Chapter 10: About the fact that my childhood friend is a singer

[Hurry and upload already.]

When half of the summer break has passed already, a LIME message from my childhood friend Umine Konoha came.

By the way, she already sent over 99 messages.

I was surprised.

When I woke up in the morning my phone was blowing up with 99+ message notifications.

I don't really chat that much, so I thought it was broken at first.

And the message was all the same as what was mentioned before.

There were 99+ of the same message.

Rather than the app, it was Konoha that was broken.

I immediately called her.

It was because writing a message would be more bothersome.

"Um… At the very least I'm slowly working on it."

"Slow."

"No, isn't it impossible?"

The song [Blue Elfin] that I posted under the name [Hartman] has thankfully reached 1.5 million views.

I also have 1000 subscribers now.

But it was only that.

I thought I'd get more subscribers, but it wouldn't increase at all.

"I have other things going on as well."

Like the novelisation of [Mission].

To be honest, there's so many parts I want to correct that I feel like crying.

On top of that I also have to discuss the character designs with Lumi-chan, I don't really have the leisure to work on a vocaloid song right now.

But, Konoha who doesn't know that keeps pushing me to do so.

[You probably just have some unfinished homework right? That kind of thing can be done later.]

"That's not something an honor student should be saying."

It seems like Konoha is one of the top students at her school.

She was bragging about it with a smug face.

[If you want to increase your subscribers, you have no choice but to upload a lot. Also the people subscribed to you are looking forward to your next song.]

"I didn't make a vocaloid song in order to increase my subscribers."

It's just one of my hobbies.

It's not like I don't care about my number of subscribers, but I never thought about increasing it.

"Muu, if it increases then I'll be happy."

"I'm also quite busy after all. And I haven't decided on how my next work is gonna be."

In the first place my work [Blue Elfin] is my first one.

I can't just dish out songs so easily like that.

"It took me 2 years to finish [Blue Elfin], you know? although I had to stop for a while due to my highschool entrance exams."

[... If it's like that, then it can't be helped.]

"It helps that you understand."

It's a relief that I have an understanding childhood friend.

[Oh, by the way, does Haruto know Amatsu Atsume-sensei?]

"Of course I do."

She's [Mission]'s illustrator.

She probably doesn't know, but why is she asking?

[It's been decided that we're gonna have a collab.]

"Ha?"

What are you saying, Konoha?

You really like jokes, don't you.

[Does Haruto know about "Konoha"?]

"[Konoha] ? My childhood friend Konoha?"

[Look it up on Youtubo.]

I looked it up like she told me to, as she said there's a channel called [Konoha] in english letters.

"Is it this channel with 200k subscribers?"

[That's me.]

"Yes??"

[I'm a singer.]

"that's a joke, right?"

"it's true"

From what she explained, she got really into singer's last year, and she also wanted to be one as well, so she uploaded a song and got really popular.

[Am I amazing?]

"Why are you saying it like a slit-mouth woman? It's really amazing! But, I listened to the song just now and isn't the voice kind of different?"

[It's been processed a little bit, I think they call it a mix?]

Wow, so there's something like that.

[I'm going back on topic, I'll be collabing with Amatsu Atsume-sensei.]

"That's amazing, but why?"

[When I thought about doing a cover of Haruto's "Blue Elfin" they contacted me.]

In detail, Konoha was publicly recruiting an illustrator to do the thumbnail, and this time she did so on twitter saying she's gonna cover [Blue Elfin] and Amatsu Atsume-sensei sent her a message.

[This time Amatsu Atsume-sensei is gonna do the illustration.]

That's amazing.

I know from her illustration of [Mission], but her drawings are really moving.

"Isn't that great, Konoha?"

[Yeah, that's fine, but there's one problem.]

Problem?

[We have a plan to meet up to get familiar with each other.]

"Isn't that good? She might draw some illustrations for you again next time."

[Haruto knows my personality right?]

"..."

That's right.

I forgot how shy Konoha was.

Although she can speak normally to me because we're childhood friends, I've never seen her talk to anybody else.

Wait a minute… isn't Lumi-chan also very shy?

What's gonna happen if the two of them meet?

"Won't it be hell?"

Since I know the personalities of the two, I can easily imagine the scene.

[Now do you know how I feel?]

… Am I gonna be asked to be the middle man?

[I've never met Amatsu Atsume-sensei before, so I don't even know their gender, if they're gonna be a man it would be scary.]

If I told her that she's actually younger than Konoha, I wonder if she would actually believe me.

This is where I should do my best.

"I got it, so when do you plan to meet up?"

[... Today at 1pm.]

"It's almost 12 right now though!?"

Um, Konoha-san?

Can you stop telling me these things so suddenly?

"By the way, where are you meeting up?"

[It's at a Karaoke place 2 stations away from you.]

"Are you doing a mixer or something!?"

For now, I hurriedly prepared and headed towards the meeting place.

But thinking of the walk to the station and the time the train comes, I don't feel like I'll make it in time.

Since it can't be helped, I messaged Konoha [I'll be a little late.] and hurried to the station.