Bab 47: No Matter How I Look at it, it's You Guys' Fault I'm Popular
With the culture festival approaching quickly, everyone was putting in more work than usual. Especially Arata, though doing more than zero was a low standard to pass.
As he finished up his work, he saw Misao walking with a stack of papers. Out of nowhere, Akiba came running through. The pages went flying from their collision.
"I'm so sorry, Misao!" She said, not stopping her run. "I've got somewhere important to be right now…" Her voice trailed off. He sighed, and walked over to help Misao pick up the papers.
"Such a clumsy girl." She complained to him. "I swear she has two left feet."
"Yeah…" He replied, believing that this was not the case. "So… Did you just help Misei spend more time with Yogi?"
"Yeah, how did you know that?" Just minutes ago, she had just assigned the two to take care of some gym equipment. More accurately, she laid a trap to get them stuck together, until she got around to saving them.
"Just a lucky guess." he answered. So he knew that wasn't just some accident, but what else could he do? With the pair working on this, all of the paperwork had been taken care of. "You know, we're rivals. So I gotta keep tabs on you."
"Thanks" She was about to walk away, until he stopped her.
"What exactly is all this for?" He still had one part of it. The page had the names of many students on it, like credits for a production.
"I'm sure you already know about the play, right?" He remembered talking about that with Yogi and Yurime. "If you're interested, then you can come with me. I've got to deliver these to the director." He wasn't personally interested, but he knew that a certain someone was going to be. Especially if a certain other boy was going to be a part of it.
"Yeah." He followed her to the place where the play was going to be performed. Arata had never been there before, the stage was massive. It made him feel very small.
"Do you two know where the director is?" Misao asked a pair of girls sitting around. At first, he was thinking that it would be a teacher. Then he realized that this play had to be done without the help of adults. So who was willing to take on such an important job like this at his age?
They were told that the director should still be backstage. So the two went and looked for them. They didn't see anyone at first, so they split up to shorten the search time.
"H-hello? Director?" As he was calling out, he realized that he should've asked for the name. At least then the person might respond. "We had some things for you." He yelled out. Maybe Misao had better luck then him.
Then, a shuffling sound caught his attention. Perhaps it was the person he was looking for?
"Was that you? Come on, this is important business..." He moved towards where he was certain the sound came from. "We're here to-"
"Boo!" A demon jumped out and grabbed him.
"Ahh!" He screamed in fear, believing this was the end for him. Arata was ready to accept death, until he started to hear laughter.
"Hahaha." It was a person wearing an oni mask. They took it off to reveal a girl, except she looked younger than him. Like a first year. "I totally got you."
"Oh real funny." He responded sarcastically. "I don't have time for pranks, can you tell me where the director is?"
"Funny you should say that." She took a proud stance. "Because you're looking at her." This girl standing here, her green hair done in pigtails. The way her uniform was too big for her.
Not paying attention, she accidentally knocked the switch for the large fan next to them. It blew a large of gust of wind, her skirt flew up. He caught a look at her panties… Those panties with a teddy bear image on them…
It was difficult, but he was able to shut down the device. Letting them get back to their conversation.
"What are you doing here?" He said in an accusing manner. With everything he had seen with this girl. There was no way she was even a first year at this school. "I don't have time to play games."
"I already told you. I'm the director." She pouted at him. In fact, I'll prove it. You're Arata Kashimura." She said, not as a question, more as a statement.
"How do you know who I am?" He asked her.
"Because, you're the understudy for Demetrius."
"Who?" Hold on, did she say understudy? That means he had a role in this play. "Wait, how could you know what I'm playing as. More importantly, how come I haven't heard of that?"
"Because I'm the director." She claimed again.
"How about we just go find Misao." He knew that she had to know who the director was. They returned to the main stage, where Misao was waiting for them. She had finished her assigned half and was hoping that he had found the director.
"There you are." She said to the girl. Turned out that she wasn't pulling a fast one on him.
"So I guess you really are the director." He admitted defeat to her.
"Ha. Told you so." She rubbed it in.
"Hm? What would make you think that she wasn't?" Misao asked.
"I thought this was a production that only second years could work on." He explained. "She's a first year, right?"
"That's your problem?" She replied in irritation. "I'll have you know I skipped a grade." Since Misao wasn't arguing it, it must've been true.
"All right then. I believe you." He had more important questions to ask with that out of the way. "What's your name? And how do you already know who I am?" She smirked, before taking another funny looking pose to look cool.
"I'm the great Ichiri Susaki! You're looking at the world's next famous director." He stared at her in disbelief. He was starting to doubt if this girl was even middle school age with how she was acting.
"Sure…" He simply replied. "Maybe you might want to tell me about this whole understudy deal."
"Ah, well we don't have any time to do silly things like auditions or casting calls." She told him. "So I've already taken the honor of giving the roles to people that I know will knock out these parts."
"She can do that?" He asked Misao.
"Well, as long as she follows the rule of taking students from every class. It's allowed." She sighed, this was hardly the professional thing to do in her eyes.
"Don't worry. I'd never do anything to ruin this production." Ichiri said. "I know everyone I've chosen is perfect for what I've assigned to them."
"You say that, but then why am I an understudy?"
"Well I'd say you would be pretty good for the role." She misunderstood that he was wondering why he was even a part of this. Not that he wanted to play a main role. "After all, the way you dazzled the dance floor that day." She paused into a daydream. Remembering the May Dance, she had never been so moved in her life.
"Not that again." He swore, all the things he had to do with this gang was already affecting his school reputation in ways he never expected.
"But, I've already put Akiba Shinshiro as Helena. Then I remember that you two have no chemistry." He thought to himself, how poorly they danced together. She was stepping on his feet on purpose. "So I put Yogi Aono instead, he was my second choice anyway."
"Um, for someone that doesn't know this play. What does that mean exactly?" He asked. Whoever these two characters were, the only thing he knew was that they apparently shared screen time together.
"You don't know?" She acted disappointed in him. "Helena is in love with Demetrius. But he's already in love with another. After some mischief in the forest, where the story mainly takes place in. He changes his love to her instead."
"I see, so that means those two become a couple then." This just had to be his luck with here.
"A bit of a shame." Said Misao. She made it sound like it was unfortunate that Arata missed out on Demetrius. However, he knew that her problem was that Yogi and Akiba were doing this together.
"Oh, but if I change my mind. I can always use the understudy for Helena if I decide that you're a better option." Ichiri looked like she was having fun with this. Too much fun for his liking.
"And who would that be?"
"It's Erina, silly." He was taken aback. That girl was just one person apart from being a pretend couple with Yogi? "After all, you two were the winners. Oh I bet the whole school would just fall in love with you two as a couple." The thought almost made him want to throw up.
"I guess that could be interesting." Misao looked over at him with a sly smile. He wished he could wipe it clean off.
"What we've got already is pretty interesting as is." He replied. With the way things were set up. He was not looking forward to what Erina was going to make him do.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone