Romantic Killer But I Made It Gay

Part 67

"Sorry I'm forcing youuuuuu! But I promise you'll enjoy a wonderful futuuuuuuure!" Ryuya gasps for breath and the score freezes at 73.6 points. "Try and beat that, Haru!" He points at me overconfidently and I laugh.

"Don't avert your gaze. I'm not your real opponent." I step aside as Yuri walks past me, brushing dark hair out of her face. Without a word, she takes the mic out of his hand and steps up to the center of the room, taking a deep breath.

"I'll break that romantic heart! Kicking away fake love! This stupid development of love is...Come on!"

These lyrics seem strangely familiar, but I can't focus on them with Yuri singing like this. She's always had a confident, soft voice, but now she's completely changed to fit the mood of the song. It's the first time I've seen her look even remotely angry and it's somehow spellbinding. One sideways glance around the room tells me everyone else feels the same. The song reaches its peak, then dies down to slowly stop with an instrumental.

As Yuri finishes, the points continue to rise until they stop at 89.4. She turns back to us with a confident but embarrassed smile and Amin claps, if only to fill the silence. I join in, then Riporin, then Emi, and in a second the entire room is applauding for her.

"Oh, stop. I'm not that good..." she murmurs, placing a hand on her flushed cheek.

"Hey, no one clapped for me!" Ryuya complains from his seat. Even he looks a little surprised by Yuri's voice.

The day lengthens as we sing and laugh and clap along. I'm surprised to find I'm actually enjoying myself by the time I notice Ryuya hunched up in the corner of the bench. I look around but it seems like no one else has noticed him. I sigh. Looks like it's up to me to cheer him up, as usual. 

"Are you sulking?" I ask, scooting over to him. "You definitely could beat me at singing, if that helps."

He sighs, looking away. "It's not that. I mean, it's partially that, but—" He groans, holding his face in his hands. "Arghh! I'm so frustrated!"

"Like you have any right to talk, cheater," Riporin mutters under her breath and Ryuya lets out a squeak.

"Wha—you cheated on someone?" I yelp, scooting away from him. It's not like I'm surprised, considering the kind of person he's grown up to be, but I'm still a little disappointed.

"Please don't bring that up..." he whimpers, putting up a hand shield to block us out.

"But it's true." Amin sides over next to Riporin, giving him an almost identical glare as her friend.

Ryuya curls up into a sad ball and I sigh, giving my friends a "really?" look. They shrug and I scoot back over to Ryuya, taking the tablet off the table.

"Why don't we sing a song together?" I suggest reluctantly. It's not like I want to be publicly humiliated, but I feel like it's my responsibility to cheer him up, for some reason.

He looks up at me pitifully. "Don't you hate singing?"

"Well...yeah. But I thought it might cheer you up to beat me in something."

"You'd do that for me?"

I instinctively jerk away before catching myself. That twinkle in his eye might not be love—maybe it's very strong friendship. Y-Yeah, that's gotta be it. Wow, I'm getting really bad at convincing myself of things.

Before Ryuya can question me my phone buzzes and I whip it out so he won't say anything weird.

"Junta says he's here," I inform everyone, getting to my feet. "I'll go get him."

As I start for the door Ryuya calls, "Haru!"

"Yeah?" I turn back with an air of annoyance and he flinches, wrapping himself back into a ball.

"Nothing. Sorry."

I frown as innocently as I can and hurry out of the room.