Chapter 21: A new entry in the club

"So here it says that I, as I said it's only written here, I won't do this, should bribe someone firstly, then I should ask that person to break something to a classmate, and then take on the role of the detective, reveling the culprit (the set up one) to the class, ending everything by showing myself as a merciful person trying to defend him. I don't know if to laugh or to be scared". At that point, it was Alex who started laughing. They kept reading the weird proposals, with Alex laughing and Kei shaking in a tumult of emotions, when suddenly they heard a scream from around the corner. Aikawa started running while being followed by a crow, which almost pecked her (she was unexpectedly fast). Kei's eyes widened while Alex started punching his legs for how much he was laughing. At some point, the crow gave up, and Aikawa though a scarier situation was ahead of her. Her best friend was staring at her with a face difficult to interpret. At that point Kei asked "What are you doing here?". His voice was full of doubts. Aikawa wasn't really taken aback, but she couldn't avoid a shaken voice, lying, "I c-came to the courtyard to eat, b-but that crow followed me, and I e-ended up here". Kei knew she was lying (they've known each other for too long, and as more something didn't add up), but decided to keep quiet. Then he asked "Did you hear?""A bit""How much?""That you are receiving strange emails and that's why you came to that school""Hhuuuh... fine, it's true, but can you just ignore it?". Then, they heard Alex's laughter even louder. 'Seriously, do you really think she will do that?'. Just why does he have to be smart only in these moments? Anyway, Aikawa's answer, obviously, was "How could I do something so cruel?!". She had no intention of doing that since the very start, the only difference between being or not being found out was that Kei would had known that she would be doing something (she didn't know yet what to do). She still intended to act on her own too, though. At that point, Alex came closer to Aikawa, gave her his hand and said, with a huge smile, "Welcome in the club!". He may be weird, but he is genuinely Kei's friend.