Break the tie

“Good evening, my sweeties! I know I’ve been absent during most of the day but I’m here now! I see that some of you seem a little shocked by this beautiful mark on my face, but worry not: I will explain everything about it in my next stream. Hope you follow me to learn about it~.”

“I still can’t stand her,” Genta declared, causing Eloy to chuckle next to him. “But it’s good that she isn’t stupidly hiding it under kilos of makeup.”

“And once said that, back to the event!” Pink Candy continued saying from the stage where she and the rest of the judges were standing. “It seems that we have a three-way tie between Electric Soul, The Cords Brothers and SevenEG. They have really given their all in the group activities, well done! However, this is a competition, and therefore, I’m afraid that we have to break that tie.”

“Told you,” Ren commented Ayaka with an amused smile, while the girl pouted a bit.

“Well, it hasn’t been bad teaming up with you all, but this is it,” Ryo said with overconfidence, crossing his powerful arms. “There’s no way that Ren and I lose a challenge against you two.”

“And I, Pink Candy, have figured out the funniest way to decide the winner, which is…” The influencer finally revealed her left hand, which she had kept hiding behind her back during her speech, “by doing the Pocky Challenge!”

“WHAT?!” Genta and Ryo snapped at the same time while a wave of laughter spread among the rest of the participants.

Eloy gulped, because the perspective of having his first kiss with Genta in front of a crowd while being recorded wasn’t too appealing.

“Now come on finalists! Don’t be shy and climb up the stage!”

“I’ve changed my mind, I cede the victory! I cede the victory!!”

Ryo’s begs were completely ignored, as the six of them were practically dragged to the stage by the staff. Once they all were on the stage, awkwardly facing the audience, King walked towards Pink Candy. He then theatrically raised the box that he had in his hands, showing it to the audience before the influencer kept talking with enthusiasm.

“So, here’s how we’ll do it. Inside here, the names of the remaining contestants and the judges are written, with the exception of the party pooper Mr. Shin who strongly refused to participate, boo!” Mr. Shin looked completely unaffected by the criticism, which provoked a few chuckles among the crowd and also from Shiratori, who softly pressed the composer’s arm in support. “Each one of the six finalists will blindly draw a paper from the box, and will have to do the Pocky challenge with the person whose name is written on the paper. If the finalists win the challenge, they get a point. The team that scores two points wins. If there’s another tie, we’ll repeat the process until there’s a winner!”

“Wait, so then that means that we aren’t doing the challenge with our partners?” Eloy whispered.

“Well, that would be a little stupid,” Ren whispered back as if it was obvious. “I mean, if the members of the pair compete, they are winning a point no matter what.”

“True,” Eloy said without bothering to hide his relief. He heard Genta exhale deeply and noticed that he had suddenly become tenser. “Are you okay?”

“Mm? Yeah. Just want to get it over with.”

“So, let’s start!” Pink Candy said. “Ayaka, hon, since you’re the only lady, you go first!”

Eloy had never been a fan of kissing games, but watching others play was quite funny:

Unsurprisingly, Ayaka obtained an easy victory against the nervous girl whose name had been selected. Kota lost against the girl from ‘The Novas’, but kept his cool rather well - probably because he had entered shutdown mode, as Ayaka playfully called it when the guy was in his world. Ren hadn’t the least trouble in winning against the girl he was paired with, since a wink was enough for her to get nervous and accidentally break the Pocky. Finally, Ryo got so nervous when he was paired up with a guy that he shouted and pulled back when they were halfway through the Pocky, losing the challenge and causing Ren to facepalm in exasperation.

“Well, well, it seems that SevenEG will win if they manage to score two points!” Pink Candy announced as Genta and Eloy approached. Genta was about to draw a paper when Pink Candy stopped him. “Oh no, wait a moment. You’re going against me~.”

“Huh? Why?!” Genta snapped, his indignation causing the crowd - and Eloy - to start laughing.

“Because I wanna play too.” Pink Candy said as if it was obvious, placing a Pocky then between her perfect teeth. “Come on, I’m waiting~.”

Genta exhaled an exasperated curse and reluctantly wrapped his teeth at the other side of Pink Candy’s Pocky.

To everyone’s surprise, not even a second had passed after King finished the countdown when the influencer bit the Pocky with enough force to break it.

“Oh my, how clumsy I am! Well, it’s your victory, hon.” The crowd was divided between laughing and accusing her of losing on purpose. While Genta sustained the broken Pocky with a dumbfounded expression, unsure of what had just happened, Pink Candy addressed Eloy. “So, everything can be decided here!”

Eloy approached King, drew a paper, and his eyes opened wide when reading the name.

“Oh my, it seems like SevenEG is going against the judges tonight!” Pink Candy exclaimed when, with a theatrical gesture, King reached for one of the Pockys, causing the crowd to start whooping.

“I’m really curious to see if you’ll react as little as when I was dancing against you before.”

While King’s flirty comment provoked a new wave of whoops and squeals, Eloy threw a look at Genta. He had expected to see this one looking shocked, and tenser than before, but Genta looked surprisingly...calm. As if he was perfectly okay with everything.

“Does your partner have anything to say against it?” King teased, focusing now on Genta. “I mean, I wouldn’t like to cause a schism between you two.”

“Oh, it’s fine. We need that point.”

Genta’s natural comment provoked new laughs, but Eloy could only feel his heart sink a little.

He wasn’t that childish to want to make Genta jealous with King; but seeing Genta so unbothered, as if he really didn’t care that the former idol and him ended up accidentally kissing because of the challenge, made Eloy think that, maybe, he had been reading everything wrong.

And that he had been completely mistaken in assuming that his most recent interactions with Genta could mean that they were both on the same page.

Eloy carried out the Pocky Challenge with King, but he did it as if he were in automatic mode, since his thoughts were rather far away from there. In fact, he was barely aware that his lips had brushed King’s ever so slightly while securing the last bit of Pocky for himself until hearing the loud reaction of the crowd.

“And SevenEG wins!” Pink Candy announced while applauding. “We’ll reveal the details of the advantage right after the third challenge, but believe us: it’s going to be worth it. Until then, make sure to enjoy the night to the fullest~”

Eloy was still struggling to swallow the Pocky in his mouth, since his throat felt a little tight, when Genta approached him.

“Hey, well done!” Genta congratulated him. “The others have said they wanted to grab a bite, and well, that we should invite them for having won. You coming?”

“Yes, sure,” Eloy said while forcing a smile, hoping not to sound as fake as he heard himself. “But I need to go to the bathroom first. I'll catch up with all of you later.”

The carefree way Genta nodded and kept smiling before joining the rest only augmented the tightness that Eloy felt in his chest.

He quickly went to the bathroom, brusquely opened the water tap, and splashed cold water in his face. He forgot to remove his glasses first though.

“Fuck,” Eloy cursed, removing them brusquely while staring at his reflexion in the mirror. “Get a grip, you idiot. It’s not the first time you go through an unrequited crush. Act with dignity.”

A couple of minutes he was outside again. Eloy took a deep breath, getting ready to pretend to be fine for the rest of the night. He was about to search for the others in the food stands area when someone called his name, making him jump startled.

“Oops. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” King apologized, separating from the wall of the building where he had been leaning.

“It’s okay,” Eloy said. “Did you need something?”

“Actually, yes.” King smiled and tilted his head. “Do you have a minute to talk?”