Social Dance Club Step 1

The Splendid Curry

One month has passed since the entrance ceremony. It was May, a time when the new students should have been settling down.

"Freshmen! Won't you join our club?!"

"No, no, come to ours!"

"That prey is ours!!"

...Currently, there was absolutely no settling down to be found.

Shouts echoed everywhere. Whether they were angry roars or screams, the school interior had turned into a hellscape of agonizing cries.

"Nooooo!"

"Someone saaaave me!"

"You guys, leave this to me and go—Gyaaaaaah!"

One by one, freshmen were hoisted up and carried out of the first-year classrooms. They looked less like students and more like sacks of rice being sold off. In fact, some had even ended up rolled in mats.

Today, here at Saitama High School—commonly known as "Tama High," located in the prefectural capital of Saitama—an event completely unrelated to the word "calm" was underway: the "Club Recruitment Festival."

The Club Recruitment Festival—a recruitment period established about ten years ago due to the sweltering demands of current students who shouted, "We want to recruit freshmen freely anywhere in the school!"

The period lasted three days. During this time, recruitment activities were permitted anywhere on school grounds—whether outdoors, in classrooms, in the cafeteria, or even inside the restrooms.

Handing out promotional flyers was a given. Sports clubs held trial experience corners, while cultural clubs used clubrooms or empty classrooms for exhibitions. Quite a few clubs passed sanitary inspections to hold tea parties and the like. However, those were just the recruitment methods they could talk about openly. Naturally, dirty tactics and forceful recruitment were not uncommon.

In reality, quite a few freshmen would suddenly disappear during this period. However, since they were usually just being dragged into some clubroom, nobody other than the freshmen made a fuss about a person or two vanishing. The teachers seemed used to it as well. They were all sipping tea carefree in the staff room.

"I said, that's someone who wants to join the basketball club!"

"Where are your eyes?! This guy belongs to us, the soccer club!"

"You wanna go?!"

"Huh? Bring it on!"

"""It’s war!!! Get 'eeeeem!!"""

Currently, fights were breaking out here and there among recruiters competing for the freshmen. Since the school awarded incentive money based on the number of members acquired, every club was desperate. Because it increased the number of students participating in clubs, the school administration was also quite enthusiastic about this Recruitment Festival, and it had now become a major event rivaling the school culture festival in liveliness.

In the morning, after attendance was taken, the freshmen were given a full day of free time, much like sheep released to pasture. The fact that starving "wolves" would invade the moment the homeroom bell rang was also an act fully approved by the school. The sheep were immediately overhunted.

Amidst all this:

"Whew, that was scary. Are those guys kidnappers or what?"

Yukiya Hino had just escaped the classroom, which had turned into a lawless zone due to the invasion of the wolves, alongside his friend from middle school, Haruki Sudou.

"The Senpais had serious looks in their eyes, didn't they?"

Haruki smiled wryly at Yukiya's mutter. It was clearer than the sun rising in the east and setting in the west that if they had remained in the classroom, they would have been hauled off to some clubroom against their will.

Yukiya and Haruki had instinctively sensed the danger and fled from the window to the balcony. It seemed a few others had attempted to escape the same way, but Yukiya and the others had no way of knowing what became of them.

Leaving behind the classroom that raged like a bargain sale venue (naturally, the merchandise was the freshmen), Yukiya and Haruki moved along the balcony from another classroom into the hallway and arrived at the courtyard between the school buildings.

"...Looks like it's safe here."

Everywhere else in the school was being used as a clubroom, and sports clubs were conducting PR activities in the square in front of the school building and on the school grounds. The only safe place in the entire school seemed to be this area, where sports were prohibited. Since there were flowers planted here, rough recruitment activities couldn't take place. Incidentally, rumor had it that if you pick the flower, the muscular caretaker would beat you up.

"Now that we've escaped, I'm going to the Photography Club. What about you, Yukiya?"

"I'm good. I'll just kill time."

Haruki apparently had a club he wanted to peek at. But Yukiya had nothing of the sort. The only reason he had dutifully come to school on the day of the Recruitment Festival was that if he wasn't in the classroom for morning and afternoon roll call, he would be marked absent. If not for that—who would participate in such a troublesome event?—was Yukiya's honest opinion.

"I see. Well, I'm off then. Be careful."

"You too."

Waving his hand, Haruki went back into the school building.

Yukiya saw his friend off as if he were heading to a battlefield, then sat down on a bench next to the flowerbed and loosened his maroon necktie. The wolves distinguished freshmen by the color of their ties. He hadn't had the composure to do anything about it until he got here, but once he took it off, he would be safe for the time being.

Looking up at the third-floor hallway windows, he could see figures of first-years being carried away on the shoulders of some club members. The melody of Dona Dona (ドナドナ, search this on youtube) crossed Yukiya's mind. Then, when a panda in a judo gi holding a sign and a mouse mascot costume that looked like it would get sued by a certain theme park passed by on the connecting corridor, Yukiya finally thought, "What a pain," and lay down on the spot.

At times like this, sleeping was the best way to kill time.

Yukiya had no intention of joining any club. He hated being tied down by the strict rules of being a "club member," and he had no interest in club activities in the first place. It seemed rare, but the "Go-Home Club" was technically recognized even at Tama High, so he thought that was fine for him.

Come to think of it, he had never found a single thing he could dedicate himself to.

The piano lessons and cram school his parents put him in during elementary school lasted three days before he quit. In middle school, the club his homeroom teacher recommended he join (he forgot what club it even was) turned him into a ghost member before he knew it. Neither hobbies nor play ever lasted long for him. Not a single thing.

That was why, since middle school, he had decided to at least attend school faithfully. That was why he had come to school dutifully today as well. It was an act born of Yukiya's own stubbornness, to prove that "it's not like I can't stick with anything."

"Haa. So bored..."

The weather was pleasant. An early summer breeze blew into the courtyard.

When he idly looked up at the clear blue sky, he saw two birds playing together. Yukiya unconsciously followed them with his eyes. The birds seemed to be having a much happier life than he was. He felt a little melancholy, wondering if he would just live out a boring life like this.

At that moment, a person's shadow fell over his face.

Haruki's back awfully early—Yukiya thought, turning his face, only to be startled.

"..."

A girl was looking down at Yukiya in silence.

Her black hair was tied back in a ponytail with a deep crimson ribbon that swayed in the wind. Perhaps because she was expressionless, it gives the impression that her personality looked a bit harsh. She had large, double-lidded eyes that slanted slightly upward. Even looking at her while lying down, he could tell she was an exceptionally beautiful girl. Below that small face was a neck as slender as a fawn's, and if he shifted his gaze further down... she was well-endowed where it counted, yet had a tightly cinched waist and slender limbs... She had an incredibly good style, as if she did some kind of sport. From Yukiya's lying-down position, she stood at an exquisite angle where he could almost see up her skirt, but not quite. In her hand was a bundle of papers that looked like flyers.

Recruitment, Yukiya braced himself. The girl parted her lips, resembling cherry blossom petals.

"You. You're a freshman, right?"

Her tone was harsh, just like his first impression. Yukiya quietly looked away.

"No, I'm a second year."

"Don't lie. I saw your face at the entrance ceremony."

His smooth lie was flatly denied.

Yukiya thought to himself, What should I do? while still lying there.

"..........................Maybe you saw it wrong?"

"You're really bad at giving up huh. My eyesight and memory aren't that poor. I don't know about yours, though."

She was a very foul-mouthed girl. It was too regrettable that she was so cute yet so thorny.

"Tch."

It was unpleasant, so he clicked his tongue loudly enough for her to hear, and the girl glared at him.

She was almost expressionless, but her intensity was terrifying. He felt like he was being frozen by an Absolute Zero gaze. Cold air seemed to be radiating from her, making him want to get on his knees and apologize.

"Whoa..."

She suddenly flashed her hand, and Yukiya instinctively flinched. He thought he was going to be punched. However...

"Hey, why are you scared? Here, take this."

What the displeased-looking girl thrust in front of Yukiya's eyes wasn't a fist or a slap.

It was a single sheet from the bundle of papers she held.

"Umm... If this is club recruitment, I decline."

"I don't care if you join or not. I don't want someone like you to join in the slightest. As long as I can reduce the number of flyers, that's enough for me."

She didn't persist even a little bit, leaving Yukiya feeling like he'd been side-stepped. Moreover, he felt like he had been told something quite terrible. No, he definitely was.

"What are the flyers for, then? If that's the case, just throw them away."

When Yukiya retorted while suppressing his anger, she looked away awkwardly.

"That's... not allowed."

"I don't get it—Ah, are you scared of the Senpais if they find out you threw them away?"

Looking closely, the girl seemed to be a freshman like Yukiya. The ribbon at her chest was the same maroon color as his. Meaning she had only been in the club for about a month, so her status within the club shouldn't be high.

But the girl shook her head.

"No, it's not like that. It's not that."

"Then what is it?"

"...I'd feel bad for the girl who made them."

That's rich coming from someone not seriously trying to catch members, Yukiya thought inwardly. He thought it, but it would be trouble if he said it and she stuck around.

"Just take it, that's all I ask. Do whatever you want with it. Bye."

"Ah, wait a sec."

Yukiya called out to the girl as she tried to leave. She looked back with a dubious expression.

"What?"

"Hey, why did you remember my face?"

Yukiya had no particularly standout features. His height and weight were generally average for a first-year high school boy, and his features were typical Japanese, plain in structure. He was an ordinary high school student you could find anywhere. Frankly speaking, Yukiya himself thought he was a "background mob character." Not a main lead.

To that question, "Well," the girl said with a cool face.

"Because you had a beautiful butt shape."

That's what she said. Yukiya froze for a second, wondering if he had misheard. But he heard it clearly, so it probably wasn't a mistake.

However, even so... butt shape?

Suspicious, Yukiya furrowed his brows. The girl showed no sign of embarrassment.

"Um, are you, by any chance....................... a pervert?"

"Ha, huh?"

"I mean, normally, you wouldn't look at a guy's butt..."

Looking at a guy's butt wouldn't be fun at all, Yukiya thought from the bottom of his heart.

What is up with this girl? Does she have a butt fetish?

At Yukiya's probing gaze, the girl sighed in exasperation.

"Look, I am seriously talking about style. I'm not free enough to be thinking obscene thoughts 24/7 like you boys... Ah, but I guess normally people don't say that to someone's face."

The girl nodded, convinced by her own logic. Yukiya didn't have a clue what was going on. For now, he tried to object on behalf of all boys with, "We don't think about obscene things 24/7." However, her eyes remained narrowed as if to say, "Don't lie."

"...Well, whatever. Please don't worry about it. We won't be involved with each other anymore, anyway."

"Is that so? That's a relief."

"Huh?"

"No, nothing..."

"...Bye, then."

Leaving behind a freezing chill, this time the girl walked away dashingly.

Yukiya watched her receding back with annoyance. However, her beautiful figure from behind somehow reminded him of a single rose.

"Being thorny and all, it really is similar... Now then."

After watching the girl's figure disappear into the school building, Yukiya looked at the flyer he had received as if just remembering it. The paper was ordinary copy paper, and holding it up to the sun, he could see the blue sky through it slightly.

There was an illustration drawn on the flyer. Whether intentional or not, the drawing was done in a rather clumsy style, like something a kindergartener might have done. He could barely make out that it depicted two things resembling humans with something like a flower field in the background. Below that illustration, cute rounded letters were lined up. It seemed to be the club name, but—

"—...Social Dance Club?"

At the completely unfamiliar name, Yukiya pictured the girl who had left the flyer. No wonder she had such a beautiful figure, Yukiya convinced himself.

"Social Dance... that's the one where a man and a woman dance together, right?"

Holding hands, sticking bodies together. Dresses. Spinning around. He only had that vague image.

"...Well, got nothing to do with me."

He wasn't particularly interested.

Placing the flyer over his face like an eye mask, Yukiya simply closed his eyes.

＊ ＊ ＊

Around the time the bell rang twice, Yukiya groggily opened his eyes.

"I'm starving..."

Removing the flyer he had been using as an eye mask and checking his wristwatch, he saw it was exactly lunch break. There was no trace of Haruki returning. Since they hadn’t made any specific plans to meet up, the next time he’d see him would probably be during the homeroom at the end of the day.

"What should I do for lunch?"

Just like that girl from earlier, there was no guarantee there weren't others who remembered his face. Sitting leisurely in the cafeteria eating a set meal didn't seem like an option.

Thinking he might just go buy some bread at the school store, he sat up—and caught a whiff of something delicious from somewhere.

"Is this... curry?"

The sweet, savory aroma of sautéed onions mixed with the spicy scent of various spices, riding the air to tickle Yukiya's nose. Sniff, sniff. Turning his nose toward the tempting smell, he saw a single girl carrying a large golden pot, walking clumsily down the connecting corridor.

However, her appearance was bizarre.

The girl was wearing a cute, idol-like two-piece outfit based in orange and cream colors, completely different from the school uniform. She was wearing a green wig tied back in a way that looked like drooping dog ears. She looked just like a girl from an anime—no, she was in an anime, Yukiya recalled, tracing his memory. She did a pose and said something like "Kira~☆", didn't she? Something like a Super Dimension Cinderella idol. He didn't know exactly what anime it was from, though.

The pot was too big for the girl's tiny, elementary-school-sized body, making her steps look somewhat precarious. She wobbled left and right. An ominous vibe that she might spill the contents of the pot right there and then was oozing out... It was just as Yukiya was watching her on edge, despite it being none of his business.

His eyes locked perfectly with the girl's.

Thinking crap, Yukiya looked away, but by then the girl had already turned her feet toward him. Totter, totter, came the approaching footsteps.

"Umm."

The girl called out to Yukiya, who had decided to completely ignore her, without showing any fear. Left with no choice, Yukiya turned his face toward her.

When the girl tilted her head slightly, the green wig that looked like drooping dog ears swayed with a fluff. She resembles a hamster more than a dog, Yukiya thought vaguely. He felt an urge to give her sunflower seeds.

"What?"

"You're a freshman, right?"

"No, I'm a second ye—"

"You are a freshman."

She asserted it.

When Yukiya fell silent, unable to deny it, the girl lifted the pot with a jerk to show him.

"Won't you eat some curry?"

From the large pot in the girl's hands, an irresistibly rich aroma spilled out. Saliva ran down the hungry Yukiya's throat. Gulp.

However, the girl's outfit clearly screamed, "I am recruiting for a club!" If he carelessly followed her, he might get confined. The fact that he couldn't guess what club it was from her outfit made him even more worried. If things went poorly, he might be forced to listen to Super Dimension Cinderella-style songs.

"No, I'm not really hungry—"

—Growl.

It was his stomach bug, unable to read the room.

Seeing Yukiya's stomach let out such a pathetic sound, the girl giggled. Feeling awkward, Yukiya scratched his head and asked.

"...What club?"

"Eh?"

The girl blinked.

"You prepared that for club recruitment, didn't you?"

"Umm... Social... Dan..."

Saying that much, she closed her mouth as if thinking about something.

Her voice was quiet so he couldn't hear well, but Social Den?

A sociology study? A criminal hideout?

"................................................................................................Curry Club."

After spending a ridiculous amount of time, she said that.

"What was that pause just now?"

"It is the Curry Club."

She declared it flatly. Yukiya narrowed his eyes.

"That's not what I mean, the pause..."

"Ah, w-well, I just joined recently, so I didn't remember the club name properly."

Like hell, Yukiya almost retorted.

She says she didn't remember, but "Curry Club" is only a few syllables. Plus, she has a pot of curry in her hands. If she can't remember it despite that, just how bad is her memory? That would be at a level where getting into this high school should have been impossible.

Suspicious, Yukiya thought... but the savory scent of curry was real.

He thought about it. Curry made by the Curry Club (presumably) for lunch... Not bad.

"How many members?"

"Ah, including me, there are three girls."

"Isn't that a bit few?"

"It was just established this year, you see."

Club approval at Tama High was quite loose. There were no limits on the number of members; as long as you could secure a place for activities and an advisor, generally, you just had to write the necessary details on a form and submit it to be certified as a club. It was due to the school culture that valued student autonomy.

"It's a very fun club."

"But I don't intend to join anywhere. I plan to be in the Go-Home Club."

"Au, is that so..."

The girl looked dejected. But, perhaps pulling herself together quickly, she raised her face.

"B-But, the curry is delicious! Just eating... won't you come to the clubroom just to eat?"

"Is it really okay just to eat?"

"U... R-Really, it is."

That's a lie. She intends to recruit him. It was written all over her face.

Yukiya weighed the curry against the recruitment. Assuming a generous thirty minutes to eat the curry—

"...Alright, I'll go."

The conclusion: thirty minutes for a meal—if it was just that long, he could listen to their pitch. They were letting him eat for free, so he could entertain them for thirty minutes... though he wouldn't join. It would be tough against the Judo or Sumo clubs, but if they tried forceful measures, escaping from a clubroom with only three girls should be easy.

Whether she knew Yukiya's inner thoughts or not, the girl broke into a beaming smile.

"Then let's go right away! This way!"

"Ah, hey."

"Wawa...!?"

The girl stumbled over nothing and started to fall. Yukiya instinctively reached out for the pot. As if embracing her from behind, he grabbed the handle of the pot along with her hands.

"Whew, that was close, that was close."

I almost let the ground eat that precious curry—just as he felt relieved, Yukiya realized what his hands were grasping.

Inside his hands were the girl's hands, holding the pot handle.

"...!?, wa, s-sorry!"

Yukiya hurriedly let go of the girl's hands. The girl's face had also turned bright red like a boiled octopus.

"Ah, n-no, I'm the one who should, s-sorry, umm, I'll guide you, to the clubroom, okay?"

The girl laughed awkwardly with a stiff face and began walking with jerky steps.

As Yukiya followed the girl, he reflected on his own actions.

(Holding a girl's hands... Seriously...?)

Looking at his own palms, Yukiya shuddered. Even if it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, what a bold thing he had done.

Holding hands with the opposite sex was something that hadn't happened in Yukiya's life until now. His hands had moved on their own to protect the curry, but he felt he had done something incredibly embarrassing. The sensation of the small, soft hands he had grasped still remained vividly on his palms. The girl looked like an elementary schooler, like a little sister. If this had been a girl who looked his age, he wouldn't have gotten off with just this much embarrassment.

Yukiya looked at the back of the small girl's head, positioned much lower than him, and sighed. Well, this was an accident. I might never hold a girl's hand again, he thought. That was how little connection he had with girls until now. And he likely wouldn't in the future either. Unless God decided to play a prank... Thinking that, he became a little sad. He wasn't crying, though.

While he was thinking about such things, Yukiya was being led to the club building.

The club building at Tama High was a magnificent structure made of concrete, just like the school building. The girl stopped in front of the room at the very west end of the fourth floor.

"We've arrived, it's here."

For some reason, music was leaking from the clubroom. Heavy bass sounds were thumping, doko doko doko, and he could tell even from the outside that it was playing at a considerable volume. It was at a level where he worried if noise complaints would come from the surrounding clubs.

"Um, what is this music?"

"B-BGM! For making curry!"

What kind of loud BGM do you play when making curry? Yukiya tilted his head.

Is it that thing where the food tastes better if you let it listen to music while it rests?

But wait, didn't they make it somewhere else and bring it here?

Harboring these doubts, Yukiya followed the girl through the opened door.

The clubroom was surprisingly spacious. Perhaps to welcome new students, the walls and windows were decorated like a party venue. However, there seemed to be no prior guests. No members either.

At the back of the room, a black CD deck and stereo system sitting on a shelf by the window were the source of the music. A simple wooden bench was placed by the window. And the center of the room, laid with hard flooring, was an empty space, as if it were a place to perform something.

But the most notable feature was the west wall of the clubroom.

One entire side was covered in mirrors. It was as if trying to reflect the entire clubroom.

As Yukiya stood dumbfounded at the entrance, the girl invited him to the bench, saying, "Please, right this way!" But Yukiya didn't move an inch.

"Um, over here?"

"...This is the Curry Club, right?"

"Y-Yes."

"You're lying."

He didn't have material to prove it, but the atmosphere the clubroom exuded was definitely not that of a cooking-related club.

"U-Umm, for now, won't you eat some curry?"

Laughing stiffly, the girl urged Yukiya. But Yukiya didn't move from the entrance.

Yukiya and the Super Dimension Cinderella stared at each other in a stalemate.

"...I'm going back after all."

"Eeeeh! W-Wait a minu—"

"I have retuuuurned!"

It happened just as Yukiya turned on his heel to leave the room.

A cheerful shout flew into the clubroom. At the same time, something soft and elastic crashed into him, and Yukiya was blown back into the clubroom with a boing.

"Oh my, white outfits are no good, huh. Curry splashed on it, so I have to wash it quickly... Wait, hare?"

The person who had entered was a girl wearing a white full-body bodysuit—Yukiya recalled it was called a Plug Suit—another cosplay outfit. He was pretty sure this character was supposed to have bluish-silver hair and red eyes, but she had a short cut with golden hair. It seemed to be her natural hair. Furthermore, her eyes were blue. That seemed natural too.

She was in a half-baked cosplay outfit—in other words, a foreigner.

She was tall enough that Yukiya had to look up, with a model-like figure. She blinked upon seeing Yukiya, and then—broke into a beaming smile.

"Oh! Welcome! Welcome!"

"Wa, whoa, wai—"

Yukiya received a passionate welcome and his face was smooshed into a bountiful chest that looked like it would burst the Plug Suit. He was nearly suffocated by the identity of the object that had just blown him back into the room. Apparently, this girl was also a member here. Are heaven and hell right next to each other...? As Yukiya thought this while his mind grew hazy from lack of oxygen...

"An applicant so soon! I am happy! I am thrilled! I am going to protect you!"

"——Bwah, what are you talking about! You don't need to protect me, actually right now you were about to end my life, and I never said I was joining!"

"Hare? Is that so? Then why are you here?"

Peeling off the foreigner who spoke in goofy broken Japanese, Yukiya caught his breath.

"...That girl over there invited me to eat curry."

"Hoh, the curry I made, yes!"

"You did?"

Yukiya looked the foreigner up and down. It might be a prejudice, but when Yukiya thought of curry, he thought of Indian people. But she had Northern European features. Added to her goofy behavior, she didn't seem like she would be good at cooking.

"Yes, I made it!"

"Is it good?"

"Of course! My UK-trained cooking skills are outstanding!"

"Isn't UK known as the country with bad food?"

At Yukiya's attitude, becoming instantly anxious, the foreigner placed her hands on her hips in dissatisfaction.

"Mu? That is the first I have heard of that. Come, come, it is delicious. Bon appétit."

"H-Hey!"

Shoulders grabbed firmly, Yukiya was marched to the bench. Forced to sit down without argument, the small girl was already standing beside him holding a plate of curry rice.

"Tama-chan, if you say 'Say aaahn' for him, he will probably be happy. I hear men of all times and places, young and old, are weak to 'Say aaahn'."

"Wait a sec, what's the source of that information?"

"T-Then, say aaahn."

"I don't need it! I don't need that kind of thing! I can eat by myself!"

The small girl shyly offered a spoon laden with curry.

However, Yukiya refused stubbornly. He practically snatched the plate and spoon away.

"Now, you are hungry, right? Go ahead, go ahead, take a big mouthful."

Stared at by the two girls, Yukiya muttered "Thanks for the food," and clasped his hands. The best course of action was to eat quickly and leave this place. Thinking that, he gripped the spoon that was stuck into the rice and carried the curry to his mouth.

"...!!"

At that taste, electricity ran through Yukiya's body.

"How is it?"

"................................................................................................It's delicious."

It was very unpleasant, but it was the truth.

"Reeeaaally?"

"Yeah. Really."

"Wow! Yatta, yatta yoo!"

The foreigner spun around and around with great stability. Yukiya couldn't help but stare at her shapely butt and hips. Her legs were wonderfully long, possessing an artistic beauty.

"Even so..."

Ignoring the blonde Plug Suit girl dancing in joy, Yukiya was silenced by the sheer deliciousness of the curry. It resembled the curry often eaten in Japanese households, but it was spicy yet had deep richness, and on top of that, was perfectly balanced with sweetness.

Could such a decent dish be born from the hands of that weird cosplay foreigner?

"Fiona-chan is very good at cooking. She said she learned curry from an Indian chef."

As Yukiya was puzzling over it, the small hamster girl sat down next to him. So it was the work of an Indian person. Then, it couldn't be helped.

"I haven't told you my name. I'm Tamami Miyahata. Call me whatever you like. And that over there is Fiona-chan."

"Haaai, I am called Fiona Singler. I am a British born in the UK. And you are?"

"...Yukiya Hino."

He hesitated a little, but Yukiya answered honestly. There was no need to hide his name.

"Yukiya-san, right. Ah, come, come, please eat the curry before it gets cold."

At Tamami's beaming smile, Yukiya moved his spoon saying, "Well then."

A demonic curry that increased his appetite the more he ate. While Yukiya was smacking his lips, Fiona, having apparently stained her outfit with curry while cooking, changed into her uniform and returned.

Crouching down in front of Yukiya, she looked up at him with upturned eyes.

"W-What?"

"Ufufu. If you join the club, I will make food for Yukiya any time, y'know?"

Apparently, recruitment time had begun. Yukiya pulled the spoon from his mouth and swallowed what was inside.

"It's true this curry was delicious. But I don't know if other dishes are good."

"Oh. I can do anything, Japanese or Western?"

"Fiona-chan is learning cooking from a three-star restaurant chef, so her skills are pro-level!"

With Tamami's backing, Fiona puffed out her chest with a humph. The magnificent roundness, like twin grapefruits pressed and restrained by her uniform, was emphasized almost to the point of bursting. It looked like it was going to explode.

"But still, 'any time' is impossible, right?"

"Any time?"

"For example, if I asked every day, would you make it?"

"Hmm. If you come to the clubroom every day, that is fine!"

Apparently, it was fine. Yukiya was taken aback, but quickly pulled himself together.

"I-I won't pay a single cent for ingredients. Are you saying that's still fine?"

Yukiya thought it was a stingy negotiation on his own part. But this was an unreasonable demand meant to make the other party back down. He didn't expect them to accept it.

However, Fiona nodded with a grin.

"Yes! I have fun making food. If you join, I will make meals for you with love every day for free!"

"Eh... Seriously?"

"Yes. Super seriously."

It was an exceptional offer. To be able to eat this high-level home cooking whenever he liked, every day. And for free.

To ease the burden on his working parents, Yukiya didn't have bentos made for him. For a growing high school boy who had no choice but to make do with the same fixed menu of the school cafeteria, or bread from the school store for lunch every day, it was a dream-like story.

"Free food... Home cooking..."

Yukiya agonized over it. It was a complete miscalculation; he never thought he would be agonizing over something like this.

"Yukiya-san, how about it? You just have to write your name on this paper."

Flip, what Tamami presented before Yukiya's eyes was a club registration form. Yukiya glared at the simple form, which only required writing his name.

"...Even if I join, I won't last long. I think I'll just be coming to the clubroom to eat food."

"So you're okay with joining!"

Tamami said, her eyes sparkling. Overwhelmed, Yukiya nodded instinctively.

"Um... well, as long as I'm not forced to participate..."

"We won't! Because this club respects autonomy!"

"Tama-chan. I'm taking your word for that."

"I don't mind!"

Yukiya and Tamami stared at each other.

Fiona's gaze went back and forth between the two of them as she remained crouched.

After a while, Yukiya gave his answer.

"...Alright. I'm only writing my name."

"R-Really! Yay!"

Beside Tamami and Fiona, who were holding hands and rejoicing, Yukiya signed the registration form. Retracting the tip of his ballpoint pen, he suddenly noticed that the club name on the paper was blank.

"Hey,"

"Ah, you wrote it."

Whoosh.

The registration form was snatched from Yukiya's hand at a speed that it was impossible to see.

The paper settled in Tamami's hand as if it had teleported. Blinking his eyes at the sight, Yukiya called out again.

"Hey."

"Yes?"

"What is it?"

To the two girls staring at him wonderingly, Yukiya asked a question that was already far too late.

"In the first place, what club is th—"

Before Yukiya could ask anyone, clack, the sound of the clubroom door opening was heard.

When he turned around, a single girl was just walking in.

""Ah.""

Yukiya and the girl raised their voices at the same time.

The black ponytail tied with a deep crimson ribbon looked familiar. Her slightly slanted eyes were staring at Yukiya in confusion.

It was the girl who had handed him the flyer earlier.

"...The butt fetish girl."

"Who's got a butt fetish?! Who?! Don't lump me together with you, you pervert!"

Yukiya's mutter was denied with full force by the black-haired girl. Moreover, he was treated as a pervert. To Fiona asking, "Are you two acquaintances?" Both Yukiya and the girl replied vaguely, "Sort of."

"Welcome back, Riko-chan! Thank you for handing out all the recruitment flyers! Yukiya-san, this is Riko Asada-chan."

The girl called Riko glanced at Yukiya brusquely. There were no friendly words of greeting from her, unlike Tamami or Fiona.

"Riko, I told you I would cosplay as Rei, so I asked you to cosplay as Asuka. Even though I went to the trouble of preparing a red Plug Suit so that you and I could become Eva."

"I told you I wouldn't wear it. What's the point of having to dress like that?"

"Tama-chan wore hers properly, Ranka-chan from Macross Frontier."

"I don't even know that. I always think this, but you guys know way too much about old anime."

"We don't even count as knowing too much."

Riko lightly brushed off Fiona, who was complaining boo-boo. Watching her, Yukiya blinked.

"Eh. Um, by any chance, are you a member here?"

To Yukiya asking fearfully, the black-haired ponytail girl called Riko nodded with a complicated expression.

"I am, you got a problem?"

"No, not a problem, but..."

Yukiya looked at the registration form that was already in Tamami's hands.

The blank club name. The letters on the flyer he received earlier.

"Um, I'm going to ask something obvious, but."

"What?"

He was glared at. It was scary, but Yukiya had to confirm.

"Umm, don't tell me, this place is..."

"The Social Dance Club."

At the answer from Riko's mouth, which was in a sense exactly as expected, Yukiya held his head and groaned.

Then, he bitterly regretted himself for losing to his appetite and carelessly signing his name.

＊ ＊ ＊

"M-Man, it was awful..."

Haruki, who had returned to the classroom for the end of the day homeroom, began to recount the tragedy that had unfolded the moment he saw Yukiya's face.

"I thought it was the Photography Club, but it was the Low-Angle Research Club for low-anglers... And I have to cross-dress too..."

Low-anglers were people who took photos of cosplayers from a low position. Apparently, they used to be on Head line for taking pictures of cosplayers on the streets of Akihabara, Tokyo.

"Isn't it fine? You're cuter than some clumsy girls."

"Don't call me cute, idiot!"

Haruki slammed the desk with a bam. He roughly scratched his bangs, which were pinned back with a hair clip.

"Jeez, it's not fine at all! What's so sad is that I have to wear a frilly mini-skirt and have my panties photographed from below!! I'm a guy!"

It seemed Haruki was also a victim of sophisticated scam. Moreover, from what he said, he had already had his panties photographed. With his feminine face and slender build, Haruki must have been perfect prey for the Low-Angle Research Club. Lately, Yukiya had been hearing that the demand for cross-dressing boys was high too. Though he didn't know from which demographic that demand came.

Victim... though they might say so, once he joined, it was too late.

Tama High had no kind system like provisional enrollment; official enrollment was decided by a single sheet of paper. This allows each club to easily recruit freshmen who walk in without knowing anything as official members. For the freshmen, it was a demonic system with no mercy or compassion.

Furthermore, there was a kick-when-you're-down school rule that stated you couldn't quit a club for one month after joining, so for now, they had no choice but to cry themselves to sleep.

"I know, Haruki. You're a man."

Yukiya patted the shoulder of his friend, who was slumped face-down on the desk crying, as if to encourage him. Haruki had a complex about his feminine face since middle school. It must be sad, it must be frustrating, I understand those feelings well. Yukiya trying to convey this to Haruki.

"So, Yukiya. Did you end up not joining anywhere?"

Sniff, Haruki sniffled and looked up. Yukiya let out a dry laugh.

"What's with that laugh?"

"...They got me."

Or rather, he was just an idiot.

Haruki tilted his head.

"Then, you joined? Where?"

"The Social Dance Club."

At Yukiya's answer, given with distant eyes, Haruki's eyes widened in shock.

"So... Social Dance? You're joking, right? You?"

"As if I'm joking. I wrote my name on the registration form clearly and distinctly, damn it all."

"Social Dance... isn't that something grandpas and grandmas do?"

"Isn't the grandpa and grandma thing a story from the past? There were only girls our age in the club."

Social Dance or Ballroom dance is one of the most beloved and oldest forms of dance in the world. In the past, it was considered a minor sport... but now it is a relatively major existence, and its competitive population far exceeds that of ice skating.

Currently, it has been over ten years since dance became a compulsory subject in middle school physical education. Amidst advancing internationalization, Ballroom dance has long been considered a "cultivated skill" for communication in Western Europe, so the importance for Japanese people to learn it has increased. For that reason, it is often chosen for classes, and the number of young people in the streets who can dance Ballroom dance is increasing.

It was the influence of being adopted as an Olympic sport in recent years. Celebrities were often shown dancing on television, and there were even special programs broadcast where this comedian and that actress aimed for victory in dance competitions. Note that everything up to here is secondhand information from Fiona and Tamami.

However, at Yukiya and Haruki's middle school, Ballroom dance wasn't selected for classes. Whether one had this education in middle school or not largely divided those who knew about it from those who didn't. Those who knew often loved it enthusiastically, but Yukiya and his friend were the latter. They were practically ignorant. Since there was no folk dance at their sports festival either, Yukiya and his friend had absolutely no opportunities to hold hands with girls. So, Yukiya and his friend's knowledge remained, naturally, stuck in the old ways.

"It's the one where you hold hands with girls even more than folk dance and dance while pressed close together, right? You were interested in that kind of thing?"

At Haruki's words, Yukiya glared back sharply.

"Do you think I would be?"

"Ah, sorry. That's true... But, why on earth?"

"Don't ask."

To maintain his pride, he couldn't say I was lured by food.

Before, when he demanded, "Why did you disguise it as the Curry Club?", Tamami cracked a dad joke: "It wasn't a disguise. It was to dance curryfully." She tried to gloss it over with a "Kira~☆" pose and wink, though.

So he ended up joining the Social Dance/Dance curryfully Club. It was ludicrous beyond measure. Yukiya felt like right now, he could give a bitter smile even if his chopsticks just rolled over.

"But, you can hold hands with girls and go kya-kya ufufu, can't you? I have to become a girl and go kya-kya ufufu. your place is definitely better Yukiya, totally better... Normies should just explode."

At Haruki's grudge, Yukiya was extremely calm. He seemed to have reached a state of enlightenment.

"Sure, for guys who'd be happy about it, it's probably a happy situation... But I'm not really expecting that kind of thing. Holding hands with a girl makes me nervous, and I'm not interested in dancing itself."

"I'm not interested in cross-dressing either... Sigh."

The two boys had distant looks in their eyes. Around them, classmates who had met similar fates and been forced into unwanted clubs were leaking sighs as if it were the end of the world.

"But hey. The Social Dance Club you joined, that's different from that 'Competitive Dance Club', right?"

Haruki raised his face as if remembering.

There was one more club at Tama High that did Ballroom dance. In fact, this one was more famous.

Called the "Competitive Dance Club," they performed Ballroom dance mainly for the purpose of entering competitions—in other words, a club doing "Competitive Dance." Their activities were vigorous, they had many achievements like winning tournaments, and it was said they were given a large amount of incentive money from the school. Because of that, applicants flooded in every year without them even doing recruitment activities, and apparently only those selected from among them could join.

"I think it's totally different," Yukiya declared.

The one he joined was a small club established just this year with a total of four members, including Yukiya. There was absolutely no glamorous or active impression. Either way, whether it was Social Dance or Competitive Dance, the fact that Yukiya had no interest was the same.

When homeroom ended, Yukiya and Haruki left the classroom together. The two always walked to the station together on their way home.

"So, what are you gonna do?"

By the time they left the school gate, Haruki asked Yukiya that. Yukiya understood without needing to confirm that it was a continuation of the club talk. Haruki's melancholy expression told the whole story.

"What am I gonna do? I can't quit for a month anyway. I'll just go with the flow and submit a withdrawal form when the time is right."

From the start, Yukiya had no intention of participating seriously. At Yukiya's statement, Haruki nodded, hanging his head.

"That's true, I'll do the same... Ahh, my flowery high school club life is off to the worst start..."

The shadows of the two high school boys walking with slumped shoulders stretched emptily along the roadside. In contrast to that gloom, the lively voices of the soccer, baseball, and track and field clubs echoed resonantly around them.

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