Chapter 7: Those Magazines Are Not Allowed!

Another normal day had arrived at Katagiri High School.

And in case you were wondering… the answer is yes, Haru was sitting in his seat, stretching while watching the rest of the students enter through the main door.

Some of his classmates were already in their seats getting settled.

But like every day, peace never lasts forever…

At that moment, and as loud as usual, Nakamura entered the classroom waving something around, like it was a magazine in his hands.

"Aizawa! There you are, best friend!"

Haru looked at him in confusion.

"What are you going to ask me for now? Besides, I don’t remember us being that close…" he replied.

Nakamura smiled even more.

"Come on, don’t say things like that, you’re breaking my heart." he said with exaggerated drama.

One of their classmates looked at them as if she were watching some kind of BL manga duo.

Haru got nervous and pushed him away.

"Alright, enough! Stop saying things that can be misunderstood!"

"What do you want?" he added.

Nakamura stretched the magazine he had rolled up in his hand toward Haru.

"What? What is that?" he asked, incredulous.

"It’s my payment for the favor from before." he replied smugly.

"Huh…?" Haru’s face showed absolute confusion.

"For taking the paperwork to the student council. It took me a while to bring it because I couldn’t find it, but it turned out it was inside a travel bag."

Haru slowly unrolled the magazine, not understanding what he meant.

When he saw the cover, his face began to turn red.

"What…?"

On the cover, a voluptuous blonde young woman was wearing a bikini on a beach with a view of the sea.

"It’s the latest issue of Blondes and Bikinis." Nakamura announced proudly. "Brought straight from Okinawa."

"Ahhh… foreign beauties…" he added with admiration.

"How can you bring something like that? What would happen if…?" Haru replied, looking at him seriously.

Nakamura’s face slowly changed, as if he suddenly didn’t understand anything.

At that moment, Haru felt true terror.

"She’s behind me, right…?" he muttered with a trembling voice.

. . .

Nakamura ignored him and, like a traitor, simply turned around and sat in his seat.

"Aizawa…"

The president’s voice behind his back froze his blood.

"She never enters through the back door… she always comes in through the front." he thought nervously.

"President! I can explain!" he said while many drops of sweat ran down his forehead.

She, as unshakable as always, with a graceful gesture took the magazine from his hands.

When she finally had it in her hands, she fought against her impulses to break her image in front of her classmates.

"Aizawa, this type of magazine is not allowed in class."

"It distracts from studying… I’ll return it to you at the end of the day."

Then she calmly placed it inside her bag.

And just like every day, she sat firmly at her desk without giving the matter another thought.

All the classmates began to whisper.

"I… I…" Haru tried to say, but she simply ignored him, like every day.

Later on, between the rows of seats, he saw the mysterious girl with the wooden doll again. This time her hair looked like snakes and, for a moment, he heard a crack sound, as if the doll had broken.

"Hiiiiiii…"

"I didn’t know that girl was in this classroom…"

With the teacher’s arrival, all the attention on the incident moved to the background and the classroom returned to normal. And yes, the president was still ignoring him.

******************

Later that same day…

******************

During physical education class, Haru saw the president drinking water and decided to approach her.

"President, I…"

…

She didn’t say a single word. She simply wiped her face with a towel and kept running on the track.

Haru could feel the cold in the air.

*****************

Later, during lunch…

*****************

The president was on her way to the cafeteria to buy her meal for the day when she saw Haru coming out happily from the crowd of students.

Although when she arrived all the students gave her space, sometimes it was irritating for her to buy food there.

He approached her with a big smile.

"Look, President. Orange juice and pork sandwich, just the way you like it." he said enthusiastically.

She looked at him without showing any reaction, as always, and took what Haru handed her.

"Thank you." she replied calmly.

The truth was that, even if she didn’t admit it publicly, she would never refuse free food.

"President, I…" when Haru tried to say something, she was already walking away, as if she were ignoring him on purpose.

…

Haru stayed there, alone, accompanied by a tumbleweed that bumped into his leg.

*****************

Even later that day…

*****************

The president was at her desk, reviewing the club requests.

"Purchase of basketballs for the basketball team…"

"Request to use the hall for a music event…"

"Decide the color of the women’s soccer jerseys…"

"Loan of the projector to play a documentary…"

She let out a long sigh as she leaned back against the backrest of her large chair.

"How exhausting…"

Then her eyes turned toward the kitchen and she imagined Haru coming out with the coffee.

"He didn’t come to the council today…" she murmured with a hint of melancholy.

"Hmph… I’m sure he has better things to do." she added, looking at the magazine beside the papers.

She placed the magazine inside the envelope and decided to finish her tasks for the day.

As she left, she could see Haru leaning against the wall, and something like a relieved smile almost appeared on Yuna’s face.

"President, I…" he said when he saw her coming out.

She simply took the envelope out of her bag and handed it to him.

"I’m returning your 'educational magazine'." she said calmly while he received the envelope.

"I’m not angry. See you tomorrow…" she added before walking away.

Haru didn’t fully understand her, but he knew he shouldn’t insist.

When he returned home, he opened the envelope and took out the magazine.

The girl on the cover had a large red stamp covering almost all of her that said "Disciplinary Council."

"Huh…?"

The young man’s confusion was more than obvious.

Then he began flipping through the pages and noticed that on every page where there was a blonde model, the stamps covered her completely. Some eyes were crossed out, and there were even stickers with comments that said "overrated."

"I have a slight suspicion she doesn’t like blondes…" he murmured.

He could clearly imagine the scene in his mind…

"Indecent woman!" stamp.

"Who brings this kind of magazine?" stamp.

Then he put the magazine back into the envelope and left it in the trash bin.

"Nakamura, you’re a hopeless idiot…"

The image of his friend smiling and giving a thumbs up appeared in his mind.