“Please call me Io. And I will call you Gakuto, okay?”
“But you’re older than me. I can’t just call you by your first name; it seems so impolite.”
“There’s no need for social niceties. After all, you’re the same age as me, aren’t you, Gakuto?”
“Wow… You know everything, it seems.”
Even most of my classmates, the unobservant ones, weren’t aware of that.
To think that she’s investigated me this thoroughly… I felt more afraid than flattered.
“I’ve got this fixation with knowing everything about people. It comes with the career choice.”
“Right, but I think you’re taking it too far…”
“Well, Gakuto, I hope you and I become good friends. Very good friends.”
Interrupting my retort with an innocent sort of smile, Io got to her feet.
I gave up, sighing.
“Yes… Nice to meet you, Io.”
“Yeah. Well, I’m off.”
Never breaking her smart demeanor, Io turned around, her back facing me, and glided off. Clunk. Clonk. As I watched her go, I went back to doing leg presses.
How do I explain this encounter to Shiika and Akiba…? Ah, it was too much trouble to even think about, so I decided not to.
I could just tell them at some point later on.
✦ ✦ ✦
That evening…
It was ten PM. I was in my room.
After chatting with my gaming buddy, Zeke, I switched off the PC.
“Guess I’ll head to bed…”
I almost laughed out loud in response to my own muttering. Going to bed before the clock hands pointed straight up… Ah, I’d been influenced by my school life.
When I was a shut-in, ten PM was when the day really kicked off. Shiika, too, was another habitual offender of the same crime of staying up late, but now… There wasn’t a peep coming from her room. She was probably in her futon already, tucked in and cozy.
“…Huh?”
My phone, charging by my bedside, had started vibrating.
I checked the screen and saw that I had a notification informing me I had a new DM.
But not to my account.
It was a DM sent to Shiika Ikebukuro’s Impachi Live account that I’d linked to my phone.
Shiika had no interest in interacting with other people and had left it up to me to check and reply to DMs. It’d been like this since her WayTube days, and since we entered Ryouran High School, it’d been the same way with her Impachi Live account.
“Huh?”
I muttered when I saw the sender’s name.
ERIO SHIBUYA.
“What does SHE want with Shiika?”
I opened the message very cautiously. Thinking back to the scene this morning…I had a feeling this couldn’t be anything good.
If it’s a nasty message, what should I do? I was still thinking things like that as I read it…
“CAN WE MEET? I’D LIKE TO DISCUSS SOMETHING IMPORTANT.”
Now, that was unexpected.
“WHAT DO YOU WANT? IT’S LATE. CAN’T WE TALK AT SCHOOL?”
Without much information to go on, I responded.
The reply came quickly.
“I DON’T WANT TO TALK IN PUBLIC. I’M AT THE CLOSEST STATION TO WHERE YOU LIVE, SO IF YOU SPECIFY A PLACE TO MEET, I CAN GO THERE RIGHT AWAY.”
How did she know where we lived?
“MANA AKIHABARA TOLD ME WHERE YOU LIVE. SHE COUGHED IT UP IN EXCHANGE FOR A COLLAB AGREEMENT.”
Akiba accepted a bribe?! What a heartless wench, to be swayed by Erio’s popularity and sell out Shiika and me!
“SHE DIDN’T TELL ME YOUR EXACT ADDRESS, JUST THE CLOSEST STATION.”
“WELL, I GUESS THAT’S ALL RIGHT…”
Actually, it was up to us to decide that, not Akiba, but never mind the fine details right now.
Come to think of it, Akiba was worried about how to survive the midterms. She might have been planning to set up a collaboration beforehand so she could do a presentation saying, “As a composer, I’m working hard to build a business relationship with a top-notch singer!” and pass the exam.
She was doing her best to survive, as a student, so I decided to forgive her. After all, she hadn’t divulged our actual address. And she did clean our apartment that one time.
Still, I thought this was very odd.
Any way you sliced it, it was bad manners to call someone out this late and take up their time in the evening. But if Erio had some sort of business with Shiika, I wanted to know what it was. If I turned a blind eye now, and it led to trouble down the road, well…that would suck.
I wouldn’t bring Shiika. I’d meet Erio on my own and see what she had to say. That would probably be the best course of action here.
“ALL RIGHT. COME TO THE PARK ON THIS MAP LINK.”
After responding, I changed out of my lounging-around-the-house sweats into a parka.
After checking Shiika’s door and confirming there were no signs she was awake, I whispered, “Be back in a bit,” and left the house.