My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As Expected

Page 154

You guys aren't ninjas or assassins, are you?

"Could you help me find Sagami-kun? Oh, and remember to contact me regularly."

"As commanded."

Are you really ninjas?

The entire executive force was mobilized to launch a full-scale search for Sagami.

However, although they could find out Sagami's whereabouts before noon, the trail went cold. After noon, she seemed to vanish from the campus.

After Hayama and the others finish their performance, the closing ceremony will begin immediately. If the confirmations and preparations before the ceremony are also taken into account, there is very little time left.

Yuihama Miyuki, with her hands clasped together and her brows furrowed, ran over with a "tap tap tap" sound.

"Yukino, what's wrong?"

Do you know where Sagami-kun is?

Yuihama tilted her head in thought.

"Hmm... I didn't see her. Is there a problem if she's not here?"

Yukinoshita nodded, and Yuihama took out her phone.

"Then, I'll call and ask."

I watched as Yui left to make a phone call, and then I came up with another idea.

"Should we use the campus broadcast to find them?"

"That makes sense."

We sent out a missing person notice through the broadcasting studio, but there was still no response.

"Under the Snow".

Upon hearing the broadcast, Hiratsuka-sensei quietly appeared through the back door.

"Has Sagami arrived yet?"

Yukinoshita shook her head.

"...I see. The teachers heard the announcement and roughly know the current situation. If anyone sees her, I think they'll contact us. However..."

Ms. Hiratsuka's expression wasn't very optimistic as she said this. She was probably subtly telling us not to have too high expectations.

Compared to the almost boiling audience outside, the atmosphere backstage plummeted to freezing. As time ticked by, the crisis of the chairman's absence grew ever more urgent.

"This is troublesome... If Sagami-san isn't here, we won't be able to hold the closing ceremony."

"yes……"

The senior student nodded helplessly.

Seeing everyone's gloomy expressions, Yuihama asked:

"Will there be any problems if the model isn't here?"

"She was responsible for the closing ceremony speech, the overall evaluation, and the announcement of the award winners."

As is customary, this is the case every year for the school anniversary. Regardless of whether Sagami performs well or not, she still has to fulfill her duties as the chairperson.

"...The worst-case scenario is that someone else will take the stage in his place."

The senior student first considered contingency plans for any unforeseen circumstances.

If someone else were to take the stage in their place, either Senior Sister Xun or Yukinoshita would be the obvious choices. Considering their positions and stances, it would be acceptable to have either of them do it. However, this would inevitably leave a stain on the closing ceremony.

Yukinoshita also believed that this method was not feasible.

"I don't think this method is very feasible, because only Sagami-kun knows the voting results for the winning team and the regional award..."

The vote counting was handled by the people who stayed in the meeting room, but everyone came and went, and each person only knew the number of votes they had counted. In the end, only the person who compiled the data knew the total number of votes.

"Or, how about we reschedule the awards ceremony for another day?"

Yukino nodded in agreement, but her expression remained tense.

"That was a last resort. However, there's no point in not announcing the local award at this time."

This is a school anniversary celebration that emphasizes connections with the local community, and the "Local Award" is a newly established award this year. It is simply unreasonable to postpone the first award ceremony.

In any case, we need to find Sagami as soon as possible.

However, to this day, no one has been able to contact her, nor does anyone know her whereabouts.

Yukino bit her lip hard.

"what happen?"

It was almost time for the last group to perform, but Hayama remained calm. Sensing the tense atmosphere backstage, he asked us a question.

"Ah, we can't get in touch with Sagami-kun..."

The senior student began to explain the situation to Hayama.

Upon hearing this, Ye Shan immediately took action.

"Vice Chairman, I'd like to request a change to the performance. Could we sing one more song? There's no time left now, so just a verbal agreement is fine..."

"Are you sure you can do it?"

"Hmm. Yumiko, could you perform another song while playing the guitar?"

"Huh, sing another song? Are you kidding me? No way, no way, I can't help it! I'm so nervous!"

Just before going on stage, Miura, who was feeling very anxious, was startled when Hayama asked him this question.

Please.

“Wuwuwu…”

Miura initially refused vehemently, but under Hayama's charming smile, he buried his face in his hands, caught in a mental struggle. He actually looked kind of cute.

At that moment, Yukinoshita took a step forward and walked up to Miura.

"...I'm also humbling myself to ask you for a favor. This would be a great help to us."

"...Sigh...Don't joke around..."

Miura sighed in despair and looked up at Yukinoshita.

"I'm not doing this for you!"

She said this not to hide her shyness, but because she genuinely harbored hostility towards Yukinoshita. After saying this, she turned and left.

"Kebu, Ooka, Yamato, let's go. Prepare to stand by."

Miura tapped each of them on the head and strode towards the stage. The three behind him complained, "Really?", "Oh my god!", "Stop messing around!", but still obediently followed.

As soon as the four people took their positions on stage, the coordination team got busy, double-checking everyone's tasks. The preparations for performing one more song were quite extensive.

During this time, Hayama also seized the opportunity, quickly taking out his phone and starting to operate it. He probably wasn't simply writing letters to one person, but rather utilizing email lists (Note 85: Mailing list, meaning an individual or organization collects recipients' names and email addresses to send messages to numerous subscribers.), Facebook, LINE, and other SNS (Note 86: Social Networking Services.) platforms. Afterward, he made several phone calls.

After finishing a task, Hayama let out a sigh of relief.

"……Thank you."

"It's nothing, I also want to show my good side. More importantly... we can probably only hold out for about ten minutes, you need to use that time to find Sagami."

"Um."

"..."

Ten minutes... But Sagami wasn't answering the phone, and there was no response when they tried to find her via the school's public address system. It was clear she was determined to skip the closing ceremony. Finding someone who was hiding somewhere in just ten minutes was highly unlikely.

"I'll go out and look for it."

Yuihama was about to rush out, but I immediately stopped her.

"Searching aimlessly will probably make it difficult to find."

The student council members are already out searching for any possible information, but even so, no good news has come back yet. I don't think having one more person like Yuihama searching for people will be of any help.

Therefore, the most constructive approach is to assume that Sagami is absent and use the extra time to think about contingency plans.

"The simplest way is to fabricate a vote and have a substitute announce it on stage. No one will know the real voting results anyway."

Those present immediately exclaimed in surprise.

"Hikigaya..."

Don't you think...?

"Do it this way..."

"It's really not good."

Hiratsuka-sensei, Megurine-senpai, Yuihama, Hayama, and other conscientious people all rejected my opinion. Is that not acceptable? I originally thought this approach was very practical.

Yukino, who was always the first to object to such suggestions, remained silent. I looked at her in confusion; Yukino was stroking her chin, deep in thought.

"...Hikigaya-san."

"What's up?"

I couldn't help but feel nervous.

What kind of vicious insults could have made Yukinoshita think about them for so long?

Yukinoshita stared straight at me.

"If I have another ten minutes, will you be able to find Sagami-kun?"

“Well…”

I simulated it in my mind, trying to find possibilities.

Miura and his group are about to take the stage and will perform an extra song; if possible, they can also insert some interludes between the songs; plus their entrance and exit times, and how much patience the audience has to wait quietly for the closing ceremony to begin. All these factors combined, but unforeseen circumstances could shorten the time, mean that from now on, Miura and his group can only buy us about seven to eight minutes of extra time.

Even if I gain an extra ten minutes, the total usable time is only about fifteen minutes. Given my walking speed, leaving the gymnasium within those fifteen minutes to find Sagami and locate him in one place is already my limit. If Sagami has already left the school, then everything will be over. Therefore, I can only lock onto one location and gamble on whether I can find him.

"I don't know, and I can't give a definite answer."

"Hmm, so it's not impossible? That's enough."

Yukinoshita gave a clear response to my ambiguous answer.

She then took out her phone, took a deep breath, and made up her mind to dial the number.

Yukinoshita closed her eyes tightly, waiting for the call to connect. After a few seconds, she suddenly opened her eyes.

"Sister, please come backstage immediately."

It seems that Yukinoshita has found the answer to how to gain another ten minutes.

× × ×

Shortly after Yukino ended the call, the other party arrived at the scene immediately.

"Yukino, I'm here~ Is there something you need? Hayato's about to go on stage, and I wanted to watch from outside."

Yang Nai had a broad smile on her face, her composure was terrifying. She had probably been watching the band's performance not far from us, maybe even close enough that we didn't need to call her.

Ignoring Haruno's complaints, Yukinoshita went straight to the point and made her request:

"Sister, please come and help me."

She spoke quite directly, and Yang Nai's expression changed. She shut her mouth and looked down coldly at Yukinoshita.

However, Yukinoshita did not avoid Haruno's gaze and glared back with even stronger determination.

Their eyes met, without uttering a sound, and carried a chilling coldness that seemed to drop the surrounding air to freezing point, as if a whole patch of liquid helium had been poured over it.

At this moment, Yang Nai revealed a smile as cold as ice.

"Oh... okay. This is the first time you've asked me for a favor in a proper way, so I'll accept your request."

These condescending words sounded compassionate, but in reality, I felt no kindness whatsoever. This was more hurtful than a cold rejection.

Upon hearing this, Yukinoshita turned her head to one side and chuckled softly:

"Please? If you misunderstand me, I'll be very troubled. This is an order from the school anniversary executive committee. Have you looked at the organizational chart carefully? Please understand that in terms of hierarchical position, I am now higher than you; even for people outside the school, representatives of performing groups are obligated to provide assistance."

Yukinoshita spoke with the same air of superiority, her tone brimming with absolute confidence. Despite being the one making the request, she maintained her attitude of absolute dominance.

I suddenly remembered her from six months ago.