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Everyone's gaze naturally drifted toward the doorway.
There, the girl's dark red hair was tied on both sides with bright red ribbons into twin ponytails. Her petite figure was wrapped in the fitted ANHS uniform.
The short white pleated skirt, paired with over-knee black stockings, left a tantalizing strip of bare thigh between hem and fabric—the kind of "absolute territory" that drew the eye without even trying.
Her irises were a dark, almost golden brown, framed by long, slightly curled lashes. On her face sat an innocent, guileless smile—yet that smile carried a playful, inscrutable air, as if she neither saw herself as a mere freshman nor took any of the upperclassmen present seriously.
She might be on the smaller side, but she had more than enough to fill out the uniform's lines into very pleasant curves. She couldn't quite compare to Ichinose, but she could at least stand shoulder to shoulder with Kushida—and completely crushed Sakayanagi in that department.
Once they'd finished sizing her up, everyone's eyes converged on Yukio. The student council recruited new first-years every year.
Yukio and Ichinose were classic examples—they'd both joined back during Manabu's tenure as president.
So now, with a new first-year applying, and not just any first-year but one who'd been placed directly into Class 1-A, bold enough to walk in here on day one… her first impression wasn't bad at all, but what they thought didn't really matter.
They'd all been on the council long enough to understand that the current student council was, for all intents and purposes, a one-man show under Yukio.
Whether Amasawa got in or not ultimately came down to his decision alone.
Yukio didn't seem particularly fazed. He glanced lazily toward Kiriyama. "How did new-member recruitment work before, again?"
Kiriyama didn't dare slack off. He quickly recalled the old standards. "If a first-year wanted to join the student council—aside from being directly invited by the president—there were three normal requirements."
"First is the internal council test, to gauge basic academics. Second is their status and influence within their class—usually, they need to be someone who can actually unify the class. Third is the existing council members' approval."
Simple enough. Yukio nodded, but he didn't tell Amasawa to sit and take a test right there. Instead he waved his hand.
"Got it. For other first-years who want to join, we'll stick to that system, but as a reward for being the first one to come knocking on the very first day of school, I'll interview this junior myself. If she passes, you'll all have a new coworker."
"That's all. You can head out for now."
"?" Kiriyama blinked in mild confusion. A reward for coming on day one? Just an interview and done? Then why did he bother explaining all that?
Ryuen, on the other hand, had no complaints—he'd been itching to leave anyway. He did, however, ask about the unresolved topic from earlier. "And the reward?"
Since it wasn't clear whether Amasawa would pass Yukio's interview or not, he didn't mention the exam reward outright, just said the reward.
Yukio settled it in one sentence. "Just set it to the maximum. No need to argue."
Once he said that, nobody else was going to push back. One by one, they accepted the decision without complaint. Kiriyama and Ryuen left together.
Sakayanagi and Kushida, meanwhile, both gave Yukio a strange sidelong look, as if to say, You're not planning to go after your junior, are you?
But that was the kind of thought you kept to yourself, not something you said out loud. So Sakayanagi left with Horikita in tow, and Kushida tugged Ichinose along as they exited.
The student council room door closed again, leaving only Yukio and Amasawa inside.
Once the door was shut, Yukio leaned back in the president's chair and comfortably crossed one leg over the other.
"So, Amasawa-san, right? Let's hear it—what are you actually here for?"
"Eh?"
Amasawa had been wondering what kind of interview questions he'd hit her with. She hadn't expected that opening line, and even she—second-ranked among the fifth-generation White Room kids—needed a second to catch up.
Yukio found that pretty amusing. "What's wrong? Planning to keep secrets?"
"We can walk through the timing," he said. "Each class has a different time slot to pick up textbooks. Even if your class was last among the first-years, you couldn't be that much later than us."
"On top of that, according to the student council schedule, club recruitment isn't until Friday after school. Today's only Monday."
"With no club responsibilities you'd need to request time off for… If you really decided during the entrance ceremony that you wanted to join the council, shouldn't you have come here the moment school ended? Knocked before our meeting even started?"
"Instead, you waited until we were basically done—let's see…" He glanced at his phone. "This meeting's been going for about half an hour. You show up just as we're wrapping up."
"So where were you for that half hour, junior? Lost on campus?"
There was one other hidden detail Yukio didn't even bother to factor in: the school had homeroom teachers hand out school phones to the new first-years and explain their monthly private-point allotment.
The reason he didn't mention it was simple—this always happened before the entrance ceremony. Last year, his year had gotten their phones before theirs, too.
Amazing, Amasawa thought, genuinely impressed. No wonder the Tsukishiro had praised him so highly and urged her to get on his good side.
Most people would never notice something like that. None of the other council members had questioned it—only this Yukio-senpai had.
With that in mind, Amasawa decided not to hide anything.
"Heehee, senpai really is sharp~ I don't have any reason to lie about that. For that half hour, I was with a few other new students from different classes. The acting chairman called us in."
Technically, that was supposed to be confidential—at least from the upperclassmen, but since Tsukishiro had specifically told her to come to the council and befriend Yukio, it wasn't hard to guess what she was allowed to disclose.
He'd clearly sent her for Yukio's sake. Yukio understood the message immediately.
So Amasawa had been sent by Tsukishiro. And at this age, with that kind of background, it wasn't hard to connect the dots: Amasawa was a White Room product.
One of those students the facility had cultivated after Ayanokouji—the next generation, so to speak.
Mmm. Things were getting more and more interesting. Tsukishiro wasn't just trying to privately cozy up to him—now he was sending White Room students to do the same?
Yukio's curiosity only deepened. He gestured toward a nearby chair.
"Then, junior—mind telling me what exactly the acting chairman said when he called you in?"
"'Course I don't mind~" Amasawa plopped down happily, her expression turning mischievous.
"I love strong people!" She twirled a strand of hair around her finger as she explained. "If it were anyone else asking, I'd totally ignore them. But if it's someone as strong as Yukio-senpai, I'll answer anything you want~"
"Earlier, the director-san summoned me, one boy from Class 1-B, one boy and one girl from Class 1-C, and one boy and one girl from Class 1-D."
"He said we're the most outstanding talents among the first-years so far, so we need to keep it secret from the others—he's giving us a special private exam."
"As long as we can get second-year Class D's Ayanokouji-senpai expelled, each of us gets twenty million private points."
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