Chapter 27: UNMASKED
TWO days have already passed and there’s no progress at all with the dating rumors regarding Phantom Note’s lead singer, Yamamoto Aki, and one of today’s most beautiful girls, Watanabe Miyu. Fans have taken the internet to vent their disappointment with regards to the issue. They believe that Miyu doesn’t deserve Aki while Miyu’s fans think the same way. ‘None of them deserves each other’ is what everybody is saying.
They don’t call themselves idols but it is different to the eyes of the public. As long as they are in the entertainment industry, people will consider them as public property. There might be a few people that find them cute together but the voice of the other party is more overwhelming.
Aki’s hands balled after remembering everything that he saw in the internet. Everyone is throwing curses on Miyu, calling her names, when the girl is really innocent. Even if they were really dating, they don’t deserve to be treated like this, especially Miyu.
What makes him even more furious is he couldn’t do anything about it. His manager restricted him to express his part in social media. He was told to wait for the decision of the agency and let them be the one to make an official statement. He wanted to tell everybody about the truth but he can’t make any harsh decisions. He also hates the fact that he can’t even send a message to Miyu and ask about how the other girl is doing even though he already added her on LINE. No one restricted him to do it but he is just too ashamed that because of him, Miyu’s first cover was postponed and being reconsidered.
Phantom Note is currently in the conference room of their agency. They were called by the Executive Producer to discuss about the issue and plans about their single release. The band is unusually quiet; since the pictures were uploaded they’ve become awkward with each other.
The boss entered the room and they all stood up to greet him. The said guy just raised his hand to tell them to get back to their seats. He sat in the center swivel chair, releasing a deep sigh.
“I can’t believe you made that careless mistake, Yamamoto. You get out in public alone without any heavy disguise at all.” The boss expressed his disappointment with a scowl on his face.
“I’m really sorry.” Aki apologized; his head bowed lower and couldn’t even look at their boss.
“You are the face of the country’s most famous band; you should already know how fans can cross boundaries. Don’t you remember that someone event sent you a motorbike as a birthday gift and all those creepy fan letters written in blood? You should know that all of you are attention magnets whenever you are out there.”
“I’m really sorry, Sir. I will be more careful next time.”
The boss closed his eyes for a moment and then leaned on his chair. He looked at the band whose members are hanging their head low. This isn’t the band that he created. He made Phantom Note to be the band that will bring back good music to today’s generation and a band that can walk with their heads held on a high. Whoever is trying to destroy his creation, he will never forgive that person.
“Don’t worry about it boys, the single will
not be canceled.”
Finally, their faces brightened up. The staffs that are surrounding them are delighted with the news, too. The boys have been working hard for this new single anyway. They even helped in writing songs and compositions and practices even when they are in the school.
“The surprise live will be held on the same date. There will be no changes. We are going to show everyone that Phantom Note will not be destroyed by some random allegation that was just tweeted by an anonymous person who can’t even revealed his face. Let’s show them what Phantom Note is made of!”
The boss stood up from his seat and clapped to get the boys more fired up. “Go, go, go! Back to rehearsals, boys! Let’s blow everyone up with the surprise live!”
The boys also stood up with a shout. They all headed towards the door with determined faces. This is all they need—people who would trust them.
“Yamamoto.”
Aki was halted by the boss himself. The lad froze after turning to the older guy who is looking at him very intently. “The song you wrote… That’s not just something you wrote in random, didn’t you?”
Tha vocalist’s eyes widened, he couldn’t even answer. How did their boss find out about it? He didn’t say anything about the inspiration of the song aside from Yuuka.
“I-I…”
“You feelings leaks in the song. The way you sang it will move everyone in a daze. You can’t tell someone that you love her and you are frustrated about it, am I right?”
Aki gulped. He couldn’t believe that their boss has analyzed the song to that extent.
“I-I’m sorry…”
“What are you saying sorry about!?” The boss slapped him in the back to wake him up. “My agency isn’t just for people who only have talent. I established this place for people who can properly relay music with their emotion. There are a lot of people that are good in singing but there’s no emotion at all.”
The boss smiled and straightened his back, bringing back his dignified stance. “I’m glad that I discovered you. You and the other boys are the hope of the band industry here in Japan.”
“T-Thank you, Sensei!” Aki almost tear up after hearing those words of their boss.
“I’m hoping for the best for you, for Phantom Note and for the person you like.”
“H-Hai!” Aki bent forward for a 90-degree bow. “Thank you very much, Sensei!”
“AKI!
Yabai!” Phantom Note’s drummer’s scream made everyone thought there was an emergency. He rushed back to the conference room with the other members tailing him. They are all shocked.
“What is it, Kei?” Aki curiously asked.
“The identity of the fanfic writer that you were hunting…” Kei waved his phone.
“Someone revealed it!”
“CAN YOU please stop looking at me like that? You are creeping me out!”
Yurina rolled her eyes and blew her bangs upwards. The reason for her annoyance? It is Momoko who is looking at her with adoring eyes. The said girl is sitting opposite Yurina as their table was beside the window of the restaurant.
“For f*ck’s sake, Momoko… Stop looking at me like that. It is really annoying! I didn’t tag along just for you to annoy me.” Yurina went on with her cold custard pudding. Summer is already around the corner and this pudding in front of her really gives her more of the summer vibe.
“I just think that shorter hair really suits you.” Momoko said while smiling cutely. “You look really, really cool!”
“Excuse me?” Yurina’s eyebrows are showing how displeased she was with those remarks of Momoko. She was about to argue but…
“I agree with Momoko-chan.” Her attention turned to the girl sitting beside Momoko. That girl, whose long hair Yurina lowkey adores, has her hair ponytailed for today giving more emphasis to her beautiful face. “You look really cool with that hair!”
“W-Well…” Yurina was taken aback, scratching her cheek with a finger.
“It’s because Yurina is the basketball club’s captain now.” Yurina’s fraternal twin, Manaka, answered for her. The younger twin answered giddily, admiring her older sister. “She cut her hair as a sign of dedication. It means she will do her best!”
“Ohh… I see…” Neru nodded at Manaka’s explanation before looking back at the flustered Yurina. “That’s really admirable.”
Manaka tapped Yurina on her leg before giving her a thumb up secretly. The older twin heaved a sigh. Her younger sister just really saved her. If she didn’t spoke for her then probably she stammered so bad and be embarrassed big time.
“Ehh?” Momoko slyly smiled at Yurina which fused up the other girl once again.
“Why the hell are you smiling like that!?”
“Would you, girls, stop with your banters?” Yuuka, who is sitting at the center, tried to straighten the wrinkle being formed by her meeting eyebrows. Yurina and Momoko have been acting like kids since they met. She has seen enough and she doesn’t want to waste her time watching them fight. “I hope you don’t forget why I asked you to gather here.”
After the Sport’s Day of NeoHorikoshi somehow, the sisters of the Shiki kind of get along. Yuuka thought that it won’t be bad to stay in touch with the other girls. It will also help Neru to get more friends since the girl is just being home-schooled. Having friends will give her a reason to get out of their house. Neru was given permission by her father but Yuuka knows that there are a lot of secret bodyguards hidden in the shadows.
Momoko on the other hand is as free as a bird. It’s Saturday anyway, her parents are at work so as his brother Natsu. Unlike Natsu, Momoko wasn’t told to get into the entertainment business at a young age. She was told to do anything that she wants to do and for now posing for teen magazines is enough for her.
The twins always go to visit their brother during weekends. Somehow after seeing how the twins are really happy with their older brother, their grandparents let them do the weekend trip. They go to his house at Friday night and stay there until Sunday evening. Even though Fuyu is working until four in the afternoon, the twins just stay in his house and do whatever they can do such as homework and house chores. They’ll wait for their brother to have dinner together with him. Sometimes they eat with Fumie and they both love the food she makes.
They are determined to visit him every weekend because Miyu kept on telling them that they will have a nephew or a niece once they let Fuyu be alone with Fumie even on weekends when the truth is Fuyu has yet to kiss Fumie. He is contented just by holding her hand and seldom hugs.
“Well, your brother’s ‘scandal’ is already solved, right?” Momoko cheerfully said, resting her chin on her palm. “The conclusion was quite interesting though.”
“Who would’ve thought that the girl that was rumored to be her girlfriend is the one writing a smut BL fanfic about him? That was a weird way to end things.” Neru commented. “Adding the fact that my brother is the one paired with him on that story.”
“I was also surprised but I guess that it helped to shut down the issue. Apparently, many of Aki-nii-san’s fans read and love the fic being written by Miyu-nee-chan.” Manaka took a sip of her soda before continuing with her opinion.
“I know it is crazy but her account being hacked kind of saved them in some way. The one who hacked her found out that she isn’t a whore like everyone is thinking. The fan even said that she found all her records clean and she only talks with a few people and is even helping her family a lot. The hacker also revealed that Miyu-nee-chan may be a hardcore fan of Phantom Note but she never saw a picture of Miyu-nee-chan with Aki-nii-san in her cloud. The hacker really regretted hacking Miyu-nee-chan to destroy her further so she revealed all the things that blew her away in an anonymous blog together with proofs.”
“That sounded like an insider report.” Yurina sighed as she got tired of Manaka’s lengthy report.
“That’s not the end Yurina!” Manaka took a deep breath to prepare herself for the next part of the story. “The café where they met released the CCTV footage. It clearly shows that they just met by incident showing the surprised gestures they made after seeing each other. They weren’t touchy at all just like what the tweet said. They were just talking to each other casually. The café staff who served them their drinks also proved that they met by chance.”
“Everybody knows about it already so you don’t have to re-tell the story.” Yurina picked her ear and blew off the dirt she got.
“Would you please don’t do that in front of the dining table?” Manaka scowled at her older sister. The latter just stuck her tongue out to annoy Manaka even more.
“Come on. Stop fighting.” Yuuka cleared her throat and began with her real purpose. “Let me explain why I called you out.”
She slid some papers on the table and the girls all stretched their necks out to see what those are.
“Tickets?” Neru asked. “Phantom Note’s surprise live?”
Yuuka nodded. “I’m handing this out to you and I am asking for you to support my brother and his band. They have been in a very rocky situation the past days because of the issue. Having this surprise live after that issue might put them into more trouble. I bought these tickets with my own allowance so that I can support my brother. This might be little but—“
Her statement was halted when all the other girls started rummaging their bags and wallets. She was then surprised when they started placing money on the table. “W-Wait, why—“
“It kind of feels like you are buying audience for your brother’s live.” Momoko commented, pushing the bill towards Yuuka. “Aki-nii-san would feel bad if he get to know about it.”
“I hate to say it but I agree with this weird girl. You are also belittling the fans, you know?” Yurina also slid her money on the table together with some coins. “That might not be enough. I’ll just borrow money from my brother later.”
“I’ll be glad to support them without you asking us.” Neru smiled at Yuuka to cheer her up. “Aki-nii-san is my brother’s best friend anyway.”
“E-Everyone…”
“Hey, how about we start making personalized banners for the live? It would be nice if they would see the banner we will make from the stage.” Manaka eagerly suggested, having her hand up in the air.
“Sounds like a plan, Manaka-chan!” Momoko high-fived with the other girl. “Let’s do a big one!”
“Don’t drag me in the banner-making. I have to do—“
“Yurina-chan…” Neru called out to Yurina which made her fell silent. “You are coming with us, right?”
Yurina cursed in the back of her mind. How could she ignore that invitation from that girl? She clicked her tongue before answering with a nod; making it look like that she is just forced to go.
“Perfect!” Neru put her hands together and then turned to Yuuka. “Since it will be a surprise, let’s do this in our house. I think I got everything that we need.”
“Let’s go then!” Momoko stood up from her seat and she was followed by the others. They headed towards the exit with Momoko and Manaka talking to the still surprised Yuuka. Yurina and Neru are just tailing them from behind. There was an awkward air between them when Neru suddenly started talking.
“If Aki-nii-san and Watanabe Miyu-san are innocent then the uploader of the pictures did a crime. Don’t you think that person should be caught, Yurina-chan?”
They are waiting for Neru’s service car to arrive when Neru popped the question. She looked at Yurina with a half curious, half worried face.
“Well…” The short-haired girl sighed and turned to another side when her eyes suddenly caught something that shocked her core. She saw a familiar girl inside a fancy looking restaurant talking with a good-looking guy in a suit that looks like he is in late-20’s. The girl was looking down and couldn’t even look at the guy in front of her. What surprised Yurina even more was when the guy reached out to the lassie and held her hand as if trying to convince her into something.
“Yurina-chan? Is something wrong?” Neru asked innocently. She noticed how the other girl’s hands balled into a fist.
Yurina felt sweat broke on her forehead. She turned to Neru and tried to calm herself down.
“Yeah…” she started. “People who play dirty like that uploader should be caught.”
THE HORRIFIED look on Miyu’s face wasn’t hidden even by the mask that she is wearing. Standing in front of the rack behind her was Fuyu. He just came inside the said convenience store where Miyu is eating instant cup noodles. It doesn’t seem like a busy store so she took the chance to dine in there. But since a guy she knows just came the thought that she would be involved in yet another scandal right after another one somehow frightened her.
“What’s up with that look, Miyu?” Fuyu asked; he wasn’t even looking at Miyu that time for he was busy picking sweets for his sisters but he knew that Miyu was looking aghast. “Looks like you can now come out of your house.”
Miyu gulped. She tried to laugh to shake off the awkwardness. “Well, everything is already fixed so I think I can get out now. I also have to do the grocery. I can’t have my mum do it since she’s already busy in the hospital.”
Fuyu looked at the plastic bags that beside Miyu through the corner of his eyes. It looks like she bought a lot. Miyu also noticed the paper bag that Fuyu is holding.
“What’s that?” she curiously asked while eyeing the said bag.
“This?” Fuyu raised the paper bag that seems to have some weight on it. “These are astronomy books. Sorry, this won’t help you with your BL fan fiction.”
Miyu’s face instantly reddened. Her top secret was revealed by a hacker which somehow fixed the issue with Aki but now that everyone knows that she’s writing BL smuts she feels like she won’t be able to act like nothing happened in front of Aki. She knows how embarrassed Aki was because of the things she wrote and he was even searching for her. She never intended to reveal herself until she got hacked by a fan.
“What are you doing, eating while wearing a mask?” Fuyu, knowing that Miyu got flustered, changed the topic but he isn’t done with ‘bullying’ yet.
“I kind of felt hungry after coming from the market so I dropped by to eat some noodles. I’m done eating anyway.”
“That would make your face blow up like a
puffer fish.”
Miyu’s eyes widened at those words of Fuyu. She pulled her mask down to let Fuyu see that her face isn’t swollen. “I only ate half of it,
warui!”
“But you were having second thoughts about leaving it, right?” A faint but playful smile curved up Fuyu’s handsome face. His teasing left Miyu speechless and just went to throw the rest of the food. Fuyu just shook his head, trying his hardest not to crack up.
When Miyu came back, Fuyu was still on the rack of the chocolates but what surprised her was the guy is suddenly sporting a face mask.
“S-Senpai!” Miyu rushed towards him and gave him a good slap on the shoulder. “What are you doing wearing
my mask!?” She’s sure that he is wearing her mask since she left it on the table before she threw the leftover.
“Someone might take a photo of us, just making sure that I will be mysterious.”
“Stop with being silly, will you?” Miyu grabbed the mask off of him and revealed a smiling Fuyu. “At least buy your own mask. Fumie will be mad if she saw what you just did.”
“Are you going to wear that again?” Fuyu innocently asked.
“Senpai!”
Fuyu ruffled her hair before going to the cashier to pay for the presents for his sisters. He also pulled a new set of mask to repay what he did to Miyu’s old mask. After paying, he went back to Miyu and gave one of the masks to her while he is already wearing one.
“W-What?”
“I’ll help you carry those bags. Let’s go.”
“B-But, Senpai—“
“I won’t go until your house. I’ll just make sure that you’ll ride a safe taxi and then go home.” Fuyu then slightly turned to the left so as his eyes. “I won’t let you go home alone. I
must protect you.”
Miyu’s eyebrows met. She couldn’t understand the actions of her senpai. He sounded like he intentionally spoke louder to let someone hear what he said. After that he picked all of Miyu’s grocery bags and headed towards the exit.
“Miyu~!” Somehow that call from Fuyu sounded weird as well. He is making it sound like they are really, really close. “What are you waiting for?”
“C-Coming~”
The two then went on their way looking like a weird couple. The convenience store that Miyu thought to be empty then became a bit noisy after they left. The old lady that is manning the store went to the direction of the garbage bins after she heard noises coming from that corner of the store. She was alerted after seeing a man rummaging the trash, looking for something.
“W-What are you doing, young man?” The store tender asked the blonde-haired guy but she was ignored. He continued to look for something on that certain bin, when he couldn’t find it he went to the other trash bin and did the same thing.
“Found it!”The store keeper was taken aback when the guy rose up his arm, his hand carefully holding a pair of wooden chopsticks. The guy was almost dancing in joy while admiring the said used chopsticks whose tips are still wet. He kept it on a clear zip lock and put it inside his bag.
The lady hurriedly went back to her post due to the fear that the guy might do something scary. She prepared herself to call for help just in case he totally goes nuts. The guy was kind enough to return the other garbage in the bins. While doing so, he saw the mask that Miyu wore and the flashback of Fuyu wearing it set his heart on fire. He could feel the blood rushing up to his nape, boiling in anger. He was trying to get the mask to add it to his collection but some guy just took it away from him.
Fuyu saw him. He was seen looking at the Winter Prince by the prince himself while the latter was wearing the mask. Their eyes met and before he knew it, Fuyu was already wearing his treasure.
“That b*st*rd should know where to place himself.” He gritted as he threw the mask back to the bin. He was already furious about the ending of the scandal about Miyu and Aki but seeing Miyu with another guy made him more enraged. And that guy is not just some other guy. It is Hoshizora Fuyu and he can clearly remember that Miyu mentioned him on her blog before saying that he likes how cool the school senior is.
“When I thought it was that annoying band vocalist, some other assh*le is having his way to
my Miyu.” He kicked the trash bin to return it to its place under the table. “F*cking son of a b*tch needs to get some lesson. He should be thankful that my phone is dead or else he will suffer hell.”
The foreigner went out of the store still murmuring curses.
“I came all the way here for Miyu Watanabe. Miyu would be sad if she finds out that I’m being discouraged. The marriage form is already ready. Oh my Miyu…” he felt his body heating just at the thoughts of Miyu. He hurriedly went on his way back to his apartment so that he could relieve himself.
“Not today, assh*le. But you will definitely get a taste of hell for touching my property.”
-TBC-
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@porkofdoom-san, sorry for the short updates. I'm really busy nowadays.
His name is Lex. I mentioned it in the previous chapter.
@Goto24-san, thanks for welcoming me back~ I think no one expected that from Miyu because she is always smiling and sunny.
I wonder what Aki will choose too..
@MatsuiLee-san, Yeah! It's been a long time. Haha. Well, the pasts defines the present state of the characters, right?
@FZA02-san, haha.. Yeah.. They were Maru's parents.. And Hiro's parents as well.
Haha. I know. I also thought of Luthor...
@Genkikid-san, He probably is the one.
@korin48-san, Thanks for reading the fic and welcome to the comment section~ I hope I can see you more on this section~ I also hope that you are having fun reading this.
And yes everyone...
her name didn't change.
See you on the next chapter. Probably the final chapter of this arc.
Thanks for all the 'thanks' and comments~