Akari's POV

Mari and I made our way to the music room while others were chattering about the new teacher on the way.

"Hey have you heard? There'll be a new music teacher!"

"Really really??"

"I can't wait!!"

"Are they a she or a he?"

"Ehh, I hope it's a hot sensei ;)"

"Yeah! I heard that they're a she and that she's beautiful."

Just as we were about to enter the music room, we encountered a beautiful melody. The sound was warm, embracing, but had a bit of sharp notes along the rhythm. We went inside to meet a gorgeous lady sitting in a chair, playing a piano, with the softest touch. Her fine volumized curled black hair goes all the way down to her waist and her black-colored eyes glistens as she plays the piano. She was wearing a short red wool dress topped with a white cardigan, that shows off her curves. She has everything a girl could ask for in an appearance.

She turned to us as she noticed us staring at her. "Ah! You kids are already here! Good evening, My name is Aoi Minako, you may call me Aoi-sensei. Nice to meet you, Class 1-A," she smiled sweetly.

She, then made us introduce ourselves to her and started her lesson. I don't know why, but it was kinda interesting for me. Maybe it's because I like music.

My head somehow began to hurt and my vision got blurry. I closed my eyes and breathe slowly. 'I've been focusing too much. My eyes need a break I thought as I looked outside the window to the afar, at the trees. I heard that if you're dizzy or have a headache looking out far or at green things like nature helps.

Today's weather was nice. It wasn't too hot for summer and the trees were all green again. My eyes followed above and stared into the sky.

Then we started singing in chorus. In the midway, the teacher stopped us ."Yoshino-kun? Can you sing louder please? I can't hear your voice at all," Aoi-sensei said.

"Ah yes! I'm sorry....." Mari replied as she looks down.

I looked at Mari. She was mumbling, she's usually not like this. She's one of the person with the best voice from who I know, and she's really passionate about singing. It's not like her to doze off at music, especially singing.

Soon after what it seems like a short period of time, the bell rang, as a sign of school being over.

Mari was rushing and shoving everything in her bag. Then, she didn't even wait and walked towards the door.

"Mari," I called out. She stopped, realizing that she forgot to wait for me or tell me where she was going.

"Ah, Akari-chan!" She hurried back to me.

"Where're you going?"

"Nowhere! Umm...I mean, I have some stuff the teacher asked me to do so I have to get going," she said fastly.

That's strange. Mari's really acting weird since this morning. I wonder if something happened. "Oh, okay... should Natsumi and I wait?"

"Hm??! Oh no no! It's okay," she waved her hands. "Then, I'll be going. Tell Natsumi I said bye!"

'Something's totally fishy' I thought as Mari ran out of the room. Natsumi came to my classroom a few moments later.

"Huh? Where's Maa-chan?" She asked looking around.

"She already left."

"Heh?? Really?? Whyy?"

"She said that the teacher asked for her help. But I don't think that's it. Something's not right," I said.

"You, too, Aki-chan? I thought she was kinda acting weird today. I think something's on her mind. She didn't even focus on what we were talking today," Natsumi said in a worried tone.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too."

She stretched her arms and put her hands on her hips, "Let's go!"

"Huh?"

"Let's go!! Let's follow Maa-chan!" She whispered.

"What? Why?"

"To see what's going on, of course," she grabbed me by my arms and ran out looking for Mari.

>>>>>>>>>>>

"I don't see why we're doing this," my eyebrows twitched. We were now in hiding in a corner of the hallway near the teacher's office.

"Shh, she'll come out any minute," Natsumi said, squinting her eyes.

Soon, Mari really came out of the office, bowing and saying, "Thank you so much for giving me some more time. I'll try my best to find more members!"

She closed the door and walked towards us. Both of us hid fastly but I guess she saw us. "Natsumi-chan? Akari-chan? What're you guys doing here?"

>>>>>>>>>>>

"So your club needs members?"

"Yeah...most of the members were from third years and they said they wanted to focus on their studies more, there're some second years but they quitted since there weren't much members left, they had nothing to do..."

"What do you guys normally do at your club?" Natsumi asked.

"Hmm....since it's an art club we paint, draw, make crafts, design and stuff like that?" She folds her fingers one by one as she counts each of the activities.

"Why are you recruiting members? It's not like you're the club president right?"

"It was actually my older sister and her friends that started this club back when they were at second year. When their club had art events are projects, I would often help her out. She said that I was good at art and that I should join her club once I enter her high school, so I did. It was really fun past these 2 months." she paused and her voice shivered as she looked down. "I-I don't want it to end....and I want to revive this club in the place of my sister. She would be sad if she knew this club was going to disband."

"Maa-chan...."

I thought about what Mari said. I wanted to be of a help to her. 'I should help friends when they're in trouble right...?' "I'll join," I said.

"Eh?"

"Your club...I'll join your club," I repeated looking away.

"Really? Thank you so much Akari-chan!! But...are you okay with it though?"

"Yeah, besides I like art."

"Horrayy!!" Mari pulled me into a tight hug.

"Ehh!! Not fair! Then I'm joining, too!" Natsumi butted in.

"Really!?" Mari asked pulling away.

"W-Well, I'm not good at art but if both of you guys are there, then of course I'll join too ><!"

"Natsumi I thought you're in the photography club."

"Oh that, well, I've been thinking about it and just as I thought, I like taking pictures freely and I don't want do projects and stuff like those," she grinned. "But I'll have to talk about it with my club president first."

"Ohh..." 'That's true though, taking pictures freely is better than having a topic and search to take them. It seems like a reasonable answer from Natsumi...plus she's lazy to do projects' I sighed.

"Yayy!! Then the three of us can be together after school!" Mari cheered. "So, two down, two more to go!"

"Huh?"

"Ah, I actually need at least five members to keep this club going. Since we have three now, we need at least two more," Mari explained.

"Ooo! I know who will join!" Natsumi raised her hand.

"Who?"

"Heheh. I think he's still here, follow me," she smirked.

>>>>>>>>>>>

*huff* *huff* "Geez, I can't believe you made us run like that," I glared at Natsumi, wiping the sweat on my forehead.

"Aheheh, sorry. But we had to run!! What if he left when we were on our way?"

Mari smiled, "I don't mind this at all though. I still can't thank you guys enough for helping me."

"Don't worry about it," I brushed off. "Anyways, why're we here?" We were outside Class 1-B's classroom.

"You'll see!" She grinned as she went looking for someone. "Ah! Found him~"

She waved to us, signaling us to come over. Mari skipped there while I sighed and dragged myself.

Then Natsumi pat a guy's shoulder who was sitting at the back row near the window. He has his earphones in his ear and he was playing a video game. It was Nakamura Shou, one of that bastard's friend. I facepalmed; well, I guess he's not bad compared to the other two, one is a stupid bastard and the other one is really energetic.

"Oh, Ken, are you back? Did you get my strawberry milk?" Nakamura-san said without even looking up from his game. He probably mistook us from that bastard since he wasn't expecting us.

"Oi!!" She went in front of his desk and kneeled down as she waved in front of his game device.

He noticed Natsumi and took his earphones out of his ears and put away his device. Nakamura-san said, "Oh, sorry, I was too into my game I didn't notice you. I thought you guys were Ken cuz he went to buy some juice for me."

"It's okay!" Natsumi replied with a smile.

"So, what's up?"

"Actually, we came here to ask you a favor."

".....a favor?"

"Yeah, I was going through the photographs my club took and I saw your drawing of Benji. He's my favorite character from Underwatch!! Your drawing looks exactly like the character!"

"Ah...is that so?" he said as he yawns.

"So......wanna join the Art Club?"

"Huh?" His drowsy eyes opened. Natsumi explained him the situation. "Eh? Sounds too troublesome..... I have to go home early to play games and sleep."

"Heheh. I knew you would say that. Here take a look at this," Natsumi rumbled her bag and take out a video game disk. "TADAA!! You know what this is right? The limited edition of--"

His mouth dropped. Natsumi chuckled. "That's right. I bought one for myself and I thought you might want it too so I bought another."

"So you'll give it to me?" He said quietly with his puppy eyes.

"Ahahah, only if you join the club~" she waved the disk over his face.

"....f-fine!" He pouted and Natsumi give the game to him. He grabbed it from her hand and his sleepy mood suddenly changed to happiness.

"Yayyy!!! Now we need one more member!" Natsumi lifted her hands and cheered.

"Yo! Shou, are you talking with someone? How......" to my surprise the bastard and Ryouta-san entered the room. His voice slowed down and got quieter as he saw us. "........rare?"

Natsumi waved at him, "Ah! Hey Ken! Ryouta!"

"Hey." He looked at me. "Hello, elephant girl," he winked. "Oh, and you too Mari-chan." I looked at him in disgust and ignored him.

"Ooo! What's going on here?" Ryouta-san walked to us and saw the disk Nakamura-san "Hehh?! Isn't that the limited edition of the game that we've been searching for??!!"

"Oh my god... it is!" Ken also rushed to us and take a look at the disk. "Where and how did you get that?!"

Nakamura-san pointed at Natsumi. Natsumi put her hands on her hip and grinned. "Heh, of course it's a gift from me," Natsumi said proudly. "I didn't know that you guys play it too so I only bought it for Shou. Sorry.." they slouched and the sad look on their faces were obvious.

"It's okay, we can play it together at Shou's house," Ryouta said with an unsatisfied face.

"But! I can get you guys other games' limited edition. I'm not sure about this one cuz they're all sold out so it'll be hard to get my hand on it."

"What?! Really??" Ken and Ryouta said in union. Natsumi nodded.

"In exchange, join our Art Club! We're short on members," she smiled.

"Sure, Art Club sounds like fun!" Ken exclaimed.

"Yeah, none of us are in any of the clubs anyways and we have nothing to do after school," Ryouta said.

>>>>>>>>>>>

"We've gathered all the members!" Mari said. She filled in the forms. "All we need is a faculty advisor now."

"Hmm? Don't we have one?" Ryouta asked.

"Ah...nope. Our previous advisor thought our club isn't here anymore and he got asked to advise another club," Mari sighed.

"Ehhh? Then, we'll have to search, huh?" Natsumi said.

".....But the problem is.... there's only one teacher who's available." Mari replied.

"Who?" Everyone tilted their heads, waiting for the answer.

Mari looked away, "The new music teacher, Aoi-sensei...."