Greedy Chapter 3

# Chapter Three - "A Lazy Rehearsal"

### Junko

    Quite some time has now passed since Interlunium debuted, and we've even had a successful second debut with our full roster. At least around here, among the types of people inclined to pay any attention to idols in the first place, we've become, seemingly overnight, a smash hit, and then a smash hit all over again. It was a success which I don't think any of us really saw coming before it happened. Sure, we knew that if we tried our hardest and got very lucky that we had it in us to be successful, and we all wanted that to be what happened, but none of us expected to rocket up the ladder quite like we have. Though, sometimes, I do wonder exactly how that happened, given that… well…

    "I'm *hungry*. Can't we go get dinner yet?"

    "Oui. And I'm bored of practicing the same thing over and over… We need more songs. A *real* song… Why does Lina make us rehearse as a unit if we don't have a real song?"

    "Rehearsal just started though, guys. We haven't even done anything but stretch yet…"

    "Aww… Please, Junko? I'm starving today for some reason! I had extra noodles at lunch and I'm *still* starving…"

    Somehow when Lina drew lots or… however she decided on who would make up each of Interlunium's subunits, I was placed together with two group mates who are both my juniors and less experienced than I am. Please don't take that to mean I have anything against them. I like them both a lot. They usually have tons of energy, and it's cute watching them get excited over every little bit of success that comes our way. We even go to the same school, so we've had a very easy time getting to know each other compared to some of the units. But, when the subject of forming our eventual units had come up in the past I always imagined something more… More like Rinko and I back when we were The Twins. Or, if we needed to have a third member, why not Dam-Bi or Megumi? I think either of them could have complimented our style really well, and they both already carry themselves like professional idols. Rinko, Megumi, and myself? Now that would be a hit unit, assuming we absolutely needed to have a third. I could have even been okay with it having been Rinko, Eimi, and myself instead of pairing them with Akira. Yume and Anette have said a hundred times how they always planned to be a trio along with Akira someday. They even auditioned together, so they're already used to acting as a unit.

    Now that would be almost perfect. Maybe Lina would be okay with a swap? Or maybe I could partner with Rinko again and Eimi could go be in a unit with Dam-Bi and Chiyo. I bet her twintails could be put up into a truly epic bun with just a little bit of work.

    My mid-stretch fantasies were interrupted by the sudden clamor of my juniors pounding on the bottom of the thin, movable wall that separated the practice room we were in from the next. A second later a flurry of knocks answered their summons, just like you would see in a movie about inmates in a jail who needed to communicate without alerting the guards. This was followed by more knocks from our side of the wall and, as expected, an extremely large number of knocks from the room next door as the activity ceased to be an injoke among just their trio. It was clear that the laughing and giggling wasn't all coming from our side of the wall, and the muffled, shrill screaming to "knock it off" completed the picture of exactly what was happening.

    Of course, anyone who knows Rinko even a little bit would know that as soon as Eimi (or, actually, most people) tells her to do something - or not do something - Rinko is going to do the opposite. Actually, specifically with Eimi, that applies a bit to Akira as well. And I guess Anette and Yume. And I'll admit, it's a trait that I possess in at least some small quantity too. So it wasn't at all surprising to hear the tiny clicks of the wall's fasteners from the other side of the divider, nor was it a shock to see the wall start to slide open, or to watch as my friends jumped up off of the mats we were stretching on to help, leading to our two small practice rooms becoming a single, slightly less small practice room in no time at all. Our resident trio of best friends greeted each other with high fives and hugs like they were being reunited after a long stretch apart - which was confusing, as they had seen each other not even ten minutes ago when they walked together to this floor - and Rinko, quite embarrassingly, dove on the mat right next to me, giving me a similarly unexpected hug from out of nowhere. Across the now embiggened room Eimi clicked her tongue and tutted her disapproval. Though, she was flat on her stomach on a stack of practice mats reading a magazine, so it was hard to take her admonishment of others goofing off seriously.

    "Rinko, can we stop practicing early and go get dinner? Please? I'm sooo hungry…"

    "Oui. We're craving chicken, s'il vous plaît."

    "Ayeah! Chicken sounds great! And mashed potatoes. Can we? Huh? Please, Rinko?!"

    Rinko responded to the trio's begging by pausing her hug-based assault to think, giving me a moment to shake her off. Why are you asking Rinko? Akira I understand, since Rinko is the leader of her unit. But just because they removed the wall doesn't mean that this isn't still a unit rehearsal, so it should be up to me to decide when we're-

    "Now I wanna get chicken too… Can we, Junko? Please! We don't have anything to do until they get us our new music anyways and Eimi won't play with us."

    At… least she's asking instead of just saying yes. Sort of… Unless she was just asking if we can get chicken too, and giving up on rehearsal was a forgone conclusion…

    Sigh.

    "I guess that's fine… But just this once. We still have a lot of work to do if we're going to debut our units at the next concert, and…" I did continue to make some other points, but they went completely unheeded as soon as the okay was given, so there's really no point in going into details here.

    Rinko jumped up mid-sentence and shouted over me across the room. "Come on, Eimi! We're gonna get chicken for dinner!"

    Eimi made another clicking sound with her tongue in rebuttal without moving her eyes from whatever trashy rag she was engrossed in. "I don't eat that junk you all eat. You're all gonna get fat if you keep eating like pigs."

    "Uhwell, I've been running and training so much lately that I've lost some weight and need to plump back up so the costume department doesn't keep getting mad at me."

    "Yeah and I've weighed the exact same since I was twelve no matter what I eat. One month I ate fried chicken every day just to see what would happen and I lost half a pound. If I ate what you do I'd probably disappear…"

    "Eimi, perhaps you could give Mademoiselle Akira some advice on how to maintain her weight? You seem to manage so well. No matter how much you train you stay très curvy." The three girls tried hard to stifle their laughter as they poked at Eimi verbally.

    Even from across the room and at this awkward angle I could see Eimi's face turn nearly purple and twist into an angry sneer. Just as it appeared she was going to respond, she was tackled in much the same way I had been as Rinko hurled herself onto the stack of mats amid a stream of pleas for the blonde to come join us for dinner. Eimi pushed her off even more quickly than I had and scrambled to her feet, taking a swat at Rinko with her magazine as she did before moving all the way to the far side of the enjoined room, still red as a tomato. Not content to leave well enough alone, Akira shouted one more quick comment with a laugh and a wink, "Thanks for keeping an eye on my figure though! Glad you're so interested in it!", soliciting a giggle out of nearly everyone else present.

    "Yeah, well, at least I… I'm not… a redhead! Hmph!" At a loss for words, Eimi resorted to sticking out her tongue and barging through the door. What followed was a quick, high pitched eep as she jumped back into the room. From where I had stood up it appeared a lot like Eimi had forgotten the door was locked and bounced off of it in surprise, and if not for the practice room doors not having locks I may have thought that was exactly what happened.

    "Eimi, what is it?" Rinko asked with a hint of concern.

    "N-Nothing! I just can't leave yet. F-For no particular reason!"

    Everyone quickly exchanged confused glances. Why couldn't Eimi leave the practice rooms? Or perhaps more intriguingly, what was in the hallway? The idea seemed to hit us all at once, and we took off for the two doors - Akira and Rinko dashing toward Eimi while the rest of us ran to the door on our side of the room - and jostled slightly to grab hold of it first. For once, I was actually able to get them to listen to me as the unit leader.

    "It'll be suspicious if we all start looking around the hallway at once. Let me look first, then you can take turns."

    Anette and Yume both nodded in agreement and backed off a step. Carefully, I quietly cracked the door open and leaned my head out into the hallway. It was immediately obvious that there was nothing to my left but, swinging my head in the other direction, I saw what had gotten Eimi so flustered. Three people were standing in the hallway, variously pacing, sitting, or leaning against the wall. I observed them for a moment until one of them surveyed me with bright, piercing, blue eyes and smiled directly at me, and then I… I…

    I panicked a little and slammed the door shut. What is *he* doing here?

    Of course that's a rhetorical question. Why are there several idols out in the hallway of the place where our company's idols rehearse? That isn't exactly a difficult question to answer. Technically we're not supposed to loiter in the hallways, but that's not necessarily a hard and fast rule, more like a suggestion, and besides, I haven't gotten the impression that that boy is necessarily a stickler for the rules…

    "What is it?!", asked pretty much everyone, as Eimi had apparently somehow managed to keep both Rinko and Akira from peeking out their door despite being outnumbered by blocking it with her body.

    "It's, um, nothing. Just some idols talking in the hall…"

    "That's all?" Rinko sounded slightly disappointed.

    "Why's Eimi afraid of some idols?" Yume asked.

    "Maybe they're out to get 'er? Don't worry Eimi, we'll watch your back. Go out there and take 'em on." Eimi flinched as Akira acted like she was going to shove her right in the center of her chest toward the door, then scowled when she pulled back at the last moment.

    When Anette decided she wanted to take a look for herself I was not nearly as successful in keeping her away from the door, especially once Yume joined in pushing with her ridiculous leg strength. As soon as Anette's fingers wrapped around the door handle the three of us jumped at the sound of a light knock.

    "N-No! Don't-" Eimi protested, but it didn't do any good given how far she was from this particular door. It was quickly pulled open as Anette greeted our visitors. I overhead the resulting exchange from my spot wedged behind the door with nowhere to go.

    "Bonsoir! This is Aromatique. How may we help you?"

    "Oh, hello. What a lovely greeting. Is Junko by any chance home?"

    "And who exactly is asking?"

    "My name's Natsuki. I'm a friend of her's and saw her just a moment ago."

    "Un moment, s'il vous plaît!"

    Anette pushed the door shut, paused, and then started fanning herself with both hands excitedly. I heard a similar commotion going on on the opposite side of the room as Eimi protested something or another.

    "Is he really your friend?!" Anette blurted out an accusation loudly.

    "Maybe an acquaintance? He's an idol too. Really, I've only met him once…"

    "Will you introduce us? I bet he knows other idols. We don't really know any of the boy idols with the company." A slightly dubious smile appeared on Yume's face. The kind she normally only makes when thinking about her next meal.

    "Oui! He probably knows many idols as cute as he is!"

    "He's part of a group, but I don't know about…"

    "There you are, Junko. It's remarkably tough to draw your attention. I was afraid your friends hadn't approved of me."

    We spun around quickly in the direction of the smooth voice. Right behind us was Natsuki, standing with his hands in his pockets and flashing his best smile. But how? He was just…

    "I don't know that I know many idols as cute as me, but I do know these two. Will they do, miss?" He gestured across the room with a wink at two other boys who had entered the room through the other door.

    "They will do nicely, thank you very much."

    "Oui. We approve."

    "That's a relief. I've been a little worried. Junko hasn't been attending her dance lessons."

    "Shame on you, Junko." Yume chastised me with a wink and a pretend slap on my arm.

    "W-Well, I didn't actually agree to take… Really we just… What was it called again…?"

    "I taught her how to waltz. She's quite natural at it."

    "You may speak to Mademoiselle Junko while we meet your friends! Maybe you can teach us all how to waltz while you are here."

    As I stood there flustered, being thrown to the wolves, Anette's plan didn't come to pass. Interrupting us, one of the other boys called out to Natsuki. Apparently all three of them were now in our practice room and getting ready to do… something. That's… That's also one of the things that isn't supposed to happen with boy and girl idols… Our two units once again mingled together and I asked what was going on.

    "They knocked on the door and asked if they could use the room for a few minutes because all the other ones are booked and they have a very important concert tomorrow." Rinko relayed matter of factly.

    "Ayeah, so I said 'Hey, it's your lucky day. We're all heading to dinner so you can have the room.'"

    "And then Eimi said 'That's ridiculous! We would never quit rehearsal early, but I guess we could let you use the room for ten minutes as a gesture of good will or whatever, but we're gonna need to stay and watch our stuff.'"

    "Then I said 'What stuff? All you have is that magazine! You just wanna watch them rehearse!'"

    "And then Eimi told us to shut up and invited them in. Isn't it great! We're gonna get a free show!'

    Akira and Rinko bounced the narrative back and forth, each rapidly conveying a part of the story before the next jumped in. They were difficult to keep up with, but I seemed to grasp the gist of it. I didn't know how to feel about it, but it was - in theory - innocent enough, and I was quickly outvoted by Yume and Anette, who grew excited over having a front row seat to an exclusive performance, making it five to one. A few chairs were hurriedly lined up against the wall behind us while the three boys rearranged the room to suit their needs, setting up a makeshift stage in the center of the floor marked out with practice mats.

    "Ahey! I thought we were gonna go get chicken? Yume was starving just a couple minutes ago." Said Akira, slightly annoyed by the interruption.

    "I'm not *that* hungry. Besides, it would be rude to not watch. They've obviously been working out very, very hard…" Yume stared at the boys intruding on our rehearsal dreamily. "We should appreciate their dedication to fitness, right? If anyone should appreciate how fit they are, Akira, it's you…"

    "Oui. It is our duty as professional idols to aid all idols in need, and they need an audience. Le chicken can wait."

    "I guess so!" Akira threw up her arms in defeat and took a seat next to Eimi in the front row - of two, granted - and we ended up arranged with Rinko's unit in the front and mine in the back. "They'd better be good then. I *am* starving."

    "If I can have your attention, please." One of the intruding idols stood in the center of the makeshift stage and addressed us politely. The three of them were all - admittedly - rather attractive in their own ways, and together they seemed to have a bit of a goldilocks situation going. Whomever had assembled them into a group knew exactly what they were doing. The one speaking was the shortest and youngest looking, with striking silvery hair and skin that, frankly, must have been making every one of us jealous. His outfit was cute and sharp - a blueish collared shirt with gold filigree and loose-fitting slacks - and either he or his stylist obviously has a very good eye for fashion. "Thank you for giving up some of your practice time so that we can impose ourselves on you. We already explained it to some of you, but we have a very important concert tomorrow and we planned to run a full dress rehearsal, but someone forgot to reserve us a room." He shot a glance at Natsuki, who shrugged it off with a laugh.

    "It all worked out, right? And now we get to perform for a room of beautiful young women, so we'll get honest, invaluable feedback. The way I see it, this is ten times better."

    The white haired lead idol - whom, it was occuring to me, is probably what Kanon would look like if she were a boy, which is just one of the many strange thoughts I've been having over the past few minutes - ignored that remark even as my group mates laughed. "My name is Yuu Tobe. I'm only seventeen, but despite that I'm Kerberos' leader. On behalf of my group, please accept my thanks for your sacrifice."

    "You're welcome!" Rinko shouted excitedly. "It's great to get to see you guys perform! Your concerts sell out so quickly!"

    I felt… really, really confused. I wish I'd been able to sit next to Rinko through this, but at the same time I was really glad that I wasn't sitting next to her. Maybe it would have been better if I were upfront and she was behind me, because then I could try to pretend that she wasn't fawning over them…

    No, that would never…

    Why is this so…

    My heart feels like it's going to drown itself in my chest…

    "I'm Hayate Sumiyoshi, but since we're coworkers, just Hayate is fine." The second of the idols spoke. He was taller than his leader, with fairish skin and short, bleached blonde hair. He was dressed less sharply, wearing a navy blue tank top which revealed more jewelry on his arms and hands than even I would wear. Not that stylish, but it did show off his arms which, if Anette's tiny squeals as he flexed were any indication, were superbly sculpted. Still, his name set off red flags in the back of my mind. Sumiyoshi… I wonder if he's… "I've been a friend of Eimi's since we were just little kids. It's my pleasure to finally get to perform for her and her friends. My expertise should be obvious shortly." He took a deep bow, trying to act formally, but I had already made up my mind given his friendship with Eimi that I needed to keep my guard up around this one. It's one thing to overlook suspicions when someone is a member of your own group, but a young man of a similar background… Even if it's just a *chance*, the circumstantial evidence is too strong to ignore.

    "And I'm Natsuki Ichinose. I'm a close personal friend of Junko's, so I hope I'll get to know all of you very well. My strongest talent is probably on the piano. At least, that's the strongest skill I'm allowed to talk about in polite company, and since it's hard to play a baby grand and dance at the same time I'm stuck relying on my backup talents" The braggart flexed his impeccably toned arm and winked at no one in particular. "I hope they'll prove satisfactory for you. If not, we can talk later." Yume and Anette jostled my knees from either side. Of course, what he was saying isn't entirely true. We've only met one time before, so we aren't close or personal or really even friends. He was also dressed outrageously, wearing a deep crimson jacket with epaulets over his bare torso, showing off his many, many muscles. I… I don't know how male idols can get away with that kind of… revealing… ridiculous…

    He does have a *lot* of muscles, doesn't he?

    He is very skilled on a piano though, so his claims have at least a kernel of truth to them.

    "We hope you enjoy our performance." Their leader smirked and sat down in a backwards chair on the "stage" then snapped his fingers, bringing the other two idols to their positions behind him.

    "Eimi, you can start it now." The blonde one pointed toward Eimi's lap, in which sat her phone. She scrambled, clicking it on and entering her passcode.

    "R-Right! Three, two…"

    The stereo started to play music, and almost immediately the leader launched into a number which was half sung, half rapped, and which necessitated them moving energetically the entire time.

    Their crowd work was great. Every few moments I could hear a tiny squeal of excitement or gasp of surprise from one of my group mates as they made eye contact or hit a particularly impressive note or move. Once their song reached a crescendo, all three of them stepped out of the boundaries of the "stage" and approached the half dozen of us watching. Hayate was the first, approaching Eimi immediately and grabbing her hand before anyone else could even leave the stage, pulling her up front and center and sitting her on one of the chairs they had set up beforehand, where she sat with her knees tightly clenched and hands folded neatly in her lap, red as an adzuki bean. Yuu approached Akira, grabbing her hand as well, but she started laughing and smacked it away without a moment's hesitation. He didn't seem to mind at all, smirking as though he found it funny, and Anette jumped up from beside me and volunteered to take her place, being quickly ushered up to a second waiting chair. The last to make his decision was Natsuki, and I found myself paralyzed with anxiety.

    I had momentarily hoped that being obstructed by friends on both sides would have made it impractical for him to try and draw me up, but with Anette now gone it left a huge vulnerability on my right flank. As I glanced up at him, Natsuki was standing straight ahead from where I was seated, sweat starting to glisten on his brow as he smiled. It was a devilish smile, like he knew he had me exactly where he wanted me. The path to me was clear. I think we both knew that I would never be so rude as to smack him away like Akira, and so he had me cornered. The playing board was too small at only nine pieces to play defensively. What was I going to do? Attempt to castle by seeing which way he would approach from and shoving Yume at him? He had me in check, and I was going to be dragged up onstage in front of everyone and watched judgmentally as I grew flustered and embarrassed.

    No, even worse. I was going to have to go through that in front of…

    R-Rinko?!

    As Natsuki extended his hand out toward me he dropped it suddenly, aligning his gaze squarely on the girl most directly in front of him. Rinko made a tiny gasp of surprise as he grabbed her hand and pulled her up off of her seat. She giggled up a storm as he lifted her up in a princess carry and transported her to the chair in the center of the stage. She clapped her hands in delight, paying no mind to the ongoing music, and their number continued as normal, only with the addition of three lucky fans being given a once in a lifetime view of the performance. All I could manage was to watch Rinko as she delighted in the attention the three idols paid her.

    That bastard.

    Natsuki had never intended to force checkmate. It's clear he's having too much fun treating this like a game. Instead he did something even worse.

    He captured my queen, and prolonged the game, so I'd have to make my own move.

    But why…

    Why am I so jealous of both of them…

\_\_\_\_

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