Hakuta slowly walked up the steps as he led the way for the pair onto the stage. This was his idea, but already his body wondered if it was being forced by someone else. After all, high jinks such as this seemed more in line with all the other things his friend normally dragged him into.

But this was all on him. And most surprisingly of all, he was joined alongside Ino of all people. She most certainly wasn’t a person who would normally considering doing things such as this. Perhaps she was right when she told him he had changed. Maybe his friends’ influence had finally taken a hold of him and controlled his actions.

Either way, regardless of the reasons for doing so. The pair got on the stage with a pair of microphones to face the crowd.

“Do you mind if I say something before we address the crowd?” Ino asked him as they both stood before everyone.

“Um, sure.” He replied. “You don’t need to ask me to do that.”

“I’m scared.” She spoke to him quietly without giving in to more detail. His eyes widened in shock as this might’ve been the first time he had ever seen the class representative express fear.

Normally during school she wouldn’t give much beyond respectful reactions to their teachers and fellow classmates. Yet slowly as he grew to know her, he began to see sides of her which never appeared to most of the others, at least not that he was aware of.

He was the one who saw her hate, along with Shiuka. Embarrassed would be another thing, though Iruka was there to see her fashion malfunction. This might’ve been the only time he got something, despite everyone being able to see her, all to himself. “Hello, everyone.” She addressed the crowd before he was able to say anything back to her. In this moment, Hakuta wished he could’ve been able to comfort her in a tough time. Something which couldn’t be possible.

“Hi.” Instead, he pressed on in speaking and addressing the crowd alongside her. “We’re sorry that there’s been a delay with the scheduled performance tonight. So us first years decided that we would help entertain since you were all so kind to allow us to join the party.” Most people probably didn’t know he was a first year, though they most certainly would’ve known this for Ino.

The people gave their applause as the projector turned on. It illuminated the white background of the stage behind them. A very difficult set to create, but was originally meant for the idol to perform and enjoy some beautiful lights to give the scene its oomph. So the challenge was more than worth the effort.

Unfortunately it was now being used for these two teens where most didn’t even know who one of them was. And the so-called lights being used right now were just from a video game that anyone could’ve picked up in the bargain bin.

Meanwhile Shiuka stood along with the rest of their friends who were a part of this crowd. As the girl stared on, she couldn’t help but keep her hands tightly clenched as if to pray that things would out tonight. There was little else she could do to lend her support for now.

“So please enjoy the song we’re going to sing for you.” She spoke to the crowd once more, beckoning the boy down below to choose one of the songs. This would lead to a moment they all realized too late. During their entire time of preparing themselves mentally for this moment, they never considered what song to sing.

The boy went into a bit of a panic when he scanned quickly through all the song. Why did this game need to tout such a large library with over 500 songs? Though that was his own fault for buying the deluxe collectors edition. Fortunately it was able to narrow this number down to about 400 by filtering it for songs that allowed for only two players.

Which meant little in helping him find a good song to go with. So without much choice in the matter, he went and did the most dreaded option of all. The boy chose the select random song button and hoped for the best.

“Wow we really didn’t think this through.” Hakuta commented outside of his microphone as they and the crowd watched on the screen as the menu did a roulette spin to decide on what song they’d sing.

The anticipation grew as all eyes were glued to the screen as the roulette slowed down. “Do you have any songs you’d hate to sing?” He asked her as it neared it’s selection.

“As long as it’s not some song that’ll make me sing something embarrassing.” She answered, which did little to explain anything to him. Regardless, the roulette finally slowed down to the final few ticks. Where it eventually landed on a popular song created by a popular virtual idol. “...Like that…” A song which she did not look forward to singing.

“Oh my gosh! It’s going to be Matsune Hiku!” People in the audience were more than happy with the random song selection.

“What’s wrong with her songs?” He asked as the game loaded into the stage and lyrics.

“It’s more like this one song in particular.” This was a rare song in this pop idol’s catalog. As mentioned before, the boy had to filter it down to song that allowed for a pair to sing together. So this one was special in that it was basically a romantic hopeful duet that was done to promote one of the male virtual idols. “Plus, I’m not really as bright as she is.”

“You shouldn’t just put yourself down so easily.” He said to her as the song’s melody came out of the speakers. She was surprised to hear words like those coming out of his mouth, but had no time to respond to them as the song would be beginning in mere moments.

That moment would arrive and Hakuta was the one to begin first. He sang along to the lyrics he saw on screen, as he had never sung along to most of this game’s over 500 songs. How could anyone have the time? Not to mention this wasn’t his game either.

There was a good reason why he was not a popular idol or singer, but his ability to follow along to the words with a voice that didn’t cause any ears to bleed was more than good enough as he awkward stood on stage. It was no wonder performers had to be fit to give people a show beyond just their voice.

Soon after his verse, it was Ino’s turn. Which was a different not in quality, but volume compared to his. She sang very quietly into her mic, where even the amplification made it hard for most to hear her over the song’s background music. “Could you speak up a little more?” He suggested to her.

“I…” She replied to him after it went into a short bit without singing. “I can’t…” Ino admitted. “This is too embarrassing. I’m not sure I can bare this much longer.” The girl was about to give up, but he couldn’t allow that to happen.

“Just pretend there’s no one watching.” He took her hands, partially to calm her, but also to give some illusion to anything beyond mediocre singing being done on stage. “Or just pretend it’s just you and me. That no one else is watching us right now. That’s what I’ve been doing.”

Hakuta then took over the song once more as it was his turn. For him, it was easy to switch his brain into thinking it was only them singing. After all, this was still a video game at the end of the day. He knew just what it took to focus solely on one objective when it came to video games.

Her body was at first stiff from him taking her hand, but Ino listened to his advice. She would only look at him and make herself believe they were in a room with no one else watching. Then, she felt herself beginning to relax as it was now her turn to sing.

Now her voice came out loud and clear as she only looked towards him. It felt safe now, as she knew he would never consider judging her negatively. Despite all the things she had done, he wanted to still stick by her through it all. So this was what it was like to have a real friend wholly unconditionally.

And his advice for her worked with the crowd as well. Their singing got much better and the pair even loosened up enough to give a bit of a show beyond just singing. No one would say their moves would compete against a real idol, but it was entertaining to see fellow students having fun.

Despite all the red flags, Hakuta’s plan had worked out in the end.