LU Chapter 10

# Chapter Ten - "We're the Same Height, Dummy!"

### Rinko

    We were so excited from our new assignment that we practically ran all the way to the set. Actually, Akira did run all the way to the set and got there a full two minutes before me and Eimi, who merely walked there quickly. Even if we had run, Akira is faster than us, so what would be the point?

    "We have great news!", I shouted in excitement to my waiting friends the moment I burst onto the set. Not all of us were here, but Junko wouldn't mind. She's still receiving her super secret special assignment from Ms. R, and we promised we would get this done right away! And right away means right en-oh-double-u!

    "We have some things to talk about too, Hanarin! But, why don't you go first."

    "O-Kay! You see, we had a really great meeting, and you'll never believe what Ms. R wants us to do! Go ahead! Guess!"

    My friends looked at each other with strange expressions on their faces.

    "Does she want us to practice more? Because it's already getting in the way of napping…"

    "Do we need to rerecord the song?"

    "Stop playing with the set?"

    "Do we get to suggest our own choreography?!"

    "Nope! Nope! Uh… Yes! Please, that's probably a good idea… But not what she said. Aaaaaand nope! She asked me and Akira and Eimi to lead our own teams on set! So we get to help you learn all your moves and make sure you show up on time! Isn't that great?"

    "Basically, we have to be your babysitters and make sure you're doing everything right. But that's not gonna be a problem, right? It's not like it's hard to show up on time and learn your marks, so just don't slack off and we'll be fine."

    "Eimi could've said that nicer, but she's, uh, kinda right. We're like Assistant-Assistant-ah… Junior Producers or something like that. She says it's very important for us to be invested in the outcome of the project."

    "Wh-Who's on what team?" Chiyo asked from the back of the crowd, nervous as usual.

    "Chiyo, you and Megumi get to work with Akira! Lucky! Kanon! You, Dam-Bi, and Yume are on the coolest team with me! Kazue and Anette get to hang out with Eimi! Come on guys! We got this!"

    I thought I had given a very leaderly speech to fire everyone up, but nobody much seemed to be happy or excited about our teams.

    "Can't I be in a group with Chiyo…?", moaned Kanon.

    "Anette and I should be with Akira! We already do everything together!"

    "I do believe that may be the point, Ms. Zhou." Megumi spoke up, ready to drop some smartness on us. "If I'm not mistaken, the teams seem to be designed specifically to force us to cooperate and interact largely outside of both our usual social and performing units. It's quite impressive that they were able to ascertain our personal connections in just a single day. I think it will be a delightful way to stay focused on our work and get to know some of our lesser-seen friends all the better."

    "Ayeah! I should've noticed that! That makes sense. The boss sure is sneaky…"

    "What about Mademoiselle Junko? Why isn't she in a group?"

    "Junko's getting her own special assignment from Ms. R right now, too! Don't worry, I'll make sure she gets up on time too just to be safe."

    "I just have one small problem with this… How are any of us supposed to follow a leader we don't trust?" Our teeniest member spoke up, drawing a few grumbles of support from the girls around her and confusing me greatly.

    "Ms. Zhou, would you please permit me to explain the situation fully before you air your grievance?" Yume nodded, finding that fair, and Megumi stood up, approaching the three of us who arrived last to the set. "It seems that we have a bit of a situation of which you should all be made aware. Please tell me first, are any of you familiar with what this is?" Megumi held out a little black envelope with both hands.

    "It's an envelope! Is this a riddle, like 'when is a door not a door?'" I do enjoy riddles, but I don't get it...

    "It's definitely an envelope. Uhhyeah, hey, what gives? Is this a magic trick or something? Like now it's an envelope, but then you do some stuff and replace it with a flower. It's no use, the sleeves on your kimono are huge. We know you're just hiding it up there."

    "Ms. Inagawa, how about you? Have you seen an envelope in this color and style before?"

    "Wh-What? Of course I have! I get hundreds of fan letters every single week in all sorts of envelopes. What's so weird about that envelope except that it's that depressing color?"

    "Then if you've received one before, is there anything unusual about the letters they contain?"

    "H-How would I know? I can't remember everything some weirdo writes in every letter I get. I'd never have time to do anything else! Half the time my publicist handles that and just passes along the best ones and the presents!" Eimi was immediately flustered and on the back foot as Megumi held up the envelope gingerly, not entirely unlike how Kazue looks every time Chiyo tries to get her to hold Momo, or when Kazue tries to get any of us to hold one of her pets.

    "Yeah, Megumi. I like watching Eimi squirm as much as anyone, but what's your point? It's just a regular black envelope, isn't it? Dad uses 'em sometimes because you can't use a light to read through 'em."

    "Actually, Ms. Hoshino, it's much more than that." When she flipped the envelope over it had Akira's name written on it in bright silver ink. "This was found inside of your locker not long ago, along with a matching envelope in the locker of each of our other newest members. Yesterday, similar envelopes were stealthily slipped into the bags of Ms. Han, Ms. Mitsuboshi, and Ms. Watanabe as they took a break from the makeup studio. Thus far each of the letters contained within has ranged from backhanded compliments to direct insults and outright hostility."

    "Well, what does it say?!" Akira asked excitedly.

    "We thought it best to leave it sealed until you were present to verify that it was found intact. If you wish to read it, you may of course do so, but be warned that some of the others have been very unpleasant."

    "Pssh! What unpleasant things could someone possibly say about me? I'm awesome! Gimme that." Akira grabbed the envelope from Megumi and tore it open in one fluid movement, extracting the letter from inside and flicking it open with a single hand. "Wha?! This is dumb. This idiot says I'm too muscly and fit to be an idol! Those are my best features! Well, those and my rockin' t-"

    "You're not too muscly at all!" I wrestled Akira into a great big hug to make her feel better and was quickly joined by Anette and Yume until Akira was laughing and trying to shake us off. Somewhere in the struggle the letter had transferred back to Megumi, who seemed to be comparing it to some of the others.

    "Just as expected, this appears to be the exact same handwriting as on all of the other letters. After we left the main conference room so you could have your private meeting, have all three of you been together the entire time?"

    "What are you getting at, *Ms. Aihara?* This is starting to feel like an interrogation, and *that's* starting to piss me off."

    "Eimi, I'm just trying to establish your innocence."

    "My innocence in what?! Some stupid fan letters? Why would I do something like that in the first place?"

    "Eimi, I saw you leaving the locker room right before we found the letters, and now you're acting extra weird." Yume walked right over to us and stood inches from Eimi's face. "Anette and Kazue saw you too, but you ran away as soon as we said hi. Just admit you're behind the letters and apologize, and we're willing to forget about it and call it a botched prank."

    "Eh?! How dare you?! Listen here, shrimp, you must have been seein' things, because I'd never write dumb letters like that! What would I get out of messing up my own music video, huh? If I had a problem with you I'd just come out and say it. Actually, you know what, you're really startin' to-"

    "We saw what we saw!"

    "And what is it you think you saw from way down there?"

    "We're the same height, dummy!"

    "Yeah, well you can sure fool me with your tiny little-"

    "Guys, stop! Eimi, we saw a girl with long blonde hair running away from the locker room. But the more I think about it, the more I guess it could have been someone who just looked like you. We didn't actually see her face, just her back, plus Megumi is pretty sure it wasn't your handwriting on the letters… Yume, maybe we just mistook someone else for Eimi because they looked similar? We shouldn't accuse anyone of anything without concrete proof…" Kazue jumped between the two girls, towering over them both.

    "Oui. Now that I think about it, there is more than one blonde working on the project, and we were not paying perfect attention at the time because we were très hungry. Mademoiselle Kazue is right. See? They're everywhere. We have no real proof."

    Anette pointed around the soundstage, first at a trio of girls pushing around an overflowing cart of fake plants and delivering them to different areas of the stage, two of which were blonde or blondish, then at a girl walking around with a stack of folders whose hair was extremely light brown and bordered on blonde, and finally at a girl on stage helping with a lighting test who appeared to fit the description of the culprit perfectly until the lighting changed. I wouldn't say that Eimi clones are *everywhere*, but if I squinted and imagined them running away from me it wasn't hard to mistake some of the girls working on the project for her.

    "Yume, Eimi was with us the entire time except for the break before our meeting when I got a drink with Junko, but I don't think Eimi would have done something like that. She would've had to run as fast as Akira to make it all the way to the other end of the building and back, so it couldn't have been her. She's too clumsy." Both of the girls gave me a look. Eimi looked especially annoyed, which isn't fair, because I only said that to point out that she has to be innocent. And besides, her klutziness is one of her cutest features.

    Akira joined Kazue between the two girls before they came to blows. "Uh, yeah. I guess technically there were like fifteen minutes or somethin' to stretch our legs where we all split up, but I'm pretty sure I saw Eimi a couple times when I was power walking up and down the hall. Plus if Eimi tried to run to the lockers, put stuff in 'em, and get out of sight before you got there then she'd have been gross and sweaty by the time our meeting started, and I sat right next to her and she didn't smell at all. I also know for a fact that Eimi loves my muscles, so she couldn't have written the letters."

    "I can't believe this. I thought we were friends… You all really think I could possibly…" Eimi was so shaken up by these accusations that she completely ignored Akira's little pokes at her expense and simply stood with a disappointed glower on her face. I could tell by looking around that several of our friends knew there was no idea Eimi would ever do such a thing! But still, too many looked uncertain what to think.

    "E-Eimi, nobody thinks it was you… Right? Yume, tell Eimi you know it couldn't have been her…" Chiyo was upset, shrinking down into her chair and pleading for Yume to put this all to bed.

    "Eimi, I'm sorry we thought it was you. But you have to admit, it doesn't seem that far fetched. They looked just like you, and you can be kind of… you know… Very proud of yourself…"

    "I would never do something like that! I can't believe you guys seriously think that. I thought we had become…" Without a further word, Eimi turned on her heels and walked off the set amidst cries of apology and requests that she come back. I was too stunned to do anything. Sure Eimi can be a little prickly, but she would never do anything outright *mean* to anyone. At least not anyone in the group…

    At least not anymore…

    Probably…

    "Where's Eimi going in a huff?"

    In all the furor we hadn't noticed Junko arriving on the set. Immediately she was met with a blast of idols' voices explaining what had happened and asking her to do something.

    "Whoa whoa, everyone calm down. Why doesn't just one person tell me exactly what happened while I was gone?"

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