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

chapter thirty

ｉｎｔｅｒｌｕｄｅ

『 your p.o.v 』

          For the third evening in a row, I left Ren's room and made my way back down the hallway. He's been skipping meals and refusing to leave his hotel room ever since Masato punched him. Clearly, something that day really struck a nerve with that poor orange haired boy and he really isn't feeling like himself right now... I almost feel bad for him in a way. He always looks so deep in thought, just thinking about everything while I bring him food three times a day and sometimes pop in to check up on his current status during a rare moment of spare time. Thankfully his lip is almost fully healed now.

          Ren's just lucky that I managed to talk to Ryuuya about what happened not long after I first brought him back to his room the evening Masato punched him. I managed to convince our teacher to let Ren off the hook for now and even give him some extra time to finish assignments that are due soon. Apparently that pesky orangette also spoke to him sometime yesterday while I was off with Ringo and Haruka discussing composing strategies, Ren actually apologizing for always brushing off his homework the way he'd been doing for the better part of this year already and saying he'd start turning things on time from now on.

          Now that is surprising, don't you think? Ren apologizing? That's so out of character for him. Even Ryuuya was shocked by it and immediately came to tell me that Ren asked for an extended amount of time to work on these projects himself considering I never told him I got him the extra time already. It looks like he's finally taking an initiative to try stay at this school. Hopefully now he'll be more willing to take our duet project seriously and will finally work towards truly singing without restraint. I'd love to hear him sing honestly and I might finally get that chance while we're here in Okinawa together.

          Taking the elevator down to the ground floor of this large resort, I wandered my way over into the large dining room, dinner just being served. I quickly found an open spot sitting between Syo and Tokiya while the rest of our friends sat in random seats around the table.

          "Ren still not feeling well?" Natsuki asked the second I was seated across from him.

          I offered the large blonde a smile. "He's doing better. Actually, he's working on catching up on a lot of late work right now so he's hauled himself up in his room until he burns through a fair chunk of it." I then explained with a laugh. "I'm sure he'll start joining us for meals again soon though."

          Masato sparred me a fleeting glance before looking back down to his food. The day he punched Ren, I went to his room later that night and we talked for a long while about his past with that orangette as well as what he knows of Ren's past. To sum things up, he's always thought of him and Ren being one of the same despite their lives being drastically different. They've both lost things in their lives, whether that be tangible or abstract is beside the point here. Masato, at the end of the day, kind of feels a certain link to Ren, almost like it's them against everyone else and now each other, but the link is still there nonetheless and he doesn't want Ren to give up on a dream they together share.

          It's hard to explain and I'm not sure I completely understand it myself, though there's no doubt in my mind that Masato does care for Ren to an extent and is concerned for him so I'm more than positive that they'll be fine in the long run. This is probably similar to what I imagine two siblings fighting would be like or something. It'll get pretty messy every now and again, but they still care for one another and will get past this little hiccup. Maybe not fully, but they'll eventually put their differences aside when it matters most, I just know it.

          "Jinguji's just lucky he missed that photo shoot." Tokiya sighed, pulling me out of my thoughts.

          Syo shuttered at the sheer memory of what transpired that day. "We are never letting Satsuki come out in the water again."