly recognized that the girl named Hitori Gotoh suffered from severe social anxiety. She offered a warm, reassuring smile and nodded. Regardless of her chaotic personality, Shizuka was ultimately an incredibly dedicated, responsible teacher.
However.
When Shizuka's gaze finally landed on Kai, she visibly froze in sheer surprise.
"You're here?"
Shizuka obviously knew every single student in her own homeroom class.
She just absolutely hadn't expected one of her own students to be a founding member of this bizarre Service Club.
"Hiratsuka-sensei!" Kai casually raised a hand in greeting.
Seeing Yukino and Hitori looking slightly confused, he smiled and quickly clarified.
"Hiratsuka-sensei is my homeroom teacher."
"I see."
Yukino nodded in understanding.
Then, she shot Shizuka an incredibly suspicious glare.
"I personally handed their club entry forms directly to you, Hiratsuka-sensei. Did you seriously not look at them?"
If she had actually bothered to read the forms, it would have been literally impossible for her not to know who the other members were.
"Ah... haha! I've just been incredibly busy with administrative work lately. It must have slipped my mind."
"You didn't even glance at them, did you?"
Yukino just stared at her, delivering the brutal truth with a perfectly deadpan expression. 'I should have known.'
"Ahem!"
Looking highly embarrassed, Shizuka desperately scrambled to change the subject.
"Anyway, I'm the faculty advisor for this club. We're basically all friends here, so there's no need to be so overly formal in private. Just relax and act natural."
Hitori nodded awkwardly.
She said that, but she was still a teacher. There was absolutely no way Hitori would ever dare to actually act "natural" around her.
Kai, on the other hand...
"So... Shizuka?"
He smoothly tested the waters with her given name.
Sitting nearby, Yukino Yukinoshita's face instantly morphed into an expression that clearly screamed, 'I knew he was going to do that.'
"..."
There's a limit to how 'natural' one should act.
"You should stick to calling me Sensei!"
Only after actually interacting with her could one truly appreciate how interesting Shizuka Hiratsuka's personality was.
Always wearing her signature white lab coat, if you completely ignored her chaotic personality, Shizuka was undeniably an absolute knockout beauty.
But combine the heavy drinking, the chain-smoking, and her absolute mastery of close-quarters combat...
In a highly patriarchal society like Japan, it was genuinely no surprise she couldn't find a husband.
"Speaking of which, did you not sleep well last night, Hiratsuka-sensei? I noticed during class today that you seemed a bit out of it."
"Is it really that obvious?"
Even Shizuka Hiratsuka cared deeply about her personal image.
She patted her cheeks and let out a highly exasperated sigh.
"Sigh. The agonizing struggles of a working adult. You kids wouldn't understand."
In reality.
Ever since that night at the izakaya, Shizuka's heart had been in an absolute state of chaotic turmoil. She kept wondering if she had been way too impulsive, constantly debating whether she should call Sonoko Machida and claim she was just joking.
However, after waiting anxiously for several agonizing days without a single phone call from Machida...
When Shizuka finally swallowed her pride and called her first, she was met with the devastating news that Machida's "partner" was completely swamped and utterly unavailable.
Are you kidding me??
'So I spent all those days agonizing over nothing??'
But what infuriated her the absolute most was the implication. 'He had plenty of time for Machida before, but the second I want to join in, he's suddenly unavailable? Is he saying I'm not good enough for him??'
She got rejected during normal blind dates, and now she was getting rejected for this too??
Shizuka's fiery temper instantly exploded.
She's booking this!
'I absolutely have to make this happen! I refuse to believe I'm that undesirable!'
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