Eternal Melody

Despite the occasional sneering from some of those girls, the shopping trip was going fine. Sumire found several pieces of clothing that she liked. Yuhi stayed near her since he knew what would happen if he left her alone. In their line of work, they have to be very cautious when they are in public; there are some crazed fans and some crazed haters. These girls fall into the latter category.

He was right to worry since whenever they moved to a different store area, the girls would coincidentally follow. Yuhi sighed deeply. Why do people feel the need to do such trivial things? It is not like she has done something to harm them.

He does understand why they would feel betrayed. But if that’s the case, they could just move onto another idol. They don’t have to keep harassing and pressuring her like this. 

Yuhi leaned down and stole a kiss from Sumire when she least expected it. At first, she didn’t pay much attention to it, but when his kisses gradually became longer, he started to use his tongue more. 

 “Yuhi-san if you keep kissing me–“

 “I can’t take it.”

 He can’t stand it; her just standing there is driving him crazy.

Sumire shyly covered her mouth. “You’re so silly today. What’s wrong?”

Indeed what is wrong with him. Maybe he has gone crazy. Yuhi cupped her cheeks. “I can’t wait until you leave the hospital. It is killing me not waking up with you in my arms.”

 At those words, her gaze softened. “If that is the case, Yuhi-san, you could just stay over at the hospital.”

“You know I would love to, but I can’t attack you in the hospital.”

“Then what do you call what you did earlier?”

Yuhi awkwardly looked away, and she chuckled. “I am joking. I do understand, you know.”

“Have you properly discussed things with him?”

“I’ve said what I had to, and I think he is trying.”

“Is that so?”

‘Now that Nagawa is putting in actual effort, will she change her mind?’ It was something that crossed his mind when they first had this talk. But unfortunately, he was too much of a coward to tell her no.

Yuhi understood how important that talk with Nagawa was. Hino has repeatedly warned him that this situation will gradually get worse. He had to agree there. The relationship the two had with each other wasn’t healthy. He knew how difficult it was for Sumire. She tried her hardest this entire time not to dislike Nagawa.

Every time she returned from meeting with him, she would look exhausted. He would find her crouched down in the corner of the room with a dazed expression on her face. She seemed disgusted whenever Nagawa kissed or touched her. She would cling onto him and say she needs disinfection.

But their relationship could not continue that way. 

This is why he suggested to her that the two spoke properly. It was his idea, but now he is starting to have regrets.

 Yuhi picked up a dress from the rack. “Pick this.”

“Mmm, imposing your fetishes on me? But this is cute. I’ll get it.”

He picked up several other outfits, and Sumire laughed. “I guess I will try these on. Wait for a moment, Yuhi.”

Yuhi nodded and watched her disappear behind the changing room doors. Sumire came out with the first outfit, it looked nice on her, but it felt like something was missing. It was like this for the next few outfits, and before he knew it, half an hour had passed. 

The girl stepped out again, wearing an off-shoulder white dress with a red ribbon on the waistline and a red-colored denim jacket. Yuhi felt his heartbeat increase. Huh? What is this? It’s not like this is the first dress in the pile of clothes he gave her. But the impact on him is too much.

Normally people associate wearing red with seduction and maturity. But there was something innocent looking about her.

“That looks great on you, miss!”

“Right, please try on these heals.”

Sumire thanked the staff member as she put the heels on with a defeated expression. “Are you still not satisfied with this Yuhi?”

For a moment, he just blanked out and didn’t say anything. Is he satisfied? Oh, he was more than satisfied. If there weren’t so many people around, he would have pulled her to a corner and attacked her with kisses. How would it feel touching her when his emotions are like this?

His thoughts broke off when one of the staff members suddenly pushed her. It took Yuhi a moment to realize that the staff member was one of the girls from the group. It took him a moment to realize there was a glass table nearby.

Yuhi quickly rushed over and broke her fall. “That was close.” He turned to the actual staff member. “I think you should tell your manager to rethink protocol. If anybody wearing a staff uniform can just sneak in.”

He said it in a normal tone, but he was silently criticizing them.

“Sorry, we won’t allow this to happen again.”

Yuhi looked at the culprit and sighed. “You came to my recent event.”

Of course, it was one of his fans. Hino warned him before to be careful when he goes out in public with Sumire, but this has never happened before. He knew how excessive his fans were, so this isn’t too surprising, but still.

“As my fan, I wish you would conduct yourself more appropriately.” Yuhi knew these words were out of line. But they are already lucky that he is talking and not beating them up.

He felt angry, but even more than that, he felt frustrated. He took her out tonight so she could relax, but why is it like this?

“How could you allow that woman to trick you?”

“That’s right, Yuhi-sama, don’t you know what kind of person she is.” The other girls re-emerged when they saw what had happened to their friend.

His gaze turned cold the more nonsense that escaped their lips. Yuhi was about to say something when he realized that Sumire had left his arms. Instead, the girl was pointing to the glass window.

“Look, Yuhi! It’s snowing!”

Yuhi blinked once then twice; the staff member and the guards who came in seemed surprised too. The onlookers were the first to break that tension.

A pair of old ladies approached Sumire.

“Then miss, I think you should put this on.”

“That dress choice is good, but the temperature must have dropped.”

Sumire’s eyes brightened. “I didn’t see these before; they are so pretty!”

Of course, she didn’t see them; these two must have taken the last pair. His gaze softened at this scene. This isn’t the first time this has happened. Whenever Sumire behaves this way, people naturally get pulled into her circle. Some would comment and say that she is pretending to be innocent. But the elderly can tell that she is not pretending. They do say that as a person gets older, they become wiser.