12. Status Quo

To be fair…

There wasn’t really much to say.

I just tested him, then he understood it immediately—and that alone was enough.

Why?

Because I never rejected his offer.

Nope, not even once. Instead, I shifted something with it.

That’s all there is.

Meanwhile, Hanase-san was still glaring at me, her eyes practically digging for answers I had no intention of handing out for free.

I looked away. Not out of guilt—

but fear, because those pairs were saying it loud and clear.

"Explain it to me… or I will hurt you again. MUCH MORE."

The terrifying part was that she probably meant it metaphorically.

Probably.

Though with Hanase Shiro, there was always a small percentage of uncertainty involved.

A dangerous variable.

Like leaving unstable particles unattended inside a laboratory and simply hoping nothing exploded.

Which, unfortunately, described most of my interactions with her recently.

I sighed.

Fine...

“It’s not that weird, Hana—”

“It is weird,” she cut in immediately.

“It was a recruitment, right? He asked you to join, and you rejected it right away.”

A short pause.

“Right? Then why did he say he understood and just leave like that? How?”

“Kamiya-kun… explain it. Now.”

…That’s a lot of words in one breath. 

What are you? A stand user or something?

“That’s... a lot of confidence for someone who just admitted she doesn’t understand,” I muttered.

“Don’t ever try to dodge my question.”

I sighed again, this time a bit louder.

“Well, Shiro… you’re not entirely wrong.”

I adjusted my glasses slightly.

“But he didn’t really come here to recruit me.”

A brief pause.

“Or at least—not primarily.”

“He used that as a cover for something else.”

“A cover? Like what?” she asked, frowning.

“Yes. A cover.”

"Heh? Explain."

I glanced at her.

“Well, he just wanted to see how I would respond.”

“More specifically—whether I would reject the prez’s offer again.”

Well… to be fair, I did respond without fully thinking it through. Hence, the offer.

“So after hearing me out, he reframed it.”

She blinked.

Still processing.

“So what, you just stalled?”

“Not exactly.” I exhaled quietly. 

Her expression didn’t change, but I could tell she was following now.

“The recruitment was just a convenient excuse. Once I responded, he shifted it into something else. A negotiation, more or less.”

“Negotiation over what?”

“A structure where neither side commits, but neither side disengages either.”

“So no—I didn’t necessarily accept his offer.”

“I just changed the conditions under which I would engage with it.”

A short pause.

“So you didn’t accept,” she said slowly, “but you didn’t reject… so you made a third option.”

“Something like that.”

Shiro folded her arms tightly after that explanation, clearly unsatisfied.

Her brows furrowed slightly as if she was trying to forcibly reorganize the conversation into something more understandable.

Unfortunately for her, conversations involving people like Yuuta rarely followed normal social structures.

Everything became layered.

Meanings behind meanings. Intentions hidden beneath harmless wording.

Like chess players pretending they were discussing table manners while secretly calculating checkmate twelve turns ahead.

Honestly, it was exhausting.

“Yes," I adjusted my glasses again, slower this time.

"No force. No coercion.”

“…Not even an invitation.”

“Only mutual interaction… on equal terms.”

I looked back at her.

“…That’s what he understood.”

I expected her to cringe.

Honestly, anyone would.

But—

I was wrong.

Or maybe… I miscalculated.

Instead of disgust, her usual puppy-like eyes were staring at me.

Curious. Engaged. Excruciating. 

And of course, annoyingly so.

“That was… amazing.”

…Heh. I know right.

Of course it was.

I didn’t say it out loud.

My expression stayed flat as ever, one finger idly adjusting my glasses.

Then, without another word, I picked up a book.

This time—

"Beyond Weird" by Philip Ball.

A somehow strange book, written by somewhat a strangely logical scientist.

One who explains the misunderstandings of quantum physics—

by ridiculing the very people who discovered it.

Absurd.

And yet…

strangely fitting. Especially for this awkward situation.

I bought it on impulse a few months ago after reading a review online.

Apparently, the book specialized in explaining quantum mechanics by repeatedly reminding the reader that even the scientists themselves barely understood what they were talking about half the time.

Comforting, honestly.

Because if literal Nobel Prize winners sounded insane when discussing quantum theory, then maybe my conversation with Yuuta wasn’t completely hopeless after all.

—

The next day, the president called us in.

The Student Council room was exactly what you’d expect—clean, controlled, suffocatingly precise. Even the silence felt intentional.

She was already there, sitting behind the desk like she’d been waiting long before we arrived.

“So you came,” she said.

“Looks like it,” I replied, taking a seat.

Hanashi-san followed, quieter than usual.

“I heard about yesterday,” the president continued, her gaze settling on me. 

“You didn’t reject the offer.”

“No.”

“You didn’t accept it either.”

“No.”

A small pause.

“Okay, could you stop saying that? Jeez—”

Hanashi-san cut in midway, followed by the president’s soft cough.

“Anyway…”

“You created a middle ground, didn’t you?”

“…Yes.”

She leaned back slightly, studying me. Her eyes closed.

“I’m not interested in that,” she said.

“Not at all.”

“But…”

Her eyes narrowed in just a fraction.

“What matters is why.”

There you go.

I rested my chin against my hand slowly.

“To me, it was quite a heartwarming, welcoming invitation. Done officially by me.”

“So, why did you reject that term? And how dare you propose equal terms?”

“Kamiya Akira-kun…”

“Why?”

A faint tilt of her head. A sign of confusion.

Or perhaps, bewilderment. Who knows.

I let out a slow breath before answering.

“Right, I know it might come off as impolite. But—”

“…I don’t like games where you’ve already decided the outcome.”

“Rin.”

Her eyes locked onto mine.

This time, with an almost imperceptible smile forming on her lips.

“How fascinating..."

"So, you wanted equal terms because anything more—or less—wouldn’t satisfy you.”

“Isn’t that true, Akira-kun?”

…I see.

So—how do you want to go about this, prez?