Campus Live <<7>>

Episode 7

"What should I do to make a good impression on girls?"

Kento, having returned from the lab, typed that into a generative AI while holding his smartphone up to his face on his bed.

"To make a good impression on girls, cleanliness is the most important thing. Be mindful of your hairstyle, eyebrows, clothing, and skincare."

The AI answered immediately.

"Also, in conversation, it is important to take on the role of a 'listener.' Calling the other person by their first name naturally makes it easier to create a sense of closeness."

Kento froze slightly after reading that sentence.

"Call them by their first name, huh."

He tried saying "Yui" in his head. It just didn't feel right. For Kento, who had attended an all-boys school until high school, calling a girl by her first name felt like an act that created an unnervingly close sense of distance.

Still, Kento took a screenshot of the AI's answer and saved it, as if he were taking notes on the correct answer taught to him by a professor.

The next day, Kento woke up early to get ready. He unexpectedly took out the hair wax he had only used when he first enrolled and had kept tucked away behind the bathroom cabinet door, and applied it to his fingertips. As he pinched his hair and rubbed it in, a refreshing citrus scent spread.

He opened a package of eyebrow trimming scissors he had bought at a 100-yen shop and trimmed his eyebrows by imitating what he saw on YouTube. For the final touch, he took some lotion and applied it to his face.

"It doesn't feel like me at all."

Kento stared at his face reflected in the mirror with a ticklish feeling.

On the train to school, he observed the hairstyles and eyebrows of the men around him. He had never paid attention to them before. The young men who seemed to care about fashion were all styling their hair and grooming their eyebrows. At that moment, it felt as if the office workers standing in front of him and the students passing by on the platform were suddenly looking at him.

That afternoon, the four of them gathered in the lab again.

"Well then, I think we should figure out how to find the culprit who is threatening 'Yui'."

Kento called out to everyone as if reading from a script.

"Kento, you're trying too hard, man."

Machida, who was listening beside him, chimed in with a smirk.

"Don't you usually not call girls by their first names?"

Misaki joined in on Machida's teasing.

"I mean, you don't even usually talk to girls, right, Kento?"

Machida placed his hand on Kento's shoulder.

"Th-that's not true. I mean, since I'm surrounded by guys, there are few opportunities, but..."

"Wait, did you change your hairstyle, Kento?"

Misaki suddenly interjected.

"Oh, you're right. Did you trim your eyebrows too? Kento, this looks cooler on you."

Yui gave a thumbs up in front of her face.

"Oh, thanks..."

Kento blushed and looked down. Rather than feeling happy about being told he looked cool, he felt as if everyone could see through his sudden attempt to look stylish, and he resented himself for having dressed up.

As if to throw a lifeline to Kento, Machida steered the conversation back.

"By the way, what kind of content are the threats? Mind you, I won't fully trust you guys unless you show me the evidence."

"You're as suspicious as ever."

Misaki sighed.

"It's Instagram DMs, but they keep changing accounts to send them."

Saying that, Yui showed her smartphone screen.

"I won't forget you"

"Don't think you can run away"

"I know the secret from 5 years ago"

In addition to such hateful words, there was a record attached that said, "4/15 12:30 Eating B-lunch at the school cafeteria." It made one feel the eerie obsession of a culprit who was constantly watching her.

"You've really been hated. Isn't there some guy you dumped cruelly in the past?"

Machida made a dumbfounded face. Hearing that, Kento felt a stir deep in his chest.

"Stop it. I have no idea about that."

Yui frowned.

"I wonder. From what I see, Furubuchi, you have a way of leading people on, don't you? There might be someone secretly harboring feelings for you that you don't know about."

Saying that, Machida shifted his gaze to Kento and grinned.

"So, did you consult the police?"

Ignoring Machida's gaze, Kento hurriedly changed the subject.

"Yeah. I consulted them, but they said there's no criminal element with just this."

"I see. In that case, we have no choice but to find the culprit ourselves."

Kento crossed his arms and furrowed his brow.
"Do you have any idea about the 'secret from 5 years ago'? Did something happen when you were in your second year of high school?"

"No. I don't have any idea..."

Yui gripped her smartphone tightly and stared at Misaki's face.

"I've been friends with her since high school, but I can't imagine Yui having something like this done to her at all."

Misaki also agreed with Yui's words.

At dusk, the four of them left the dimly lit lab and lined up side-by-side like Russian nesting dolls at a long desk in a large, open lecture hall.

"Who would have thought that Yui from the Literature Department would be taking the same lecture?"

Kento spoke with a smirk.

"My graduation thesis theme is 'AI and Literature.' So, I asked the professor to let me take this lecture related to AI as a special case, even though it's halfway through the first semester. I won't get credits for it, though."

Yui shook her head slightly, looking a bit disappointed.
"You're really dedicated, even without getting credits."

Misaki, next to her, spun her Apple Pencil with practiced ease. Yui and Misaki were writing the lecture content directly onto the PDF of the handouts uploaded to the portal site using their touch pens.

"You two are as fast at typing as ever."

Yui gave a bitter smile. Kento and Machida had their laptops lined up on the desk and were typing the lecture content into Notion with furious intensity.

"It's easier to review if you digitize it. Look, if you ask this Notion AI, it will immediately summarize the technical terms the professor is saying."

Kento showed his screen proudly.


At that moment, a unique notification sound rang out in the quiet classroom all at once. It was the notification sound of a social media app that had recently become popular. At that moment, the classroom became noisy.

"Oh, it's here!"

"Hurry, 2 minutes left!"

Giggling laughter broke out, and coughing suddenly increased. A group of popular students sitting in the back seats held up their smartphones while joking around, capturing selfies and the classroom scenery at the same time.

"Looks like BeReal is here."

Kento muttered quietly.

"It's become popular lately, hasn't it? I guess I'll take one just in case. If I don't post, I can't see everyone else's posts either."

Misaki took a photo reservedly.

"I'm ignoring it."

Machida replied languidly.

"You don't have to take it even during a lecture. But everyone is doing it, so I..."

Yui also held up her smartphone with a slightly troubled look.

Kento stared at "themselves in this very moment" reflected on the screen. The front camera captured his slightly embarrassed face, while the back camera captured Misaki seriously struggling with the handouts, Machida's exasperated face, and Yui smiling gently.

The shutter sounds overlapped, and within a few minutes, the room returned to its quiet lecture state.

"Slaves to smartphones. I wonder if they really want to post that badly. Having your location information leaked like that is insane from the perspective of someone in security research."

Machida spat out while venting his frustration.

"Speaking of which, did you hear that Yuka from the Mass Media Research Club and Hachioji-senpai, an alumnus, might be dating?"

Misaki leaned forward and spoke to Yui.

"I know! Those two, their BeReal locations overlap too much, so it's definitely suspicious, right?"

Yui also spoke with sparkling eyes.

"But when you think about it that way, you don't really want to turn on location services, do you?"

Misaki pouted.

"Yeah... But if you turn it off, you don't want people to think you have something to hide, so there's a feeling that you have no choice but to keep it on."

Yui replied with a bitter smile.

"Ugh, I hate it, I hate it. It's like being watched!"

The moment Misaki raised her voice, the students around them turned around. Misaki immediately covered her mouth and nodded.

"But maybe this 'inability to lie' feeling is actually reassuring now."

At Yui's casual remark, Kento nodded slightly, but Machida's words about "location information being leaked" stuck with him.