An Idol with a Few Too Few Friends?

When they saw Shiranui Marilou walking toward Seiya, the students of Class 1-F felt their hearts leap into their throats.

The entertainment industry was a chaotic place. Though many actors looked like sworn brothers on screen, there were countless cases of them having terrible relationships behind the scenes.

Seiya had debuted as a child star and was one of the few action stars currently in the industry. Whether he played a samurai, the male lead in a live-action manga adaptation, or roles in adventure films and TV dramas, he could perfectly bring the character to life.

Though he was still young, his acting skills—especially his swordsmanship and fight choreography—had earned him the title of "Martial Star" within the industry, meaning the brightest star representing the action genre.

At this point, Seiya was more than qualified to be considered the face of such productions.

Compared to Seiya, Shiranui Marilou was a rising new actress who had suddenly emerged in recent years.

Though her achievements purely as an "actress" did not match Seiya's, she was a versatile entertainer. In terms of popularity, she was no less famous than him.

Since Seiya and Shiranui Marilou were around the same age—one a skilled actor representing child stars, the other an idol actress representing rising stars—the media often compared them.

So when Shiranui Marilou walked toward Seiya, the students present thought they were about to witness an evenly matched showdown.

After all, plenty of gossip magazines had claimed that Wenren Seiya and Shiranui Marilou were fierce rivals with an extremely poor relationship.

"Seiya, I didn't expect you to be in this class too. Looks like things won't be too boring from now on.

"And you, why is it that no matter where you go, you can always get along with people so quickly?

"I asked you before if you had some secret, but you always said to just let things happen naturally.

"But now that I look at it, you really do have some secret, don't you? You've just been hiding it and refusing to tell me!"

Shiranui Marilou, the wildly popular actress whom everyone saw as exceptionally noble and aloof—

After walking up to Seiya, she familiarly grabbed his shoulders with both hands and began shaking him wildly.

"I wasn't wrong. I've always just let things happen naturally.

"The reason everyone keeps their distance from you, Marilou, is definitely because your aura is too intimidating... No, I mean, too powerful.

"Yeah, after all, you're Shiranui Marilou. Even I feel a lot of pressure when I'm around you."

Apparently unable to tolerate Seiya's teasing any longer, Shiranui Marilou angrily chopped him on the head.

Then she lifted her chin high and said, "If you make fun of me again, I'll go home tonight and expose your embarrassing past on LINE."

Seeing the interaction between Seiya and Shiranui Marilou, all the students present were dumbfounded.

The imagined bloody catfight never happened, nor did Seiya, the child-star actor, and Shiranui Marilou, the rising actress, put on the so-called battle of dragons and tigers.

Not only did they not tear into each other, they clearly knew one another and seemed to be quite close.

Shiranui Marilou could not understand why, despite both her and Seiya being hugely popular actors, people had always seemed afraid of her, whether back in middle school or now.

Meanwhile, Seiya seemed to get along everywhere he went.

Was Seiya so approachable while she, Shiranui Marilou, was not? She was clearly good at telling jokes, okay? Was it just because she usually wore an iceberg expression?

It was not as though she could not smile, but this was not acting. Keeping a fake smile on her face all the time would feel rather hypocritical, wouldn't it?

"Expose my embarrassing past? I don't have as much of that as you do, do I? If you're not afraid of losing your idol image completely, then let's hurt each other!"

But the moment he finished speaking, he saw Shiranui Marilou looking intensely interested, as though she was seriously considering trying something so amusing.

So Seiya quickly raised both hands in surrender. "Forget it, I give up. I almost forgot what you're really like.

"But if you're looking for friends, I do know someone pretty suitable I can introduce. After all, with our identities, it would probably be troublesome if we interacted too much, right?"

Everyone present heard the conversation between Seiya and Shiranui Marilou.

Ruby, who had been one of the spectators, had been wondering who the "friend" Seiya intended to introduce to Shiranui Marilou would be when she realized he was slowly walking toward her!

No way, no way... The friend Seiya was talking about can't be me, can it?!

Yet while Ruby was at a complete loss, Seiya really did lead Shiranui Marilou over to her.

It was not that he was giving Ruby special treatment. He had only just transferred to this school as well, and the only person in the classroom he knew was Hoshino Ruby, whom he had met just that morning.

"Hello, I'm Shiranui Marilou. As you can see, I'm no different from any of you. Since we're classmates, I'd also like to get along well with everyone."

Upon hearing Shiranui Marilou's words and seeing the hand she held out, Ruby immediately looked flattered and overwhelmed.

When she saw all the other students in the classroom looking at her with envy, the pressure mounted. She glanced at Kotobuki Minami beside her, then rolled her eyes and immediately pulled the friend she had just met over as well.

"Um... hello... I'm Hoshino Ruby. I'm also very happy to be friends with Shiranui.

"And this girl is Kotobuki Minami. Seiya is her absolute favorite actor, so she said she also wants to be friends with Seiya."

Kotobuki Minami: (_!!! That may be true, but when did I ever say that to Ruby?!

"Um... actually... I really admire Wenren, and I love every movie you've made. I've been your fan since I was little.

"I'm terribly sorry. If this causes you any trouble, I'll..."

"Is that so? I didn't expect one of my classmates to be a fan of mine too. Miss Shiranui, are you jealous?

"And Kotobuki, just call me Seiya. It's an honor to be friends with a beautiful girl like you."

Before Kotobuki Minami could finish, Seiya interrupted her from the side.

Hearing Seiya's words, Kotobuki Minami looked utterly delighted. She had never expected the idol she supported to be so approachable.

"Didn't you say you were introducing a friend to me? Yet you went and made a friend for yourself first." Shiranui Marilou mercilessly drove an elbow into Seiya's kidney.

Having finally recovered her senses, Kotobuki Minami quickly blushed and said, "No, no, I like Shiranui too. You're both idols I support."