“I usually read or do homework when I go to karaoke places alone.”
“I’ve never heard of that before! What kind of weirdo does that?!”
“If you’re gonna make fun of me, could you at least put the mic down first?” I said, covering my ears. She put the mic down with a gasp.
“But this is a karaoke place! It’s literally a place for singing, and you’re not gonna sing?!”
“So by that logic, we can only study at school and nowhere else?”
“That’s totally different!”
“Just think about it.” She was about to make another retort, but I held up my hand. “Besides at home or school, where else can you read or study by yourself, or do whatever you want without being a nuisance to others?”
“Um...the library?”
That was a good choice, but...
“On weekdays, private study rooms at the library are packed with students studying for exams, and old people.”
“O-Okay, but what about a diner or a café?”
“Diners are always full of loud groups of old ladies hogging the unlimited drink bars, and the employees will give you dirty looks if you get too many drinks when you’re alone. Plus, most cafés have signs posted that say, ‘no studying’ or ‘no playing video games’ so people don’t stay there for hours without buying anything.”
“Ugh.”
“At karaoke places, you’re paying to have the room to yourself. What you do with that time is up to you. The employees don’t care.”
“I-I guess that does make it sound pretty convenient.”
“You get why they used to put up those signs at karaoke places that said ‘Karaoke boxes are for singing, not romance,’ right?”
“Because there were a lot of couples who used them to make out or something.” Like I said, you could use the room for whatever you wanted, as long as it didn’t create a nuisance for others. No matter what.
“Yeah. But studying or reading in a karaoke box is totally fine. Most times when I came with someone else, we didn’t even sing and we just studied anyway.”
“Then why did you even come here in the first place? And what do you mean by ‘most times’?”
“One time we were studying and they suddenly remembered we were at a karaoke place, so they sang a song.”
“So they totally forgot the main purpose of this place?!” Her eyes were wide and she looked half-stunned, half-exasperated. “Now I wanna know what song your friend sang.”
“‘I’m in Love with You Again.’”
“Whoa, by Fuyumi Sakamoto?”
“Nah, the Billy BanBan version.”
“Who’s that?” she asked after a moment of confusion.
That’s rude. They were the original artists! Though I guess Fuyumi Sakamoto’s version of the song is more well-known.
“They really like Billy BanBan, I guess. They also sang ‘I’ve Always Loved You’ by them.”
“Um, choosing those songs...”
“Hm? What?”
“N-nothing,” Hanamizawa-san said, shaking her head. Weirdo.
“Anyway, since you’re paying I might as well make the most of it. That’s why I’m studying, but you can use your time however you want. Why don’t you go ahead and sing?”
“However I want? Honestly, I’m not really sure what I should sing at a time like this.”
I let out a wry chuckle. Apparently she was still feeling unsure. “Isn’t the best part of karaoke being able to sing absolutely anything you want? Just sing songs you like that you might not sing in front of your friends. I’m not gonna be paying attention anyway.”
“Hmm, songs I wouldn’t sing in front of them...” She hesitated for a while, but then suddenly started punching in something on the touch panel.
I figured she didn’t want any attention, so it would’ve been insensitive of me to keep watching. I looked back down at my textbook and was about to resume my studies, when suddenly a jarring intro caused me to jerk my head up again.
Jaan, jara jaaan! ♪
“Huh?!” I looked over at the monitor and saw the words “MaoMao☆Dancin’♥ALL NIGHT” in a big, bubbly font. A DIVA song?! DIVA was a virtual idol that had come about from a text-to-speech software, and Kanon had apparently chosen one of their songs to sing. The concept had become more well-known to the average person compared to when they first came out, so it wasn’t just an otaku thing anymore. But it still had that kind of underground feeling to it, at least to the point where I found it strange that Hanamizawa-san would choose that song.
Oh hey, they have footage from a DIVA concert playing in the background. Mao-chan (or whatever her name was) danced among a sea of glowsticks on the monitor.
All of a sudden Hanamizawa-san stood up and started singing, perfectly mimicking the character’s movements. “Maomao, we’ll be dancin’ all night! ♪”
Whoa, she’s in perfect sync. Apparently Hanamizawa-san had completely memorized DIVA’s choreo too. Singing and dancing like that seemed like a bit much, even for solo karaoke. But if she was having fun, so what? After all, I did tell her to do whatever she wanted. I decided to leave her alone and looked back down at my textbook.
After a while, Hanamizawa-san finished singing and plopped back down on the couch, wiping sweat from her brow as she slurped her ginger ale through the straw. “Phew! It’s pretty fun to dance like crazy without worrying about anyone watching you.”
“I bet. I’m surprised you like DIVA songs, though.”
“Yeah, well...” she said with a shy smile. “I used to watch videos of their live performances every now and then. Even though she’s an anime character, she just looks so surprisingly real, you know? It’s like she actually exists or something. I got totally obsessed! Plus, her dancing is cute.”
“Yeah.”
“I’d never tell my friends I like her, though.” She let out a little sigh. “Sometimes I wonder if it’s wrong of me to hide hobbies like this from my friends. Like, do I feel the need to hide things I’m interested in from them?”