Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 40: Ordinary Youth
“Tsumu-tsumu, can I have some of that tamagoyaki?”
“Sure, Keina. Here, say ‘ahh’.”
We were eating lunch together on the school rooftop.
“N-No, Go-kun! That’s exactly why Keina is becoming so spoiled and lazy!”
“Yeah… Asuka might be right. Keina, I’ll give you the tamagoyaki, but you have to eat it yourself.”
“Ehh, why are you listening to Asuka? Tsumu-tsumu, you’re so stingy!”
“If you say stuff like that, I won’t give you any tamagoyaki.”
“I’m sorry…”
Keina drooped sadly.
“Sometimes I really wonder if the same Keina-chan who walked that runway is even the same person.”
“Right? She acts so different normally—it’s funny.”
Takarazuka and Himeji, who had been watching, laughed cheerfully.
“Come to think of it, it’s been a while since GalColle, and we haven’t seen anything of Mika lately.”
“Yeah, that video was pretty shocking. Maybe she got mentally crushed by all the comments online.”
The video of Mika falling on the runway and being carried off on a stretcher had spread across the internet and was widely mocked.
Up until then, her name recognition meant magazines still used her in photo shoots, editing the images heavily to cover things up. But since it was a live stream—something that couldn’t be edited—she’d completely exposed her disgrace in front of the public. No magazine would dare use her now.
Even her PhotoStagram account was apparently deleted after people started pointing out all the places her images had been retouched.
“Her brand’s gone too.”
“Yeah. Even if Nishiwaki acted alone and it wasn’t technically Mika’s fault, she had claimed she was designing everything herself…”
After GalColle ended, net news pointed out the strong similarities between the looks from Mika’s brand and mine.
Thankfully, because of the quality and various creative details, the public came to the conclusion that we were the ones whose work had been plagiarized.
It turned out Nishiwaki Atsushi, the designer Mika had hired, had stolen the designs on his own. But since Mika had been advertising the clothes as her own creations, in order to deny she had plagiarized, she’d have to admit she hadn’t been designing them herself. Either way, criticism was unavoidable.
In the end, she publicly admitted she wasn’t the one designing the clothes, and that the plagiarism was Nishiwaki’s doing. Her brand was then shut down.
“But seriously, I laughed so hard back then. When that lady realized she had been praising a design that Tsumu-tsumu made… her eyes rolled back and she fainted!”
“Haha, I feel bad for her, but I have to admit I laughed too.”
After Nishiwaki was taken away, Mika realized something:
When she had confidently said, “I’m really proud of this design,” during her greeting—it meant she had praised the original version, my design, without knowing it.
“I—I praised this man’s clothes…?! I… I can’t believe it…”
That’s what she said before rolling her eyes and fainting. It was a real pain getting her off the stage after that…
“Actually, not just Mika, but the Amagasaki agency itself has been having a bad reputation lately. Mutsuki is still suspended.”
“Even Ichika-san’s name doesn’t come up anymore among actors.”
“All of that started after Sakasegawa-kun left, didn’t it?”
“Tsumu-tsumu was the one holding that agency together.”
“Was I really…?”
“Yes.”
“That’s right.”
“Exactly.”
“For sure~.”
Everyone agreed in unison, backing me up.
Hearing them say all this made me think—maybe what I did for my old agency really did have some meaning after all.
(A lot has happened since then…)
I happened to look up at the sky.
I was reflecting on everything that had happened since I was kicked out of my showbiz family home on my birthday, where I had always worked behind the scenes to support them.
I transferred from an entertainment school to a regular school, and there I met Tsukiyo Himeji, known as the Ice Queen. I was the only one who knew that she was actually a popular Vtuber.
From there, for some reason, top idols kept transferring into the school one after another—like Asuka Ashiya, the center of the group Asterisk, Suzune Takarazuka, a top star in the musical theater troupe playing male roles, and Keina Kobe, a world-class supermodel. There were days when I felt like I was drifting further and further from any kind of normal youth, and I didn’t know how to handle it.
The meals I used to eat alone became meals for two. Then before I knew it, we were a group of five. Acchan goes to a different school, so she’s not here right now, but I’ve come to understand the warmth and joy of eating with others.
And little by little, I’ve come to know the happiness of being accepted.
Eating lunch like this on the school rooftop with everyone, all our titles and labels fade away—we’re just friends, all getting along.
There’s no hierarchy here, no special treatment.
If someone else were to see this scene, they’d probably say it’s not normal. Being surrounded by such amazing people would seem anything but ordinary.
But to me, this is my ordinary youth.
That’s why—from now on, too—I want to continue enjoying this ordinary youth to the fullest.