Saika Totsuka came quickly and left just as quickly. After chatting with Hachiman Hikigaya for a while, he departed.
Watching Totsuka turn around, smile, and wave goodbye, Hikigaya's damn little heart beat faster again.
Finding Ren under another large tree not far away, Hikigaya leaned against the tree trunk, mimicking Ren's posture.
"What's up? Hesitating isn't like you, Hikigaya."
Ren, with his hands behind his head and chewing on a piece of candy, spoke indifferently.
"Katsuragi, do you think..."
Seeing Ren bring it up first, Hikigaya began to recount his conversation with Saika Totsuka just now.
The gist of it was that the strong seniors in the Tennis Club were about to graduate. Naturally, they would leave the club after graduation.
Aside from the freshmen who were interested in tennis but hadn't joined the club yet since school had just started, the second-year members in the Tennis Club were ridiculously weak and few in number.
Once the third-year seniors withdrew from the Tennis Club, without anyone above to suppress them, the second-years would likely become even weaker.
As the newly appointed captain of the Tennis Club, Saika Totsuka didn't want to see the club decline in his hands, so he started looking for capable fresh blood for his club.
Because Hikigaya's interpersonal relationships in class were generally average, and apart from Ren, no one knew he had joined the Service Club...
In this situation,
Hachiman Hikigaya, whose tennis skills were quite good and who hadn't joined any club yet, became the fresh blood in Saika Totsuka's eyes.
"Hikigaya-kun, can you help me?"
Under the offensive of the cute boy Saika Totsuka, Hikigaya, unable to withstand it, didn't directly refuse the invitation to join the club. He just said he would consider it when he got back.
"Oh, is that so? Then wouldn't it be fine if the Tennis Club just disappeared?"
After digesting everything Hikigaya had recounted, Ren finished his candy and spoke indifferently.
"Katsuragi, you..."
Hikigaya's pupils shrank sharply. He didn't expect the solution Ren offered to be so radical.
He did come with the intention of asking for Ren's opinion, wanting to see which was more suitable: his own idea or Ren's.
But directly disbanding the Tennis Club was something he had never even thought about.
Someone comes to ask you to join their club and help it grow, and you turn around and say, "Wouldn't it be fine if it just disbanded?"
Hikigaya felt that if he dared to tell Saika Totsuka this solution from Ren, even a cute boy like Totsuka might want to punch him in the face.
"For people with no ambition, it's useless no matter how much you join them."
"Think of it like a barrel of apples," Ren said. "A few at the bottom have already gone bad. And no matter how clean the apples on top look, the rotten ones don't suddenly decide to be fresh."
"They'll do what rot always does—spread. If they can't turn you into one of them, they'll try to spoil you anyway."
"From what you've told me, that club's been toxic for a long time. The only thing holding it together right now is the old guard—the seniors who are about to graduate—and one new kid with actual potential."
"The reason nothing's blown up yet is because the old guard is still around. Without even trying, they've been shielding that kid."
Ren nodded toward the students trading volleys on the court. Then he looked back at Hikigaya like he didn't need to spell out the rest.
Even without words, Hikigaya understood.
Once the seniors were gone, that one standout would be left alone—easy to single out, easy to isolate. Not because he did anything wrong, but because he didn't fit.
Just like Hachiman Hikigaya before he met Ren.
Hikigaya had been pushed out simply for being alone. And that kid would get pushed out for a different reason: for being "too good," for standing out.
Don't be fooled by the fact that Saika Totsuka was the Tennis Club captain now. A captain with no team is just a title. In a club where nobody follows you, "captain" is just a word on paper.
Hikigaya had a clearer example right in front of him.
Yukino Yukinoshita, President of the Service Club.
She was the same kind of standout—brilliant, untouchable, and quietly kept at arm's length.
"Is there any other way?" Hikigaya asked, watching Ren's face. He wanted an answer that didn't end with the Tennis Club being erased.
If possible, he didn't want Totsuka to end up getting frozen out by his own members later. And he didn't want to be the one telling Totsuka to disband the club he'd fought to keep alive.
For Ren, love at first sight might have been a joke.
But for Hikigaya… it didn't feel like one anymore.
"If it's just a few bad branches, you prune them," Ren said. "If the roots are rotten, you dig them up. And if the whole place is poisoned…"
"Then you rip it out and start over."
"…Isn't there a gentler option?" Hikigaya asked.
Ren's decisiveness made his head hurt.
"There is, but I don't want to say it."
Glancing at Hikigaya, Ren withdrew his gaze and continued to look at Mahiru Shiina playing tennis not far away.
"Don't want to say it?"
"Correct, because that's boring. So boring it doesn't interest me."
"A meal. As long as you tell me a gentler way, Katsuragi, I owe you a meal. A meal where you choose the place."
For the sake of Saika Totsuka, Hikigaya gritted his teeth and said.
This condition from Hikigaya could be said to be full of sincerity. If he only said he owed Ren a meal, that meal could be a cheap breakfast or an ordinary bowl of ramen outside.
But a meal where Ren chose the place meant Hikigaya was putting his wallet completely in the other's hands.
The room for manipulation here was huge.
At the low end, a bottle of drink and a croquette; at the high end, a five-star hotel or a high-end restaurant.
Although the "Supreme" Hikigaya couldn't afford it, this showed Hikigaya's attitude.
The way Ren spoke made it clear he genuinely meant to solve the club crisis—for Saika Totsuka.
"Stop trying to save the second-years," Ren said flatly. "Write them off and start recruiting first-years instead. If the new kids buy into the culture you want, the dead weight won't matter. They'll either fall in line or get left behind."
"And when Totsuka's time is up—when he graduates or steps down—those second-years will drift off with him anyway."
"So don't build the club around people who don't care," Ren continued. "Build it around the next group. Give the future to the ones who actually want it."
Hikigaya froze. He hadn't expected Ren's solution to be that blunt.
It wasn't complicated, but it was practical.
Instead of bending over backward to motivate a bunch of second-years who didn't want to improve, it made more sense to recruit a new wave of members, train them properly, and set the standard from day one.
A group that had already checked out versus newcomers with energy and something to prove.
Which one was worth investing in—and which one was easier to shape?
You could tell at a glance.
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