I quietly chatted with Kou as we ate the food the waitress brought to our table. Curiously enough, my heart was at peace. This might have been the first time I was ever able to relax this much with Kou.
The hors d'oeuvre, pumpkin potage, and main fish dishes were all delicious. The gentle seasonings brought out the flavor of the base ingredients. They had cut the ingredients into beautiful shapes, making it just as much a feast for the eyes. Everyone enjoyed the meal over friendly conversation. We didn’t have to worry about what others thought of how we looked or what we were saying because there were no other customers. No wonder the restaurant was popular.
As for Kon, she was in the midst of listening to Hanaka gush about Shinji. She’d made the grave mistake of casually mentioning, “I heard you have a boyfriend. You’re so lucky.”
Hanaka was definitely going to prattle on for a long time because she’d been too busy to see Shinji lately.
Oh dear, now she’s pulled out her smartphone. Seriously, Hanaka, please don’t put on a slideshow of all your date pictures with Shinji.
“Wow! He’s cool!”
“Oh no! If I tell Shin that you called him cool, I won’t be able to bring him back down to Earth! Too dangerous!”
Kou’s shoulders shook with laughter when he saw me sighing.
I was honestly dreading having Hanaka and Kon together in the same place. In the back of my mind I worried that as long as Kon was my Hana, being together with Hanaka would torment her. But from the look of things between them, it was needless worry on my end. They were now talking up a storm about SAZE. In summary, apparently their youthful vibrancy during their debut years was hard to pass up, but now that they’d grown up, they were “seriously bad news.”
“Mashiro has zero interest in boy bands, so I’m ecstatic you’re a fan, Kon. Let’s go to their next concert together!”
“I want to go!”
An instant reply?! You want to go that bad?!
“Mashiro barely watches any TV either. Public broadcasting is about the only thing she watches. She watches it so seriously while taking down notes. Hey, Kon, what do you think of that?”
Failing to hold in his laughter, Kou pressed his napkin to his lips, his shoulders shaking even harder. He’s been laughing way too hard since this conversation started!
“Mashiro’s a very serious person.”
“I agree. That’s one of her super adorable points, but still,” Hanaka said in an emotional tone.
Kon partially closed her eyes and nodded with a faint smile.
By the time everyone had polished off the main course, Tobi showed up with calculated timing.
Shocked, Kou arched his perfectly groomed eyebrows. “Director Yamabuki? You’re the last party member?”
It was a surefire thing in my mind that he was going to show up after how much he challenged and goaded me during the Christmas concert. Kou glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, his wariness towards Tobi on full display. I blinked once to let him know I was okay.
Not even batting an eye at Kou’s attitude, Tobi flashed his princely smile. “That’s right. Ayumi didn’t tell you? Don’t look so scary. At least let me greet my beautiful contestant.” He held out the bouquet of pink roses he had in his right hand. “My apologies for arriving late. There was a meeting I couldn’t get out of. In any case, hearty congratulations to you for passing through the quarterfinals. You were the only contestant to receive an A from Sadia Francesca today, Mashiro.”
“Pardon?” Forgetting to even say thanks, I held the bouquet he handed me and stared back into his glimmering eyes. Surprise surpassed my joy, rendering my brain incapable of wrapping around the situation. The third-year student from Seio I saw in my waiting room had put on a terrific performance. I was positive he had received an A as well.
“You seem to have great affinity for Chopin, Mashiro. But I wonder if the same can be said of Bach in the next round. I can’t wait to see.”
“Th-Thank you.”
Tobi flashed me a subtle smile then went around greeting the members of my family. Mom and Dad responded to the blond-haired, blue-eyed prince with awe when they learned that he was the director of Seio Academy. I mentally prepared myself for Hanaka to fawn all over him, but she acted surprisingly composed.
Wh-What happened? Why is she so calm? The strength drained from me later that day when she told me the reason why. Apparently she was irked when Tobi challenged me about Bach. “Mashiro is obviously amazing at Bach too!” she ranted as soon as we got home. She was way too much of a doting older sister.
Hanaka couldn’t tell the difference between Bach and Vivaldi. For example, the chord progression in Pachelbel’s “Canon” was beautifully arranged in such a way that a number of modern pop songs adapted the same chord progression. I could understand how someone might get that confused, but was it really possible to confuse Bach and Vivaldi? Whenever I let Hanaka listen to Vivaldi’s “Spring” she would boast, “I know this song! It’s by Bach,” while wiggling her eyebrows. As cute as she was, she was still wrong.
Once he finished his pleasantries with my family, Tobi ordered wine and cheese, and comfortably sat down beside Kon.
“I’m happy to see you again, Kon. You become more beautiful every time I see you.”
“Thank you, Director.”
The waitress placed a wineglass in front of Tobi. He skipped ordering the bottle since he had driven there too. Tobi carried a strip of cheese to his mouth and brought the wineglass to his lips with an artful slowness.
He’s someone who eats like he really enjoys food, I thought, gaining new insight into his personality.
“You make me feel like an outsider when you call me Director. It’s very lonesome. It would make my day if you would just call me by my name, Kon.”
Oh gosh. Gross. Is this an event for the original heroine?
Goosebumps prickled across my arms. I turned toward Kou and implored him to do something with misty eyes. Do something about that pervert! PLEASE! To which Kou responded by swiftly averting his eyes. His ears were red. What are you BLUSHING over?! Please save the cheap gimmicks for when we aren’t in dire straits! Forget you! I just have to take matters into my own hands and snap the flags leading to Tobi’s route. I won’t stand behind giving Kon over to a creeper like Tobi!
“I think you should stick with calling him Director, Kon. He’s a MUCH older man in charge of your school. It’s out of the ordinary for you to call him by his name. Don’t you agree?”
“M-Mashiro.”
Kon and Tobi both looked at me wide-eyed and stupefied when I cut into their conversation.
“Haha! I don’t know about that. Don’t girls of her age look up to older men?”
“Even if some do, it tends to cap off at guys who are in high school or university. A man FIFTEEN years older going after an underage girl is a CRIME, no?” I emphasized, glaring provocatively at Tobi.
I don’t know what you’re planning mister, but I won’t let you get away with perving on Kon!
“…Tobi. What in the world did you do to Mashiro?”
Tobi and I had been locked in a death stare, neither willing to relent, until Miss Ayumi’s exasperated voice broke us up. Sparks had been flying. If this was a game CG, I knew the artist would have drawn them in.
✦ ✦ ✦
*Heroine’s Results*
Target Character: Kou Narita
Event: I Understand
*Original Heroine’s Results*
Target Character: Tobi Yamabuki
Event: An Unexpected Interruption
*CLEAR*
✦ ✦ ✦
♪♪♪
THE moment I entered the classroom on Tuesday, Sawa and the gang surrounded me. I didn’t come in on Monday because the school gave it off to me for being at the competition all weekend.
“Congrats for making it through the quarterfinals!”
“It’s all thanks to the card you guys gave me! Thank you so much!”
I had texted the good news and my thanks to my group of friends yesterday. Kids outside of that group had seen my name and the results announced in the news too. I was bombarded with questions during break.
“How was it?”
“Were you nervous?”
“What was it like?”
Tazaki came over to my desk and pestered, “What were the other participants like? Just tell me about the ladies, I don’t care about the dudes.”
“Every girl was cute. I guess you could say there were a lot of girls with that rich young lady feel.”
“The prim and proper type, huh? Dang! I should’ve gone instead of gettin’ all sweaty runnin’ around the school grounds!”
“Stop right there! Don’t go to her performance for gross reasons!” one of the girls in class quickly cut in.
“You seriously have a one-track mind,” Majima marveled.
I wholeheartedly agreed with him.