*Opens Door*

“How dare you shut the door like that?! So rude!”

Runa glared at the Riel who felt his image of a peaceful day of rest shatter in tiny pieces.

“Why the hell are you here?! And why’s the whole club with you?!”

Aside from the twins, the other four club members were also there. That surely would make tending to visitors more tiring for Riel, but

“Yo! Sir Riel! Since the school doesn’t really accept Sunday activities, we decided to visit you to gather up ideas.”

Said Elrick

“We brought some snacks and bottled beverages for you Sir!”

Riel knew not if Anna was attempting to bribe him, but having brought snacks of their own meant that Riel won’t have to offer much in terms of hospitality anymore.

“I would like to apologize on behalf of the club for interrupting your rest.”

There was no need for Leila to apologize, but Riel understood that he must have come off as too disappointed by the unannounced arrival of his students.

“We are kinda in a pinch, Sir.”

Riel was not aware at the time about what could Arjay be pertaining to, but the day was still long and they have plenty of time to discuss things over. Finally, the spotlight was on Luna. With some fidgets here and there and eyes that would move up and down, left and right as if she was avoiding direct eye contact.

“Will you… Allow our visit, please? I promise that we would behave..!”

She managed to look Riel in the eyes after the “please” part. Riel got mesmerized by Luna’s cuteness level and decided to forgive everyone for their unexpected visit. The sofa was enough only for up to four people, so Riel had to get some chairs to accommodate everyone. Riel and the twins decided to leave the sofa to the other club members as a first visit special treatment. Meanwhile, Anna opened up a large pack of potato chips as well as a liter of bottled green tea. Riel then realized that he had to offer glasses at the very least which he did so quickly.

What made Riel think was Leila.

[Why is she bringing out her notebook? Is this related to something about being in a pinch? Surely they don’t plan to study… Oh wait, Elrick did say they are going to gather ideas. But for what?]

“I guess we should start by explaining it to Riel”

Everybody else nodded to Runa in agreement. As to who would explain,

“I, Anna, will explain. In a month and a half from now, the week-long school festival will begin. Each class are supposed to gather up ideas, make plans, and execute those plans in an interesting and hopefully, successful way based on their chosen themes. Thankfully, since only half of the student body has clubs, it was decided that those who have clubs will be exempted from the class activities so that we may focus on our clubs instead.”

“I see. So that’s why you went barging in here so suddenly. Is it really already that time of the year?”

Riel had already forgotten that the school often celebrated its foundation day in the form of a week-long school festival.

“By the way, why was I not informed of this earlier?”

It was Leila who answered.

“We didn’t want to burden you with it. You just became our adviser. We wouldn’t want to chase you away.”

Elrick resumed the conversation

“Teachers usually doesn’t really help with the preparations anyway.”

Arjay agreed and seconded Elrick and Leila

“It’d be better if Sir would focus on giving us quality lessons so that we can grow as fast as possible.”

“Sigh, if you guys really feel as if you shouldn’t burden me, what’s the point of this discussion? Aren’t you burdening me already?”

“Now, now. It was sis who thought that we shouldn’t leave you behind. I also feel the same way. We want you to experience the joys of youth once more. Leaving you behind would leave a bad taste in my mouth.”

“S-sorry, Riel… If you really don’t want to.. I won’t force you. I’m okay!”

[Okay my ass. You look like you’re about to cry.]

“Well, I guess I don’t really mind helping...”

[Because it sounds like it will be fun… Hopefully]

Anna signaled the beginning of the brainstorming session.

“How about we just do what we did last year?”

Asked Elrick

“It isn’t a bad idea, but we lacked the skills last time to properly pull it off. Our sales weren’t good. If it wasn’t for Luna, we probably wouldn’t have managed.”

Arjay wanted to agree with Elrick, but he was skeptical about their chances of success.

“What did you do last year?”

Anna answered Riel’s query.

“We decided to compile one short story per club member.”

Leila followed

“Each short story was about 4000 words in length. Printing a compilation book worth 20,000 words isn’t cheap. It hurt our budget, and we didn’t even come close to getting back our investment.”

“If I’m not mistaken, students from other schools are allowed to enter during the festival, right?”

Everybody nodded to Riel.

“It sounds compelling to compile short stories into a single book. In my opinion, this is worth a shot, but you guys will need to learn and grow faster than ever.”

Luna raised her hand

“Is it alright to ask something...?”

“What is it, what is it?” Was Anna in anticipation of what Luna would say

“Is it alright... for Riel to contribute a short story..?”

“Woah! That’s right! We have Sir Riel! Our chance of victory is sure to skyrocket if we can get one of his shorts to appear in our book!”

Elrick vocalized his excitement with eyes glimmering with hope and hands turning into fists, but Riel would end up shattering that excitement into nothingness.

“That’s good and all. I honestly don’t mind helping the club. I mean, I’m your adviser, but adding more short stories means adding to the printing price, too. Not to mention that I am a web novel author going under a pen name for the sake of anonymity. Nobody will recognize me. Probably...”

Everybody went into silent mode as they heard Riel shut the idea down, but Riel didn’t want to end it in a bitter note.

“How much is your club budget for the festival?”

Anna was the one who answered.

“$350.”

“I see. That’s actually decent. If we are to go all out, we can probably produce 85 copies at most. But I’m betting on the chances that we will be able to produce only around 65 due to certain factors.”

“Does that mean it won’t work?”

Leila wanted to verify, but Riel needed to ask something first before he could say anything.

“How many copies did you sold last time?”

“It was 40 copies out of 100.”

Arjay answered while Leila confirmed the validity of his words.

“Damn… Why did you guys go all out?”

“I, Anna, shall answer that! It was a week-long festival with students from other schools visiting us. That means a couple thousands of potential customers. We felt like 100 copies weren’t really much compared to how many students are going to be hanging around at school.”

“Hey, Runa. You think of something, too.”

That was Riel urging Runa.

“Hmm… Even with sub-par writing skills, it’s very much possible to empty the stocks with enough hype and word of mouth. That’s how it has always been with overrated garbage, right?”

Runa’s remark was true, but Riel questioned the way they should go about it.

“How are we supposed to go about it?”

At that moment, Riel saw in Runa’s eyes a burning flame as if a light-bulb has been lit up above her head. It was a sign that Runa had thought of something great, but knowing her history, it was probably something that will make life difficult for him.

“Riel is a popular web novel author. If somehow he can promote our compilation book online, I think more people would be willing to check us out.”

“Uhh. Most of my readers are foreigners. I only have a handful of Filipinos as fans and regular readers. Some of them are probably living somewhere far from us, too.”

“Isn’t that enough? We’re going to hype it up and spread it via word of mouth both online and personal, surely it’ll catch the ears of nearby schools if we try hard enough.”

But Leila wanted to remind everyone

“We don’t have the freedom of time. We’ve got regular classes, club lessons and activities, and no way can we submit any of our previous works. Most likely, we will have to write new stories from scratch and hopefully, it will pass Sir Riel’s standards.”

But Arjay wanted to believe

“With the power of friendship, we shall overcome anything and everything!”

“THAT’S RIGHT! GIVE ME FIVE, MY BROTHER!”

Elrick shouted in agreement.

“How about you, Luna. What do you think?”

Riel asked the ever so quiet Luna. Just like Riel, Luna is the silent type who would have a lot of ideas hidden from within her. Riel felt like it was about time to hear Luna’s opinion.

“I think that… We should do things step by step.. Worrying about everything at once, I don’t think that it’s good.”

Riel liked what she said and he decided that it would be good to keep her talking.

“Then? What do you think should we focus on?”

“Empty hype will make us sell… But I think that people won’t trust us anymore.. If we disappoint them.”

“In other words, you’re saying that we should focus on improving everyone’s skills as the first step?”

Luna nodded and everybody else agreed to it. To begin with, Riel wasn’t a fan of brainstorming. Listing a bunch of ideas and then eliminating them one by one is just not an efficient use of his time. That was purely his belief, though. What Riel wanted for his club was to do exactly what they did the previous year and make it a success. Of course, that didn’t mean that the club would follow the exact plan that they had the previous year, but recycling an old idea and making it better sounded like Riel’s specialty.

Everyone decided to halt the brainstorming session and just have fun among themselves. Eating snacks, drinking whatever they could find that isn’t unhealthy, joking, playing cards, and even small bits of literary lessons from their teacher.

To Riel, it was a chaotic Sunday, but nothing would change the fact that he enjoyed his time together with his students. Social interactions that he couldn’t experience back in his days as a student, laughing with another, being relied on by someone, being important and being at the center of things. Riel never believed that he would experience all of those and gave up on himself a long time ago, but things are changing. Things are looking for the better. Riel’s world had gotten bigger. His life had become colorful. His time resumed its flow.

It was all because of the twins. Runa Mythria and Luna Evernight.