My Childhood Friend Who Was Doing Personal V-Tubing Got Ntr’d by a Singer (LOL), but I’ve Decided to Just Sit Back and Watch the Two of Them Roll Down the Hill of Life and Fall Into Ruin - Chapter 8: Craving for Familiarity, Male Singer Arrested, My Hot Streak

Chapter 8: Craving for Familiarity, Male Singer Arrested, My Hot Streak

After that, Himeko stopped talking to me, and peaceful everyday life came back.

The things that changed after I started keeping my distance from Himeko were that Kusaka began talking to me a lot more, and the three of us, including Asakura, started hanging out aimlessly, going to karaoke, watching movies on days off, or heading out shopping, so in that sense, maybe this is what they call being a normie with a full life. I’m also getting along well with Tate and Yoko, chatting about DTM techniques or having them teach me about drones.

On top of that, when friends who didn’t know the situation or classmates asked me how things were with Urakiri-san and I said we’d broken up after a bunch of stuff happened, everyone looked puzzled, but when I showed a tired look and said it really was a bunch of stuff, they didn’t dig deeper.

A little while later, it seemed the investigation into the police report I’d filed had finally reached him, and footage of Shion Hachiyama, now known as Masao Iwai (31), getting arrested started showing up on TV and in online news. Or rather, Masao, you’re that old already…? How can you be such a mess past 30? He was surrounded by police in front of his house, but Masao desperately resisted.

“Behave yourself.”

“Hey, don’t run!”

The police shouted those words amid the chaos, but Masao clung to a thick round front pillar like he was trying to escape them and sobbed loudly.

Even though he was in sweats up and down and had smeared his face with tears and snot until it was a total mess, it just turned into an even uglier mug, and the way he gripped the pillar like some kind of cicada or something and wouldn’t let go had none of the shadow left of the hot male singer he used to be. The police tried to pull him away and drag him off, but he wailed and refused.

“Hey, let go! That won’t work, give up―――”

“Shut up, you public servant!! I’m Shiota, I told you!!”

The police raised their voices at him, and as the self-proclaimed Shiota (Masao) broke down crying and screamed threats in intimidation, the officers flinched for a moment, and then Masao started climbing the pillar while still hugging it, scraping up bit by bit.

“I… I…… want to…… change this world……!!”

As he yelled and moved, the police realized Shiota was trying to escape, and one of them quickly grabbed the back of Masao’s pants on instinct, but Masao didn’t back down and kept climbing the pillar, which ended up stretching his pants down until his butt was bare. This guy goes commando under his sweats for some health thing?! He kicked his legs wildly, ditched the sweats entirely, and climbed the pillar. Of course, his lower half was fully exposed in the attack. With his lower body totally out in the open as he clawed his way up the pillar, how did Masao plan to change the world, anyway? Tell me, old man.

But the police didn’t hesitate either; they jumped up or climbed the pillar after him, dragged Masao down, and pinned him.

“Nooooooo!! I’m Shiota, I tell youuuu!! This isn’t how it’s supposed to end for meeeeee!!!”

My abs were beyond their limit from the sheer ugliness of it all. This was a huge laugh riot, gra ra ra ra… Wait, how do you even laugh like that? It’s tricky.

Of course, the living room version cut off after the lower-body armor came off, but it was still awful.

Naturally, SNS blew up with it as prime shitty collage material for the third time, and there’s no doubt some Shiota-related phrase will make it into this year’s internet buzzword grand prize. Shiota will resurrect as many times as it takes! Now he’s not some shining hot male singer (lol) anymore; his whole existence is just shitty collage fodder.

I think Masao himself is a hopeless scumbag and straight-up a criminal in the normal sense, but his sense for lines and his talent for pumping out collage material at lightning speed are impressive.

He probably has his own kind of thought process going on, but since normal people can’t make sense of it, it just barrels straight into shitty collage material territory every time.

It all started with my drone accident, but it’s like, how does the world let a guy like this run around until he’s 31? You gotta wonder.

Then one day, when I was tagging along with Kusaka to buy reference books as she’d asked, I spotted Himeko. I thought her vibe had changed a ton, but her skin looked rough and her hair was all dry and frizzy, and her head hair was kinda messy too.

It wasn’t any one spot in particular, but overall, she seemed unhealthy. She was walking with a plastic bag stuffed full of instant foods, and at first, I didn’t even realize it was Himeko.

“Ah?! Tak-kun……”

She stared at me with sad eyes, but I hoped she’d just think of me as some roadside rock or whatever and keep walking without caring.

“I, um, that…… here, for dinner…”

What was she trying to say? Oh, since she stopped coming over for meals at my place, half the week is instant food now? Got it.

“Yeah. Well, take care going home then.”

I said that with no real feeling, just like small talk, and tried to walk past, but for some reason she thought she could keep going.

“Um, I was an idiot! I had no idea at all what really matters―――”

“Let’s go, Tak-kun♡”

Cutting off Himeko’s words, the one who grabbed my arm tight and pulled me along was Kusaka, who’d been right next to me. Whoa?! I was surprised and didn’t know how to react, but she shot me a wink like she was telling me something. Hmm, play along, got it. …Kusaka and I somehow click like we’ve been friends forever; it’s weird how well we get each other. Why is that? No clue. I don’t think I’d ever met a girl this cute before, right? Did we cross paths somewhere?

“Sorry, Urakiri-san. Oh, and instant food is handy, but it throws off your nutrition. I recommend hunting half-price bentos at the station-front supermarket too.”

Saying that, Kusaka leaned her head on my shoulder as she moved to walk past Himeko right beside her. I naturally matched her movement and tried to pass by, but then Himeko raised her voice.

“Wait?! W-Why is Kusaka with Tak-kun, huh?!?”

At Himeko’s words like that, Kusaka smiled like she’d been waiting for it. That smile was the kind that caught the eyes of everyone passing by who even glanced at Kusaka, like the reincarnation of the brightest star.

She got teased as like third cutest in the class or whatever, but rankings like that are pointless anyway since it all depends on personal taste; this Kusaka Miyabi was a flawless beauty without question. And right now, she was turning that smile, which drew out every bit of her charm, straight at Himeko.

―――Like a girl in love.

“Because I’m dating Takumi-kun♪”

Himeko looked stunned at Kusaka’s words. Was it the sense of defeat against a “real beauty” she couldn’t beat, or feelings of inferiority?

“N-No, that’s a lie, it’s a lie!”

“If you wanna think that, go ahead? Now, let’s go, Tak-kun♡”

Kusaka brushed off Himeko’s words like they were nothing, gave a casual reply, and pulled me along. From behind, I heard the bag drop from Himeko’s hand and the sound of her crumbling down, but I didn’t turn back.

―――I’m not giving back the girl who got to stand by his side and be loved just because she’s his childhood friend.

As she looked up at me with a gentle smile, Kusaka’s eyes had no sparkle in them, which startled me a bit. I felt something like a thick, sticky emotion, or maybe just a touch of heaviness that was hard to pin down.

……A girl who’d keep thinking of you way more than some cheating b1tch like that would be better, right, Tak-kun?

“Uh, y-yeah…?”

I had no idea what was going on, but was this… my hot streak or something…?

Feeling her arms squeeze my arm even tighter, I walked down the road with Kusaka just like that.