Unrequited Love Literature Club | Lost and Found
She suddenly declared that she wanted to collect lost items for a booth at the school festival.
I gave her a heartfelt "Huh?", but she didn't care at all and continued talking about her bizarre booth idea.
"So, listen! Parents and guardians will be coming, so I'm sure there will be more lost items than usual! Our Earth Science Club will take charge of it all, and we'll set up a 'Lost and Found Management Center' to quickly and carefully find the owners and return their things that very same day!"
Wait, isn't that usually the job of the student council? I told her that while observing the ore I'd excavated just yesterday under a microscope, to which she replied, "That! That's the important part! It's a devious plan to do a favor for the super-busy student council and make it easier to get our club budget increased."
I tried saying that I thought it would be better to just achieve more actual results... but my voice was drowned out by her villainous laughter, and it seemed like it was already a decided matter. In times like these, being a small club with only two members is tough. The club president's influence is just too strong. Though, that's always the case.
By the day of the event, she had negotiated with the student council to be solely responsible for managing lost items. With a mysterious policy that "appearance is important too!", she single-handedly made two station attendant-style costumes, a sign that looked like a train station's lost and found center, and a counter. Meanwhile, I was ordered to conduct a detailed survey of the slopes on the school grounds and the contents of each booth and attraction.
Apparently, her logic was, "If we use the Earth Science Club's skills, we can figure out where lost items will concentrate, so we can just go and pick them up ourselves! Hahaha!"
There's no way it would work that well, though...
No, it actually worked! And it was terrifyingly effective.
We were able to grasp where visitors would get tired and stop walking due to the slight differences in the slopes, and by focusing on the areas where students would let their guard down based on our prior observations, we were able to pick up armfuls of lost items immediately.
I was mainly the one walking around, and she was the one at the counter handing over the lost items, so I did feel a bit of unfairness, but it couldn't be helped. In this world, it's all about putting the right person in the right place.
Besides, I happened to witness her beaming smile as she handed a stuffed animal to a little girl, and I felt like it all paid off. It made me realize once again that I really am in love with her.
I am drawn to everything about her: her ridiculous drive, her insight that somehow makes everything go exactly as she plans, and that smile that makes me want to forgive her for everything.
Noticing me, she called out cheerfully, "Did you find any more lost items?"
"Yeah, I found just one."
I took a love letter out of my pocket that I had written last night, with her name written on the envelope, and quietly handed it to her.
This is an entry for the [Unrequited Love Literature Club] project. 🙇♀️