Chapter 3: Conflict

Everyone’s eyes were fixed on Hikari, who opened the door and came in.

“What is it, what’s wrong with you all?”

“…Hina’s earring is missing. Do you know anything about it?”

She spoke calmly, but my eyes were already fixed on her ears.

The earring of the missing idol member, and the nephew of the agency president who was wearing the same one in her ear.

Isn’t the evidence somewhat certain?

“Where did you get that earring? I hadn’t seen it until just now.”

If I spoke properly here and now, it was an implicit expression of willingness to let it slide.

“….Are you doubting me right now?”

Hikari made a dumbfounded expression.

The earring on her ear swung back and forth.

“….Stay still.”

“Ahhh!!”

I grabbed Hikari’s wrist and pulled her towards me.

I guess I exerted too much force at that moment.

Hikari screamed, perhaps because she was in pain.

I didn’t care and looked closely at the earring on her ear.

Since I had met Hina a few times, I knew the common characteristics of her handicrafts.

The ones she made as gifts all had their initials engraved on them.

As expected,

“….That’s right. Hina’s.”

Hina’s initials were engraved on the back of the earrings.

Silence fell on the waiting room at this absurd situation.

“…I didn’t know you would steal so brazenly on the first day of your activity.”

“What? I just borrowed them because they looked pretty.”

“….What?”

“Okay, I’ll give them back. Okay?”

Hikari shook off my hand that was holding her wrist and took off the earrings as if nothing had happened and handed them to Hina.

I couldn’t speak because I was so dumbfounded by her reaction.

What on earth was going on in her head that she could say such things so casually?

It’s common sense that you have to get permission from the owner to borrow something.

Otherwise, it’s just stealing.

Doesn’t she know that she’s already getting glares from her teammates because she came in by parachute?

‘I don’t think she was originally that kind of kid.’

Even in the original game, Hikari was oblivious.

She would approach someone who was sad and scratch them without permission.

However, she didn’t steal Hina’s earrings.

‘Because that was Ren’s doing.’

It was one of the events where they hid Hina’s earrings and tried to frame Hikari to isolate her from the group.

Of course, when the truth was revealed later, Ren ended up losing all trust from the members.

“…What is that guy?”

Yui let out a laugh at Hikari’s reaction, as if she was dumbfounded.

I would have liked to agree with her, but unfortunately, it wasn’t the time for that right now.

Filming for Part 2 was about to begin.

“…I’ll talk to the president later, so everyone, relax your expressions for now. You can’t go on air like that.”

“Yes… Ren…”

If that person were a proper adult, he would have properly scolded his nephew.

The content of the filming for Part 2 was simpler than Part 1.

Just a few conversations, song promotions, and new member introductions.

“By the way, we have a new member added to Cornelia this time?”

“….Yes, we have a new maknae joining our group this time.”

The host started talking first, so I took over and started introducing myself.

This is the first time I’ve ever been this annoyed by a member introduction.

“Then, please give a big round of applause to the new Cornelia member who is being revealed for the first time on this show!”

Hikari smiled brightly and answered the host’s words.

“Hello~! I’m Hikari, Cornelia’s new maknae!”

Clap, clap!

The panelists applauded and welcomed her lively self-introduction.

‘….This is ridiculous.’

I barely managed to suppress a frown at the contrast of her attitude from just a moment ago when she had stolen her senior’s things and not even reflected on it.

The other kids seemed to have a lot of things piled up too, but since they knew it was a broadcast, they didn’t say anything.

“Wow, you’re really pretty.”

“Hehe, I hear that a lot. Thank you!”

The host naturally changed the topic from the new song to Hikari.

‘The purpose of appearing on this show was clearly to promote the new song.’

The main topic had been pushed to the back burner.

‘No, maybe Hikari was the main topic.’

Maybe they had us on from the beginning as bait to promote the new song.

It would have been better to have all the existing members appear rather than one person we’ve never seen before.

‘It feels bad because it seems like they’re being used as reinforcement material.’

We were doing our best to make this song a hit, but the president seemed to be only interested in taking care of his nephew, so I laughed in vain.

‘Of course, there’s nothing we can do about that.’

Anyway, if we were to argue about that issue, he’d probably just say that he could draw our attention through the new member, so it was better for our mental health to just ignore it.

Just as the broadcast was going well, an unexpected situation occurred.

“Could you sing a song for me?”

“…. Huh?”

The host, who was talking about her in a good way, suddenly asked Hikari to sing a song.

At those words, I suddenly remembered Hikari’s hopeless singing skills.

‘…No.’

Even though the topic had shifted to the new member, this was still a place to promote our new song.

If we brought in a new member while generating a lot of buzz, what if that member can’t sing properly?

It would automatically be a blow to both our group and Hikari.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think that’ll work.”

“Huh…?”

Before Hikari could answer, I quickly struck first.

The audience reacted in a flustered manner, as if they hadn’t expected this situation.

“Hikari doesn’t know the lyrics very well yet. She’s a new member who just joined.”

“Oh, I see…”

We hadn’t heard in advance that Hikari would be participating.

We didn’t have time to properly prepare her for vocal training.

If we had known this would happen, we would have stayed up all night and worked hard.

Most of the audience nodded in agreement with what I said.

If Hikari was really bad, the broadcasting station would probably cut her out, but at least the impressions of the people here would remain.

Just as we were about to safely move on to the new song, Hikari suddenly raised her hand.

“It’s okay! Senpai! I can do it!”

“What…?”

I couldn’t help but be dumbfounded by her confident response.

The theft just now, and this non-consensual behavior right now.

Where on earth does that confidence come from? Is she a psychopath?

“Well, since you’re going that far. Can you let me sing one song first…?”

The host, who had been watching my reaction, spoke carefully.

“Haa…”

I let out a long sigh as my head started to hurt.

It was a sign of agreement that I should just do whatever I wanted.

“Um, Unnie… Is this okay…?”

“…Well, if it’s too bad, I’ll just cut you out.”

While I was reassuring Airi, who was worried, Hikari headed to the center of the set and started singing.

⸻!

And I couldn’t help but be surprised when I heard her voice.

‘….Huh?’

Hikari’s singing skills had noticeably improved.

Not only was the irritating breathing sound gone, but the annoying beeping sound that would bother my ears whenever there was a chance was also gone.

She was still a bit behind us, but she would have been good enough to be a vocalist in another idol group.

My expression began to waver at the change that would make me mistake her for someone else.

‘Could it be that she was hiding her skills back then?’

Given Hikari’s personality of always doing her best in everything, there was no reason for her to hide her skills from me.

She hadn’t shown any hostile reactions to me yesterday, either.

“….Yes, I enjoyed the song.”

When Hikari’s short song ended, the audience erupted in applause.

A rookie who had been an ordinary person until a few days ago had shown skills that were superior to those of an average idol.

‘Well, thanks to that, I ended up looking a little funny.’

If that were the case, what would become of what I just said?

I looked around softly.

It’s obvious that some of these people who like to slander have already made up their minds about this fact.

They’re basically seniors who harass talented new recruits.

Isn’t that too much of a delusion?

‘How can the original story be like this?’

In the original, a similar incident began, and Ren’s full-scale bullying of Hikari started.

In addition, since there were so many strange people in this industry, my natural misanthropy also played a part.

Suddenly, my eyes met with Hikari’s as she turned around.

“Senior! How was I?”

Hikari noticed my gaze and approached me with a grin.

It was a smile that I couldn’t read at all.

“…Yeah, you did well this time.”

No matter what I said, Hikari sang and received good reviews from the cast.

Whether I hated Hikari or not, at least in this situation, there was nothing I could gain by criticizing her.

In this situation, it would actually be better for me to quietly praise her.

“……Huh?”

Hikari’s reaction to my words became unusual.