Chapter 388 - Shishio: I'm Afraid Of Nepotism
"Eh?"
The whole literature club suddenly turned quiet, and only the voice of the members of the sports clubs from the outside could be heard.
'Is it the baseball club?' Shishio thought, but this wasn't the time to think about this matter, and said, "While I understand what you want to say, why don't you explain to us what's going on? After all, it is so sudden."
Everyone nodded and agreed with Shishio's words since they were also confused by Kiriya's words.
"It's literally." Kiriya had a faint smile on his face and said, "But if I have to explain, I guess I want to give all of you a chance."
"Chance?"
Kiriya nodded and said, "You should know that I'm a fairly famous novelist, right?"
"...Yeah."
Even if many of them didn't read Kiriya's books, they still nodded regardless since Kiriya's book could be made into a movie adaption where Mai would star in. Without a doubt, Kiriya was a fairly famous novelist.
"While there are many things that I want to say about your gaze, I also understand that most of you who join this club don't have an interest in the book itself. Instead, you're only interested in being a member of the club, right?" Kiriya said with a sigh, feeling quite disappointed by their lukewarm reaction. He thought they would jump in happiness from seven days to seven nights, hearing the chance that appeared before them, but they just looked at him with some confusion.
However, Kiriya didn't feel surprised since he also knew that the reason why many of them joined the club wasn't that they were interested in literature. Instead, they were interested in one of the members of the literature club.
As for who this person was, there was no need for Kiriya to spell it out, right?
"Er... why don't you continue, Sensei?" Shishio felt everyone's gaze on his body start to hurt, so he looked at Kiriya, asking him to continue, but at the same time, he looked at this guy with a grudge for causing everyone to stare at him.
"...I don't really mind." Kiriya somehow felt better after he caused trouble for Shishio. "Okay, where did I talk before?"
"You're a fairly famous novelist," Shiina said.
"...." Kiriya was in silence when he looked at Shiina. While he was a fairly famous novelist, this pure girl was one of the most famous painters in the world. If they were compared, he must admit that his popularity was just too far apart from Shiina.
"What's wrong, Sensei?" Shiina tilted her head in confusion.
Shishio patted Shiina's head and said, "Don't add another wound. Just watch him quietly."
"Okay." While Shiina didn't understand, she believed in Shishio.
"Let me continue my explanation." Kiriya looked at everyone and said, "I have just visited the publishing house of my novel before, and when I talked with them, they told me about a writing contest that happened shortly. What do you think? Do you want to enter?"
"Writing contest?"
Everyone looked at each other before they looked at Shishio.
'Why are you looking at me?' Shishio was speechless, but Kiriya also looked at him. "By the way, Sensei, what publishing house?"
"It's Kodansha. You should have heard the name of the biggest publishing house in the country, right?" Kiriya said.
"Well, I have heard it." Shishio nodded since he held the majority shares of this publishing house, but he didn't really intend to talk about it.
"Shishio, it's the same as our publishing house," Shiina said.
"Eh?"
Everyone was dumbfounded when they heard Shiina's words.
"What do you mean, Shiina-san?" Kiriya was confused while looking at Shiina.
Shiina didn't say anything and looked at Shishio.
"Well, let me explain." Shishio calmed everyone and said, "Some of you might not know, or some of you might know that Mashiro came to Japan because she wanted to learn about manga."
"That's the first time I've heard it, but please continue," Kiriya said.
Some of them also looked at Shishio since it was their first time to hear it.
"While I won't say the details, Mashiro and I have made a collaboration to create a manga together. I'm in charge of the story, and she's in charge of the drawing, and we have signed a contract with the Weekly Shounen Magazine from Kodansha to publish our manga there. Well, it should be published in two weeks, if I'm not wrong," Shishio said calmly.
"..."
While some had heard from Shishio, they didn't know the details. However, hearing that Shishio and Shiina were going to publish their manga on one of the most famous manga publishers in the country and their manga was about to be published in two weeks, their feelings were quite complex.
They wanted to congratulate them, but it was so sudden that they didn't know what to say.
"While this news is unexpected, I hope that you can keep this matter a secret, alright?" Shishio suddenly said.
"Huh? Why?" Usa asked subconsciously since he felt it was better for one to become more famous, right?
"If I become more famous, all the girls in the school will all fall for me, and I'll be the enemy of the boys in the entire school, right?" Shishio said with a smile.
"....." Everyone.
"I was joking. Stop looking at me with that kind of gaze," Shishio said jokingly.
"While I know that you're joking, somehow, it feels like it might happen," Nanami suddenly said.
"....." Everyone.
"No way, right?" Shishio smiled and said while looking at Nanami, "I'm a scumbag. Who is going to fall for a bad person who is dating more than one girl except for his girlfriends, right?"
Nanami lowered her head since she was one of those girls, but she knew that this guy tried to tease her, and this guy was successful, which made her slightly annoyed!
"But really, what do you want us to keep this master as a secret? I mean, it is good that you can become a mangaka now. It is something to be celebrated about!" Mea said with a gentle smile.
"The popularity is a good thing, but at the same time, it is also troublesome." Mai let out a tired sigh and said, "Try to imagine that someone will stop you, take your picture secretly, and you also won't have privacy in public. It's troublesome if you want to go out in a group or go on a date."
"....." Everyone.
"Especially when Shishio is so handsome, and Mashiro is so cute, they might have a stalker later," Mai said with a sigh.
"Stalker?!" Everyone was dumbfounded.
Still, they didn't deny the charm of Shishio and Shiina since they knew how handsome and cute they were.
"You might think I'm joking, but this kind of thing often happens in the entertainment industry," Mai said with a tired sigh.
"......"
'Scary!'
They thought at that moment.
"Shishio." Shiina suddenly pulled Shishio's sleeve.
"What's wrong, Mashiro?" Shishio asked.
"What's a stalker?" Shiina asked.
"...." Everyone.
"Let's keep this matter a secret," Shishio said.
"Yes!"
They agreed without hesitation since they could see how Shiina was so pure and lacked common sense. If she had a stalker, they couldn't imagine how scary it would be.
Still, Shiina frowned when she understood what stalker was.
"Don't worry. I'll protect you," Shishio said as he patted Shiina's head.
"Shishio..." Shiina rubbed her face against his chest as she hugged his arm as purred when Shishio caressed her head.
"....."
Somehow they felt jealous of Shiina right now.
"Well, enough about the matter of the stalker. Why don't we talk about what Kiriya-sensei mentioned before?" Shishio looked at everyone and asked, "Do any of you have an interest in becoming a writer?"
Everyone started to think again since they had never thought about this possibility before, and as Kiriya had said before, they joined the literature clubroom because they had fallen to one of the members.
"How are you, Shishio? You have written a story before, right?" Miu asked.
"Well, I might have an interest in it, but I don't really want to join the competition," Shishio said with a sigh.
"Why?" Everyone was dumbfounded.
"While I want to say that every competition will be fair, it might be hard to be fair if I join this competition," Shishio said.
"Why?"
Shishio hesitated for a moment, then said, "Because my family owns shares of this publishing house."
"......." Everyone.
Kiriya was also speechless when he heard Shishio's family owned the shares of Kodansha, and from Shishio's expression, he could tell that his family had owned many shares and might even be the majority shareholders, which made him realize that he was looking at the young boss of the Kodansha.
However, Kiriya didn't say anything, and he also felt that it was better for Shishio not to join since he knew that the world of adults wasn't as simple as it seemed.
Shishio had the money, connection, and even the publishing house that organized the competition.
While Kiriya didn't think that Shishio would use his authority to win, he knew that the people below might make him the winner to please Shishio.
"Let's put Oga's matter aside, but if you want to join this competition, you can tell me," Kiriya said.
"What's the time limit Sensei?" Shishio asked.
"It's two months from now, so it should be around the end of July." Kiriya looked at everyone and said, "There's a long time, but writing is hard, so you need to prepare from now on and just tell me if you're interested, alright?"
"Okay!"
Everyone nodded at the same time.
"Before that, can I say something?" Shishio suddenly said as he raised his hand.
Everyone looked at Shishio and wondered what he was going to say.
"I'm not sure whether you're interested in becoming a writer or not, but even if I don't join or the people around you don't think to join, if you have an interest, then you shouldn't stop because you follow the majority of people around you. If you want to try, I won't make fun of you, and I'm sure everyone in this place won't make fun of you. You might not have confidence, and you might feel your writing is bad, but you won't know until you try, and don't ever think working hard is lame. It's cool to work hard, especially toward your dream, so you don't need to care what everyone has decided. If you feel that you want to write, just do it," Shishio said calmly.
"..."
Everyone was in a daze while looking at Shishio.
Shishio suddenly got embarrassed and said, "Don't look at me like that, alright? Kiriya-sensei has given us a rare chance. If you don't have an interest, I won't say much. However, if you are interested, but you don't do it because you're shy because of your surroundings, then I hope you don't do it. After all, rather than doing nothing and regretting it, we should do something and regret it." He looked at them again and said, "Don't worry about what other people think. Hold your head up high and plunge forward. That's what I want to say."
Kiriya smiled softly at Shishio, and somehow he understood why this guy had so many girlfriends. "Oga-kun."
"Yes?"
"What do you think of love between similar genders?
"...."
Shishio wondered whether it was too late to quit this club or not.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel