Jingle Bells/Chapter 8

Hm… will you be alright by yourself, young master?

Mm… I’ll probably end up making you explain everything if you’re there, anyway.

I’ll try going by myself. I’m the one who wanted to do this in the first place, after all.

I can’t just let you do everything for me forever.

I don’t mind… but you’re right, I suppose I might interject without thinking.

Do try going alone this time.

I’ll be along to help as soon as I’m done here.

'Kay. See you in a bit.

See you later… oh wait, young master. Would you like a snow rabbit, too? I couldn’t stop with just one, so now there’s a whole family of them ♪

Stop getting distracted and do your job, slave. It’ll just melt inside where the heater’s blasting, so line them up out here somewhere.

I thought they were fairly well done, so I wanted to give one to you, too…

You sure do like that kind of thing even though you don’t look it, huh~? Didn’t you make that huge snowman out in our garden?

My sister was getting creeped out, saying it looks like a caterpillar or something in the dark~

Goodness, she didn’t like it? Perhaps I should have done it Japanese-style, with just two snowballs stacked on top of each other…

I don’t care~. Jeez. What’s got you on cloud nine…?

Meanwhile I’m over here all nervous. I couldn’t even get breakfast down.

Well, whatever. You’re an idol too, so you should always be smiling.

E-excuse me~!

...Oh, my?

Whoa, sorry! Were you just on your way out, President?

You don’t need to apologize, Touri. You’re always so energetic…

I was going to head on home for today, since there’s nothing that needs to be done in a hurry.

It sounds like we’re going to be getting a ton of snow again…

General Winter was kind enough to take a break this morning, but apparently we’re in for a blizzard for the rest of the day.

It’s possible that public transport will get shut down, so they told us all to head home as early as possible.

Weren’t you listening to the announcements over lunch?

Oh… ugh~, I wasn’t listening since I was too busy thinking about stuff.

I see. Politicians need to always keep their ears open… but I suppose you don’t need to go that far yet.

...President.

Hm? What’s the matter? You should be heading home, too.

We won’t be doing any student council work today. Even Keito was saying he’d just take the urgent stuff home.

Um! President, I’m here to submit a plan, er… there’s a little something I want to talk to you about!

Oh, but, if you’re going then I guess it can wait until tomorrow?!

Whoa, whoa… calm down, Touri. Deep breaths ♪

There’s something you want to talk about, huh? That’s fine… it probably won’t start snowing just yet, anyway.

I’ll make us some tea. You like it sweet, don’t you?

Umm, you’re the most important guy here, so you don’t need to make the tea…?

Hehe. I like making tea, let me do it.

...Now, then. Sit down, Touri. Why don’t you tell me what all this is about while we wait for the water to boil?

O-okay… ehehe. I feel like it’s been a while since it’s been just the two of us.

It has… thanks to the people who make our every day lively.

Yeah. Thanks to them, seriously.

It’s way better than being all alone in a big old mansion~. Now I can’t wait to come to school every day.

But anyway. Um, President? Would you take a look at this, first?

I tried coming up with a plan for Starfes. I didn’t think I’d be able to explain it too good with words, so I put it all on paper…

Would you check it out?

...Hm. It’s unusual for you to bring something like this in. Actually, isn’t this a first?

W-was I not supposed to… I was thinking “maybe I’m getting ahead of myself”…

No, no. With the way units are set up, the leader has most of the power, so people tend to forget, but…

Technically, all idols are equal.

The guy who comes up with a cool idea and gets it done is the winner. No, he’s the one with justice on his side.

It’s just more practical under our current system to have the leader in charge of planning, so most people do that.

Ideally, everyone will be thinking hard about how to be better idols, without anyone just shutting their brains off.

You can’t call someone an idol if they just sit there and take what’s handed to them on a platter.

…

Everyone ought to be the head of something, no matter how small and fragile. Not the tail of some great monster.

If they are, then even if they have to take small steps… they can go where they want.

We’ll be able to move towards the future we want for ourselves, without an unjust fate swooping down and carrying us away.