Chapter 2
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“Kento, if your knee is hurting, you should take a break from lessons.”
Kento was sitting on his bed peeling a cold compress off of his knee when a chestnut-coloured bob jumped into view. Kento looked up to see his roommate, Tomoya Komatsu. His large chestnut eyes were watching him worriedly.
“You’re already an amazing dancer, Kento. One day off isn’t going to do anything to you. Don’t worry about the new bits of the routine ? I’ll teach you when I get home.”
“I’m fine!” Kento snapped.
Tomoya was considerate and kind, but they were still rivals. Besides, although they were in the same grade, Tomoya was still a year younger than him. Kento was too proud to allow himself to learn dance routines from a junior.
Kento shoveled up his overgrown hair and began tearing off the cold compresses with vigour.
“Have you thought about wearing a knee support?” Tomoya suggested hesitantly.
“I won’t. If I do, it would make people think even more that I’m injured or something,” Kento said shortly, unrolling the legs of his chinos and picking his backpack off the floor. “Let’s go. The bus is coming.”
“Oh, you’re right!” Tomoya checked the time on his G-Shock watch and leapt up. “The bus only runs every half-hour during the day here. I’ll go ahead!”
Kento watched the boy burst out of the room before slowly slinging his backpack over his shoulders. Then, he broke into a walk, trying not to put too much weight on his right leg.
For the past month or so, the pain in his right leg had been bothering him.
“Damnit, during such an important time, too…”
Kento was part of an entertainment agency called Sion Promotion. At sixteen, he was still talent-in-training. Today, he was only one of many background dancers for a senior duo called DZ.
Last week, Manager Shimoda had summoned everyone and announced that the agency was planning to debut a new four-member group six months down the road. The members would be selected out of this group through an audition.
That was why, right now, every lesson counted.
Since last night, Kento had kept cold compresses on his knee and had rested, which was probably why the pain had subsided a little. He breathed a sigh of relief.
He exited the room and walked down the long hallway to the entrance.
The dormitory was large-scale, housing two people per room and up to two hundred people in total. Each room was about forty-five square metres, with private bathrooms, showers, and toilets. A long row of twenty-five rooms flanked each side of the narrow hallway in the two-storey building. Kento shared a room at the end of the first floor, which meant he had a considerable way to walk to the entrance.
“I should hurry.” Kento glanced at his watch and broke into a run.
Eventually he met a man walking his way, wearing a suit and carrying a large black bag.
The man was about five-foot-seven, not very different in height from Kento. But his slender figure was noticeable even with his suit.
“Who could he be?”
The rules were rigidly enforced in this dormitory, and even family members could not enter without permission. It was only natural, the dorm head had told him: after all, they were in charge of students from all over the country. Meetings with parents were supposed to be held in the meeting room located in the wing between the school and the dorms. The recreation room and dining hall were also located there.
The man was wearing a fashionable brown suit. He certainly did not look like a repairman.
“Who’re you?” Kento eyed the approaching man suspiciously. The man widened his eyes in surprise and touched the frame of his glasses with a finger.
“Are you a student here? Don’t worry, I’m not anyone to be suspicious of.” The man smiled as he ran his fingers through his wavy hair, which was parted down the middle. From afar, he had looked like a mature man in his suit, but his smiling face was open and innocent, and his eyes, though sharp, were not cold. His eyebrows were thin and his chin delicate. Kento thought he looked pretty, like the actresses he often saw at the dance studio.
I wonder if he’s someone’s older brother.
“Where are you going?” Kento asked.
“I’m on my way to the infirmary.”
The answer made Kento even more suspicious. He glared at the man.
“The infirmary’s not inside the dorm.”
“Yeah, but if I’m coming from the back gates, the dorm is a shortcut. You’d agree, right? Anyway, excuse me.”
The man was right; the infirmary was conveniently located between the school and the dorm as to be accessible if any dorm resident fell ill. If this man had frequent business with the infirmary, Kento decided he probably wasn’t a suspicious character. He let his gaze slip away from the man’s back as he dashed for the entrance.