Never Give Up

“Come on, Riku, just admit defeat already!”

“...N-Never!”

Naomi Sato was the cutest girl in the whole world. As well as the smartest… and the most cunning!

That’s what Mommy and Daddy and her servants and all her friends told her every day, so it must be true!

So why wasn’t it getting through to Riku?

Even when Naomi has him pinned to the tatami mat, knees dug into his sides after an intense game of tag? Even when she was clearly the winner? 

Riku just won't admit it because he's the world's biggest sore loser!

So she did the only reasonable thing a refined young lady could do in such dire circumstances: Naomi pushed him into the ground even harder.

“Ow!! Hey!” the petulant boy cried.

“You wanna admit defeat now?” she huffed.

“...Not now… not ever.”

She gritted her teeth. This boy!!

“But you lost!” Naomi tried, louder this time.

“Yeah? So what?! Until I can’t move any more… I will just… keep…” In Riku’s distractingly rousing speech, his shoulder slipped from her grasp! “...trying!”

When Riku wriggled free and bolted, Naomi’s chest burned hot. Her face turned red, and not just from the chase either.

“I-Idiot! Get back here!”

“Nuh uh, you’ll have to catch me first!”

“Oh, believe me, I will...!”

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Three years later…

“Waahhh!”  

Naomi, for a long time now, had become dull to praise. So much so that even a showering of them from her friends wouldn't get a reaction out of her. 

“You’re so pretty, Naomi!!”

Naomi snickered as she grabbed the mic from the stand with practiced elegance. “I mean, what else did you expect?”

It was the day of the Happyōkai, their school's cultural learning festival that doubled as an on-stage talent show. While other students wore mere costumes, Naomi had gone even further.

A Korean royalty-inspired dress.

The dress may look ornate and complicated, but money was no object to achieving greatness. Not to her; not to her parents, who gladly obliged her requests to achieve a refined look; and certainly not when it came to forcing Riku to finally acknowledge her brilliance.

Naomi had already beaten him in grades. She’d already made more friends, more admirers, more whispers about how “amazing Naomi-chan is,” including from his totally-not-girlfriend-prospect, Hana!

Naomi can see Hana now, clinging onto Riku's elbow like a pastel-colored barnacle. Everybody can see you for who you are, Hana!!

But this… this would be the final nail in the coffin; the crowning jewel to all her efforts. On stage, in front of everyone, he’d have no choice but to acknowledge her brilliance. 

Let’s see Riku squirm his way out of this one!

“Are you ready, Naomi?” Sensei called out from the back of the class. “This is a hard song to get right.”

She nodded her head. “Please, Sensei. The ever-courageous Naomi never backs down.”

…

“...Kids these days.”

With that, Sensei shone the spotlight on her form as the backing track rose.

Naomi lifted the mic to her lips.

The most apparent quality of her performance wasn’t the precise movements or how they accentuated her looks.

It was her perfect voice. Naomi knew it was perfect because she received glowing reviews from her servants.

By the time it was over, Naomi hadn’t even realized how much time had passed. Seconds, minutes—it didn’t matter.

For Naomi, performing was second nature. 

The thrill of nailing something that could so easily go wrong, the adoration, the proof that her existence was valuable because people saw it and cheered. 

At that moment, their worlds belonged entirely to her.

The rapturous applause was... expected. She had become slightly numb to such instances of praise, to be completely honest.

But what she wasn’t numb to wasn’t the student body singing her name, whose Naomi’s eyes rolled over.

It was Riku at the back... 

Staring straight back at her.

Doki-doki.

Riku was the only one who didn’t bow to her whims, seemed unaffected by her charms, spoke his mind freely—even if his thoughts were unfounded in reality. To gain his approval was her confirmation that she’d finally made it.

She only stepped off the stage after the applause died down. Not before giving a bow, of course.

Straight past the adoring fans who stepped out of her way…

And into Riku’s entire line of sight.

“So~” she began, fingers covering her lips to cover the wideness of her smirk, “what did you think, Riku-kun…?”

For a moment, it seemed like her world stopped; like her whole life’s worth was about to be dictated by what one boy said.

Naomi already had a response pictured and sealed in the glass case of her mindscape. Probably some variation of ‘mediocre’ and ‘trite, do better next time.’

Yet what he’d say would shatter her mind completely.

“You looked great up there, Naomi. It must’ve taken you hours.”

You looked great.

Great.

Great.

Great.

The word kept repeating in her head as if he shouted it into a cave.

“Heh. Hih. Hehehehihihihi~” she slurred.

He knew about the hours. He saw the effort. 

The one thing she was desperate for him to acknowledge, he’d just handed to her.

Then Naomi remembered who she was and what people thought of her and quickly shook her head.

“I–I– I mean, of course, I looked great; t-talent like this doesn’t n-naturally come to just anyone y’know!”

“I just wanted to ask you one thing…”

Naomi’s pulse quickened. “What is it? W-What about? Is it my routine, my smarts, my brilliance?”

“Why did you do this?”

…

“Huh?”

“I mean it. You didn’t care much for Korean culture before this. You weren’t even into K-Pop. A year ago, it was dragons, princesses, fairy tales... Then suddenly… you changed interests. Why?”

And just like that, her shining hopes—her vision of finally seeing a satisfied, content Riku—shattered into dust.

Naomi had tried to capitalize on her keen sense of stage presence, working towards a potential career in the entertainment industry. She had tried to appeal to Riku with K-Pop, his favorite genre. She had tried to make him clap, him cheer.

But, clearly, she failed! Those pretty, venomous words of his only dressed her up for the killing blow that was his skepticism.

And worse still—he had revealed her treacherous past in front of all her classmates! 

Naomi Sato… liked dragons? Naomi Sato… used to play princess?

Her cheeks burned.

So she did the only thing she could. 

Double down!!

“Well, it’s obvious I’m just growing up from being a kid! It’s obvious that I’m improving as a person!” she snapped. “While I’m out here improving myself, making something of myself, you’re just lounging around—being a mediocre nobody doing nothing with your life and just being a general loser!!”

The room went silent. Every classmate who had previously been uninterested by what was unfolding turned toward her.

Riku’s expression turned incredulous. “...Eh?”

Hana, who had sat silently up to this point, simply stared at her with an expression of intense, seething disgust.

Naomi felt a pin drop inside her heart. A sick, sinking weight.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeek!!” 

Naomi bolted, tears blurring the hallway. She could never show herself here again!! 

“I am sorry, I am sorry, Riku-kun! I didn’t mean it! Please forgive me! Forgive me…”

“Wait, Naomi!” Riku cried after her, but it fell flat, his words dissolving into the air like dust. “Come back!!”

Riku was right.

This was just a stupid bunkasai party. Nothing that should’ve mattered. 

And yet... he had destroyed her. 

With one simple question—"Why?"—he had undone all her years of effort proving she had reached perfection. 

All those times Riku said reputation didn't matter... well, it mattered now. 

She had let him, a "mediocre nobody," topple her. She could never show her face in this school again.

What was she going to do now?

Simple.

If I can be broken this easily… then I’m still weak.

If one boy’s opinion can destroy me… then I’m not perfect yet.

She needed to change. 

To keep changing. 

To keep climbing higher until there was no one above her.

Yes. That was her new goal.

She had to become someone whose words mattered more than everybody else in any given room where she's present. Someone whose very existence was a form of excellence such that his or any opinion could never hurt her ever again. 

Once Naomi became the most adored—the brightest, most untouchable star—then, and only then, would she have finally earned the right to stand before him again.

And when that day came... Riku would be the one owing her an apology.

\\

Riku, like a lot of his classmates, was very confused. He attempted to chase Naomi, but she seemed to have vanished into the ether. 

Naomi didn’t score the fastest time in track and field in their homeroom for nothing.

So, with a shrug of their shoulders and some awkward silence, the children returned to the classroom festivities. Eating, drinking, laughing at the occasional bad joke...

It was just another day with beautifully silly and eccentric Naomi.

Unfortunately, the students couldn’t be further from the truth.

For some of her classmates, it’d be the last day they’d ever see Naomi living and breathing in person.

Naomi seemed to vanish from the face of the earth after this incident. She didn't show up to school the day, the week, or even the month after. 

For many, her day of disappearance was a day of mourning. It was an ever-present stain and reminder that her disappearance could be owed to Riku's actions. 

What no one could have predicted, though, was how persistent Naomi would become—how relentless she was once a goal took root in her heart...

And how much it'd manifest in her modern-day career as the foremost up-and-coming K-Pop star in the world.