“Looking for me?”
“Yes, it’s that senior with white hair, Youxi.”
“Ah… okay, I’ll go in a bit.”
“Mm, she said she’ll wait for you at the stairway.”
Haruka packed her bag, said goodbye to her still-excited deskmate Fujii Sakura, and walked alone along the corridor toward the stairway.
“Hoshino.”
A gentle voice came from the corner ahead.
Haruka looked up and saw a figure leaning by the window.
It was a girl in a third-year uniform, and the most striking feature was her waist-length white hair.
Baichuan Youxi.
Haruka had known this person back when she was still Eitai, because that white hair was simply too memorable.
It’s not unusual for entertainers to dye their hair, but her white hair wasn’t a dyed gimmick; it was due to albinism, an abnormal pigmentation synthesis she was born with.
Compared to traditionally dyed white hair, her white hair seemed a bit more “fragile.”
In the world of 2D, the white-haired attribute usually carries multiple beautiful images, such as coldness, mystery, and the unknown, and is often bound with traits like the emotionless kuudere.
After all, white itself implies purity and blankness.
In recent years, white-haired characters have also been linked to high combat power, like a certain powerful mentor who went from a 5 to a 2.5.
But 2D is 2D, reality is reality.
It’s like how you can see pink-haired characters with various attributes in anime, but in reality almost no one would actively dye their hair that color.
In the idol industry, which pursues perfection and has very low tolerance for error, albinism is a huge disadvantage.
Haruka had known about this person as early as two or three years ago.
Although she wasn’t a die-hard fan of Youxi, she had heard her songs on various music variety shows and stage fancams.
She was a genuine singer with a versatile voice, diverse musical style, solid singing skills, and was a powerhouse who stood firm in the industry through sheer strength.
But what left a deeper impression on her was the rumor that had been stirring up the internet two months ago: “Baichuan Youxi is suspected of being in poor mental state and is about to announce her retirement.”
“Senior Youxi?”
Haruka stopped in her tracks, putting on an obedient smile.
“You’re back to school? How’s your health?”
Baichuan Youxi walked up to her, took a can of hot canned black tea from her bag, and gently pressed it against Haruka’s cheek.
“Here, I just bought it from the vending machine. It’s cold outside, warm your hands.”
“Thank you, senior!”
Haruka took it without hesitation, feeling the warmth in her palms.
She began to seriously look at this soft-spoken white-haired senior for the first time.
The saying “the real person is prettier than the photos” was no exaggeration.
Moreover, Youxi’s white hair looked as smooth and natural as wind, with no sense of discordance in color.
It didn’t look dyed, nor did it have that lifeless “withered” feeling associated with the stereotype of albinism.
Haruka silently marveled.
‘No wonder she’s called the “Snow Princess” of the industry. This kind of fragile gentleness, combined with that white hair, is really impactful.’
“Do you have time to take a walk with me?”
“Ah… of course.”
Haruka wanted to make an excuse to refuse, but her body instinct jumped ahead and she blurted out an agreement.
She didn’t know if the senior’s seemingly ordinary words carried some undeniable magic, or if she was being unilaterally suppressed by this “great senior.”
‘I’m begging you, please let me go! I really don’t know you! I can fool others, but you clearly aren’t easy to fool. What if I slip up!’
Haruka followed her nervously, and the two walked side by side to a sheltered bench outside the teaching building and sat down.
Youxi held her own can of hot coffee with both hands, staring blankly at the bottle.
Haruka sat beside her like a student who had done something wrong, not daring to breathe.
After a long silence, the senior finally spoke slowly.
“Haruka, I might… be quitting the entertainment industry.”
Haruka’s mouth slightly opened.
Although as a former experienced netizen she had already seen this scandal, hearing it from the person herself was still a bit surprising.
“Because… of those rumors online?”
Haruka asked tentatively.
She remembered something that happened half a year ago.
Malicious haters had spread rumors online, saying that Baichuan Youxi’s white hair and pale skin weren’t due to genetics at all, because normal albinism didn’t look like that, but rather some terrible contagious disease.
That article was viciously worded, the evidence it presented looked quite credible, and it was meticulously analyzed.
In addition, Youxi was in the ascending phase of her career, so there was likely a competing company pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Thus that seemingly absurd smear post received a huge number of retweets.
During that time, she endured extremely vicious cyberbullying.
“Of course not.”
Youxi shook her head.
“Or rather, I’ve already gotten through the worst of the rumors long ago. I’m not as fragile as you think.”
“…”
‘Why does that sound so ominous?’
She raised her head, staring vacantly at the withered tree in the distance.
“At that time, an investor at the company gave me a lot of support. He helped me suppress news, find lawyers to issue statements, and often sent messages to encourage me.”
“I thought… he was different. I thought, he saw the real me underneath the white hair.”
Youxi’s voice began to tremble slightly.
“I couldn’t help admiring him, and even thought he liked me too. It wasn’t until yesterday that I learned he did all of this only because his sweetheart—my other stage partner—was affected by my scandal. Everything he did was just to protect his girl from being impacted.”
“And I was just a shield that got protected incidentally.”
After hearing this, Haruka gasped inwardly.
If this were in an anime, this would be a textbook “loser heroine” archetype—gentle, strong, silently devoted, only to realize in the end that she’s just a tool clown.
A song titled “Unrequited Love” had already started playing on a loop in her mind.
At that moment, Youxi’s tears were already starting to well up in her eyes.
This reliable senior who had just said “I’m not that fragile” a moment ago had turned into a heartbroken girl crying over a few emotional matters in the next.
Haruka couldn’t help but associate her with a certain red-haired lady who liked wearing a hat.
If it were the simple Hoshino Haruka from before, she would probably just hug the senior and cry together, then shout “Senior, don’t go.”
But sitting here now was a kind of “battle-hardened, seen it all” love strategist with top-tier theoretical knowledge but zero practical experience.
“Senior Youxi.”
Haruka put away her junior’s obedience, and her tone became unprecedentedly serious.
Youxi was stunned for a moment, then turned to look at her.
“Does it really matter that much whether that investor likes you or not?”
“……Huh?”