"President."

"Uuuuuuu…"

"…Hey, President."

"Uwaaaaahhhh!!!"

"..."

Rinji looked speechlessly at Shirogane, who was hugging a shoujo manga and sobbing.

Because Hayasaka's abnormal behavior at home bothered him, and it seemed tied to the shoujo manga she had been reading—"Today's Sweet Words"—Rinji suspected something was wrong with the book.

Nicknamed "SweetWords," the manga was extremely popular. Unlike many shoujo manga, it wasn't overly dramatic, but instead focused on character depth and bittersweet emotions.

After flipping through a few pages, Rinji found nothing wrong, only a pile of logical inconsistencies.

But realizing his own thinking might not match normal people, he went downstairs to consult Shirogane, to see his take on it.

When handed the manga, Shirogane said he was also a manga fan and that ordinary stories couldn't move him.

And then…

"Uuuu… so touching…"

"President, wipe your nose with a tissue."

Honk!!

"Feel better?"

"Uwaaaaahhhh!!! It's just too moving!!"

"…Come on, enough already."

"I want to fall in love too!!!"

"Don't you already have a relationship with Shinomiya?"

The goal of a story is empathy.

If a manga conveys its emotions so well that readers resonate with them, then it's successful, and minor flaws will be overlooked.

"Oh right, I already have a girlfriend."

Shirogane suddenly remembered.

He was already dating Kaguya, yet after reading the manga, he still felt, 'I want to fall in love.'

"This manga is terrifying…"

"Really? I thought it was average."

"Average? You think this touching story is just average?" Shirogane couldn't sit still. "Where do you think it's bad?"

Rinji: "No bloody fistfights or mecha battles."

Shirogane: "…What exactly are you expecting in a shoujo manga? I don't even know how to respond."

"Speaking of which, President, how did things go with Shinomiya over winter break?"

"Ah… not bad, I guess."

At the mention of Kaguya, Shirogane rubbed the back of his head, his cheeks slightly red.

"Well… actually, it was pretty nice. At the Shinomiya estate, we barely had any chances to meet. But now that school's started… since we can't reveal our relationship, we can only secretly…"

"Secretly what?"

"…Kiss, and stuff."

"Oh."

"Anyway, for now, our relationship can't—"

Bang!

The room door suddenly burst open.

Kei stood there, staring at Miyuki with surprise.

"Bro… did you just say Shinomiya?"

"…"

"You mean that Shinomiya-senpai?"

"…"

Though her expression didn't change much, Kei's widened eyes carried a strong sense of pressure.

Miyuki felt like his heart was about to stop.

Seeing this, Rinji quickly smoothed things over. "Kei, we were indeed talking about Shinomiya, but it was about student council work."

"Eh? Really?" Kei looked doubtful. "Then why did you just say something about kissing?"

"Well, that was…"

Rinji racked his brain for a cover story, then spotted the manga on the desk.

"Oh, the manga. We were talking about the plot."

He quickly held up "SweetWords" in front of himself.

"Hmm…"

Kei looked at the cover curiously. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ N0veI.Fiɾe.net

"I didn't think you two high school boys would be into shoujo manga."

"For research."

"Is that so? Let me see."

—Ten minutes later—

"Uwaaaaahhhh!!!"

Rinji: "…Good grief, another one down."

Watching Kei bawl her eyes out, Rinji realized Hayasaka's reaction had been relatively restrained.

A pure tearjerker shoujo manga really did have this effect, and this one seemed to excel at it.

Only someone like Rinji, whose brain didn't quite work like others, could read it without crying.

"Well, I think I've got the gist of it, so…"

Rinji stood up, about to leave Shirogane's room, when Kei suddenly grabbed his sleeve.

"Rinji-nii…"

Kei looked up at him with tear-filled eyes, her gaze soft and pitiful.

"Don't go…"

"…"

Seeing the tears in Kei's eyes gave Rinji a headache.

Besides being a tearjerker, this manga also stirred emotions like, "I want a dazzling romance," or "I want a fateful encounter."

And for female readers, it made them unconsciously slip into the heroine's perspective.

Clearly, from the way Kei was looking at Rinji, she was now seeing him through a heroine's filter.

"Kei," Shirogane said, unable to ignore his sister's odd behavior, "Rinji has to wake up early tomorrow. Let him go…"

Shua!

Before Shirogane could finish speaking, Kei immediately stepped in front of Rinji protectively, glaring at her brother with warning eyes.

"Stay away from Rinji-nii!"

"Eh!!?"

---

The next day.

Inside the student council office.

"That's pretty much it. I really can't understand how a shoujo manga could have such destructive power."

"I don't get it either. Students these days cry so easily. In an era of information overload, they should be exposed to plenty of manga already."

Ishigami, slouched on the sofa, spoke disdainfully.

"I've read a lot of manga myself, and I know most of the basic tropes. Tearjerker scenes are always foreshadowed, so just by glancing at them I find it boring."

"..."

Rinji looked at Ishigami talking beside him and handed him the manga from yesterday.

Ishigami opened it from the first page and began reading, commenting as he went.

"See this panel? It doesn't make me want to cry at all. The intent is too obvious, feels cheap."

Ten minutes later.

"Uwaaaaahhh!!! Even though I already saw it coming, I still can't accept it!!"

"...So what was all that act earlier for?"