<Author's Note>
Warning!
After the short story, at the very bottom (afterword section), there is a character design image of Yuri Azuma. If you prefer to keep her visual only in your imagination, please be careful about viewing it.
After finishing the third shoot, I headed toward Class 4 with the blonde-haired lady.
As we passed the Class 6 classroom, which was on the way—
"Hmm. You don't really have to walk me back, you know?" Sako tilted her head slightly.
"Ah, no, I just have business in Class 4..."
Plus, it's more comfortable going to other classes when you're with someone from that class.
"...Hmph."
Apparently dissatisfied with my answer, Sako pouted her lips by a fraction of a millimeter and started walking again.
That said, there was no guarantee the person I was looking for was back yet. If she wasn't there, I figured I’d just try sending her a LINE. Just then—
"Oh, Konuma and Sakohasu. Isn't it rare to see you two together during lunch break?"
Talk about perfect timing.
She seemed to have just returned. Azuma-nee-san, wearing a summer vest, appeared from around the corner and raised her right hand with a "Yo."
"Yurisuke, is your noon practice over?"
"Yeah, I have to eat lunch, after all."
Saying that, Azuma lightly held up a transparent plastic bag from the store in her left hand. Inside the bag were an onigiri and a can of Calpis Water.
"What's with that food pairing..." Sako said, looking a bit disgusted.
"Eh, really? Is it weird?" Azuma raised the bag to eye level and peered at it with a thoughtful "Mmm..."
"Um, do high schoolers not eat onigiri and Calpis together...?"
"No, if anything, only middle or high schoolers would ever go for a pairing like that," Sako answered, sounding exasperated at Azuma’s anxious question.
Hearing that response—
"In that case, it’s the taste of youth!" the Instrumental Club President said with sparkling eyes and a brilliant smile.
"Sigh, yeah, sure, whatever..."
Man, the President's criteria for action really never wavers...
"So, what's up with you, Konuma?" Azuma turned the conversation to me as I watched her with more admiration than exasperation.
"Ah, well, I had business with you, Azuma, but if you're about to eat, I can come back after school."
"Hmm? What is it?" Azuma-nee-san tilted her head with a smile, as if saying, 'Just tell me for now.'
Well, if that's the case...
"Um, it's about the shoot for the Miss Contest."
The moment I said that—
"Unya!? The Miss Contest!?"
Her loud voice echoed through the hallway.
"Too loud..." Sako’s shoulders jumped, and she reflexively covered her ears.
The owner of the loud voice was trembling, her face filled with disbelief.
"Is it okay if it's me...?"
Even if she looked at me with such pure eyes, I was just the one who took on the role of photographer, so I didn't know if she was the right choice. But—
"What's wrong with it being Yurisuke?"
I agreed with Sako's opinion.
Actually, was Azuma not entered last year?
"Um, who are the other candidates...?"
"Ichikawa, Erina-san, and Sako."
"No way... You're saying I'm standing on the same stage as amane-sama...!?"
"Hey, me and Erina are there too."
Sako, having been treated as if she didn't even exist in Azuma's eyes, threw in a naturally sullen retort. However, Azuma didn't even respond, remaining in a daze, so it was unclear what she actually thought. (A Shin-Koganei Division occurred without any rhyme or reason.)
"E-Err... so, I want to take your photo, Azuma. Can you give me a bit of time before you go to your club activities after school?"
"Fueh...?"
"Seriously, you're spacing out too much..."
Even an artist who just got a CD debut wouldn't react that much, would they?
"Hey, Yurisuke. You're normally cute, you know. I’m telling you, you're cuter than that woman."
Sako-san is calling Ichikawa 'that woman' again... Does she hate her? Or is she just acting tough because she wants to hate her? Is she a tsundere?
"No, no, for someone like me to be chosen is just unthinkable..."
"That way of talking isn't cute..."
Azuma, who had become humble as her 'believer mode' accelerated, messed with her hair with her right hand.
"S-Sorry... it hasn't really sunk in yet... Um, the shoot is fine now. Actually, as the President, I can't be late for the club after school, so now is better. If that's the case, I won't eat lunch."
"Eh, you're fine not eating lunch?"
"Yeah, because I'll probably look thinner if I don't eat..."
"No, isn't that a bit too stoic? You won't get fat that instantly, and you weren't fat to begin with..."
"Eh, you think so?"
Because Azuma asked while patting her own body, I ended up becoming conscious of her figure.
"A-Anyway, i-f-f we're gonna t-take the photos, let's d-do it q-quickly."
Stuttering like crazy, I hurried down the hallway.
"Oh, Konuma-kun, what’s wrong?"
Usually, she’d get it in one shot with her 'Mind Reading,' but Azuma followed me, pitter-pattering along while asking questions in a tone like that time during the test of courage.
"Dammit..."
I heard a certain blonde’s very frustrated voice and the sound of someone patting their own body from behind me.
We returned once again to the empty classroom that had somehow turned into a photo studio.
"Alright, I'm going to take them, so stand by the wall."
"U-Understood."
Azuma nodded nervously.
I gently readied the camera.
Then, Azuma stood at attention and asked—
"W-Where should I look...?" she said, looking bewildered.
She seemed so nervous that I felt sorry for her, so I lowered the camera for a moment.
"Azuma, are you not used to having your picture taken? Well, I’m not one to talk..."
"Ah—... Well, it’s true that I’m not very good with photos, but it’s not just that. How do I put it..."
Azuma, unusually timid and fidgety, eventually seemed to make up her mind. She raised her face and looked me straight in the eyes.
"Hey, Konuma. Is it really okay for someone like me to be a Miss Contest candidate?"
"Huh?"
I let out a dumb-sounding voice at the repeated question.
"No, I mean, it's just like Sako said earlier..."
"The person Sakohasu called cute is the 'dressed-up' version of me, right?"
"...What do you mean?"
When I asked, Azuma looked down slightly with a shy smile and continued.
"I told you about it a little while ago, right? About how I had a 'high school debut.'"
"Well, I heard about that..."
If I recall, she was away from the center of the class in middle school, people saw her writing lyrics and such, and she couldn't lead the youth she had envisioned.
"That's why, the real me—or rather, the raw me—isn't like this. I wanted to be like amane-sama, whom I admired in middle school, or like those kids at the center of the class... So I somehow found parts of myself I could show, and I hid and patched up all the many ugly parts. I'm just barely managing to pull it off."
"I see..." I tilted my head.
"In other words, the me everyone sees is an imitation... a sham. That's why I wonder if someone like me is okay... because I know that I'm not really like this."
"...Are you saying the usual Azuma is a lie?"
"Hmm, I wouldn't go as far as to say a lie, but..."
Azuma laughed self-deprecatingly and looked down.
I scratched my head.
Telling her to have confidence isn't something I can or intend to say, but I thought there was something logically wrong with what Azuma just said.
"Um. For example, let's say there's someone who's bad at an instrument, right? Or rather, everyone's a beginner at first, so everyone starts from being bad. When that person practices hard and gets good, do you think anyone would say, 'You were originally bad,' or 'The real you is bad at it'?"
"Hoe?"
She let out a cute sound and tilted her head as I suddenly started talking at length.
"Sorry, the analogy was a bit poor and hard to understand..."
Then she furrowed her brows and said something not cute at all. Wow, for someone so insecure, she's quite harsh...
"No, I mean, the current Azuma..."
Being that cute is—I was about to continue but swallowed the words.
"...Ah, um, in other words, the fact that you’ve become someone who could be chosen for the Miss Contest is nothing but the result of your own effort, right?"
Azuma opened her large eyes even wider.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm saying that all the parts you layered on top of the original Azuma through effort are also part of Azuma herself."
"...Really?"
"Really."
Azuma looked at my expression with wide eyes and whispered softly, "I see, so that's what you truly think..."
And then, eventually—
"Phew—..."
She dropped her shoulders with a deep sigh.
"Why the sigh...?"
"Konuma-kun... do you really do that kind of thing unconsciously?"
She looked at me from the corner of her eye.
"Huh?"
"...No, it's nothing!"
This time, I was the one furrowing my brows and making a very unpleasant face, but she ignored it. She put both hands behind her back and stretched, as if something had been cleared away.
"Somehow, I feel refreshed!"
Azuma looked at me with a grin.
"I feel like I can handle the photos now."
"O-Oh."
I hurriedly restarted the camera while that feeling lasted.
"Hey, Konuma."
"Hmm?"
When I answered while looking at the settings screen, I heard a voice that sounded unusually embarrassed.
"Um... thank you, okay?"
"Huh?"
Because she said something so rare, I looked away from the screen toward her.
"Wait, don't look over here!"
Azuma's face was turning red.
"Well, I can't take the photo if I don't look... Alright, I'm taking it."
Feeling a bit embarrassed myself, I gently readied the camera as a way to hide it.
Through the viewfinder, Azuma smiled modestly, put her left hand behind her back, and made a shape with her right hand that was somewhere between a palm and a peace sign—I don't know how to describe it, it was like a failed attempt at a peace sign.
"What's with that pose..."
"I wonder, haha."
But that pose of Azuma's was... well.
It was completely different from the gyaru I imagined, and it was a totally nonsensical thing that a normie probably wouldn't do.
And that was exactly why I thought it was so 'Azuma-like' and incredibly charming.
"...Seriously, you're a bad guy."