"Huh? President, you're here?"
"Rinji, you're here too?"
4:00 PM after school—Rinji and Shirogane bumped into each other in front of the karaoke place by the station.
Behind each of them stood a different group. Behind Shirogane were two classmates and a mix of male and female high schoolers in casual clothes.
Behind Rinji were students in Shuchiin's black uniforms—mbers of the cheer squad from the sports festival.
"I was invited to a mixer."
"A mixer, huh?"
"Pretty much."
"I'm here for the cheer squad's celebration party," Rinji said.
He glanced at the group behind Shirogane and asked quietly, "Shinomiya's not here?"
"You know her family situation. There's no way she'd show up to sothing like this."
"No, I an... you ca to a mixer knowing she wouldn't be here? Aren't you trying to get with her?"
"Can you maybe phrase that more delicately?"
Shirogane responded in a low voice, "I just ca because my classmates invited . It's not like I'm here to hit on girls."
"I get that. But the real question is—what If Shinomiya see it?"
"Well... I doubt she knows I'm here."
"Really?"
Rinji looked over at the group of girls behind Shirogane.
One girl stood out: long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, a casual outfit with a simple necklace, and a cute face that easily drew male attention.
This was a mixer, after all—no surprise there were people here with less-than-pure intentions.
But what caught Rinji's eye wasn't her looks—it was the fact that he recognized her.
That was Hayasaka. She'd just put on so makeup and padded her chest.
Knowing her, she wouldn't show up to a mixer on her own. She was probably sent here by Kaguya.
'Not even officially dating yet, and Shinomiya's already setting up anti-cheating counterasures. She might be a bit ssed up.'
"Anyway, President, try not to do anything that'll piss off Shinomiya. It'll hurt your approval rating."
"I told you, I won't."
Rinji nodded and glanced again at the disguised Hayasaka.
She noticed his gaze and quickly looked away, pretending not to know him.
"Takamine-san, finished talking to the president?"
"Yeah, we're good."
Hearing Tsuba calling him, Rinji said goodbye to Shirogane and rejoined the cheer squad group.
The two groups entered the karaoke venue separately.
---
"What's wrong, Rinji?" Ishigami asked as they sat in the booth, watching Rinji stare blankly at the song selection machine. "First ti at a place like this?"
"Pretty much. Never been to karaoke before."
"Don't know how to pick songs?"
"I can pick them."
"Then what's the issue? You're not tone-deaf or anything." Ishigami thought for a mont, then added, "You're struggling with which song to choose, huh?"
"More or less," Rinji replied.
"I get it. Song choice really matters in this kind of setting."
Especially at student gatherings with people you're not super close to, song selection at karaoke becos a strategic decision.
You can't go for really old songs—that'll make you look out of touch. But you also can't choose super hard songs—you'll bomb and embarrass yourself.
And for the love of god, never pick ani songs.
Whoever does will suffer. In Japan, being an otaku doesn't have a great image. Even Ishigami, the classic ani-watching, light-novel-reading nerd, knew to hide his hobbies—like putting fake covers on his books.
Rinji, on the other hand, didn't care. If the situation allowed, he'd openly read erotic books in public without even hiding the covers.
So it wasn't that he didn't know how to pick safe songs—he was debating which of his favorites he should go with.
"If you're really stuck, just grab sothing from this month's Oricon rankings."
"Nah, I've decided."
"Eh?"
"Got to say, this karaoke place has a pretty solid catalog."
"...Just don't do anything crazy."
"Relax. This song's actually pretty popular."
"Okay then."
Following the queue, students started singing one by one.
The cheer squad captain picked a trendy pop song by a famous idol. He wasn't a great singer, but he still got applause.
Tsuba sang a sweet ballad, and her voice was lovely—she got high praise all around.
Then it was Ishigami's turn. Though he really wanted to sing an ani the song he was good at, he didn't want to ruin his school rep, so he picked sothing safe.
He sang decently enough, and everyone clapped politely.
Next up was Onodera Rei. She had solid technique and chose a current hit among girls.
As a textbook JK (Japanese high school girl), she had a much better grasp of trends than Ishigami and Rinji—who were borderline shut-ins.
After finishing her song, she handed the mic to Rinji.
"Your turn, Takamine-san."
"Tch..."
"Hey, I know you're still salty about tricking you into crossdressing, but I didn't think you'd actually fall for it," Onodera said with a laugh. "Besides, everything turned out fine, didn't it?"
"I'll rember this."
Rinji snatched the mic and brought it to his mouth.
"Ooh! Takamine-san's about to sing?"
"Can't wait."
His popularity within the cheer squad was pretty high now, and everyone was curious what kind of song this foreign student would choose.
Suddenly, the karaoke screen turned red and started playing a black-and-white video.
While everyone was trying to guess the song, Rinji began singing.
"Вставай, страна огромная. Вставай на смертный бой."
Ishigami: "...So that's the kind of popular song you ant!? And your Russian pronunciation is way too on point!"
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