There was only one month left until Sobu High's cultural festival, and the executive committee's preparations were in full swing…
Yeah, right.
The first two days of meetings had been a complete waste of time. No one was willing to step up and take the role of executive committee president.
On the first day, the student council president hoped someone would volunteer, but the entire room fell into silence.
The second day, instead of silence, people started nominating others they thought were capable. But those nominated just kept pushing the responsibility onto someone else. The position was tossed around like a hot potato, and in the end, nothing was decided.
Now it was the third day.
Three whole days, and they still hadn't picked an executive committee president. Even Shirokawa Meguri, who always had a smile on her face, was starting to struggle to keep it up. She pouted slightly, looking disappointed.
Was there really no one in all of Sobu High who could take on this role?
Disappointed or not, the festival still had to move forward.
Since volunteering didn't work and forced nominations also failed, they had only one option left—drawing lots.
A student council member placed a lottery box on the table. Inside were 36 sticks, matching the number of committee members.
"Since no one is willing to take the role, but we can't leave it empty, we'll decide by lottery," Shirokawa Meguri said, sounding discouraged.
This year's cultural festival was shaping up to be the dullest one in Sobu High's history.
Ah… I miss Haruno…
Hikigaya Hachiman looked around at everyone's troubled expressions and couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
A lottery, huh? A one-in-thirty-six chance. No way I'd get picked.
He got up with the others, lined up, and quietly drew a stick.
Instead of checking immediately, he glanced at the people in front of him. Seeing them all breathe sighs of relief, his heart suddenly grew uneasy.
No way…
Was he really that unlucky?
The dead-eyed boy lowered his gaze and looked at the stick in his hand.
Executive Committee President.
His already tired-looking expression went completely blank.
Before checking, he had been a little nervous. But after seeing the result, he felt… nothing.
The tension in his heart was instantly replaced by complete resignation.
"Hikki,What's wrong?your eyes look dead."
The girl with the bun hairstyle spoke beside him. Hikigaya Hachiman snapped out of it and forced an awkward smile.
"What did you get?"
"Nothing at all."
Yuigahama Yui showed him her wooden lot—it was completely blank.
"Hikki, don't tell me you got picked?" Seeing his lifeless expression, the girl carefully guessed.
Hikigaya Hachiman wordlessly showed her his wooden lot.
At the same time, another boy let out an instinctive wail after seeing his own lot. He must have drawn the Vice Executive Committee Chair position.
Since the vice chair had already been decided, there was no need to continue drawing lots. Hikigaya Hachiman knew he couldn't escape, so he handed his lot to Shirokawa Meguru.
"Oh, so you got the Executive Committee Chair. What's your name?" Shirokawa Meguru asked.
"Second-year, Class F. Hikigaya Hachiman."
"Got it." The student council president nodded, then turned to face the crowd.
"Now, will the student who drew the Vice Executive Committee Chair please come forward?"
The boy who had let out that wail earlier sighed helplessly and was about to step forward. But just then, something pink caught his eye.
"You drew the vice chair lot, right?" Yuigahama Yui asked in a whisper. "Wanna trade with me?"
She shook her blank wooden lot.
The boy's face lit up with joy. He nodded rapidly and exchanged his lot with hers without hesitation.
Looking at the adorable girl in front of him, his face turned slightly red.
But then, as he watched her walk up with his lot in hand, cheerfully waving it in front of another unlucky soul, his excited expression froze.
Before the butterflies in his stomach could even start fluttering, they were stabbed dead on the spot.
"What's your name?"
"Second-year, Class F. Yuigahama Yui."
"Alright, it's decided then. Do your best—I'm sure you'll both do a great job!"
The student council president, Shirokawa Meguru, gave them an encouraging smile and handed a thick stack of documents to Hikigaya Hachiman.
"…I'll do my best."
He replied dryly. As he took the documents and flipped through them, the overwhelming amount of black text made his head spin. After staring at it for a long time, he finally managed to make out the words between the lines.
It was all just "slave labor" written over and over again.
"Alright, now that we have our two committee chairs, we can move on with the next steps."
Shirokawa Meguru clapped his hands, bringing everyone's attention back.
With two unlucky victims secured, the preparations for the cultural festival could finally continue.
The first task was to assign roles to the other committee members.
There were quite a few departments to handle—publicity, volunteer management, logistics, and more. The workload had to be distributed reasonably among the 34 executive committee members.
That alone was already a headache.
There weren't enough people, but time was also running short, meaning the schedule would be tight and the workload even heavier.
For the executive committee chair, who had to oversee everything, constant communication with all departments was unavoidable.
But the chair was Hikigaya Hachiman…
Yeah, there was no way people were going to listen to him properly.
Thankfully, Yuigahama was here too.
At least that would help with the communication problem—somewhat.
Although Hikigaya Hachiman didn't understand why Yuigahama Yui willingly swapped wooden sticks with another "winner," to be honest, when the bun-haired girl cheerfully handed the stick labeled "Vice Committee Chair" to Shiromeguri Meguri,
A huge sense of relief rose from deep inside him.
For a moment, his heart clenched hard and started beating faster.
Luckily, years of solitude had trained him to suppress such feelings, allowing him to refocus on his current task.
Foreseeing the busy days ahead, Hikigaya Hachiman sighed internally and decided to just go through the motions.
As long as the cultural festival happens, that's all that matters. Whether it's exciting or not is none of his concern.
After all, he was just a randomly chosen committee chair. Even if the festival turned out dull, no one would blame him. Just pulling it off would be lucky enough.
Might as well just wing it.
...
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