As Raiden and I head out of the classroom towards the
cafeteria, we only make it about a dozen steps before we're halted in our
tracks. "Hey, Ken! Raiden!" Oh, great. This is the last thing I need
today.
Harumi Nakata and her two followers are casually leaning
against the wall to our right. I can only imagine that in order to have gotten
here so quickly, they must have wrangled their way out of their lessons early.
That is, if they even showed up.
Harumi holds up a CD case, looking for all the world like
a sweet, innocent idol. "Want a signed copy of Harumi-tan's new demo
CD?" she asks. "This is an exclusive, not even in the stores
yet~"
"Have any of your CDs ever actually been sold in
stores?" asks Raiden rather pointedly.
"Of course they have, don't be silly," says
Harumi. "Harumi-tan s a famous idol, after all."
"No, you're just a bimbo with an over-inflated
ego," I retort. Ahh… that feels better. Projecting my stress onto Harumi
is a good way to relieve myself from the troublesome events of the past few
hours. It also has the side effect of winding Harumi up, which is always fun.
"Any "ego" Harumi-tan may have is
perfectly justified, thank you very much," she says, pouting.
To demonstrate, the girl on Harumi's left grabs a passing
freshman girl by the arm and pulls her over to us. "Excuse me, miss,"
she says. "You're a fan of Harumi-tan, right?"
"Uhh… of course!" squeaks the girl. Her tone of
voice and facial expression indicate that she's only saying this so that the slightly
psychotic-looking girl holding her arm doesn't punch her in the face or
something. Nonetheless, it's what Harumi's follower wanted to hear, so she
promptly continues.
"Would you be interested in a signed copy of her new
demo CD?" she asks.
"O-of course!" says the freshman.
Harumi's other follower (I really should learn their
names at some point) takes a CD out of her rucksack and hands it to Harumi, who
takes out what looks like a permanent marker from her breast pocket. Harumi
happens to be left handed; of course, she makes a big deal out of this as part
of her idol persona. "So, who should Harumi-tan make this out to?"
asks Harumi sweetly.
"Uhh… Senomiya." says the freshman.
"To Senomiya-san…" Harumi-tan… uhh, I mean
Harumi… shit, it's rubbing off on me now... uhh, Harumi signs the CD and hands
it to the girl. Well, I assume the squiggle is her signature. It just looks
like… well, a squiggle.
"Thanks, Harumi-tan," says the freshman, still
rather bemused by the whole ordeal.
Harumi smiles a sickly-sweet false smile. "Harumi-tan
will do anything for her beloved fans~"
The bemused girl hurries off on her way, and as he
vanishes into the crowd, I'm convinced that I see her quietly slip the CD into
another student's backpack. Harumi, wrapped up in her own smugness, doesn't
notice. "Now, where were we?" she asks. "Ah, yes. Two more CDs
for our friends here, please~"
I'm about to point out that we never asked for any CDs
when Raiden puts a hand on my shoulder, speaking to me in a low, quiet voice. "Hey,
the sooner we get outta here, the sooner we can eat," he says. "And I
dunno about you, but I'm starving. So let's just take the damn CDs, and find a
bin to dump 'em in on the way to the cafeteria."
"Ahem." We abruptly turn back to Harumi to find
her holding out the already-signed CDs. I guess that settles that, then. I
wonder whether she heard Raiden talking about his plan to dump the CDs. If she
did, she isn't letting on.
Raiden immediately takes his CD and heads off without
another word. Harumi's sickly-sweet expression sours in an instant, her idol
persona slipping momentarily. "How ungrateful," she scowls. "I
give him a free signed copy of my new CD, instead of charging him 2000 yen for
it, and does he thank me? No!"
I decide it's not worth invoking Harumi's wrath as well.
For now, it's best to just play along. I take the remaining CD from her and bow
slightly. "Thank you very much, Harumi-tan," I say.
The smile returns to Harumi's face as her ego is sated.
"You're most welcome, Kentaro-kun~ " she says. "Harumi-tan has
no further use for you. You may go now~" She waves a hand as if to shoo me
away.
"Alright," I say. "I'll see you later,
Harumi, and, uhh…" Well, I'd been meaning to ask anyway, so I might as
well. "…what were your names again?"
Both of Harumi's followers look a little wounded, perhaps
understandably. The aggressive-looking one swiftly answers me. "I'm
Suzume," she says. "That's Yuuka." She thumbs in the direction
of the other girl, who nods to confirm this.
"Ah, okay. I was wondering what your names
were," I admit. "Thanks." Suzume merely grunts in response.
"Wonderful, everyone knows who everyone is now.
Weren't you going, Kentaro?" Harumi's sharp, sarcastic voice and pointed
gaze cut through the atmosphere like a knife.
"Yes, yes I was," I say, nodding.
"Well then."
All too glad to get away from Harumi, I hurry to catch up
to Raiden. I eventually catch up to him just outside the cafeteria. "Oh,
there you are," he says as he spots me. "I was worried for a second
there. Was that harpy holding you up?"
"Yeah," I say, nodding.
"Still got your CD?" asks Raiden.
"Yeah," I reply, holding it up so he can see.
"I was gonna dump it like you said, but I was too busy catching up to
you."
"That's alright, I got a better idea," says
Raiden, smiling. "Give it here."
I hand the CD over to him. "Do I wanna know what
you're planning to do with this?" I ask him.
"I'll answer that with a question of my own,"
says Raiden. "Do you know what happens when you put a CD in a
microwave?"
"No…" I say warily.
An almost frightening grin spreads across Raiden's face.
"Well, you're gonna find out," he says. "I'll send you the
footage, just as soon as I get hold of another microwave. Anyway, come
on," he continues, gesturing in the direction of the cafeteria entrance. "There's
a bowl of mapo tofu in there with my name on it."
"I'm right behind you." Raiden puts the CDs
away in his rucksack, and the two of us finally make our way into the
cafeteria.
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