Kawaii princess's Arc

Chapter 9 of 54

By morning, the white gown was old news. The crowd still stood at the frosted wooden stage, but their feet shifted and their eyes drifted. A tattered banner pole rose beside the stage, blank where her next act should have been named. Kawaii Princess gripped the iced microphone in both hands. She had no song ready. No step rehearsed. The stand's frost bit her palms and she made herself stay. She stepped onto the planks and spoke. Not sang — spoke. She told the crowd how she practiced alone, how she counted each face that stayed. Her voice shook, then steadied. People leaned in. Someone climbed the pole and painted one word across the banner: LISTEN. The crowd did not leave. They sat down on the cold ground and waited for more. She had bought herself one night by giving them something she had never planned to give — her plain, unpolished self. Tomorrow they would want a song again.