011: A Lotus in the mud

We were currently in the student council room.

"So about your works being a member of the student council-"

"I won't do anything." I cut short the braided girl who was about to explain those troublesome rules about the student council works and all and push some work onto me. She had a bundle of papers in her hands. It was a real pain in the ass. I don't want to do any work. That was the reason why I joined the student council in the first place. Upon hearing my response the braided girl narrowed her eyes on me but didn't say anything. She wordlessly placed the papers on the table.

I was sitting on the sofa or maybe sleeping would be more accurate here.

The glasses boy who had been watching me with bloodshot eyes finally snapped. "Hey, who do you think you are? As much as I hope you to just disappear right this moment, you are a member of the student council. That means you have to conduct yourself in a manner befitting a student council member and do your works properly. But you are doing nothing. And not to mention, you have the guts to sleep in the council room in front of the student council president."

Yes. When I arrived and laid down on the sofa, Shizuku Aina had been here the whole time. She was resting her hands on the table, folded in front of her face, and watching me through the gaps.

I got up. The glasses boy was out of breath. He did rant so loudly after all.

"You said that you were better than me, no?" Shizuku addressed me with her eyes. "I see. The ability that you were talking about was lazying around. In that case, I must say that I am no match for you. I can't stay doing nothing for such long hours. I admit defeat and I acknowledge that you are better at this than me." With a smirk, she gave me a slight bow. The braided girl's lips were curled up slightly while the glasses boy was grinning.

"Thank you for the compliment." I returned her smirk. "But, well, I now understand." I rested my head on the sofa.

"What do you mean you understand?" She asked.

"That you guys aren't as competent as others made you be."

"Huh?" The one to raise his eyebrows immediately was the glasses boy.

"After all, you were trying to push your works onto me, right?" They had confused looks on their faces but I continued with my pointless rambling. "The student council members who are praised by teachers and students alike for being so diligent and so talented can't do simple student council works. To cover for your incompetence you people are making me do your work. How pathetic. I didn't expect that you weren't even capable of doing something so simple, Aina. Well, no need to worry. I will handle all these works myself for you incompetent fools." Saying that I gave an arrogant smirk to the glasses boy and exaggeratedly walked towards the table where the braided girl had put the papers.

I lowered my back a little to reach for the papers. But before I could, the papers were snatched so swiftly that I was taken aback by it. Aina had just seized those papers before I could even touch them.

"Don't concern yourself with it, Kage. This much is nothing!" She snorted and took the papers back with her to her desk. She furiously started to check them. The glasses boy also jumped in and took a third of the papers saying, "This is a walk in the park for me."

They were so concentrated on their work that I was amazed. They really were diligent.

Admiring their hard work I sat down on the sofa when a voice said from beside me, "That was underhanded." The braided girl grumbled.

"They are the ones at fault for being so easy to spur on."

She was disgruntled but agreed to what I said. "Geh. That's...true."

This was the first time I had heard her speak. Despite how her appearance gives a childish vibe, her voice was mature. She seemed to be able to think calmly. She was the only one who didn't give in to my provocation unlike the two whose pens were now giving off steam due to overwriting.

"By the way, what's your name?"

"You don't even know that?"

"Sorry."

She sighed. "It's Matsushita Keiko."

"And what about his?" I pointed at the glasses boy.

"Why not ask him directly?"

"He looks a bit busy right now." She looked at him. "Sure, he does. Tanaka Koshiro."

Matsushita Keiko and Tanaka Koshiro. I committed their names to my memory.

After thirty minutes the two of them finished their works. I was impressed. Completing all those papers in thirty minutes is a huge feat. I commended them internally.

They looked tired. The braided girl, Matsushita, then brewed some coffee and poured it in four cups. Surprisingly enough, she had made a cup for me as well. I was sure she will only make for them three.

"Thanks." I thanked her as I took the cup from the white tray.

In silence, the four of us drank our coffee. The worn-off look that Aina and Tanaka had had started dissipating along with the steam of the coffee.

By the time Aina put her cup on the table with a clank everyone had already finished their drink.

"So, let's begin with the report." She declared. Tanaka and Matsushita lined up horizontally in front of her. Now that I remember, every day, before they were dismissed, the members had to report about the school activities that they heard or saw today.

Aina looked at me. She was probably expecting me to join as well but I just shrugged in response. She gave me an annoyed look and turned her attention towards the two standing in front of her.

The two gave a detailed and concise report about what had happened around school today. Like how a boy broke a flower vase and how there was some trouble in the basketball club. Since I had nothing to do with it I was just sitting there idly trying to see what the shape of the cloud outside was.

That was when something caught my attention. "It seems Ito Yua has been refraining from doing those stuff lately." It was Matsushita who said this.

The response that she received from Aina was just a simple, "I see." She had an expression that I had never seen before on her face. It contained pity, sympathy, compassion, and moreover utter disgust. That piqued my interest.

"That's all." Tanaka ended the reporting with that statement.

"Good work you two. Keep on performing well. Show the fool over there how competent you are."

"Yes!" Tanaka spoke in a loud voice brimming with confidence.

"Um, this fool here has some questions." I raised my hand.

"What's the matter, Mr. Fool?"

"Why hasn't the student council intervened in Ito Yua's case?"

Her expression changed immediately. It seems like I had hit a sore point.

"I make it a point not to play with or even stir the mud. It will stain me after all." Her voice was laced with disdain.

"But shouldn't the student council try to solve this issue? Isn't this affecting the whole school environment?" Nobody talked about it openly. But everyone was affected by it one way or the other.

"When even the school administration has chosen to stay silent then why us, the student council, who is hierarchically lower than the school administration, should act on our own?"

I didn't know what she was thinking. Something must have happened or maybe it was her own belief not to stick her nose in such matters. It seemed like she didn't want to stick her hands into this muddy mess of Ito Yua.

Most people in the world will agree with her statement. If you throw a stone in the mud, it will stain your clothes. So it's better to not touch them at all. I somewhat agreed with her reasoning.

But even then, I posed a counterargument. "But who knows? Maybe a beautiful lotus was growing in that deep mud? Maybe if you had stirred the mud slightly to let even a single ray of light down, then maybe it would have reached the lotus inside which would have in turn bloomed it into the most beautiful flower ever? Don't you ever feel the lotus might have been waiting for someone to shine that single ray of light on it? All while hiding its true beauty within that dirty, deep, dark mud."

I got up from the sofa. When I looked at Aina, she was staring right back at me with her eyes widened in surprise. The other two were speechless.

Without saying anything anymore, I left the student council room.

When I closed the big wooden door behind me, the room inside was eerily silent.