113 Hobby 3

Julian playfully greeted me mysteriously inside the dark classroom that was void of lights.

"Why is the room so dark?" I asked.

Julian instantly lighted up the room with a snap from his fingers like a magician performing a show.

In a split second,

My eyes glittered from the familiar merchandise that I couldn't get my hands on for years. I had missed all of these banners and posters.

The frilly idol clothes and puffy Victorian style dress displayed with sparkling accessories instantly captured my eyes. The pureness of the clear animated eyes and radiating cuteness from her expressions made me fall in love with her from first sight.

This was Lilika Yuri. A vocaloid that was equally popular to the famous and legendary Hatuna Mika with the banner of long neon blue pigtails with a school uniform.

Her songs during the time I was forced to study had helped me get by during my former life. I was surprised when I ran into Jules who carried a CD of her debutant album. Her debutant album was a legendary collector's item as it was a limited edition due to her low initial popularity before she blew up.

Even if this was another world, it was absolutely astonishing to have the same vocaloids exist in the otaku fandom. I covered my mouth out of habit when I gasped from the amazing fan collection.

I trembled when I touched the cover of the debut album and opened it to find scraps of paper with a date and time written. Was this my imagination?

The precious photo of Lilika Yuri was covered with big bold letters, 'concert'. It couldn't be? A real concert ticket of Lilika Yuri in my hands that was taking place at midnight?

"Is this real?" I shook Jules with disbelief.

Jules shrugged, "It's real if you want it to be."

I tightly hugged Jules, not wanting to show my sad face, knowing that I wouldn't be able to go with the limitation of the necklace around my neck. If only he had come few months earlier, I wouldn't hesitate to go with him.

Getting permission to go to the concert from Luke was almost impossible. I could just imagine Luke's horrendous expression when he found out another one of my otaku hobbies. He would probably ban more of my things again to get me to act somewhat like a normal lady.

Jules lightly patted my head like he took it as a sign that we were going.

"We have to go now to use the teleportation gate unnoticed."

I loosened my hug with Jules and tried to smile to hide my devastation of not being able to go even with the tickets in my hand.

"How about one song?" I passed him the mic and turned on the screen.

I planned to confess the truth about my necklace and say my farewells at the teleportation gate. I couldn't bear to tell him now when he expected me to look so excited after our long-time reunion.

I naturally sang the first verse like it was ingrained into me. Jules, knowing the cue, sang the second verse with his memorising voice that instantly put your guard down. His singing was smoothing to the point it made you feel instantly relaxed.

We harmonized naturally under the sparkling make-belief disco ball under the old relic devices. By the time the song was finished, we smiled at each other at the same time before high-fiving.

"We should get going," Jules turned off all the devices.

I felt like I was walking out of a magical experience filled with colourful lights and imagination when Jules locked the door after packing all the idol merchandise into his marble.

Maybe because I was entirely immersed into the Lilika Yuri decorated room, I forgot about the damaged buildings in the high school area made by my uncontrollable mana spell.

After walking out of the deeper area of the building, Jules froze for a few seconds when he spotted the other students trying to repair the exterior of the building.

Nobody payed attention to us as almost everyone was occupied with helping each other into making the building look new again. It was actually a relief. Most times, a middle school student in the high school section would instantly grab the attention of others like earlier today.

I did feel guilty about damaging the school building, but I was secretly glad it gave me more time to enjoy being with Jules.

Before I took my eyes away from the hard-working students, I noticed a short boy helping them from probably a lack of manpower. Alex who had equal ability in control of his mana, matched their speed in composing materials together.

Wait. Alex was here.

Jules had one of his eyebrows lifted in curiosity when my face suddenly brightened as I started to skip forward, full of energy in each step.

I smiled as I recalled Luke's condition on the necklace's restraint. If I were to spin it in a positive way, I would get to go anywhere as long as I had Alex or Luke around. And one of them was here right in front of me, vulnerable and unknowing of what was going to happen.

Maybe I would go to that concert today.