I'll post an extra chapter every 300 Power Stones. Good luck with that!
Goal for the next extra chapter: 273/300
####
When that bombshell was dropped, Kyo didn't pay much attention to it at first. He assumed that no one would take it seriously. However, when he saw everyone staring at him in surprise, he let out a sigh and said,
"She's my girlfriend in the commercial. Our characters are dating, that's all. Don't go around saying unnecessary things, you idiot."
"Idiot!? You called me an idiot!?"
"Yes, idiot."
"You—"
Before Emilia could say anything else, the director called out to her. She puffed out her cheeks in annoyance before walking away.
Kyo looked at Miu, and she was still looking at him with the same expression. 'She doesn't seem to care much...' Kyo thought as he smiled.
Contrary to what he believed, however, Miu was thinking, 'Thank goodness they're not dating. Thank goodness! I'm so relieved!'
Even so, she didn't let her relief or happiness show. Her expression never changed even once.
Miu's "friend," sitting beside her, looked at her and thought, 'It's so obvious.' She sighed. 'How long is it going to take her to realize she's never going to get what she wants?'
She simply couldn't imagine Kyo and Miu together. They were like oil and water. The two of them didn't match at all.
Even now, she still couldn't understand how they had become so close.
And she envied Miu.
Then she looked at Kyo and thought, 'Should I ask for his number now?'
She had only gotten close to Miu in order to get closer to Kyo and obtain his phone number, but she still hadn't had the opportunity to ask for it.
He wasn't even looking at her.
It was as though she were invisible.
That hurt her feelings, but she managed to deal with it.
Finally gathering her courage, she decided to ask.
Without caring what Miu might think, she said,
"Kyo, could you give me your number?"
Upon hearing the question, Miu's eyes widened.
Miu wasn't stupid.
She immediately understood why this girl had approached her in the first place.
She wanted to curse her out, but she couldn't do that there.
Besides, she didn't have the courage to do it.
Kyo was equally surprised and was preparing to refuse, but the director approached him to discuss something.
####
After Kyo spoke with the director for a few minutes, filming finally began.
Even though they were in a brightly lit cafeteria, the director made sure to check the lighting.
More importantly, however, he was concerned with the cameras and the audio.
Since there were so many children talking at the same time, they had to be extremely careful with sound recording.
Then the director shouted,
"Action!"
Kyo was sitting at his table, talking with Miu and several other classmates while eating.
He acted as if it were something completely natural for him, which wasn't the case at all since he never ate in the cafeteria.
Then Emilia appeared.
She entered the cafeteria with a smile on her face.
She looked around for Kyo, her boyfriend.
The moment she spotted him, she ran toward him while calling out his name.
Almost every student in the cafeteria instinctively turned to look at her.
In the director's opinion, it was perfect.
He smiled as he watched Emilia push the girls away from Kyo before sitting beside him.
Next, she started eating Kyo's food.
Kyo even fed Emilia with his own hands.
All of it in public.
Miu, who was sitting right there, watched with an indifferent expression, but internally she was screaming.
'Argh, this is so irritating to watch! And why does it feel like she keeps looking at me?'
Miu was surprised by how good their acting was.
They really looked like a couple deeply in love.
'How unpleasant.'
She sighed and looked away.
Kyo and Emilia then began talking about games, and Emilia whispered something into his ear.
Naturally, what she said would be included in the commercial.
"Let's meet in the library after lunch."
She wanted to skip geography class to play games.
Kyo nodded in agreement, and then they went back to eating together like a loving couple.
Then the director shouted,
"Cut!"
The moment he did, all the students in the cafeteria started applauding for some reason.
The only person who wasn't clapping was Miu, who was staring at Emilia with a murderous glare.
Emilia, who had never experienced anything like this before, was delighted by the applause.
Kyo, on the other hand, felt embarrassed since these were people he actually knew and would continue seeing every day.
The director began praising the two of them for managing to create such a good scene in a single take.
He also congratulated the other students for acting so naturally.
Everything had gone perfectly.
The director hadn't expected things to be this easy.
'We're definitely going to finish this earlier than I expected.' he thought.
####
While filming at Kyo's school continued, the team responsible for publishing the fifth volume of Oregairu kept working.
Kuroda, who had spent the entire morning busy, finally found time to check his email.
"My God, he sent me the arts at five in the morning... What time did he even go to sleep?"
Kuroda began feeling guilty.
'Kyo definitely hadn't finished the illustrations and stayed up all night drawing. I should have told him to deliver them another day!'
Kuroda then sent Kyo a message on his phone.
[Thank you for sending the illustrations so quickly! I'm sorry if I made it seem urgent. I'm sorry for making you stay up so late drawing! I'll be more careful next time.]
After sending the message, Kuroda began reviewing the illustrations Kyo had submitted.
"Huh? They look a little different from usual."
"What's that? The illustrations for Volume Five?"
One of his coworkers approached him.
"Yes. Did you notice the difference in the artwork too?"
"Hmm, you're right. The linework is a little heavier. But I don't dislike it."
"Hmmm, I also like it."
Kuroda smiled.
Since all of the illustrations had the same style, it was definitely intentional.
It wasn't because he had drawn all of them in a single night, right?
Now that all the illustrations were complete—including the cover art—Kuroda decided to speed up the publication process for the new volume of Oregairu.
Once Volume Five was released, he would focus on the publication of Slime.
The company were preparing a massive event for the launch day of Tensura Volume One.
####
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