Chapter 3

The ringing bell signaled the arrival of lunchtime. Unlike yesterday, I didn’t wake up late, allowing me to prepare my lunch. With that, the need to go to the cafeteria disappeared, and I ate my lunch in class. It was her second day here, and the crowd around Nadia hadn’t lessened. Nadia pretty much hoarded all the attention in class.

Some of you might think that I’m lucky to be sitting in front of a famous person. I would argue otherwise. The crowd made me uncomfortable. I mean, some tried standing between my chair and her table, which didn’t have much space. They accidentally hit my chair a couple of times. They apologized, but despite that, it still made me uncomfortable. Honestly, if this kept happening, I might need to trade with someone else during lunch.

“By the way, Harto, I heard you’re in the photography club.”

I turned to my right. The person standing there was looking at me as well, but he was a boy. The one who called me was clearly a girl.

“Umm… Nadia is the one asking.”

“Oh, sorry.” I turned around.

The person standing behind me stepped to the side, letting me see her. The crowd around her reminded me just how famous a person she is. She didn’t just attract visitors from our class, but from other classes as well. I even saw some seniors and juniors walking past our class earlier, curiously looking for her. Maybe they didn’t want to bother us, so they didn’t enter.

“Who did you hear about it from?”

Ian puffed out his chest, as if he did something special. What caused the conversation to head there in the first place?

“I mean, yeah?”

“I heard the club meets every Thursday?” In other words, today after school.

“Do you want to come?”

“Yes, please!”

I didn’t see her as someone with an interest in photography. I mean, she worked with cameras all the time, I thought she would be bored by them. Although… working in front of a camera and behind one were very different jobs. Or maybe… It was because of the work that she wanted to know more about cameras. Well, the reason didn’t have anything to do with me.

“Sure.”

“Yipee!” She clapped her hands. I glared at the others around her.

“I'd better not see a sudden influx of new members.”

All they did was laugh.

•••

I waited for Nadia in front of class after school. Like yesterday, people crowded around her after class. But, maybe out of respect for me, or out of respect for her, the crowd didn't follow her out.

“Sorry for the wait!” she chirped.

Made me wonder if she felt truly sorry. I wouldn't criticize her for that, though.

“Let's go.”

“Okay!”

The photography club used a classroom on the third floor of the main building. By the time we arrived, Carol was already there.

“Oh, Carol!” Nadia came running over to her. “I didn't know you were here?”

Murmurs began to spread. The photography club wasn’t a part of the big clubs. At the moment, three members sat inside, excluding me, Carol, and Nadia. The club president, the vice president, and one other underclassman. We fulfilled the requirements for a clubroom and an official club status, but that’s about it.

As Nadia went to talk with Carol, the club president… Who's her name again? I always called her Prez, so I forgot. Anyway, Prez approached me.

“Hehehe, you brought another victim, Harto.”

“Umm… Prez, is there no other way to say that?”

Victim. I wouldn’t describe our club as that bad. Actually, our club is a normal club. We just have a weird president, that’s all.

“You really need to stop being weird. You’re driving away members this way.”

“Weird? I’m not being weird.”

“What’s with that weirdly evil laugh, then?”

“It’s not a weirdly evil laugh.”

Behind her, the vice president and the underclassman were having a discussion. You might think they were talking about Nadia, but that wasn’t the case.

“Is the prez really going to chase another potential member away?”

“She’s always been like that.”

The two of them didn’t bother hiding it. If anything, they spoke in a loud enough voice for Prez to hear.

“Hey!” Pez turned around, not happy with being the topic of their discussion. As she headed back toward them, I approached Carol and Nadia.

“Oh, Harto. You should have told me Carol was here,” she said, while hugging Carol around the neck.

“... I wished you hadn’t brought her here,” Carol said, trying to free herself from Nadia’s grip. “I can’t breathe…”

“Ah, sorry!” Nadia let go, seeming genuinely apologetic.

Carol took some deep breaths. She looked like she had just escaped the clutches of death. She tended to be reserved and avoid physical contact, even with her friends. She glared at Nadia, an expression I didn’t see often.

“My bad, my bad. You know, the force of habit.”

I think I remember seeing an image of Lily hugging someone in the show. That felt somewhat like an excuse, but being friends with Carol meant that I occasionally saw her work side slip out as well, although said work side was nowhere near as extreme.

“I just couldn’t help it when I saw cute things.”

“Cu- things?”

“Sorry, I mean cute girls.”

Carol’s cheeks reddened slightly. I nod in agreement.

“Carol is kind of cute, I agree.”

“D- Do you really think so?” she asked bashfully.

“If you use more of your natural cuteness, we won’t need to worry about members,” Prez said. Vice-prez lay motionless in the corner of the room, our underclassman looking worried beside him. I decided I didn’t need to know what happened.

“N- No way!” Carol said in panic.

The prez tried to have her be our poster girl a couple of times now. Carol would whisper sweet, inviting words to students, asking them to join the club. An order from the president, an order Carol had ignored countless times. An abuse of authority, if you ask me.

“We will have more members if you were normal, Prez.”

Prez shifted her eyes to me, a dangerous glint in them. “Are you sure you want to continue that conversation?”

“Why do I even join this club…”

If Carol leaves, I will leave as well. Although that does mean we need to join a different club, as our school requires students to be at least a member of one club. Back during our first year, students had to be a part of the scouts, but now in our second year, that was no longer obligatory.

“You didn’t join this out of your own free will?” Nadia asked.

“Carol invited me.”

“See? You’ve wooed Harto to join. You can-”

“Please stop!” Carol covered her ears and looked away.

“It was a regular invitation,” I said in her stead. “No sweet words, no nothing.”

“Tha- That’s too embarrassing!” Carol shouted. She had done similar things in her career, but I’m sure there existed many small differences that an outsider like me wouldn’t understand.

“No sweet voice messages?”

“Nope.”

“No recording featuring special dialogue?”

“Nope.”

“No roleplay featuring characters you like?”

“Nope. Unlike you, I respect Carol’s free will.”

“Speaking of that… Carol, when will we do a project together?”

“... Huh?”

Carol worked as a voice actress. She may not be as famous as Nadia, but she has her own fans. People loved her sweet voice, and I got to listen to her often. It felt like a blessing in disguise.

“We’re in different fields.”

“Yeah, but can’t you play a phone voice or something? You know, one of those mysterious characters that appear in voice only.”

“Uh…” Carol averted her gaze.

“Come on, now, we’re here to learn photography.” Ironically, out of everyone here, Prez was the one to steer the conversation back on course. “Will you be joining us, Nadia?”

“Sure,” she said, casually. “The teachers told me I have a week to decide.”

“And you’re deciding it now?”

Normally, people only change clubs at the end or start of a school year. If she chooses this club, she must stick with it until next year. Although I guess some people did switch clubs between semesters, they must go through a rather complicated process. Not just fill in some papers, but also report it to the teachers, have a good reason, and other details I’m not privy to.

“Now that I think about it… You transferred in at a weird time,” Prez murmured. She transferred at the end of August, a bit more than a month after school started, and on a Wednesday to boot.

“Yeah, something happened in my old school.” Nadia scratched the back of her head. “I thought I could stay, but as it turned out, it’s better that I move.”

She told this with a smile. Maybe she didn’t consider it that big of a deal? Maybe someone else told her to move, and she simply agreed with that? I didn’t know the reason, but I could tell she didn’t want to talk about it.

“Well, alright then. Let’s start the club. You can decide by the end of it.” Prez headed to the front of the class, finally acting like a proper club president.