"You can't honestly expect me to sing." Ishi was adamant about not wanting to take the stage, or in this case, step in front of all of them. "I already told you all that I don't, so stop trying to force me."
"If you're worried about us making fun of you, I promise I won't." Rinse tried to convince him anyway.
"Can't make any promises here." Chinae was a lot less encouraging. "If you stink, I'll make sure you know about it."
"Come on, please." Otoya pushed the microphone into his face. "Just one song, then I'll never ask again." This peer pressure was irritating him. Though it was nothing new, since that was what he came to expect from those of his own age. Things weren't all the different than his own parents desiring him to express himself even more, but at least he could chalk that up to them trying to parent him.
"I already told you, n-"
"We heard that you were all here." Suddenly, a pair of boys opened their door without bothering to knock. Of course it seemed that they were here because of Rinse's appearance, which made her attempts to not give her position away useless.
"Look, this is supposed to be a date." Ishi spoke first. It was already bad enough that his so-called friends were trying to make him do something he didn't want to do. Now he was upset with these two students interrupting him. "So can you just leave us alone?"
"Well, we wanted to ask you if all of you wanted to join the rest of the students in the main room." It should be noted that this karaoke bar was more than just the simple, multiple private rooms setup that most people were used to. There was also a large public space with a stage at its center.
"Normally, I'd tell you all off for trying to, yet again, set things up to have Rinse sing." He responded, not even making note of the girl herself who was the subject of this conversation to speak up. "But since this is a chance for me to avoid having to do something stupid, I'm cool with coming."
"I was already going to accept." Rinse finally said something. "Of course, If that's fine with my date here." Otoya unsurprisingly accepted. Even if he was supposed to be on a date with one girl, it would be a lot of fun share some joy with their fellow classmates.
"Fine, let's go then." Ishi got up, more than ready to leave and move on from their pressuring. As he prepared to walk out, he took Chinae's hand to lead the girl out of the room. This was a surprise to her, which made them take a momentary pause. "Is something wrong?" He asked as the other pair left the room.
"Sorry, I just wasn't expecting you to do that." She replied. "You're not really the type to hold another girl's hand." An odd response from her, seeing as she already made her own move eariler.
"Well, we're on a date, right? So we gotta play the part." He turned her words from before around on her.
"Right." She giggled, finally standing up. "Well then, lead the way." They walked out of the room together to meet up with everyone else in the main room. Ishi took note of the difference of her grip compared to before. This one felt a lot better, like she was holding his hand back, rather than forcing it. That was odd, what changed in the few minutes between them?
Eventually, they reached their destination. It seemed that unknown to them, there was a real party going on with a lot of the students from their high school. Unsurprisingly, this was all led by one girl.
"Wow, what a total surprise. I didn't know you guys were here." Ryugi greeted them as they arrived. She was the one that thought this would make for some good weekend fun and invited everyone online and in their class. "That great, the more the merrier."
"It feels like we should be working on our school work instead of wasting time partying." He might have been a little hypocritical about this, seeing as he came here as well due to the date. Though since he was aware of his plans, at least the boy took care of all his homework already, unlike everyone else here.
"Gosh, don't be such a partypooper. We got to have some fun while we're still young."
"Speaking of we, it looks like you didn't invite Youna." From his scan of the room as they came in, it was obvious to him that their class rep wasn't here.
"You can tell? Wow, but she's so unassuming." Ryugi was both impressed and a little frightened that he took note of that absence. "Except I did try to invite her. In person even." Though when she tried, it seemed that the girl was upset about something. So she believed that she wasn't feeling well and wasn't going to arrive.
That didn't sound good to Ishi. If Youna knew he was going to be here, then the girl might've accepted the invitation. She was incredibly shy, that much he knew, so she would want to not be alone with people who weren't her friends.
"She'll probably change her mind if she knew me, Rinse and Otoya were here." He took out his phone to shoot out a message to the girl.
"Gosh, you're really into the class rep, aren't you?" Ryugi giggled, trying to tease him. "And you're even doing it in front of your own date."
"If I'm being honest, Youna was my first date choice." He answered. "But Rinse said I couldn't go with her." While Ishi wasn't entirely sure what the motivation to that stipulation was about, it was most likely trying to get him out of his comfort zone.
"You… Really just going to take that?" Ryugi was surprised to see that Chinae was hearing all this without much of a reaction.
"I already knew about it." She replied, and also let go of Ishi's hands as she spoke up again. "I'm only here because I kind of owe him from the game show anyway." When she was done talking, their conversation got a little bit awkward from the silence as Ishi texted on his phone.
"Done." Finally, he finished and they could continue without him being so inattentive. "We'll see if she decides to come now."
While his troubles appeared to be over when those boys barged into their room, it turned out to be very false when the crowd began to approach them.
"Hey guys, you all having fun?" Ryugi paid little mind to the attention drawn their way as she addressed them. "This has been a great weekend so far, and I can't wait for what we got in store tomorrow."
"And what's that going to be?"
"Ah ah ah." She wagged her finger in his face to playfully avoid answering the question. "That'll be a surprise for when we're getting wrapped up here." He sighed deeply upon hearing that. Ishi hated surprises. Another thing he hated was the reason why everyone had come to them.
"We want to hear you sing, Hirose." Someone finally said what they were all here for.
"What? Why does everyone care so much about it?"
"Sorry Ishi." Rinse was the first one to apologize. "Everyone was curious about it, but we told them that you didn't get your turn when we were in our private room." When they heard her tell them that, it was clear that he needed to take the stage.
"Did everyone really just forget about the last time you all asked me?" A part of him forgot about it as well. But he had gotten really angry at them for disregarding his own feelings on the matter. If there was a reason he held any sense of disdain towards them, it was because of this.
"Ishi's right." This time around, Rinse was on his side, even if she was also pressuring him just moments ago. Which wasn't something he forgot about, so the boy was going to have a little bit of revenge.
"Though I might be persuaded to do so." His words got all of them to turn their undivided attention to him. "Only if Rinse sings a duet with me."
"Eh?" That caught all off guard from his sudden declaration. Even the normally unmoved Chinae couldn't believe what she just heard.
"What, why should Hirose get to sing with Rinse?" Someone complained, which was precisely what he was aiming for.
"Yeah, if you want to sing again. Can you sing with me?" Someone else asked as they turned to looking at only the idol.
"Well, I can't sing with everyone." She uneasily responded to them. "It's probably better to just all share in a song if that's the case." When she tried to look past the crowd around her, it seemed that Ishi had disappeared. She pouted upon realizing what his plan was.
However, he wasn't the only one now missing from the group. Chinae also took her exit, as he had pulled the girl along with him as they made their escape. Ishi led the pair back into their private karaoke room to avoid the others for now.
"We're not exactly hidden here." She told him after regaining her balance which she lost when he pulled her away. The girl was a bit irritated that he grabbed her the way he did without asking any permission. "What makes you think they'll leave us alone."
"Don't worry." Ishi produced his phone from his pants and immediately went to messaging. "There." He finished sending the text to the only person that matter in this circumstance. "I just told Otoya that I'll be busy having some 'private' alone time with you."
"You boys really are another kind of gross, aren't you?"
"Whatever, I just bought us some time before I have to leave the room." If Youna really did come here, then he'd have to go and be with her. Otherwise, all he did was draw her into another uncomfortable situation.
So that left Chiane with a time limit to be with him all alone. The question now is… What does she want to do with it?