After deciding to give up, I became popular

So, Natsukawa Kanade nodded repeatedly in agreement.

He completely understood that the angel-sama wasn't really angry at all. She was clearly putting on an act, just to "chastise" him a little, so he would remember not to hide things from her in the future. She wasn't the kind of unreasonable person who couldn't be reasoned with.

In short, she was expressing—she wasn't a little kitten to be played with!

How cute.

"What's with that, suddenly looking at me like that..." Shiina Mahiru wrinkled her pretty little nose, wondering if she wasn't being fierce enough.

But what if Kanade got angry if she was any fiercer?!

"It's nothing, it's just..." Natsukawa Kanade drawled out his words, then, under her unwavering gaze, continued meaningfully, "...I just think Mahiru is really cute."

"Wow!" Shiina Mahiru exclaimed, her cheeks suddenly turning red.

Her restless little hands waved aimlessly. The hug pillow that always protected her was still at home, so she couldn't use it to cover her face and protest.

"Y-You, don't say such things..."

"But I'm just telling the truth."

"..."

The distance between them wasn't far, so her heart was gradually filled with the urge to initiate a headbutt. The good thing was that her flushed cheeks wouldn't be seen, but the bad thing was that they would get even closer. But this wasn't at home, and if he could still see her face, she really wouldn't know what to do.

"A-Anyway, you're just saying pretty words, I'm ignoring you..." So, she resolutely turned her head and strode off in the direction she came from without looking.

She didn't want to stay here any longer, she wanted to go back to her dorm room.

Seeing her extremely wavering steps, Natsukawa Kanade's lips curled up slightly, and he quickly followed.

"That won't do, I can't let you go alone."

"..."

The angel-san still turned her head to the side, ignoring him.

185. Impossible, absolutely impossible!

On the way to sending Shiina Mahiru back to the girls' dormitory, they met many people who were gradually coming out of the venue, mostly in pairs, and rarely saw groups of three or more.

The test of courage was indeed over.

The message received from Kaguya also indicated this—"The list of all students who participated in the game has been compiled, none missing, no omissions. The venue has also been arranged for personnel to retrieve the arranged props and other facilities, which will take approximately 20 minutes. If the president has the leisure, he can also come to the office to inspect their work."

Natsukawa Kanade thought carefully for a moment, feeling that there were no problems, so he edited a message and replied:

"I won't go to inspect. Since you have already arranged it, Kaguya, then let's do it that way. I believe in your ability."

After confirming that the other party had received it, he breathed a sigh of relief, but a strong sense of shame immediately welled up in his heart—his most capable deputy was working tirelessly to complete the work, while he, the idle president, was constantly "dating" various girls.

Let alone the originally proud Shinomiya Kaguya, even if it were anyone else, they would definitely throw a tantrum.

The more Natsukawa Kanade thought about it, the more guilty he felt, but at the same time, he was secretly grateful that his deputy was Kaguya. It was really great.

Because she was truly an outstanding genius! She picked up any skill very quickly. There was no need to mention her administrative abilities. Just the fact that she was still an electronic novice a few days ago, but now she could skillfully type and send messages, was enough to illustrate her learning ability.

It was precisely because he understood this that Natsukawa Kanade had never underestimated her. Even when he first challenged her with preconceived notions, he had gone all out, even playing a little trick—he had only issued the challenge a few days before the exam, and before that, he had already reviewed his lessons with all his might to prepare for an easy victory.

But in the end, he only managed to defeat her with a slight advantage and win the top spot in the test.

After that, he repeated his old trick, constantly practicing and repeatedly challenging her in various fields. Even when he encountered various failures, he was not discouraged, but transformed them into motivation for the next challenge. This was not only to attract her attention, but also to show his strengths and charm, so that he could successfully confess at the crucial moment.

However, ironically, he himself gave up all his previous efforts due to excessive pressure, and even thought of resigning from the student council to leave everyone, just like he had done after each failure.

It wasn't until he met Katou-san that day that he finally realized—the relationship between boys and girls didn't necessarily have to be a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, it could also just be a normal good friend relationship.

So, after that, he began to act willfully, no longer deliberately avoiding those "former crushes", but treating them as—just girls with slightly special personalities.

At most, he would add a small prefix to the names of these girls—those who had once rejected his confession.

But he didn't think this was anything shameful, because now that he thought about it, the feelings he had at that time might not have been genuine. Perhaps it was just because he had found emotional support in an unfamiliar world, and he couldn't help but want to rely on them and get close to them.

If he had really succeeded, it might have been true pain for both parties—gradually discovering in the process of getting along that the other person was not what he had imagined. By that time, perhaps all the good feelings might have turned into fierce hatred because of the separation.

That would be the greatest harm to both parties.

So, he was now extremely grateful that he had been rejected all along, so that one day he could understand this truth and truly calm down and look at these girls who truly appeared in his world with genuine feelings from the bottom of his heart.

"Kaguya, it's so good to have you (helping)." Overwhelmed with emotion, he couldn't help but edit this message.

Perhaps he just wanted to express his feelings, but he accidentally sent it. He thought that perhaps it would be better to delete it, but the next moment he thought:

Never mind, just leave it like this, Kaguya will understand what I mean anyway.

He had always had complete trust in this woman who had provided more than half of the assistance in his student council career.

He also had to be honest—Shinomiya Kaguya was really super useful!

So, he couldn't help but send another message: "You've worked hard, go back and rest early."

Then he put away his phone and walked towards his dormitory, humming.

He was in a good mood today, so he couldn't wait to explore the emotional status of his roommates.

Those three guys, their behavior of selling him out earlier was really infuriating. He would get something out of them today no matter what! Natsukawa Kanade thought to himself.

Tonight, someone was destined to have a sleepless night...

—Shinomiya Kaguya was naturally one of them.

As early as when she received the message "Kaguya, it's so good to have you" from Natsukawa Kanade, she was already stunned. Everything else that followed had become irrelevant.

The specific manifestation was that all the subsequent coordination work was completely forgotten. She didn't even care that her maid was calling her name with a frown. Everything had become meaningless. Her mind was only thinking about one thing—

"Ai-chan! The president... finally confessed to me!"

"... Huh?" This time it was Hayasaka Ai's turn to be stunned.

But she just thought about it for a moment and felt that this was unrealistic. That obviously playboyish and hateful student council president, could he really do such a stupid thing?

He should be able to catch this mere silly and cute young lady without using any tricks!

Just like he did before...

Thinking of this, Hayasaka Ai suddenly realized something and quickly asked her young lady, "Kaguya-san, did Natsukawa-sama... confess to you in person?"

So, Shinomiya Kaguya handed over her phone, emphasizing the message sent by the other party.

"Look here, look here! What else could this be if not a confession?"

So, Hayasaka Ai frowned and leaned over, and then she saw at a glance the means that she didn't even consider to be a slight trick, and then she reminded her in a earnest tone: "Miss, is there a possibility that... the president just thought you were working hard so he was comforting you?"

She didn't even dare to use any overly harsh tone.

But Shinomiya Kaguya, who was head over heels in love, wouldn't believe her words.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible! This is clearly a confession, okay!"

Hayasaka Ai: "..."

Hopeless, her young lady was really hopeless!

186. Innocence, gone!

When Natsukawa Kanade returned to his dormitory, the other three roommates had already taken showers. At this moment, they were lying on their respective beds, chatting about what happened tonight.

Unsurprisingly, they were definitely talking about girls.

"Why are you back so late?" Seeing him push the door open and come in, Hikigaya Hachiman stuck his head out and looked at him in confusion, but Natsukawa Kanade just waved his hand and said:

"Let's not worry about that for now... Anyway, don't stop, I'm also curious about what you guys did today." He casually grabbed a hug pillow, stuffed it into his arms, then sat down on the floor, clenched his fists with both hands, supported his chin, and put on a posture eager to eat melons.

He had already heard their voices in the corridor. It wasn't that they were too noisy, but the entire corridor was buzzing with excited voices coming from different rooms.

This also proved that the so-called test of courage was never the most interesting thing, but rather the night talk after it was the most fun moment.

After all, eating melons was human nature, especially since these three were still friends who were on good terms with him, so he was naturally very curious about the love stories that happened to them.

"So, the president is also very interested, I thought you would be more avoidant of this," Tanuma Tsubasa didn't expect it to develop like this, and was rather surprised.

"What do you take me for? No matter what, I'm still a mentally healthy male high school student, right..." Natsukawa Kanade said in embarrassment.

People who hang out with boys but completely don't participate in discussions about girls or even avoid such topics are either extremely perverted men or people with mental problems or different orientations.

Which category does he look like?

"I'm a serious person who likes cute girls! Don't talk nonsense!" Natsukawa Kanade said with a serious face.

"I can prove that," Hikigaya Hachiman also raised his hand and nodded repeatedly.

"No, President, you misunderstood, I just thought... because the president's wom... cough cough—rumors are many, so it would be more difficult for you to personally admit who is your true love, there is absolutely no other meaning," Tanuma Tsubasa quickly explained.

"Huh? What rumors..." Natsukawa Kanade paused, then seemed to think of something.

Speaking of which, he had only known Tanuma Tsubasa for the past few days, but because they got along well, they immediately became good friends, but at this moment, he also felt that the other party's impression of him was a bit too outrageous.

Since a friend who already knew him saw him like this, what about the people who were closer to him?

So, Natsukawa Kanade looked at Shirogane and Hikigaya, but found that their eyes were a little evasive.

"..."

Really? Did even they think so? He felt that his head was a bit big.

The people he was closest to all thought so, wouldn't those who weren't very familiar with him be even more distorted and imagine his interpersonal relationships?

The so-called dignity of the student council president was probably replaced by strange things a long time ago!

"Tell me the truth... Anyway, you must tell the truth! And no matter what, I won't blame you—that is to say, is it... could it be that you also think I'm a scumbag or something?" Natsukawa Kanade said with a complicated expression.

Then, in the next second, he saw that Hikigaya guy turned his head to the side, Shirogane had a hesitant look, only Tanuma Tsubasa inexplicably showed a very admiring? expression.

"How could that be, President, I actually think the President is very amazing! Really, I'm not lying! Even Shinomiya-san, that proud 'Ice Princess', can be taken down... simply a love saint!"

"..."

Natsukawa Kanade opened his mouth, but didn't know where to start.

But he suddenly realized that wasn't there still a student council member next to him? Shirogane could definitely clarify the misunderstanding for him!

So, he turned his head and showed Shirogane an encouraging look: "This is definitely slander! Right? Shirogane can definitely testify for me, right?"

"Uh..." The result was that, contrary to his expectations, Shirogane Miyuki looked a little hesitant, "Probably... perhaps Shinomiya-san should just be mistaken, right?"

He really couldn't tell whether it was true or false. How could he pay special attention to the interactions between Natsukawa Kanade and Shinomiya Kaguya during his daily work? Although the scenes he recalled seemed to show that their interactions were indeed closer than others, this could also be attributed to the job duties of the student council president and vice president, right?

Natsukawa Kanade: "..."

What do you mean probably a misunderstanding? It's simply a huge misunderstanding, okay!

It was clearly because he didn't want to be seen as a detestable scumbag that he made a point of maintaining a completely devoted persona when pursuing every girl. He even did it with the mental preparation of potentially hurting other girls! But now he's being told that all of this was completely pointless?

That's not how it's supposed to work!

"What about Hachiman Hikigaya? You should be able to see things clearly, right?" Natsukawa Kanade placed his last hope on Hachiman Hikigaya.

He believed that with this guy's meticulous observation skills, he would definitely be able to see everything clearly and restore justice!

So, under his expectant gaze, Hachiman Hikigaya hesitated slightly before speaking: "That's why I said you were overdoing it. You should have restrained yourself a little, been more secretive, or something..."

Natsukawa Kanade: "..."

Hikigaya Hachiman... you!

Seeing his extremely unpleasant expression, Hachiman Hikigaya quickly tried to remedy the situation: "You told us to tell the truth! You said you wouldn't get angry! You can't go back on your word!"

This was probably the first time he had been so assertive, and he even specifically pulled in the other two as accomplices, so he could share the responsibility.

"Okay, right, you're right... I'm not angry... I can't be angry..." Natsukawa Kanade said, pressing a hand to his violently heaving chest, feeling waves of heartache.