My new Neighbor's an Idol!?

Compensation

"I supposed the two of us can just sit in here and wait." He laid back onto the much more open seating bench in the room. "If you don't want to stick around with me, then you're free to rejoin the others." Ishi made a guess on how she felt about the arrangement, which was that the girl didn't care to hang out with the rest of her classmates. That was a bit of an assumption, and perhaps Chinae wouldn't want to be trapped in a room with him. "You can even go home if you want."

"Why'd you bring me with you then?" She answered his question with one of her own. The girl sat down besides him, leaning up against his body despite all the space they had available to them. This one was like the time she took his hand. Despite how close they were, the distance between them was far. "And I doubt it's because we're on a date."

"I'm not sure why I took you." He replied. His body acted on its own, his brain didn't process the information quick enough in the short amount of time he had to act. So his guess was really just an attempt to justify a thoughtless action. "Honestly, I shouldn't even like you. You're rude, insult me all the time. Plus, you're really fake."

"Wow, such a charmer." Her sarcasm and his boldness knew no bounds as she pulled out her phone to try and just pass the time. "But you still took me anyway, so does that mean you're a giant moron for liking me?"

"I guess so." Was he really just another dumb teenage boy who would fall for the charms of a girl his age? Even if said girl was rather unattractive in terms of personality for boys. "But you still choose to stay, so you don't hate me either."

"Just thought you'd want me to stick around because of your dumb excuse." Though she was free to make herself not known to the others when making her exit. "I'm still staying with you anyway."

"Fine with me." He responded, caring little for the small talk between them. "I have to say, I thought your idol act was the only thing that you kept private."
"What are you getting at?" His statement got her attentive now. The girl sat straight up away from leaning on his shoulder. She glared at him, as if challenging him to say it what was on his mind.

"I thought the way you were touching me was weird, like habit instead of pretending we were on a date." The only time she seemed genuine today was when he led her out of the room. Any other time she had initiated the intimacy, it came off as distant to him. "Being an idol wasn't your first career, was it?"

"..." She had a darken expression to him finding out another one of her secrets. What was up with this guy? Why would he even bother to figure her out like this. "So what if it wasn't?"

"It's not a big deal to me either way." He told her. In his mind, compensated dating wasn't anything he would encourage in anyway regardless of age. Considering the way she acted, it didn't appear that anything bad happened to her during that time, but he was no psychic. "I just feel like you're holding back because of it."

"You shouldn't care if I'm holding back or anything. We both already said it, this isn't a real date." This was getting her a bit nervous. Discussing her past to someone she still barely knew at this point was uncomfortable. Surely anyone would agree, and it was unfair that she was put into this spot.

"If that was the case, then you wouldn't bother put in the things you learned for me." He countered. "And to be fair, this is still my own first date. Guess you could say that I want to learn a little bit more so I don't make mistakes." His attitude was the first thing she suggested to fix. Even if he was being honest, perhaps having harsh words for someone you're trying to court was not the right path to head towards. "If you're so experience, why don't you show me?"

"You know, it doesn't hurt to be a little bit more... intimate in the middle of a date." She took his hand and placed it down on her knee as an example. "Just to let them know you're into them."

"I'll keep it in mind." He responded with taking his hand off of her knee.

"You know, sometimes my dates would involve going into a private room too." It wasn't to dissimilar to the place they were seated at currently. Though his actions were certainly the opposite of what the other men she dated had done. "Is that a problem with you?" Her question was a surprise for him. The tone of her voice had some worry in it, as if it mattered what he thought about her.

"Only if they went too far."

"It wasn't anything like that." She answered. "The most it ever went was them touching and groping me." All of that, she allowed. If only for the money of course. "This is getting to be a bit much now, don't you think this is unfair?"

"If you want to know something personal about me, go ahead and ask." He knew that she probably wasn't eager to open up about this dirty secret. But it was also somewhat necessary for her to finally bring it out to light. This girl spent a lot of time keeping her secret life away from the others. This is why he could sense the distance between them as the date progressed. If people found out she was an idol, that was already bad enough. Adding onto that the compensated dating, then it would kill her reputation and also involve other undesirable things.

Now that it was out in the open, her body felt a lot more relaxed. The girl slung back into her seat, leaning up against his shoulder once more. What he said earlier about her, that this girl was someone he shouldn't even like. It was only half true. The real truth was that her hard shell was something that he disliked, but something like that could be chipped away with time.

"You can't honestly tell me that you've never been interested in a girl before." She said. He was nearly an adult, with a birthday finalizing things coming up in a couple of months. Which meant he had somehow lived his entire teenage youth without knowing the joy of falling in love? That seemed too unlikely.

"I don't know how it feels to fall in love with someone." He answered. Ishi had an idea of it based around his parents and how the rest of his classmates acted. So it wasn't foreign for him, just that he never felt that way. "But... I have had my heart broken."

"What?" She couldn't believe his statement. It sounded like it was true, since he also sounded apprehensive to mention it. A rarity coming from the person she was talking to.

"One day, some time ago, someone left a note in my locker." It told him to meet whoever sent it behind the school. At the time, he thought it was going to be a silly confession that he could just reject if he didn't like the girl. Which was probably going to be the case since he couldn't think of a single high school classmate he actually liked.

Still, he went at the time the note told him to do. Yet he came, and waited for what seemed to be nearly 20 minutes before realizing that he had been stood up. It was strange, even if he didn't consider it too hard, a part of him still have a feeling in the back of his head. What if he actually did like this girl?

"You weren't rejected though, how is it a heartbreak?"

"I can't say why I felt that way." He responded. "Which is why I hate this part of me. The part that's still a naive teenager who's heart and mind isn't fully developed." Funny, since as third years they were the mature ones. At this point, perhaps they should be more than just plain old teens.

"You know, you can just sing how you feel." She suggest, grabbing the mic and putting it up to his face. "That's what I do."

"No." He pushed it away and stood up.

"Why not?" She was surprised that he continued to be so against the idea of singing. Even when nearly no one was around them to see or hear.

"Not everyone likes to sing." He replied. "But for me, I just don't think it's my time to shine." The boy checked his phone for new messages. "Don't worry about it. I promise that when I'm ready, I'll take the mic." It seemed that Youna did indeed accept his invite. According to the girl, she had already entered the karaoke place.

"Guess this is where we say goodbye." She could tell as he read his phone that his friend was here. "I'll still stick around, but it looks like you just want to be with Hanada." She turned her head down to hide her disappointment.

"Chiane." He spoke, which prompted her to look back up to him. The way he called her... It must've meant. "Don't make yourself a stranger, feel free to call me up if you want."

"Heh, right." She chuckled and accepted his offer as Ishi stepped out of the room.