My new Neighbor's an Idol!?

On the List

"Um, explain?" The girl asked him after his statement had caused to audience to quiet down. "Or are you just being very arrogant?"

"I'm not lying, nor am I exaggerating." He responded. Rinse was the one more confused by his statement, how would he know about that? He wasn't the type of person to go around looking for rumors or gossip, so someone must've told him that somehow. What he was talking about was still lost on her. "You can thank a friend of mine for telling me, though I won't mention names to maintain anonymity."

Of course that was only relevant to the girl he was talking to, since everyone else could see him on stage. Which meant they all knew that it was Otoya who spilled the beans to him. Even if it was an open secret. He was a lot more nervous now that he was speaking out loud about their conversation.

"Anyway." He spoke up and tried to change the subject. "Does our lovely lady have any more questions?"

"I do." She replied. "If you're so high on the list, why still single then?" This was directed specifically towards Ishi, who sighed since he realized he walked into another trap of his own doing. "Wouldn't girls be throwing themselves at you?"

"Because thankfully the girls here don't just date boys only based on looks." He answered. "The boys are kind of the same way, so I'm a little glad that my fellow classmates aren't too superficial." The boys also had a list of attractive girls, just like the girls. It was pretty obvious who was at the top of these days after a certain transfer student arrived.

"So then you wouldn't care if I was a girl who was rated high, or low?" She asked.

"I wouldn't judge you based on your looks." The other two boys were getting a little antsy since she had started to ignore them with her questions. So now they were speaking up once more.

"Yeah, I know that we haven't talked all that much, but you have a wonderful personality." After they said their piece, Ishi started to laugh out loud.

"Heh, for once I agree with these two." He said with a smile on his face. "But, not for the same reasons." Those two made it sound like looks didn't matter to them, which he believed to be untruthful. While there was the potential that they were being honest, there was no way of telling until they had even seen this girl. Not that their answers affected how Ishi felt. "If I did find you to be ugly, then I wouldn't date you."

"Really?" She responded. "That's pretty harsh."

"I should clarify." He spoke again. A lot of the girls in the crowd were glaring at him for saying something that seemed to be very mean. From the way he acted during daily life, he sounded rather superficial here. "I don't want to date someone I don't find cute, pretty, beautiful, whatever else you want to say. We're not talking about your personality, your question was whether I'd care if someone was considered attractive based on a list by the other boys."

The others either misunderstood her question, or he did. To Ishi, she wanted to see if they cared about her place on the list. For him, the answer to that question was simple. "It doesn't matter what place you have on that list. I'll be the judge of whether or not you're a pretty girl. I'm not going to let the opinions of others affect how I feel." His words resonated among the fairgrounds as the crowd fell silent. He was done with his speech, and more importantly, done with this game. "Are we finished here yet? I'd like to get going soon."

"That's everything I need." She said. Her decision was made.

R-really?" Otoya was a little shocked that he needed to recollect himself to continue his act. "I mean, of course." He got control back of his mic and returned to his game show host persona. "Then mystery girl, who will you chose?" Everyone leaned in to hear her answer as she stood up from her seat.