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So he finally mustered the courage. For the details, I can just ask through the phone tomorrow. With all his efforts, his chance of success is exceedingly high, so there shouldn’t be any issues there. What I did wasn’t for nothing.

“I guess we’ve achieved the bare minimum.”
“You don’t sound so cool with your face so red.”

The feeling of shame still isn’t wearing off. I just can’t get used to being alone on stage. It isn’t really in my nature to mess around by myself. With that in mind, it’ll be tough to spend my whole life alone.

“This case is closed.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll leave it at that.”

With Christmas Eve still yet to end, my job was complete. I’ll have to work hard at the cafe tomorrow. After all, my effort will directly affect the sales, which will directly affect my pay. There’s no reason to not work hard. There’s definitely going to be some annoying customers, but handling them is part of my resume.

“And that was all that happened yesterday.”
“How do I say this? It really doesn’t match with our image of Kotone.”
“Right, I can’t even begin to imagine Kotone singing in front of an audience.”

Our intense struggle has ended and now we’re currently having a party at the cafe. As expected, the owner and Saori were curious about what happened yesterday, so Kaori took it upon herself to explain the details. Meanwhile, I’m sitting here embarrassed, sipping juice to try to cool down my hot cheeks.

“Could we stop with this topic?”
“We can’t help it, it’s really interesting. Also, we couldn’t ask about it during daytime.”
“There were so many of Kotone’s acquaintances, after all. And there was also Hadzuki.”

Is he never satisfied unless he starts a problem? He wasn’t happy with what I was wearing – just my usual attire with a Santa hat – and actually demanded that I wear an outfit he brought with him. Who’d even wear something as suggestive as that?

“I wanted to see you in that, though.”
“Then Kaori, can you wear it?”
“Definitely not.”

I bet. To begin with, who’d wear a miniskirt and short-sleeves in the middle of winter? I wouldn’t, even if it was summer. I hurled the outfit and the bag it was in right at his face. The other customers were shocked by the show of violence, but I couldn’t help it.

“Still, we’ve sold the most number of Christmas cakes this year.”
“I’m absolutely spent. There were so many cakes on reservation.”

People from the twelve families, their acquaintances, and people with ties to the security company. All of those combined, we had to prepare quite the amount for take-out. And Saori made practically all of them on her own; she’s really amazing. It just makes the pressure heavier on Kaori, though.

“I’ll be helping out next year.”
“Have your skills polished by then.”

If the customer base increases more, she won’t be able to handle it alone. I want to help out in some way too, but I’m also occupied with serving the customers. It was pretty intense for me and the owner too. Maybe we can have my bodyguards help out even for just a short while.

“Back to the topic. So how did it end?”
“Naturally, it seemed to be a success. The two sent me some words of appreciation.”

Naturally, they instantly figured out that it was me singing. To commemorate, I asked Shirose for a copy of the audio file and gave it to them. Thinking about it now, I was careless. If they ever play that during the wedding reception or something, I’m going to coop up in a hole somewhere.

“I guess this means that Kotone has a talent for being a cupid.”
“Please no. I don’t want to get into any more annoying situations like this. Love consultation is way beyond me.”
“But you did succeed, so more people might come to you.”
“It won’t happen as long as they keep it private.”

I don’t think they’ll openly talk about it, after all. No adult would probably admit that they managed to get engaged thanks to a high schooler’s advice. If anything, the principal’s sister might be a problem. She might just talk about me without hesitation; it’s scary.

“All that’s left unanswered is what exactly Ms. Shirose plans to use the recorded data for.”
“It’s nothing good, if I had to guess. I imagine she’s going to use it to block my escape routes.”
“What are you even running away from?”

Being affiliated with EXIST, of course. I don’t really plan on joining even if she uses that as blackmail material. Maybe she’s planning to use it when negotiating with Sherry? It’s hard to have a read on her.

“Ha?”
“What’s wrong?”

A message from Shirose came at an unusually perfect timing, and all that’s written is “listen to the radio.” She even kindly specified the station. Just from this, I understood. That person just did her worst.

“Umm, the radio-”
“Kaori, please. Don’t humiliate me.”
“C’mon, it’s fine. I liked it, you know?”
“I want to hear Kotone’s singing. After all, I’ve never heard you singing before.”
“Me too.”

I’m deep in enemy territory here too, huh. To begin with, is it even okay to do something like this without the singer’s permission? Should I try calling the radio station to complain? I don’t think that’ll do any damage to Shirose, though.

“Today, coming from a certain songwriter, we would like to introduce everyone to a currently trending singer through this latest song.”

Doesn’t this radio personality sound weirdly excited? I mean, with heavy breathing and all. There’s no contact from Yui, so Shirose likely did it on her own. I’ll turn my phone off while it’s still early. After all, there’s definitely at least two people that’ll want to call me.

“The title of the song is ‘Blessed be with courage’.”

I didn’t come up with that title. Shirose probably thought it up after listening to it. It’s true that I handed over the song’s ownership rights to Shirose. Rather, it’s her condition in exchange for composing the melody, but I never expected this to happen.

“This is the worst day of my life.”
“They’re not giving away the singer’s name, though. I guess that was the condition for broadcasting it?”
“But the people who know me would still know.”

I’ll definitely have a word with Shirose. Also, I need to think of an excuse for the guys who are about to contact me. I wanted to have a decent peaceful Christmas, but it’s all ruined now. I’m going to vent all this stress out this January.