Mido-senpai and Stridente

<Stridente>

What’s with him, anyway? He’s a guy, yet he’s stepping into a girls’ world. Thinking he can become cute so easily—it’s so conceited it’s almost ridiculous.

Late at night, I was taking a bath alone. At this hour, no one would bother me, and I could relax.

I didn’t want to see anyone. Not even my roommate.

That’s what I was thinking when it happened. I heard the sound of the sliding door opening. Who could it be?

“Hey!”

“...Mido-senpai!”

The person who entered was the senior often called the “master of the girls’ dorm.” Instinctively, I straightened up. Mido-senpai unreservedly slipped into the tub.

“I heard you were in here alone, so I decided to join you. Oh, right—Forte said he was going on a journey, so he left the girls’ dorm. Sounds like he won’t be coming to school for a while, either.”

“That has nothing to do with me.”

I looked away. But it does matter. It really does—only, I refuse to admit it. Because then I’d have to face my own guilt.

“Hey, Str-chan. How do you feel about ‘becoming cute’?”

I was bracing myself for criticism about what happened during the day, but the question caught me completely off-guard.

“What kind of question is that?”

“You know, I get the sense you’re fixated on the word ‘cute’ like it’s some kind of curse. But whether something is cute or not doesn’t really matter to me. We’re human beings first, before we’re women, right? I was just wondering if something happened that made you so hung up on being ‘cute.’”

“It’s nothing.”

She was scraping away at an old wound in my heart I’d almost forgotten. Before I knew it, tears were spilling down my cheeks.

“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry. Look, you don’t have to force yourself to talk about it. Just cheer up, okay?”

“I’m mad at my little sister.”

“Oh?”

“Ever since we were small, Dad doted on my sister and never gave me the time of day. Sure, my sister’s cute, but I work hard, too... And still, he never once called me cute. So when I see someone like Sharp, trying to get ‘cute’ so easily, it just annoys me.”

“You’re jealous of your sister, huh.”

Mido-senpai folded her arms under the water and tilted her head in thought.

“I understand how you feel.”

“What?”

I looked up. I must have looked surprised—I’d assumed someone as bold and confident as Mido-senpai would never feel jealousy.

“I’ve been called all sorts of things, like ‘master of the girls’ dorm’ or ‘a dependable upperclassman.’ But the truth is, I’m just someone who’s worked really hard. I’ve just been wearing a ‘prince’ mask all this time.”

“Mido-senpai... you?”

“Yeah. But at some point, I realized that working hard to be cool isn’t a bad thing in itself. It’s just that if you’re trying to be cool by comparing yourself to someone else, you only end up tormenting yourself. And it’s probably the same for trying to be ‘cute.’ You end up unable to live your own life.”

“My own life?”

“Right. It’s not wrong to feel jealous of your sister, or to get annoyed at Sharp. But if you let those feelings control you and lose sight of what you want to do, then it’s pointless. In the end, you’re only projecting your own inner darkness onto other people.”

“...”

“You can be fixated on the word ‘cute,’ sure, but maybe it’s more important to find something that you actually enjoy. After all, we came to this school to enjoy music, didn’t we?”

“Something that’s true to me...”

“That’s right. Instead of worrying about what other people think, finding what makes you feel good is more important. That’ll become your own style, right?”

I paused to think for a moment.

“Well, anyway, just think of it as advice from an irresponsible senpai. If you ever feel like making up with Sharp-kun, I’ll be your mediator. I’m not that close with him, though, so I’ll have to work on building a relationship with him first, haha!”

With that, Mido-senpai left the bath.

Maybe I really do need to rethink how I live my life.