The Gloomy Me in Class is Actually the Vocalist of a Very Popular Band

Special: The Weekend After “That Day” (2nd Part)

Translated by HamletJr
Edited by

“Hey, Shiina. You’ve come to practice too, huh.”

“……”

―Crash!

She’s ignoring me.

Well, she did respond by hitting the cymbals on her drums.

It’s only natural for her to be angry at me.

I ran away from Shiina last week.

But I had no other choice―

Last Sunday.

In front of the clock tower by the station, I saved Shiina who was about to be assaulted by a suspicious-looking pervert.

She claims she was being “hit on,” but her appearance being that of a grade-schooler loli doesn’t help her argument.

Afterwards, I told Shiina who was worrying about her own charm, “The good thing about you is that you’re very indulgent.”

I meant to tell her that she was indulgent in the sense that she would always awkwardly try to cheer up a staff member or anyone who made a mistake without even blaming or censuring them.

But this girl made a wishful leap of thinking and came to the conclusion that, “I have ‘mature, womanly charms’ that make others want to indulge in me!”

What’s more, she mistakenly thought that when I said I liked her ‘indulgent nature,’ it meant that I had “a desire to be spoiled like a baby”, so she forced me to roleplay as a baby as a test.

Of course I’d run away.

However, if she’s angry, she might not even practice with us for a while.

I guess the fault does lie with me for misleading her too, so maybe I should apologize…

“I’m sorry… for what happened last week. You see, I had some things to do after that, so I had to leave right away.”

After I somehow made up a reason to explain to her, Shiina sighed.

“Shion, isn’t roleplaying as a toddler [幼児 (youji) = toddler] more important than those things of yours to do…?” [用事 (youji) = tasks, errands]

“Again with those weird puns of yours… In the first place, didn’t you half-forcibly drag me along with you that day?”

When she heard my point, Shiina folded her hands together and fell into thought.

“…Alright. It’s true that I did ask you to play with me all of a sudden… If you take my water bottle sitting over there, then I’ll forgive you…”

Then, with her drumsticks, Shiina pointed at a plastic bottle sitting on a desk diagonally across from the studio’s entrance door.

“Fiiine, guess I’ve got no other choice…”

Getting her forgiveness at the cost of being a mere errand boy is a cheap price to pay.

I moved to the opposite side of the room and grabbed her water bottle when suddenly, Shiina stood up from her drum stool and, with her bag in hand, made her way to the door where I had previously been.

Sensing an unnerving atmosphere, I put my guard up.

“Oi, why did you move in front of the door? Also, what’s the bag for?”

“Fufufu… this is all because Shion is full of excuses. I will shut that naughty mouth of yours with this.”

With that, Shiina took out an object from her bag. It was a ‘pacifier’ used on babies’ mouths.

“You seriously prepared that?!”

“Instead of talking [おしゃべり (oshaberi)], how about you use this pacifier instead [おしゃぶり (oshaburi)]… Look, they’re only different by a single letter.”

“Everything is different between the two!”

“There’s also a rattle, a drool bib, and a baby bottle of milk in the bag. Next would be… Are you a potty person, Shion? Or do you prefer diapers?”

“I can use a regular toilet, thank you very much! Or rather, that’s how far you’re taking this?! Somebody help me!”

Sensing that my human dignity was at stake, I desperately shouted.

“Shion… no matter how loud you shout, it’s pointless. This room is soundproof… and the exit is behind me, so you have nowhere to run… Come now, why don’t you become a baby…? This mature woman overflowing with indulgence will spoil you now…”

“So you asked me to get your water bottle so you could camp near the entrance, didn’t you?!”

“There’s no need to be shy, you know…? Let Mama Shiina spoil you right here and now… You can be as selfish as you’d like, okay…?”

“It rhymes so well?! How scary!”

(TLN: The rhyme is lost in translation, and you know my limited vocabulary by now. Here are the last two sentences in Japanese: Shiina-mama ni ari no mama amaete… donna wagamama datte omou ga mama dayo…?)

Shiina, holding a pacifier in her right hand and a rattle in her left, was panting heavily as if she were excited as she slowly but steadily drew closer.

On the other hand, I, who was cornered and whose back was finally against the wall behind me, was in a state of absolute desperation.

“―Ara? Shiina, have you finally accepted the fact that you’re child-like? Have you?”

Suddenly, right after I heard that voice―

A beautiful, black-haired woman appeared from behind Shiina, took the pacifier in Shiina’s hand, and shoved it into Shiina’s mouth.

“Oooh~! So cute~! It really suits you! You’ve totally become like a baby~! Ritsuki-kun, let’s raise this kid together!”

Shiina’s veins popped out of her forehead as the woman innocently smiled and snapped pictures of Shiina with her smartphone.

Sorry, Shiina… The pacifier and rattle in your hand really do look great on you.

Ignoring Shiina who was so angry she froze in place, I turned my attention to the woman and spoke to her.

“I-Ichinose-san… Why are you here (in Shounan Studio)…?”

“I was writing a report here last Sunday before I went to Kamakura, but I accidentally left it behind, so I came to get it! When I did, I thought I could hear your voice, Ritsuki-kun, so here I am!”

This woman, whose face is as pretty and well-groomed as a supermodel’s and whose figure is nothing short of outstanding, is Ichinose Rena-san.

She is a second year student at a famous university in Tokyo, and is the true identity of Personia’s bass player, Xerena.

In Personia, even though she wears a fox mask to hide her face, her overflowing charm and allure makes her popular with the fans.

Last Sunday, Ichinose-san came to Shonan with her college friends to hang out, but she was tricked and taken to a mixer instead.

She asked for help on RINE, so I pretended to be her boyfriend and managed to take her with me.

“Thanks for your help last week! When you grabbed my arm, embraced me, and said, ‘Don’t touch my woman,’ my heart went kyun-kyun~!”

“I didn’t say that, though.”

A horrible falsification of history has just taken place.

I saw Xerena-san’s arm being violently grabbed by a nasty man and she seemed to hate that, so I couldn’t restrain myself and decided to take her back, but I didn’t actually say those words to her… I didn’t say them, right?

In the first place, a boring and gloomy guy like me being Ichinose-san’s boyfriend was so implausible that when the people around us saw my face, their jaws dropped wide open.

“And after that, we had our date at Enoshima! It was super fun!”

“That wasn’t a d-d-d-date! That only happened because Ichinose-san asked me in such an unfair way, I had no choice but to―”

“Muuu?!”

When Shiina heard what we said, her face flushed red as she trembled in anger, the pacifier still in her mouth.

Of course she would, since if I looked at this from Shiina’s perspective, I would think that the reason I ran away from her that day, the “things I had to do”, was “to go play around with Ichinose-san.”

We are talking about Shiina who easily sulks at just about anything, so I’m sure she must be upset that I didn’t invite her along with us.

Ichinose-san continued to reminisce about our trip last Sunday.

“I can’t believe it squirted that much… It made me dripping wet! Such a draining experience~♡”

“Ahaha. Well, that certainly was draining, huh… It made me excited, too.”

Ichinose-san was talking about the time we visited the Enoshima Aquarium and watched “a whale squirting water” and how “we both got dripping wet during the dolphin show when it squirted water on both of us.”

Perhaps she found the memory to be such a delightful one as Ichinose-san’s body wiggled about and her cheeks turned bright red.

When Shiina saw this, she dropped the pacifier from her mouth, this time with a very pale expression on her face.

Her face turned red a while ago, and now it turned pale… Is she a traffic light?

(TLN: The term used for ‘pale’ is 青くなった which can mean ‘to turn blue’ (generally speaking), ‘to turn green’ (in certain situations like fruits, vegetables, or traffic lights), or ‘to turn pale’ (when referring to facial expressions). Pretty cool.)

“Oh, right! I have to go back to my university to submit the report I’ve just retrieved! See you later, Ritsuki-kun! Shiina is a child, so don’t work too late into the night!”

Then, after leaving behind her concerns for Shiina, she left like a storm.

Shiina slammed the rattle she was holding onto the floor.

Then, she glared at me with tears in her eyes.

“Shion… I won’t forgive you. Do the same thing to me as what you did with that woman! No, do something even more extreme…!”

Sure enough, Shiina started getting angry at me for not inviting her to play with us that day.

Sure, it was my bad for not inviting Shiina, but she is an incredibly indoorsy person by nature.

I’m sure it must be tiring for her to walk long distances.

I started admonishing Shiina.

“No, it’s impossible for you, Shiina… You don’t have the stamina.”

“It’s okay, I’ll do my best! I can endure whatever you throw at me…! I’m a grown woman now! I want Shion to mess me up and make me pant and squeal…!”

“I-If that’s what you want. You better not regret this down the line, okay―?”

◇◇◇

After that, in accordance with Shiina’s request to “do the same thing to her as I did with Ichinose,” I first took her to Enoshima for an excursion.

And just as I expected, Shiina ran out of energy while walking on the long bridge that connected to the main island of Enoshima.

“Haaah… Haaah…”

“You really did end up panting. Are you satisfied now?”

“T-This wasn’t how it was supposed to be… Shion… Give me a piggyback ride…”

“Where did all that talk about ‘being a grown woman’ go?”

“I can’t… My throat is all dry… Did I put something in the bag to drink…?”

While I carried her on my back, Shiina started sucking on the baby bottle she had put in her bag.

What happened to you being a grown woman…?

(Also, don’t start making sucking noises near my ear… No, act normal, act normal. You’re going to creep Shiina out otherwise…)

And so, in an agitated state of mind, my day off ended with me babysitting Shiina.