Chapter 20: Beautiful Girl, at the Freshman Welcome Ceremony (Part 1)

“So, on behalf of the student council and all current students, I would like to welcome all of our new classmates.”

Who was that speaking at the podium in the gymnasium? I watched her with a strange—no, complicated—feeling.

Well, she was the student council president. Still, I couldn’t believe that the same person who had barged into our first-year classroom on the second day, skipped homeroom, begged for forgiveness on her knees, and then accidentally saw my underwear before leaving… was now up there giving a formal speech.

The student council president on stage—Mitsui-senpai—looked elegant and composed, the very image of a perfect honor student. The student council president among student council presidents. I couldn’t believe it was the same person. Maybe that’s just her public face. Girls are scary sometimes.

“I feel like I can tell exactly what you’re thinking, Ayumi-chan,” Moeka-chan whispered beside me.

Since everyone could sit wherever they liked for the welcome ceremony, the four of us had found an open spot and grouped together.

“She might’ve acted like a total pervert in class, but apparently the president’s pretty famous,” Ryoji said.

“When did you even find that out?”

“During club recruitment. I cornered a third-year and asked.”

Why go out of your way to ask about the president? Ah—of course. She’s beautiful, so curiosity is natural. Ryoji’s a bit of a perv, after all.

Even as someone who used to be a guy, I could tell she was stunning. Honestly, he probably didn’t have any standards.

Completely unaware of what I was thinking, Ryoji continued.

“Apparently, she ranked first in every subject on the national mock exams—overall first too. But she’s a notorious truant, barely meets attendance requirements, and comes from a super-wealthy family. Rumor has it she used to get confessions from guys, but you probably noticed in class—she seems to prefer girls.”

That’s… incredible. First in the nation? What’s someone like that doing at an ordinary public high school? She could’ve easily gone to some elite private academy—especially with her family background.

My impression of her shifted. Before, I’d just thought she was weird, but now I realized she was a genius-level kind of weird. Not sure if that’s an upgrade or not.

Still, with her looks and grades, she did seem like the perfect honor student—if only she acted normally. Being student council president suited her.

And even though she once complained that “student council work is stupidly boring,” she actually seemed to take it seriously.

The ceremony itself went smoothly. After the president’s welcome, the brass band and other music clubs performed. Everyone was excellent. I didn’t know the first thing about musical skill, so my only thought was basically, “Wow, that’s amazing,” like an elementary schooler.

Since starting high school, I hadn’t had such a peaceful moment. I liked lively atmospheres, but they could be pretty exhausting too.

We were currently in the new gymnasium. Since it’s called “new,” that means there’s also an old one—so Mikawa High actually has two gyms. Thanks to that, the indoor sports clubs were apparently very active.

After lunch, we’d killed some time back in our classroom. Then an announcement came over the speakers calling all first-years to the new gym, so here we were.

By the way, Yoshikawa-kun hadn’t come back since a group of guys dragged him off during lunch.

Pinned to my chest was a small flower in a different color from the one we got at the entrance ceremony. We had received these from the student council when entering the gym.

Now, the welcome ceremony was just about to end. When I checked my phone, it wasn’t even 2 p.m. yet—much earlier than I’d expected.

After this, we’d get a tour of the Cooking Club’s room, and it seemed like we’d be able to relax there for a while.

At the podium, a male senior introduced as the vice president finished his closing remarks. A sense of relief slowly spread through the gym.

Just as I was about to stand, a loud “Keeeeeeen” feedback shriek echoed through the speakers. I flinched and covered my ears.

“Mic test. Attention, new students—this is Mitsui-senpai, your student council president. The freshman welcome event isn’t over yet! I have a fun game prepared just for you.”

The new students buzzed with confusion.

I sighed. Here we go again.

Judging by the calm faces of the other council members and the seniors who’d just performed, this seemed… planned. Maybe it was all part of the program.

“That said, since you’re all in uniform, we can’t have you running around too wildly. Well, I would love for the girls to flash their panties as much as they want, but—oh, honestly, I’d be even happier if you shyly lifted your skirts for me instead.”

...And there it was. The president was starting to break down.

I was pretty sure she was looking right at me, which was terrifying.

“Maybe I should wear shorts under my PE uniform starting tomorrow…”

The moment I muttered that, Ryoji, Moeka-chan, and Sakurako-chan all grabbed my shoulders and shook their heads in unison.

Ryoji even had tears in his eyes.

Was it that big a deal? My mom always told me never to wear tracksuit pants under a skirt either, so maybe it’s considered super improper.

I really don’t know much about girl etiquette.

Come to think of it, the girls who do wear gym pants under their skirts usually have a bit of a delinquent vibe… Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t.

“Now then, let’s get to the details of the game. We’ll be playing... hide-and-seek!”

Hide-and-seek?

The freshmen around the gym erupted in murmurs. Hide-and-seek at our age? It sounded ridiculous—…but at the same time, I couldn’t help feeling a little excited.

“Here are the rules. You may hide anywhere on school grounds—but the school building itself is off-limits.”

It was prohibited to hide inside the school building, so that meant… aside from the courtyard, pretty much the only place left was outside.

Still, I couldn’t think of many good hiding spots out there.

“Oh, and by the way, if you’re not planning to participate, you’re free to go home. Just return your flower at the exit, please.”

So this flower is meant to identify game participants, huh?

What should I do…? Looking around, everyone else still seemed undecided. Maybe I’d join if everyone else did.

“Now then, since we’re going to play a game, there should be some kind of reward to motivate you, right? The boys would probably be satisfied if they got a girl’s panties, but then the girls would end up having to accept the boys’ underwear—which is basically garbage—so…”

“President! Please stop talking about underwear!”

The vice president hurriedly interrupted. Seriously, I thought that girl had nothing but panties on her mind. She probably caused trouble in her daily life too. How had she not been caught yet?

“Ahem. Anyway, the reward for those who manage to stay hidden until the very end will be this: the right to dance with the partner of your choice during the folk dance at the sports festival!”

The gymnasium erupted in noise. Some people even shouted “Yes!” at the top of their lungs.

Personally, I just thought, Huh, whatever.

“Dancing with the person you like” didn’t sound very appealing when, in my case, that would mean dancing with a girl. Yeah… that’s one reward I could live without.

Sure, it might look like a boy-girl pair from the outside, but in my mind, it’d just be a poor student forced to join the girls’ side because of uneven numbers.

“Oh, and one more thing—those who choose not to participate and go home can still be picked as someone’s partner, so please keep that in mind!”

“Wait, so it’s limited to the opposite sex? Aww, I wanted to dance with Ayumi-chan.”

“Yeah, same here. I’d actually prefer that too.”

Moeka-chan and Sakurako-chan didn’t seem too eager to join. I couldn’t really picture them getting all friendly with some random girls anyway.

We’re just friends, but… still, this strange feeling of wanting to keep them all to myself is hard to explain. Yeah, it’s selfish, I know.

“I’m getting totally fired up for this!”

“Oh? So there’s already a girl you want to dance with, Ryoji?”

We’ve only been at this school for three days, and he already had someone in mind? Guess he’s more capable than he looks.

Then I noticed Sakurako-chan and Moeka-chan staring intently in my direction.

“What’s wrong?”

“Maybe we should help Ryoji out too.”

“Yeah, same here. If I see him dancing with some random girl, I might just explode~♪”

I didn’t really get what was going on, but if everyone’s going to help Ryoji, I might as well too.

Anyway, President Mitsui then listed the official rules:

① Do not enter the school building.
② If you’re found, take off your flower and give it to the person who found you.
③ All first-years are hiders, and all participating upperclassmen are seekers. Even though there are more upperclassmen, don’t worry about it.
④ The time limit is one hour. Anyone still hidden by the end wins the reward.
⑤ Seekers who collect ten or more flowers also win the same reward.
⑥ If there’s a tie for the same target, decide it with rock-paper-scissors.

So… yeah. It was literally just hide-and-seek.

They said we’d have about thirty minutes to hide before it started, so we headed toward the shoe lockers.

“Hey, where should we hide?” Moeka-chan asked, switching from her indoor shoes to her regular ones.

“Hmmm. Even if we’re supposed to work together, the more people stick together, the easier we’ll get found, right?”

“Exactly. And if all three of us get caught at once, the upperclassmen get a huge advantage toward Rule ⑤—ten flowers in one go! Ugh, this plan’s already falling apart in every way.”

“I mean, who cares if the upperclassmen get to dance with whoever they like? It’s not like it affects us, right?”

I said what I was thinking out loud.

It’s not like it matters to us who they dance with. It won’t benefit us, and it won’t cause us any trouble either.

That said, I’m not just going to hand over my flower so easily. If I’m joining the game, I at least want to try to win.

“Ayumi, you really should understand your own popularity better. You’ve only been here three days, but your name’s already known all over the school. And that’s just counting looks. There are tons of people who want to dance with you.”

“Really? It’s kind of scary to think people I’ve never met know who I am…”

Still, remembering how aggressive the club recruiters were, Ryoji’s words probably weren’t far off.

“Ah! Maybe Ryoji wants to dance with me too…”

I said it half-jokingly, the thought just slipping out. Even as I said it, I dismissed the idea. I used to be a boy, after all, and Ryoji knows that—there’s no way he’d actually want to dance with me.

“Well, it’s rare that you guessed right,” he said casually. “I thought I’d make it a surprise since you’d never expect it.”

“Why… me?”

“Because I don’t want to see you dancing with anyone else. Might as well be me, right?”

“I… don’t really get it. Well, I guess I don’t mind dancing with you, Ryoji.”

Compared to holding hands with some random guy or dancing with strangers, Ryoji was a hundred times better.

From what I’d heard, for the sports festival’s folk dance, those without a set partner—like a “lover”—rotate partners at fixed intervals. The unpaired students form an outer circle, while couples stay in the inner one.

Basically, the couples end up on display, and this “reward” would put me right there in the spotlight.

Even so, dancing with Ryoji would be way easier than holding hands with a bunch of guys in the outer circle.

…Actually, just holding hands is bad enough. Two guys holding hands? No way. Definitely not happening.

“…Ryoji doesn’t want anyone to steal his friends, and Ayumi doesn’t seem interested at all… Looks like I still have a chance,” Sakurako muttered.

A chance at what, exactly?

Wanting to protect your friends… If just dancing together could make you closer, middle-school me wouldn’t have been so alone.

I appreciated that she considered me a close friend, but Ryoji was surprisingly possessive. Still, it wasn’t like it mattered who I became friends with—if I made new ones, he’d probably get along with them too.

“By the way, Ayumi, is there anyone you want to dance with? Or… do you even have someone? You don’t, right? You don’t, right?”

“My partner? Nope, nope. Honestly, I don’t even want to dance.”

I laughed at Moeka-chan’s very direct question.

I almost said I didn’t want to dance with boys, but since I look like a girl now, that would’ve sounded weird. So I just left it at not wanting to dance, period.

If rumors spread that I preferred girls, President Mitsui would probably get way too excited and come running.

Hearing my answer, Moeka-chan smiled brightly. Her smile… it really was cute.

Honestly, I kind of wanted to dance with Moeka-chan and Sakurako-chan. They were far more charming than someone half-and-half like me.

We left the shoe lockers and stepped out into the plaza.

Freshmen were wandering everywhere, looking for hiding spots.

Didn’t seem like there were many good ones nearby.

“Shall we head to the back of the old gym?” Moeka-chan suggested.

We nodded in agreement.

Somehow, I felt a little excited.

Less than twenty minutes left to hide. Let’s just make sure we don’t get caught too soon.