the idols race for love, are you ready? | book one | utapri

chapter seventeen

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『 your p.o.v 』

          "You know, I've been wondering this for a while now, but why don't you two get along?" I asked the two idol students who decided to join me for lunch this afternoon, the rest of our friends being busy with their own things so they couldn't make it out to this café.

          Masato spared Ren a fleeting glance before looking back down at his steaming cup of coffee, the orangette sitting in the chair to his right looking to him with a cocky smirk. "Jinguji get's to live his life as freely as he wishes to while I am forever shackled by my family's name and yet, he doesn't see the opportunity he's been given-"

          "Given," Ren cut Masato off with a scoff, "who told you this was an opportunity given to me, Hijirikawa? I was forced to come here just to be my family's poster child." He said as his smile never faltered despite his cold words.

          "Still." The blue haired idol continued. "You get to do as you please-"

          "I get to do nothing but suffer is what I get to do." The orangette once again cut the other off.

          "You're insufferable." Masato spat out.

          "What sweet words coming from such a lovely pianist.~" Ren cooed sarcastically.

          I stared at the two of them for a moment before taking a small sip of my own coffee. Look, I know I asked them why they don't like each other, but I wasn't expecting for things to get heated so quickly. "What exactly do your families do?" I decided on asking, genuinely ignorant on this tid bit of information.

          Ren placed his chin on the back of his hand as he looked to me with a small smile dancing across his lips. "Our families run two of the largest conglomerates in all of Japan." He answered helpfully. "Naturally making us rivals."

          "Really, another set of rivals?" I asked with an added sigh. "And here I thought Tokiya and Otoya would give me enough trouble."

          Masato cracked a small smile of his own at that. "Otoya officially declared Tokiya to be his rival?"

          I nodded. "He kind of forced him into it, but Tokiya's taking it as more of a challenge that he knows he can win so I don't know what to make of those two. They're definitely interesting, that's for sure."

          "Who's your rival, little lamb?" Ren asked as his smile twisted into a smirk. "Nanami, maybe?"

          "I don't have a rival." I responded easily. "I don't compose in order to out do someone, I compose with the goal of wanting to make my idols shine and give them the ability to inspire others to do the same. I don't need a rival to push me to composing the best songs I can make."

          The orange haired idol student seemed slightly taken aback by my answer, blinking a few times before chuckling as he sat up once more. "What an honest answer. Is that why you're so determined in composing a duet for Hijirikawa and myself?"

          "Of course. I want you two to shine like the stars I already see you both as. Now if you two could just get along for five minutes, that would be amazing." I said with a laugh.

          "We're acting civilly as of this moment in time, are we not?" Masato asked with knitted brows.

          "I guess you two are playing nice," I agreed with a shrug of my shoulders, "but one day I'd like to see this not just be an act but rather you two settle whatever happened in your pasts to make you both dislike each other so much."