I was Thrown into an Unfamiliar Manga

The three-day midterm exam finally ended today.

Honestly, I wasn’t even sure how those three days passed.
Still, I figured I did well, so I guess I should be thankful for that.
I didn’t make any obvious mistakes, so the results would probably come out fine.

As I was packing my bag to go home, Satoru, who sat in front of me, turned around with a rushed expression and asked,
“Yu-seong, how’d the test go?”
“Just average. I don’t think it was designed to differentiate scores that well, so the final exams might be harder.”

“Gyaah! I’m doomed! Why was it so hard for me?!”
“You should’ve studied more regularly, then.”
I shrugged as I replied, telling him it was his own fault, and Rika, who had been listening, chimed in brightly.

“I think I did way better on this test than usual! Maybe it’s all thanks to you, Yu-seong!”
“Come on, I barely taught you anything. It’s just the result of your own hard work.”
“Really? Hehe.”

Rika scratched the back of her head with a bashful grin.
“But now that exams are over, wanna go hang out somewhere? I’ll treat everyone to karaoke today.”
“Oh, I’m down.”

“Satoru, you coming too?”
“What, you were gonna go without me? You bastard.”
Satoru tried to put me in a headlock as he said that, but he gave up quickly since we were too different in height even while seated.

“Oh yeah, Yu-seong. Did you hear?”
“Hear what?”
“There’s another rumor about you now. Not a good one.”
“What is it this time?”

“They say you fought twenty Russian mafia guys by yourself on the street.”
“…….”
…Could it be that someone saw me fighting in Akihabara during Golden Week?

I started sweating cold without even realizing it.
“Haha, I knew it was bad when people actually believed that whole ‘fifty-to-one against biker gangs’ story, but now Russian mafia? People must be watching too many action movies.”
“Y-yeah, right.”

I forced a laugh and agreed with Satoru, hoping this awkward topic would pass quickly.
Right then, Sasha approached us with her bag in hand.
“Yu-seong! I heard everything from the front row! You’re going to karaoke today, right? Then I shall grace you with my heavenly voice!”

Still brimming with confidence, Sasha puffed herself up like usual.
Calling her own voice “heavenly”... how thick is her skin, seriously?
Satoru asked her,

“What’re you planning to sing?”
“Anime songs, obviously.”
“Whoa, lame...”

Hey, don’t say that so blatantly in front of her.
But Sasha didn’t seem even remotely hurt by such a comment. Instead, she casually rummaged through her bag.
Click—!

“Say that again, Momochi.”
As a black gun barrel was shoved right up in front of him, Momochi flinched and threw both hands up.
“I’m sorry! I was being an idiot and forgot my place!”

“As long as you understand.”
After forcefully drilling in manners and extracting an apology in the simplest way possible, Sasha blew on the barrel of the gun she hadn’t even fired and then tucked it back into her bag.
Rika’s eyes sparkled as she asked,

“Sasha-chan, is that a model gun?”
“It’s a TT-33 automatic pistol. I illegally modified it to increase the magazine capacity. Just in case, I also attached a suppressor.”
Momochi, visibly disturbed by her answer, asked nervously,

“…It’s a model gun, right?”
“Who knows.”
Sasha offered only that vague reply and turned to ask me, still seated in my chair,

“Is the redhead coming to karaoke too?”
“Probably.”
“Hmph. Then it’s finally time for me to crush her with sheer skill.”

“...Think that’ll go your way?”
I learned last time we went to karaoke together that Karen is surprisingly good at singing.
Except her entire song selection consists of enka.

“What, don’t believe in my skills? I’ve always been perfect. That won’t change.”
Sasha said that with her chin raised high, then turned her intense gaze toward Karen.
Looks like those two are going to fight again today.

It was such a common sight now that I decided to stop thinking too hard about it.
***
After meeting up with Karen, we headed to a karaoke place in Shibuya—basically the next neighborhood over.

It was located in a bustling downtown area, so the prices weren’t exactly cheap, but the girls with us were all rich, so they didn’t think much of the cost.
Thanks to that, only Satoru and I—both of us having come from middle schools in more normal districts—had any sense of reality.
A karaoke place that charges 2,000 yen per hour? Honestly, that’s way too expensive for a student’s allowance…

Even drinks cost extra.
Rika, Karen, and Sasha all had very different song preferences. Rika sang a wide range from trending hits to idol music to popular anime songs. Karen focused on enka, and Sasha was all anime songs.
Their choices were extreme, but I couldn’t really criticize them—both Karen and Sasha had near-professional-level vocal power and technique.

Compared to them, Rika, who sang decently well, actually seemed to fade in comparison.
After each person queued up a song in turn, it was finally my turn again.
With the karaoke remote in hand, I selected a song I’d heard recently that left a strong impression.

「もしや」 (If Perhaps)
It was one of those songs that just felt like you had to sing it at least once when you came to karaoke.
***

“Ah~ That was fun~”
Before we knew it, we’d spent almost three hours straight at karaoke.
But since school ended much earlier today because of the exams, it was still only 2 p.m.

In the crowded streets of Shibuya filled with students celebrating the end of exams, Satoru led the way, then turned around and asked,
“I haven’t had lunch yet, so I’m starving. Wanna go grab burgers at that handmade place up ahead?”
“Sure.”

“Sounds good.”
“Not a bad idea.”
Even Sasha complimented the suggestion—it was really perfect timing.

Well, it’s a bunch of high schoolers, and at our age we’re always hungry, so that reaction was inevitable.
“Alright then. Just leave it to me.”
But just as Satoru turned around to lead the way—

BWAAAAANG!
“Watch where the hell you’re going, dumbass!”
“Waaah!”

Suddenly, a motorcycle zoomed past him with a loud horn.
Wondering what that was about, I looked over and saw some punk in a flashy outfit, sitting on a heavily tuned bike, flipping off Satoru.
“…….”

He seemed to notice me standing next to Satoru, because his expression stiffened for a second—then he forced a cocky smile and said,
“What, you got a problem? You wanna fight, asshole?”
I didn’t say much.

I just handed my shoulder bag to Satoru and slowly walked forward.
“Get off.”
“Y-yes sir.”

The punk who had been acting all tough just a second ago immediately got off the bike, visibly scared.
We weren’t even that far apart, so I reached him in no time. He looked to be barely 170 cm tall. I looked down at him and asked,
“What’s the proper thing to do when you screw up?”

The punk, unable to even meet my eyes, stammered with a trembling voice.
“A-a-apologize, sir.”
I patted his shoulder and pointed to Satoru, who was holding my bag.

“And what do you say to him?”
The punk broke into a cold sweat and quickly bowed low.
“I’m the one who messed up, but I started a fight for no reason! I’m sorry!”

It finally felt like he’d learned a basic traffic lesson, so I patted his shoulder again and said,
“Be careful.”
The punk nodded furiously.

Then, when I told him he could go, he jumped on his bike and took off without even looking back.
Tch. Why act tough in the first place?
After cleaning up that little mess and rejoining the group, I saw Satoru looking at me with an expression of awkward admiration.

“Yu-seong…”
“Give me my bag.”
Feeling a bit embarrassed, I grumbled as I snatched my bag back from Satoru.

Karen, who had been quietly watching everything from the side, asked in a low voice,
“Should I ask my dad to round up all the biker ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) gangs around here and clean them out? They’ve been getting too full of themselves lately.”
Sasha, not wanting to lose out, added,

“If we use some of our field agents, we can erase them without even leaving bones behind.”
I told the two of them not to escalate things and that we should go eat burgers already since I was starving.
They both clicked their tongues in disappointment, but didn’t push the issue further.

“Let’s go, Satoru.”
When I said that and gave him a little push, Satoru nodded and led us to a handmade burger place he knew.
***

After going to karaoke with friends and grabbing a quick burger for lunch, I took the subway home—only to find an unfamiliar motorcycle parked in front of our restaurant.
Wondering if it belonged to a customer, I tilted my head and stepped inside the shop on the first floor.
There, drenched in sweat and eating a steaming bowl of yukgaejang, a young man with a greased regent haircut waved at me.

“It’s me, Hyung-nim!”
…Who the hell are you?