nhp | (Sutamai) Short Story, DGS February 2017

After the Photoshoot…...

Summary: Originally published in Dengeki Girl’s Style February 2017 issue. The story can also be found in the 1st Year Anniversary Book.

Characters: Tsuduki Kyosuke, Imaoji Shun, Maki Keita, & Yamazaki Kaname.

Here's a LQ preview image so you have an idea of the setting (sorry, I haven't back-ordered the magazine in question yet...): LINK

In a photo studio in a certain city, several seconds after the sound of the camera’s shutter went off, there was a loud booming “OK”. The four people who were sleeping started to individually get up upon hearing this.

Kyosuke: Phew~ We’re done! Good work everyone!

Imaoji: Good job.

Maki: …… C’mon, they said that we’re done. Wake up.

Kaname: …… Hmm……?

Kyosuke: Ahaha, were you actually asleep, Kana-kun? Morning~

Kaname: My throat is dry……

Imaoji: Apparently you’re free to help yourself to the tea here.

Kyosuke: Oh, I’ll have some too then! But you know, the photoshoot turned out surprisingly well.

Imaoji: That’s true. Even I accidentally dozed off a little during it.

Kaname: But wasn’t there someone who was constantly nagging us to please close our eyes?

Maki: …… Well, sorry about that.

Kyosuke: Ahaha. But I’m awed that you took on the job despite being bad with photos from the start, Kei-chan~

Maki: I was told that it would just be a normal interview. Honestly, Hatori, that guy……

Imaoji: That must have been quite troubling for you. If you’d like, please have some tea.

Maki: Yeah, thanks.

Kyosuke: Now then, seeing as things have calmed down somewhat, shall we get started here?

Kaname: It looks like the interviewer hasn’t arrived yet though.

Kyosuke: Ahem! Let me start over…… I’m Tsuduki Kyosuke and I will be playing the role of the interviewer this time!

Imaoji: You are, Kyosuke-kun?

Kyosuke: The serialized segment in this New Year’s special programme of boy’s talking over their dreams, “Together With Kyon-kun!” Here we have with us Imaoji Shun-san, Maki Keita-san, and Yamazaki Kaname-kun. Please kindly welcome them today!

Maki: …… So that’s how it is.

Kyosuke: I want to get straight into asking you all about your first dreams of the New Year’s, but…… we’ll start off with a bit of trivia here!

Kaname: How abrupt.

Maki: It’s probably a segment where Kyosuke can do what he wants however he likes.

Kyosuke: When is it meant by seeing your “first dreams”?

Imaoji: I had thought that it was the dream that you see on New Year’s Eve night, but is that wrong?

Maki: …… There are various views on it, but doesn’t it generally go for about three days starting from the night of the New Year?

Kyosuke: Oh, way to go Kei-chan. You got it correct!

Kaname: Hmmm. I see.

Imaoji: You’re very knowledgeable.

Maki: Well, every year we work on merchandise and designs tieing into that idea somehow or other.

Kyosuke: So now that we’ve established that, please tell us the dream that you all saw on the night of the New Year’s! First up will be…… Shun-san. Well?

Imaoji: You see, the truth is that I don’t usually have dreams.

Kyosuke: Oh, okay. Then does that go for the first dream of the New Year’s too?

Imaoji: Yes, I didn’t have any.

Kaname: …… Hmmm.

Maki: What’s with that expression?

Kaname: Nothing. They say that people who don’t dream are deep sleepers, so I was just thinking that it was unexpected.

Imaoji: Unexpected?

Kaname: You always have your guard up after all. Even if you were asleep and someone were to closely approach you then it seems like you’d be able to wake up instantly and grab their arm.

Maki: Is this a horror……

Imaoji: Haha. What an interesting imagination you have.

Kyosuke: Then what about a dream that you’ve had up until now that’s left the most lasting impression?

Imaoji: Let’s see…… Oh, even now I still remember very vividly a dream that I saw from several years ago.

Kaname: What sort of dream was it?

Imaoji: I don’t know where but I’m in a white room with no exit nor windows…… And when I suddenly look up, people come dropping down one after the other.

Kaname: What……

Imaoji: I think to myself that it’s dangerous if one of them were to hit me, so I dodge out of the way. But the moment that I do, the floor opens up. Then the thought that it’s my turn next to drop down crosses my mind.

Kyosuke: Woah!! And then what happens?

Imaoji: I lock eyes with a girl that’s looking up at me from below and in the next instant, I’ve woken up.

Maki: …… That’s the first dream that you have at the start of the New Year?

Kaname: I find that he can talk about that with a smile a lot more terrifying than the actual dream or anything else.

Kyosuke: It just means that Shun-san doesn’t let something as small as a nightmare get the better of him~ Then moving on, what about you, Kei-chan?

Maki: I don’t have any particularly special dreams. They’d all be the same old ones of drinking at the usual bar.

Imaoji: So does that mean that everyone from Revel is there together with you?

Maki: Well, yeah, I guess. Hatori and Aki are playing pool like usual, and Hiyama and I are watching them. But when Hiyama leaves his seat because of a phone call, Aki would start quarreling with the guests at the next table over……

Kyosuke: I don’t need to hear anymore to know what happens. You go and apologize, don’t you, Kei-chan?

Maki: …… Hatori would be fanning the fire from the sidelines so the situation would gradually worsen and we wouldn’t be able to gather any information.

Imaoji: There are wrinkles on your forehead, Maki-kun. It’s a dream so you don’t have to worry yourself so much.

Kaname: But if that’s your “same old” then you’ve had it rough, huh.

Kyosuke: Ahaha, sounds like a dream that would normally come true.

Maki: Cut it out.

Imaoji: Then what about you, Kaname-kun? What sort of things did you see in your first dream of the New Year?

Kaname: …… Who knows. I don’t remember it.

Kyosuke: Oh, I call that bluff!

Kaname: !

Kyosuke: That face just now was one of someone who remembers but wants to keep it a secret~ Was it that much of an embarrassing dream?

Kaname: Not really. It’s just not a big deal.

Imaoji: A dream that’s not a big deal but is difficult to speak of…… It certainly makes one curious.

Kaname: Fine. All I have to do is talk, right? It’s a dream where I’m out and about like normal with someone I know.

Kyosuke: Your girlfriend?

Kaname: No, but it is someone that I wouldn’t mind having as my girlfriend.

Kyosuke: Ohoho! Going on a date with a girl like that for your first dream of the New Year’s is the best, no? Well, where did you go?

Kaname: We’d walk around town like normal, peek into a pet shop, eat some crepes…… What?

Maki: Nothing…… I was just thinking how that part about you is surprisingly like that of an actual high schooler.

Imaoji: How exquisitely charming to have a lovely date that is typical of students.

Kaname: …… It’s all made-up anyway so don’t take it seriously.

Kyosuke: Uh-huh, sure. Even if you tell such a lie, it just makes you more and more adorable, Kana-kun~

Kaname: What’s with that…… We’re done with me, right? Anyhow, what about you, Kyosuke-kun?

Kyosuke: My first dream of the New Year, huh. Well then, I guess I don’t have any choice but to talk about it~

Maki: What, is it something that you can’t say?

Kyosuke: Hmmm…… I personally don’t mind saying but my brother is stopping me from doing so.

Imaoji: Was it a dream involving Makoto-san?

Kyosuke: Yeah, it was. The day after I had the dream, I immediately gave him a call because it was way too much of a shock. I was warned not to speak of it again and to forget about it.

Kaname: When you put it like that, it just makes us itching to know instead.

Kyosuke: Right? Well, I should be okay as long as I apologize later!

Maki: Are you really sure about that……

Imaoji: But having come all this way, it would probably sadden the people reading this story if Kyosuke-kun’s dream was the only one to not be revealed.

Kyosuke: Then here I go with announcing it! My first dream of this year was…… a dream where my brother turned into my sister!

Maki: ! Makoto-san turned into…… an older sister?

Imaoji: That is…… indeed a shock.

Kyosuke: He was quite the beauty and it didn’t feel out of place either~ But maybe my brother being my older brother is for the best after all.

Maki: Yeah, that’s a given.

Kaname: …… Tsuduki Masako?

Maki: Stop.

Kyosuke: Well, seeing as we’ve hit the punchline for the joke and all, that’s it for the interview! Starting with the photoshoot, thank you for all your hard work this whole time~

Kaname: It began abruptly and ends just as suddenly.

Maki: He really is carefree going.

Imaoji: This has been a fun time. Thank you.

“It would be nice if we could meet in your dreams tonight to make up for all the incredibly busy time where we couldn’t.” In response to those words that Kyosuke murmurmed after the interview, each of the four of them silently let their thoughts run rampant with their “one and only”.