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The Imperfect Idol

Chapter 9: Trouble

Notes:

Happy New Year folks!

Chapter Text

"Kana-chan, when are we going to have the ice-breaking party with our juniors?" One of the two girls sitting with Kana in their classroom asked her.

"Yeah, I"m kinda excited for the party too!" The other girl exclaimed. "You"re our class rep along with Taka-san so has it been decided yet?"

"We are supposed to have the ice-breaking party at the Bella Vita cafe. But it seems that other departments have been faster than us to book the bigger tables in advance for their party, so ours is scheduled on Wednesday." Kana informs them.

Both the girls groaned.

"Now now, Kaho and Miyo, don"t get so disappointed. We"ll be having our turns soon. So just be patient." Kana assured the two girls.

The two girls named Kaho and Miyo had been one of Kana"s limited number of friends in Iwata. She had been acquainted with them since her bachelor"s but their friendship deepened more during the last year of their bachelor"s.

Both the girls were taller than Kana and had black hair. While Kaho had brown eyes, Miyo"s were midnight blue.

"I heard this time we have quite a few pretty boys among the juniors." Kaho said excitedly.

"And there you go again." Miyo laughed. "You are really into pretty boys aren"t you?"

"Well nobody dislikes good-looking people, do they?" Kaho asked, although it seemed more like she was stating it. "Besides," she continued, "I heard a very handsome guy has joined the life sciences department this year. I got a glimpse of him too. He looks so ethereal, almost like some movie actor. He has blonde hair and blue eyes, the definition of peak handsomeness!" Kaho mused.

Kana snorted. "That"s the only good thing about him anyway. Other than that, there"s nothing good about Aqua. He"s the worst."

Both the girls looked at her surprised. "Wait, you know him?" Kaho asked amused

It was only then that Kana realised what she had said. She definitely needed lessons to not run her mouth sometimes. "Uh... Well..."

She wasn"t really planning on letting anyone know, not yet at least, that Aqua was someone she knew.

She debated for a few moments if she should be letting the girls know about this piece of information. She finally gave in and thought about letting them know.

"Listen," she began, "I"ll tell you two about this. But you two need to promise me that you won"t go around saying it to people."

"My lips will remain sealed," Kaho did a gesture of zipping up her lips.

"Well if you"re asking us to keep it a secret then we will because you trust us." Miyo assures. "Now spill the beans."

"The guy you"re talking about, his name is Hoshino Aquamarine. And yes, I know him. I"ve actually known him for a long time. He"s my friend and was my junior in high school."

“That’s quite the name.” Miyo says.

"OMG! You two are high school friends!" Kaho exclaimed. "Yah Kana! Why did you never tell us you had such a handsome guy as a friend."

Yeah, because he was apparently dead and I was trying to cope with that fact. Kana thought to herself but didn"t say anything.

“You are already on first name basis with him?” Miyo raised a brow. “You two must be close.”

"Wait a second, could it be you have a crush on him?" Kaho asked narrowing her eyes.

Hearing the girl"s words Kana could feel her cheeks growing warm but she didn"t say anything.

"You"re all red Kana-chan." Miyo says in a matter-of-factly tone.

"No I"m not." Kana lied knowing all too well that they could say.

"OMG! Is that the reason you were gatekeeping that handsome guy from us Kana-chan? Girl! We"ll never try to get cozy with your man, don"t worry! If you like him then he"s all yours." Kaho said excitedly.

"What the--? He"s not my man. We are just friends."

"Well, your face is betraying your words though. You look like a tomato right now."

"Damn, you are really blushing so hard just on such a mere mention? You are really down bad for him. And I"m not even joking, you look dead serious."

"Is he the reason why you never tried dating anyone else?"

"Yah! You two just cut it out!!" Kana had learned to keep her emotions under control in the last few years, so she herself was surprised as to why she was blushing like a high school girl at the mention of Aqua. Come to think of it, she was never really teased by anyone about her crush on the blonde boy. It seemed she was running a few years late on the "getting teased about your crush" department. Although her feelings for Aqua were a lot deeper than just a mere crush. She was in love with him and it was clear enough to her. However, things weren"t going exactly well now considering their messy reunion and how things turned out. She didn"t really know how she"d start talking to him again after how she treated him.

"How about we go to Bella Vita after class today?" Miyo suggested. "We can munch onto something as Kana gives us more info about her handsome man."

"We"re not going anywhere!" Kana declared.

 

 

 

Aqua sat at a cafe called Bella Vita along with all his classmates and seniors after their orientation and other formal introductions were over. The seniors told them that they would be having an ice-breaking party.

"A party at a cafe! This is gonna be so much fun. This didn"t happen at our previous uni, right Aqua-kun." Hana, who sat beside Aqua asked him. Aqua wasn"t particularly excited about the party, but now he was even less enthusiastic.

Hana was from the small town of his previous University. She had a pretty decent score and could have opted for a university in Tokyo. And yet she decided to shift from one small town to another. It didn"t take a genius to understand why she did it and Aqua wasn"t pleased about it. He did not understand what Hana saw in him that she"d follow him all the way to Iwata. He was a rather ordinary guy with a selfish agenda. Finding Kana and making things right with her has been his aim. He was so close yet so far.

“What’s the matter Aqua-kun? You don’t look too excited. Are you okay?” Hana asked, concerned at the lack of his enthusiasm.

“I was just thinking of something.” He said in his monotone voice.

“You really think too much Aqua-kun. Sometimes you need to loosen up and relax.” Not when Kana was ignoring him. Kana had a really strong hold on him and knew it all too well.

He remembered how Saachi told him that the reason Kana was ignoring him was because she felt guilty. If that was really the reason then he wanted to tell her that it was okay and she didn’t need to overthink it. But the red-haired girl wouldn’t even come face to face with him.

As he was lost in his thoughts, he caught the words, “Look, it’s Arima.” He immediately looked up to see Kana entering the café followed by two girls.

 

Kaho and Miyo had somehow coerced Kana to come to Bella Vita. However, Kana did not expect to see what she saw upon entering. The entirety of Masters students on the Life Sciences department sitting there. And somehow, among all the people, her line of sight falling on the first person was Aqua. Both of them had a brief eye contact before Kana broke it. And it did not go unnoticed by Kaho who had already seen the blonde boy before. The girl signalled the other girl and showed her Kana’s old friend cum junior.

“Oi Arima!” It was one of her batchmates from the Life Sciences Department.

“Hi” Kana greeted.

“Did you come to hang out with your friends? Surprised to see you here.”

“Yes. And actually, I’m more surprised to see you guys because I didn’t know Life Sciences were also supposed to have their party today. I thought it was only the Economics Department.”

“They were faster than us and booked the rooftop seating before us.”

“Ah, that’s a bummer.”

“Yeah indeed, but it’s okay. We at least could get the reservations for today.”

Kana scans the tables again and asks, “I don’t see you class reps. Where are they?”

“Our professor called them last minute,” another guy said, “we told them that we’ll wait, but they might take longer for the task assigned to them so we should go ahead and start the part and they will join us in due time.”

“Ahh, okay. Well anyways, enjoy your party. We’ll enjoy ours on Wednesday. Later.” The guys waved at Kana and she and her friends walked to one side of the café a took a small table.

 

Aqua kept his eyes on Kana the whole time she talked with his seniors. And that, in fact, did not go unnoticed by Hana.

“Isn’t that Arima Kana?” One of Aqua’s classmates asked.

“Who?” Hana asked looking puzzled.

“Arima Kana, the genius child actress. She was pretty well known as a child actor. Her last drama was also a hit. That was nearly four years ago. I wondered where she went after that since there was no news about her.”

“She’s taking a break.” One of their seniors who overheard the conversation said. “She’s taking a break for college, and also, she’s been in the industry since she was a baby. So, she’s on a break for a few years, although she does do some magazine and photo shoots from time to time.”

Aqua knew all to well that that was not the case why she was taking a break. But that worked out well for the public eyes.

“Arima is really popular in college.”

“No wonder, she’s so pretty and sociable. She has such a cutesy face.”

“Don’t go for that cutesy face though, she has a pretty sharp tongue as well. You wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.”

“Does she have a boyfriend?”

“I don’t think she does.”

“Do you think I might have a chance?”

“Definitely not.”

People around the table suddenly started talking about Kana, and it made Aqua pretty awkward, cause how was he supposed to sit there and pretend that he was one of them when he clearly wasn’t. He wondered how his classmates would react if they found out that he has known Kana for longer than anyone here. Or that he was her next-door neighbour now.

“Popular girls always have everyone’s attention, huh?” The words came from Hana. She didn’t direct them towards anyone, neither did she tell them out too loud so that others would hear her. But Aqua sitting right next to her heard her.

“What do you mean?” Aqua asked her.

“Everyone suddenly fawning over that senior.”

“She’s an actress. It’s not impossible for people to know her.”

“I never heard of her before.”

“Just because you never heard of her doesn’t means she’s not well acclaimed.” Aqua said in a passive aggressive manner which Hana didn’t seem to catch.

“Do you know her?” Hana asked him.

“Yes, why not.” I know a lot more than just ‘knowing’ her. “I hail from Tokyo, so I definitely know her.”

To Aqua’s relief, he wasn’t as popular outside of Tokyo or it’s outskirts like his mother Ai or his sister Ruby. Most people did not recognize him and even if anyone did, he pretended like he didn’t know what they were talking about. According to official records, Hoshino Aqua was still alive, but his status was never made public. His conditions were critical and his family did not want to make that known to public as media would eat them up and make a cover story out of it in every possible way. By the time Aqua had fully recovered physically, Aqua himself did not want to make his status public. And it seemed, just like Ai, people had also forgotten him. The value of his life was as good as some cheap media publicity after all which he didn’t want to go back to again.

Although Aqua felt guilty for not letting at least some people know about his life, like Director Gotanda or Mem. He would surely let them know once he makes things up with Kana.

“Ah! I found out the Life Science Department is having a party here. So, it is true.” Aqua’s chain of thoughts were broken by a rowdy voice. Two older looking guys came out of no where to their spot of celebration.

“Care if we join?”

“Shit.” Aqua heard one of his seniors curse under his breath.

“What’s the matter senpai?”

“These two were our seniors. They were troublemakers and bullied others. They are not good news.”