Alex ate lunch with Ai and the other girls. Yui, being in a different year, wasn't present, and neither was Yuki.
After lunch, Makoto suggested they go check out the clubroom, and Alex agreed. As for Natsuha Shinomiy, since she wasn't particularly close with Makoto and the others, she politely chose not to tag along.
The familiar group of girls walked down the corridor. Makoto Himeyama wasn't interested in the transfer student who caused the commotion yesterday, but she had fierce complaints about the club Alex had taken over.
"The 'Erotic Instruction Club' name... it's just too bizarre, isn't it? Couldn't you choose a proper club?" Makoto Himeyama complained, continuing, "It's embarrassing. I feel shy even mentioning such a weird club name to anyone."
"Then don't mention it. It's an internal club anyway," Alex secretly pinched her waist, making the girl let out a small, affectionate yelp.
"Even so, it's still so shameful! It sounds exactly like... like one of those indecent, debauched clubs." She whispered.
"What are you thinking? It is a debauched club. You didn't think it was a proper club, did you?"
"..."
"..."
Alex's comment earned him eye-rolls from Chiaki and Ai. The group left the teaching block and stepped into the club building. Upon seeing the plaque on the door reading 'Erotic Instruction Room,' they all blushed fiercely.
They felt too shy to even look at it properly.
"Huh?" Alex pushed the door open. To his surprise, there was someone inside: Suz, the blue-haired, expressionless girl.
As a member of the club, her presence was logical, but Alex was still taken aback. The girl was sitting at a desk near the window, eating her bento. The empty clubroom, combined with Suz's emotionless face, created a particularly lonely aura around her.
Ai and the others hadn't expected anyone to be there, and their gazes all went to Alex.
"Suz? Why are you here?"
"Am I not allowed to be here? I am a club member, aren't I?" Suz, who had looked up at their entrance, spoke in a flat voice. Her clear, bell-like voice did not match her cold expression, and her tone seemed slightly agitated.
Especially after seeing the beautiful girls peering out from behind Alex.
The agitation became more apparent.
"Of course you can, but don't you feel lonely eating by yourself here? I thought you'd be at the Student Council..." Since she was a member of the Student Council, after all.
"Alex, who is she?"
Chiaki looked at Alex, then at the expressionless Suz, asking out of curiosity. Makoto had been nudging her shoulder, forcing Chiaki to speak up, since Makoto was too embarrassed to ask herself.
"This is Suz. We met yesterday because of that transfer student. She's also a club member."
Alex made the introduction.
"A member?" Ai approached Alex with a strange look. Her scent drifted towards him, followed by a light huff. "Alex, didn't you say this was an internal club? Why did someone else join?"
"Uh..."
Also, how could a girl join this sort of lewd, delinquent club? It makes me question your relationship.
Alex's mouth twitched. He subtly reached out and squeezed her firm buttock. Although her chest wasn't massive, the gyaru's rear was extremely perky. The bouncy feel of her buttock, firmer than an air-filled balloon, made his hand linger.
"Suz and I have just a normal relationship..."
The gyaru's jealousy quickly faded, not because of Alex's explanation, but simply because he was groping her.
Clack!
The sound of a bento box closing was abrupt. Alex quickly withdrew his hand. They all looked over to see the blue-haired girl put away her lunchbox and stand up expressionlessly. "I was planning to go to the Student Council after lunch... Of course, if you don't want me here, I can quit the club."
She stared at Alex as she spoke, but Ai Kitakami felt as if the girl was questioning her. Did she hear what Alex and I just said?
Something felt off.
"No, I didn't mean that, Suz, you misunderstood. I just thought you looked a bit lonely sitting in the clubroom all by yourself..."
This did not change Suz's expression. The girl just looked at Alex calmly, nodded, and then silently walked past them, leaving the clubroom.
However, before leaving, she glanced at Makoto and the others. Although the look was completely calm, just a regular glance, it still made Makoto Himeyama jump.
"Phew—"
Watching the girl's slender shoulders and retreating figure disappear, Makoto patted her chest, still feeling uneasy. "I don't know why, but I just feel like she's a little scary."
"I feel that way too. Was she angry?" Chiaki put a finger to her lips, murmuring.
"She was definitely angry," Ai was more perceptive. "And it has something to do with you, Alex?"
"To do with me? What do you mean? It must be your mistake," Alex said, confused. "I didn't provoke her... You must be misunderstanding. Suz is naturally emotionless and deadpan like that."
"..."
The girls exchanged glances. Ai sighed and pinched his face. "You're so sensitive about so many things, but then you get so dense right now. Honestly—"
"I'm dense? You must be joking. How can you tell anything from Suz's emotionless expression?"
Chiaki and the others couldn't explain it either. It was just a feeling, a feminine intuition that they couldn't elaborate on. Alex was destined not to get an explanation here. Meanwhile, Suz arrived at the Student Council room, clutching her half-eaten bento box.
Creak—
Unsurprisingly, she found her older sister, Kaede, and her childhood friend, Hayato, inside the Student Council room.
They were sitting on opposite ends of the sofa, each eating their own lunch.
"Suz, where did you go?" Seeing her arrive, Kaede, who had the same appearance but a vastly different demeanor, immediately put down her chopsticks. "I didn't see you this morning, and you were gone just now. Where were you?"
Suz didn't speak, just quietly found a chair and sat down.
Suz's attitude was unusual. Kaede was secretly surprised, stealing a glance at her sister's face, but didn't press. "Did you eat?"
"Yes."
Suz placed her bento on the table. Hayato, sitting nearby, reached out to take the lunchbox. "I'll wash it for you, Suz."
His outstretched hand was stopped by her. Although Suz didn't speak or change her expression, Hayato broke out in a cold sweat, feeling an inexplicable sense of danger.
"I'll do it," Kaede said, taking her sister's lunchbox instead. She suddenly noticed the weight. "Huh? There's more than half the food left in here, Suz? You didn't finish it?"
"I couldn't finish."
"That's impossible. How could there be leftover portions when you made your own lunch?"
"I lost my appetite."
Kaede was surprised. She quickly stood up and moved to her twin sister's side. As Suz's twin sister, and having lived with her for over a decade, Kaede understood her sister implicitly, even if she was emotionless and deadpan.
"Suz, are you... in a bad mood?"