“You’re not serious, are you?” The boy asked him as they both walked off the stage. “I doubt you’d be entertaining a bunch of people with karaoke.”

“They seemed to like the idea.” Hakuta responded as they headed towards the spot where the game console was set up. “Judging from that projector, I’m willing to bet you were planning on using it with the idol. Fortunately that means I can use it too to set up the game.”

“You didn’t even ask if you could use my console.” He reminded him.

“Sorry, I guess I got a little caught up there.” He admitted it was a rather disrespectful thing to just borrow something device before asking. “But I didn’t want them to be mad at you, so I came up with something to make sure everyone could be happy.”

“Wow!” While they were talking and getting the game console moved to a better location, Hakuta’s friends came up to express their shock about his actions. “I can’t believe you just offered to do that.” Said Iruka. Her eyes were glowing with a mix of being impressed and excitement for what was to come.

“Never knew you had it in you buddy.” Said Itsuki. “Whenever we bring you along for karaoke, you usually don’t even want to sing along with us.” Though usually them dragging him along meant the boy was too bitter to want to sing and join in the fun.

“Heh, guess you’re a lot cooler than I pegged you for.” Despite being the one who was openly saying she was into him and wanting to date him. Ninka did have a rather backhanded compliment to give to the boy. Though judging from her smile, she was happy to see it nonetheless.

“Just what were you thinking!?” However not everyone was into the idea as Ino rushed up to him after moving as quickly as she could to this area to scold him. “It’s not your job to come swooping in for the rescue. We were going to take care of the situation ourselves.”

“I’m sorry.” He put up his hands in defense of himself. “But someone had to do something. Everyone looked so upset.”

“It was pretty disappointing to hear we might not be getting a concert.” Rouko backed him up. “That’s partially why I bothered to stick around, so it would suck if they didn’t make it.”

“We’re working on that right now.” She countered, giving a glare back at her.

“And we can buy you some time while you’re doing that.” Hakuta assured her. “I mean, everyone here can sing in a good… Decent… Passable way, right?”

“Actually…” Shiuka then admitted to him something he had not stopped to consider. All of his friends had already tired out their throats by singing on the machine before. Since it was all for fun and obviously no one would think they’d be performing on stage. None of them bothered to hold back. They could try to force it, but it would be very hard on them.

“Oh no.” He realized the grave situation he had placed himself in. “I’m such an idiot, I’m not even a singer myself.” It wasn’t as if Hakuta was some dude who didn’t sing much publicly, but actually was amazing secretly. He might not have been tone deaf, but no one would be giving him any contracts either for his talents.

“As much as I would like to help.” The boy spoke up. “I’m not really good at it either. So you really just put this all on yourself.”

“Well I’m not giving up either.” He responded with determination, closing his eyes to concentrate. “I have to take responsibility and someone needs to please the crowd.” At worst, maybe him being bad would also be a source of entertainment for these people. Though they’d likely also film it and make a mockery out of him on the internet.

He continued to press on regardless of the consequences, asking the boy for help in setting up the machine. Despite the offer to pretend to the crowd that the game console didn’t work or the game had become broken. He still wasn’t willing to disappoint the others.

“I guess deep down, Hakuta does care a lot.” Said Shiuka, which was to herself but out loud as well. She thought about her conversation with Omihiro earlier in the day. Where he had stated he believed the boy’s mother’s passing had a substantial impact on him to the extent of causing him to hold tight to those who were close to him.

This boy who he had only just met today. A boy whose name none of them even knew, despite the fact they should since he was a member of the student council. Somehow Hakuta had already become friends with him, despite always being the one to decline others. It must’ve been through their connection by playing some video games.

“Hmpf, I guess that’s why he cares so much about that masked gamer dude.” Rouko thought the same thing as Shiuka in that moment as she expressed this opinion to her. “It sucks we can’t help right now, because I actually kind of want to.” Normally she wasn’t the type to want to lift a finger for people. Usually strangers, but this also extended to her friends as well.

“Masked gamer dude?” Ino responded, acting confused. She looked over at him and wondered just what it was what he kept within his heart. It seemed that despite pushing her to become friends, he also kept a guard up which didn’t let down even with the others. She sighed in the realization there was much to learn about him still and walked over to him. “You need my help.”

She said this to him not as a question, but as a statement of fact. Ino had decided he couldn’t, and shouldn’t do this alone.

“That’s great because I’m having a little trouble trying to hook this up.” He said, not turning to see her growing determination. While the boy had plenty of experience in setting up a video game console. He had never done so with a projector and therefore was confused in understanding the workings of how it all came together.

“I mean I’ll go on stage with you.” She clarified, which got both of the boys attention as they both turned to stare at her with jaws agape.

“You’ll what!?” They both spoke in unison.

“I said I’ll join you on stage.” She repeated once more. “You shouldn’t have to do this alone.”

“Really? You’ll do that just for me?” Even though he was over the moon from this, Hakuta couldn’t help but feel it a bit sudden coming from her. Just a couple hours ago, she had barely wanted anything to do with him. Sure, it was due to falling out, so she had already liked him before, but even back then it wasn’t like they were best buds who had each other’s backs.

“If I’m to believe I can become the student council president this school wants and need, then I need to be willing to put my neck out.” The way she described it made it seem more professional than friendly, but she followed it by showing her friendship. “And that means taking care of those I’m close to as well.”

“I’m not opposed to the idea.” Finally the actual student council president caught up to her to hear the girl making her stand. “While it might not be something I’d consider for myself. I can respect wanting to do the best for those around you.”

“I guess you’re a lot like your dad sometimes.” Her cousin commented. “I think you’ll grow up to be a fine leader one day.”

“I hate to be the one to throw out the doubting remarks.” The boy spoke up. “But that still doesn’t help us if there’s no plan.” He wanted them to succeed, which is why he found it important to question them every step of the way. Everything here was impromptu, without a plan than disaster was likely to strike and ruin everything.

“I don’t see what’s so hard about singing karaoke.” Hakuta responded as he watched Ino expertly set up the game console to the projector. It seemed she had a lot of experience in doing this as took care of it smoothly and quickly. “We’re not going to forget any words and we’ll just let the crowd choose the music.” While he did his best to sound confident, he couldn’t help but feel the overwhelming anxiety take hold of his body.

This would be no easy feat for even most confident people. There was no preparation, both physically nor mentally for a situation such as this. However it was too late to back out for the both of them. They had made their decision and both took the short time to psyche themselves up for a moment neither were built for.

“Okay, I’m finished.” Ino said as she finished setting the console up. She picked up the microphones and handed one to him. “Even though I think we’re about to humiliate ourselves, I’ll stand by you.”

“Why are you really doing this?” He asked, knowing she took substantial risk with her choices. It would’ve been much easier to let him fall on his own.

“I’m…” She was about to answer, but took one look at the crowd to know they didn’t have much time left for idle chatter. “I’ll tell you later, let’s go now.”