What a twist! The loser heroine!

The boy shook his head and turned on the tap.

Tap water on rainy days may contain bacteria, making it the worst time to taste warm water, something he would normally avoid. But today, for some reason, he suddenly wanted to—

"..."

He brought his cheek close to the faucet.

I took a light sniff, as if trying to gauge the concentration of the chlorine smell.

"what?"

The boy's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

Is it an illusion?

Why does tap water sometimes smell like flowers?

~Thirtieth Defeat~ Preparations

May 10th, Saturday, cloudy.

"Yoshiki, I'm going out."

"Brother, have a safe journey."

Such conversations didn't seem to happen often between the Wen Shui siblings on Saturday mornings in the past.

Yoshiki watched his older brother's departing figure and pursed his lips slightly.

"My elder brother seems to have been quite busy lately..."

She muttered to herself as she closed the door.

Walking to the coffee table where desserts were laid out, Yoshiki sat on the cushions and gently picked up a beautifully covered light novel, but had no intention of reading it carefully.

She put the book down somewhat dejectedly.

I woke up early as if by reflex and made breakfast, neatly arranging dried fruit and desserts to refresh myself and prevent boredom. But the warm embrace that always waited for me on weekend mornings was no longer there.

She hugged her knees, picked up her phone, and stared intently at the Line group messages she had shared with her older brother.

"A book signing event on Sunday...?"

She murmured softly, her mind racing, not even noticing that her phone had fallen to the floor.

"Brother..."

It's supposed to be the season moving towards summer, and it's supposed to be the first day of sunshine—

The girl curled up.

"Yoshiki, it's getting a bit cold."

◇

Kazuhiko Wenshui never imagined that one day he would be taking a bus to school on a Saturday.

In my previous junior high school years, I might have returned to school on Saturdays during holidays, but this was the first time I had experienced it during the school term.

Stepping onto the familiar bus doors, Wen Shuiheyan subconsciously searched for a figure in each seat. After standing frozen at the door for several seconds, he awkwardly scratched his cheek at the empty bus.

"What am I thinking about..."

He sighed, and sat down in the seat closest to the car door, clutching his schoolbag.

The bus slowly drove along the road beside the river, and Wen Shui stared blankly at the clouds in the clear sky.

As usual, nothing happened, and he got off the train at the Shilu High School station.

"Ah, we've arrived at school."

He roused himself and strode toward the campus, which was surrounded by the shadows of trees.

The school gates were not locked on Saturday. It was 7:40 a.m., and there was still some time before the required assembly time of 8:00 a.m., which gave him just enough time to walk to the school's small auditorium.

Wen Shui's control over the journey and time has long been honed to perfection through every battle during breaks to avoid having her seat taken.

"Wen Shui...you've arrived..."

Wen Shui looked up and saw the student council secretary, Shikiya Yumeko, standing next to the school gate.

She was still dressed in her usual slovenly manner, completely disregarding school rules, except now she was holding a pen and paper and seemed to be writing something down.

"Oh, it's Shikiya-senpai. Good morning."

Wen Shui stepped through the iron gate and greeted her senior.

Shikiya Yumeko did not reply, but silently walked with stiff steps to Numizu's side.

“Last one…” She looked at Wen Shui and then checked Wen Shui’s name on the list.

[Oh, I see. They're recording the number of people.]

After registering the last student, Shikiya and Onami walked together to the small auditorium.

Along the way, the strange, unsteady gait of Shikiya-senpai made Wen Shui think from time to time that she was about to fall. However, Wen Shui He Yan, who had already begun to record the senior's behavior, knew that this was actually the senior's normal way of walking, so he didn't say anything more.

Unexpectedly, the senior student spoke first.

"Warm water... classmate..."

"Is there a problem?"

"Yesterday... what did you and my uncle... talk about?" She turned her face and looked at Wen Shui with her milky white eyes.

[Is Shikiya-senpai's uncle Mr. Shikiya Amami?]

He recalled his conversation with the two leaders in the student council room yesterday, and then said, "Mr. Shikiya said that I have helped the senior students a lot at school recently, and then asked me to help you more at school."

Upon hearing this, Shikiya-senpai said softly, "Uncle said...you're a good...classmate."

"Thank you for the compliment." Wen Shui cautiously accepted the praise: "Speaking of which, was Shi Lu able to participate in the preparations for this book signing event because of your senior, right?"

Shikiya nodded: "The school committee... has been requesting the student council... to hold a relatively large event... to promote Ishiba."

“The president couldn’t find a good way…” she explained. “This book signing event… the president thought it was a good opportunity, so… I called my uncle.”

Wen Shui suddenly understood: "Ah, I see—"

The school committee and student council contacted Shikiya's uncle through her connections and successfully obtained a booth for promotional purposes.

The story unfolds naturally, in line with the reality of Japanese interpersonal relationships that my father has always complained about.

He smiled and turned his gaze to the small auditorium not far away. The doors of this somewhat Western-style building were wide open, and students in Shilu school uniforms were constantly going in and out, seemingly quite busy.

Huh? Wasn't it supposed to be 8 o'clock?

Wen Shui glanced at her watch in surprise. It wasn't time yet!

Clearly, Wen Shui, who considers himself a Yin angle, overlooked a common trait among Yang angles—they always arrive early before the event starts.

"Yesterday...the preparatory work was already assigned at the mobilization meeting..."

As if she already knew what Wen Shui was thinking, Shikiya-senpai pointed to several students carrying plastic bags filled with cardstock and explained, "Those students... are in charge of the props group... moving materials."

After saying that, she pointed to two outstanding-looking students who were holding a stack of speech notes: "Those two... will be participating in the pre-exhibition presentation and Q&A session tomorrow..."

"Huh? There are these kinds of steps too?"

"Yes... considering Xiao Ju's performance at yesterday's mobilization meeting..." the senior student said softly, "the president is a little worried..."

Oh right, Ju Jingyi ran away amidst the applause yesterday.

[While it might be a little strange that the author didn't conduct the Q&A session, but—]

Wen Shui considered the various possible scenarios if Xiao Ju were to participate in the Q&A session in front of a large number of readers. After experiencing a period of empathetic embarrassment, she voted in favor of the student council president's wise decision.

Wen Shui said with a sigh, "It's really well-organized. By the way, senior, I've been assigned to the logistics team. What exactly will I be doing?"

The one who answered Wen Shui's question in place of the senior was President Fang Huyuan, who came to the two of them.

"Please try your best to help other groups whenever they need it."

Oh, it's just miscellaneous work. That's fine though.

The president nodded to Shikiya-senpai: "Secretary, thank you for your hard work."

"It's nothing... I'm going... to check the situation..."

After saying that, Shikiya-senpai left without looking back.

Fang Huyuan smiled and turned to look at Wen Shui: "Then, Wen Shui, I'll take you to the logistics team."

"Uh, isn't this a bit inappropriate? It looks like I'm the one who's late."

"Is there a problem? Anyway, I saw that almost everyone had arrived, so I announced in advance that the preparations had begun."

"Please consider someone like me who likes to arrive at school on time..." Wen Shui said helplessly. The student council president's work habits were just as unconventional as her personality.

Fang Hu seemed not to hear Wen Shui's words and led him through the busy crowd in the small auditorium.

Looking around, the props students were cutting various pieces of cardstock into designed patterns and then gluing them together; the decoration students were busy proofreading the final design, and there seemed to be a quarrel, with Hiroto Sakurai mediating on the side.

Wen Shui spotted Himegami Karen among the props team members. Upon seeing Wen Shui, she immediately smiled and waved to him.

[Huh? She seemed a bit down on the bus yesterday, but why is she like this today...]

Thinking this, Wen Shui nodded to Ji Gong as a greeting.

Himeko smiled and showed him the black diamond ornament in her hand before turning her attention back to her work.

She was currently decorating a black cloak with two second-year female students. It was said that Xiao Ju would wear the cloak herself tomorrow, as it was said to enhance her Yin-Yang attributes or something.

"You and Himegami seem to have a good relationship," President Hokhara said with a smile.

"Eh? Is that so?"

"Is this something that's hard to tell?" She turned to look at Wen Shui, seemingly somewhat surprised.

"maybe……"

Wen Shui avoided eye contact, silently turning her head to the side and saying nothing more.

Fang Huyuan Yun Que didn't press further. She explained to Wen Shui as if introducing the situation, "Because there aren't many people, we haven't assigned many people to handle logistics. Besides you, there are only two of us."

She led Wen Shui to a corner of the small auditorium, where two people who looked very familiar to Wen Shui were sitting on the chairs.

One of them was a brown-haired girl from my class whom I had only briefly seen in the student council room that day. She had a very faint presence and was methodically folding the cardstock in her hand into the shape of a star. She seemed to have been assigned some tasks by the props team.

Another student, also a classmate of Wen Shui, seemed to have just finished helping other students and was resting while popping broad beans into her mouth. Upon seeing Wen Shui, she immediately waved and greeted her.

"Good morning, Wen Shui. I didn't expect you to be in the logistics team too."

Her voice seemed the same as yesterday, sounding somewhat tired and low.

"Ah, good morning, Banami-kun. Please help me with today's preparations."

Wen Shui glanced at Hanami Anna, who was chewing broad beans loudly. She'd actually been assigned to the logistics team…

Banami waved her hand dismissively: "Don't be so polite."

The student council president said with a smile, "The school committee still needs to talk to me. Ma Ti is already urging me. Since you know each other, I won't bother you any longer."

After saying that, she left.

"The student council members all look very busy today."

Looking at the upright figure of Fang Huyuan Yun Que, Wen Shui murmured to himself.

"Anyone with eyes can see that there are too many things to do and too little time to prepare. Everyone is so serious now, probably because of tomorrow's book signing event."

As Banai said this, she pulled out a gummy candy from somewhere and popped it into her mouth.

Upon hearing this, Wenshui turned around and looked at Yanami Anana.

"It sounds like you have a lot of experience in this area, Yanami-kun."

"After all, I often attend my classmates' gatherings."

[I see, so it sounds like another skill I can't learn.]

"Oh, right, I haven't introduced you yet." Banami slumped back into her chair, gesturing to the brown-haired girl beside her: "This is our classmate, her name is... um... her name is..."

Perhaps because the girl's presence was so faint, Yana suddenly couldn't remember her name.

Upon hearing this, the girl immediately stopped what she was doing, nodded to the warm water, and said understandingly: