Chapter 135: Chapter 134 - What Happens After The Curtain Falls

The following day after the drama seemed oddly calm.

Too calmly.

Very calmly.

Kuro Kurogane should have known better.

The universe always had something against him staying peaceful.

Especially after what happened yesterday.

At least today seemed normal at first glance.

Students stared at him.

Unusually.

Very unusually.

Kuro stopped abruptly.

There was always a chance he could still return home.

"Good morning, Snow White."

The voice echoed.

Kuro turned slowly.

This couldn’t be good.

A group of first-years students greeted him.

Laughing.

Whispering.

Pointing fingers at him.

One saluted to him.

Dramatically.

"Your Highness," he said.

The group erupted with laughter.

Kuro sighed.

The morning officially started.

When he finally reached the classroom, things only became worse.

Very, very worse.

Someone printed screenshots.

Real screenshots.

Of the play.

Covering all the walls.

Snow White.

Prince.

Witch.

Narrator.

All embarrassing scenes.

All ridiculous faces.

All disaster situations.

In the center...

The kiss incident.

Large.

Big.

Obvious.

Kuro instantly turned around.

"Nope."

Akari appeared right behind him.

Perfect timing.

Absolutely the wrong timing.

The worst timing ever.

"Good morning."

She seemed extremely calm.

This worried all of them.

Very worried.

Because when Akari was calm...

Something terrible would happen soon.

Several classmates noticed.

"So..."

"What about the married life?"

The whole classroom broke into laughter.

Akari picked a random textbook.

Hurled it at a random student.

He just barely dodged it.

"KILL IT!"

She screamed.

Laughter echoed in the classroom.

Aoi sat in her seat.

Calmly pulled out her notebook.

Totally unmoved.

At least outwardly.

Which only increased laughter even further.

A classmate asked.

"Prince Aoi."

"Yes?"

"You have any comments regarding yesterday’s event?"

Aoi took her time to think about it.

"It was statistically unlikely."

Silence.

Then laughter.

Even Kuro laughed.

Only a little bit.

Mina kept her face buried in her desk.

Laughing since the morning.

Because every time...

She thought about the ending.

Every time...

She saw the pictures.

Every time...

She heard the talk about it.

She lost her self-control again.

Even more.

If possible.

Rika was worse.

Because for her...

It all resembled perfect art creation.

Her notebook contained several pages.

"Inspiration and spontaneous breakdown of narrative structure resulted in outstanding comedic effect."

Nobody understood what it meant.

Including herself.

But she seemed to feel incredibly happy.

Incredibly happy.

And frighteningly happy.

Minami entered the classroom.

Unfortunately for her.

She glanced around.

At the class.

At the screenshots.

Then at them.

And failed.

Failed miserably.

At suppressing her own laughter.

"Good morning."

Silence.

"Snow White."

Once again.

Laughter.

Again.

Educational process became absolutely impossible.

Because of the drama.

Because of the chaos.

Not that it was ever normal.

Lunchtime approached.

Making everything even worse.

Videos spread.

Everywhere.

In the entire school.

Students from other classes recognized them.

Teachers recognized them.

Even cafeteria staff recognized them.

Kuro passed by one table.

One student pointed at his face.

"LOOK!"

Phone appeared.

Showing the moment.

Collision.

Panic.

Disaster.

Forever immortalized.

Kuro kept walking.

Not saying anything.

Not reacting to the situation.

Not having any hopes.

Meanwhile, rumors were spreading even quicker.

Some students believed everything to be scripted.

Others believed it to be intentionally planned.

One even rumored about the Rika organizing everything from the beginning.

Rika refused to comment.

Thus making everything even worse.

Very, very much.

By the afternoon.

Everyone accepted one absolute truth.

The ending was the masterpiece of art.

An utter misunderstanding.

A terrible misunderstanding.

But definitely not to be corrected.

Cast members met in the auditorium for one last meeting.

Cleanup.

The stage was already dismantled.

Props were gathering.

Clothes packed.

Everything finished.

Drama was done.

Strange emotions appeared among the cast members.

Relief.

Accomplishment.

A little sadness.

Despite all that chaos...

Everything was actually fun.

Including Kuro himself.

But he didn’t say it aloud.

Cast did its job.

Sorting stuff.

Cleaning up.

Organizing.

Finally.

Nobody fought this time.

Primarily because everyone was exhausted.

When auditorium door opened.

Principal entered.

Immediately.

Everyone stood.

Principal smiled.

Dangerously.

"I have an announcement."

Everyone exchanged nervous glances.

He took a sheet of paper in his hands.

"Todays’ vote gave the best performance prize to..."

Pause.

Long, very long pause.

Too long.

Obviously, he liked it.

Then he announced the result.

"Snow White and Whatever Happened At The End."

Silence.

Chaos.

Absolute chaos.

Even Principal was laughing.

Because it wasn’t the actual name of the play.

Students renamed the show and voted for it.

Majority vote.

Auditorium went crazy.

Akari sat in a chair laughing.

Mina hid her face.

Rika claimed it to be a masterpiece.

Aoi seemed to be slightly amused.

And Kuro looked utterly devastated.

Principal presented the award plaque.

Even it was changed.

Little note was attached to it.

"Please, never change."

Nobody knew if it was a praise or threat.

Definitely both.

With sunset approaching,

Cleanup ended.

The stage was clear.

Costumes were packed.

Festival was over.

The group stood by the exit of auditorium.

Exhausted.

Satisfied.

For a moment, nobody spoke.

Then Mina started laughing.

Once.

And it was enough.

Everyone joined her.

Recalling everything.

Rehearsal.

Costumes.

Fights.

Festival.

Ending.

Ending in particular.

Even Aoi smiled.

A rare occurrence.

Very rare.

Standing near the window, they were watching the sunset.

Feeling how much time had passed.

Enjoying their victory.

At that moment, Kuro decided.

He looked around.

Akari.

Mina.

Rika.

Aoi.

Then sighed.

"Can we do something normal?"

Silence.

Everyone thought about it.

For one single second.

Then answered.

"No."

Absolutely.

Instant.

Sure.

Kuro lowered his head.

Of course.

He should’ve expected it.

Normal activities were not their thing.

But perhaps it wasn’t such a bad thing.

The sun finally set.

Drama ended.

School Drama Arc completed.

Deep inside, Kuro finally realized something.

His life became louder.

Much more exciting.

Stranger.

More exhausting.

But definitely more fun.

And unfortunately.

Knowing the guys like that...

The next disaster was definitely waiting.

Just as they were about to call it quits for the day, disaster struck.

Right on cue.

The party had barely made it out of the school gates when Akari stopped suddenly.

"Wait."

Everybody immediately became suspicious.

Very suspicious.

Because whenever Akari said "wait", bad things were sure to happen.

"What now?"

Asked Kuro.

Akari simply smiled.

"We won an award."

Unfortunately.

"But we should celebrate."

Nods passed between everyone.

Actually.

They weren’t a bad idea.

For once.

Aoi nodded.

"A reasonable suggestion."

Mina agreed.

"After all we worked pretty hard at it."

Even Rika approved.

"A necessary measure in boosting creative spirits."

Whatever that was supposed to mean.

Half an hour later the group was in a cozy little cafe by the train station.

Not particularly fancy.

Just a nice quiet place to unwind after their ordeal.

Everything proceeded fairly normally for the first ten minutes.

People ordered their drinks.

Snacks came in.

Conversations went smoothly.

Until Kuro grew suspicious.

Too normally actually.

Way too normally.

That was until Rika spoilt it again.

As usual.

She pulled out her phone.

"By the way"

Dangerous phrase.

Everybody froze.

"What?"

Mina asked cautiously.

Rika flashed a terrifying grin.

"The drama video already hit ten thousand views!"

Silence.

Then the table exploded.

"What?!"

Akari nearly dropped her cup.

"Already?!"

Rika proudly presented her phone.

The video.

The ending.

The accident.

The legendary disaster.

Thousands of views.

Hundreds of comments.

Almost all commenting something along the lines of:

"Best ending ever."

"The Witch won."

"The prince got kidnapped."

"What happened to Snow White?"

Then Kuro pointed accusingly.

"See?"

"What?"

Akari asked.

"Nobody remembers Snow White anymore,"

A few people laughed.

It wasn’t untrue.

The protagonist managed to turn into a sidekick in his own ending.

An impressive feat.

While the Mina kept scrolling her phone.

Only to stop abruptly.

"Oh, no."

Everybody turned toward her.

"What?"

Then she slowly spun her phone around.

School meme page.

New update.

Screenshot from the performance.

Title: "When the side quest becomes the main story"

Picture featured Akari and Aoi.

Not Kuro.

Table exploded.

Again.

Even Aoi quickly covered her face.

An unprecedented moment.

An absolutely unprecedented one.

Akari immediately shot back.

"This is slander."

"It’s called taking a screenshot."

Kuro responded.

"That makes it slander with evidence."

"It shouldn’t."

The argument continued for a while.

Meanwhile the cafe owner silently walked up to their table.

Excuse me..

Everybody turned toward her.

The owner smiled.

"Aren’t you guys those students who played in Snow White?"

Deadly silence.

Complete silence.

Kuro instantly recognized the situation.

It was over.

Hopeless.

Useless.

Irrevocable.

The owner spoke up again.

"My daughter saw the video yesterday."

"Sorry."

Aoi politely answered.

The owner then pointed at Akari.

"You were playing the witch, weren’t you?"

Akari sat up proudly.

"Yes, ma’am."

"An excellent role-playing,"

Akari looked smugly satisfied.

Then the owner pointed toward Kuro.

"And you, sir."

Kuro braced himself.

"Excellent unconscious performance skills,"

Table exploded.

Again.

This time even the owner joined in laughing.

Kuro stared at the ceiling.

Why.

Just why.

The night dragged on as the laughter became more and more subdued.

But jokes still kept coming.

Teasing continued.

Memories continued.

Yet some strange thing started appearing as well.

Satisfaction.

Indeed.

The whole thing had been difficult.

Embarrassing.

Chaos.

Ridiculous.

But it was oddly satisfying.

In fact.

Everybody had loved it.

Even Kuro.

But not publicly.

As the sky darkened and cafe closing time approached.

The group was finally ready to go.

Outside the streetlights shined brightly around them.

The cool evening breeze felt refreshing after the long day.

Silence fell over the group for a brief while.

Then Akari grinned.

"So."

Everybody became suspicious again.

"What?"

Kuro asked.

Akari waved her arms in dramatic motion.

"What disaster are we going to create next?"

Silence.

Everybody looked each other in eyes.

Mina smiled.

Rika took out her notebook.

Aoi seemed deep in thought.

And Kuro suddenly wished he had asked for something normal before.

Because judging by the looks they were getting.

And somehow.

Kuro sensed they would be creating an event far more chaotic and embarrassing than Snow White.