This is The Regular, No?

Yesterday was rough. I didn’t get much writing in and these deadlines really sneak up on you!

…

Ahem— anyway, I’ve still been slacking on my writing because I’m forced to sit through things like mathematics class. I don’t understand, I’m going to be a writer—no, I’m already a writer. The school should realize this and allow me to only take composition courses!

It doesn’t matter though. I’m the kind of person who will do their best, even on useless crumby subjects.

While Hasegawa-sensei was speaking in runes I felt a few light pokes in my back.

One person sits behind me.

One person who has never interacted with me during class-time, yet plays a pivotal role in the loss of my sanity.

One person in this school with blonde hair.

I’m ignoring her. I want to complete this assignment during class so I can optimize my writing time.

“Poke… Poke…” Akimoto whispered.

“Don’t whisper “poke” as you poke me!” I responded in an aggressive whisper.

“Poke…”

I continued to ignore her. This in theory should be an easy task, but there’s just… just something about Akimoto’s aura that makes her so annoying, she’s impossible to ignore her.

“P—”

“What?”

She blankly gazed at me as if she wasn’t expecting me to acknowledge her—aren’t you the one trying to get my attention!? Wasn’t this the result you wanted!?

Her hand was writing something on a small scrap of paper, I couldn’t tell what because she was obscuring her writing with her other forearm.

“Psst— Kiyotaka-kun.” She dropped the note onto my desk from behind.

Are you going to be at the club today? There’s something important we have to discuss.

Her handwriting wasn’t just good, it was incredible—also cute. I don’t know exactly how to describe how it was cute, but once glance at it and you could tell your beautiful classmate had written it.

What am I saying? I’m giving her too much credit, it’s still just Akimoto.

I began to scribble back on the note.

Of course I’m going to be at the clubroom, I’ve gone every day since the start of the term.

She nudged my back somewhat harshly. What’s your problem?

There’s no reason to be so rude… Geez… I was just wondering.

“Tch—” I peeked back at her with an unamused expression.

***

Isn’t she going to say something…? She made a whole kerfuffle about passing notes needing to tell me “something important”. Now she’s just silently following me to the clubroom…?

Like, isn’t this good enough? It’s after class time, we’re practically in clubtime, no? Just say it now!

I looked back at her and she was happily following me with a grin.

You clearly have something to say! Say it! Ahhhhhhhhhh!

I slid open the clubroom door and as Akimoto laid her first tow in—

“Kiyotakaaa— Makotooo—!”

I facepalmed myself and sighed.

“You couldn’t have said it out in the hallway?”

“Kiyotaka-kun.” She said quickly, practically jumping to my side as I sat in my usual seat. My vision filled with one big obj— two big objects until she lowered her face to eye-level.

Now, her face was extremely close to mine, so close it was hard to read her expression.

“Personal space… please.”

“I really need to catch up on writing for my club-piece and our novel! This weekend—”

“This weekend what?”

A stern voice came from behind her. We both slowly positioned ourselves to see who entered.

“Kaoru-chan, please stop trying to make advances on this gross otaku.”

It was Fujioka—she marched up to Akimoto and grabbed her by the collar, dragging her to her usual spot.

“Now, what’s this, “This weekend”?”

“This weekend Kiyotaka-kun and I are going to do another writing bootcamp.” Akimoto folded her arms.

“Hm. This does seem like a good call, those are rare from you, aren’t they Kaoru-chan? Naturally I’ll be planning and leading the activities and schedule for them of course.”

“Hey! You just invited yourself! You’re just like Yoshi-chan!”

“You mean that first year? Hm— funny. No, what I’m doing is saving you two from a disastrous waste of time. Makoto has been wasting so much time lately, specifically because of that junior. He’s gotten no writing done even though he claims to be “so dedicated”.”

“You’re not invited!”

“I live next door.” Fujioka laughed. “I’ll be over if I wish.”

“Hey!”

The two girls turned their angry expressions onto me.

“Uhm… I mean… Excuse me. I didn’t say yes to either of you coming over—or this bootcamp in the first place!”

“...Kiyotaka-kun… You need to do this. I’ve been slacking, you’ve been slacking. It’s decided, alright.”

“Yes, it’s decided,” Fujioka agreed.

The two quickly returned to bickering about who’s invited and who’s wasting time.

Why… Why am I always their focus but they never listen to me! By the logic of me being their focus shouldn't my opinion matter the most!? At least Sayuri listens to me… Sorta.

Hold on… I’m missing something… Something major that was supposed to continue the pl—

“Hey, Fujioka-san.”

“Hm?”