Arc-2 Ep-28

February, Kisaragi, Plum-Viewing Month.

For middle schoolers like me, and slightly older high schoolers, there’s one big event. Yes, that thing called Valentine’s Day.

In my previous life, it was an event that had nothing to do with me, but in this life, where I’m a girl, it’s different. There’s the friend-chocolate exchange with the girls in class I get along with to a certain extent. Naturally, I don’t give any to the boys.

If a super beautiful girl like me handed chocolate to a boy, even if it was clearly just obligation chocolate, it would obviously cause all sorts of troublesome misunderstandings. Of course, the biggest reason is simply that I don’t want to give any to boys.

Still, I do participate in the group obligation chocolate for all the girls in class, if only to keep up appearances. That’s how it’s been until now.

However, this year is my first Valentine’s Day as an idol. I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like.

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“…Um, what is all this?”

“Of course, it’s a mountain of Valentine’s chocolates. These are addressed to the sixth generation.”

On Saturday the 12th, after finishing our mini-live, we were all stunned by the sheer number of packages that had arrived on three basket carts. For male idols, this might be a completely normal sight, but we’re a female idol group.

“This one… is for Mikuri-chan. Judging by the name, it’s from a guy.”

Sakiko-san, who happened to be nearby, picked up one from the top and read the message on the sticker on the wrapping to let us know.

“Haa… I see.”

“This one over here… oh, this is for Sayaka-sama. It’s from a girl.”

She picked up another, opened the message card tucked into the wrapping, and reported back. I’d rather get them from girls than from guys. Well, I probably won’t actually eat any of them, though.

“From a girl, huh. I’m not sure if I should be happy about that or not.”

“What are we going to do with all of these? Taneyama-san.”

The one worried about the chocolates’ fate while giving a strained smile was Mami-san.

“Of course, we’ll check everything, and if they’re store-bought, we’ll donate them. Anything that someone’s hands have touched will unfortunately have to be thrown away.”

That makes sense. I absolutely don’t want to put food from a stranger into my mouth.

“What a waste~”

“As you’d expect, that part is pretty well known, so almost everything is store-bought. Homemade chocolates are extremely rare.”

“Matsuzono-san. Homemade chocolates are a bit impossible.”

“I know, I know. Homemade chocolates are unconditionally disposed of, so don’t worry.”

Homemade chocolates could easily have something strange put in them, after all. Management must know full well that those can’t even be donated.

“Mikuri-san… Mikuri-san… this one’s for Mikuri-san too.”

“Mikuri-chan has a lot addressed to her, doesn’t she…”

Before I knew it, Chie-chan and Nozomi-chan were glued to separate basket carts, sorting through them. No, Nozomi-chan.

The one you just picked up is addressed to you, isn’t it? Why are you ignoring yours and checking mine instead?

“The staff and the training school kids will sort and check everything, so stop it.”

“…That’s right. I have memories of doing it many times myself…”

At Taneyama-san’s warning, Shion-san muttered with a distant look in her eyes. Since she’d been in the training school for many years, she must be a veteran at sorting chocolates addressed to others.

“That sounds rough.”

“It is. This is just what we have here, but there’ll probably be about the same amount tomorrow, and the really popular members get way more…”

Indeed, what was in front of us was just the Saturday portion for the sixth generation. There would be more tomorrow, Sunday, and if we included the top-ranked members from the popularity poll, it would be an unimaginable amount.

“By the way, for the fifth generation and above who performed in the mini-live, two carts like these aren’t even enough.”

“Haa… I don’t really know whether that’s a lot or a little.”

“Last year, when we were fourth generation and above, apparently one cart was somehow enough. For fifth generation, two carts were barely enough, and they even had to use a regular cart as well, I heard.”

Last year’s mini-live had twenty-nine people in total, including the eight rookie fifth-generation members. This year there are two fewer people, yet the amount of chocolate has increased, which shows that our popularity has gone up.

“I helped a little two years ago, and even I was shocked by the amount back then,” Chie-chan said.

“Ah, that’s right, Chie-chan was still in the training school at that time.”

“Yes. I officially joined in the second semester of fifth grade, so it was about half a year after that.”

As expected, last year, when she was a sixth-generation candidate, she didn’t have to participate in sorting. Of course, with lessons going on every day, they couldn’t make her do something like that.

“When you entered the room where the chocolates were stored, even though they were wrapped, you could still smell the chocolate…”

“I was still in elementary school, so I only helped for a short time, but even then, I felt like I didn’t want to see chocolate for a while.”

“The managers help too. This year as well, they’ll adjust shifts and have several dedicated people on it.”

“Uwaa…”

“Can’t you just hire part-timers?”

“It’s an entertainment agency, after all. There’s a lot of troublesome stuff like background checks, and since we only need people for a short period, we end up just using the staff we already have.”

I could only nod at Matsuzono-san’s explanation. You can’t just casually hire people through a part-time job app. If an overly enthusiastic fan snuck in as a part-timer, all sorts of problems could arise.

“If they were family members of someone related to the agency, that would be fine, though. Does anyone have someone?”

“My family lives in the countryside.”

“Same here.”

What about my older brother?

The youngest one is a university student, so if his schedule matches, he might be willing to help out as a part-timer.

He wouldn’t cause any trouble for me, and there wouldn’t be any problems.

“Well, if you know anyone good, please introduce them. We’ll pay well.”

“Yes.”

“Understood.”

Well, I’ll at least talk to him about it. It seems we’ll need people starting next week too, but he probably already has regular part-time work.