Hyouka - Volume 03 - The Kudryavka Sequence - Welcome to KANYA FESTA! (1)

the confidence that this time I will not fail.
According to Fukube-san, it seems the "Juumoji" incident has yet to receive
much attention, which means this story would be extremely newsworthy for
the Wall Newspaper Club. This would be the sort of request where, based on
Irisu-san's advice, I do not need to repay any favour.
I recalled what was being taught, as my sense of memory is one of the few
things that I'm confident of. Important requests, give them expectations, make
them think our problem is trivial, and make the request alone to a person of
the opposite gender.
As to why these methods would be effective, I'm still at a loss in
understanding them... It feels bad for me to use systems which I do not fully
understand as mere tools, but I can't afford to be picky.
Making good use of that advice, I rehearsed my lines. To make sure I don't
say anything wrong, I repeated them again and again on my own.
I arrived before the Wall Newspaper Club room, the Biology Lecture Room,
and knocked on the closed door,
"Comin~!"
A hoarse voice replied as the door opened startlingly.
There were six people inside, which was more than yesterday. But that was
not the only thing that was different. While Toogaito-san was amongst them,
the other five people were all speaking on their cell phones. One of them
finished speaking and spoke to another male student who was on the phone.
"Cooking Club. Confirm it with their president."
The student who heard the instruction made a circle with his finger. Was it
money? ...Oh, he was making an OK sign. The student who just finished
speaking on the phone wrote some sort of list before heading out of the room,
seemingly not noticing my presence.
It was then that a voice spoke.