Fortune telling

Monday:

Finally things went back to normal. - Yuri thinks as she gets closer to her destination.

Well, not everything.

She arrives at the student council room and she is about to open in, when she hears multiple voices coming from the inside:

“...We handed in the application first, that means it’s ours!” - Says somebody from the other side of the door.

“But you didn’t fill it out properly, so it’s invalid. Right, prez?” - Yuri hears another voice say this.

“Ah that-”

The first person is about to start speaking again, but a familiar voice cuts her off:

“It’s okay everyone, calm down. Let’s talk about this. I mean it’s true, this is a very complicated situation. Hmm, what would be the best way...” - Yaoi’s voice goes silent for a bit, like she is in thought.

Huh? What’s going on inside? - Yuri thinks, as she tries to imagine what’s happening on the other side of the door.

Then Yaoi starts talking again:

“Okay! How about this? Both of your clubs will participate in a two part competition. The first test will be decided by the literature club, the second one by the cosplay club and if it ends in a tie, I will come up with a third part.”

Yaoi stops explaining and takes a breath:

“Is this acceptable?”

From the few moments of silence Yuri assumes that the two students are thinking about it.

“I guess it will have to do.”

“...Yes.”

The two voices seem to accept the terms.

“Well, then. Think about what your test will be about and the competition will be held on Thursday… Of course you could take that time to practise as well...”

“Yes...yes, that’s it. There’s no way that the cosplay club will lose to you guys. You’re going down!”

“We’ll see about that. Anyway, thank you president, we will be back.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you!”

Yuri hears footsteps coming closer to the door, so she quickly takes a few steps to the side. Two students storm out of the student council room and go off in different directions. Yuri watches them walk away for a few moments, but then she goes into the room.

“What was that about?” - She instinctively asks.

“Oh, just some student council work. But that doesn’t matter now.”

Yaoi pulls out one of the drawers of her desk and takes out a big black hat and puts it on her head. Then reaches back in. This time a cloak comes out, which she puts on as well.

“Wha..?” - Yuri starts forming a question, but doesn’t know which part she should ask about first.

While she is confused, Yaoi takes out a weird crystal looking globe as well and puts it down in front of her. Yaoi takes a deep breath, then starts speaking in an ominous tone. Completely different from her normal voice:

“So, you’ve come seeking knowledge?”

“Eh? Ehm, not real-” - Yuri tries to answer, but Yaoi interrupts her:

“Knowing the future is a great blessing. As well as a great curse. But it’s a risk we all have to take.” - she puts her hands on the crystal ball:

“Now let’s see. Yes, I can feel it. Hmm. Your luck this week is… neutral…Huh? I didn’t even know that was a thing.”

At the last part Yaoi's voice slipped back to her usual one, but she quickly moves on after clearing her throat:

“Ehm. You easily misunderstand situations, so be careful to pay extra attention to your surroundings. You are easily dragged along by others and this week is no exception. However, you are starting to show more interest in your new hobbies.”

“Hm? Is that so?” - Yuri answers while not really paying much attention to what Yaoi is saying.

But instead she notices that Yaoi is not looking directly at the ball, but at something a bit lower. As she carefully tries to take a glance at it, Yaoi continues:

“As for your love life: This isn’t the time to make your move. It’s better to be patient for now, otherwise you could be met with rejection. But don’t worry, soon your chance will present itself, as suddenly as a lightning strike.”

She finishes her fortune telling, just in time for Yuri to realise that Yaoi was looking at her phone, which was lying on her lap. However before she could say anything about it, Yaoi starts speaking again, but now she’s back to her normal self, well “normal”:

“Hm, that wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be.”

“...What was that?” - Yuri asks.

“Well, I found this fortune telling website, so I thought we should use it.” - Yaoi answers.

“Ah, so that’s what you were doing. But what’s the hat for? I don’t think fortune tellers wear-”

“Don’t question the performer. Anyway, I think we should look up Kei and Rin’s too.”

“Hm? How does it work?” - Yuri inquires.

“It tells you your fortune for the week according to your sign. Let’s start with Kei.”

“Oh!...Wait, how did you know my birthday?”

“Ah, found it.” - Yaoi ignores Yuri’s question.

“For Kei, it says great blessing and ah, let’s just skip to the love part: For the most part, everybody loves you, but that might get problematic. For the time being try to look out for stalkers as they might try to interfere in your relationship. But if you confront them, you might be able to clear things up.”

After Yaoi finishes talking she keeps quiet for a few moments and it looks like she is thinking. Yuri breaks the silence:

“Does he often have problems with stalkers?”

“Who? Oh, Kei, well, no, not really. Hm, anyway let’s read Rin’s fortune as well.”

Yaoi puts Rin's information into the website.

“...Wait, how do you know Rin’s birthday?” - Yuri asks, but again, she doesn’t get an answer.

”Here it is: Luck: great curse. Wow. That’s a good start.” - Yaoi lets out a faint laugh. - “As for love: You have a hard time connecting with people and this time is no exception. You will find it difficult to converse with others, but if you manage to overcome it your fortune might turn out for the better.”

I wonder what kind of weird plan Yaoi will come up for this.

Yuri thinks, without realising that she is getting used to Yaoi’s unusual way of thinking.

Yaoi stays silent for a few moments, then she looks like she has an idea and starts speaking:

“Okay, so it looks like we should intervene. One of them will have a stalker issue, the other one, social anxiety. I think we should split up. Now, normally we would each go with the person we already know, but to change things up a bit, I think you should take Kei and I’ll go with Rin.”

“Why are you talking about this like this is the normal thing to do after reading other people's fortune?” - Yuri asks out of curiosity.

“Come on now. You wouldn’t want your ship to sink over something like this, right? Anyway, let’s meet up on Thursday and share our progress.” - Yaoi declares and she considers things settled.

“Wait, what am I even supposed to do?” - Yuri asks in confusion.

“Hm, well you could just tag along with Kei and make sure that nothing happens. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t mind it. Or you could just keep an eye on Kei from a distance and observe things like that.”

Tuesday:

Haah. How should I go about this?

Yuri thinks to herself as she lets out a long sigh.

Yaoi-senpai told me to keep an eye on Kei-senpai, but I don’t like either option she presented. Actually I don’t even believe in fortune telling. But I guess there’s a chance that it could end up being true...

Aagh. Fine. I’ll go!

After Yuri manages to discuss it with herself, she stands up from her seat and starts walking away.

Ah there he is!

Yuri thinks to herself as she spots Kei coming out of her classroom. (Just a reminder, Kei is a girl too, Yuri just doesn’t know it.)

She has her gym clothes with her and she is walking away. Yuri follows her from a distance while trying to act as casual as she can.

Wow, he really is popular.

Yuri thinks, after she sees Kei get stopped every few steps by different girls. However it looks like she excuses herself every time, so she must be going somewhere important.

Yuri follows Kei out of the school building and it looks like Kei is really going to the running tracks.

“Come on, that stitchwork is really sloppy. There’s no way that beats the cosplay club’s. Redo it!”

A stern voice can be heard coming from the nearby benches. As Yuri looks at the source of the voice, she sees three students sitting on a bench while sewing something to the fabrics they each have on their lap.

The girl, who just gave the orders to another student, looks familiar to Yuri.

Ah, it’s one of the girls that was with Yaoi-senpai yesterday! - Yuri realises.

So, if they want to beat the cosplay club, I guess they are the literature club.

After Yuri thinks this, it looks like Kei also noticed them. She looks at them for a few moments and then she starts walking towards them.

Yuri is surprised by this, after all Kei just excused herself from those other girls.

Yuri carefully gets closer, so she will be able to listen to their conversation. Not at all stalker-like behaviour, but let’s move on.

“Hey, do you need any help?”

Kei offers, as she gets to the literature club. The girl, who was with Yaoi, gets suprised by Kei’s unexpected appearance.

“Ah! Ehm, Kei-senpai, I-I didn’t know you knew how to sew.”

“Well, I’m no expert, but look here, the fabric is really thin here, so you have to be very careful with it, like this.”

Kei spends the next few minutes explaining and demonstrating what they should do and look out for.

Wow, even though he was in a hurry he stopped to help out. And with sewing of all things. Hm, I guess I can see why they call him the prince of our school. - Yuri thinks.

After Kei feels like the literature club understood what she told them, she excuses herself and walks away. The club seems to be really fired up after their exchange and they completely focus on their project.

Kei first walks into the gym, but Yuri doesn’t follow her in there, since she is probably only going in there to change into her gym clothes. And sure enough, she comes out after a few minutes.

By then Yuri managed to find a nice place to watch Kei from, so she doesn't stand out. Kei stretches for a bit and then starts running.

Hm, he really has a good figure. - Yuri thinks before she catches herself.

Nonono. I’m only here to look out for Kei-senpai. And he and Rin might have something going on anyway. Ugh, what am I thinking? Let’s just look for now...

After Kei starts running she looks completely absorbed in what she is doing.

Huh, so he can make a face like that too. - Yuri is surprised by Kei’s serious expression.

After this Kei spends a number of minutes running. Surprisingly Yuri doesn’t find this boring, on the contrary, it’s quite engaging.

At some point Kei stops running, lets out a sigh and then slowly makes her way back into the gym. Yuri takes a look at the time and to her surprise the break is indeed ending soon.

I didn’t even notice.

She thinks and then she quickly looks around to make sure there are no changes in the scenery. After she feels satisfied, she lets out a sigh as there is nothing out of the ordinary.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

Suddenly a voice calls out to Yuri from next to her. She turns in that direction immediately and finds Kei standing next to her.

“Oh, you’re that person that was with Yaoi, Yuri was it?”

“Ah, ehm, y-yes, that’s me.” - Yuri manages to answer her.

“So, what’s up?” - Kei asks again, which makes Yuri break out in a cold sweat.

“Well, I-I was just looking at the scenery...”- She answers as she looks around at the completely normal school courtyard.

Ah, he isn’t going to believe such an obvious lie, will he?

Yuri thinks and then she tries to come up with something to add to her statement to make it more convincing, but Kei starts to talk before she is able to get anywhere:

“Hm, I guess I can see that. I was wondering what you were doing, since you were just sitting here the whole time.”

This sentence made Yuri realise something about her recent behaviour. Something that she decides not to think about for now and live in ignorance for a bit longer.

“You know Rin too, right?” - Kei asks her.

“Yeah, I haven’t known him long, but we’re friends.” - She answers.

“Is he...” - Kei changes her mind and instead says:

“Nevermind, the break is almost over, I think we should go back to our classes.”

Yuri agrees and the two of them begin to make their way back to the school building. However they don’t get far before they notice another group of girls talking nearby.

“Say that part louder! We don’t know what the literature club will throw at us, but if it’s reciting a poem, there’s no way that that would have held up!”

Says one of the girls and Yuri recognises her as the other girl that was with Yaoi yesterday and apparently a member of the soon to be cosplay club.

“But I can’t speak any louder than this, especially if it’s in front of other people.”

Says the other, more timid looking girl. Yuri is about to ask Kei something, but as she turns to look at her, she notices that Kei is gone.

She looks around dumbfounded, but she soon notices that Kei is already talking with the cosplay club:

“So before you get to this part you should take a deep breath and don’t just try to speak louder, but instead use more air as well, so your voice carries further.”

Kei keeps giving them advice and all the members take notes. Soon Kei excuses herself and goes back to Yuri:

“Sorry, that took a bit longer than expected.” - she says.

“Ah, don’t worry about it. Do you do this kind of thing often?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, helping people out?” - Yuri asks.

“Well, I don’t know if I’d call it helping out, but I try to do as much as I can.”

So, this is how he got the prince nickname. - Yuri thinks to herself, and as she has this realisation the bell rings.

“Ah, we should really go back to our classes, it was nice meeting you!” - Kei says as she flashes a smile for Yuri.

“Yeah, you too...”

Wednesday:

Rin is carefully making her way through the school’s courtyard with the back of the gym as her destination, when an unexpected figure appears before her:

“Ah, Rin. What a surprise! I didn’t expect to see you out here.”

Yaoi says and it takes Rin a few moments to take in the sudden appearance of the student council president.

“Oh, I’m Yaoi by the way, I hope you remember me from the other day.” - she quickly adds, before Rin could start talking.

Yeah, how could I forget. - Rin thinks to herself, but she stops herself from saying it out loud and instead says:

“Y-yeah, I remember.”

I should play it safe. There’s something about her that I don’t really like… Like there’s something behind that perfect appearance of hers, that she doesn't show anyone. Something not so flawless… although I might be overthinking it.

As Rin thinks about the best course of action Yaoi starts speaking again:

“So, what are you doing out here?”

“Ehm, well, I was just walking around I guess.” - Rin answers.

“It isn’t good to skip lunch you know, you should...”

Yaoi stops talking for a moment, like she is thinking about something, or at least just pretending to. Then she continues:

“Actually, do you want to eat with me?”

“I was looking for a chance to get to know you better.”- Yaoi adds while averting her gaze a bit.

“Uhm, I-I...” - Rin is trying to think of a way to get out of this, because she has a bad feeling about it.

“Of course only if you want to, I wouldn’t want to force it on you or anything.” - Yaoi says with a seemingly genuine expression.

“Well, then-”

Rin wants to take this chance to get out of this situation, because this might be her only opportunity, but Yaoi interrupts her saying:

“But I might have some things to talk about, that could interest you...”

Rin could swear that Yaoi had a different expression on her face for a moment, when she wasn’t looking at her. And a chill ran down her spine as she heard Yaoi say this.

This was a threat right? - Rin thinks while being frozen in place.

“Yeah, sure.” - She answers before she could catch herself, but it’s too late now.

A few minutes later Rin and Yaoi are sitting on a bench under a tree:

“S-so, what did you want to talk about?” - Rin asks, which might only make things worse, but she couldn’t bear the silence any longer.

“Well, we’ll get to that, but first let me ask you. What do you think about Kei?”

“Huh? W-w-what are you talking about?” - Rin asks, feeling self-conscious from the sudden mention of Kei.

“Come on, don’t tell me your young maiden heart doesn’t flutter because of Kei’s honest actions.”

“...” - Rin looks away to hide her embarrassment, but she doesn’t know how to answer.

Hmm. She didn’t deny it, huh?

Yaoi thinks as she calmly returns her attention to her lunch, like she accomplished what she set out to do.

After she finishes her food Yaoi stands up and she lowers her head a bit closer to Rin’s, so she can clearly see her face, without her hair hiding it.

Rin is taken aback by Yaoi’s action and subconsciously tries to put a bit more distance between them, but since she is still sitting, there isn’t any more space left.

“I’m going to cheer you on from the sidelines.”

Yaoi says in a tone, that is hard to determine what exactly it implies. Then she puts on her signature smile and happily walks away.

...was that a threat?

Rin is left alone in a confused state, and she completely forgets about the half-eaten sandwich in her hand.

Thursday:

Huh? This isn’t the place Yaoi-senpai said to meet up.

Yuri thinks as she notices Yaoi standing in the school’s courtyard and it looks like she is talking to a group of people.

Before Yuri can think about what she should do, Yaoi notices her as well:

“Ah, Yuri. It’s good that you’re here. What do you think?”

Yaoi says as she motions toward two people, who are standing closer to her than the rest.

By now Yuri recognises them as the members of the cosplay and the literature club that she met before. Yuri looks over the two people who stand out from the others because of their outfit.

One of them wears a very girly outfit which looks like a magical girl cosplay and the other wears an old looking dress which Yuri recognises as the outfit that the literature club was working on the other day.

“What do you mean?” - Yuri asks as she turns to Yaoi.

“Which one is better in your opinion?”

All the gazes turn to Yuri as she tries to decide what to say. The literature club’s old style outfit has an elegance to it, however some parts of it look badly sewn together, even to an outsider like Yuri.

The cosplay club’s outfit certainly looks weird, however it’s undoubtedly more well put together.

“I guess the magical girl outfit? But I really don’t know anything about this kind of thing.” - Yuri answers.

“Hm, yeah, that’s the one I had in mind too. So this round goes to the cosplay club. That makes the score 1-1.” - Yaoi declares.

The winning club’s members high fives each other and the literature club collectively lets out a sigh, but it looks like they kind of expected this outcome.

“Tomorrow I’ll tell you the third and last competition, and whoever wins that one will get the clubroom.”

A few moments later the clubs go their separate ways leaving Yuri and Yaoi together.

“Are you really going to decide this with a competition?” - Yuri asks as she questions Yaoi’s absurd way to resolve the situation.

“That’s not important right now.” - Yaoi dodges the question

“Let’s go check up on the two lovebirds.”

Yuri is caught off guard by Yaoi’s blunt way of speaking and it takes her a bit to clear her head of the pictures that suddenly appeared in it.

Yaoi leads Yuri toward the back of the gym, where they originally planned to meet up.

“It looks like they only meet up like this about twice a week.”

Yaoi says as they are walking. Before they reach their destination Yaoi stops for a moment.

“Let’s be quiet, we don’t want to disturb them.” - She says.

“Then why are we here in the first place?” - Yuri protests, but truthfully she is curious too.

“Come on, we have to make sure their fortunes turned out for the better.”

The two of them take a bit of a longer way around so they are hidden by the foliage from the nearby bushes and they carefully position themselves, so they can see what’s going on.

“Hm, it seems like they are just casually talking while eating.” - Yaoi observes.

“Then that means it was a success right?” - Yuri asks, and she is a bit relieved by the seemingly normal interaction between the other two.

“Hm, let's wait a bit longer.” - Yaoi says.

The two of them spend their time looking at their friends, but they can’t really hear their conversation.

However it really just looks like two friends chatting. Although they certainly are a weird pair.

Then soon the break comes to an end.

“Great! It seems like our plan worked.” - Yuri declares.

She looks at Yaoi for a reaction, however she looks a bit annoyed.

“Well, I guess..” - Yaoi answers and then mumbles to herself in a lower voice:

“Ugh, that was boring. Maybe I should take more drastic measures next time...”

But Yuri could still make out most of what she said.

“Huh? Wait, what do you-”

But before Yuri could finish her question Yaoi interrupts her:

“I guess we should go back to class. Come back to the student council room tomorrow and let’s wrap this up.”

Before Yuri can say anything Yaoi walks away.

Friday:

The door to the student council room opens. Yuri is welcomed by the sight of the president sitting at her desk. Except…

“Pfffft. Hahaha...”

Yuri bursts out laughing because of the unexpected accessory Yaoi is wearing. She has her normal outfit on this time, but she is wearing a typical disguise mask, like the ones you can see in comics, the glasses that have a nose and mustache attached to it.

“W-why are you wearing that?” - Yuri asks as she is trying to get herself together.

“I didn’t have anything to wear, since we are just gonna go over what happened this week.”

Yaoi answers, seemingly unfazed by Yuri’s reaction. Yuri wipes away the tears in her eye as she asks:

“Why do you want to dress up in the first place?”

But as she looks back at Yaoi, she doesn’t have anything on her face anymore, like she never wore that in the first place.

“It seems like we have guests as well.” - Yaoi says.

Yuri looks to the door and sees that the members of the literature club and the cosplay club showed up.

Ah, there was something about them too. - Yuri thinks as she remembers their competition yesterday.

“Well, I guess I should tell you about the final competition.”

Yaoi says as she looks towards the two clubs, who seem less hostile towards each other than before. The two leaders of the clubs look at each other and nod. Then the leader of the literature club starts speaking:

“That won’t be necessary.”

“Huh?” - even Yaoi is surprised by the sudden statement.

The leader of the cosplay club starts talking next:

“When we were practising reciting different literature works, we realised that it could actually be quite fun and we ended up reenacting scenes from animes.”

Then the other one starts speaking again:

“And when we made those old fashioned dresses we realised just how hard it is to do something like that, but it was quite rewarding. It also made reciting more fun and engaging.”

The two leaders look at each other again, and then say:

“So in order to save our clubs we decided to make the first Historical and Modern Cosplay Literature club.”

They announce with a proud look on their faces. Yuri is left dumbfounded by the events that just played out before her eyes and she turns to Yaoi.

She looks like her normal calm self, but she has a small smile on her face.

Wait. No, that can’t be. - Yuri thinks as she goes over how Yaoi handled the situation.

Was this her plan all along? Making the two clubs appreciate the other’s activity?

A slight chill runs down Yuri’s spine as she tries to understand the mind of the student council president.

“Well, I’m happy you found a solution together.” - Yaoi says, as she keeps up her reliable student council president aura.

“We couldn’t have done it without your help prez, you have our gratitude.” - The cosplay club leader says.

“So, I guess then your club room is room 202, on the second floor.”

Yaoi tells the now united club in front of her as she hands them the key.

A few moments later the club leaves while thoroughly thanking Yaoi and Yuri for their “help”. After the door closes Yuri looks at Yaoi, to try to get some sort of confirmation.

“Ahh, now what do I do with the extra clubroom I managed to get?” - Yaoi mumbles to herself.

“Huh? What do you mean extra clubroom...?” - Yuri asks as her previous conclusion and new found respect for Yaoi slowly shatters to pieces.

“Well, I wasn’t going to just disband the losing club, so I managed to get a new clubroom.” - Yaoi answers.

“But what about your plan? Merging the two clubs together.”

Yuri tries to make sure she doesn’t jump to conclusions too early this time, because Yaoi might have wanted to make sure that everyone has a place just in case.

“Oh, that wasn’t my plan. I just wanted to make two clubs compete with each other for a clubroom, just like how it happens in mangas.”

As Yaoi’s eyes light up Yuri’s fade away as she realises that it was even worse than she thought.

“But this way, I didn’t even get to use my idea for a competition either. Ah, what a letdown.”

Yaoi complains and her face shows signs of frustration. Yuri tries to comprehend what she just heard and she feels like she understands Yaoi even less than before.

“Well anyway. Let’s talk about what we originally wanted to.” - Yaoi changes the subject.

“Ehm, okay...” - Yuri agrees because she’d rather not think of the implications of the previous conversation.

“So, how did your part with Kei go?” - Yaoi asks.

“Well, I didn’t see any stalkers while I was there, so I guess we didn’t have anything to worry about...”

Yuri decides to leave out the part where she ended up playing the part of the confronted stalker, even if Kei didn’t realise it.

“Hm, well I didn’t notice anything wrong with Rin’s social skills either when I talked to her.”

Yaoi decides to leave out the part where she confirmed that Rin is a girl, because she thinks it might be more fun if Yuri doesn’t know about that just yet.

“That’s good...Wait, you just talked to him out of the blue?” - Yuri asks.

“Well yeah, that was the fastest way.” - Yaoi protests.

“So we were the ones that made the fortunes come true?!”

And with that realisation Yuri decides that she had enough for one day, or even a week for that matter.