The Hidden Client (2)

"Sakura..."

Sakura had just sat down when she heard someone call her name. Like a startled bird, she hurriedly lowered her head.

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

"Um, actually, I'm not here to ask you about Sudō. There's just a little favor I'd like to ask of you."

Sakura finally began to calm down a little, but she still didn't want to answer anyone's questions. She'd already been feeling uneasy these past few days. Strangers really were the scariest!

"It's like this: I noticed you have a camera, and I've been thinking of buying one lately. But I don't know much about them, so..."

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

Shinjo rubbed his temples, feeling a bit of a headache coming on. Earning the trust of someone with social anxiety was certainly difficult. In that case, he'd have to try a different approach.

"Sakura, you bought your camera at that electronics shop in the shopping district, right?"

That was obvious, wasn't it?

Of course not.

A crucial part of earning someone's trust was making them feel that you weren't a threat.

So you should ask as few questions as possible that might seem self-serving, and stick to simple questions that almost anyone could answer with a nod or a shake of the head.

Sakura didn't think much of it and simply nodded in reply to Shinjo.

"All right, thanks, Sakura. Oh, right! If you're thinking of going there sometime soon, it'd be better to bring a friend. There seem to be some unsavory people around lately..."

"Huh?"

Sakura was just about to say something when she realized Shinjo had already returned to his seat.

[Shinjo... Why does he know?! Did that person already tell him about me...?]

But no one could answer the questions crowding her mind. As for going over to ask Shinjo herself? She didn't have the courage to talk to anyone, let alone a boy.

Though that boy seemed a little different from the others, and probably fairly nice, his girlfriend was no pushover.

Karuizawa, the fiercest girl in Class D apart from Horikita Suzune!

Sakura was tormented by her own anxious thoughts until lunch break. By the time everyone else had gradually gone to eat, only she and Shinjo were left in the classroom.

If she was going to ask him, now was the perfect opportunity, wasn't it?

But... what were you supposed to say first when talking to someone?

Shinjo was waiting here alone specifically to give Sakura the most reassuring environment possible. But to put her at ease, he needed to deliberately leave her alone for a while.

[But her defenses are way too strong!]

Five minutes later, Sakura finally seemed to make up her mind. She slowly stood up and took a step toward Shinjo!

[Forget it. I'll make the first move.]

"Sakura, is there something you wanted to ask me?"

"Ah... I... Actually... I..."

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

The second method for dealing with social anxiety: if you could avoid speaking out loud, it might make things twice as easy!

These days, plenty of young people weren't necessarily socially anxious, but they clearly preferred texting through social media to making phone calls.

Maybe it was a habit, or maybe it was a way of protecting themselves.

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

She picked up the notebook beside her, tore out a page, and began to write.

Before long, she tossed a crumpled note onto Shinjo's desk.

"Shinjo, what did you mean about the strange person at the electronics shop?"

(After all, there was no way she could stammer when writing a note, right? So there weren't any of those confusing ellipses. Perfectly reasonable!)

Shinjo followed her example and picked up a pen to write beneath her message.

"Actually, I recently got a tip that there's an employee there who gives the customers strange looks. I'm looking into it."

Just like that, the two of them began having a perfectly normal conversation by tossing notes back and forth.

"Shinjo, why are you looking into this?"

"It's a job the Student Council wanted to outsource to students, but then it got outsourced back to the Student Council. In any case, someone like that staying at the school would be frightening, wouldn't it?"

Sakura fell silent after reading Shinjo's note. She knew who that person was, but she didn't want to tell anyone about it. If she did, she'd also reveal the secret she'd been hiding all this time.

But she really didn't want to see that person again... So for a while, she was torn.

Shinjo didn't press her. He was now absolutely certain that Sakura knew something, but she probably had her reasons for not wanting to say anything.

After a little while, Sakura picked up her pen and thought for a moment. Then she tore off another blank page and wrote a line on it.

"Shinjo, can I trust you?"

"If you don't want to say anything, you don't have to. But if you tell me, I give you my word that I won't reveal your secret to anyone."

"Sh-Shinjo... Actually, I..."

"Actually, I've always been afraid of talking to people. More than that, I've always been afraid to look people in the eye..."

Then she tore off another blank page and slowly wrote down her secret.

[Shinjo seems like someone I can trust... So... please... save me!]

Simply put, because Sakura was socially anxious, she could only truly let her personality show on social media.

The quiet, taciturn girl everyone saw had a secret dream: to become an idol loved by everyone.

But how could someone who didn't even dare look people in the eye dress up and perform in front of a crowd? Singing or dancing—neither was possible.

But thanks to the internet, she'd found another way to make her dream come true in that wonderful world.

Sakura loved that feeling. No one knew her real identity or what she was really like, and her cute appearance had even won her a huge crowd of devoted fans who adored her.

After coming to Advanced Nurturing High School, Sakura would sometimes sneak off to deserted places to take selfies, keeping the photos sealed away in her camera. Meanwhile, the popular idol known as Shizuku had vanished from the public eye.

Still, when she was alone, Sakura would dress herself up as she used to and take pictures with her camera.

But her good fortune didn't last. A while ago, her camera had been accidentally broken. When she took it to the electronics shop for repairs, an employee fiddled with it for a bit, then stared at her with a deeply disturbing look.

After that, the employee used the repairs as an excuse to keep Sakura's camera for the time being, and somehow got hold of her personal information.

So lately, every day when Sakura opened her shoe locker, she found pictures of herself inside, covered in declarations from creepy fans.