Chapter 50: MIN

Taxis could not take passengers directly to the Mint performance theater; it was tucked away inside a pedestrian street, requiring a short walk on foot. After arriving, the male driver collected Kurohane Eiji's fare and immediately drove off, leaving him no chance to even ask for directions.

"This driver certainly has a straightforward personality." Kurohane Eiji watched the taxi disappear into the distance, withdrew the hand he had rested on the roof and the head he had poked through the window to ask for guidance, and gave a helpless smile.

Patting the three tickets in his pocket, Kurohane Eiji smiled triumphantly. He had really scored a huge bargain today. Not only would he get to watch Watanabe Reimu's performance, but he would also get to meet her in private. What should he say when they met? Would she be surprised if she saw that it was him? Or perhaps she would feel pleasantly surprised?

However, come to think of it, how was he supposed to get there? This place looked rather remote, and there were very few people around.

Just as Kurohane Eiji picked a direction and prepared to take a step to try his luck, several more taxis drove up.

Several pairs of young men and women holding glow sticks and neon light boards stepped out of the cars one after another, their faces beaming with excitement. Kurohane Eiji's eyes swept across the neon boards in their hands.

Words like "Mint", "Fruity", and "Riko" caught Kurohane Eiji's eye.

"Hurry up, hurry up, the public performance is about to start."

A rather plump man with a face full of acne, wearing a pink T-shirt printed with a photo of a pretty girl, urged his male companions to quicken their pace.

Kurohane Eiji looked at the girl in the photo on the T-shirt; she seemed somewhat familiar. When he took out his own admission ticket to check, she indeed turned out to be one of the Mint members on the ticket.

Kurohane Eiji tucked his ticket away and followed after them.

The theater was located on an old-fashioned street in Akihabara that still maintained its antique charm to this day—or perhaps one could call it a somewhat economically depressed street. Because of its remote location, normally only a few residents walked along these streets. But today, outside the brightest two-story building on the entire street, illuminated by radiant lights, fans wearing pink and red clothes and holding support props were lined up neatly. Their arrival filled the originally quiet street with vibrant life.

Standing right before them was a theater—Mint Theater.

Tonight, the girl group Mint would hold a public performance in this theater that belonged exclusively to them.

"Wow, quite a lot of people. This place is really hard to find."

Following the plump man ahead, Kurohane Eiji made several turns down the streets that housed Mint Theater. Fortunately, he had encountered fans who knew the way along the path; otherwise, he truly would never have found it. Watching them navigate such complex streets with the ease of old hands, Kurohane Eiji couldn't help but marvel at the charm of idols.

"Alright, ticket collection and entry are now starting. Please enter in an orderly fashion by presenting your tickets." A staff member standing at the entrance wearing a lanyard and holding a megaphone announced.

"Oh—"

The young men in the crowd let out a wave of excitement, clutching their tickets as they began to move with the queue to enter.

Entering the main gates of the theater, one stepped into a corridor plastered from end to end with promotional posters of the Mint members, every girl's face beaming with a confident and happy smile.

Kurohane Eiji instantly recognized Watanabe Reimu standing right in the center among the five Mint members.

Her outfits and styling varied across every single poster; the only constant was how confident, pure, pretty, and uniquely charming she looked in each one.

Seeing this idol persona—glammed up with makeup, so different from the makeup-free student goddess image she projected at the academy—and listening to the surrounding fans praise Mint, especially their high praise for Watanabe Reimu, Kurohane Eiji began to feel an extraordinary swell of excitement. His heartbeat quickened without warning, and a thrill closely resembling pride welled up in his heart, spreading a blissful smile across his face that mirrored the expressions of the fans around him.

Pride? Why would he feel such a sensation?

Right, she was his classmate, and even his desk neighbor.

Heh heh.

The speakers along the corridor leading to the performance hall played a melodic tune, presumably a melody from one of Mint's songs.

Passing through the corridor, they entered a performance hall that was spacious yet not overly large. The layout mirrored a typical theater, except the seating consisted simply of connected wooden chairs with backrests. Where there should have logically been space for two people, three seats had been arranged instead.

"It's different from what I imagined." Kurohane Eiji looked at the hall's interior setup. He had originally expected it to be much larger, not realizing it would be quite like this. He cast a somewhat nervous glance at the other fans around him.

The other fans showed not the slightest bit of dissatisfaction. Following the seat numbers on their tickets, they sat down one by one, their excitement undiminished as they gazed in eager anticipation toward the stage and switched on their glow sticks.

Tracing his seat number, Kurohane Eiji arrived at the front row. Unlike the back rows, the seats in the very front row were individual chairs. Although the space between them wasn't wide, there was still room to move around, and the seats were fitted with soft cushions. Catching sight of the VIP designation on his ticket, Kurohane Eiji sat down with a sense of fortunate relief. He was terribly unaccustomed to such crowded environments, so he was deeply grateful that he had ended up with Matsutani No's ticket. He imagined Matsutani must have spent quite a pretty penny to secure these three passes, but considering that a bit of money probably meant nothing to him, Kurohane Eiji quickly set his mind at ease.

Turning his head to look around, he saw nothing but people—a vast, dark sea of heads.

Over two hundred seats were completely packed to capacity at this moment, the fans waving their support props and shouting the names of their oshi idols.

"Everybody."

"Mint!"

"Mint!"

"Mint!"

Hearing the voice, the fans chanted the name of the group in unison.

"Click."

The lights in the venue went out, leaving only a few tiny red spotlights on the stage emitting a faint glow.

A gentle melody began to play.

Red lights lit up from behind the stage curtains, illuminating five giant roses woven into the fabric.

Five graceful dark silhouettes appeared on the stage, their white performance outfits taking on a pinkish hue amidst the red-and-black ambiance.

Unison, synchronized, and elegant dance movements flowed gracefully from one slender, graceful figure to another in time with the melody.

Matching white boots swept from left to right, glided from front to back, pulled together, and then parted.

Slender, delicate arms without a single ounce of superfluous fat were cast in a layer of pink gauze by the red background lighting. As the melody progressed, fingers curled, arms pushed from left to right, and with the momentum of the arms, the fingers slowly straightened. The left hand extended forward, the right hand followed closely behind...

The five of them moved with synchronized elegance, sparking wild, enthusiastic screams from the fans.