LU Chapter 11

# Chapter Eleven - "Burying the Hatchet"

### Junko

    The locker room seemed to be the most sensible place for me to start trying to find Eimi in earnest. The front desk hadn't checked her out nor seen anyone leave unexpectedly so she was probably still somewhere she could be found, and since most of the building is either full of people doing work on the project or in use by the building staff, if she wanted to be alone…

    I pushed the door lightly, only for it to not budge in the slightest.

    *Does the locker room have a lock on the inside?*

    I pushed again harder and could see the door moving just a tiny distance, so I put my shoulder into it and shoved, and-

    "Ow! Will you leave me alone?! Geeze, take a hint…"

    "...Eimi? Can I come in?"

    "No. Go away."

    "We need to talk, and I can push my way in if I have to…"

    Probably. Eimi is obviously blocking the door with herself, but I'm pretty sure if push literally comes to shove that I'll be able to make it into the room, even if it takes a little bit of effort to get past her general sturdiness and low center of gravity. Though, I'd rather not bruise one of our idols. I have a feeling Ms. Rossi wouldn't be too happy with that, even if it is Eimi.

    "Fine! What, are you here to make fun of me too?"

    "I just want to talk to you and ask you to come back to set so we can rehearse."

    Eimi pulled a complete reversal, flinging the door open fully and stepping away from the entrance. The look on her face reminded me of the first time Rinko and I met her, full of annoyance and seething anger. It's actually been a long while since I'd seen Eimi like this. Being in the group, in my opinion, has been good for her. She's become… at least a little bit different. In a good way.

    "So they figured they'd send the one who hates me the most to come talk me back? Great thinking! Who had that idea?"

    "It was… kind of a group decision… Why do you think I hate you?"

    "Seriously?" The dramatic eye roll made Eimi's point better than words. I guess we have always been a bit brusque with each other, but 'hate' is a strong word…

    "I don't hate you, Eimi. It just took me a while to trust you. But that's because of how you treated Rinko when she asked you to join the group. You have to admit you weren't the nicest back then either. We got off on a bad footing."

    "Yeah, well…" Eimi mumbled something into her hand I couldn't make out, then looked embarrassed as she waited for me to say something. Something which never came because I hadn't understood what she was trying to say. "Sorry! Geeze! Okay? I was kind of a jerk back then, but you weren't very nice either! Accusing me of all sorts of stuff without even knowing me just because I was annoyed someone snuck backstage to my dressing room. That's kinda scary, ya know. You ever stop to think maybe there's a reason I had so much security? And you and Rinko just slipped past all of it and showed up right at my dressing room. Did you really expect me to welcome you with hugs and kisses?"

    "Eimi… You're right. I never thought of it like that. It must have been uncomfortable for you." Eimi, frustratingly, had a point. Brash and capable as she is - her kabedon with Rinko at the time proved that - she's still a rather petite idol. No, more generally, she's a fairly small girl. Having someone show up unexpectedly outside of your dressing room, even if it's just Rinko… I guess looking back I can see how that would make you feel a little trapped and set a bad tone for what follows, no matter the good intention behind it. I know we didn't mean any harm, but how could she have known that at the time? "I'm sorry too. We should have handled that better. I really do think of you as a friend now though, just like all the other girls in the group. It's probably not too different from you and our newest members. I get that you're unsure about them. Maybe even a little bit jealous, but-"

    "Hah!" Eimi made a single loud laugh that reverberated off the tile walls of the locker room. "Why would I possibly be jealous of them?”

    "Well, they've gotten very popular very quickly. Yume's fan club is already larger than some of ours, and they've barely debuted."

    "Why would I even care about that?" Eimi got right in my face at my accusation, then backed off and laughed again. "Good for her! Mine is still twice the size of anyone else's, and it would be three times the size if Dam-Bi hadn't had a head start. You think I'm going to be jealous of even more idols riding the Eimi Inagawa popularity wave? Isn't that the whole reason you guys bugged me to join so incessantly? Sounds like maybe you're the jealous one."

    "Why would I be jealous? I'm really happy they've all been doing so well. It's really great for the group."

    "But!" Eimi's expression was insufferable. It reminds me why it took me so long to warm up to her…

    "But… I guess it sometimes feels a little unfair that they got to jump in right as we were starting to see results. Yume got the big advertising campaign, and Akira got put right in a unit with you and Rinko…"

    "So what? I mean, yeah, okay, the spokesman thing is pretty impressive. It took me a whole *three months* to land a gig that big, so it's not like I can really say it isn't a real accomplishment. But the unit thing? Sorry but that's just you being dumb. I know I'm amazing, but you seriously think being my contrast is a promotion over being a center in your own unit? Hah! Save that kind of flattery for Rinko, you dummy, your hair makes me nauseous so you're barking up the wrong tree. You can't even see that you aren't a completely useless idol, can you? *That's* why Lina made you a center. And I am never going to say that again, so don't even ask. Stop being an idiot for once and accept credit where it's due."

    When did this go from me trying to cheer up Eimi to her trying to cheer me up?

    Sigh.

    I guess I can't deny it.

    I really am friends with Eimi Inagawa…

    "A-Anyway Eimi, all of the girls in the group think of you as a friend. They just got carried away because of what they thought they saw. They couldn't reconcile their eyes with their hearts."

    "Yeah, well, some of them've made it perfectly clear that they *don't* think of me like that, and that's fine. If they think I'm still some big bad idol, I can show them a big bad idol! You know, I didn't want to be friends or anything with *anyone* in the first place. Some of you girls just wouldn't leave me alone and it wore me down, but now I know how you all think! I'm fine if other idols don't like me. I only associate with a select few people, and I won't lose sleep over selecting fewer."

    "You're fixating on the wrong thing, Eimi. You need to look at it from their perspective."

    Eimi stopped frantically pacing the small room - her body language and the words coming out of her mouth were at complete odds - and took a seat on one of the benches with a loud sigh, crossing her legs and tapping the bench next to her anxiously. "Fine, Pinky, go ahead and explain what *you* think is going on. This should be good."

    I took a seat next to her and fixed my gaze on the row of lockers in front of us. Better to avoid eye contact with a raging animal by looking at the wall than risk her getting mad again thinking I'm making faces at her or something dumb. "None of them *wanted* to believe it could have been you behind those letters. Several of them didn't believe it for even a moment even after they'd heard what the girls saw today anyway, like Chiyo and Kanon. Everyone was just upset because they do think you're their friend, and everything written in the letters felt worse because they thought they saw you dropping them off."

    "I didn't write them…"

    "I believe you."

    "It really wasn't me though! I've been getting those stupid black letters in the mail ever since I joined Interlunium. Believe me, I know what it's like to have whackjob fans. Why would I do that to anyone else?"

    "Eimi, I believe you, and Rinko believes you, and even Akira believes you. So if there's anyone with lingering doubts, we'll do our best to explain it to them until they understand that it wouldn't make any sense for *any of us* to be behind something like this. If it were one of us doing it we could slide it under people's doors at the dorm or drop it in the mailbox in the lobby and we wouldn't have to run the risk of getting caught like whoever delivered them today did. Why take the extra risk for a prank? And why would we do it here when we're working on an important project? If someone switched your mousse for whipped cream or hid your clothes while you were showering, then I'd suspect some of the girls in the group. But not something like this. If you think about it, getting us to fight like this is probably what they want."

    "Whoever it is probably *wanted* to be seen so everyone'd think they were me. They put this in my locker too. Don't freak out though!" From within her little pink handbag Eimi produced a small stack of black paper wrapped in plastic packaging. "The idiot put these in my locker to frame me, but nobody thought to check it before I did. See the label? There's ten in the pack, and they're all there. What a dumb frame job. There's been seven letters already, so if they really wanted me to look guilty they would have just planted three. Do they think idols can't do basic math or something?"

    "Or there's three more letters we just haven't found yet… Can I see them?" Eimi shrugged her shoulders and handed the stack over. I ran my fingernail across the edge of the package and counted each fold. As I did, something caught my eye. I must have made a face when I saw it because Eimi quickly asked me, "What?"

    Pulling gently at the plastic covering the envelopes, it parted slightly, exposing a vent in its glossy finish that clearly showed the matte black of the paper underneath.

    "I'm not sure that these were actually still sealed…"

    "Yeah… Well, I didn't exactly feel like looking at them. It gives me the creeps. Some weirdo was in my locker. I have expensive stuff in there you know."

    Prompted by Eimi's words, I jumped up quickly and ran to my own locker, pulling it open and finding it a mess. I immediately started searching for any trace of further black parcels or a clue as to who had violated it, when Eimi spoke, laughing to herself.

    "Yeah, there's nothin' in there besides a mess. I checked everyone's just to be sure as soon as I got in here and they're pretty much all like that. That package was the only weird thing left. Took ya long enough to think to check though. Maybe you *should* just be my contrast."

    Deciding it was in the best interest of everyone to brush that off, I returned to the bench and picked up the bundle of envelopes. Fiddling with them some more, it became clear that the slit in the plastic ran across about half of one of the long edges and across nearly an entire short edge. Just enough to carefully remove the envelopes one at a time, which I proved by doing just that to one of them. What I removed from the package was an ordinary black envelope, empty and unsealed.

    "There has to be a reason it's like this."

    "Oh for! Just open them. It's not like we're going to be putting them back inside, and everyone will believe *you* if you tell them we found them like this." Eimi reached over and, grasping the stack of envelopes, quickly yanked it in two, splitting open the wrapping fully. The envelopes fell and scattered across the floor in front of us. "Oops, sorry…"

    Bending down to clean up the mess, we happened to both grab the same envelope first from opposite sides. Eimi yanked it away from me - typical Eimi behavior - then made a sound like a harsh clicking of her tongue while I picked up the rest of the empty envelopes. Only when I sat back up did I see what she was reacting to. As I had been wondering, one of the envelopes hadn't, in fact, been empty, and was sealed, with silver ink scrawled across the front facing just like the others I had been shown.

    ***Rinko Hanazawa***

    We ran as quickly as we could back to the soundstage with the new letter, bursting in on the girls practicing their choreography - which I think was just an excuse for some of them to get their hands back on their props, but at least it was, by the letter of the rules, the proper way to be messing around on set.

    **"Eimi!"** Multiple of our friends shouted when they saw us return. She was quickly surrounded by a circle of them, all trying to talk over one another to show their support, apologize, or otherwise make her feel welcome back on the set. As they fussed over her I was only greeted by Kanon, who waved lazily from her spot in a corner. Eimi tried to talk over all of them, growing flustered and red at their outpouring of devotion.

    "Okay, okay! I forgive you! Just don't let it happen again! And stop crowding me!"

    As the crowd dispersed, Eimi was approached by Megumi, who looked uncommonly nervous. Megumi and Eimi are close, and they have been for a while now. I'm fairly certain that all of us have picked up on that. Not that it's scandalous or anything. Kanon and Chiyo are close. Akira, Yume, and Anette are all extremely close. I like to think that I'm fairly close to Rinko. But exactly how close are those two? Nobody really knows. They stepped aside near one of the walls and talked quietly among themselves, ending with clasped hands and Megumi briefly resting her forehead down onto Eimi's like some kind of big sister. I hated the green-tinged feeling welling up in my stomach.

    *How can Eimi complain about not being liked when she has a friend like that…*

*Kanon and I aren't that close…*

*Even after years, Rinko and I aren't even really **that** close…*

    Speaking of Rinko…

    Rinko was off on the stage, having embraced her role as leader with a newfound caffeinated zeal, calling the girls back from their Eimi break and guiding them through their steps with the help of Akira - and a wooden sword wielded like a conductor's baton. A sizable part of me wanted to take a cue from Kanon and hide, destroy, or otherwise disappear the envelope in my hands, but it's possible that whatever was inside would be important to solving this mystery, and this had grown bigger than any one of us.

    "Rinko, can I borrow you for a moment?"

    "Aye-Aye!" Rinko raised her sword dramatically and charged off the stage toward me. By the time she reached me I was flanked by Eimi and Megumi, who must have known what was coming. "Junko, good job getting Eimi back!" She held up a hand high above her head until I held out my palm and she was able to smack it with a hard high five.

    "Rinko, we found this. It was in Eimi's locker, we think to try and frame her." I held up the envelope, showing Rinko the name written on the front in bright silver. *Her name.*

    Rinko let out a small, slightly inappropriate squeal of excitement. "I was wondering when I'd get one!" She grabbed the letter from my hand and tore it open without a pause, then blew into the envelope and looked confused.

    "Ms. Hanazawa, what's wrong?"

    "I don't get it…" Rinko held the envelope upside down and shook it, trying to dislodge its nonexistent contents onto the studio floor. "It's empty… What does *that* mean?"

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