Chapter 14: Club Activities and Growing Tension

Ren joined the Literature Club because that’s what his seventeen-year-old self had done.

Yuki joined the Art Club for the same reason.

Different rooms, different goals, different people—

and yet the universe still found a way to shove them back into each other’s orbit.

The two clubs announced a joint cultural exhibit.

A week-long collaboration.

Ren sighed when he heard it.

Yuki sighed too, but louder.

---

Art Room — After School

Yuki sat in front of a canvas, brush poised, pretending she cared more about color composition than the way Sena Aikawa had wandered into the Literature Club room again.

She dipped her brush into the paint. Hard.

The color splashed. Too much.

Mina glanced over. “You’re murdering that poor canvas.”

“I’m painting,” Yuki replied through her teeth.

“You’re stabbing the paint.”

Yuki didn’t deny it.

When the Art Club walked over to deliver design sheets, Yuki caught a glimpse through the open door of the next room.

Sena leaning toward Ren.

Ren politely stepping back.

Sena leaning in again.

Yuki’s eye twitched the way only Haru was brave enough to point out.

Mina watched Yuki watching them.

A slow grin formed. “Jealous?”

“No.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m not.”

“Sure.”

Yuki’s brush snapped.

---

Literature Club Room — Same Time

Ren sat with a notebook open and his brain closed. Sena Aikawa hovered behind him like she’d been hired to inhale his oxygen.

“Ren, your handwriting is cute,” she said.

“It’s… regular.”

“It matches your vibe.”

“What vibe?”

“You know,” she said, leaning closer, “quiet, gentle, mysterious—”

“I’m none of those.”

“You really are,” she insisted, smiling.

He didn’t know what to do with that. Compliments had never been his specialty.

He kept glancing toward the doorway, hoping for a reason to leave.

That’s when he saw Yuki, frowning at him like she wanted to set him on fire with artistic intent.

Strangely… it made him happy.

Warm.

Seen.

He looked back down at his notebook, fighting a smile.

---

Gym — Volleyball Practice

Haru was not having a good day.

He had spent—by his calculation—twenty minutes watching some generic, faceless boy from Class 2-B talk to Mina. Too close. Too friendly. Too smiley.

So when practice started, Haru channeled every flustered, jealous molecule into one monster spike.

WHAM.

The ball rocketed past the net.

Straight into the innocent boy’s face.

He dropped like a sack of betrayal.

Mina rushed over. “Are you trying to kill him!?”

Haru, sweating but pretending it was from athletic effort, glared at the boy.

“He was standing suspiciously close to you.”

“That’s not a crime!”

“It should be.”

Mina stared at him.

“…Are you jealous?”

“No,” he said too fast.

“Uh-huh.”

“It was a tactical hit.”

“You aimed for his head.”

“He moved into it.”

Mina crossed her arms. “Haru.”

Haru crossed his arms back. “Mina.”

The coach yelled at both of them to stop flirting on the court.

They flushed in perfect symmetry.

---

Evening — Art Room Closing Time

Ren stopped by the Art Club to drop off the finalized text for the exhibit.

He expected a normal scene.

Instead, he found Yuki alone, cleaning her brushes with unusual force.

Like she was scrubbing the entire day off her soul.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” she said in the exact tone of someone who was not fine.

He hesitated, then stepped closer.

“You glared at me earlier.”

“I did not glare.”

“You definitely glared.”

She paused. Just a second.

“Maybe I was… distracted.”

“By what?”

Yuki looked away.

The answer hovered between them, light but heavy, familiar but new.

“…Paint,” she said eventually.

Ren laughed under his breath.

It was small, soft, and made her heart flip in a way she pretended not to notice.

The tension between them grew.

Comfortable and dangerous at the same time.