And so the class had decided on what they were to create for this culture festival. A talent show done inside, where they'd gather contestants to showcase their skills in front of many students. All this spearheaded by Rinse as a celebrity judge. Meanwhile, Ishi had offered his services to be the other judge. After all, how could auditions be performed without that classic harsh judge.
"I'm surprised that you're helping out as much as you have." She said as they gathered around their desks after school. "I thought you weren't looking forward to the festival."
"You see, Ishi's the kind of boy to take responsibility." Otoya teased with the wording. The past couple of years, he didn't do anything special outside of attending. So this was all new to him.
"I was the one to come up with one of the ideas." Ishi explained himself. "And the talent show is because of me speaking up. So if it goes poorly, it's on me." Just like when he was one of the two people in charge of the field trip. The boy knew those students would direct their ire on him during any potential failures. This was a pain, and he wondered if he should've kept his big mouth shut on this one. Then again, arguing with people was just too hard for him to resist.
"And that's why I'm also here." Ryugi slammed her hand onto his desk in a show of dramatics. "You're always the fun killer, so there's no doubt you'll do something stupid when it comes up." So she positioned herself to be his caretaker as if he was an elderly person with memory issues.
"Speaking of being here." Ishi ignored the girl in front of him, for the one sitting besides him. "Rinse, don't you have to go to work?"
"Well, there's some time before I'm scheduled to arrive." Since there were some things to be done with the festival, she decided this was the best way to spend her short bit of free time. It was to his displeasure, as this most likely meant having to see her after school more often now.
"How are you so comfortable with her?" Ryugi complained. "The way you act, it's like you don't even know she's a celebrity."
"I'm comfortable with everyone, celebrity or not." He fought back. "Even you, why else do you think I call you by your nickname?"
"Actually, you two do seem to act really familiar with each other." Rinse believed to be strange. While they never seemed to interact causally in class, there was just something about the way they talked that showed years of history. "But you almost never talk to each other."
"Just like with Youna, I've spent all three years of my high school life with her as a classmate." He leaned back into his seat and sighed heavily. "Disappointingly."
"Don't think I've enjoyed it for a second either!" She yelled at him. "Doing that group project with you was absolute torture."
"Because I wasn't going to be forced to do all the work." He argued against her further as they got distracted as to why they were here in the first place. "It's a group project, so everyone better pull their own weight. Plus when you used to sit closer to me, it was really annoying to have to hear your friends all the time." A group of girl's giggling and laughing without a care of those around them was horrible for him. While he did leave his desk at times from their presence, it was a major inconvenience to do so.
"M-maybe the two of you…" Meekly, Youna tried to make her presence known. However, her quiet voiced mixed with their near shouting match made this a futile effort. "Should stop fighting and… Get back to work."
"Ah, will you look at the time." Rinse took a look at her phone and saw the time. She was out of it and now was the time for her to leave and head to work. "I'll see you all tomorrow, don't have too much fun-" She was interrupted as she was exiting the room. While turned to face them and bid her farewell, the girl ended up running into someone attempting to enter the classroom. "Ah, sorry about that Katagawa." It was Chinae, along with a couple other of her classmates.
"No problems." She responded as she brushed off the point of impact. "We're just here to have a meeting with all the third year classes." He could tell that she was disappointed that her friend was leaving for work, even if it was entirely expected. Was that the reason for her being here though? People knew that Chinae was the loner type so her appearance here was unexpected to him.
Accompanying her was Arigo Tomioka, who was the class rep of her classroom. Which was 3-2, while Ishi and the others were in class 3-1. There was also another girl, whose name was Saya Naruse. She didn't hold any important positions, but she had been friends with Arigo for years now. So he wasn't surprised to see her here.
"So Katagawa." Ishi spoke up as they came up to his group. "Did the teachers force you to do this?"
"Unfortunately." She responded. "But, I guess it can't be all that bad." Her lackluster tone would've indicated that to be a lie. However, he could sense that she had a hidden reason of wanting to see Rinse more often. Motivation like that could be viewed as negative, but Ishi did have a sliver of hope that this could provide the girl with some less destructive actions.
"I think it's quite nice of her to lend her services." Arigo had a bright tone. He was always one to take on any challenge, and a culture festival was no different. "Though I must say, I'm shocked to see the Ishi Hirose here. Everyone at school knows about how indifferent you are to… Well everything."
"Believe me, I don't care that much." He responded to the assumption. "I'm only here because one of my class's exhibits is my idea."
"Wow, so even Hirose wants to live his third year out with a bang." Saya commented.
"It's not that." He got irritated with all the assumptions by people that never talked to him. "And what, is there a rule that everyone that walks by me has to interact with me?" The whole loner life was practically impossible for him to live out. They make it so easy in anime, so how come he never got that luxury?
As more and more people entered the room, most of them being the reps of the other third year classrooms. Ishi was getting an idea for how serious people were taking their final culture festival. Of course they would care so much, but he wasn't expecting the tone of the meeting. A lot of it was directed at him with people really wanting him not to mess anything up.
That was annoying. They acted like he was really incompetent, or perhaps that had concerns that the boy would sabotage their plans. First off, he considered himself to be a perfectly capable young boy. More importantly, the idea that he would intentionally ruin things was absurd. People only thought that because he had gone on record about his apathy for the whole ordeal, but that never meant he outright hated the event.
"So, finally we're at class 3-1's talent show and game show." Arigo had the personality to lead the discussion. Considering the class hierarchy, it was probably supposed to be Youna doing so. Since she was at the 'top' when it came to all the representatives. "The talent show is self-explanatory, but the game show is going to be?"
"I haven't worked out all the details." Ishi explained. "But I was thinking of basing it off the popular game show. The one all our parents are watching." He couldn't ignore his family discussing it even if he tried. They even got Koto hooked on it during his short time here.
Now there are plenty of ridiculous ideas that make it to daytime television, so he was grateful that this one was pretty basic. It was one of those matchmaker games where either three girls to one boy, or vice versa, played a bit of blind dating where the winners get a date as a reward. Personally, he thought the things was stupid, as if that was love worked. So the boy believed he could do it better than the professionals.
A bit of an arrogant belief, but that pesky fact wasn't going to stop him.
"And have you at least determined how that would be set up? Or how contestants will be chosen?" Ishi did. He was simply going to rely on a vote of the students to pick out the contestants. Of course, they'd remain a secret to the students chosen and all he'd have to do was bring them there blindly with a few ways to maintain a way to hide their identities. There were no rules for eligibility, so anyone had a chance to win. Provided they were popular enough. For the maximum amount of fun, there would be two sets of games played. One with a single girl, and another with a single boy.
"That's great." Ryugi was ready to head home. And by head home, it was more like enjoy an evening out having fun with friends. "Looks like that's everything, so let's get wrapped up and we can get out of here."
"Ishi!" A faint yelling caught all of their attentions. Ishi!"
"Sounds like someone's calling for you." Arigo commented. "Can't say I recognize that voice though." Ishi, on the other hand, did know who owned that voice.
"There you are Ishi." Suddenly, Koto had slammed open the door to the classroom. "Please, save me." Pathetically, the young boy went down to his knees to beg.
"Are your classmates bullying you?" Ishi asked with little concern.
"It's worse than that." The fear on his face showed how truthful he was being. "The culture festival, they're making me play a role in it."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Arigo asked, as the rest of the third years watched this scene in disbelief. None of them know who Koto was, so they had no clue why Ishi was so familiar with him.
"But it's Romeo and Juliet." He had no control of his volume levels as he talked. "And they're making me play… Juliet."
"You did tell them you're a boy, right?" Ishi had to confirm. It was an easy mistake for anyone to make, and his cousin almost always forgot to mention it during important times.
"They know and they don't care."
"That's a boy?" Arigo asked, which prompted Saya to stomp on his foot in anger.
"Don't be so rude." She scolded him.
"Ah, there you are Koto." A new person made their arrival known. It was of a girl, though her sight gave even Ishi a little bit of a fright. She was taller than most of the boys here, and had a lot more muscles too. "Come on, we got to find a good dress for you to wear." With little effort, she picked up the boy and placed him over her shoulder.
"Um, who are you? And why should I let you steal my cousin?" Ishi asked. This girl towered over him, but her aura was soft. There was nothing to be afraid of, that's what he felt from her.
"Oh, I'm Seyuki Oizumi." She answered. This girl was one of Koto's classmates, which meant she was also a first year. "And you're looking at the Romeo of our school's play this year." She bragged as she carried the boy out of the classroom.
"Wait, please. Ishi, save me…" Koto's voice got quieter the further he was from them. Everyone else in the room was too stunned into silence by this display to utter a single word. Meanwhile, Ishi got up from his seat.
"Anyway, I'm going home." He said as he got his bag from the hook. Even he was shook by this display, but that girl was genuine and he had no worries about his young cousin's health. "I'll see you all… Tomorrow."