Indifference
Ugh! No, Taotao, I told you to buy the melon one!
Wait… Really? I thought you hated the melon flavor.
Yeah, but I don’t anymore!
God, you literally know nothing about me.
What? Huh…?
Go and buy a new one! And no delivery drones! Run there!
*sigh* Alright, fine. I’ll be back.
Chihiro. Perhaps you are treating Tao like too much of an errand…? Errand boy. Word registered. Like too much of an errand boy?
I’m literally not! Taotao just doesn’t have any street smarts, so I’m trying to teach him what the world’s really like!
Haha, you don’t have to worry too much, Kinari.
*sigh…* I really don’t remember him asking me for the melon flavor.
(Chihiro isn’t usually so unreasonable, but he’s been like that for a while now.)
(But I feel like I used to know someone else who was like this…)
(My little brother acted the same way when he was really young. Is Chihiro going through the same thing?)
(He changed really suddenly after that conversation we had with Kinari. Did something happen…?)
(I wanna ask him about it, but he just ignores me whenever he realizes that I wanna talk… Maybe I should go to someone else about it.)
(If I talked to Kinari, I might make it feel like it’s his fault, and if I tried asking Kuguri-san… No, absolutely not. I haven’t been talking to him much lately, but he’ll probably just make fun of me.)
(Nayuki-san and the chief are both really busy, so I’d feel bad… I guess Raito-san is my only option.)
Alright, I know for sure that I bought the melon flavor this time.
Hello, Tao. Were you out shopping? You could’ve just ordered all of that by drone.
Ah, Raito-san, I was just about to go looking for you. Can I talk to you about something…?
Of course. We can talk in the living room.
No, that’s not really… Can we just talk in this little corner?
Hm? Sure.
Um… Chihiro’s been acting kinda weird lately. You noticed at the meeting the other day, right?
Hm…
Can you ask him why he’s acting like this? He just avoids the topic if I ask him.
…From my perspective, it doesn’t seem like you’ve had a serious fight with each other.
I don’t know if we’re really fighting, it just feels like some it’s kinda misunderstanding.
I think it’s fine as long as it doesn’t affect our performance as an idol group. You two have plenty of time left, so I’m sure it’ll work itself out.
Huh…?
Time heals all wounds, as they say, and having that time is a privilege. But I’ll try to talk to Chihiro if I get the chance.
(What…? Did he just completely brush me off? I expected him to take it a bit more seriously…)
(“You have plenty of time left,” he said… But I don’t think that’s the problem here…)
Why are they still around?
Buncha fuckin’ criminals.
Today’s show was amazing! Or totes exciting, as Chii would say!
Yeah! It was kinda weird how he ran into Taochi during the performance though. They never do that.
Yeah, they’re super close and always stay in formation. But maybe we’re lucky to see them mess up for once.
You’re right! Totally!
Thanks for coming to see us today!
Today, we’re going to try some more fan interaction for the first time. So make sure to stick around!
*cheering*
What?! Wait, does that mean we can ask for selfies?!
I-I’m so glad I’m alive!!
Please line up over here if you’d like to talk to Ev3ns!
(Wow, there are so many people. But…Chihiro-kun and Tao-kun seemed kind of out of sync today.)
(They’re probably the closest pair in the group. Something must’ve happened.)
Um, we’re super big fans of the Chihiro-kun and Tao-kun duo!
Can we take a picture with both of you…?
…!
Yep, of course! ♪ Right, Taotao?
Huh? Oh, sure.
We can stand on the sides, and you can do what you usually do in your pictures together, if that’s okay!
We’re sorry if it’s too much to ask!! But we really love how close you two are…!
We just don’t want anything to separate the two of you!!
(Nothing to separate us…? What are they talking about?)
‘Kay-‘kay! I’m so super happy that you like us! ☆ C’mon, Taotao. Let’s do what we always do.
O-Okay.
(What we always do…? We haven’t been all that close recently…)
Um… Don’t you usually stand closer to each other than that?
Oh, r-really?! Sorry. Is this good?
*sigh*
(Can he at least pull himself together in front of our fans?)
(But I guess this is my fault for being mean…)
*camera snapping*
See you next time! ♪
Th-Thank you…
(Those two fans got a picture, but they don’t look too happy.)
…They weren’t as close as we thought they were.
Yeah, it was kind of awkward. Maybe they just see each other as coworkers.
But they always look so close in the pictures Chii posts on his dazzle.
(…! Even the fans feel that something’s off between Chihiro-kun and Tao-kun.)
(A lot of fans like them as a duo… I should talk to Raito-san about it before it gets out of hand.)
Raito-san, I’m sorry to bother you right after you got home. Can I talk to you?
Oh, Chief. I was just about to go looking for you. I have my weekly report.
Oh, thank you. I wanted to talk about…
Chihiro-kun and Tao-kun… Um, they’ve been acting a little weird lately, right? Things seem kind of tense…
Oh, yes. I talked about that in the weekly report.
(Huh? He did?!)
(He must really care about them as their leader. I guess I had nothing to be worried about.)
I don’t think it’s anything too serious.
I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night, Chief.
Oh, yeah, good night. I’ll make sure to give your report a listen!
I wonder what Raito-san did to help resolve things?
……
(I’m a little scared. I hope there’s nothing alarming in this one like there was in the Beppu report…)
(But everyone’s gotten way closer since then. Raito-san’s always so patient, so I should believe in him!)
<We’ve been keeping up with our daily lessons and shows. It’s evident that our fanbase is steadily growing…>
(Mhm. Everything sounds normal. You can always count on a businessman to be diligent.)
<Ah, and Tao came to me looking for some advice regarding Chihiro. There seems to be some kind of misunderstanding between them. In my opinion, Chihiro is somewhat dependent on Tao lately.>
(I’m glad to hear that he stepped in. I didn’t know Tao-kun asked him for advice.)
<But I think it’ll resolve itself eventually. They have a lot of time to argue over trivial matters. You could even say that being able to waste time on things like that is a privilege.>
(Huh…?)
<They both have plenty of time left, so I think that they can resolve things on their own. That’s all for my report.>
*click*
(What…? Wait, so why are they fighting? What’s the misunderstanding about? Tao-kun asked him for help, but he’s not doing anything?)
(Sure, they might have plenty of time, but…they’re still members of the same idol group. They’re supposed to be friends.)
(If Raito-san thinks like that, then… By his logic, every person has plenty of time left.)
(I hope this isn’t true, but…is Raito-san so patient because he doesn’t really care about others…?)
……
Is that why Kuguri-san has it out for him…?