The Hidden Client (II)

"Sakura-san..."

Having just sat down, Sakura heard someone call her name and, like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring, she immediately lowered her head in fright:

"I don't know... I really don't know anything..."

"Actually, I'm not trying to ask you about Sudō. There's just a small matter I wanted to ask for your help with."

Sakura calmed down slightly, but she still didn't want to answer any questions. She had been feeling anxious for the past two days, and as expected, strangers were the scariest thing of all!

"It's like this: I saw that you have a camera, and I've been thinking about buying one myself lately, but I don't really know much about them, so..."

"A camera? I... I don't really know much about them either..."

Shinjo rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. Gaining the trust of someone with social anxiety was undoubtedly difficult. In that case, he should change his approach.

"Sakura-san, you bought your camera at that digital shop in the shopping mall, didn't you?"

Wasn't that a redundant question?

Of course not.

A necessary step in gaining someone's trust is making them feel that you are not an aggressive person.

Therefore, one should ask as few utilitarian questions as possible, sticking to simple things that almost everyone knows and that can be answered with a simple nod or shake of the head.

Thus, Sakura didn't overthink it and simply nodded gently to answer Shinjo.

"Alright, thank you, Sakura-san. Oh! By the way, if you're planning on going there anytime soon, it's better to go with a friend, because there seems to be some unsavory character hanging around there lately..."

"Eh?"

Just as Sakura was about to say something, she noticed that Shinjo had apparently already returned to his seat.

Shinjo-kun... he... how could he know?! Could it be that that person has already told him about me...

But no one could answer the various questions currently swirling in her mind. As for taking the initiative to ask Shinjo? She didn't have the courage to talk to anyone, let alone a boy.

Although that boy seemed a bit different from others and appeared to be the kind-hearted type, his girlfriend was certainly no pushover.

Karuizawa, the most vicious woman in Class D besides Horikita Suzune!

And so, until the lunch break, Sakura was entangled in intense self-conflict. Watching as the others left one after another to eat lunch, she and Shinjo were the only two left in the classroom.

If she were going to ask, now would be the perfect opportunity, right?

But... when talking to someone, what was she supposed to say first?

Shinjo, waiting alone on the side, was doing so entirely to create an environment where Sakura could feel as at ease as possible. However, to lower her guard, letting her stew for a while was necessary.

Still, this girl's psychological defenses are way too thick, aren't they?

Five minutes later, Sakura seemed to have finally made up her mind; she slowly stood up and took a step toward Shinjo!

Forget it, I'll do it.

"Sakura-san, is there something you need?"

"Ah... I... actually... I..."

"Don't be nervous. You probably have something you want to ask me, right? Take your time. If you feel scared, we can text or write notes to each other."

Method number two for dealing with social anxiety: if you can avoid speaking out loud, you might get twice the result with half the effort!

In this day and age, many young people might not necessarily suffer from social anxiety, but they clearly prefer communicating via text on social platforms over answering phone calls.

This might be a habit, or it might be a self-protection mechanism.

Sakura's eyes lit up instantly. She had to admit, this was a great idea.

She picked up the notebook at her side, tore off a page, and began to write.

Before long, a crumpled ball of paper was tossed onto Shinjo's desk.

"Shinjo-kun, what's this about the abnormal person at the digital shop?"

(After all, writing a note meant she wouldn't have to stutter, so there were no inexplicable ellipses in her writing—this was perfectly logical!)

Shinjo followed suit, picking up a pen and writing below:

"Actually, I recently received information that there's an employee there who looks at customers in the store with a strange gaze. I'm investigating that matter."

The two of them began to talk normally, just like that, by tossing notes back and forth.

"Shinjo-kun, why, investigate this?"

"It's work that I wanted to outsource to the student council, but they outsourced it back to me. All in all, having a person like that stay at the school is a terrifying thing, isn't it?"

Sakura fell silent after reading Shinjo's message. She knew who that person was, but she didn't want to speak about it to anyone, because doing so would expose the secret she had been hiding all this time.

However, she really didn't want to see that person again... and so, for a moment, she was caught in a dilemma.

Shinjo didn't rush her. He was now one hundred percent certain that Sakura knew something, though she might have some reservations about speaking up.

After a while, Sakura picked up her pen, thought for a moment, tore off a new sheet of paper, and wrote a line on it:

"Shinjo, can I trust you?"

"If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to. But if you tell me, I can swear on my name that I will never reveal your secret to anyone."

"Shi... Shinjo... actually, I..."

"Actually, I've always been terrified of talking to others. Or rather, I've always been terrified of looking people in the eye..."

Afterward, she tore off a fresh sheet of white paper and slowly wrote her secret on it.

[Shinjo, you should be someone I can trust... so... please... save me!]

Simply put, because of her social anxiety, Sakura only felt comfortable expressing her true self on social media platforms.

It turned out that beneath her silent and reserved exterior, her true dream was to become a beloved idol.

However, how could someone who couldn't even look others in the eye dress up and perform in front of a crowd? Singing, dancing—these were all impossible things for her.

But thanks to the internet, she had managed to realize her dream in a different way within that magical realm.

Sakura loved that feeling; no one knew her true identity, no one knew her real personality, and she had even gained a massive following of fans who loved and supported her because of her cute appearance.

After arriving at Advanced Nurturing High School, Sakura would still sneak off to secluded places to take selfies, storing the photos in her camera, while the popular idol known as 'Shizuku' had vanished from the public eye.

Even so, Sakura would still dress up as her idol persona when she was alone and take a few photos with her camera.

But good things didn't last long. A while ago, her camera was accidentally dropped and broken. When she took it to a digital shop for repairs, a clerk fiddled with the device for a moment before staring at her with a deeply perverted gaze.

After that, the clerk used the repair as an excuse to hold onto Sakura's camera, and through some channel, he managed to obtain her personal information.

That was why, lately, every time Sakura opened her shoe locker, she would find photos of herself with various perverted fan declarations written on them.