The Chapter With the Karaoke - "I... can't sing."

"Yeah, that's a great idea!"

"Sounds fun!"

Lotus entered her class and the room hummed with the excitement of teenage energy. Boys and girls alike were talking vividly and eagerly over something. Man, she sure missed so much from a simple trip to the bathroom.

"Huh? What's got everyone so excited?"

"Hey, Lotus!" Kaidou waved the girl over.

He was by Saiki's desk. For some reason, this was his favorite place to stand when class wasn't in session. Of course, by his side was Nendou.

"Hey, Kaidou." Lotus greeted. "A bit noisier than normal. What's up with everyone?"

"Well, Hairo thought it would be a fun idea for the class to have some get-together bonding time after school. Something about creating memories as a class," Kaidou said.

"Oh, that sounds fun."

"No, it doesn't."

"The class seems excited. What activity was picked?" Lotus asked.

"Teruhashi suggested Karaoke," Nendou said.

"Kar-aoke?" The kooky word slowly came out of Lotus's mouth.

A moment goes by and suddenly the blood drains from Lotus's face. She paled to a shade of paper white.

"Oh no…"

Tremours racked Lotus's body as she shivered. A bit of color came back to her face but she was still a few shades paler than normal. Beads of sweat ran rampant down the girl's face. No one seemed to notice but Saiki. It was an odd sight that he saw his girlfriend in. He'd never really seen her so nervous before.

Lotus wasn't sure how it came to this but there was no escape. Even though she tried to avoid it there was no way out of the event. She had been dragged along with the rest of her classmates to the Karaoke bar. She thought Saiki, her comrade in arms (and boyfriend!) would have found a way out of it. But he wanted to go too.

He had first stated that going out with his classmates to Karaoke sounded about as fun as going to the dentist then someone in the class had to blurt out about the dessert specials the place served. And Lotus hates to admit it but she wanted to try it too.

Besides, the two couldn't escape if they wanted to. Hairo was going to make sure each member of the class was going to be there. Lotus didn't put it past him to kick in doors at people's homes in order to drag them out for some class bonding.

So that's how Lotus found herself next to Saiki, at the Karaoke bar.

"It's fine. It's fine! As long as I don't sing everything will be fine!"

Saiki peeked over his menu giving Lotus an incredulous look. "What's up with you?"

It's rare to see the pink-haired girl in such a state. Honestly, she looked like she was gonna keel over. She was by far one of the most confident and stable people he knew, so what had her so wound up?

Jerkliy Lotus turned around to look at Saiki. "Kusuo…I can't sing."

"Huh? That's it?"

"No, it–"

The sound of the mic feedback cut off Lotus, oh wait, that wasn't feedback it was Takahashi attempting to sing.

"We are-"

The song abruptly ended, putting a hard stop to Takahashi's turn.

"Hey! Who stopped my song?"

The disruption was courtesy of one Saiki. Thank you psychic powers.

"So, what are you two going to sing?" Kaidou asked.

"That will not be happening," Lotus mumbled.

"We didn't come to sing. We came to eat." Saiki held up the menu, the dessert he coveted shining on the page. "Grand chocolate parfait! Dazzling!"

Despite the somber expression Lotus sported she still managed a small smile.

"Am I going to lose my boyfriend to a dessert?" She joked.

Saiki got up from his seat using the in-house phone to order two desserts. One for himself and another for Lotus.

"I ordered them."

"Hey Saiki," Hairo appeared holding the tablet used to pick songs. "Since this is about making memories. Everyone has to sing once."

"Gah!" Lotus choked, collapsing on her side.

"No way! I can't! I can't!"

Saiki internally sighed. He didn't want to sing, he also did not understand Lotus's dramatics.

"You too, Lotus," Hairo said.

"Noooooo!"

"People have that attitude when they do karaoke as a group, I hate it but, oh well. Stop panicking Lotus. We'll eat our parfaits, then leave before our turn is up. I'll enter a random song. Oh, a crazy song got reserved, but I won't be singing it."

He passed the tablet over to Lotus, the girl grabbing it with sweaty shaky hands.

"Seriously, what is up with you? I know you said you can't sing, but it can't be that bad."

Lotus shook her head. "It's not just that I-"

"Oh, you having trouble picking a song?" Nendou appeared, startling the already alarmed Lotus.

"Ahhh!" She shrieked, accidentally throwing the tablet. Miraculously it landed in Nendou's hands.

"Hey, I think this would be a great song for you." He tapped on the tablet, picking a song that was currently being used as the opening for a rather popular no longer-running anime.

"Nooooooo!"

"Hey, you're welcome!" Nendou smiled, patting Lotus's back.

Saiki sighed again, helping the statue-like Lotus back into her seat.

"Just relax and wait for the parfait. We won't be singing."

"This is it!"

"The moment we've been waiting for!"

The majority of the male population of the class was in a sudden uproar. Why? Because stepping up next was Teruhashi.

"Our class idol is singing!"

"Is he…foaming at the mouth?"

"I feel sort of shy," Teruhashi giggled, not an ounce of bashfulness showing. She leaned in heavily to the goody-goody shy girl persona that people just ate up.

Behind Lotus and Saiki, two students started crying, sobbing into the palms of their hands.

"I never imagined I would be able to hear Teruhashi sing!"

"Her voice is beautiful!"

"She hasn't sung yet."

"~I see you out there, Saiki. Welcome to my concert.~"

"It's not your concert."

"~I know what you're thinking. 'She's that pretty, has a great personality, there's no way she can be all that and great at singing too. Maybe she'll turn out to be a horrible singer.'~"

The music started as Teruhashi raised the mic to her mouth.

But sorry, I'm super-duper good at singing

Cause I'm the perfect pretty girl

You know I'm awesome at everything

Don't bother trying to resist me

I'm such a cute and kind and pretty girl

That soon enough

You're gonna say "Oh wow" to me

Oh, you'll say it to me

The crowd was in tears by the end of the song, not just the male classmates but a good chunk of the girls too. For some odd reason, the karaoke worked on a scoring scale, with Teruhashi receiving a 98.

Her fans cheered at her performance, dazzled and impressed by her singing.

"A 98! I've never seen such a high score before!"

"Ignoring her singing those lyrics are awful."

"And how was she able to sing the main and backup vocals at the same time?"

"Huh, guess I'm up next," Kaidou said, taking hold of the mic.

He was rather confident as he started his song, but alas, he was overshadowed by the afterglow of Teruhashi's performance. The girl was crowded by her classmates, each one showering her with compliments and praises.

"You can be a professional singer!"

"I was so moved!"

"You should be a singer!"

"Me? No way?" Teruhashi said.

"Sing another song!"

Kaidou still kept on singing, even through the tears that cascaded down his face.

"Someone pay attention to the lost lamb behind you."

A despondent Kaidou took his setback next to Lotus and Saiki. Out of pity, they both clapped for the boy.

"Nice song."

"Thanks for waiting." A waiter stepped in, two parfaits in hand. "Who ordered the Grand Chocolate-"

"That's ours!" Someone shouted hand raised

Saiki whipped his head around. "What?! Someone ordered before me?"

"Wow, it came right after we ordered them."

"Has it ever been a minute?"

"Hey! That's ours! We've been waiting for fifteen minutes! This is ridiculous! I just wanna take it but no."

Saiki seethed as he watched the two across the room digging into the parfaits that rightfully belonged to him and Lotus.

"So good!"

"Delicious!"

"Kusuo…" Turning to his girlfriend he expected a calm expression, words of resolution to help dispate his anger but no. She was just as pissed as he was. "I think this means war!"

Lotus was right this was most definitely an act of war, and he knew what to do. "When it's their turn to sing I'll create so much feedback during the absolute best part of the song. Enjoy the awkward moment!"

The pink-haired couple shared a hidden high five, revenge ready and planned. No one messed with their food.

"This means we have to wait another 15 minutes."

"Maybe I should just go. I'll tell Hairo I'm sick."

Lotus attempted to stand but was yanked back down by Saiki. "There's still nine more songs ahead of us. They'll get here before then."

"Who's next?"

"Oh! I am!" Nendou shot up. "I am! I am!"

"You? Yare Yare Daze. I'm just gonna block my ears."

"Hey buddy," Nendou held out a second mic to Saiki. "Let's sing a duet."

"What is the gorilla saying now?"

Lotus, stealthy, slid away from Saiki. She felt sorry, but no way she was going to somehow get roped into singing with them. Knowing Nendou, he'd do it.

Nendou's declaration grabbed the attention of their classmates. Something Saiki really didn't want.

"Nendou and Saiki are doing a duet!"

"I think it's gonna be fun to see that!"

"This is bad, we're drawing attention."

"Do it!"

"I have no choice!"

The lights shut off, plunging the room into darkness. Panic was quick to set in, screaming was mixed with the shuffling of people running and bumping into one another.

"What a blackout?!"

"Everyone calm down!" Hairo shouted "It'll be-"

The lights came back on.

"Oh, it's back."

"Alright! We're back buddy!" Nendou said. "Huh? Buddy?"

Saiki had fled to the boys' bathroom.

"It's scary when you can't predict things like that. But I can't give up now. I'll eat that Grand Chocolate parfait no matter what obstacles stand in my way."

When he deemed the coast was clear, Saiki exited the bathroom.

"Should be okay now. Huh? Why is it so quiet?"

His classmates were all about the room, still and unmoving. It was sort of eerie.

"Hey Kaidou," Saiki put a hand on the boy's shoulder, "What happened."

Kaidou's limp head lolled back, drool escaping the corner of his mouth.

"Oh no, he's dead!"

"Sa-iki he-lp," Kaidou groaned.

"No, he's alive. So what happened?"

"After the lights came back on, Nendou sang by himself. What followed was pure h**l. It was like we were forced to listen to an orchestra of the world's worst sounds as loud as humanly possible. Just before I lost consciousness, I remember thinking that if the god of death did exist this must be what he sounded like."

"Now I'm really curious to hear it."

The entire group of students had been thrown into despair. A cloud of doom hovering above them. You would think someone sucked all the happiness out of the room.

Saiki found Lotus, she seemed to be the only one faring well. She sat rigid in her seat, hands in her lap clenching her skirt. Her eyes were wide, pupils contracted. Despite the spooked look she sported, she actually looked better than when someone told her she was going to sing.

"You okay there, Lotus?"

"I'm fine…fine…just fine…"

"That doesn't sound too convincing."

"Huh? What's wrong?" Nendou asked, still in possession of the mic. "Oh, I get it. You were all lulled to sleep by my gentle singing voice. Well, in that case, I'll sing something more exciting."

"Wonder how bad it really was."

"Hey, Kusuo."

The boy looked back towards his girlfriend, and happiness bloomed when he saw her in possession, of two parfaits. They were sitting on the table just before her. How he missed those was amazing.

"They got here during Nendou's singing. You were lucky I was here. The waiter collapsed upon entering the room once he heard Nendou's voice. I was able to save them just in time. In fact, he's still here. He couldn't escape."

Lotus gestured to the fallen waiter. He was on the floor just before the door, having used his fingernails to scrawl out a dying message on the wooden door.

"Thank you, brave waiter, your death was not in vain." Saiki took his seat, happily picking up a spoon. "Time to eat."

Lotus smiled, with a blush. Honestly, Saiki was too cute in moments like this.

"Hey, you're up, Saiki!" Hairo thrusts a microphone in Saiki's face.

"What are you saying? I'm eighth in line?"

"You picked Go! Go! Party Time Samba! Right?"

"What but how?"

"After the blackout, all the reserved songs were erased so I just put in the ones I could remember," Hairo said.

"Damn it!"

"Hey, it's Saiki's turn!"

"Party Time Samba?"

"Seriously, that's his pick?"

"Crush it, Saiki!"

"Go! Go! Sing your heart out!" Hairo cheered.

The song started and the lyrics appeared on the screen.

"It looks like my first lines are gonna be 'Oh yes! Party time!' No thanks."

Saiki turned and started to walk away.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"Are you trying to sneak away?"

His classmate playfully teased him, he wasn't going to be left off that easy and he knew it. Saiki wasn't leaving, he was just passing his mic off to someone else. That someone being Nendou.

"I'm not doing this."

Nendou looked tickled pink, full of pure happiness, as Saiki held out the mic. "A duet?"

While Nendou looked elated his classmates had the opposite reaction. They went white, mouths dropped in horror, similar to Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream.

There was a stampede as the students made a run for it.

"Finally I can eat."

"Come on buddy, let's jam!" Nendou said.

"All things considered, this wasn't too bad," Lotus said.

Somehow, the couple were the only ones left in the Karaoke bar.

"You never did tell me why you were so against singing."

"Well, you see, the thing is…" Lotus nervously chuckled, scratching her cheek. "It's not that I'm bad, I'd like to think I have an okay singing voice. But….whenever I sing, bad things happen."

"Bad things?"

Lotus shook her head. "It's like all the bad luck in the area is pulled in towards me and it affects those who can hear me singing. I once caused a whole room of phones to explode." She cried, thoroughly embarrassed, face dropping in her hands.

There was a soft snort that caused Lotus to look up.

"Kusuo…was that you?"

The pink-haired boy was facing the other way, the back of his head towards Lotus.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You find this all funny, don't you?"

"Don't know what you're talking about."

Lotus's dismay melted away, turning into that of a smile and then giggles.

"Even when you don't try you still know how to cheer me up. Hey," she held up the menu, "wanna split another parfait?"

Turning back around, Lotus felt her cheeks go warm. There was a smile on Saiki's lips, it was small but still the biggest one she had seen.

"Yeah."He reached under the table, grasping the girl's hand.

"Yeah." Lotus smiled.