Ch 39

POV Haruto Nishikawa

"You sing next Nishikawa."

"Put in your song."

Looking at the scene before me I suddenly felt overwhelmed. If somebody came up to me last year and told me that I would have a day where I would enjoy karaoke with people who I could call friends I would have laughed… no…, ignored that person and continue to sit in the lonely corner. This was the second time I did something like this and I still couldn\'t shake off the impostor syndrome I was feeling.

"Nishikawa kun are you ok?" Hiwari san\'s sweet voice from beside me woke me up from my reverie.

"Huh? Oh yeah. I just spaced out for a second. Give me the tablet, I will enter my songs."

When did my life change from grey to pink? The faces of two people flashed in my mind. If it wasn\'t for Makoto kun for helping me out initially I am sure I would have never broken out of my shell, and… if it wasn\'t for Hiwari san, I would never want to come out of the shell.

I turned to look at Hiwari san dancing to the music while singing.

As I was enraptured by her movements a voice sounded out from beside me.

"So when are you going to confess to her?"

"Makoto kun! Not here."

I looked around nervously to see if anybody heard us talking.

"What if others heard it?"

When I said that I only got a weird look him. Just as I was about to ask him what he meant Hiwari san\'s song ended."

"Nishikawa kun your turn."

"Ah yes." I hurriedly got up and took the microphone from her hands.

As I sang the nervousness and the feeling of being out of place slowly disappeared. This was the second time I had come to the karaoke with friends but the experiences were wildly different. I remembered the things that had happened last time. It wasn\'t that long ago but it felt like it happened ages ago. Maybe it was because I did so many things I would never have even dreamed of before. However, although I was singing Makoto kun\'s question was echoing in the back of my head.

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POV Shinji Makoto

Nishikawa\'s voice is pretty decent. In fact, if you think about it his face is also decent. The problem is his hair. If he styles it he will look pretty handsome. Is this a buff given to the protagonists?

Just then my trait started tingling and an interesting piece of conversation made its way into my ears.

"Akari do want to go next?"

"Ah, I will sing after I finish this drink, the rest of the people can sing first."

"But you said this before as well."

Nakano was using her trait to suppress the logical reasoning of the other party to see through her excuses. Obviously, I would notice such weird behaviour. A very funny idea popped up in my mind.

Tch, Tch, Tch Nakano. How can you not sing on your friend\'s birthday?

"It\'s just a drink Nakano. You can drink it after singing as well."

Just as I said that I felt the stare of a top predator eyeing his next prey. Thankfully, I was not alone here.

"That\'s right Akari you can drink that later, a few minutes won\'t make a difference."

Akari looked at Hiwari san with an anguished expressions before she sighed and reluctantly accepted.

"Alright, but first let me go the to-" Before she could complete her sentence she was interrupted by me.

"Don\'t worry about not having a good singing voice Nakano, in fact let us sing a duet. We can compare our scores with Tsukumo san and Suzuki kun."

Nakano, Nakano. Do you think I am an elementary school student? If a book of excuses exists, then going to the toilet has to be the first one in that. Thinking you can weasel your way out of singing in front of me with such direct, one faced excuses is nothing more than a fantasy.

This suggestion was then solidified further when Tsukumo san also chimed in after me.

"Yeah, that\'s a great idea. Let\'s do that Akari."

Although, I don\'t know if she did this because she knows the things between me and Nakano and wanted to assist us, or if she genuinely wants to compete.

At this moment I could feel the anger in the aura surrounding her. And all of it was all directed towards me.

Of course, I had my own selfish reasons for doing this as well. I was following the very popular saying that probably every slightly emo kid knows, which is, the opposite of love is not hate but indifference. As long as I made her feel something towards me, even if it was anger would be a good step. Slowly I had to turn the anger into annoyance, and the annoyance into embarrassment.

However suddenly Nakano\'s aura underwent a drastic change and cooled down, leaving me confused.

"Fine. Give me the tablet. I will select the song." The smile Nakano sent towards me gave me a great sense of foreboding.

Her words played again in slow motion in my mind as I realized their implication.

"Sto-" I tried to stop her but she had already tapped the buttons. I was a second too late.

The words on the screen of the tablet made my soul shudder with cringe and embarrassment.

|Next Song| Utauyo!! MIRACLE by Houkago Tea Time (K-ON anime op)|

Not like this. I can\'t lose like this.

But no matter how much I tried to think of a way out there was just none present.

While the five stages of grief were passing through my face Nakano was looking at me with a happy smiling face. What the others saw was a beautiful girl smiling, but what I saw was the face of a suicide bomber seconds before detonating the explosive.

Just then Nishikawa\'s song ended and the mike was handed the both of us.

"Sigh."

Me and Nakano looked at each other one last time before jumping off the edge of the cliff.

""Minna ga daisuki!!

enen zokkou  RURARA Miracle Sing Time

utatte  utatte…""

.

"Huff. Huff…"

I was slumped in the chair with Nakano.

My life is over. This is probably the most traumatizing thing that has happened to me in the last decade. The only thing I am grateful for is that I was not alone.

The damage from this scenario didn\'t come from the outside, but it came from within, from my own subconscious. Singing this song didn\'t change the way the others looked at me. Hell, it didn\'t even change the mood of the current party. I mean to the others I only sang a cheesy, bog-standard anime song. In fact nobody felt anything and continued on the singing, which I was really thankful for. What this singing experience did do however was create a nightmare.

I am sure the next time I am sleeping all snug and cozy the memory of singing the K ON opening in public will wake me up in cold sweat. And it the thing that makes it the worst is that it wouldn\'t be so damaging to my psyche if I was indifferent to K ON but the reality is that I actually like it a lot. Unknowingly Nakano had hit me with greater damage than she expected.

To be honest, the rest of the time I was at the Karaoke bar was a blur. I might have eaten some sort of cake and maybe drank some sort of off brand cola. I don\'t even remember who was the winner of the singing competition between me and Nakano, and Tsukumo san and Suzuki kun. Even my absolute perception stopped working.

The next time when I felt aware of my surroundings all of us were walking together to the arcade. It was probably the cold evening winds that swept across my face and jolted me awake. I looked beside me only to see Nakano also making a \'dead inside\' face.

Some bits and pieces of memories floated in my mind. Slowly, I realized why she didn\'t want to sing.

"Pfft." I couldn\'t hold back my laugh. We were a few meters behind the rest of the group so they weren\'t able to hear it but the person beside me definitely did.

Maybe that was a bad move because that made Nakano turn towards me and smile ominously.

Not again. I felt the dread in my heart resurface as I remembered what happened just now. However, I realized just cowering in front of her would be a bad move. She has permanent blackmail material to use against me at anytime. What I need to do now is show my hand as well.

"Nakano, don\'t worry. I won\'t tell anyone how bad you sing. Also, you don\'t need to worry about the other guys, your voice was definitely masked by mine."

Two can play at this game Nakano. Let\'s see who breaks first.

"The next time you pull shit like this you should be aware of the consequences." Her blank gaze made a shiver run down my spine.

"I will definitely be." I mumbled to myself.

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