Lonely Rock: Love Songs Dedicated to the Stars

Yuuma sensed that the atmosphere in the activity room had become strange. Even Xingge, who was sitting next to him, moved her chair away from him. He had a bad feeling and started to break out in a cold sweat.

Tokita placed his two strong hands on Yuuma's shoulders and stared at him and sized him up, along with the other two seniors.

"Umino, you're a girl, what do you think of this kid?" Tokita released Yuuma and asked Umino, who was standing next to him.

"Without a doubt, he is the man who can become king."

"Alright, then I'll leave it to you, Kenzaki."

Yuzhen looked at the three seniors who had suddenly gone mad, bewildered, and looked to Xingge for help.

“They’re talking about a beauty pageant, which our school holds every year.” Xingge sighed helplessly. “They’re hoping you’ll participate in the men’s group. If you win, they’ll use you as the face of the school to recruit new students.”

"Huh?" Yuzhen looked at the three seniors in front of him, and the three of them nodded.

"Let's do it for the sake of the Light Music Club and win the championship, Kenzaki."

"Although I'd like to do something for the Light Music Club, I refuse." Kenzaki Yuuma rejected them without hesitation. "I would never try to please girls on stage, and why don't you guys do it yourselves?"

Then Yuuma noticed the muscles on Tokita and Omori's bodies, and he realized that girls didn't seem to like that type very much. "What about Umino-senpai? Can't you join the girls' group?"

"Kenzaki, all the contestants in the school festival beauty pageant are freshmen," Hoshika, who was sitting next to him drinking apple juice, reminded him. "That's why the three seniors can't participate."

"Why isn't Ijichi-senpai participating?" Yuma asked Hoshika with a puzzled look.

“I…” Xingge’s gaze began to dart away.

"She recruited you into the club, so in exchange you don't have to participate," Tokita answered Yuuma's question with a smile.

"How could this be!" Yuma looked at Hoshika in disbelief.

"After all, our goal is to recruit new members," Senior Omori said. "How about this, if you agree to participate in the beauty pageant, the four of us will grant you one request, how about that?"

"Wait, why did you bring me along?" Xingge, who was standing to the side, was about to argue with them when Haiye-senpai covered her mouth.

"Okay, I agree. But I don't know how to please girls, so you'll have to teach me." Yuzhen readily agreed when she heard there was a chance for revenge. After all, a beauty pageant is just about standing on stage and figuring out how to get girls to vote for you, right?

"Okay, no backing out." Seeing that he had agreed, Tokita gestured for Omori to take out the competition schedule.

"The boys' group is on the afternoon of the second day of the school festival, and the girls' group is in the morning." Omori took out a schedule and spread it on the table. "Oh, and I have some good news. Actually, you don't need to please the girls."

"Why? I think I need girls to vote for me to win the championship."

“Our beauty pageant is a little different here.” Umino let go of Hoshika, and the two went to the table. “The girls vote for the girls’ group, and the boys vote for the boys’ group.”

"..."

Yuma turned to run, but was immediately restrained by two muscular men.

"You bunch of people plotted against me!"

"You've already agreed! And we'll keep our promise."

"Wait a minute, didn't Umino-senpai just look at me and say I had a chance to win? That was a girl's assessment of a boy, so you guys were just joking, right?"

"I like girls."

With just a few words, Umino shattered Yuuma's last remaining illusions.

"Yame!" Yuuma felt completely exhausted and slumped into his chair. "Where is our club headed in the future?"

He looked at the ceiling of the activity room and asked the other four, "How could I possibly get votes from the boys?"

"Don't worry about that, we've prepared the necessary equipment."

Upon hearing Tokita's words, Yuuma straightened his body in the chair, and then he saw the maid outfit that Omori-senpai was carrying, the wig that Tokita was holding, and the black stockings that Umino was holding.

"It's probably better to just destroy this club."

The next day.

"Good morning, Kenzaki."

Ichika didn't stay up late last night, so she's full of energy today.

"Good morning……"

Yuma responded to her listlessly.

"What happened? Didn't you sleep well last night?"

"Anyone would have trouble sleeping after what happened yesterday."

The two of them went to the classroom together.

Yuzhen couldn't concentrate on his morning classes at all; he sat in his seat nodding incessantly. Xingge had gone to bed early yesterday and wasn't sleepy at all today, so she was staring blankly out the window. Yuzhen finally had a chance to sleep for a while during lunch break.

"Let's vote on the program for the school festival."

As school was about to end, the class monitor and the homeroom teacher stood together on the podium. On the blackboard were some program options, which were nothing more than stage plays, haunted houses, maid cafes and the like.

Kenzaki Yuuma wasn't interested in any of that; he just jotted down "maid café" on the note and handed it in. He was still thinking about the men's beauty pageant; after all, he'd promised, so he should give it his all.

"Then our class will become a butler's café."

'A maid café lost to a butler café? Why would I have such a dream?' Yuuma felt she must still be dreaming. 'Could there be a traitor among the boys?'

Thinking about this, Yuma felt increasingly that it was unreliable for her to wear a maid outfit to participate in the men's beauty pageant.

'No, if that's really the case, then my chances of winning are actually quite high, right?'

Yuuma became engrossed in her own thoughts, temporarily ignoring the matter of the butler café.

"Would you like to come to my house later?" After the voting ended, Xingge and Youzhen walked out of the school gate together.

"Huh? Why?"

"Tokita-senpai gave me that maid outfit. Come to my house later and try it on to see if the size is right," Hoshika said, looking at Yuuma walking beside her. "You don't want your parents to find out you're trying on women's clothes at home, do you?"

“Alright, I’ll go then.” Yuzhen sighed. “However, I need to get my physical measurements taken first. I need to submit them tomorrow for my butler uniform.”

"I'll take your measurements, I'm off."

Kenzaki Yuuma followed Iji Tomoko into the room.

There seemed to be no one at home. He changed into the slippers Xingge had given him in the entryway and then went into the living room.

"Alright, come stand here."

Xingge pointed to the floor next to the sofa with a roll of tape measure.

Yuuma walked over, took off his slippers, and stood in front of Hoshika. Hoshika unfolded her measuring tape and approached Kenzaki Yuuma.

She went around behind Yuuma, wrapped her arms around his waist, and then wrapped a measuring tape around his waist.

"Senior, it's a little itchy..." Yuzhen had never been in such close contact with a girl before. Luckily, Xingge was behind him and couldn't see his blushing face.

"Stop nagging and behave yourself."

After collecting most of the other data, Xingge took out a tape measure to measure his height.

"Honestly, what's the point of being so tall?" she muttered irritably, then commanded, "Squat down!"

"Huh? Senior, aren't we measuring heights?"

"Stop arguing, squat down."

After a series of meaningless operations, we finally finished measuring Kenzaki Yuuma's body data.

"Honestly, what a waste of time," Yuma complained as she stuffed the paper with the data into her bag.

“There’s also a maid outfit, go try it on.” Xingge took the maid outfit out of her bag. “It seems that they used Omori-senpai’s measurements when they made this, but he hadn’t started working out yet, so his size should be about the same as yours.”

"None of you are going anywhere after the competition. You'll all have to wear this outfit." Yuzhen complained as he picked up the maid outfit, and then his phone rang. "Sorry, I need to take this call."

He tossed the maid outfit onto the sofa and went to the bathroom to answer the phone. It was Yuu-chan's mother calling; she and Yuu-chan's father weren't home that evening and asked him to cook for Yuu-chan when he got home.

"I'm back, senpai." Yuuma came out of the bathroom but didn't see Hoshika. "Hmm? Where did she go?"

"I am here."

Yuma heard the sound, turned around and looked, then froze.

Ijichi Hoshika was wearing that maid outfit, which was a bit too big and had a very long skirt; if she hadn't been holding it up, it probably would have dragged on the ground. However, she wasn't wearing the black stockings or a wig.

"Senior, what's wrong with you...?"

"I've already put it on, so I don't need to wear it in front of the seniors, right?" She sighed. "Alright, I'll go change. You should try it on too and see if it fits."

Xingge had just turned around when the sound of a door opening came from the entrance hall, followed by a very gentle female voice and a little girl's voice.

"Xingge, I'm back."

"Sister, I'm back."

Kenzaki Yuuma and Ijichi Seika watched as Seika's mother and sister carried in the groceries they had just bought. Everyone froze in place.

Chapter 26 School Festival

The school festival has arrived.

Kenzaki Yuuma came out of the dressing room. He had already changed into his butler uniform and looked quite presentable.

"Kenzaki-san, could you please greet the guests at the door this morning?"

The squad leader walked over to him after he came out.

“That’s no problem,” Yuuma straightened his clothes, smoothing out the wrinkles that had appeared. “But why me?”

"Because you look like most girls."

The reason was simple: not because of ability, but simply because of looks.

'Do girls these days only care about looks?' he thought to himself.

The school is open from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM. It's only 8:30 AM now, so everyone still has time to tidy up the classrooms.

After Yu-zhen and the other boys helped arrange the tables and chairs inside, the girls put up the tablecloths and decorative vases. Then Yu-zhen hung the sign with the shop's name on it outside, and he had to stand at the door to greet the customers who were about to arrive.

This job wasn't difficult for Yuzhen. All she had to do was stand at the door and say "Welcome home, Miss" or "Welcome home, Young Master" to the customers who came in. She didn't have to hold up a sign and solicit customers all over the school, nor did she have to work as hard as the students who were responsible for serving as waiters in the shop.

But even though he had tried his best to keep a straight face and put on an expression that said, "I'm just forced to do this, please don't talk to me," why were so many girls still coming to take pictures with him? Yuma was completely unable to handle this kind of thing.

Fortunately, he found a trick: as long as he nodded coldly after hearing a request for a photo, the girls would thank him and go into the store or leave without giving him too much trouble. Even if a few girls were being unreasonable, as long as Yuzhen ignored them, they would naturally get bored and leave on their own.

"You seem pretty comfortable."