Work Text:
Inappropriate use of school property: are these clubs really that relevant?
Nowadays, with the popularity of gathering people that share the same interests and beliefs as you in one room came into our school, we all question: should we really have all these clubs here? Isn't the principal aware of how much money is spent just to maintain one? Why does he allow all of these to exist? These led us to this very interview with Mr. Tanaka who agreed on answering some of our questions. We were greeted and invited into his office for the interview, the atmosphere was really welcoming, we even were offered some tea.
"It's very clear what your point is," he said to us. "But we can't just ban clubs because someone thinks that the budget given to them should go to the others that give what you call merit to our school. Of course it's nice to see that the boy's basketball team made it to the inter high or that the Mathematics Enthusiasts won a local prize in a contest but it's also good to know that the kids that do not identify with sports or do not want to focus on the academics can have a place for them to develop their skills, interests and feel included in the school environment."
"But Mr. Principal, what do you have to say about the lack of classrooms for the clubs to use for their meetings?" one of our members asked and received a sigh and a shook of head in return.
"Is there really anything we can do? The gardening club do their work, gatherings and everything else outside of the main building," he stated. "All the sport clubs share the gymnasium without any problems, I don't see why such an inconspicuous issue needs to be brought up at this point. We announced very clearly at the beginning of this school year that every new club that wanted to be formed needs a minimum of three members but that they wouldn't be able to have a class of their own and that if they didn't agree to those terms, they wouldn't be allowed to start their activities, unless they found a club that was willing to share or give some of their space with them. And until now, we have no requests about opening new clubs and I don’t see a problem about it."
After that, Mr. Tanaka added no further and we were dismissed, with no more questions to be made, we went around asking the students their thoughts about it.
"I really don't know what to say about this," commented Sugawara Koushi, vice president of the Garden Party Society - known as our gardening club - and sounding passive regarding the matter until he made his last statement. "But aren't we all good the way it is at the moment? I don't see a reason to make a fuss over it at this point."
"I think you should find a new hobby," said Tsukishima Kei, president of the Paleontology Researching Association - or should it actually be called Jurassic Park lovers? "Your weekly newspaper is just a boring piece of paper I use to clean dog poop now."
After that angry response from our highly regarded student Tsukishima-kun, we finally found someone who agreed with us.
"I absolutely think that we shouldn't turn a blind eye on this matter," Oikawa Tooru, voted as the most beautiful third year, said with conviction, his eyes shining with what we like to call justice and wit. "It's a problem that could've been prevented if not all of the clubs were approved in the act, but now that they exist and it's not a short-term matter that can be solved in a few days, I suggest that inspection is made on each club that exists within this school, so we can take note of what is important and relevant and what can be taken down. I know it sounds crude and barbarian, but if we don't do this, the school will never prosper. I don’t like pointing accusing fingers at anyone, but the Anime Community and the Artsy Town are just a waste of space, we don’t need people either talking about 2D characters or using their room like a storehouse with some colored canvases."
As we close this week's front page report, we would like to announce that starting from tomorrow (March 15th) we from the Journal Club, representatives of the student's interests, will follow closely the activities of each club along this week during club activity hours and write a brief article on it.
Stay tuned and don't miss out on our next issues to see the results.
Note: permission was given by the principal, as he said that “as long as there is no disturbance in the school grounds, you can do as you wish”, no clubs will be excluded.
Article by: Oikawa Tooru, student from class 3-A and President of the Spot On Journal Club
“Outrageous,” was heard coming from the art club room, the sound of paper being ripped and stomped on was loud and caught the attention of who was passing by. “Offensive. Revolting. Dishonourable. Motherfucker.”
Someone coughed from the door and the student inside the classroom had to stop his tantrum to answer the call.
“What?” he yelled from the middle of the room, fuming.
“Yamaguchi-kun, keep it down,” it was Daichi, third year and student council president, he looked at him apologetically, maybe he knew why he was so angry. “The teachers are going to get mad if you start cursing too much.”
“Okay, Sawamura-san, I understand.” he said through gritted teeth and slowly collected the pieces of paper from the floor and threw it inside a trash can - spitting into it before turning, Daichi sighed and left in silence.
“Yamaguchi!” called someone from outside and a boy jumped into the room, Tadashi was the only one inside it at the time and he wondered when the other members would show their faces so he could have a serious talk with them - and complain. “Did you read the school journal today?”
“If I did?” Tadashi shouted and the boy jumped. “Yuu-san, it was handed directly to my hands by no more than that piece of shit pseudo journalist Oikawa.”
“Can you believe it?” he said and joined Tadashi’s side, the second year didn’t look really angry but he was holding the paper so tight that it looked like it would disintegrate soon.
“Ugh, I know right? That was so disrespectful of him, I never did anything to him and that’s what I get?” Tadashi complained and Yuu stared at him puzzled.
“What?”
“What?” Tadashi imitated him out of instinct, why would he look confused at what he was talking about, unless…
“What are you talking about?” Yuu waved the paper in front of Tadashi’s face and was pushed away by the very annoyed first year - who also happened to be the art club vice president because it was literally only him and Satori. “I was going to say that the anime club was mentioned in the main article this morning, can you believe it? Oikawa knows we exist?”
“Get out,” Tadashi mumbled and took the paper from the hands of a very excited Yuu and dragged him all the way to the exit. “Don’t come back unless you start to think like a normal person would, why the hell should you be happy that your club was mentioned like that in a incredibly shitty article written by an amateur?”
“Yamaguchi-kun!” came in right after Tadashi had gathered his thoughts and started planning revenge, he turned to stare at the door with a huge smile on his face. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fantastic,” he replied Koushi, the pretty boy third year that always cared for his juniors and ran to them when he sensed danger - in this case, Tadashi wasn’t sure if he was the one in danger or Tooru. “That piece of bullcrap article can go-”
“Glad to hear that,” Koushi said loudly, covering Tadashi’s words with his voice and entering the room, looking around as he always did and smiling before speaking again. “I see you have been working on other things instead of canvas painting.”
“Yeah, I’m leaving that to Tendou-senpai because I suck at it, I started digital art and now I don’t think i can or want to hold a brush anymore,” he laughed at gave Koushi some space to take a look at his tablet. “I started doing some comic strips at the end of last week. I’m thinking about printing and handing out.”
“That sounds very fun,” he patted Tadashi’s shoulder and took a closer look into his tablet and frowned. “What are you doing? Oh my God.”
“It is fun, I started this one today,” Tadashi agreed and got up, shutting the electronic close and putting into his backpack. “Now, I have to go, thanks for paying me a visit, I’ll go see how the flowers are growing tomorrow.”
Koushi’s right eye twitched as Tadashi walked out of the room.
“You can just pretend that I’m not here at all,” Tooru told Yuu and the other members of the anime club while he sat down in a chair at the corner of the room. “Just do what you always do. I’ll stay for about ten minutes.”
“Okay,” Tsutomu slammed his hands down on the table, Tooru jumped on his seat and even the other members did. “I’ve got something I need to ask you, Oikawa-san.”
“I told you to pretend that I am not here,” he answered and Tsutomu slid back down on his chair. “But you can ask.”
“Why do you think that going at each club and observing what they do would qualify it as a relevant club or not?” Yuu stared at him horrified and Tooru turned red, ready to read his fifteen minutes long speech. “Your hair looks really good, what kind of shampoo do you use?”
Tooru nodded and told him the brand, scribbling on his notepad.
Okay!
“I-I-I really like knitting sweaters and socks and scarves and giving it to my friends and those who really need or want it,” Hitoka stammered and dropped a few balls of wool. “It’s good to know that they’ll be warm.”
“I see,” Tooru stared at her. “So what do you guys usually do when you have activities?”
“We do handicraft work,” she replied in a low voice, feeling small and afraid of how taller Tooru was compared to her. “I do mostly knitting, but some girls like sewing and making keychains, there’s this second year, he makes such cute embroidery,” she said taking out a towel and some of the items she mentioned. “Ah yeah, here I know it’s not much, but you can have these gloves I made last week, they’re too big to the people I know.”
Tooro took the gloves and looked at it meticulously, he smiled and patted her head. Hitoka stumbled back and almost dropped a sewing machine.
Okay!
“And your point is?” Tooru argued with a raised brow.
“My point is that your journal is still going to be used to clean dog poop and sometimes be more useful like, wiping mirrors or covering the floor when we’re painting walls or i could just gather it all and give to my friend at the art club so he could make some papier-mâché sculptures.” Kei said, face expressionless and sounding bored.
“That,” Tooru said slowly. “Sounds interesting.”
Kei rolled his eyes but Tooru’s eyes were on his notepad while he waited for the boy to keep talking.
Okay!
“How long does it take to grow the flowers?” Tooru asked, genuinely interested and Koushi shined along with the sun that were on their faces when he heard the question, he gladly explained everything in detail and Tooru listened to him intently.
Okay!
Tadashi stared at his friend, unbelieving.
“And you gave him flowers?” he questioned, calmly, the shock of the day that his protective friend gave flowers to someone who made him mad and angry and just generally upset and he was just very skeptical over anything regarding Oikawa Tooru. “Why?”
“Because he was very nice to me,” Koushi whispered and pouted, Tadashi felt unable to be mad at him in such situation. “And he said the flowers were pretty.”
“Okay,” Tadashi said and turned to sit back on his desk and finish his work. “I’m going to print these today. They’re all yonkomas, a total of five pages with two each.”
“Can I see them?”
“Nu-uh,” Tadashi shook his head and index finger. “You’ll see them tomorrow, they’ll be in a desk in front of the clubroom, come get your own.”
“It’s hilarious,” Satori said from the window, Koushi neared it and saw that the boy was coloring a sketch with oil paint, the canvas slightly tilted because the ground outside wasn’t flat, but he could see everything clearly and Satori worked like he was born knowing it. “Also, did I mention that I was painting your flowers? Because they looked really beautiful and I ended up doing this.”
“Can I take a picture when you finish it?” Koushi asked and both started chatting, forgetting Tadashi was even there.
“Yours is the last club,” Tooru announced to a very unamused Tadashi and a very distracted Satori. “There isn’t much I want to ask, only one thing, why is there only you and that boy over there?”
“Uhh, I think you should ask him instead of me,” Tadashi sighed and grabbed a handful of his comics. “He’s the president.”
“Well, he’s really busy right now, I asked him a question earlier and he ignored me even when I threatened him, Tooru explained and Tadashi wished he wasn’t there - and Satori obviously heard Tooru speaking with him, the boy was too clever to his own good. “And you’re here, I want to see what you have to say? Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you or anything.”
“Didn’t think so,” Tadashi snorted, Tooru smiled. “Just a second, I’m going to hand out some of my work outside and leave a few there on that table I set.”
“Can I see?” Tadashi smirked and handed him the mini book, he flipped through it and furrowed his eyebrows, Tadashi had a triumphant look on his face. “These are really neat.”
Well deserved, Tadashi thought and then processed Tooru’s response to his work.
“What?” he exclaimed.
“Is this how people see me?” he laughed and eyed everything while handling the paper with care. “It’s really cute.”
“It’s not.” Tadashi said back and barged out of the room to leave his work where he planned, he fixed the small poster explaining what it was and went back inside to witness Tooru observing everything. “What are you doing?”
“I’m looking,” he said and Tadashi approached his figure and fixed his eyes on what Tooru was paying his attention to. “This is really nice, is it yours?”
“It’s senpai’s,” Tadashi pointed at the other member still focused on his painting - the same from the other day. “What’s your deal?”
“Why do you guys have only two members?” Tooru cut him off and tilted his head.
“Tendou-senpai scared the others off when he said that they would have to submit pieces every single week,” Tadashi explained with calm, he was done with Tooru, but at least he was nicer than he expected and a little like how Koushi described - he didn’t like the turns of events that much, he would feel better to draw offensive comic stripes and talk back and call names someone who was an asshole not a naive kid who just looked like the bad guy . “They were only here because they thought they could slack off everyday,” Tadashi added but was promptly ignored. “Can you please stop looking at my comics and listen to what I’m saying?”
“Sorry, it’s just that I really liked it,” Tooru praised him again. “It’s funny that what I write on the journal creates a image of me to others.”
Tadashi stopped on his tracks, eyes narrowed and brain in full swing, did he just...listen correctly? “Are you fucking shitting me?”
Tooru looked offended for a moment and Tadashi covered his mouth with his hands, sometimes when he got mad or angry or even confused, he would end up getting foul-mouthed and calling someone names or cursing out loud and adding unnecessary swear words mid-sentence. Tooru glared at him and Tadashi didn't know where to look or what to do with his hands, meanwhile, Satori was coloring the last rose.
"Sorry," Tadashi muttered under his breath and hoped that Tooru caught it. "I mean, you're nicer than I thought."
There was a knock on the door and everyone turned to look who was there.
"Excuse me," Mr. Tanaka said, eyes narrowed towards the boys, Tooru and Tadashi, and one of the mini books that were outside in hands. "We need to talk about this, Yamaguchi-kun. Do you think this is funny?"
Shit, Tadashi thought, he forgot the principal roamed the corridors every once in a while, why did he have to do this right on the day he decided to distribute his satirical comic.
"You too, Oikawa-kun," he pointed at the two at the same time and entered the class. "I see you're not getting along well, I assume you're here to complain about what was put here," he shook the paper and waited for Tooru to say something. Out of fear, Tooru nodded and Tadashi started sweating when Mr. Tanaka turned to him. "And I assume you felt personally attacked by that article this boy here published," Tadashi nodded out of fear as well and their principal clicked his tongue in distaste. "I don't know what to do with you, troublemakers, let's put a few of our club related rules in practice, since you really wanted the art club to be dissolved according to what you wrote, right, Oikawa-kun?"
"Wait what do you mean, sir?" Tooru asked, hands shaking and the way the man shot him a look made both straighten their postures up and fixate their eyes in only one spot, looking like they were mere statues.
"The journal club doesn't have members enough for you to have your own class," he said and Tadashi stared at Tooru wide eyed and mouthed a what?? to himself. "And you, Mr. Funny Comics, your club has two members and, even if it's more than the journal club, I'm sad to agree with Oikawa on this, but your room is basically a storehouse with well painted canvases."
"Thank you, sir!!" said Satori from his seat and Tadashi turned to glare and shush him up.
"Now, I guess you guys can quite grasp what I'm trying to say here," he sighed when he saw Tadashi and Tooru shaking their heads, dumbfounded. "It means that you are going to share this one class from now on, Oikawa-kun can bring what the journal club owns here and you, you included Mr. Tendou, are going to give him some space."
"O-kay!" Satori replied with a hand sign and a smile, Tadashi was still processing the newly acquired information and Satori quickly got up from his stool and started piling some of his paintings at the far end of the room, opening the locker and taking a look at his supplies and back to where he was initially. "Done, sir. Oikawa-san can take the space near Yamaguchi because he basically only uses his tablet to work and sometimes he does traditional drawing."
"I don't know what you are talking about," he said and still pointed at Tadashi and Tooru one last time before turning to leave. "There you go, get along well. I expect great things coming from you two." and then he left, Tadashi mumbled, outraged at the sarcasm on Mr. Tanaka's speech.
Silence reigned for a few minutes, only the sound of the brush running on the canvas and Satori's humming.
"I'm-" Tooru said and pointed at the door. "Gonna go get my stuff, it's not much but I've got a desk that I want to bring and put on the empty space next to yours, so would you help me?"
Tadashi complained inside his head but agreed by giving Tooru's back a light push and walking towards the door and to the journal club room.
They brought the desk without struggling much, if you consider bumping into a wall something that was already planned from the beginning, and Tadashi thought Tooru had everything he needed already sorted inside his head, at least a clear idea of what he was going to move from one class to another, until he was making one, two, three, four more trips back and forth and adding more and more stuff on top of his desk - mainly magazines and books and so much paper that they could make a fire with it.
"What the hell?" Tadashi exclaimed. "You have a goddamn printer?"
"You can use it," he said and found a nice place to put it down, Tooru had already organized his desk, Satori offered him some space inside the second locker they had there and now it was stuffed with the old issues of his journal, Tooru also brought a bunch of books. "It's really good, my dad gave it to me."
"Why can't you just pay fifteen cents for a printing here at school?? It's so cheap and you don't have to buy the toner." Tooru shrugged and Tadashi gave up, sitting down on his own desk and planning to mind his own business.
"No idea, but hey, are you going to work on your comic now?" he asked and Tadashi nodded, eyes on the screen and mind thinking about what he should do, the prints he had left outside were all gone and he hoped nobody caught them as a prank and that it truly managed to be distribute to the majority of the student body. "Can I watch?"
Tadashi hesitated for a moment, the no at the tip of his tongue, but the way Tooru stared at him with admiration made him unconsciously agree with the third year's request. "But only if you keep quiet," Tooru said yes to that and brought his chair closer and sat right next to Tadashi. "Say, Oikawa-san, why would you write all of that on the journal? Really, it doesn't look like it was your doing."
"You see, as Mr. Tanaka said, my club has only me and it's been like this for a few months already," he let out a long and sad sigh, Tadashi even felt bad for him. "That because the members decided to quit because I ordered them to make it interesting they regretted choosing me as president and decided that being part of the going home club was better than being in a club with me, according to one of them, therefore I was left alone and had to find someone to be part of it, clubs are no fun with just one person in it," Tadashi finally understood Tooru's point, so all of that was just to try to get attention. "But it didn't work and I'm the only one who cares about the club, I'm also a little sorry for saying all of that about your club, it's actually pretty chill and nice here."
"You're forgiven," Tadashi said and came back to his drawing, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "Instead of searching for new members why don't you make the club the way you want? You don't need to appeal for the masses. Your writing is pretty decent, you know?"
"Really?" Tooru asked with imaginary tears in his eyes. "I had a great idea. Why don't we merge our clubs?"
Instead of laughing, complaining or disagreeing, Tadashi felt the pieces of a puzzle coming together and it looked like something like this should've happened a long time ago.
"This is a brilliant idea," he exclaimed surprised with himself, he never thought he would get along with Oikawa Tooru, let alone agree with cooperating and making their club one, he let go of his tablet and pursued his lips. "Tell me more about it."
"I've been thinking about stop writing all of that critical and attention seeking articles and just talk about something that matters for real, people have been getting real angry with me and nobody wanted to enter the club, my plan failed. I thought about adding a corner where you post your comics and we can have news with entertainment in one journal." Tooru said with his arms open, his eyes screamed progress and Tadashi could see prosperity coming from that very idea.
"That sounds fantastic," he commented and placed both hands on top of the desk and turned to Tooru. "Are you saying you're willing to publish my stuff on your journal?"
"That's what I just said," Tooru gave him a silly grin and received a hug from the first year, he was caught by surprise but he was also pleased that the boy wasn't angry at him anymore. "Do you have anything in mind? The next issue is supposed to come out next week?"
"Ah yes, I do," he said and took the tablet in his hands, he motioned for Tooru to come closer and take a look at it. "What do you think?"
"Awesome!" Tooru said with sincerity and Tadashi thought that maybe he could get used to this.