Chapter 43 He said some people's friendships had soured...
"Yuya and Zero, the performance was great! Everyone was very excited," said Morofushi Kagemitsu.
After the performance, Rei Furuya and Ikuya Nekono were removing their makeup backstage when they saw Kagemitsu Morofushi as soon as they stepped off the stage. He was waiting for them in the audience, just as he always had, just as he had for many years.
Rei Furuya slightly curved his eyes as he meticulously wiped his cheeks with a makeup remover pad. Normally, his appearance was already outstanding enough that he didn't need makeup. But this time, he was performing on stage, and professional makeup was essential under the bright stage lights.
"Of course, we've prepared very carefully for this performance." He had become quite confident.
"Yes, yes, you prepared very carefully!" Nekono Ikumi threw away the bulging silicone pad on her chest, looking rather unhappy.
"If it weren't for the fact that the president was about to graduate and had been chasing me around for a month, pleading with me in every possible way, appearing like a ghost at any time, with his hands clasped together and looking pitiful saying, 'Please, Nekono, this is my lifelong request,' I wouldn't want Okatori-sama to appear."
Now that they're in high school, the physical differences between boys and girls are becoming more apparent, so it's not as easy for Nekono Ikuya to pretend to be a girl as it was when she was younger.
To make his disguise as perfect as possible, he had to use some props to help him disguise himself, such as silicone breast pads.
"President, I've made such a huge sacrifice for you, you really should thank me properly," thought Nekono Ikuya, staring at the silicone breast pads in the distance.
This wasn't a matter of shame, and Nekono Ikuya didn't care much about that. Rather, the thing was that its weight was very realistic, and naturally, it was really heavy, forcing Nekono Ikuya to shift her center of gravity when she wore it.
To walk gracefully and beautifully requires twice the effort. How do girls adapt to this? Oh, they sometimes switch to high heels that are indeed beautiful, but equally daunting, making it even more difficult to walk elegantly.
As Nekono Yuuya watched the female classmate walking effortlessly past the door in her high heels, carrying miscellaneous items, he thought with a sense of awe, "Indeed, I still have a lot to learn."
"Don't be upset, Yumi. Miss Sakuragi is indeed very popular, isn't she? Or rather, you are the one who is truly popular."
Okuri-sama is a gender-swapped version of Nekono Ikuya, and her appearance was indeed highly anticipated, but what everyone truly loves is the ever-changing Nekono Ikuya.
Morofushi Kagemitsu glanced at the silicone breast pad that Nekono Ikuya had thrown far away, then looked at Nekono Ikuya. In fact, in his opinion, Nekono Ikuya could play the gender-swapped version of himself very well without any disguise, but since Nekono Ikuya always wanted to be perfect in the face of her classmates' expectations, there was nothing he could do about it.
At the same time, a strange feeling flashed through Morofushi Hiromitsu's mind. Why was Zero suddenly silent, not saying a word? Was she seriously removing her makeup?
He didn't think about it carefully.
Upon hearing this, Nekono Ikuya became cheerful. He clapped his hands, stood up, and looked at Furuya Rei and Morofushi Kagemitsu. He hadn't changed his clothes; he was still wearing the same androgynous pantsuits and long black hair he wore during the performance, and even the makeup necessary for the show was the same. But the feeling he gave off was different from before.
It was still that face, still those deep, emerald-green eyes. The corners of his eyes still naturally upturned, but the inexplicable allure in his eyes was gone, and his whole face suddenly became handsome and refined. In the blink of an eye, Nekono Ikuya seemed like a completely different person.
Morofushi Kagemitsu blinked, looking at Nekono Ikuya, whose gender was now perfectly consistent, with a hint of amazement. This was true gender-swap performance, wasn't it? A one-second switch?
To be honest, stage makeup is usually more exaggerated than everyday makeup to adapt to the lighting, which is not suitable for daily outings. But no matter what the style is, it looks harmonious on Yoshimi Nekono, because he suppresses all the incongruity with his eyes and temperament.
Looking at his handsome features, many people couldn't even notice that he was wearing makeup.
"Let's go, Kagemitsu, Furuya-kun, let's go back." Nekono Ikuya called to Morofushi Kagemitsu and Furuya Rei, who had changed his clothes, to go back with him.
After saying that, he walked to Morofushi Kagemitsu's side with a smile that was no different from usual.
"Hmm." Furuya Rei didn't look at Nekono Ikuya, he just nodded and gave a soft "hmm."
Then he packed his things, got up, and walked silently to the other side of Morofushi Kagemitsu as if nothing had happened.
Suddenly sandwiched between Nekono Ikuya and Furuya Rei, Morofushi Kagemitsu thought, "???" Something feels off.
No, Morofushi Kagemitsu wasn't saying that it was wrong for him to be in the middle. The three of them never had a fixed position; anyone could be in the middle.
Most of the time, it was Nekono Ikuya walking in the middle, because he was more outgoing and often suggested outings. For example, "Manten has a new game, let's go play it together," "Do you want to go to the zoo? I heard there's a panda there," "My dad built an amusement park as a birthday present for me, do you want to come with me to open it?" and so on.
But it's common for him and Rei Furuya to walk in the middle, so it's not unusual.
Can--
As Morofushi Kagemitsu was being carried along by Nekono Ikuya and Furuya Rei, he slowly frowned as he listened to their noisy chatter.
Nekono Ikuya: "Kagemitsu, you said..."
Rei Furuya: "Hiro, look..."
Scenery, scenery, scenery...
hiro, hiro, hiro…
The chibi-style faces of Nekono Ikuya and Furuya Rei spun endlessly in Morofushi Kagemitsu's mind as they shouted "Kagemitsu" and "Hiro."
Morobuchi Kagemitsu smiled politely: He had never heard his name mentioned so frequently before; it was driving him crazy.
Why are you all suddenly talking so much today? And why aren't you talking to each other?
He was speechless and immediately stopped in his tracks.
That's right, his two friends weren't arguing with each other, they were just arguing with him in perfect unison!
“???” Nekono Ikuya and Furuya Rei stopped with Morofushi Kagemitsu and looked at him from the left and right.
"Jingguang, what's wrong?" ×2
Why did it suddenly stop? The emerald green eyes and the purplish-gray eyes asked him at the same time.
"You two," Morofushi Kagemitsu asked hesitantly, "have you two had a falling out?"
When did Zero and Yuya have a falling out? How come he didn't know? Morofushi Kagemitsu was completely confused. They were fine just now during the performance!
"A quarrel?" Nekono Ikuya and Furuya Rei exchanged a quick glance before looking away.
They said in unison, "No."
Her bright green, upturned cat eyes and her purplish-gray, drooping eyes widened involuntarily, staring at him innocently without blinking, as if trying to increase her credibility.
There really wasn't any argument.
"Really not?" Morofushi Kagemitsu looked at Nekono Ikuya and Furuya Rei, who both looked suspiciously innocent. He narrowed his eyes in disbelief.
Why didn't you two say a single word to each other for so long? Why did you keep trying to make small talk with me? That's so strange!
"You two really didn't have a falling out?" Zhu Fujingguang asked suspiciously.
Nekono Ikuya and Furuya Rei both shook their heads swiftly and firmly: "Absolutely not!"
"Alright." Morofushi Kagemitsu withdrew his sharp gaze and let them go for the time being.
call.
For some reason, Nekono Ikuya and Furuya Rei breathed a sigh of relief, and their eyes unconsciously glanced at each other.
Then--"!!!"
Their eyes met again by accident!
"Thump thump thump!" My heart was pounding like a drum.
The two hurriedly looked away.
Their gazes wandered, looking at the sky, the ground, and the cherry blossoms on both sides! But they never looked towards the center!
The ears, though of different colors, were subtly tinged with a similar rosy hue. They fell silent.
After being dragged around and annoyed by Nekono Ikuya and Furuya Rei, Morofushi Kagemitsu was frozen in place by their strange silence at the same time: "..."
He looked left and right, savoring the subtle atmosphere around him, and slowly opened his eyes to reveal a crescent moon shape.
Sure enough, something still feels off.
...
After that day, Morofushi Kagemitsu quietly focused more attention on his two friends who were gradually becoming strange.
He noticed that Nekono Ikuya and Furuya Rei had started to stop talking to each other. No, it wasn't that they stopped talking to each other; that was far too strong a word.
Morofushi Kagemitsu carefully considered more precise wording. They seemed to want to speak to each other but were deliberately avoiding each other for some reason.
As a mutual friend of the two, Morofushi Kagemitsu was frequently mentioned by them during this period.
Nekono Ikuya turned around and leaned on Morofushi Kagemitsu's desk: "Kagemitsu..." But Morofushi Kagemitsu noticed that his peripheral vision seemed to be looking at Furuya Rei.
A moment later, Furuya Rei also turned his head as if by accident: "hiro..." But Morofushi Kagemitsu would bet that he came up with the topic on the spot, just to make it seem like he was just casually glancing at Nekono Ikuya.
For a moment, Morofushi Kagemitsu, whose presence among the three was both unprecedentedly strong and inexplicably weak, was speechless.
Damn it, even though Nekono Ikuya and Furuya Rei have been making conversation with him all the time lately, he still feels strangely excluded.
The astute Morofushi Kagemitsu realized that perhaps the friendship among some of them had soured.
...Perhaps it hasn't changed? Speaking of which, has the way Zero and Ikuya have always interacted been the way friends interact? Morofushi Kagemitsu began to have doubts.
During an outdoor activity class, the sun was shining brightly, and Nekono Ikuya, Morofushi Kagemitsu, and Furuya Rei sat under the cherry blossom tree basking in the sun as usual.
Nekono Ikuya and Morofushi Kagemitsu were chatting idly, while Furuya Rei, the "King of Maki," was studying with a notebook and pencil on the side.
Nekono-kun has always easily gotten perfect scores in every subject, so he can't fall behind. After all, Furuya Rei's ears turned slightly red.
After all, seeing his name alongside Nekono's on the report card always brought him a secret joy.
Most of the time, their names were listed side by side. Initially, it was on the report card, but later he—and perhaps Nekono-kun also cooperated—guided them to various places where their names needed to be listed, which had become a habit for all the students in the school.
Ryougu Zero: Cunning +1.
"Haha." When she got to the point of being very excited, Nekono Ikumi tilted her head back slightly and laughed happily.
His eyes were filled with pure joy, his gaze wandering aimlessly until it suddenly met the eyes of Rei Furuya, who was quietly looking over.
And so, their gazes, like positive and negative magnetic poles, suddenly attracted each other, silently clashing together.
Sometimes that happens; Morofushi Kagemitsu, instantly becoming invisible, remains expressionless. He'd always said that some friendships had soured.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com