Though I said you could enjoy it how you pleased, that’s ultimately the mind-set for participating as an audience member. Those managing and planning an event have to see things from a different point of view. Saying “How you enjoy it is up to you!” may sound good, but that’s basically throwing everything on the guests. You have to consider how you want them to enjoy themselves, what areas you want them to enjoy, and how you’ll give them a good time.
If we looked at this big fest from the management angle, that should offer some hints. For example, this rest area was one element I would very much like them to incorporate, please. It’s comfortable to have a place like this at cultural festivals, too… You could even make all the classrooms spots to rest in. Then the classes won’t have to do any work at all.
So there were matters of hospitality to consider, but that would come after the content of the event was decided.
“Wait, what kind of event are you planning to have?” I asked.
Isshiki touched her index finger to her jaw, pondering as she began to talk. “I was thiiinking around next spring, it’d be nice if the student council could hold an event celebrating graduation or the school entrance ceremony. Wouldn’t it be nice to go all out for something fancy? It’s school money anyway, so it’s just a waste if we don’t use it, riiight?”
“Whoa, what a thing to say… That’s the worst reason for planning an event…” Isshiki’s rationale was just so out there, Komachi was jerking away in horror.
Isshiki pouted. “I don’t see a problem. We’re a public school; it’s tax money. It was my money to begin with.”
“It’s our money…,” Yukinoshita said, a little taken aback, while Yuigahama was smiling anxiously.
Only one of us, Tobe, was nodding like, Yeah, that’s Irohasu. He’s used to her, huh?
Leaving that aside, the time of year for the event was also a rather difficult issue. “Hmm… Spring, huh…?” I said. “Well, if you’re gonna do it, having it around graduation is best.”
“You think?” Isshiki asked.
“Yeah, entrance time isn’t great…”
My vague equivocations made Isshiki tilt her head. “Why’s that?”
“’Cause that’s right when all the new students are most excited and start doing dumb stuff. When you do something dumb in the first few days of school, the effects linger down the line.”
The time when you’ve just entered a new school is the most anxious period in particular. There’s nothing more painful than stumbling at the starting line. You’re only just stepping into a community, so the friendships that will become your lifelines haven’t entirely firmed up, while your attachment to the school itself is still weak. The temporary shame becomes too much, and you speedrun right into withdrawing from school. I’m very informed on the matter.
Perhaps too informed, in fact.
“That’s scarily convincing!” Yuigahama was vigorously agreeing.
“Right?” I nodded. “The first self-introductions at a new school are like that, too. It gets real bad when you screw up there.”
“Yeah, man, that’s a total disaster! It’s like, y’know? In the fest just now, that line when they first came onstage? That was a real crisis.” Tobe jabbed a finger at me, nodding like he was convinced.
Well, I feel slightly hesitant about likening a big-name artist MCing at a fest to a self-introduction at a new school, but in both cases, the first thing you say is important.
Komachi, as one about to start at our school herself, looked a bit bummed about this talk. “Now Komachi doesn’t feel as good about it…” Her expression seemed uneasy.
Yuigahama reacted with surprise. “Really? You seem like you’d be fine, Komachi-chan.”
Well, fair enough. When you’re a Komachi-class skilled communicator, then basic self-introductions should be a snap… What is she even worried about…?
Confused, I looked at Komachi to see her eyes were all wibbled up as she earnestly appealed to Yuigahama. “No, I’m not sure now! Could you show me an example? In a fest-like way! Just like how those idols in the show did it!”
The sudden wild request made Yuigahama flail in bewilderment. “Huh? Huh?”
Ahaaa, so this was what Komachi was after? She’s getting swept away in the excitement of the fest…
So I was thinking, but Isshiki also smirked. “Oh, I like that. Then introduce yourself, please.”
Yukinoshita put a hand to her lips and tittered. “Yes, you seem like you’d be good at that sort of thing. Why not do it for her?”
Meanwhile, Tobe was clapping his hands like, Yeah, c’mon, too, making it harder and harder for her to refuse.
“Huhhh… U-um, okay… Something fest-worthy, like those idols in the show…” Yuigahama’s eyebrows came together, and she closed her eyes, hmming as she considered something. From her muttering, it seemed she was trying to recall how the idols who’d just been onstage had introduced themselves.
Eventually, the image must have come together in her mind, as her eyes flashed open, and she put on a sparkling smile. And then with large, enthusiastic gestures, she called out, “Yahallo, everyone! All you guys say it, too! Yahallooo!” Then she cupped her hands around her ears and waited for a response.
If she was gonna wait like that, then we were forced to reply. When she did get some proper calls of “Yahallooo,” she nodded in satisfaction and waved her hands. “Okay, everyone, thanks! This is the aaalways cute, sometimes sexy, all-pink: Yuipon! I’m in charge of greetings!” She put her hands to her cheeks cutely and then her hands on her hips sexily, then spun her hands around into a sharp salute. They were pointlessly flawless idol gestures.
“Ohhh, whoa, she’s actually doing it.” Her arrogant manner aside, Isshiki was applauding.
Then that was followed by a thick-voiced cheer and an awfully deep voice.
“Whoaaa! Queeeen!”
“Yuipoooon!”
“Two otaku have entered the chat…”
The reactions from the two otaku…er, Tobe and Komachi were so on point, Isshiki was physically recoiling. Especially from Komachi, who had her face smooshed up as she called out in a deep voice.
Isshiki turned back to glance at me like, Aren’t these two kinda ugh?
But I was well beyond that.
“…Huh? Huh? Wait, huh, I can’t, I’m ded lol. I can’t even, too cute…,” I muttered in spite of myself in a near-inaudible whisper. “Huh, huh, wait. What just happened? Wait, I can’t. Huh? I could just, like, fall to the ground at any minute. Yeah, yeah, this is it—the people who come to idol shows, this is what they’re coming for. I could stan Yuipon for real.” I rambled on and on at ultra-high speed as Isshiki eyed me with utter disgust.
“A third otaku…” Isshiki seemed resigned, like These guys are lost. She looked to Yukinoshita for help.
“Rather than ‘in charge of greetings,’ ‘in charge of yahallo’ would be better.”
“And then over here is the producer…”
But Isshiki’s hopes were in vain, as Yukinoshita was standing there with her arms folded and going full producer, trying to enforce her own vision.
And then Yuigahama was taking her seriously, just like an idol. “Hmm, but yahallo is a greeting…”
“Someone you’ve never met before will sometimes not understand that it’s a greeting, won’t they? We’re used to hearing it, so we get it, but others might assume you’re making strange sounds, like an animal cry,” explained Yukinoshita.
“That’s how you thought of it?!”
“Oh, of course I thought of it as cute chirping. Very cute chirping.”
“You suck at backpedaling!”
There was no malice in Yukinoshita’s smile, but her backpedaling really did suck… You’d only ever see “Its chirping is cute!” as a selling point for a bird in a pet shop…
Even Isshiki couldn’t stand by and watch this anymore; she shrugged as if to say, Good grief. “Well, that was pretty mean, Yukino. So why don’t you give it a try?” she casually declared.
Yukinoshita froze. “Huh?!”
Looking over, I saw Isshiki’s mouth split open with a cruel chuckle.
“Oh, I wanna see it, I wanna see it. Oooh, clap, clap.”
“Clap, clap, clap, clap.”
Despite Yukinoshita’s confusion, Yuigahama and Komachi carried out a wonderful co-op move, applauding as if to say, I’ve been waiting for this!
After joining in on the earlier teasing and playing the producer just now, Yukinoshita couldn’t refuse. “Huh, huh? …F-fest-like? …Like an idol?” she muttered, holding her head in her hands and groaning.
Come on, guys, this is taking it too far. Don’t put Yukinoshita on the spot too much. She can’t take this. But I will not say so…since I do kinda wanna see?
With everyone’s expectations gathering around her, Yukinoshita hung her head awkwardly and then quickly arranged her bangs. She closed her eyes and let out a little breath, bit by bit getting herself in the mood. Crimson slowly grew on her cheeks until she eventually opened her dewy eyes.
“E-everyone! Good evening! Long black hair is the proof of intellect…and my theme color and heart are blue. I’m Yukinon, in charge of cool…” Following the template of the greeting Yuigahama had pulled off, Yukinoshita swished back her glossy black hair, touching her hand to her chest with a reserved smile. That idol gesture was too cute to be called cool, and it had a touch of passion.
“O-ohhh…”
She wasn’t just blushing, but red to her ears as she introduced herself. Silence fell around all of us.
Everyone was speechless, enchanted. Yukinoshita must have taken our silence as a lack of reaction, as her shoulders trembled in distress. And then she gave me a look of teary-eyed resentment, biting the edge of her pouting lip, before weakly hanging her head.
“…I want to die,” she muttered, hesitant and hoarse. The childish fragility of her words surprised everyone. I felt a dull stabbing like Urk! in my heart.
“Nah, dude, that was great!” Tobe offered her unstinting applause, and Yuigahama squeezed her tight.
“It was supercute! I love it!”
Though Yukinoshita looked bothered about being swept into her embrace, she finally let out a sigh. The relief eased the tension from her expression, and even squirming in embarrassment, she had a bashful smile on her face. “O-oh, really…?”
“Yeah!” said Isshiki. “It even made me think, Whoa, that lady’s on it; that’s playin’ dirty!”
“Whoa, you have a strange way of complimenting people. But it was actually cute! Right, Bro?”
But everything sounded so far away—Isshiki’s awful remarks and even Komachi addressing me.
When I didn’t say anything, Komachi gave me a questioning look. “…Bro?”
But there was nobody to answer her call.
Nothing but a corpse that wouldn’t speak as crickets chirped in the distance. Komachi gently shook the shoulder of that corpse.
No reply. It’s just a corpse.
“H-he’s dead…”