It was just starting to become cold when the snow began.
I had been excitedly hoping that with all this snow school would cancelled, but alas, no such announcement came and so I had no choice but prepare to head out.
It was probably quite hard on those who were commuting by train but I was fine and dandy in my car.
Honestly, there wasn’t anything more dangerous than wearing loafers on a snowy day. And it got into your shoes too. Times were hard back in my old life as a commoner.
Only primary schoolers would feel happy about snow.
As I was watching from the comfort of my car, I saw a number of people slip on the snow. It sure was dangerous.
Most students are Suiran were driven, but a few of the ones that lived close-by would walk with friends. I caught a few of them here and there. The loafers were sinking into the snow so they were having a hard time of walking.
Despite that, there was a student walking properly through it.
It was Wakaba-chan. Wakaba-chan was wearing rain boots.
Not the plain ones that fishmongers wore. On the side of her boots were flower patterns.
Still, I could respect that she chose practicality over fashion. Just what you’d expect from her.
Wakaba-chan’s nose was all red, and her face was buried in her m.u.f.fler.
m.u.f.flers…
I had the sudden urge to knit a m.u.f.fler.
I was almost always dropped off by car so there really wasn’t much reason to own one. Except as fashion, that is.
I immediately headed to the Handicrafts Club with some yarn.
Knitting was popular here in winter, so plenty of them were sitting around with knitting needles.
It sure looked fun. I wasn’t very skilled so my knitting was loose or crooked in places.
“Knitting, Reika-sama? Could it be that you had a tangle again?” asked the senpai who became the new Club President.
“No, I was simply thinking of trying a m.u.f.fler this time.”
“My, a m.u.f.fler. For your own use? Or were you thinking of giving it as a present to somebody?”
“I had not truly considered it… I just wanted to make one.”
I’m pretty sure even Oniisama or Otousama would be bothered if I foisted one of my m.u.f.flers onto them. I had bought some of the softest wool, so I planned to just unravel it at home later.
“Ummm… Speaking of which, Reika-sama, I need to speak to you about something.”
“What might the matter be?”
The Club President seemed like she had a hard time finding the words. I had a bad feeling. Everybody else seemed to be glancing this way too. The feeling was getting worse and worse.
“You’ve really been coming to our club a lot, Reika-sama…”
“Yes…”
Uohhnn, was it finally time? After a year of nonchalantly coming here, it was about time that somebody asked what the heck I was doing here. Despite her gentle face, it seemed the Club President could deal with conflict.
What was I going to do? Huh. What if when she evicted me, I just pretended not to hear…
“Reika-sama, would you like to join our club?”
“Eh!?”
The President gently handed me an application form.
“Last year on the last day of club activities, all of us discussed it. You seem to love handicrafts, and you helped us with the bouquet for the school festival, didn’t you? So we wondered why not have you join us officially.”
They were talking about that during that tea party I wasn’t invited to!?
“May I truly join the club?”
“Yes, of course.”
“…But did you not find me a bother at first?”
“No, not at all!”
The President’s eyes were swimming. I knew it…
“Um, we would be happy too if you joined us, Reika-sama,” one of the members spoke up.
Really? I looked around, only to find the other members nodding with smiles.
After a whole year, I finally got in! I could get rid of the ‘Provisional’ now!
I gripped the application form tightly in my hands.
“I shall join the Handicrafts Club!” I declared.
Everybody clapped in welcome.
Happy! So happy!
My mood suddenly sky-rocketed. So happy I was that before I knew it I had stood up and placed my hands on my hips.
“Then as an official member, I shall spare no effort in working for the club. My first act will be to negotiate with the student council, claim the budget that we deserve, and guarantee a larger and better club room for us!”
“Eh-, n.o.body really asked for that…”
“Leave it to me, everybody! The most conspicuous location shall be allocated to us, next school festival!”
“Reika-sama, we’re happy the way we are!”
“And being somewhere too eye-catching is a little…”
“Please, Reika-sama! Please quit this…”
My new club members stopped me in a panic.
Oops. The happiness almost ran to my head. The new Club President was already half pulling at my application form. What are you doing? I won’t return it now. I’ll bring it back tomorrow with the stamps on it. Accept it without crushing it, okay?
And to that last girl, you weren’t telling me to quit this club, were you? I’m not leaving this place until graduation.
Today, Kisshouin Reika became a full member of the Handicrafts Club. Uhohooi!
I texted Aoi-chan and Sakura-chan about my acceptance into the Handicrafts Club.
‘I’m so happy for you! I knew they would see what a good person you were!’ came Aoi-chan’s heart-warming reply.
‘After silently pressuring them for so long, no wonder they folded. As always, stubborn persistence will win the day,’ said Sakura-chan’s. Sharp-tongued as always.
After that, Sakura-chan mailed me about Maihama-san’s situation. Apparently at Yurinomiya she was all but boasting that she was Emperor’s girlfriend. She told everybody about how Emperor’s mother, and the woman he idolised as an older sister had already approved of her.
“Uheeh~”
Maihama-san sure was running her mouth, just because she went to a different school. Had this happened at Suiran she would have been lynched in a day.
Even though she had only come to pick him up from Suiran the one time, according to Sakura-chan’s information, she had gone to the Kaburagi house a number of times.
Anyhow, maybe thanks to Enjou’s encouragement, Kaburagi was slowly getting better. The damage still seemed quite deep though because he hadn’t taken care of Maihama-san yet.
Being perfectly honest, I think the best way to get him his energy back would be to hold a s...o...b..ll tournament.
It wouldn’t be surprisingly, considering the way he treated cavalry battles. I could already see him gathering an army of follows, and shouting “Left and right wings, flank them!”
I doubted that the school would organise a s...o...b..ll tournament just for his sake though.
Going back to Maihama-san though, she was kind of like a mini Kimidol-Kisshouin Reika, wasn’t she.
After officially joining the club I wanted to be a model member, so I made sure to come each day and furious knitted away. Thanks to that my scarf had become oddly long and was kind of a weird shape, so I converted it into a lap blanket instead.
Once it was done though it wasn’t very good, so I gave it to Otousama.
Of course, the tanuki got ahead of himself, and said “Reika is such a daddy’s girl,” p.i.s.sing me off.
And then I heard from his secretary Sasajima-san about how he was running around showing the thing off, so right now I was in the middle of deep, profound regret…
By the way, a reminder that they used emails with their phones over there. Like, they never used SMS texting, it was always a changeable email-address registered to the phone number.