This was a rather bad look for the pair as Rinse and Youna looked onto them.

“Why were the two of you coming from the boys bathroom together?” Rinse asked again what was going on here. Youna had a bit more of an internal belief as to what was going on. After all, Ryugi had a bit of a reputation, but Ishi wouldn’t fall for someone like her, right? Certainly he wasn’t the type to just give himself away to some girl.

“Well, we do have needs.” He answered, picking up their cuffed hands as part of the explanation. “Unfortunately, the two of us couldn’t handle our business by ourselves.” He was calm in his response. The boy wasn’t worried about how bad this must’ve looked to them. It wasn’t that he was concerned they wouldn’t believe him. On the contrary, it didn’t matter to him is they bought his answer or not.

“R-right.” In contrast, Ryugi was a mess. She didn’t want any bad assumptions or rumors to get out to the rest of the students that she might’ve been… Enjoying Ishi alone in the bathroom. The girl had already suffered enough humiliation from this trip as it was. Not to mention that of the two people here to see her, one of them just had to be the school’s idol. “I would totally never do anything with Hirose, he’s so gross.”

“I could’ve lived without the insult.” He commented. A simple no would’ve sufficed in this situation, but he knew that she was overcompensating. “Not that it matters if we were doing what any other person might think we were doing.”

“What?” His latter statement sent all of them into shock. It was unexpected coming from him, no matter how honest he generally was.

“I know it’s against school rules, but what would you have actually done if you caught us?” He explained his thought process. “Tell on us? Well, I guess Youna would’ve said something because she’s a class rep.” Then again, she was painfully shy and probably would be biased on his side? But maybe that would be something he wouldn’t want, since preferential treatment was a thing he disliked in cases like this.

“Uh…” Now the boy was lost in deep thought, which made him forget about the three girls standing around him now looking at him confused as to why he was no longer addressing them. Now he was muttering to himself what would’ve happened if the assumption was true as well as if that should be what should happen. “Ishi, it doesn’t really matter now.” Rinse snapped him back to reality.

“Of course it doesn’t.” Ryugi was relieved that this ended well for her. She wouldn’t want to get on her idol’s bad side from a misunderstanding like this. “Come on now, let’s go finish the show.” The pair of them left, as Koto’s final scenes should be occurring soon.

The question neither of them bothered to ask was why Rinse and Youna were up here at these bathrooms. After all, these were out of the way that nearly no one would think of going here casually. The answer to that was these two had already seen the pair back at the auditorium. Since the idol had wanted to watch the play since she never had the opportunity herself to play a character on stage.

It was quite a shock to them when they saw Ishi sitting next to Ryugi. Even more so since when they stood up, it looked as though they were holding hands. To be fair, in the dark it was impossible to see the handcuffs.

Rinse was getting annoyed with the way she was looking at him now. Why should she care if he’s hanging out with some girl he claimed to dislike? Even if they were a couple, she shouldn’t be worried about their relationship and be happy for them. That’s what Rinse the idol would do wholeheartedly.

But she’s not always the idol.

Everyone returned back to the stage to witness the ending of the play. They were at the part when Juliet was sleeping and Romeo find hers, believing the girl to be dead. The tragic scene folded before them as Koto delivered his lines… Well enough for the job. His acting was a lot better than Ishi’s, that’s for certain.

Then, as he finished up his monologue, the boy went in for a kiss on the lips to the unconscious girl.

“Heh, guess that means your cousin’s ahead of you.” Ryugi teased as the scene unfolded before their eyes. She wasn’t planning on letting go his lack of experience.

“Really? We didn’t kiss during our play?” His question caused her to recoil a bit in embarrassment. “When Koto wasn’t on stage, I was on my phone checking to see what the play we were in was about. If the two of us were the romantic leads, shouldn’t we have kissed?”

“You idiot.” She complained while trying to hide her blushing face. “I couldn’t do it because it was you, so I ended up just giving you a peck on the cheek in front of the crowd.” This was one of the worst things she thought she’d ever do in her life. After the show her parents just had to rub it in her face and say if she should be dating him after the fact. This was a painful memory she wished that she didn’t have to be reminded of.

“If it’s just for an act, I don’t see the problem.” For once in his life, that insult hit a little deep. “I’m sure people wouldn’t say that it counts.” Unknown to him, back then she was only playing the role because her crush was the original actor. Of course he’d end up being unable to finish the play and Ishi jumped in to save the day. She stopped having a crush on the former boy, and grew a small disdain for the latter boy.

“That’s not what everyone else would’ve said.” She countered as the play came to its close. “They would’ve done stupid stuff about us because of how it would’ve looked.”

“I don’t care about how it might look.” He responded. “The two of us never really liked each other that much, so that would’ve been the end of it back then.” Ishi also mentioned that it doesn’t matter now since neither of them had dated anyone else during their high school years. This despite her reputation with the boys.

“But, it’s not like we hate each other.” She said. Sure, they argued rather often, but that was only because of their differing personalities. The two disagreed on many things, and had their own motivations of what was important. “Like when you said my singing sucked, you weren’t just doing it to be a hater.”

“I’m glad you’re not dense enough to be blind on why I say things.” That was his way of responding to her reluctant admittance of the truth. Which is why she doesn’t like to admit when she was wrong to him. “If you didn’t care about looking like a fool on stage, then maybe I would’ve bit my tongue.” Though the temptation to speak up would likely be too strong.

“I tried so hard to prove you wrong, but I just didn’t get good enough to perform on stage. Especially not in front of Rinse like that.” Perhaps in the future she might get there now that she’s aware of her issues. Before she was blind to the problems in her voice, but now that they were brought out to light. Things could be worked on to get a good singing voice.

“Shame, I was hoping you’d figure it out in time.” Sadly for him, not everything would work out even if he was honest. “But… If you’d like, we could do with another judge at the table.”

“What? Really?”

“Yeah, you’ve always wanted to hang out with Rinse.” So he figured that this would be a good way for the pair to meet and get to know the other properly. Plus, that idol needed more friends so she’d eventually ignore him. That was his hope at least.

“I’d love to.” She accepted his offer with no hesitation. Now things were looking up for the pair, especially since another good things happened to them.

“Looks like we found the key.” The magician from earlier appeared to them as people left the auditorium. The two of them stayed inside since they had their responsibilities being a judge. “Lucky too, because we were about to go cut it off.” Behind them was their assistant. A smaller girl who didn’t appear to be scary, but the chainsaw she held was.

“Just unlock us from these cuffs.” It was very rare for Ishi to feel fear, but at least he was relieved they didn’t have to rely on such primitive methods.

“And you better not lose it now.” Ryugi was a lot more pressured about this whole ordeal. “Just.” She fought with the boy to try and unlock it faster. “Get. It. Unlocked!” Finally, the key turned and the pair had gained their freedom once more.

“Great.” He shook his hand to stretch it out from being stuck next to her for so long. “Now let’s go sit next to each other at the table.” Funny enough, despite no longer having to stick to each other, the pair continued the same seating arrangement as if nothing had changed. Perhaps they had gotten a little used from being forced in their positions.

“What’s up with this?” Rinse asked when she arrived, prepared to perform her judge duties. She was also expecting to be sitting next to Ishi, so Ryugi sitting in her place was a bit of a surprise.

“Sorry, but I offered her to join us as a judge, since she’s not going to perform.” His answer wasn’t all that amazing either. Why would he offer that to someone he always argued with? “But don’t take it the wrong way, we’re not friends or anything.”

“Well, sure.” Ryugi giggled. “But like, I’m glad we’re working together. Today’s been really fun.” He would’ve sighed and rolled his eyes as he normally did, but to be honest. Today wasn’t all that bad for him.