Chapter 17
Ken and Sugawara reached the student council office. After they entered the room, one of the members called out to them
"Excuse me, are you class IA representative?"
"Yes", replied Sugawara
"You all had opted for the auditorium, right"
"That is correct"
"I'm sorry, but you all have to change your location"
"But why, I was the first one to submit the form"
"It doesn't seem so, class IIB submitted the form before you guys, and they too have opted for the auditorium, so they get it. Sorry, rules are rules"
"Fine", Sugawara did a surrender posture, "But can I look at our form and their form?"
"Sure, but it has to be inside this room"
"That's okay", Sugawara agreed, "Oh, and can you call for IIB rep too, he needs to be here too, for fair judgement"
The student council member nodded. Soon Kuga, class IIB was called in the office.
"What's all this drama?", Kuga demanded
Sugawara chose to ignore him. He carefully examined both forms. It had been many minutes when Kuga complained, "Hey that's enough"
Sugawara just hushed him, before smiling. Ken knew Sugawara had found a breakthrough
"Say Kuga Senpai, as written here, you submitted the form at 10:05 am, right?"
"Yes", Kuga answered
"So, you mean to say, that you submitted the form within 5 minutes, huh?"
"What do you mean?", Kuga looked agitated
"We receive the form during the 3rd period right before the first break at 10:00 am. The form can only be submitted after 10:00 am, and it has to be submitted within the same day. So, you mean to say that you filled all the lengthy details, within one period. Not to mention the teacher takes the class. Also, your class is located on the third floor, and the office is on the first floor. So, you covered that distance within 5 minutes and submitted the form too. You must be quite athletic, huh?"
"That doesn't prove anything", Kuga was irritated
"Yeah you're right, that doesn't prove anything, but this does", he pointed at the unique code in class IIB's form
"What exactly do you mean?"
"The code says F17, this means that this is a second form"
"What?", it was the student council member this time
"You see, we have 15 classes in our high school, and each class receives a form with a unique code only given to that class", he pointed at their form, "For example, our class IA, is the first-class so we get the code F01, similarly IB will get F02, accordingly your class should have gotten F07, but your form says F17, why?"
"There must have been a mistake", Kuga was looking pale
Seeing Kuga's face, Sugawara was more convinced, "Let me tell you what happened", he cleared his throat, "You must have been the second class to submit their form, but by chance you took a look at our form since we both opted for the same place, you knew we would get it. You knew you could not overwrite, nor make a copy of the form. So, you thought you can take a second form since they are available. But, taking a second form from a member means automatically admitting you guys were later than us. So, you did what I think you did. You waited for the office to be empty, that is during the lunch break and stole a second form, filled it up and submitted it, right?"
Kuga was agitated he grabbed Sugawara's collar, "Listen here you little smarty pants…."
Before he could complete his sentence, Ken grabbed his hands, "Oie, you do not grab our class rep's collar so easily"
Kuga let go, "What proof do you have that we stole the form? It can be the student council's mistake too", Kuga challenged
"I guess Sugawara Kun is correct", someone said from behind. It was the Student Council President, Sakura Chiba, "Because I'm the one who handles the form"
Kuga had a distinct shade of fear in his face.
"And even if I did give you a second form, you would get one with the code F22, after F15, the order gets repeated", Sakura said
"Pres, is that true, why didn't we know about the code?", questioned the member
"Because it's a secret of the President, to settle disputes", Sakura said
"Then, how did he know?", the member pointed at Sugawara
Sugawara, himself answered, "It's just that, my brother happened to be the student council president, last year. So, he let me in on this secret"
"I see", Ken said
"So, Kuga what do you have to say?", Sakura questioned him
Kuga could only ask for forgiveness, "Chiba Senpai, please forgive me, but don't let my actions affect my class"
"You shouldn't be asking me for forgiveness", Sakura said, "Since Kuga has tried to do class IA wrong, I suggest the class rep to give him a punishment", she said pointing at Sugawara
"Give us the auditorium, and let his class participate. Why should so many people suffer because of one guy? But yeah, whatever revenue class IIB earns, 5% of it must be given to us", Sugawara said
"Now, that's a businessman's son", Ken thought
"Are you okay with it?", Sakura asked Kuga
"Yes, and pleases forgive me", Kuga told Sugawara
"Then we're done here", Sakura told the member, "take care of the rest, okay?"
"Yes, Pres", saying that he left the office. Kuga left, as he had to decide with his class for a new location.
Ken and Sugawara high fived each other and were about to leave when Sakura called out to them, "Sugawara Kun, can you give me a minute, I need to talk to you"
"Sure", he asked Ken to wait for him outside.
Ken left the room and was shuddering as he knew, now that everything was settled, Hana wouldn't let him slack off practice.