Chapter 15

Still, everyone who was there knew it had been some kind of incident. “I am really, truly sorry!” Afterward, Suzune apologized to the staff from the bottom of her heart. She honestly wanted to throw herself on the floor and beg forgiveness, but she figured that would just seem like she was joking around. When she really thought about it, she obviously shouldn’t have said that during a live broadcast. But at the time, she truly couldn’t think of anything else. She was desperate to save Karin, and in the heat of the moment, confessing had seemed like the only way to do it. Suzune was more surprised than anyone she’d taken such decisive action. “I’m so sorry!” Karin apologized, too. Technically, she was the one who’d stopped the broadcast; Suzune didn’t really think Karin was to blame for any of it, but she appreciated the gesture. Miama showed up as soon as she could and apologized even more than both of them combined. The sight made Suzune realize just how severely she had screwed things up, and she nearly burst into tears. But the director was also apologetic. “No, it was our fault, too. I can’t believe we didn’t mute the keywords properly… I feel awful. We weren’t careful enough. All things considered, we definitely shouldn’t have tried to use the hashtag today.” Suzune felt even more grateful and even more guilt. The scariest part was afterward, when Miama very coolly reprimanded her. Until that moment, Suzune never knew that being spoken to calmly could be much more terrifying than being yelled at. Given the circumstances, Miama ultimately let Suzune off the hook, but she made it very clear that there wouldn’t be a next time. The person who posted the scandal online was eventually tracked down. Although Suzune never learned the details of their discussion, the culprit deleted their account and wrote a letter of assurance. Still, there was no recovering from the fact that Karin’s address had been doxed, so Karin wound up moving out. And into the same apartment complex as Suzune. She had her own apartment, but by this point, they were constantly visiting each other’s homes. “…And? What happened that night, on Christmas Eve? You went out for dinner, didn’t you? How did things go after that?” Yuika kept interrogating her, but Suzune always brushed it off with a serene smile. That night was a treasure just for her. But if there was one thing she could say for sure, it was this: The “yuri” between Suzune Sengu and Karin Shotsuki was no longer just for show. The End