Chapter 12

# Chapter Twelve - "I Won't Disappoint You"

### Rinko

    The trip back to the I MY ME building felt much faster than the trip to the studio, despite it actually taking slightly longer thanks to the evening traffic. Probably because, unlike the first leg of our trip, Lina wasn't hounding us the entire time. Just most of the time.

    "Well, I'm glad to hear it went well, but I am a little upset you weren't able to convince Eimi. Oh well, I wasn't really interested in producing her, anyway! Everyone's been saying she's a real diva, and I have no tolerance with those types." Lina sighed impressively, looking rather tired. "Well, get some rest tonight, you can figure out what comes next tomorrow."

    Even though Lina was trying to cheer us up, none of us were really in that sour of a mood. Yes, I failed at wooing Eimi Inagawa to our group, but I'm confident that I gave it one hundred and ten percent. All of us did, and for now I refuse to believe that we could have done anything differently.

    "Wow, Lina! That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me! Rolling Aimee last week still got you in this good of a mood?"

    My producer's face immediately turned into a nasty glare, even though she should have been focusing on the road.

    "Well, duh! Producing her is way better than producing any of you real life idols."

    *There's the Lina I'm used to…*

    Upon returning from our outing, each of us went straight to our rooms, exhausted from a long week of work. I called off rehearsals for tomorrow as well. We had all been skipping a lot of sleep this week and tomorrow was the beginning of the weekend, so it was the perfect opportunity for everyone to get some rest and refresh themselves for the next step of our rise to stardom. I also wasn't entirely sure what that even was, which meant I'd have an entire day to figure it out.

    Junko and I walked back to our room in silence. The exertion of *everything* had finally hit us, and it felt like trying to talk while plodding forward would have used up more energy than I had left. As soon as my shoes were off I rolled face down onto my bed, not even bothering to change out of my street clothes. I just wanted to feel my pillow for a minute before I took care of all that stuff…

    It felt like I had only blinked, but the room was much brighter than it had been a second ago. The sun was different - brighter and higher and coming much more directly through our window - and my blanket was pulled up around my shoulders instead of… hadn't I flopped down on it?

    "Huh?"

    Sitting up and stretching my arms, they were no longer covered by my thick red sweater but pinkish cotton adorned with tiny frogs.

    *Was that all a weird dream?*

    I spun my legs off the side of the bed, neatly bouncing myself up straight and yawning deeply. I peeked into the top bunk. Junko was still asleep and, not surprisingly, had a few books open next to her and a pencil still firmly grasped in her hand. I let out a small laugh - quickly covering my mouth with my hand so I wouldn't wake her - then climbed into the top bunk with her. I used to do this a lot - especially right after I'd moved in with her, and still woke up frequently scared and lonely - though at the time I had to sneak all the way down the hall and into her room. This way, having her right in the same room, was a definite improvement as far as I'm concerned.

    A slow flow of cold air passed over my lips and onto her neck, causing Junko to shiver and slap where I was blowing, only to come to and see me laying next to her. She screamed in shock and confusion, throwing her pencil at me and flinging her notebooks off the side of the bunk bed. I couldn't help but laugh. This was *exactly* how things used to go, and it was funny to think that she'd never gotten used to me.

    "Good morning, Rinko. What are you doing in my bed?" Her face was bright red, probably due to the surprise of being woken up so suddenly.

    "Hey, Junko. We were on a variety show yesterday, right?" Junko's expression turned sour before returning to normal.

    "Yeah, of course. You remember, don't you?" She seemed concerned, then muttered quietly. "Seriously though, why are you up here?"

    She clung to the wall closely, as if trying to avoid touching me for some reason.

    "I used to do it all the time, remember?"

    "Yeah, I remember. But we were thirteen. Not-"

    "Did you change my clothes while I was asleep? And set me up all proper in bed?" I teased her a bit. Junko was always taking care of me, and even though it would have been perfectly fine for me to sleep in my day clothes this once, changing me so I'd sleep better was exactly the sort of thing she would do. "How would you like it if I changed your clothes while you were asleep?"

    Junko's eyes darted around the room, looking at everything except me before answering. She grabbed one of the books that hadn't tried to fly and bumped it on my head.

    "No, you must have done it in your sleep. And don't you dare! Now, let's get down before you fall asleep here." She practically pushed me out of her bunk with both hands, eager to get her day started.

    We quickly changed into our "lying around the dorm all day" clothes and prepared for our day off doing just that. Despite it being a day without required idol stuff, we had just missed an entire day of school and had a lot of work to do so we didn't fall behind. Junko seemed to be taking longer than usual on her hair - an example of why I keep mine shorter - so I decided to go on without her.

    "I'm going now! I'll be in Lina's office so meet me there when you're done!" I popped out of our room, Junko shouting something to me right as I closed the door. "Rinko! Lina got… song… write lyrics…" Whatever it was could definitely wait a half hour or so, so I wasn't worried, and let her know I was on top of it through the door. Whatever "it" was.

    "Yeah, yeah. No problem!"

    Outside Lina's office, I paused and took a few deep breaths. Part of being the leader is not letting my frustrations show - even to Lina - and it wouldn't be good leadership to let anyone see how disappointed I really am over my failure.

    I put my best smile on my face and opened the door to the office.

    "Gooood morning, Lina!" I didn't bother knocking. For one, I announced myself immediately, so it isn't like I was going to surprise her. Plus, it's not like she was going to be up to anything that important at this hour on a Saturday, so what could I possibly be interrupting? A new Capsule Girls event?

    The chair where Lina always lurks was turned away, facing the back of the office. Not at all unusual for her. Lina often took some effort to deal with when she had other things she would rather be doing - like producing her Capsule Girls - and I would have been foolish if I hadn't figured that this was a possibility. Even though I couldn't see Lina's face, *or any of her*, I could feel the presence of someone else in the room.

    "Lina? Hellooo! Ignoring me isn't going to work!" I teased her, not willing to be ignored this time, as I began walking to the overly large desk my producer was sheltering behind. I stopped in my tracks as a voice boomed from the direction of the chair, a voice definitely not belonging to Lina. Lina's voice had never demanded this much attention, for one.

    "I have to give it to you. You sure! Are! Persistent!" I froze as the chair slowly began to turn. "You see, I don't often honor others with my presence. Not unless I'm getting something out of it. And I NEVER accept offers to join groups. Seriously, do you have any idea how often I'm asked? It's practically *weekly* at this point!"

    The chair continued to turn slowly, keeping me in suspense. Gradually, a shock of golden blonde hair rotated into view, followed by the face that had been - far too frequently this past week - filling my thoughts.

    "I won't go easy on any of you - ***especially not you*** - and if you guys suck I'll get out of here as fast as I can. Do you understand?" While I was completely paralyzed in place - both from the shock of the surprise and from what Eimi was actually saying - she had no such handicap, standing up from the desk and sauntering over to me slowly, each perfectly choreographed sway of her hips hitting me like a punch to the kidneys.

    "But, I *guess* I'll give it a try."

    She was directly in my face now, smirking and furrowing her brow. She touched my chin firmly, swiveling my head to the right, then the left, as though she were evaluating a contestant in a dog show. I found myself unable to meet her eyes directly. Being close enough to her to smell the sweetness of her breath made me feel wholly inadequate. Even my posture shrunk in her presence, feeling that standing taller than her was somehow wrong.

    "We're a team from now on, Rinko. You got that? So make sure not to disappoint me, ok?" It's entirely likely that my perception of these words was, at the moment, highly colored by the fact that I was being handed this victory unexpectedly after I had already accepted defeat. But in this exact moment, for this exact sentiment, Eimi sounded the least haughty that I had ever heard her. It was as if it was the first thing she'd said to me that was actually real.

    Just as Eimi finished speaking, after a brief pause during which my tongue refused to cooperate in the slightest and I could barely manage to nod my head, the door of the office opened with a loud push. Shaking me from my statuesque state, I managed to look behind me. It was Lina, holding a steaming hot mug of coffee in her hand and wearing her glasses tucked down the front of her shirt. Her eyes were still partially closed - in fact she barely looked awake at all - but she opened one fully to see who was here. Eimi quickly changed her expression to her stage persona, abandoning the pleasant look that I don't entirely have a word for. Lina looked at us in confusion, before her face twisted into a horrified expression. She left out a slight screech before dropping her coffee on the floor, cursing as the steaming liquid splashed across her office shoes. She seemed to run at the speed of light to her desk, where she quickly put her glasses on - something which would have probably been helpful a minute ago - and glared at us two girls standing in the middle of her office. She looked… irritated.

    "Oh, it's just you. What are you doing in here? Get out. And clean up the coffee while you're at it."

    Eimi's eyebrow twitched, and her face reddened.

    "E-Excuse me?" Her attention left me completely, focusing on Lina, now sitting down and slumped over her desk. "Ms. Fujimura, I presume? It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm going to be joining Interlunium!"

    Lina glanced up and sighed. Both of them had returned to the state in which I was most used to seeing them.

    "Okay, great. Welcome aboard. But could you both get out of here for a bit?" Our producer shooed us away lazily, not even having the energy to tell us to leave properly. "It's way too early to deal with this for a Saturday."

    Eimi and I looked at each other, each of us confused for different reasons, but quickly obliged. As soon as we got out in the hallway, we both started laughing.

    "Your face is so dumb! You were so scared! How can you make expressions like that!" Eimi cackled, pointing at me the whole time. "You were so heartbroken and confused! I never thought I'd see you like that!"

    I giggled all throughout her insults before grabbing her hand. I had finally figured out - I'm pretty sure - how to understand Eimi Inagawa.

    "Change of plans then! Let's go to the common area while we wait for everyone! They'll be so excited to meet you properly!" Without even waiting for her answer, I grabbed her hand and began leading us to the elevators to take her to the third floor. "Oh, and Eimi!"

    She rolled her eyes dismissively. Even though she was acting like herself, she wasn't fighting me at all as I led her on. Just like yesterday, we were advancing together into the future, as a duo.

    "I promise. I won't disappoint you!"

\_\_\_\_

# Chapter Navigation

* Volume 2 - Intergalactic Disco
* Previous Chapter
* Back to Contents