A Youth Romantic Comedy Starts with a Meal!

The evening sun sighed.

A warm breeze blew in from the distant setting sun. As it brushed past the boy's face, it grew a little more damp before hurrying onward.

Horikita Suzune stopped beside him, glanced over, and sighed. Sitting down, she comforted him, "I never expected you to be this pure-hearted... Consider this one a favor you're owed."

"A real man shouldn't cry just because a girl gave him a fake confession."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka didn't want to speak.

He merely gripped his knees with both hands, silently reflecting on his mistakes.

Horikita Suzune felt a little guilty. She really had taken advantage of his feelings this time.

Perhaps it was even worse than when he had tricked her into going to that café last time?

But handing him her personal handkerchief...

After hesitating for a moment, she still reached into her pocket, felt around, and offered him the handkerchief. "I know Ichinose is an outstanding girl. Being confessed to by her in that manner, then having to go against your own feelings and pretend to be heartless as you reject her... that must be a huge blow for a boy who has hopes and dreams about this sort of thing."

"Though I don't care about such things," Horikita Suzune said flatly.

After hearing her, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka seemed to remember something. His body suddenly stiffened!

The lonely aura around him instantly transformed into fear of something unknown.

The handkerchief kindly offered before him suddenly looked like a military order a general signed before marching into battle.

He remembered.

He was far too clear-headed now.

So he wasn't Jing Ke at all. He was Qin Wuyang, the one who fled from battle!

He sat there blankly for a long while before finally forcing out a few words, delivering them in broken fragments as though they were strangers. "Uh... it's fine... I'm actually okay..."

"I was just too immersed in the role for a moment..."

"Don't force yourself. I saw you crying."

A trace of helplessness mixed into Horikita Suzune's cold expression. What a stubbornly prideful man.

She turned to face him directly, and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka instinctively looked away guiltily.

"? I wasn't trying to blame you..."

Horikita Suzune's soothing words halted. She immediately sensed that something was off, and the rare softness in her eyes vanished like mist.

"Don't tell me..."

Just as she was about to confirm the situation with him again, she noticed two other people walking toward them in the corner of her eye. She merely gave him a stern, icy glare, then turned away and pretended they had only run into each other by chance.

"Horikita and Ayanokoji..."

Seeing the two seated together on the bench ahead, Shiina Hiyori paused in the middle of waving hello. A rare chill quietly surfaced in her eyes.

"Hello, Shiina."

Horikita Suzune turned back and greeted her calmly. Her relationship with the girl wasn't exactly tense, while her relationship with the other boy beside her could hardly be called normal conversation.

"Hello, Mr. Matchmaker."

"Hello, Miss Denial."

Bai Yu replied simply.

They walked over and sat on the neighboring bench, only one seat apart from the other two.

"Oh my, Horikita, when are you planning to submit your club application to me?"

Bai Yu naturally pinched out a girlish voice. He had been using it all day, to the point that he no longer needed to adjust.

"Bai-kun, your hobbies really are eye-opening. Why don't you join the Dance Club?"

"Good suggestion, but please don't change the subject, Horikita—"

Bai Yu interrupted her roundabout response and switched back to his usual bright voice.

Shiina Hiyori then smoothed down her skirt and sat beside Bai Yu. Leaning forward curiously, she looked at the two of them and asked, "What are you talking about?"

Horikita Suzune glanced at her, unsure how to explain, and swept her gaze across the ground.

Bai Yu spoke bluntly. "The Hero and the Demon King made a contract. If the Hero lost, she would have to work under the Demon King to train herself. In exchange, the Demon King had to successfully join the Cheerleading Squad."

"So, has Bai Yu done it now?"

Shiina Hiyori reacted incredibly quickly. Worthy of being the Demon King's chief strategist, she knowingly asked, "If she has, then wouldn't that mean..."

Horikita Suzune felt the girl's gaze on her and suddenly felt somewhat ashamed. After struggling for a moment, she forced herself to explain in a casual tone, "I've just been rather busy lately. I didn't bring an application form when I went there last time... Next time, definitely."

"I see."

Shiina Hiyori revealed an angelic smile and exchanged a subtle glance with Bai Yu.

Horikita Suzune did not find anything strange about that smile. She only kept regretting why she had casually proposed such a condition that day... Yet after thinking it over, she felt there was no reason to regret it at all. What normal person would take something mentioned in passing so seriously?

No matter how she thought about it, the problem was the man beside her. She could not help shooting him another icy glance.

Bai Yu was delighted that another fierce general had joined his ranks, though the way she looked at him always reminded him of Lu Bu looking at Ding Yuan.

But compared to the growing strength of Demon King Castle, such a thing was utterly insignificant.

It was merely a head. If you had the strength, then come take it!

Bai Yu felt that his club ought to have all sorts of people. Horikita was indispensable.

"Good!"

"To celebrate the Service Club gaining another fierce general, dinner tonight is on me!"

Bai Yu suddenly stood up and declared it with heroic grandeur.

"Sorry, but eating with bacteria would probably mean I take in less than I expel. Besides, I never said I was joining the club right now." Horikita Suzune rejected him with cold, righteous conviction, calmly brushing back a lock of hair by her temple. "There's an exam at the end of this month. Don't tell me Bai-kun is the kind of incompetent club president who carries out club activities at the expense of his members' study time?"

"There's an exam at the end of the month?"

Bai Yu's confused gaze passed Horikita and shot toward the man farther away.

A certain man doing his best to hide his presence spoke up at the right moment. "There does seem to be a small test at the end of this month... Uh, Chabashira-sensei mentioned it before."

Bai Yu turned and gave Shiina Hiyori the same expression. Shiina Hiyori happily nodded.

Bai Yu revealed an enlightened smile.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka could not stop frantically complaining in his heart.

If you don't trust me, then why ask me first?!

Bai Yu smiled again, stood up, and took a step forward. With his back to the last sliver of sunlight, he faced the three of them and said, "In that case, we'll resume club activities after the exams. Of course, the Service Club will continue accepting requests during that time. I'll handle them alone."

Shiina Hiyori voiced her doubts. "Does that mean club activities will temporarily stop? Can Bai-kun handle everything by himself?"

Bai Yu replied cheerfully, "Don't worry. We don't usually get many requests anyway, and there's only one week until the exams. Let's treat it as time to focus on studying."

Shiina Hiyori nodded, unable to help feeling a little regretful.

Exams did not require much time from her at all, but since Bai-kun had said so...

"Okay."

She sent him a radiant smile.

Horikita Suzune was naturally even more pleased.

She stood up and glanced at the man beside her, who looked less depressed now than he did like he was playing dead. Feeling that this was not the time to interrogate him, she closed her eyes and said coolly, "I'm leaving."

Bai Yu glanced in the direction where Ichinose Honami was facing off with the contemporary female same-sex couple, then turned back to indicate that he felt the same way.

Before long, he dragged Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, who seemed to want to leave later, and followed behind Horikita.

Seeing the two of them look eager to return, Shiina Hiyori glanced back at where they had been before, hesitating over whether to follow. She called out to remind them, "Bai-kun, Ayanokoji-kun, what about Shiranami and Ichinose?"

Bai Yu waved a hand dashingly. "Both of them will get the outcome they hope to see, so there's no need to worry. What's troubling right now is what to have for dinner..."

"Ayanokoji, which deluxe set do you want?"

Bai Yu casually hooked an arm around Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's neck, then held the phone he was using to order food online in front of his face.

"Fatty beef... President, why do you still have money?"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was astonished by the vitality of his hundred thousand points.

"The president got paid today. There's another 150,000 in my phone now."

"There's no need for politeness between us!"

Bai Yu gave his shoulder another hard pat, then turned back and instructed, "Hiyori, send me your order on LINE. This guy who skipped work for a day and I will go grab seats first."

Shiina Hiyori no longer knew where to begin replying.

After thinking it over, she could only smile and answer, "Okay."

She glanced once more at Ichinose and the others, who had yet to come out. Before long, she decided to move as well, jogging after them. "Wait for me, everyone! I'm coming too!"

Not long after.

The girl's figure caught up with them at just the right moment. Together with the faces ahead that were either teasing each other or trading barbs, they formed a beautiful painting beneath the sunset's glow, one that seemed as eternal as time itself.

A girl standing not far behind took it all into her eyes—

Click.

The crisp sound of a camera shutter rang out. Bai Yu turned around, but all he saw were a few strands of pale pink hair. Before long, even those strands slipped behind a roadside tree.

Bai Yu turned back with a smile.

It seemed the Service Club's first group photo had been taken care of.

--

Bonus Scene

Shiina: "I almost didn't get the shot!"

Ichinose Honami: "You all just happily went off to eat?"

Bai Yu: "Food is the first necessity of the people, benefactors. Don't mind it!"

--

Author's Note: Alright, the first month's daily life is basically finished. Tomorrow will be the final addition.

Thank you all for following along. When I saw the rating start with a 6, I was stunned. You guys aren't just following on the surface while secretly giving me one-star ratings behind my back, are you? (doge)