Chapter 21: Kaoru in the Entertainment World

I couldn’t look at Shinichi’s face. I was scared.

With a quiet voice, Shinichi asked if I was serious.

“It’s just a ‘maybe’ for now.”

The student council room, always so lively, was now utterly silent.

President Tomomi, Momoyama Haruka, and Misaki all stared down at the long desk in front of them, as if enduring something.

Shinichi’s eyes were red as he squeezed out his words.

“Kaoru-senpai, are you really quitting the student council?”

He sounded like he was about to cry.

My chest ached as if a stake had been driven through it.

It’s not like I’m quitting because I want to. It’s just that juggling both is effectively impossible.

I’m returning to the entertainment world.

“First of all, I’m just shocked that you were a celebrity to begin with, Kaoru-senpai,” Haruka said.

“My mother is. I’m nothing as grand as a celebrity. I just got a little work through her connections.”

My mother wanted me to become an actress, it seemed. And I wasn’t particularly against it.

Until I met Shinichi.

It was at the end of last year that I rebelled against my mother for the first time and won myself a ‘hiatus.’

But as I kept dodging and making excuses, dragging out my return, her patience finally ran out. Mother resorted to drastic measures.

If you don’t return, I’m having you transfer schools.

I had no choice but to fold.

I weighed my options: quit the student council, or leave this school. Which was better, losing ninety-nine percent of everything, or losing a hundred percent? It was an agonizing decision.

“You’re the one who dragged me into the student council, Kaoru-senpai!”

Shinichi lashed out, pouting. Normally this would be a situation that gets me fired up, but this time, even my desires were silent.

“I’m sorry.”

Shinichi glared at me, his face a mask of dissatisfaction. Right, you don’t want an apology, do you? Even though I knew that, all I could do was apologize.

“Is quitting the student council… your own choice, Kaoru-senpai?”

My cheeks relaxed into a faint, inappropriate smile at my cute kouhai, who was trying so hard to get me to stay.

“My mother insisted. It’s not that I want to quit if I don’t have to. But I’m still a minor. And for a minor, a parent’s wishes are absolute. Tomomi, you get that, right?”

“…Well, yeah,” Tomomi said with a wry smile.

I’ve heard her parents are pretty understanding, but she’s still the daughter of a massive conglomerate. I’m sure she has her own set of restrictions.

“This coming Saturday, a live variety show will be my first job back. If it goes well and I get back on track, I think my media exposure will increase. I’d be… happy if you’d support me.”

I tried to smile, but apparently, I failed.

Everyone was looking down with solemn expressions.

But I… I didn’t cry.

Instead, the sound of Shinichi sniffling was all that lingered in my ears.

♦︎

“Today’s guest is the beautiful high school model, Kaoru Kikuchi! Welcome to the show!”

“Hiii! Thank you so much for having meee!”

The variety show, Waratte yo Gansu, had finally begun.

I answered with a peppy, manufactured personality I never show at school. If the student council members saw me now, they’d probably say, “Who the hell is that?” The exchange made my own skin crawl.

It was obvious that my usual way of speaking wouldn’t be well-received. No, it wouldn’t just be unpopular. If I went on TV talking like that, we’d be flooded with complaints. I’d be blacklisted from the industry in an instant.

A TV show’s ratings depend on how many male influencers it can attract. The girls flock to the content that guys like. And what guys like are women who are beautiful, charming, and devoted. From actresses to TV personalities to idols, only those who fit that character can survive in show business.

The shoot was running a little behind, but for the most part, it was proceeding according to the script. My part was almost over, and I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking I’d managed to make a decent impression.

It was then that the MC said something that wasn’t in the script.

“We have one more special guest joining us today! Let’s bring them out! Here they are!”

A special guest?

I didn’t hear anything about this. It wasn’t in the rehearsal, either. Is it some minor comedian the producer’s pushing? Or maybe one of those semi-prank segments where they bring on a cast member’s relative without telling them?

Either way, my part’s basically done, so it has nothing to do with me. I wonder which poor talent is going to be the show’s plaything. I watched on, feeling detached from it all, as I raised the straw in my glass to my lips.

The special guest appeared, accompanied by loud background music.

“I won’t forgive the selfish whims of a do-M! The hero of justice! Mr. Shakure!”

PFFFT! Cough, hack!

I spectacularly spit out my drink.

On stage, clad in a glittering, gold spandex bodysuit, stood Shinichi, striking a pose like a rapper. With a cool expression, he muttered a quiet, “Yeahhh,” all while inexplicably jutting out his chin.

What is he doing!

“Uhh… um, a do-M…?” the host stammered, looking for his cue cards.

Shinichi! Get a hold of yourself! Please, get a hold of yourself!

You’re confusing the MC! He can’t decide if he’s supposed to dig into that or not!

Shinichi took his sweet time walking down from the stage. He then ignored the famous actress and, for some reason, stood right next to me.

The host looked at his cue card and, pulling himself together, restarted the show.

“I hear that Mr. Shakure is a wandering solo comedian, and that he’s the hottest act to watch right now!”

That’s a total lie. I’ve never once heard that Shinichi was a comedian.

This is probably President Tomomi’s doing. She must have used her connections to squeeze him onto the show at the last minute.

Otherwise, there’s no way an unknown high school student—even if he is a guy—would suddenly get to jump into a live variety show.

“Kikuchi-san, you two know each other from school, right? He’s your junior, isn’t he,” the host said, turning to Shinichi.

“Yes. She’s a do-M who has taken very good care of me,” Shinichi said, chin still jutting out.

“Wha…? A do-E—”

“Games! We’re game-buddies! Right, Shinichi-kun!”

“Ah, games. I see.”

I wiped the sweat beading on my forehead with the cute, long sleeves of my outfit.

“I heard this is your first time on TV, but you’re amazing! You don’t look nervous at all!”

“No, no. I’m totally nervous! I’m completely s-s-stiff! Here! Look!”

Saying that, Mr. Shakure pointed to his own crotch, where he was pitching a tent so pronounced it looked like it would rip through his gold spandex.

He was, indeed, rock-hard.

What in the world are you doing on primetime TV…

And also, why are you hard?!

A nonsensical gag like that is just going to bomb and make everyone uncomfortable—huh?

Surprisingly, Shinichi’s erection gag was a hit with the audience. A wave of explosive laughter erupted.

I see. It’s because there’s never been a male comedian who’d do such a self-deprecating gag before.

All men are full of pride. They would never do so-called ‘self-tormenting’ jokes. Men aren’t cut out to be comedians in the first place.

And then there’s this pervert—Mr. Shakure. A new wind was blowing through the entertainment world.

Shinichi wasn’t stopping. In fact, he was going completely off-script.

“I’m a little too nervous, so I’m rock-hard—”

“Rock-hard…” the female co-host repeated, her eyes drawn to his crotch.

“—so is it okay if I do a little charm to calm myself down?”

The co-host’s eyes snapped up from his groin. “Oh? Uh, yes. Go ahead.”

Shinichi began writing the character for ‘person’ (人) over and over again on his own palm. The good luck charm where you write ‘person’ three times and swallow it. It’s so famous you could say everyone in the country knows it.

It’s unclear how many characters Shinichi wrote, but when he finally finished, he abruptly shoved his hand into his mouth.

My mouth.

“Nnngh?! Why my mouf?!”

It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts! My mouth doesn’t open that wide! H-Hey! Don’t twist it in there!

Shinichi’s hand stopped dead.

Then, just as I thought he was done, he firmly pinched the tip of my tongue with his fingers.

“Ahyan?!”

My carefully crafted pure-and-innocent persona was beginning to crumble. In exchange, the studio audience erupted in laughter.

“Ahahahaha! Oh my! Hah! You’re supposed to put it in your own mouth!” the female co-host said, clutching her stomach.

Shinichi, a.k.a. Mr. Shakure, nonchalantly piped up, “Oh. Right. Wrong one!”

With a wet pop, Shinichi pulled his hand out of my mouth. His fingers were shiny and stringy with my saliva.

I looked down, mortified.

Ugh, my saliva is being broadcast nationwide…

While I was looking down, Shinichi took my hand.

“My mistake, this is the right one.”

Then, of all things, Shinichi popped my hand into his mouth.

“Hyaaa?!”

My shoulders shot up again.

A warm, slick sensation enveloped my fingers. As they were toyed with in his mouth like a piece of hard candy, my body could do nothing but tremble in a series of small convulsions. A warm wetness spread between my legs, quickly turning cold.

Stop iiiit! Don’t show this on cameraaa! I’m definitely making a super weird face right now! My O-face is going to be broadcast across the entire country!

The audience was getting even more hyped up. And they weren’t just laughing! Several of the other TV personalities were looking at me with incredible envy.

Hey, you, the child actor! Don’t you dare put your hand on your crotch! You’re too young for this!

By the time Shinichi released my hand, my fingers were pruney from his saliva, and for some reason, a half-sucked piece of candy had been placed in my palm.

I secretly slipped it into my pocket.

Maybe because they were running behind, the MC quickly moved on to the next segment. During a VTR break, I leaned close to Shinichi and whispered.

“Shinichi, what are you doing here!”

But Shinichi just turned away with a prim “Hmph,” refusing to answer. I mean, the least he could do was pretend to watch the VTR, but he was looking in a completely different direction from the screen, too.

“Hey, Shinichi!”

“Hmph.”

Useless. He only upgraded from completely ignoring me to verbally ‘hmphing’ me.

“Shinichi.”

“Hmph.”

“Shinichi, I’m talking to you.”

“Hmph.”

“…Mr. Shakure.”

“Yes? What is it, senpai?”

He’s so annoying! He’s saddled me with this stupid rule! He’ll only respond if I call him Mr. Shakure!

Shinichi, or rather, Mr. Shakure, waggled his eyebrows up and down and jerked his head from side to side, taunting me. His chin, of course, was still jutting out. I hope one of the veteran actors yells at him!

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing? This is TV, you know? It’s being broadcast nationwide.”

“I know. That’s precisely why I came, isn’t it?”

Shinichi gave a faint, meaningful smile.

“You ask what I came here to do?” Shinichi said with a serious expression—while still jutting out his chin.

“That’s obvious—”

Shinichi’s direct gaze pierced right through me. But his chin was jutting out.

“—I came to crush a promising do-M talent.”

Shinichi’s smile was warm and soft, completely at odds with his words. And his chin was jutting out.

I had no choice but to laugh, too.

If he really could crush my career as a TV personality, that would be a dream come true.

If it looked like there was no longer any hope for my success in the entertainment world, maybe Mother would finally set me free.

But there was no way Shinichi alone could get a talent blacklisted. Even if he was the cutest and kindest boy in the world, he was still just a regular person. He didn’t have that kind of power.

In other words, unless I myself messed up, there was no way I’d be run out of the business.

So if…

If Shinichi could somehow surpass even that, surpass even my own imagination, then at that time—

I felt the corner of my mouth turn up on its own.

To hide my embarrassment, I tore my eyes away from Shinichi and focused on pretending to watch the VTR.

♦︎

The shoot was nearing its end.

Right now, the host was explaining a popular segment called “Teen Confessions.”

It was a segment where middle and high school girls or boys would go onto their school’s rooftop and shout their deepest secrets.

Several girls yelled about having hemorrhoids or having licked a boy’s recorder in class, getting big laughs.

“Hahaha, you better be careful, Shinichi. Before you know it, a girl’s gonna lick your record—”

My words to Shinichi caught in my throat.

Because Shinichi himself had vanished.

Huh?! Wha?! Shinichi?! Where is he?!

I whipped my head around in every direction, but I couldn’t find him.

When I turned my gaze back to the screen in front of me, I found him.

Inside the screen.

WHEN DID HE GET THERE?!

“Our next confessor is, you guessed it! Today’s special guest, MISTEEEEER! SHAKUREEEEE!”

The live feed was connected, so the studio and the school could communicate.

From our studio, the MC started giving some background on Shinichi.

All the while, Mr. Shakure was down on one knee, stretching both hands out to his right and wiggling his fingers, a gesture meant to highlight a partner, but there was no one next to him.

Shinichi, that’s not a solo pose…

What are you planning to say, Shinichi?

There’s no way you’d come all this way to confess something that has nothing to do with me. It’s a ninety-nine percent chance it’s about me.

Come to think of it, I feel like Shinichi knows several of my most fatal secrets.

Along with the memories of all my shameful moments he’d witnessed, my chest filled with memories of my time with Shinichi—no, with the student council.

The fun times, the frustrating times, the infuriating times, the jealous times, all of it came back to me in vivid, living color.

A natural smile spread across my face. At the same time, a warm streak ran down my cheek and dripped onto my lap.

“I don’t want to quit… the student council.”

The camera zoomed in on Shinichi, standing on the school rooftop. He stepped up to the platform with a serious expression, as if glaring into the heavens.

He was no longer jutting out his chin.

“Alright, let’s hear your confession!”

Fwwwwoooooosh, Shinichi took a deep breath.

And then, aiming less at the ground below and more at the vast sky above, he screamed.

“I… LOVE… KAORU-SENPAI!”

…Huh?!

My brain couldn’t keep up.

Wait? That’s the confession? That he… likes me?

My face instantly flushed beet red.

It was burning hot. So hot I was worried the tips of my ears might get scorched.

Shinichi’s genuine confession sent a stir through the audience on the school grounds and in the studio.

“…Wait? ‘Kaoru-senpai’… does he mean Kikuchi Kaoru?”

“No way! Seriously?! Is this a real confession?”

“What?! It’s not staged?”

Actually, it wasn’t that unusual for someone to confess on this segment.

But it was always a girl confessing to a guy.

This time it was the other way around. And the target was me, a celebrity, for what it’s worth. If handled poorly, this was the kind of bombshell that could be a major broadcasting disaster.

No wonder the venue was buzzing.

Shinichi didn’t stop.

He paid them no mind and kept dropping bombs.

“I LOVE KAORU-SENPAI’S… KINDNESS! AND HER SERIOUSNESS! AND! HER DO-M SIDE!”

“Huh? …Did he say do-M?”

“I think he just said do-M.”

“Kikuchi Kaoru is a do-M?”

SHINICHI?! That’s the one thing you can’t say! You can’t reveal that!

The image I had built up for so long began to crack under the weight of that one phrase, “do-M.”

No, it’s still okay! Being a do-M is such a vague, fluffy trait, it’s not a big deal. Even if the entire world thinks ‘she’s a do-M,’ I should still be able to continue my career somehow.

For a second, I thought I saw Shinichi’s cheek twitch into a smirk.

As the stunned audience watched on, Shinichi declared his love with a commanding presence.

“AND!” Shinichi yelled, his voice even louder.

“HOW EVEN THOUGH SHE’S SHY… IN THE GYM STORAGE ROOM… SHE PEE—”

“OYYYY! YOU! STOP! JUST DON’T SAY THAT!”

Ah. I realized my mistake, but it was too late.

The gruff, masculine way I had just spoken… was broadcast clearly across the entire nation.

Mr. Shakure raised a triumphant fist in the air.

Then he turned to me with a satisfied smile. It was the most dazzling smile I had ever seen.

“Honestly… you’re really something else.”

I couldn’t help but smile back.

I had no more worries. Shinichi had outplayed me. I decided then and there to retire from the entertainment world.

The buzzing crowd was now frozen in a dead silence.

Mr. Shakure snatched the microphone from the dumbfounded on-site announcer.

“I love your way of talking, I love how clueless you are, and I love that you’re a do-M. I love everything about you. So, please don’t quit the student council, Kaoru-senpai.”

Shinichi said it with bright red eyes. I remembered him sniffling in the student council room that day.

This is who Shinichi is. He seems like an unconventional, off-the-wall guy, but on the inside, he’s just a boy who cares deeply for his senpai. That’s the person I fell in love with.

I let out a sigh and a laugh at the same time.

“You’re impossible.”

Huh? That’s weird. I was supposed to be laughing, I was supposed to be happy.

But before I knew it, my face was also wet with tears.

♦︎

In the end, my reputation plummeted because of that broadcasting disaster, and I got a harsh scolding from my mom. But, ultimately, on the condition that I continue my modeling work on weekends, she let me off the hook for my other TV work, like acting and variety shows. Not that it matters; it’s not like the job offers were coming in anymore, anyway.

The door to the student council room makes a creaking sound. I noted that again as I stepped inside. It seemed no one else was here yet.

It had only been a few days, but the student council room felt strangely nostalgic.

Yeah, this place is calming.

I brewed some coffee, opened my laptop, and was scrolling through random news articles when the door creaked again. It was Shinichi.

“Hey,” Shinichi said as he walked in, not even meeting my eyes.

“Ah. I was waiting for you,” I said, which finally made Shinichi look my way.

“What’re you watching?” Shinichi asked.

Instead of answering, I silently turned the laptop toward him.

On the screen was the clip of his confession, which had just been uploaded to a video-sharing site. The view count was already astronomical.

Shinichi’s jaw dropped and the whites of his eyes showed.

“By the way, Shinichi,” I said, feigning calmness. My heart was pounding like a drum. “That, um, you know, what you said back then… that was a love confession, right? You like me, right? Which means, um, I’m your g-g-g-girlfriend… right?”

Just a confirmation. It was just a confirmation, but my hands were slick with an insane amount of sweat, as if I were the one confessing to him.

Sorry, everyone. Shinichi is mine from today onward. Our first date, our first kiss, our first ‘that’—it’s all mine.

Heehee, heeheehee, heeheeheeheeheehee❤︎

“Nope. You’re wrong.”

Shinichi said it so casually, like it was nothing.

“Yeah, yeah, right, right—wait, HUH?! Wha?! S-So… Nngh?! I’m wrong?! Then what was that whole confession about?!”

I was thrown from heaven straight back down to earth. No, not even earth. Right now, this feels like hell.

“That wasn’t a lie, you know? I do like you, Kaoru-senpai. But I never asked you to be my girlfriend.”

“What is that!”

This guy! He’s leagues beyond those ‘bad boy’ types you hear about! He’s a demon king! He’s probably a demon king from another world!

He’s an unbelievable flirt!

Ah, it’s no use. I’m probably going to be sick in bed for three days from the shock.

I hung my head in defeat, and yet, was completely disgusted with the part of myself that was still unabashedly happy that Shinichi had said “I like you.”

This student council vice president’s flirty attitude is seriously dangerous…