Who Wants to be on a Dating Show?

“E-Excuse me, but… what game show… are you putting on…?” Shiori trembled with her effort to hold a conversation with the student council president.

The president turned to the girl at his side. “Kanna, would you like to explain it?”

“It would be my pleasure.” She dipped her head to the president and turned to Shiori. “The student council is putting together a reality dating show–”

Yuta huffed. “Did you get permission from the school?”

“–with the principal’s permission. Six students are selected, and they are filmed spending time together after school.”

“T-That doesn’t sound like… something you can do… in one day…”

“No, it’s not.”

The president closed his laptop. “The game show we are hosting is related to the reality dating show. We have made a list of questions, and each participant submits their answer to each one. During the culture festival, we will be playing ‘Who Do You Know Best?’.”

“I’ve never heard of that. Did you make it up?”

Kanna cleared her throat. “Essentially, yes. But this sort of thing has been done many times before.”

“W-What is it…?”

“The participants will be presented with a question. There will either be one answer given, or all of them. The participant will then try to guess who each answer belongs to.”

“The goal of the game show is to introduce the reality dating show and get more people interested in it. It also helps us decide who should be paired off with who. The problem is…”

Yuki sat up and inspected the poster beneath her. “The problem is, we only have four of the six participants.”

“It takes time to get everyone’s answers, so finding more participants is a high priority right now. Unfortunately, no one that would be a good addition to the show is interested.”

‘I feel like that last part was a jab at people like Hitomura… Knowing him, he would be all over this.’

Kanna leaned in to whisper something in the president’s ear.

He nodded a few times to what she was saying. When she stood straight again, he clasped his hands in front of him. “Seeing that you two are here, and we are in need of two people for the show…”

Yuta and Shiori exchanged glances.

“Would you like to participate in the reality dating show?”

Without a second thought, Yuta rejected the invitation. “Nope. No way, not going to do that. Never in a million years.”

“May I ask why not?”

“A reality dating show takes a lot of time to film, and I’m not about to waste several hours a week that I could have used studying for exams.”

“I see… Minori did say you value your grades more than anything else.”

“Well…”

“What about you, Ozaki? Would you be willing to participate?”

Her cheeks flushed at the thought of being on a reality dating show. She shook her head profusely. “I-I-I don’t t-think I could… h-handle that…”

The president rubbed his temples. “That’s too bad… It seems we’ll have to continue looking. I don’t know who will agree on such short notice…”

“If you just need a pair that gets along well, I have an idea.”

“Oh, you do? Please, do let me hear.”

“There’s a guy named Kazuya Hitomura, and a girl that transferred here. Her name is Kotori Itsuka.” ‘Normally I would have suggested Kurosawa instead of Kotori, since she would definitely bring attention to the show, but I doubt she would be interested. Besides, she already has too much to do after school.’

Yuki perked up upon hearing Kotori’s name. “Did someone really…”

“Thank you for your suggestion. I’ll consider them. Whether they will be cast depends on their willingness and if they seem like they will be entertaining to watch.”

“Oh, trust me. They’ll be entertaining.”

“Now that that’s out of the way… Ozaki, you can grab one of the blank posters next to Yuki and choose a design that Kanna has made. There are pencils, erasers, and markers in the bottom cabinet to your right.”

Shiori gave a brief nod and picked up a large sheet of paper from a pile on Yuki’s left.

Yuta watched Shiori get the needed supplies. “I’ll be studying in the hall. Let me know when you’re done, Shiori.”

“Okay…”

He exited the room, closing the door behind him. Removing his bag from his shoulder, he dug out his history textbook and sat down on the side of the hall opposite the student council room. He texted his father to let him know he likely wouldn’t be home for a while.

…

The sun was starting to set by the time Shiori left the student council room. Yuta was satisfied with the amount of history he had studied, but he planned on studying another subject when he returned home.

“I’m ready to go…”

He looked up and closed his textbook, placing it in the bag that sat by his side. “How was it?”

“It was okay…”

“Did they try to talk to you while you were working?”

Shiori shook her head. “They could tell I was uncomfortable…”

“At least they know not to push you beyond your limit.” He stood up and slung his bag over his shoulder. “The president was nicer than I thought he would be.”

“You didn’t think he would be nice…?”

“To be honest, I thought he would be at least a little arrogant.”

“Why?”

They started down the hall. “I believed the only type of person Ichinose would fall for was someone with a bigger ego than hers.”

“You think too little of Ichinose…”

“Obviously. She’s been bullying you. I’m not going to think positively of anyone who does that.”

Shiori lowered her head and didn’t respond.

Yuta tried to strike up another conversation outside of the school. “Have you been enjoying the stuff Hitomura bought you?”

“I haven’t finished the game yet… But the anime was nice…”

“Are you enjoying the game so far?”

Blush rose to her cheeks. “S-Somewhat… I-It has a good… story…”

Yuta chuckled. ‘She’s a sucker for romance… Not as much as Hitomura, though. She doesn’t want it in real life. At least… I don’t think she does.’