"I can't believe him–" Okane complained at her computer, with me standing beside her, watching as she scrolled through the site for the contest, hoping for any updates. I held a flier for it in my hand.
"I mean really—how busy could he really be?" I let out a soft sigh in response to her words.
"Maybe we should just focus on the first part of the contest first—you know, the part you do from home?"
"Yeah, yeah, I know!" She groaned and leaned back in her chair, her eyebrows furrowed with a pout. "Still though! If we can't rely on him now, when can we?"
I rubbed my temples, realizing that she did pose a fair point. If we can't get him to agree now, it might be harder later down the line. We can't get Tom either, so even that's a no-go, huh—
"Imma go grab some water. Don't apply for anything just yet," I murmured, walking past her and placing the flier over her eyes before reaching for the doorknob.
"Yeah, yeah, bring me some too," she called out, dragging the flier off her face with a sigh.
"On it," I waved dismissively as I left the room, my eyes catching Hiyori standing at my door as if stealing herself to knock.
"You… okay?" I asked. Hiyori jolted from the sudden voice.
"Oh! I—I, um…" Her face grew a beat red as she looked at the room I came out of and then back to me. "S-sorry… I didn't mean to interrupt…"
"What?" I asked, confused about what she meant, watching as she quickly retreated to her room.
"I'm sorry! I'll come back later!!" she cried, reaching for her door.
I looked toward the door I came from and back to her, my face turning red as I realized the misunderstanding.
"Hey! Hold on!!"
"So," I said, looking at her with a skeptical expression. We both sat on the floor of her room, our legs crossed. Her gaze was away from mine, staring at the floor as I spoke.
"What did you want?"
She stood up without saying a word, walking over to her desk and opening her drawer to pull out stacks of papers.
"Well… um," she muttered, looking over to me with soft, pleading eyes before sitting in front of me once more. "Can you, um, look at this, please?" She handed them to me, my eyes scanning the pages as they were presented.
"Well?" she questioned, waiting patiently as I kept reading. My eyes soon met hers, seeing how hopeful and timid she was for my answer.
"Well—"
"To put it bluntly, it's boring—" She looked as if she had been shot with a bullet from my words alone, her head slumping to the floor in disappointment.
"Is it really that bad?" she pondered, looking up at me.
"Well—your characters are flat, and your climax is underwhelming and doesn't drag on long enough. It's always a clear answer to everything here, and normally things don't work out like that."
"I see…" she muttered, listening attentively to my words. Though my knowledge only came from anime and some trashy light novels that I read in the past, if it sells, it sells, right?
"Your story should follow more of a Kishotenketsu plot beat. Ki is the beginning, Sho is character development (or any in general), Ten is the dramatic twist, and Ketsu is the conclusion!" I explained, my hands gesturing as though that would help her in any way.
"Your storyline completely ignored Sho and Ten, so it's more like Kiketsu—"
She nodded, looking through her papers to see what I was talking about.
"And another thing—the love interest in this manga is flat as hell, and I don't just mean her chest size—" I sighed, folding my arms and nodding to my own points.
"She just follows the MC around for no reason, doesn't have any goals or interests of her own; she's just a utility at that point."
[Okane's POV]
"He's taking a while to come back—" I muttered, slowly getting up from my chair and staring blankly at my computer screen. "What's he doing…"
I sat there for a minute before shaking my head, trying to dispel the thought.
"He's fine; he'll be back soon. No need to—check…" Slowly, I slid out of my chair and opened the door, my eyes peeking down the hall before walking over to his room and opening the door.
"Ha-Haru?" I muttered, looking around to see that he wasn't there. A disappointed huff subconsciously left my lips as I closed the door behind me.
I walked down the hall, hoping that I would find him somewhere. My eyes caught a slightly opened door from Hiyori's room along with the sound of his voice.
I stopped for a minute and peeked through the cracks, seeing him and her sitting on the floor and talking.
"Well…" I heard Hiyori mutter from inside. "What's your ideal type of girl?"
Haru took a minute to respond, his finger to his chin and his head tilted as he took a moment to process.
"Well… short, very energetic," he started to list as I tried to keep quiet and listen further.
"Knows how to cook, 'cause I sure as hell can't," he chuckled to himself, nodding as if agreeing with himself.
I wished I could've seen Hiyori's reaction. How did they even get on this topic? Why were they on this topic?! Did he completely forget about me? What we were doing? I felt a weird mix of anger and concern before just leaving back to my room and closing the door gently behind me.
[Haru's POV]
"They must be cute too, very cute." I smiled, my eyes opening to just see a judgmental face.
"So it is just about the looks," she commented, her eyes judging me, but she wrote it down anyway.
"W-well not really! Being cute is optional, of course, b-but—" I bit my tongue. There was no way I was salvaging this; I was just digging a deeper hole.
"That's all. You can leave now," Hiyori said with a cold voice.
"Yes, ma'am…"
Results for today: Haru loses.