It took a while for Kondo Haruka to suppress her feeling of helplessness.
“Fine… I just think it’s embarrassing.”
Xiao Chun Miura offered a final couple of sentences in explanation.
“If my parents were actually called to the school because of something like this… I would definitely get lectured once I got home.”
‘Actually, I don’t think they would.’
Based on her impression of the couple at home, they were quite indulgent with her.
Even if they were called to the school for such a reason, their first concern would probably be whether she had been hurt or not.
Or so Xiao Chun thought.
“Don’t worry. Since Sou went out of his way to work overtime for this, everything should be fine,” Kondo comforted her. “And since it’s such a trivial matter, I won’t pester you about it anymore.”
“However, the fact that you dared to go to a place like that behind your family’s back… is a bit outside my expectations.” The girl with the maroon, curly hair changed the subject.
“Then again, you were never as well-behaved as you looked.”
“Haha…”
Hearing Kondo’s pointed remark, Xiao Chun guiltily looked away.
“Next time you want to go out and play, I can have someone accompany you. They might not be a guardian, but they’ll be an adult, so they can serve a similar purpose.”
“That way, no one will report you again.”
“Eh… Someone you called, Kondo? Is it — ?”
“An attendant, of sorts?” Kondo replied nonchalantly.
‘Wait, what even is an attendant?’
‘That is such a young lady thing to say.’
Xiao Chun complained inwardly.
“Will you be coming too, Kondo?”
“No, forget it. I don’t have much interest in going out and wandering around.”
‘That’s a good thing.’
Xiao Chun felt a secret sense of relief. Since Kondo had no interest in going out, she certainly wouldn’t take the initiative to go to a livehouse.
The probability of Kanzaki Sou meeting Arisa Kiyono through someone close to him became even smaller.
Xiao Chun felt her heart relax.
……
“Come on, come on! Everyone, sing together!”
When they returned to the Deluxe Private Room, Yui Hori happened to be changing the song.
Seeing Xiao Chun and Kondo return, Yui shoved a microphone into Xiao Chun’s hand.
“You two were gone for so long! Were you whispering secrets behind our backs?”
“The accompaniment is starting — “
Xiao Chun hurriedly changed the subject.
Kondo stood there gracefully, singing along to the lyrics on the screen amidst the flashing, hallucinogenic neon lights.
Xiao Chun sat in a corner of the sofa, watching the red-haired girl pour her heart out in front of the screen.
The colored spotlights reflected off Xiao Chun’s glasses in mottled patches of light…
She took another sip of her orange juice, the sweetness following the bitterness lingering on her tongue.
‘I don’t really want to lie to Kondo,’ Xiao Chun said softly in her heart.
‘It’s just that in this game world filled with a crisis unique to me… the so-called truth is often the most hurtful thing one can bring.’
In the current situation… it would be best if Kondo stayed out of Arisa Kiyono’s story entirely.
Inside the room, the atmosphere reached its peak.
The girls’ laughter, the noisy singing, and the deafening rhythm of the speakers interlaced into a rhapsody of youth.
Meanwhile, Xiao Chun quietly faded into the shadows left behind by the sweeping lights.
She glanced down at her mobile phone.
On the black lock screen, her own face was reflected — tired from relaxing, yet exceptionally calm.
The girl knew that no matter how wonderful these times were, they would ultimately be nothing more than a brief moment of tranquility.
“…”
After the girls finished a song, Xiao Chun stood up. Amidst the cheering of her friends, she took another microphone with a hint of awkwardness but extreme seriousness.
“Then… I’ll sing one, too.”
In that moment, although the girl’s voice was small, it found a certain faint frequency of her own within the chaotic melody.
……
By the time they walked out of the KTV room, Xiao Chun felt as if the deafening echoes of the accompaniment were still stuck in her ears.
The ringing caused by the speakers made her brain feel slightly sluggish.
The cool night breeze of the street blew through the corridor, carrying away the stuffy air that smelled of popcorn, sweet juice, and the warmth of the girls. She couldn’t help but shiver.
“Xiao Chun, see you Monday!”
The friends led by Yui Hori waved their phones at the main entrance.
The short-haired girl’s lively smile was bright enough to disperse the darkness of the night.
“Get home safe.”
Xiao Chun also waved goodbye.
Kondo had already left earlier in a car sent by her family, and Yui and the others would head toward the station while play-fighting as usual.
Only Xiao Chun would be going home alone again.
After parting with her friends, the mask the girl had maintained all afternoon finally began to slip away.
She walked alone down the street toward her home.
The streetlights already lit cast her shadow on the ground behind her, constantly shortening and shifting with her steps.
It wasn’t until she returned to that empty, quiet, and somewhat lonely house that Xiao Chun collapsed onto the sofa in the living room as if her strength had vanished.
She didn’t turn on the lights immediately, instead letting the darkness wrap around her — in this absolute silence, the clamor of the day seemed like something from a lifetime ago.
“…”
After sitting in silence for a while and feeling much better, Xiao Chun fished her mobile phone out of her pocket.
The faint light of the screen reflected in her pupils as her fingertip found the avatar named “ALISA” in her LIME friend list.
‘Kiyono, are you home? Or are you still training in the rehearsal room?’
[I just left. I’m at the bottom of the office building now.]
Arisa Kiyono replied very quickly this time, her content as efficient and brief as ever.
Xiao Chun took a deep breath, her fingers trembling slightly as she typed. It was the tension of waiting to see if her answer was correct.
‘Did you feel like you were being followed on your way?’
‘In the café, I specifically reminded you to watch your back. Did you notice anyone suspicious?’
Before leaving the Blue Bird Cafe, Xiao Chun had taken the opportunity during their private talk to whisper a warning to Arisa Kiyono.
She told her to pay attention to anyone who might be following at a fixed distance behind her.
To try and find them by suddenly stopping to tie her shoelaces or by using the reflections in shop windows.
However, the reply that popped up on the screen was outside her expectations.
[No.]
[I was very careful the whole way and did as you said. But I didn’t sense that kind of presence following me.]
Seeing those two lines of text, Xiao Chun’s already furrowed brows drew even tighter.
Her body, which had been leaning against the back of the sofa, leaned forward slightly, her eyes full of confusion.
‘She didn’t sense anything…?’
That was illogical.
Xiao Chun placed the phone on her lap, her brain beginning to race.
Her previous deduction was built on one core assumption — that the user “Post 49” who leaked information on the forum was a stalker lurking in Arisa Kiyono’s life, and that they were one of Arisa’s classmates.
Because the person was a classmate, they could easily know what Arisa ate in the cafeteria. They knew which day Arisa didn’t go to rehearsal because she had appeared at school.
And… she had also speculated that the person was following Arisa outside of school as well.
That was why they knew exactly when she appeared at the entrance of the livehouse in Sakuragicho that night, and how they could write an anonymous report letter that was accurate down to her name.
But if there was no stalker today…
Xiao Chun’s brow remained tightly knit.
Then where did all that “precise intelligence” from before come from?
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