An Idol's Public Humiliation
Zhou Yu pushed open the door marked "Stage Equipment Area" without looking back.
Pink sequins carpeted the floor, rustling underfoot.
At the end of the corridor, the dressing room door stood ajar. The sound of guitar strings being plucked drifted out, mingled with the hiss of a bottle cap being twisted open.
Dania ran at the front, the tear tracks on her face still wet and the glow stick that had gone dark clutched in her hand.
"Slow down. Don't trip."
Zhou Yu followed behind her, twirling his gold staff ID card around one fingertip before slipping it back into his yellow vest pocket.
Linnai jogged after them, pulling Sigelica along. Both girls' eyes were red.
Chisaki brought up the rear. She swiped a finger across her tablet, and the recording icon lit up.
Dania stopped in front of the half-open door and shoved it wide.
"Lady Snow Velvet!"
Inside, a girl in a starry gown was sprawled on the sofa without a shred of decorum, one leg over the armrest and the other on the coffee table, her head tilted back as she chugged from a Coke bottle.
At the shout, she froze mid-gulp.
Pfft.
A fan of brown liquid sprayed out, splattering evenly across the full-length mirror opposite her.
The girl hurriedly wiped her mouth and reached for the snowflake mask she had tossed onto the sofa cushion.
Her Coke-slicked fingers slipped, and she knocked the mask under the sofa, where it rolled all the way to the back.
Three seconds.
Nobody moved.
Aimis sat rooted to the sofa, her long pink hair a mess and Coke foam still clinging to her lips.
Aimis: ((((;°Д°))))
Dania stood in the doorway, looking from the disheveled figure on the sofa to the Coke stains on the mirror.
Linnai pointed a trembling finger at the sofa, her voice cracking.
Linnai: (╬ﾟдﾟ)
"Aimis!"
"No wonder that machine oil smell onstage was so familiar! It was you, the serial truant who skipped machine calibration class!"
Dania's eyes lit up.
Dania: (✪ω✪)
"Aimis is Lady Snow Velvet?"
She dropped the glow stick and rushed over, grabbing Aimis's Coke-sticky hand.
"You sing so beautifully! I've never heard a song that good! I cried during the paper airplane song!"
Aimis tried to pull her hand away, but Dania held on tight. Her sparkling eyes were full of admiration, with no trace of anger at having been deceived.
"Ha... hahaha."
Aimis's laugh was dry enough to scrape paint off a wall. She scratched the back of her head with her free hand.
"So, surprised? Didn't see that coming, did you?"
"Ninety-nine point eight percent."
Chisaki walked in from the doorway and adjusted her glasses.
Chisaki: (─_─)
"The vocal cord vibration frequency was disguised by thirty percent using a resonator, but the bone-conduction wavelengths are an exact match."
She turned her tablet around. Two voiceprint waveforms on the screen almost completely overlapped.
"My calculations have never been wrong."
"You archived my voiceprint?" Aimis's voice rose.
"The physical examination data for everyone in the mechanical engineering department is public record." Chisaki drew back her tablet, her tone no different from when she read out a lab report.
Sigelica leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed, her tear tracks almost dry.
"No wonder you slipped away faster than I turn in a self-criticism."
She looked over the starry gown Aimis was wearing.
Sigelica: (ㅍ_ㅍ)
"So, how much was your appearance fee? Enough to pay me back for my six-figure escape room bill?"
"It was a favor! I did it for free!"
Aimis sprang up from the sofa and nearly tripped over her skirt.
"I just wanted to sing for everyone!"
"Free?" The corner of Linnai's eye twitched. "Do you know how much scalpers were charging for tickets? Seven figures! And you're telling me you did it for free?"
"What's that got to do with me?!"
"If it's got nothing to do with you, who's it got to do with? You were the one singing!"
"But I didn't sell the tickets!"
"That makes it even worse! You're worth seven figures commercially, and you're still letting people freeload!"
Aimis's head spun, and she buried her face in a sofa cushion in despair.
"I was wrong. I shouldn't have kept it from you."
Dania crouched down and looked up at her, her voice soft.
"Why did you keep it from us? You sing so well, and everyone loves you."
Aimis showed half her face from behind the cushion, red enough to bleed.
"Because it's embarrassing."
She mumbled under her breath.
"I spend every day working with wrenches and gears in the mechanical engineering department, then turn around and go onstage in a dress to sing. What if my classmates saw me?"
"What if they did?" Linnai's voice shot up to the ceiling. "Why weren't you afraid of being seen when you were tearing around campus on a heavy motorcycle?"
"That's different!"
Aimis stuck out her neck.
"The motorcycle is my real identity, and singing is my secret identity! You can't lump my real identity and my secret identity together!"
"I get it." Dania nodded vigorously. "Sweet-and-sour ribs are the main course, and strawberry daifuku is dessert. You can't eat them together."
"Yes, exactly!"
Aimis grabbed both of Dania's hands and shook them up and down.
"Little Dania understands me after all!"
Sigelica rubbed her temples.
"Could you two foodies try thinking normally for once?"
"At least they think more normally than you do when you write a self-criticism," Linnai added.
"Linnai, are you looking to die today?"
Amid the clamor, Zhou Yu strolled in.
He stepped around the glow stick on the floor, walked through the lingering white dry-ice fog, and stopped in front of Aimis.
He took a neatly folded A4 sheet from his yellow vest pocket, unfolded it, and held it out in front of Aimis.
The title read: "Flamebearers' Academy Slacking Squad Team-Building Activity Sponsor Acknowledgment and Next-Day Breakfast Supply List."
Aimis looked at the words, the corner of her eye twitching twice.
"Zhou Yu, what the hell is this now?"
"Exactly what it says."
He tapped the first row of the table with his pen cap.
"A superstar with countless fans, who could make Linnai cry until she was dehydrated and make Dania switch sides on the spot."
His tone was the same as if he were reading out the cafeteria's shopping list.
"To celebrate your secret identity being revealed, breakfast is on you for everyone tomorrow."
He stuffed the list into Aimis's hand.
"I've listed everyone's tastes and nutritional needs. Buy accordingly, and don't think about skipping out on the bill."
Aimis looked down at the list.
[Dania: crab roe soup dumplings x5, sweet soy milk x2, tea eggs x3 (fully cooked), plus a spare strawberry daifuku x1.]
[Sigelica: vegetable salad (no dressing), black coffee, whole-wheat bread x1. Note: you've been getting angry a lot lately, so eat something light.]
[Linnai: pork floss cakes x4, savory soy milk x1, fried dough sticks x2. Note: a high-calorie combination to replenish the energy spent chasing idols.]
[Chisaki: nutritional meal replacement drink with clearly listed ingredients x1. Note: if unavailable, replace with carbohydrates measured to the gram.]
[Zhou Yu: pork and scallion buns x10, savory tofu pudding, goji berries brought from home.]
The last line of the list was in bold red print.
[Note: the above food must be delivered to Building A of the preparatory students' dormitory before seven tomorrow morning. Late delivery will affect the sponsor's credibility rating.]
Aimis held the paper, her fingers trembling.
She looked up at Zhou Yu, then turned to the three girls who had already gathered together to discuss what to eat the next morning.
"Can I add two strawberry daifuku?" Dania's voice drifted over from the side.
"Extra daifuku costs more," Zhou Yu said without looking back.
Aimis let out a wail squeezed from the depths of her soul.
"Zhou Yu!"
"You're not the Logistics Department's equipment manager!"
"Your side job is being Zhou the Skinflint, isn't it?!"