Yamada Ryōsuke is happy.

No, scratch that, it's an understatement.

Yamada Ryōsuke must be ecstatic over something... or he would not be wearing that silly goofy wide smile grin since he stepped into the classroom.

Something must have made him so utterly delighted today that he actually stayed awake for the whole of today’s lessons.

Nakajima Yūto and Chinen Yūri looked at each other wondering what just happened to their best friend.

“Soccer?” Nakajima Yūto mouthed to Chinen Yūri, only to see the boy shook his head doubtfully.

 Yamada Ryōsuke loves soccer but not to that extreme.

“Ichigo?” Chinen Yūri countered with a raised eye brow, causing Nakajima Yūto to nod his head in agreement.

Possibly, since everyone knows that that boy has an unhealthy obsession with strawberries.

“Can you two stop doing that silent crosstalk comedy over my head? It’s getting creepy and you do know that you guys can just ASK me.” Yamada Ryōsuke rolled his eyes.

“So?” Chinen Yūri and Nakajima Yūto asked simultaneously, “tell us!”

“I’ve got a new drama!” Yamada Ryouke answered with a chuckle, still shaking his head at the silliness of his best friends, but he would never trade them for anything.

“Eh? That’s it?” Nakajima Yūto was clearly disappointed, he was hoping for a little excitement since the day has passed so peacefully.

“Not just any drama but an Amagi Seimaru-san live-action drama! And they said that Amagi-san requested specially for me to play this role!” Yamada Ryōsuke rebuked passionately with an unnatural glint in his eyes.

Oh dear… Someone must have overfed Yamada Ryōsuke with strawberries and causing him to be overloaded with sugar.

Amagi Seimaru-san is a great writer and his series illustrated by Satō Fumiya-san are world famous. But Yamada Ryōsuke has previously played Kindaichi Hajime twice; it was really nothing new to Chinen Yūri and Nakajima Yūto.

“Yama-chan, you played Kindaichi before,” Chinen Yūri paused to rephrase his question carefully, “what’s the difference now? The only other work of Amagi-san and Satō-san in the market now would be…”

Not wanting his thunder to be stolen, Yamada Ryōsuke quickly continued his sentence by taking out his newly received script and turning it to the page of the cast list, “Tantei Gakuen Kyū.”

Nakajima Yūto proceeded to read the cast list out loud, “starring… Kamiki Ryūnosuke as Renjō Kyu, Yamada Ryōsuke as Amakusa Ryū, Ichinose Miki…,” he glanced up to exchange a look of concern with Yūri in a flash and continued reading “as Minami Megumi.”

“That’s…” Chinen Yūri was also at a loss for words at the announcement of the project, “incredible…”

“Incredible? Try unbelievable instead Yū-chan!” Yamada Ryōsuke exclaimed happily, “Kamiki-kun and Mi-chan are the most experienced and widely recognized as the best actor and actress of our age! I can’t believe Amagi-san actually made that request for me to work with them!”

Yamada Ryōsuke was certainly not exaggerating when he named Kamiki Ryūnosuke and Ichinose Miki as the cream of the crop in the Japanese acting industry. Debuted at the young age of two years old and six years old separately, Kamiki Ryūnosuke and Ichinose Miki are probably Japan’s most experienced child-teen actor and actress of their generation.

And as if their vast experiences are not impressive enough, Kamiki Ryūnosuke is also known as the youngest Japan Movie Academy Awards Best Newcomer winner at the age of thirteen years old, while Ichinose Miki holds the record as the youngest Hashida Best Newcomer Award at the same age.

“Ne, Yama-chan!” Chinen Yūri called out excitedly, aiming for Yamada Ryōsuke’s attention, “can we meet them too? It would be great to learn from them.”

His unspoken intention was clear to Nakajima Yūto, they are going there not to see Kamiki Ryūnosuke and Ichinose Miki at all.

No, they are going to there to protect their best friend.

Ichinose Miki is too dangerous to be left alone with Yama-chan because every little thing she does has that magnifying effect on him.

They still remembered that one time which Yamada Ryōsuke was utterly crushed by her coolness towards him. How she ignored the poor boy so carelessly when he was attempting to introduce himself.

She had Yamada Ryōsuke moping around for days before their bandmates were able to cheer him up with an unlimited one month supply of strawberries.

“Sure, I am going for the initial imaging photo-shoot after school, we should be able to meet them there,” Yamada Ryōsuke laughed at Chinen Yūri’s reaction, finally someone who shares his excitement, or he thought so.

“Alright then, let’s pack up,” Nakajima Yūto commanded with a smirk, the Hey! Say! JUMP boys have a new mission.

“Wait…” Yamada Ryōsuke was putting the script back into his backpack when his fingers brushed against the seemingly out of place Hello Kitty notebook, he has almost forgotten to ask Yūto about her.

“Do you know a girl named…?” Yamada Ryōsuke’s courage faltered slightly, it did seem like a brilliant idea to ask Nakajima Yūto at first, but what if he sounded stupid to them?

Afterall, how could he not know her when she is obviously their classmate for the past year?

“A girl?” Nakajima Yūto looked questionably at Yamada Ryōsuke before adding teasingly with a Cheshire-like smile, “did you receive yet another confession letter from a girl? And you have no idea whoever that young lady is?”

They are popular in school; it comes with being an idol. But Yamada Ryōsuke is arguably the most popular member among the female student population, despite the fact that he would get wide eye in shock whenever one dares to make a move on him.

His discomfort with girls is something they found most interesting, especially how Yamada Ryōsuke often appeared to be so confident in front of their swooning fans.

“What’s her name?” Chinen Yūri coaxed gently, knowing that his friend is uncomfortable with the topic at hand.

“Nishiuchi Mariya-san? It is obvious from all that stares she kept sending towards us.” Nakajima Yūto guessed with a knowing smile.

“Shida Mirai,” Yamada Ryōsuke mumbled to himself, cursing himself for setting himself for this ridiculing.

“What?!” Chinen Yūri looked at Yamada Ryōsuke in confusion, did he just heard him say Shida Mirai, that Shida Mirai who has been messing up his prefect scores as the top student with her perfect mathematics scores? The so-called mathematics genius who have barely shown her face in class?

Nakajima Yūto looked like he has just swallowed something awful, “impossible… I don’t think she even know who her classmates are…”

For goodness' sake, I was identified by her as the tallest boy in class instead of my name! Even if the fact that I am a popular idol has escaped her notice, I am also the class representive! One would think that she would at least remember that, seeing she is supposed to be one of the smartest students in the class.

 Flipping through his book of class attendance in annoyance, Nakajima Yūto focused his attention on the fourth name on the list, Shida Mirai.

“She hasn’t been in class for at least the past two weeks…” Nakajima Yūto remarked in confusion, “are you sure someone is not playing a joke on you?”

“I saw her yesterday in the library self-studying… but I think I scared her off with my approach…” Yamada Ryōsuke frowned, did she have that much of a fear around people that she rather studies alone in the library than coming to class?

“Self-studying…?” Chinen Yūri echoed disbelievingly, “I lose out to someone who self-study without attending lectures?”

“Library? Yama-chan, since when do you even know where the library is?” Nakajima Yūto asked accusingly, “who are you and what have you done with our Yama-chan?”

“Err… I followed her?” Yamada Ryōsuke scratched his head shyly and tried to defend himself by adding on, “I just want to know more about her, afterall she did knock me down the other day!”

“Shida-kun was your missile girl?” Chinen Yūri attempted to clarify, “Not that she confessed to you.”

“Yeah… She seems lonely… and… I want to help her.”

“Oh…”

Nakajima Yūto was speechless, as their class’s student leader, he knew nothing about this classmate at all, he had thought that the girl was studying at home.

“Sumimasen,” a girl in uniform of another school interrupted his thought by approaching them, “Nakajima-san, I am here to collect homework.”

“Ahhh… Shida-san,” Nakajima Yūto acknowledged the girl with the name which surprised both Chinen Yūri and Yamada Ryōsuke.

Noticing the surprised look from both Chinen Yūri and Yamada Ryōsuke, the girl decided to introduce herself, “Hajimemae, I am Shida Miyū, the younger sister of Shida Mirai.” 

Yamada Ryōsuke was disappointed, for the slightest moment, he had imaged that the girl was his missile girl, even though it was painfully obvious that the girl is from a different school and has a kind of quiet confidence which the Shida Mirai he knew never had. She was also taller than Mi-chan, a characteristic which endeared Shida Mirai to him.

“You remind me of someone else,” Chinen Yūri remarked, snapping both Nakajima Yūto and Yamada Ryōsuke out of their thoughts and started a discussion among the boys.

“Someone famous…”

“An idol like us?”

“Nah… actress or model…”

“Actress! In fact I think she looks like…”

“Ichinose Miki, right?” Shida Miyū continued coolly, catching the boys by surprise with her tone of sarcastic.

“Errr ya… You don’t like her?”  Yamada Ryōsuke asked carefully.

“No, not really,” Shida Miyū pondered for a moment before answering, “I like the actress when she is in a drama… but it is hard to explain… I guess it is hard to dislike someone who you have been linked to since birth. But let’s just say that I would rather have my onee-chan any day than her. Don’t you artistes have to wear different masks in public, to pretend to be that perfect somebody which you are most definitely not? I think that’s what about Ichinose Miki made me feels abit put off by her. She acts all the time, perfecting that image that the public seems to believe.”

Upon receiving Shida Miyū’s knowing look, the three boys coloured lightly, understanding perfectly what she had implicated with her explanation but nevertheless shocked at the same time.

They have never thought that a member of the public could ever understand their losing battle between conflicting selves in public and private. It was that overwhelming stress of having to be perfect in the eyes of public which made the boys related and grew to appreciate the support system they have as a group to help each other whenever they face any issue.

They could not imagine having to handle all that fame and pressure from the Management Company and expectation of public alone at their age.

“Arigatou, Nakajima-san,” Shida Miyū collected a stack of notes from Nakajima Yūto while the boys were still in shock of her words and bowed slightly to them, “it’s a pleasure to meet you, Yamada-san and Chinen-san.”

With her farewell, Shida Miyū turned and exited the classroom, but her words were still deep in the minds of the boys.

“Do we do that too?” Nakajima Yūto wondered out loud.

“Pretending to be what we are not? I don’t know about the two of you, but I do. I love performing but outside the job, it seems tiring having to put up with the expectations off job as well.” Yamada Ryōsuke replied quietly.

“We are only ourselves when we are together and out of public eye,” Chinen Yūri summarized the common feeling felt by the three of them.

But what Chinen Yūri has left unspoken was the little fact that he has picked up from Shida Miyū’s speech that ‘it is hard to dislike someone who you have been linked to since birth.’

Linked to since birth…

Shida Miyū could be related to Ichinose Miki, the teen actress, cousins perhaps?

This would explain the similarity among the two girls and that profound understanding of artiste inner thoughts.

But…
Chinen Yūri looked at Yamada Ryōsuke for a moment, considering whether to share his suspicion with his friend.

No… not now when we are going to meet that girl.

Maybe I can ask her about Shida Miyū.

AN: This is unexpected... a derail from my thoughts honestly to add in the part about Miyū but I think it makes it more interesting.

I hope you will enjoy it! Do let me know if you have enjoyed this chapter as I have writting it.