Translator: White Lotus
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Following two months of voting, the magazine published a list of the 50 candidates who would move on to the final round, and Kiyoi was listed as placing in the top 10, ranking 8th.
“Eh, Kiyoi. Why aren’t you going today?”
On Saturday after school, Kiyoi had turned down Shirota’s invitation to hang out.
“Wait. Today, it’s my girlfriend’s friends, not I, who are inviting you.”
“Don’t bring that up at the last minute. I’m busy today.”
“No, wait, please. Even if it’s just for a little while, it’s fine. My girlfriend’s senior is the one who wants to meet you. If you canceled at the last minute, it would make her look bad. And I’ll lose my face too.”
Shirota begged, and Kiyoi seemed bored as he tilted his head.
“Then, change the date. Next week or something.”
“Okay! Okay! I’ll ask, hold on a minute.”
Shirota made a phone call to his girlfriend.
“It’s me. It’s about today. Sorry, he can’t make it today.”
As Hira was close to Shirota, he overheard the girl’s voice asking, “En, why?” on the other end of the phone. Shirota apologized, then offered to change it to next week and asked whether she would be okay with it. One of his girlfriend’s seniors who were nearby must have taken over the phone, because Shirota suddenly started speaking more formally.
“Ah, I’m really sorry. Kiyoi? Yes, he’s here. Please wait a minute.”
Saying that, Shirota handed the phone to Kiyoi.
“Kiyoi, talk to her.”
“Why?”
“Just say sorry for having to cancel today’s appointment.”
In a split second, Kiyoi’s eyes turned icy. Hira anticipated the worst because he had a bad feeling about the situation.
“Why should I apologize to some woman I don’t even know?”
When he noticed that Kiyoi seemed to be annoyed, Shirota hastily began to behave in a modest manner.
“Ah, no, it’s just for appearances.”
“I don’t want to! She’s the one who wants to meet me, doesn’t she? I truly don’t care if we don’t meet. If she has a problem with it, then she can get angry all she wants.”
After saying everything bluntly, Kiyoi walked through the turnstile at the station.
As Hira watched Kiyoi’s merciless back recede into the distance, he heard a sigh from behind him. When he turned around, he sensed an inevitable awkwardness permeating the atmosphere. While still holding his phone in his hand, Shirota muttered with a grimace, “She hung up on me.” She must have overheard the conversation just now. Served him right.
“That sucks. I’ve got a bad image now.”
“Momo-chan has very high self-esteem. She might dump you.”
The word “might” shouldn’t be used there. He deserved to be dumped. Hira had only met her once. Momo-chan was a cute, natural girl, and when they were next to one another, Shirota seemed inferior to her.
“By the way, what Kiyoi did just now wasn’t cool.”
Shirota scratched his neck as his head was crestfallen. An aura of dissatisfaction emanated from his body.
“Lately, he hasn’t been hanging out with us anymore. I wonder whether it’s because of that.”
Miki chuckled, seemingly gauging Shirota’s reaction.
“What’s “that”?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“As he’s almost a celebrity, he’s acting like ‘I’m different from you guys’.”
Miki spoke while sporting a smug expression. He gave the impression that he would be able to swiftly brush off his remarks as a joke if Shirota refuted what he had said by asserting that it was not like that. While Hira thought Miki was similar to a chameleon, Shirota concurred without hesitation, “There might be some truth to it. He hardly ever hangs out with us anymore. And it’s irritating that he constantly claims to be busy without bothering to explain why. He’s becoming more arrogant.”
“Even though he’s only number 8,” Miki added, and Shirota and the others appeared to concur as they exchanged sour looks.
“That’s right! Even though the top 10 advanced to the final, ranking in 8th place won’t help him win the Grand Prix.”
“Well, I admit that he’s pretty cool. But does everyone in the country think so? I doubt it.”
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Not only did it irritate him, but he also had an inconceivable feeling right now.
According to the proverb “The nail that stands out gets hammered down,” the more attention you garner, the more criticism you’ll receive. Hira was aware of the reality of the situation, but to him, Kiyoi was a special existence that was exempt from such low-level disputes. He then abruptly realized that he was one of those embarrassing individuals. Regardless of how he normally behaved, he also became a complete moron when it came to Kiyoi-related matters. Hira finally understood what the saying meant: “Love makes people blind.”
After parting with Shirota and the others, Hira decided to roam the streets with his camera in hand for the first time in a while.
Hira liked the serenity of the landscapes where humans have been erased from the scenarios that were created by them. A mother pushing a pram. An office worker in a suit. A pair of university students. A lovely elderly couple. With the sole purpose of erasing them later, he focused the camera on each of them. While continuing to press the shutter button despite realizing it was weird, something in the periphery of his field of vision abruptly attracted his attention.
Kiyoi?
He saw Kiyoi entering a multi-tenant building a little ahead, and without thinking, he followed. The first three floors of the building were occupied by karaoke bars. Was going to karaoke relevant to his business? Thinking about how Kiyoi didn’t need to hide it, the entrance elevator, which Hira was casually staring at, came to a stop on the 5th floor. It had to be Kiyoi inside because he had just entered moments earlier. The 5th floor was designated with the name ‘AR’.
What store will that be? A cafe?
Hira tilted his head, suddenly wondering whether it was a date. It would make sense if Kiyoi wanted to keep it secret from others that he was going on a date with his girlfriend. Given the current situation, the news that he had a girlfriend was guaranteed to cause a huge stir.
His chest tightened. What kind of girl, if that were the case, would she be? Hira wondered. Someone pretty or exceptionally cute. Furthermore, he would be heartbroken regardless of which of the two she was. Despite how painful it was, he still wanted to learn more about this girl.
As if under some sort of enchantment, Hira raised his hand to press the elevator button. He entered the small box that came down smoothly, and went up to the 5th floor. As he stepped out carefully, he saw that the floor was brightly lit and filled with up-tempo music. It….. didn’t look like a cafe.
“Hello.”
Hira was startled and took a step back. Right next to the elevator was the reception, and behind it, there was a lady wearing a polo shirt, smiling.
“Ah, um, I…”
“Have you come to watch?”
She took a pamphlet from the counter and handed it to Hira, who was acting strangely.
“Did someone recommend our dance studio to you?”
Dance studio?
As he shook his head, she began to explain. She told him what the classes were like, the prices, and also asked if he would like to take a trial class, which made Hira shake his head much harder than before.
“Then I’ll show you around the studio.”
“Ah, n-no, um, I… Can I take a look at it by myself?”
Noting Hira’s evident shy demeanor, the lady nodded with a smile. He bowed his head slightly to express his gratitude to her before nervously walking down the corridor.
On one side of the hallway, there were only classrooms with large windows. Hira wondered if Kiyoi was here. In order to avoid being seen, Hira cautiously peered inside the nearest classroom through the window and saw a group of elementary school-aged children dancing. The way they jumped made him think of popcorn. They were pretty good considering how young they were. However, Kiyoi wasn’t among them.
He glanced at the next classroom, where it seemed that the class had just started. There appeared to be high school or university students. An instructor was explaining the movements to the students while standing in front of the large mirror on the other wall. He spotted Kiyoi right away. He was positioned in the corner of the room.
When the lesson finally began after several repetitions of the moves, Hira couldn’t help but stare in awe, widening his eyes. He thought those kids were good, but this was on a completely different level. Never in a million years did he imagine that anyone was capable of moving in that way. They all seemed to be boneless, which made it a little scary to watch.
Kiyoi was dancing superbly as well. It was difficult to determine whether Hira couldn’t stop staring at Kiyoi because he liked him, or if it was simply because he was so amazing. Hira glued himself to the glass window as if he was going to devour it. This one was totally different from Kiyoi, who would constantly appear to be lazy during gym class and put little effort into anything. His whole face was glistening with sweat.
Hira was so engrossed in looking at him that he forgot to hide. Kiyoi appeared suddenly right in front of his eyes on the other side of the window, and it wasn’t until he knocked on the glass from that side that Hira regained consciousness.
“……Oh!”
His heartbeat froze. He had been discovered. Kiyoi, through the glass, said something to the paralyzed Hira. He couldn’t grasp it. While looking at Hira’s pale face, Kiyoi slowly formed the words with his mouth: “Wait right there!”
Kiyoi pointed to a bench in the corridor on the other side of the glass.
In an hour and a half or so, the dance class was over, and Kiyoi, who had showered and changed, invited Hira to a nearby restaurant. Unlike Hira, who was agitated with this moment alone as this was his second time being alone with Kiyoi since the fireworks event, Kiyoi asked for the menu as soon as he sat down, saying he was hungry. Kiyoi asked Hira what he would like, Hira ended up ordering some pasta as his head was full of nervousness.
“Aquarius,” Kiyoi murmured briefly. Upon understanding, Hira quickly rushed to the beverage counter. When he returned, he brought a ginger ale along with the aquarius, which surprised Kiyoi.
“As you were training, I thought you might be thirsty.”
Also, Kiyoi always ordered ginger ale.
“Sorry. If you don’t want to, I’ll drink it.”
“It’s okay, thanks.”
Curtly responding, Kiyoi drank half of the ginger ale after gulping down the aquarius with gusto. He really was thirsty, Hira thought as he exhaled a sigh of relief. Moreover, Kiyoi said “thanks” to him. Hira was thrilled to the point that his body temperature rapidly increased a few degrees because it was the first time Kiyoi had ever expressed gratitude to him.
While staring out the window, Kiyoi had his face resting on his palm. Hira pondered whether he should strike up a conversation. But could someone from the bottom of the pyramid like him say something interesting? Hira could imagine that he would likely end up babbling nonsense, and Kiyoi would be annoyed, so he decided to drink his orange juice while remaining silent.
“Why were you there?”
Hira’s heart sank when Kiyoi suddenly got into the main subject. Ah, it turned out that he had actually invited Hira to interrogate him about this. Nevertheless, that was obvious. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed suspicious that someone like Hira, who had nothing to do with dancing, was glued to the window staring at him. Or rather, it should be said that it was gross.
“I-I-I-I ju-I just….”
Hira was unable to make excuses because of his dysphemia, which always occurred at such times.
I just happened to see you.
He truly was a useless and trashy person who had difficulty using such simple words. Kiyoi was staring at him. How embarrassing. Hira’s face was so hot it felt like it was burning. Don’t stutter, please don’t stutter. Just this once.
“How annoying! All right, you can speak calmly. I’m waiting right here.”
Kiyoi clicked his tongue before leaning back in his chair, and then began scrolling through his phone. Hira was dumbfounded.
What was that? It seemed like he had been saved by Kiyoi’s usual arrogant manner.
That strangely kind response, “All right, you can speak calmly,” filled with a sense of discrimination, made Hira sad. On the other hand, if he came across someone who blatantly responded, “Oh, forget it,” while waving their hand as if they were shooing a dog, it would also hurt him.
“Okay, so how the hell do you want them to treat you?” Even after having such an inner monologue, he didn’t know the answer. Hira was devastated by the realization of his own selfishness at this point. In the end, he wore himself out, wondering, “Why can’t I be normal?” and ended up going back to the beginning of the problem.
Nevertheless, Kiyoi was like no other. He simply said, “How annoying” with his self-centered attitude and clicked his tongue at the vulnerable Hira. Then he arrogantly leaned back in his chair with his legs crossed, and began to scroll on his phone. Kiyoi was just being himself. When Hira thought that Kiyoi would likely behave in this manner with anyone, even if it wasn’t Hira, he wanted to laugh because Hira knew that no matter what the situation, Kiyoi would always be Kiyoi. This was his ‘normal magnificent’.
“I just happened to see Kiyoi-kun, so I followed you.”
Those words that were stuck in his throat finally came out smoothly.
“So it means you stalked me.”
Receiving a glare from Kiyoi, Hira couldn’t help but wince. He managed to get rid of his stammer as he had desired, but all that was left was his own repulsive behavior. He really wished to explode and disappear right away.
“You…”
As Kiyoi was glaring at him, Hira involuntarily ended up shrinking his torso.
“What exactly do you want from me?”
“W- what do you mean?”
“At the fireworks event, you also said something gross. That I was beautiful and all.”
“You’re not gross! Kiyoi-kun is beautiful.”
At least that’s the only thing he said with conviction.
“Not me! I’m saying you’re gross!”
“Ah, I see.”
He finally understood. But that was obvious. After all, Kiyoi was beautiful in anyone’s eyes.
“Sorry. Yeah, I’m gross. Kiyoi-kun is beautiful.”
“I already told you it’s not about that… Alright, that’s enough!”
In the middle of the conversation, Kiyoi leaned back in his chair as if he had given up.
“I get annoyed every time I talk to you.”
“I also agree with you.”
When Hira nodded sincerely in acknowledgement, Kiyoi looked at Hira with even more disgust. When Kiyoi said, “That’s enough,” it meant Kiyoi had already determined that Hira was following him anyway. Hira was now considered a stalker. As he thought about what he’d done, there was no way he could deny it.
Hira was sitting across from Kiyoi looking a bit like an abandoned puppy, at which point the food was brought in. Kiyoi placed an order for a hamburger stuffed with cheese. Hira ordered a dish of pasta with white sauce. Without even saying “itadakimasu“, Kiyoi picked up the silverware. His way of eating didn’t match his handsome face; he was like a typical high school student who stuffed everything into his mouth at once.
As he was watching the food on the table gradually dwindle, Hira was in agony. Given that he had already finished questioning him, it appeared like Kiyoi would leave straight away after he finished his food. But Hira just wished this magical moment could last a little while longer.
“Um, I was surprised at how well you dance. It looked like you had springs in your feet. I had no idea you like dancing, Kiyoi-kun. After all, you always seem sluggish during P.E.”
“It’s not that I like it.”
Kiyoi replied without looking up.
“Ah, so it’s for the contest?”
In the final round of the contest, there was a segment called “free performance” in which contestants had to demonstrate something they were skilled at. This time, Kiyoi lifted his face from his food and fixed his eyes on Hira.
“Don’t tell others!”
Hira responded with another question, “Huh?”
“About my dance classes.”
“………Oh.”
Suddenly, Hira realized something and hurriedly nodded in agreement. It turned out that Kiyoi had invited him to have something to eat so he could say that. In front of the others in the class, Kiyoi was acting like he had no interest in the contest, but in reality he was actually trying hard and didn’t want others to know about it.
“I won’t tell!”
Hira nodded his head as he agreed.
“I won’t say anything even if my mouth rips.”
Kiyoi looked at him.
“What if someone threatened to kill you if you don’t say it?”
“Then I would rather be dead.”
Hira answered without even a moment’s hesitation. The words spoken by him neither hitched nor trembled.
This was the first time he had looked at someone so directly. His heart was pounding, and his arteries near his temples were pulsating. As he stared at Kiyoi, he could feel his blood circulating throughout his body. He had the impression that each cell in his body was gradually coming to life.
Kiyoi looked at him with a disgusted expression. Perhaps he was amazed at Hira’s actions. But that was fine. His face with the expression of disgust was also very beautiful. Kiyoi then simply said to Hira, who was watching him full of admiration, “Gross.”
My king is cruel, but he is also more beautiful than anyone else.
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Thank you for the chapter!
Thanks for reading ❤️
Thank you for the chapter 😍
thank you for the chapter❤️❤️
“then I would rather be dead.”
Ahhhhhhhh this was the one line in the drama that was just like a coin dropped into a still lake causing massive ripple effects’. Adhabekjnan the effect it had on meeeee. I love it so much!!
😆😩
Thank you for the chaptef! ❤️
Kiyoi is gonna get kidney stones if he doesn’t start drinking water lol. Thanks for the translation!
I’m hooked!!!! The glorification of the MC is wow.