Final rehearsals for the play were already underway with all of the actors fully prepared to star in this highly anticipated adaptation of one of Shakespeare's greatest works.

Takei finally managed to say all of his romantic lines without overly flirting with Akari, which made his seniors extremely glad since it was really holding the progress of the play back.

Akari, of course, was impeccable at acting right from the start, so there were no worries there.

The only things left now were the actual show and the costumes, which had coincidentally been delivered today to the school.

One of the students that were participating in the play just so happened to own a family costume shop, so the theatre committee graciously used a good chunk of the budget on some high quality costumes.

Costume fittings had been done beforehand by a representative of each gender to ensure nothing inappropriate could happen.

All of the actors in the play were summoned to the dressing rooms at the back of the auditorium today in order to try on their outfits for the first time.

Of course, Takei and Akari would be one of the first to try their outfits out, since they were the stars of the play.

Well, that's only if they could reach the auditorium in time.

"Hey dear? We're gonna be late if you keep on snoozing~"

Even though Akari's words were serious, her tone and manner of speech betrayed her real thoughts.

She was quite pleased with poking at Takei's surprisingly bouncy cheeks while he was lazing at his desk.

They were supposed to be at the auditorium in five minutes, but Takei felt happy at the heartwarming sight of Akari playing with his cheeks, so he kept on letting Akari have her way with him.

They might be late for the costume debuts, but Akari's happiness was far more important to him than anything else in the world.

"I had a feeling something like this would happen..."

A certain theater club president leaned against the doorframe of the classroom and wryly smiled at the harmonious couple.

"Yo, been a while."

Takei lifted his head up from the desk to greet the new friend he had recently made.

"Yeah, it has. Thanks for helping me back then, I've been a lot happier now."

Ever since Takei had imparted a bit of wisdom onto Hiro Shirogane, there had been a complete 180 in Hiro's life.

No longer was there a doormat of a person who yielded to others, he was now his own person.

Once Takei realized this, he waved off the gratitude as if he hadn't done anything important.

"It's nothing to thank me for."

Hiro seemed to have a grasp of Takei's personality already, so he could only keep wryly smiling at Takei's blunt demeanor.

"I'll have to thank you another time, but we need to head to the auditorium right away. The stars need to put on their costumes."

The theater committee president motioned towards the door in an overbearing way to emphasize that they needed to go as soon as possible.

Seeing this display of urgency, Takei sighed and rubbed Akari's head as he slowly rose from his chair.

"Alright, time to go."

He lifted Akari up by grabbing her hand and pulling her up in a gentle manner.

Akari looked particularly excited about the costumes since she got to make her own personal adjustments to her outfit due to her status as the main female lead.

"Wait outside for me once you're done because I'm ready to rock that dress!"

***

Once the duo arrived, everything was put into motion.

Takei and Akari were whisked into their respective dressing rooms and immediately thrown into their outfits.

The outfits for this play were going for a more modern look to appeal to the younger audience.

Instead of rich gowns or suits drowning in jewels or old fashioned gimmicks, all of the outfits were streamlined and simple.

It was as if the director knew that the acting skills of the casts were going to carry the show, so the outfits didn't matter.

Takei was dressed up in a beautiful navy blue dress shirt that had a golden striped pattern that ran all the way down his shirt.

His lower waist was being occupied by baggy black pants that had been inspired by a previous Romeo and Juliet movie that Takei had seen.

With his hair pushed back and styled with gel, he was now the living embodiment of Romeo.

Takei left the dressing room and was instantly greeted with a chorus of praise for how handsome he looked.

Most of the praise came from the girls, but they did it out of friendship instead of romantic purposes since they knew him and Akari were a thing.

Doing as instructed, Takei waited outside Akari's dressing room and whistled a little tune to himself while he waited.

After a few minutes, the door to the girls' dressing room finally opened.

As expected, there was a bombshell of a model that stepped out of the dressing room.

Akari was outfitted with a pure snow white dress that had subtle gold accents to match Takei's outfit.

The dress could've been any color, but she insisted on it being white to show Juliet's childish innocence and idealism.

Sheepishly, Akari turned to Takei and stared deep into his eyes.

"How do I look?"

Hearing her question and seeing the anxiety slowly build up within her made Takei have only one choice of answer.

"Beautiful. Cute. Amazing. Spectacular. Phenomenal. Splendid. Jaw-dropping. Gorgeous. Prett-"

"H-hold your horses! Calm down for a second!"

Akari had a feeling that Takei wouldn't stop for at least another hour if she didn't step up to the plate to stop him.

Although she was red-faced and embarrassed from his onslaught of compliments, she was incredibly happy about it as well.

Now, it was only a matter of time before their overbearing love made a debut in the world of acting.

---

Idiot Couple Meter: 88 -> 92%

Premiere of the show is the next chapter. I can't wait to see what hijinx these two idiots get into.

Serious-san: If we follow the original script, both of them are going to die?!

Sugar-chan: It's been 118 chapters already... You know the author wouldn't go for a serious ending like that.

Author-san: Geh...