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After getting nagged by my mom for not telling her that I have a sleepover tonight, I was dropped off at the house of my lovely friend,Hitomi Kobayashi. Who, as you might've guessed is a protagonist herself. Now, even though me and a couple of other girls are in her friend group, we're not important enough to appear in her story that much or you can say that we are here as decorations to make it feels like Hitomi has other friends besides her sidekick. Another job aside from that is we are here to make her qualities shine so that all the eyes are on her in her story.

I let Hitomi led me to her room and greet the girls who were having some idle chitchat while waiting for their turn to take a shower. I sat down on the floor and join in on their conversation until it was my turn to use the bathroom. Now, in my pajamas I went ahead and start sharing some gossips I heard from school to the girls while we wait for Hitomi to finish with her shower.

Although I could careless about those things, I still have to play the role given to me. Their attention were instantly captured. We formed a circle, leaving an empty spot for Hitomi (of course, who else will it be for? my doppelgänger? Casper?) and the others started sharing their side of the rumors.

The two foils, Ly and Sophia are completely invested and are packed with gossips, while the heroine's best friend, Anne Daring listened to them, amused. Out of everyone, Anne is the person I know the least. Most of the time she will be hanging around Hitomi or off somewhere near her club, only coming to interact with the rest of us whenever she feels like it, which isn't often. What I do know about her, is the fact that she loves stories like these, Who broke up with who, What happened at the party, even to the littlest of facts like someone changed hair styles. Hitomi came out of her shower after a few minutes into the conversation and took her seat between Anne and Ly. Her brows furrowed once Anne caught her up on what she missed.

"Guys,we shouldn't gossip about other people. Imagine how they would feel if they heard about this and there's no proof that it's real, right?" Hitomi chided with a frown on her face

"Hey, it's not like we're goody-two-shoes like you, you know. I like to be up to date with the news" Ly retorted her best friend

"Besides, how did you know that it's not-not true?" Sophia chimed in with a smile

"Because, y-"

"Well, you don't hate it entirely if it were to have 'him' in it, right?" Anne slightly nudged Hitomi with a teasing grin on her face

"I don't know what you're talking about.  'Him'?  Why would I stop disliking it if there was a guy involved? It's not like it's gonna change b-based on who's in it anyways."

"Sureeeeee~ Whatever you say~" Anna said in a sing-song voice

"O-kay,I don't know what you two are mumbling about" Ly shook her head and continued

"but now that we're all here, it's time for-"

———

I could see Hitomi and Anne tense up across me. I knew that I had to do something.

———

"Pillow Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!"

"-Ug, GODDAMN IT, HAIRI. NOT PILLOW FIGHT, THAT'S THE WORST TIME YOU COULD'VE INTERRUPT ME"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, the Ly-ness monster is coming after me. Sophia!, save my soul before it perishes from Ly's anger." I mocked being scared and hid behind Sophia.

Anne was laughing her head off at this point and I could see Hitomi breathe out a sigh of relief. Both are completely relaxed now, the tension from before is gone. My action was completely unnecessary, yes but, what I did was purely on instinct. It was this feeling that's telling me to crack a joke or do anything to make it anticlimactic. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't but, this time I...went along with it.

"As I was saying before someone rudely interrupted" I was glared at "It's time for girls talk."