‘You know, I started to think that Takaki asked me to be your bodyguard on purpose.’

   I had to wait for a second until Nitta is done typing on her phone and shows me what she typed.

   ‘What makes you think that?’

   ‘For one thing, you guys have Motozawa. No offense to the fella, but he’s way, way more intimidating than I am. He’s a much better candidate than me if you really needed one.’

   ‘Motozawa-kun has a girlfriend. Bad rumors would be spread if he was seen with me.’ she reminds me.

   ‘Fair enough. But there was also that time when everyone else left out alone in the student council’s office and took ages to come back. You know, right before that happened?’

   ‘Ah, yes. That.’

   For those you who’re slow, I was talking about my confession. For obvious reasons, I can’t talk about it out loud since we’re walking down the corridor with lots of students. As to why we’re here, it’s lunchtime right now. We’re on our way to have our meal at the student council’s office again.

   ‘It was really suspicious. It’s like they left us alone on purpose.’ I continue.

   ‘Ah, about that…’

   I look at her. She’s totally averting her eyes.

   ‘...So it was on purpose?’

   ‘Yup.’

   ‘I see. I’m surprised they’re willing to play along, though.’

   ‘I asked them to.’

   ‘Wow. You’re bolder than I thought.’

   She winks at me.

   ‘Duh! Did you think that the Japan’s number one idol will back down on love?’

   What I’m about to say is not suitable to be said in public, so I asked for her phone and typed the message that I want to tell her. After I’m done, I pass the phone back to her.

   ‘Sure, the number one (lol) idol who needed to be confessed to.’ I wrote.

   She smacks my back with her tiny fist.

   ‘Just for the record, I was going to do that! It’s just that you were faster than me!’

   ‘Sure, sure.’

   ‘You’re making fun of me again, aren’t you? And what’s with the (lol)?’

   As we’re walking, all the students that we pass by are staring at us. It has been almost a week since Nitta has lost her voice. Even so, her worried fans are still trying to comfort her, give her some get-well gifts or just generally talk to her. However, they’re all restraining themselves since they’re scared of me. Except for two female students who came forward. Based on the color of their shoes, they’re first year students.

   ‘I-Is it okay if we talk to Yuki-senpai for a bit?’ one of them asks me nervously.

   ‘No. If I make an exception, everyone will start asking for it.’ I tell them bluntly.

   Nitta smacks my back again.

   ‘These are my fans you’re bullying!’ she wrote in her phone.

   ‘This is part of my job, remember?’ I remind her.

   ‘Still, they’re my fans! Just let them speak to me for a moment!’

   ‘Fine, fine. Don’t blame me if they start swarming you.’

   I look at the girls.

   ‘Go ahead.’ I tell them.

   They nod gratefully.

   ‘No matter how long we have to wait, we’ll be waiting for your return, Yuki-senpai!’ the one who spoke to me tells her.

   ‘So please, stay strong and get a good rest so that your throat is cured!’ her friend adds.

   Nitta shows them a bright smile. She types something at her phone.

   ‘Don’t worry. I’ll definitely find a way to cure my throat. I can’t keep on disappointing my fans like this, can I?’ her phone broadcasts the words she just typed.

   The two girls are glowing (figuratively, of course) after hearing those words. So are those fans around her.

   ‘We’ll eagerly await your return!’ they say almost at the same time.

   The two of them sneak a glance at me before looking at Nitta again.

   ‘We’re so sorry for wasting your precious time together.’ one of them says to her.

   ‘Yes, it’s just that we couldn’t help it. We apologize deeply to the two of you.’

   Nitta looks at me with a confused look. Wow, this girl is dense.

   ‘Anyway, we’ll be taking our leave.’

   Nitta waves at them as they leave.

   ‘What was that all about?’ she asks me by typing at her phone.

   I take away her phone again.

   ‘They know we’re going out.’ I typed

   She lets out a gasp when she saw what I typed. Her face has also gone slightly pale.

   ‘Don’t worry. If they were going to spread the news, they wouldn’t be talking to you.’ I tell her verbally to ease her mind.

   ‘Still, I’ve basically betrayed them! I’m such a horrible idol…’ she typed whole trembling.

   ‘Hey, just calm down okay? I’m not the only fan of yours who prefer to see you being happy.’

   She gives me a look.

   ‘You’re saying that even though you were the one who took me away from the rest of the other fans?’

   ‘Hmm, fair enough. Still, I don’t think you have to stress yourself over it.’

   ‘...Okay.’

   When we got to the student council’s office, all the other members are already here.

   ‘Once again, thank you for your trouble in being Yuki’s bodyguard, Bandou-kun.’ Takaki tells me.

   I shrug at her gratitude.

   ‘It’s nothing. It’s part of my job, after all. As her boyfriend.’

   Nitta’s eyes widen at that. She hastily types away at her phone.

   ‘Why did you say it out loud?’ her phone screams.

   ‘What does it matter? They probably knew about it already.’

   Nitta looks at them.

   ‘He’s right, Yuki. We already knew.’ Takaki confirms.

   Amano and Motozawa nod as well.

   ‘But don’t you worry, senpai. We won’t tell a soul.’ Motozawa assures us.

   ‘Our lips are sealed.’ Amano agrees.

   ‘Thanks, you guys.’ I tell them.

   ‘Would you like us to leave so that the two of you have some alone time together?’ Takaki asks us.

   ‘There’s no need for that. You don’t have to keep on looking out for us like this.’ I tell her.

   Nitta nods her head vigorously.

   ‘We’ll eat together.’ her phone conveys what she wants to say.

   ‘All right, then. If you insist so much.’

   We eat our lunch quietly before Takaki starts speaking again.

   ‘Would you like to join our student council, Bandou-kun?’ she offers.

   ‘Haven’t I already declined you once?’

   ‘That’s true, but that was before you were in a relationship with Yuki. Besides, it’s not like you’re needed much by the Love Consultation Club these days.’

   Ever since I became a couple with Nitta, the wish I made all those months ago was undone. As a result, all those couples (at least the ones I know) have got back together. Except for the jerk Shimada-sensei was almost engaged to. As far as I know, he’s still rotting inside his jail cell.

   Nowadays, the consultation we received have decreased by a lot. Those we did received were mostly solved by Futaki and even Nagano. I didn’t even have to help out. As a result, I’m feeling that I’m getting more and more redundant. Not that I’m complaining since it means less jobs and headaches for me.

   ‘That’s true. By the way, how did you even know that I’m not much needed there?’

   ‘Let’s just say that Suzu-san is not the only one with a huge information network.’ the student council president replies mysteriously. ‘Back to my offer. How is it? The position of the secretary is still empty, after all.’

   I look at Nitta.

   ‘Will you be happy if I joined?’ I ask her.

   She fidgets for a bit before nodding bashfully.

   ‘That decides it. I’m joining the student council.’ I tell Takaki.

   ‘Splendid. Welcome to the student council, Secretary Bandou.’

   She hands me the wristband which has the word “Secretary” written on it. I put it on immediately.

   Nitta starts typing away.

   ‘Does that mean I can order him around like a slave?’ her phone broadcasts.

   ‘That will be an abuse of authority, Yuki.’ Takaki tells her.

   ‘Aww, but I’m his superior! And his girlfriend!’

   ‘I’ll be sure to spoil you, but only to a certain extent. I’m definitely not your slave, though.’ I say to her.

   She puffs up her cheeks as she’s typing again.

   ‘You’re so mean, Bandou-kun! Is this how you treat your first girlfriend?’

   ‘Do you have a hearing difficulty, Nitta? I just said that I’ll spoil you to a certain extent. If I spoil you completely, you’ll end up being carried away again.’

   ‘I hate to bother your flirting, but I’m kind of curious of something.’ Takaki says to us all of a sudden.

   ‘What is it?’

   ‘Are the two of you still calling each other with your family names? Even though you’re going out with each other?’

   Nitta and I look at each other.

   ‘Do you think we should change that?’ I ask her. ‘I kind of want to.’

   ‘Now that she mentioned it, I guess it’s about time.’ she agrees.

   All of a sudden, Amano raises up her hand.

   ‘May I head outside for a moment?’ she asks.

   ‘Do you have somewhere that you need to go?’ Takaki asks her.

   ‘Not at all, president. It’s just that I could tell that the vice president and the secretary are going to be all lovey-dovey again. Hence, I would like to excuse myself until they’re done.’

   ‘If you put it that way, permission granted.’

   Amano got up at once. ‘Thank you. If anyone wants me, I’ll be at the library.’

   ‘Hold that thought, Amano-san. I was planning to discuss club funds with the Drama Club after school now that we need to leave these two love birds alone, we might as well do it now.’ Takaki tells Amano as she gets up from her seat as well. ‘come along, Motozawa-kun.’

   ‘Yes, president.’

   ‘Sorry about this.’ I apologize to them.

   ‘There’s no need to apologize, Bandou-kun. It’s just that we don’t felt like intruding, that’s all.’ Takaki says to me.

   And then they left the student council’s office, leaving only Nitta and I.

   ‘So, shall we get this over with?’ I ask Nitta.

   Nitta nods while looking slightly embarrassed. I clear my throat.

   ‘Yuki.’

   She nods.

   ‘Yuki.’ I repeat.

   She nods again.

   I clear my throat again in order to hide my embarrassment.

   ‘It’s your turn now.’ I tell her.

   She looks at me bashfully, and then she types something at her phone before showing me the screen.

   ‘Just, give me some more time.’ she wrote.

   ‘Wait, what? Seriously? Why? You don’t even have to say it yourself!’

   ‘It’s the same thing! I can’t even type out your given name without embarrassing myself to death!’

   After she typed the sentence out, she starts wriggling around while covering her face with both her hands. She looks extremely cute when she’s doing that.

   ‘The longer you drag this, the more difficult this is going to get, you know.’ I continue to tell her.

   She stops wriggling and starts typing again.

   ‘I know, I know! Well, here goes.’

   She takes a few deep breaths. Seriously, can she be even more dramatic?

   ‘Takuya.’

   ‘Yup.’

   ‘Takuya.’

   ‘I heard you the first time.’

   She face is completely red right now, despite the fact that all she did was typing my given name out on her phone and making her phone say it out loud. Sometimes, I really question the mentality of this Japan’s number one idol.

   ‘Well, let’s go find the others Yuki.’ I tell her.

   She nods while still blushing.

   After school hours is over, I have to leave early since I have part-time work today.

   ‘Sorry for skipping out on work even though I’ve just joined.’ I apologize to the others.

   Takaki waves my apology away.

   ‘You’re busy making a living. There’s no way we can take that away from you.’ she tells me.

   Both Amano and Motozawa nod in agreement. Yuki starts typing away.

   ‘I’ll come over to your restaurant on e we’re done here, Takuya-kun.’ her phone broadcasts.

   ‘...Why?’

   ‘Is it wrong for a girlfriend to want to see her boyfriend working?’ she wrote with a smile.

   ‘Just so you know, I’m working inside the kitchen tonight. In other words, you won’t get to do that.’

   She hugs Takaki tightly while typing something on her phone with one hand.

   ‘Can you believe him, Yuka-chan? He’s so mean!’

   ‘Don’t go start blaming him, Yuki. What can he do if he was assigned that post?’

   Takaki looks at me.

   ‘No need to worry about her, Bandou-kun. You can just leave her to us.’ she tells me.

   ‘Yeah, thanks. See you everyone. See you, Yuki.’

   Yuki sticks her tongue out at me.

   After I started working for a few hours, Miyako-san comes inside the kitchen.

   ‘There’s a girl from your school who wants to meet you, Bandou-kun.’ she tells me.

   I could only think of one person.

   ‘And here I told her that I’m working inside the kitchen.’ I mumble.

   ‘Is it your girlfriend, Bandou-kun?’ Uekawa-san asks me with a huge smile on his face.

   ‘It most probably is.’

   He was taken aback by my reply.

   ‘Seriously? And here I thought that I was joking!’

   ‘Well, it might not be her. Either way, I’ll be right back.’

   ‘What are you saying, Bandou-kun? If you girlfriend is here, you should mind her more!’

   ‘But, I’m still working.’ I remind him.

   ‘So what? Just go accompany her!’

   ‘You should make your girlfriend lonely, Bandou-kun.’ Miyako-san agrees.

   ‘Well, if the two of you insist so much, I’ll take your word for it.’

   As I thought, it was Yuki who asked for me. Naturally, she’s all disguised. Even though she’s on a break, it doesn’t change the fact that she’s a really famous celebrity.

   I cross my arms after I got to her table.

   ‘You know, I swore that I told you about my shift inside the kitchen.’ I tell her.

   She starts typing away at her phone. Once she’s done, she shows me the screen. She’s also showing me one of those impudent smiles that I love and hate at the same time.

   ‘I heard you. I just decided to intrude anyway.’

   ‘Well the least you could do is order something while you’re here.’ I tell her while looking at her empty table.

   More typing.

   ‘One katsudon, please. And I want you to cook it.’

   ‘Sure sure. Just give me some time.’

   ‘I’ll give you five minutes.’

   Soon, I came back with her order.

   ‘Enjoy your meal.’ I tell her with a monotone.

   She takes a few bites out of it. She then starts typing on her phone again with a huge grin.

   ‘Delicious! Call the chef here!’

   ‘You’re already talking to him.’ I remind her.

   ‘Oops, my bad. It’s just that I’ve always wanted to say that. Are you going back to work now?’

   ‘Well, I hope you’re happy. Thanks to you, I get to skip work.’

   ‘Where’s my thanks then?’

   ‘You’re not getting any. Now eat your food quickly and leave. I have work to do.’

   ‘Is this how you treat your girlfriend?’

   ‘For the hundredth time, I’m busy right now.’

   Right after she’s done eating, Miyako-san insists that I sent Yuki back home.

   ‘It’s dangerous for a girl to walk home at night, so keep her safe.’ she told me.

   And so, I have to walk Yuki home.

   ‘Where exactly is your house?’ I ask her while we’re walking down the road.

   ‘A five minutes walk from the train station.’ she typed in her phone.

   ‘It’s not that far then.’

   We passed by a busy street as we’re on our way to her house. There’s a huge screen on one of the buildings which is broadcasting one of her MV. She looks at it sadly before turning her head away.

   The apartment building Yuki lives in is much grander than the one I live in. As we’re standing in front of the gate, Yuki starts typing again.

   ‘Well, that was fun. Sorry for bothering you when you were working.’ she typed.

   ‘You better be.’ I grumble.

   ‘Sorry, sorry. I’ll make it up to you one day.’

   ‘You can give me a ticket to your next concert.’ I suggest. ‘I mean, you already got back your voice, right?’

   She freezes right after I said that. It took her a few seconds to start moving again. Slowly, she looks at me in the eye.

   ‘When did you find out?’ she asks me using her own voice.

   ‘I had a nagging suspicion not long after we’ve started going out. I don’t know how. I guess you could call it a boyfriend’s hunch.’

   She laughs awkwardly.

   ‘That’s an amazing power you got there.’ she compliments.

‘When did you find out?’

   ‘Three days ago. At least, that was when I tried to sing, and my voice actually came out. I have no idea when was I cured to be exact.’

   ‘And you kept it a secret since you were considerate of me.’

   She nods sadly.

   ‘And now the secret is out. I wish you didn’t expose me like this.’

   ‘Are you kidding? You looked so sad when you saw your own MV just now. How could I separate you from it?’

   She bows at me.

   ‘Thanks, Bandou-kun.’

   She’s calling me Bandou again. I guess this relationship is over. Well, I guess it was fun while it lasted.

Epilogue
   I’m watching one of Nitta’s concert right now. As per my suggestion before we broke up, she gave me a ticket to a VIP room so that I could watch it from there. From some reason, Mino-san is here with me.

   After Nitta is done singing one of her songs, she waits patiently until her fans have calmed down.

   ‘I have something very important to tell all of you.’ she says all of a sudden.

   She takes a deep breath before continuing.

   ‘I’m retiring. This is my last concert.’

   …Wait, what did she just say?

   ‘All of you might remember there was a time when I lost my voice. Just as I was feeling depressed, there’s this person who cheered me up. He’s really irritating, but I had the time of my life while I was together with him. And then I noticed that I got my voice back. I decided that I’m going to keep it a secret since I would be betraying him if I didn’t do otherwise. But that kind idiot told me to prioritize my happiness, so here I am right now. However, I can’t keep doing this, not after all the things he did for me.’

   I turn my head to look at Mino-san. She doesn’t look surprised at all.

   ‘-and that’s why, I’m quitting my job as an idol. I’m sorry for being selfish, but this is my final decision.’ Nitta ends her speech.

   She’s sobbing right now. Even so, she’s doing her best to hold it in. She then bows deeply.

   At first, there was loud murmuring. Then, someone starts applauding. More and more people follow suit. Ther are also few cheering.

   ‘Please be happy, Yuki!’ I hear someone says.

   ‘Whoever he is, I hope the two of you will be together for the rest of your lives!’

   Wow. The fans are being surprisingly positive about her retirement.

   ‘So, are you really okay with this?’ I ask Mino-san.

   ‘Didn’t I tell you before, Bandou-kun? I just want her to be happy.’ she reminds me.

   Nitta bows again and leaves the stage. A few minutes later, she arrives at the VIP room. She’s panting, so I guess she ran here.

   ‘So, am I supposed to call you Nitta or Yuki?’ I ask her.

   ‘Nitta, Yuki, darling. Anything is fine. We’re a couple, remember?’

   ‘Yuki it is, then.’

   We embraced each other while Mino-san looks on.

   [End of Yuki route.]