Chapter 115 – Questionable Figure

After school finished for the day, the cast of the play were summoned to the auditorium in order to begin the first set of acting lessons.

The theater committee assumed that all of the actors had no level of acting experience, so they made sure to have acting lessons before the actual play rehearsals.

Akari was decently versed in the ways of acting due to her long years of maintaining her facade of the goddess, but Takei had absolutely no experience in the acting department.

He quietly cursed himself for being an antisocial loner for so many years while walking to the auditorium with Akari in tow.

"I wonder what the first set of lessons will look like?"

Akari cutely positioned her hand under her chin and made an expression that seemed to suggest that she was critically thinking about this.

From some online videos that he had seen, most beginning actors had to start with improving their postures and learning better vocal techniques.

"Well, I'm sure we can take on whatever the world throws at us."

After walking a considerable distance from their respective classrooms since the auditorium was across the campus, Takei and Akari arrived at their destination.

He opened the door for Akari and walked in after she had entered.

What greeted them was the spitting image of a high school auditorium, for better or for worse.

There were many good aspects about it, such as the large space for the crowd and comfortable chairs, but there were also some negative aspects about it as well.

The auditorium had clearly been in use for decades, as evident by some of the paint that was chipping off the walls.

Once the two stars of the play had entered, the rest of the cast noticed them and greeted the two favorably.

Some of the upper level members of the theatre committee were upperclassmen, but most of the members were fellow freshmen.

"Now that everyone has gathered... Let's begin with introductions!"

The presumed president of the theater committee announced the beginning of the first session by starting a round of introductions between everyone.

Since he had proposed it, the president was the first one to go first.

At first glance, Takei could deduce that he was a solidly built man who very likely went to the gym often.

The wavy brown hair he had was neatly tied into a ponytail and was obviously taken care of very well.

Although he had a soft demeanor that invited people to trust him wholeheartedly, Takei could sense that there was another side of him that was not shown to others.

Hiro Shirogane was definitely a man of mystery.

If he hadn't known beforehand, Takei would've assumed him to be the president of the student council.

He had never met the president of the student council, but he had heard many great things about them.

Wait, was the president of the student council a guy or a girl? I wasn't paying attention to the new student speech that they made...

During the new student assembly, Takei had slept through the entire thing which resulted in him not knowing the identity of the student council president.

He had assumed the president to be a guy, but he was now having some doubts about that assumption.

Deciding to forego the random train of thought, Takei was up next to introduce himself.

"Takei Tanaka, nice to meet everyone."

He decided to keep his introduction short because he didn't want to give out too much information about himself.

"Interesting..."

That was because he was being unusually wary about Hiro for some reason.

Takei's six sense was telling him to be cautious of this person who seemed to be hiding something.

Whatever it was that was setting off Takei's danger senses would have to wait until after the current moment since it was Akari's turn to introduce herself.

"Hello everyone, my name is Akari Akazawa. Please take care of this inexperienced me, since I am a novice to the world of acting."

A couple people clapped and cheered for the goddess that had descended upon them, but Hiro was curiously silent and expressionless during her introduction.

Almost as if he was uninterested in her.

Well, that's a first.

Once introductions were over, the whole cast proceeded to go through some light stretching motions.

They were just some basic yoga techniques that Takei had already studied and done many times.

After that was over, they moved onto some vocal practice by going through all of the vocal range from highs to lows.

It was a simple assignment, but that was what made it so hard.

Mastery and practice was the objective of the exercise, not completion.

Takei was having trouble producing the higher pitched sounds due to his deep voice, which resulted in him sounding like a dying animal.

On the other hand, Akari was able to hit every single note with perfect accuracy.

After she finished going through the ranges, she was suddenly swarmed with a group of fans that wanted to praise her angelic voice.

That's my girlfriend for you! She has the best voice in the world!

Takei felt a surge of delight fill his body as he watched his girlfriend be praised by the crowd.

After about another thirty minutes of vocal training, the president of the theater committee dismissed them for the day.

"Good job everyone! We'll reconvene tomorrow, so rest well!"

Using his amiable smile, Hiro praised them for their hard work and let them go home after a surprisingly strenuous first session.

Takei and Akari began to pick up their belongings to leave the auditorium, but Takei suddenly stopped and looked behind him.

Hiro was waving bye to everyone that was leaving, which wasn't an odd thing to do since he was helming the project.

However, the odd thing that Takei noticed was his smile.

It was almost as if there was a lingering shadow behind his amicable smile that was a window to his true feelings.

That wasn't a big problem since most people would wear a glued smile to their faces to ensure a good relationship with others, but Takei was greatly disturbed by Hiro's smile in particular.

He had seen that type of smile before.

This was a type of smile that Takei had hoped that he would never ever see again.

It was...

A smile of hopelessness, regret, and anguish.

---

Idiot Couple Meter: 85 -> 86%

What's with the random seriousness?

Serious-san: Mwhahahaha

Sugar-chan: Dear, you're going back to your ways