Do I really have a thing for female voice actors?

"Hey! Don't be so formal!"

Even though she put on a friendly and familiar expression, Toru Tazaki was quite certain in his heart that she was an outsider.

Tazaki Toru sighed helplessly: "What does Miss Minase want to know?"

"Didn't you say you were confessed to by two people at the same time? What happened after that?"

"Simply put, I responded."

"How did you respond?"

For once, Tazaki Toru hesitated and was embarrassed, but finally admitted, "I... like them."

In the end, it seems that Ms. Minase was right.

Miss Minase's eyes lit up, and she couldn't help but give a thumbs up: "Wow! That's amazing!"

Then she realized her voice was a bit loud, so she quickly lowered it again and praised, "I knew you had the potential to be a scumbag."

“I don’t want this kind of potential at all.”

Don't be modest.

...Who's being modest with you?

Upon arriving at the public rest area, there was no one else there except for Ms. Minase and Toru Tazaki.

Ms. Minase bought two cans of drinks from the vending machine and casually handed one to Toru Tazaki.

Tazaki Toru instinctively took it and said thank you.

"Those girls you're talking about, they must be from that band, right?"

Tazaki Toru's fingers, which were snapping open the beverage can, suddenly froze, and he looked at Minase-san with a look of surprise and uncertainty.

"Ah... Mr. Tazaki, you have that 'How did you know?' look on your face, hahaha, so funny..."

"I've heard about it. Mr. Tazaki is in charge of a girl band project, although I don't know exactly which members are involved."

Tazaki's expression was complicated.

Miss Minase smiled smugly: "Looks like I guessed right. You're really something."

"Don't worry, I won't betray you. I would never do something like secretly using a fake account to expose someone's private life online. You can trust me on that."

"After all, you kept it a secret for me last time too."

Miss Minase winked playfully with one eye.

She was referring to the fact that she secretly slipped out of the hotel booked by her company the night before the live performance.

Miss Minase nudged Toru Tazaki's arm with her elbow and said with a teasing look, "Hey! So it's going very well? Are you about to start your sweet cohabitation life?"

"I suggest you move to a bigger house, preferably one where everyone has their own bedroom."

"When there are many girls, it is inevitable that some girls will sleep in the same room. It's okay in the short term, but once it goes on for a long time, they will form factions, which is the most taboo thing."

"You should understand that girls are most prone to scheming against each other."

Tazaki Toru's expression was strange: "Is this also based on experience?"

"Don't worry about that."

……OK.

Tazaki Toru sighed, his expression gradually becoming serious: "Thank you for the suggestion, Ms. Minase, but I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you."

"Oh?"

"I have no intention of associating with anyone."

"Didn't you already confess?"

Even so, I find it difficult to respond to everyone's feelings.

Miss Minase raised an eyebrow: "So you rejected them all?"

"Although it wasn't quite that thorough, it was close enough."

Miss Minase burst into laughter as if she had heard a joke.

Tazaki Toru was completely baffled, having no idea what was so funny about it.

After she finished laughing, she suddenly looked him up and down with a mysterious gaze that Tazaki Toru couldn't fathom.

"Yes or no, what's with this ambiguous expression?"

"If I'm not mistaken, you're probably thinking something like you're afraid of being too harsh and hurting them, right?"

"Tsk! If you ask me, you're just being ambiguous so that you'll have room to maneuver in the future."

"Don't rush to deny it, I'm very qualified to speak on this."

"........."

Tazaki Toru really didn't know what to say.

In front of this Ms. Minase, even things that he himself was not consciously aware of would become impossible to hide.

Is this what seniority is?

That's really impressive.

Miss Minase raised her eyebrows smugly: "For the sake of our friendship, I'll give you another pointer."

"I'm all ears."

Tazaki Toru really wanted to ask about their relationship, but it was obviously inappropriate to ask such a question in this situation.

"A firm refusal doesn't hurt anyone; juggling multiple relationships... if they can accept it, it's not that hurtful."

"To offer them a glimmer of hope without pointing them in the right direction is the most hurtful thing to do when someone is a white lotus flower that is sought after by everyone but tries to stay out of it."

"Mr. Tazaki, sometimes..."

"Being a scumbag is to avoid becoming a scumbag."

Tazaki Toru looked into Minase-san's eyes and shook his head: "That sounds like a fallacy."

"I know, but it works."

"........."

571. Summer Festival, Yukata, Himegami Hina. (1)

After getting off the tram, Yang Gongfei followed the crowd and walked out of the station.

Perhaps because of the summer festival, the station was unusually crowded, and there were many young girls wearing yukatas. It took them several minutes longer than usual to get out of the station.

After leaving the station, Yang Gongfei went to the agreed meeting place and saw the young man standing quietly in the distance.

At that moment, there were two young girls wearing yukatas next to him, seemingly trying to flirt with him.

Tazaki looked troubled and waved his hand, declining their invitation.

Hinami hesitated whether she should go forward, but when Toru Tazaki saw Hinami in the distance, he immediately nodded goodbye to the girls and walked towards Hinami's direction.

The rejected girls, seeing that he already had a female companion, could only leave dejectedly.

Tazaki Toru has a face that makes it very easy for girls to like him, and Himiya Hina doesn't deny that, but seeing this scene, she felt a little resentful.

I felt that all these people knew how to stare at Mr. Tazaki's face, as if his face was everything, when in fact his merits were far more than that.

She couldn't quite explain the motivation behind this thought, but after careful consideration, she realized that she envied their open and courageous confidence in expressing themselves.

Yang Gongfei took a shallow breath, silently cheering herself on in her heart.

Don't be discouraged; we're here today to convey our feelings.

I have to get his attention no matter what.

"There are quite a few people on the street."

Tazaki Toru looked at the crowd around him and remarked that people really enjoyed festivals and similar events.

He wasn't one to enjoy crowds, and being squeezed in the crowd made him a little disoriented.

"I heard there's a fireworks festival in the next district tonight, but it's not as big as the one in the shopping street. Maybe everyone wants to see both shows in a row."

"Huh? Is that so? Even Tazaki-sensei knows about this kind of information?"

"I heard it from passersby on the way here."

Yang Gongfei nodded, then hesitated, remembering something. If she asked him if he had heard it from the two girls who had struck up a conversation with him earlier, would it seem like she was biased towards women?

She looked at the girls around her dressed in beautiful yukatas and couldn't help but feel a pang of envy.

She was working on a recording set not long ago, and although she wanted to show Tazaki Toru her yukata pose, she didn't have the time.

She's been getting a lot more work lately, and she even took on a lead role in a TV anime. If she keeps going like this, maybe her time is about to come.

She's even started dreaming of winning the Best New Voice Actor award.

In exchange, she found herself with increasingly less free time.

Like today, in order to watch the fireworks festival with Toru Tazaki, I specifically persuaded my manager to make time for it.

She actually loves her work and never feels that being a voice actor is hard.

However, nowadays, he is troubled by his full schedule and has to choose between work and Tazaki Toru.

It could be described as a sweet burden, at least the other members of the band couldn't possibly understand this feeling.

As more and more people gathered around, police officers maintaining order would occasionally wave glow sticks to signal pedestrians not to stop.

Tazaki Toru suddenly recalled the scene from a year ago when Aoki Hina got lost in the crowd.

At that time, he even mistook Hina Hitomi for Hina Aoki because the two of them were wearing the demon cat masks they wanted.

Looking at Himeko Hina beside him, Toru Tazaki worried that her soft body would be swept away by the crowd, so he subconsciously leaned closer to her.

However, the next moment, the girl next to him reached out her finger and gently tugged at his sleeve.

Tazaki looked surprised.

Yang Gongfei Na looked down timidly, her fingers trembling hesitantly, unsure whether to hold on tighter or let go.