High-Stakes Action

“It is very rude to take someone’s photo without their consent, don’t you know?”

Even in the face of adversity—the very real possibility that Akira’s career would be ruined because of him intervening in her issues—Akira still kept as cool as a cucumber.

He stepped away from Hina, adjusting his sleeves.

“Y-You…” one of the intruders stammered. “You’re betraying Hayami! You’ve been playing a sick game this whole time, I knew it! Hina made so much more sense as a partner, and you—!”

Akira didn't even blink. “You think very little of me. Do you really believe I would be so careless as to ‘betray’ a friend in broad daylight?”

He took a step forward. The intruders shrank back.

“But let’s talk about that photo. My image rights are currently valued at several million yen per appearance. Unauthorized distribution is theft. Slander… well, it is much worse.”

“W-What?”

“Do you know what it feels like to be in debt?” Akira asked softly.

“N-No… we’re just kids.”

Akira loomed over them.

“Feel free to post it then. I have nothing to hide. Ship me with Hina, call me a playboy, believe what you want to believe. I don’t care. Realistically, I cannot delete that photo from your phone even if I wanted to.”

He leaned in closer, his reflection visible in their terrified eyes.

“But if you don’t say the truth and anything but the truth—that Hayami isn’t a treasured, indispensable companion of mine—I swear to you, my legal team will ensure you know hell on earth.”

The girls turned pale.

“Now… will you leave us be?”

They nodded, their heads bobbing up and down like bobbleheads, before slamming the stairwell door shut.

Akira let out a long breath and turned back to Hayami and Hina.

“Well,” he said, fixing his school uniform. “That should buy us about twenty minutes before the internet explodes.”

\\

MISSED CALL: Manage-deez-nuts, Just now

MISSED CALL: Manage-deez-nuts, a minute ago

MISSED CALL: Manage-deez-nutes, four minutes ago

Akira looked at his notifications with disdain. “Persistent bastard.”

While the hallway they walked through was silent—expectedly so, it was the end of school—the internet wasn’t.

“This is what you get, A-Akira,” Hina said, holding her phone out for both Akira and Hayami to see.

[Trending: #PlayboyAkira]

@KPopNews: Holy crap!! An explosive pic has surfaced from Golden Brooch High. Hina cornered after being blasted by Hayami earlier?! Is this a revenge plot? A marketing ploy? How does Hayami connect with all of this? Read our analysis here.

@AkiraFan99: Akira suddenly falling in love with another girl?! I thought he was single and in love with Alexander! MY FUJOSHI DREAMS ARE GONE!!

@Llamaxoxoxo: Wait, isn't that the girl who bullied Hayami? Is he comforting her or attacking her?? Wow, kinda a dick move to Hayami, no? It looks spicy tho 👀

Hina didn’t say much else as they walked down the main stairs and reached the school gates.

“I need to go,” Hina said abruptly, shoving her phone in her pocket.

She turned to leave. Then, just as she was about to leave the school’s apex, she stopped.

“Hayami.”

The girl in question looked up in surprise. “Yes?”

Hina bit her lip. “I guess you’re my running mate for the 400-meter.”

Hayami’s eyes sparkled.

“I get to school early to do laps. ” Hina looked away. “7 AM, don’t be late.”

Her ponytail swung as she marched off, not willing or not bothering to wait for a reply.

Then, Hayami and Akira realized their situation. Standing there, alone, with their lives likely to change for the worse.

“Akira… I-I…”

“Don’t apologize. I didn’t have to lean my hand on the wall. It just… I was simply wanting the best outcome possible.”

“Y-You were very passionate.”

“I…” Then, to her surprise, Akira laughed.

“W-What is it?”

He smiled radiantly. “It’s just… that was the most sincere compliment I think I’ve received in years.”

Rather awkwardly, he adjusted his jacket. For the first time all day, the National Heartthrob looked… fidgety.

He cleared his throat.

“Hayami…” Akira started, his voice uncharacteristically soft. “You want to talk about what happened back there?”

Hayami didn't answer immediately. She was staring at his chest. Specifically, at the button of his shirt that was straining slightly.

Her brain was frying. The jealousy from earlier hadn’t exactly dissipated.

‘Lesson One,’ she thought dizzily. ‘Respect yourself.’

She took a step toward him.

“I… well…” Hayami murmured. “They s-say those who form r-relationships with their teachers are w-walking a dangerous path.”

Akira froze.

“Where are you getting at?”

Hayami ignored him. She took another step.

She looked up at him, feeling so small under his gaze.

“You t-taught me to be greedy… that I should feel e-entitled to get what I wanted because I was worthy of love. ‘Demanding attention’... those were the exact words you used,” she whispered.

She reached out—her hand shaking just a little—and grabbed the lapel of his expensive jacket.

Akira’s body jolted. His heart hammered against his ribs.

“I u-used to be fine, watching my crushes get with other girls. But n-now… now I get jealous when you look at other girls. I g-get angry when you use your charm on anyone but me.”

She tightened her grip on his jacket, pulling him down just an inch. Her hands continued to move, continued to tighten her grip, and he quickly went lax, his breathing evening out.

“I guess I’m pointing out… that I have feelings. Selfish feelings.”

Akira’s world stopped.

“So…” She swallowed. “I-I am not asking you to take care of me o-or anything like that! It’s just… uhm…”

He moved down, blowing hot air against her, watching her skin erupt in gooseflesh as she squirmed like a little worm.

“A celebrity settling for a commoner. You demand a lot from someone of your station, little lemming.” He looked away before pulling himself from her. “But I’m afraid that… well… my heart’s reserved for someone else.”

Hayami’s heart sank.

“Oh,” she remarked listlessly. She should have known. “May I ask who?”

Akira hesitated. He looked away, staring at a stain on the concrete floor.

“Veronica. From STATESIDE.”

Hayami knew that girl.

Well, everyone knew her. Veronica was the Queen Vocalist of the biggest K-pop group in the world. She was tall, impossibly beautiful, and talented.

“I see,” Hayami said. “G-Guess we have to be careful then, in the future. If a rumor started about us, it would ruin your… your engagement.”

She turned to leave.

“Wait.” Akira’s hand shot out, grabbing her wrist.

Hayami froze.

“I want us to continue how we are,” Akira said. “Just because the arrangements exist doesn’t mean we stop. I’m still your teacher. We’re still a team.”

“Y-You say that…” Hayami stepped back, her voice shaking.

She looked at him—his porcelain skin, his perfectly trimmed hair, his stare.

“But the stakes are d-different for us, Akira.”

Hayami swallowed the lump in her throat.

“If I-I were to disappear from your life t-tomorrow… you would be sad. But y-you would have your fans. You w-would have your agency. You would have Veronica. I’m not in the s-same league as you, not even close. I am practically a child c-compared to you.”

She gestured to herself, to her empty hands.

“I don’t have any of that. I only have you. You… you are my whole world.”

She looked up at him.

“I d-depend on you so much. And if I stay knowing I can never truly reach you… it will destroy me. So, it’s better if I cut the connection now, before…”

“Then let’s stay friends. We can stay friends from the outset! No funny business, I swear,” he proposed. “We can even become best friends. And we can put boundaries; stuff along those lines. Just please… don’t leave me.”

There was a strong silence after that.

Hayami wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She forced the corners of her mouth up.

“Y-You can’t have it two ways,” she whispered.

Akira said nothing. Even as the wind made her hair flow more beautifully than reeds in the ocean, he said nothing.

\\

Akira was right. Taking his ride was much faster than the bus.

“Thanks for d-dropping me off," she said happily, shutting the car door. "And good luck shooting that MV, too. You, uh... looking… forward to it?”

Akira groaned, pressing back on his headrest. “Can’t you tell by my face I’m the very picture of excitement?”

Hayami chuckled. “Well, don’t choke… on your own farts now—”

GRRRRROOOOWL.

Akira clutched his stomach. “Ugh… but I just achieved 75 kg… no, stop thinking that, I can go lower. Think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts…”

“Don’t y-you think that this whole K-pop idol thing is good for you?” Hayami asked, her smile fading into a frown. “This s-stuff is gonna get you killed.”

“I do it so people like you can enjoy it,” he deadpanned, despite the constant shifting in his seat. “Besides, I’ve achieved more in three years than you have in your entire life, and we’re the same age.”

“Yeah, you’re thriving,” Hayami deadpanned, looking at his shaking hands. “Clearly.”

Akira could only look away at that. So Hayami leaned in closer to the open window to drive her point home.

“One of these days, Akira… I’m going to convince you to break those shackles.”

Hayami then reached into her school bag.

“But for now… I’ll tell you what. Since you’re dying, I t-think I do have some emergency double-chocolate cookies in here—”

Akira’s eyes widened in genuine terror.

“Don’t you dare! Watari! Hit the accelerator before I say something stupid!”

With that, his limousine drove off.

Hayami chuckled, before promptly turning back to her apartment building and immediately turning silent in despair. 

The Royal Heights. She was getting more and more annoyed seeing the logo by the second.

A moving truck was also parked in front of her apartment. 

She walked for a while, before stopping. 

She traced back her tracks.

Hayami rubbed her eyes.

A moving truck?

“What’s up, kid?”

Her head turned on a swivel. She saw a man with broad shoulders carrying what looked to be a flat-screen TV.

“Who’s moving in?” she asked with trepidation.

“Oh, some old bloke. Must have fallen by the wayside to be moving into a place like this. Err… no offense.”

“N-None taken.”

People choosing to move into the Royal Heights was an anomaly in itself.

But what she saw next made her heart sink.

Her front door was open. She squinted again to see if it wasn’t some sort of psychologically-induced hallucination.

Yes. Her eyes weren’t deceiving her.

Hayami thought back to whatever had happened in her life that could have led to this.

When she thought back to when Tsumagi called her, her heart practically stopped.

‘No…’

It was one of the only times she wished a burglar had entered her house instead.