"You two must be twins. Your eyes are beautiful. And you, Aqua, feel familiar. Have we met somewhere before?" Seiya asked. Aqua lowered his head, avoiding Seiya's gaze. When he looked up again, his face was expressionless. "I think you're mistaken. This is the first time I've met you."
"Maybe you saw a movie of his at my house. He hasn't been in the public eye for a while. There's no way you've met him before," Kana interjected. She thought Seiya's feeling of familiarity was because he had seen Aqua's acting before.
Seiya smiled and accepted Kana's explanation. "Is that so? I guess I was just overthinking it."
But in reality, Seiya knew who Aqua was. He was one of the survivors of the attack 10 years ago. Seiya's foster brother had died to save him. From Aqua's reaction, Seiya could tell he had recognized him, too. He just didn't know why Aqua was hiding it.
The fan attack 10 years ago was an unforgettable event for Aqua. He had witnessed his idol and mother, Ai Hoshino, die in front of him. He hated himself for being so helpless, but he admired Seiya, who had saved someone's life. As a reincarnated person, Aqua was a 30-year-old doctor in a 17-year-old body. He had even delivered Ai's twins. But fate had a cruel twist, and he was reborn as one of her children. His twin sister, Ruby, was also a reincarnated person. He didn't know who she was, but from her behavior, she was probably a lot younger than him in her past life.
Being reborn as his idol's child should have been a blessing, but then disaster struck. Ai's crazy fan found out she had a family and killed her. Aqua suspected the attack wasn't a coincidence. The fan was a victim, and the real killer was still at large. To find the truth, Aqua had spent years investigating and finally found a list of names on Ai's private phone.
Aqua had secretly investigated everyone who was there that day, including Ako, Seiya, and Seiya's dead brother. He had quickly ruled them out as suspects. He could only say that Seiya had left a deep impression on him. Aqua was an adult in a child's body, but he was paralyzed by fear. Yet, Seiya, a child, had saved someone's life. If he had Seiya's courage, maybe Ai wouldn't have died. When he saw Seiya, he was reminded of his own weakness.
Aqua had considered asking Seiya for help, since his brother was also a victim. But he felt he had already caused enough trouble for Seiya's family, so he decided to do it alone. He had been following Seiya's career, and as Ruby said, Seiya was a very popular actor.
Yoto High School was divided into two departments: a regular department and an acting department. The regular department was like any other high school, but the acting department had lower academic requirements. Most of the acting students were already professionals and made more money than most adults. The regular and acting departments were in different parts of the school. The school said they didn't promote a class system, but the acting department had better facilities. The acting students had to pay higher tuition and be signed with an agency or have some experience in the industry. If not, the acting department would lose its meaning.
Kana assumed they were all in the acting department and led them there. But halfway there, Aqua said he was in the regular department and parted ways with them.
"It looks like we're in the same class," Seiya said to Ruby after Kana left. When they walked into class 1-F, many of their classmates were shocked.
"Is that him? Seiya Wenren! The popular actor is in our class!"
"Oh my god, he's so much more handsome in person than on TV!"
"I have to post this on my LINE account. My senior at the agency is his biggest fan!"