“This was a performance, not a contest. Performances aren’t supposed to have a winner, are they? Of course the audience wouldn’t think they needed to pick one of us to single out as being the best. They thought that all of us were good, and that’s good enough for me.”
“And, looking at it from another perspective, this feels like a pretty clear sign that none of our performances stood head and shoulders above the others,” Rinka added. “Maybe the fact that a professional idol like you didn’t manage to overwhelm a pair of amateurs like us feels like a failing from your perspective, but when you consider that the audience was made up exclusively of our teachers and classmates—people who’ve known us on a personal level for over a year longer than they’ve known you—I would say it starts feeling like we were the ones with a leg up, actually. Which means...”
Rinka paused for a moment to glance at Yuna. Yuna flashed her a rather confident smile and nodded.
“...our ‘see who can get the most positive reviews from the audience’ contest...has ended in a draw.”
The way Rinka delivered the news couldn’t have been more different from how Makina had announced her loss to me moments before. She spoke so perfectly casually and matter-of-factly, you would’ve thought it didn’t matter to her at all.
“A...draw...?” Makina repeated. “But...why? I already conceded my loss...”
“Rules are rules, right? That’s just how it goes,” said Yuna. “Oh, and you can’t concede after the results are already out! That’s definitely not something the rules allow.”
Makina had admitted defeat—only for Yuna and Rinka to reject it. The match was a draw. No winners, no losers.
“Why are you doing this?” asked Makina. “Why would you help your own enemy...?”
“Maybe because we don’t see you as an enemy in the first place?” said Yuna.
“Huh?”
“Right,” said Rinka. “You’re our fellow performer...but I guess the show’s over now, so that doesn’t exactly apply anymore. A friend in the making, maybe? Definitely not an enemy, in any case.”
“But—”
“No buts!” Yuna snapped, jabbing a finger into the tip of Makina’s nose. “And for the record, we’re not saying we lost either, okay?! It was a draw, meaning we’re back to square one! We’re still Yotsuba’s girlfriends, and we’re still never gonna give that spot up to you!”
“If you have a problem with that, you can always challenge us again—” Rinka said before pausing for a beat. “On second thought, maybe not. I think I’ve had enough of those. Performing with you was fun, sure, but it was just as hard and exhausting...”
“Wha— Rinka?!” Yuna yelped. “You could’ve kept that to yourself! This was wrapping up so nicely, and you totally ruined the vibe!”
“Well, it’s true, isn’t it? You remember how weirdly tense the stress made us back in the beginning, don’t you? It was bad enough to make Yotsuba worry about us! I think one experience like that per year is plenty.”
“Okay, when you put it that way, once a year actually sounds a little too much for my liking... Yeah, I’m on board. Peace and quiet’s the better option for sure!”
Yuna and Rinka had bantered their way right through what would’ve been the appropriate moment for Makina to respond to them. She just stood there in a daze, staring at them with a blank, uncomprehending look on her face.
This, I imagined, was a sort of logic that Makina was totally unfamiliar with. The way Yuna and Rinka saw it, everyone involved had wagered something important to them, everyone involved had done their best, and they’d all managed to make something great together as a result. The actual contest had become an afterthought, at most. That probably seemed unthinkable to Makina.
All that said, not being too bothered about the contest was by no means a sign that Yuna and Rinka weren’t taking this seriously in their own right. I still wasn’t exactly sure of how or why they’d ended up playing along with it all in the first place...but as long as they were satisfied with these results, I wasn’t about to question them.
“Well, you heard them, Makina,” I cheerfully chimed in, giving Makina a pat on the shoulder for good measure.
“Yotsy...” Makina replied. The look on her face was conflicted. From what I could tell, it wasn’t that she couldn’t accept the challenge’s lack of an outcome or Yuna and Rinka’s refusal to acknowledge her concession—it was that she couldn’t understand their mindset, period.
I, on the other hand, instantly understood both the feelings of the audience members who’d filled out the surveys and Yuna and Rinka’s ultimate decision. They all just made sense to me. At the very least, it felt like a much less tragic outcome than Makina having to live with her loss on her own.
“Ah, look! Look!” Yuna suddenly shouted as she glanced out the window.
“Oh! Fireworks,” Rinka observed.
I could see them as well. A number of students had started lighting up fireworks around the bonfire. Not, like, big rockets that burst in the air, of course. They were playing with the smaller sort of fireworks that you held in your hand or that stayed mostly on the ground.
“They’re so pretty...” I said. “A little hard to see well from here, though.”
“Should we go outside to watch?” asked Makina.
“Nah... I think I’m fine here, actually,” I replied, shaking my head as I took her hand and gave it a squeeze. If we went outside, then she, Yuna, and Rinka would all attract a ton of attention. Maybe it was selfish of me, but I wanted to keep this moment just for the four of us. That way, all three of them would hopefully be able to be their normal, natural selves.
“Yotsy...is it really okay for me to stay with you?” asked Makina.
“Yeah,” I said. “Of course it is.”
“Not as her girlfriend, though! Those seats are already taken!” Yuna interjected.
“And knowing Yotsuba, if we let her pull any more seats up to the table she’d never stop,” Rinka noted.
“Does nobody have any faith in me?!” I wailed. And is that why they’ve been bringing this up so much recently?! Sure, I’ve really expanded my social circle lately, but that’s just because I’m finally making friends! There’s nothing deeper to it than that...right?
“Heh heh...” Makina chuckled, a smile finally spreading across her face. “When you put it that way, it does seem like being her girlfriend isn’t the easiest thing in the world.”
Had Rinka’s words seemed just that convincing to her? The face-value meaning of Makina’s statement was hardly any different from what she’d said moments before about giving up on me...but this time, it somehow came across as far, far more positive.
“But, no...I’ll be trying to build up a relationship with Yotsy that’s just for the two of us,” Makina added, squeezing my hand back. The smile on her face wasn’t like anything I’d seen from her—or at least, not recently. It was an innocent sort of smile. Almost childish.
The way I understood it, Makina was simply reaffirming the words I’d spoken to her earlier. Buuut...
“Was that supposed to be some sort of shot at us?” Yuna commented.
“Hee hee hee! I wonder?” Makina replied.
...Yuna and Rinka clearly hadn’t taken it in quite the same way I had. For a moment, an almost electrical tension crackled in the air...but it vanished away again just as quickly.
“Ah, look! They lit up a big one!” I shouted. Someone had set up one of those fireworks that shoots a big, colorful burst of sparks up from the ground, which was now shining away in the courtyard.
“Oh, wow!” said Yuna.
“Oooh...” Rinka cooed.
“It really is pretty...isn’t it?” said Makina.
For a moment, we were captivated. It wasn’t exactly the same sort of festive atmosphere that the students frolicking in the courtyard had going, but on the other hand, there was something sort of classy about silently watching fireworks from off in the distance.
And that was exactly what we did. Past that point, none of us said a word as we gazed out through the window, watching the festival’s final hurrah unfold.
Looking back over the past two months—the span of time since Makina transferred into our school—it felt like my relationships with the three of them hadn’t really changed all that much, in the end. Yuna, Rinka, and I were still in the same three-way, two-timing relationship as ever, and Makina was still my childhood friend, her feelings for me kept in a state of unanswered limbo.
That said, it wasn’t like there hadn’t been any changes. The three of them had grown a little closer over the course of their preparations for the idol show, for one thing. I’d befriended Mukai and Akksy, seen a new side of Koganezaki, reaffirmed the fact that Emma was a certifiable angel, gotten a few chances to dote on Sakura and Aoi, and had Mio lead me around by the nose. Looking back, it’d all been, well... How to put it...?
“Haaaaaah...”
In such perfect unison you’d think we’d planned it in advance, all four of us let out a long, synchronized sigh. Normally that would’ve probably surprised me, but at that particular moment, the wave of exhaustion rolling over me dulled whatever shock I might’ve felt. And, before I knew it, we’d all burst into a fit of tired, listless laughter.
“This has all been a lot, huh?” said Yuna.
“No kidding,” Rinka agreed.
“And now the cultural festival is over,” said Makina.
I just quietly listened...and thought to myself about how I’d sleep more soundly tonight than I had in a very, very long time.