The Reason for Change

"...What, our esteemed president still remembered she held the position of student council president?" Tobimaru Tsukiji teased with an almost ethereal air.

"Haha, don't joke around." Aoko casually ignored the vice president's resentment, walked over to the president's seat, and plopped herself down. "I still have to come to school for classes eventually. After all, I'm aiming for the University of Tokyo."

"Then finish your own share of the work!" Tobimaru Tsukiji immediately dropped a huge stack of documents onto Aoko Aozaki's desk and said indignantly.

"While you were gone, students kept submitting all sorts of incomprehensible applications," Tobimaru Tsukiji complained. "Things like some bizarre 'Wild Bird Enthusiasts Club.' There's no need for them to exist, because all they do is waste the school's club budget!"

"Then why didn't you reject those applications?" Aoko asked as she skimmed through the documents at incredible speed. "There's no reason to keep getting tangled up with them, is there?"

"Good question!" Tobimaru Tsukiji said angrily. "But I, the vice president, don't have that authority! If you find it so annoying, why not give me the president's position?"

"That won't do." Aoko picked up a pen and began processing the documents at a speed too fast for anyone else to follow, then glanced at Tobimaru Tsukiji. "I'm not the kind of person who willingly hands over the power in my grasp."

"I knew it..."

Hearing that, Tobimaru Tsukiji muttered helplessly and returned to his seat, flipping through the remaining documents.

"By the way, did the student council recruit anyone new?" Aoko asked while reviewing the papers.

"Soujuurou Shizuki," Tobimaru Tsukiji explained. "He's a freshman who enrolled this term. He's steady and hardworking, so I brought him into the student council as the general affairs officer."

"Oh."

Aoko did not ask further. To her in this timeline, this boy's role had effectively ended here. Even if he had joined the student council, it would not have much impact on her.

"Whew!"

Soujuurou Shizuki paused his cleaning, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. Only now, after focusing on his work, did he notice a red-haired girl sitting in the president's seat and working seriously.

Was that Aozaki, the student council president? He had not paid attention to the conversation between Tsukiji and that girl just now. Since he had not seen the student council president even once since joining, it felt somewhat strange that she had only appeared now.

But he was not the overly curious type. In the mountains, curiosity could get people killed.

"Good work, Shizuki." Kanoko Kuonji handed Soujuurou Shizuki a freshly brewed cup of oolong tea. After watching him take it, she immediately ran off to pour one for Tobimaru Tsukiji as well, then finally for the red-haired girl who seemed to be the student council president.

"Thank you."

Soujuurou did not mind that Kanoko Kuonji had already walked away. He simply acted according to the rules in his heart.

His grandfather had said that when someone offered kindness, one should offer thanks in return. That was the secret to living among other people.

After finishing his work, Soujuurou sat in the general affairs officer's seat, took his study materials and notebook out of his schoolbag, and began another day of catching up.

Time flew by. More than two months had passed since he left the deep mountain forests. Ever since enrolling, Soujuurou Shizuki's life had been difficult, both with work and with studying.

Fortunately, there were good people at both school and his workplace, so Soujuurou did not fall behind due to his lack of experience.

He was already deeply satisfied with that, because Soujuurou understood that those people did not help him because they owed him anything. They were simply being kind, and he was immensely grateful for it.

At that moment, the only sounds in the student council office were pages turning and pen tips scratching across paper.

About half an hour later, Aoko let out a breath and tossed her fountain pen into the pen holder beside her.

"All done." Aoko interlaced her fingers and leaned back against her office chair. "This pile has been approved, while the other pile has been rejected."

"That fast?!" Tobimaru Tsukiji could hardly believe it. He hurriedly stood up and checked Aoko's work, wary that the student council president might have slacked off and muddled through it.

But as he checked the documents one by one, he found that every application had received detailed remarks. The rejected forms all listed perfectly reasonable grounds for rejection, leaving no room for criticism.

Tobimaru Tsukiji could not help praising her inwardly. He was truly impressed by Aoko Aozaki.

Although she was often absent, she consistently maintained exam scores that crushed the entire school. And now, it seemed her academic achievements had definitely not come through trickery. Her ability to process these application forms so efficiently revealed as much.

Even more astonishingly, someone blessed with such enviable talent was also incredibly beautiful. Heaven was truly unfair.

That was what Tobimaru Tsukiji thought.

If Aoko knew what Tobimaru Tsukiji was thinking, she would laugh at how out of touch he was.

After all, Tobimaru Tsukiji himself came from a wealthy family. He was a typical beneficiary of heaven's favor. While the Tsukiji family was not as influential in Misaki as the Kuonji family, it was still a renowned conglomerate among the top tier.

However, Tobimaru Tsukiji himself was born out of wedlock—a so-called illegitimate child. His position within the family had not been very good when he was young, and he had suffered constant bullying and exclusion from his siblings.

Still, Tobimaru Tsukiji was indeed a ruthless person. Through relentless effort and the boost of his natural talent, he was eventually recognized by the head of the Tsukiji family as the next heir to the family conglomerate.

From then on, the siblings who had once excluded Tobimaru Tsukiji treated him with fear and avoidance. This made him extremely aloof when he first entered high school, and he was one of the school's most famous cold-faced handsome boys.

The current Tobimaru Tsukiji had become much more approachable. At the very least, he was no longer the kind of guy who looked down on others. He could even empathize with mountain-raised kids like Soujuurou Shizuki and run over to help as much as possible. Truly moving!

So who exactly had made Tobimaru Tsukiji capable of understanding the circumstances of ordinary people?

Aoko blinked, completely unable to recall the blood-and-tear accusations of certain boys who had confessed to her, been mercilessly rejected, and then thoroughly humiliated in public—an event that had utterly shocked Tsukiji when he first entered high school and witnessed the upperclassmen's miserable fate.

Whatever. It couldn't possibly have been me, haha.