Joining the Literature Club was a bad idea.

[Kenji] Second Meeting: Increase of Characters

It was the Monday after the first (uneventful) meeting.

I stood in front of the clubroom door, waiting for someone from inside or my self-confidence to open it for me. Any second now. My self-confidence will either heighten and will force my hand to open it, or someone inside opens it.

"Any second now." I muttered.

It's been a minute already and nobody's opened it.

I'm opening it.

I slid the door to the side as I waved at the inside of the club. "Heeeey-" My greeting was interrupted by the sudden realization that someone was standing in front of me. "You're late for the meeting." I heard from the brown-haired girl before the door slid shut again.

"AKIKO, OPEN THE DOOR PLEASE!!" I shouted while knocking on the clubroom's sliding doors. When this girl said she would treat me like shit, she was serious. I leaned on the door as I sighed. Whoever this girl was, she must've been very important to elementary-grade Kenji Nishimura. Either that or she was someone who really hated me back then.

"Fine, I'll just skip today's me-" I was saying before the door behind me suddenly opened, making me fall to the floor on my back. I looked up from where I was standing to see Akiko Chisaragi. "...hey." I said as I stood up. Akiko looked at me with a smile on her face before she went back to her seat at the table. I stood up and suddenly realized there were more people in the room than just me and Akiko.

First, sitting at the table nearest to the door and the bookshelves was a girl with shoulder-length red hair and blue eyes. Opposite her, adjacent to Akiko, was a girl with dark-brown hair tied up in a ponytail. "Good afternoon!" Said the girl who was sleeping on a futon yesterday. She was sitting at a desk near the windows, separated from the other table.

"Are these all the members?" I asked the futon girl as I sat on an empty chair opposite of Akiko. "Well, there are only four people who signed up this year." The girl said as she stood up. "I guess we should start the introductions."

As much as I was curious to know the names of the other people in the room, I couldn't help but glance towards Akiko. She was glancing out the window as if she didn't want to do it. Couldn't blame her if she wanted to skip. I mean she probably wants to introduce herself, but I guess I'm just thinking about it too much.

"I'm Satsuki Murakata." The girl with a ponytail said as she stood up. I looked at the girl closely and saw that she had dark orange eyes and tanned skin. Her blazer sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, and she didn't wear a necktie nor the blue-and-light blue checkered vest that the others in the room were wearing. "I'm from Class 1-B, and I was part of the swimming team back in middle school." That explains her skintone then.

After Murakata, the girl beside me stood up. Something I noticed as she stood up was the fact that she was wearing a light blue blazer meant for boys, and also the same dark blue pants that I was wearing. "My name is Atsuyuki Shimada, Class 2-E." The girl said, provoking my thoughts to think about how Atsuyuki is a male name. "Also, to clarify things, I'm a guy." Shimada said while looking at me directly. I guess it's time to change all the she pronouns I used to refer to him.

I stood up next, guessing that the introductions were clockwise starting from Murakata. "My name is Kenji Nishimura." I said with a calm tone. "Class 2-A." I sat back down and waited for Akiko to stand.

...

But she was still looking outside the window. "Akiko, your turn-" I whispered. She quickly snapped back into reality and stood up. "Chisaragi." She said while looking at the others. "Akiko Chisaragi. Class 1-D." She sank back down to her seat as the futon girl stood up. "I guess that's everybody then." She said as she started folding the blanket she was wearing over her shoulders. Her eyes were still closed while she folded the blanket, as if she slept through the entire introduction part.

"Senpai, we still don't know who you are." Murakata said with a smile.

The blanket girl sighed and put the blanket on the seat she was sitting on. "I'm your club president, Chiaki Asakura." She said as she took off her vest and started to unbutton her blazer. Shimada shrieked from beside me. "WHY ARE YOU STRIPPING?!"

Stifling a yawn, Asakura-senpai laughed. "I'm just changing clothes." She let her blazer slide off her arms, revealing the t-shirt inside. "Anyway, I need to go to track-and-field practice." She said as she walked away from the table. "Then there's a drama club meeting tomorrow. Everyone, the vice-president is in charge while I'm gone." She then walked out the door, leaving everything on my shoulders again.

"Uh. What now?" I asked Akiko. Akiko shrugged, so I just stood up. "Well then everyone, I guess nothing else is going to happen today with Asakura-senpai gone."

I sighed as I announced. "Meeting adjou-"

"OBJECTION!"