ID Chapter 7

# Chapter Seven - "Yakisoba?"

### Junko

    The next day's recordings went off without a hitch. It was more of the same - recording and rerecording problematic sections until Lina and Mr. Ono were satisfied, but mostly sitting around and waiting for our turns in the booth. It was still exciting to be there, but the magic had sort of worn off. So while it was kind of fun to be hanging out with everyone, it was also a little…

    "BORING!"

    Lina shot one of her death-glares in our direction, zeroing in on the voice who had complained the loudest. Eimi didn't even react. She just continued to gripe while twirling the end of one of her pigtails around her finger.

    "They could at least keep games or something in here. Or magazines. Something."

    "You should have thought about that back in the dorms, don't you think, Ms. Inagawa?" Megumi chided Eimi from directly next to her, her nose never leaving the book she had smuggled in.

    "Yeah, well, I'm not used to just sitting around this much." She picked at a split end with her nails, probably just making it worse. I smirked uncontrollably. Somehow, knowing she wasn't as perfect as everyone had thought still filled me with a sense of satisfaction, even though everyone in the group now knew it. I suppose I just liked being proven right for once. "Whoa, hottie alert. Eleven o'clock."

    Instinctively, I looked toward the front of the studio and slightly to my left. In addition to Mr. Ono and Lina, a third person had entered the studio and was standing next to them at the control panel. He was tall - at least, taller than anyone currently in the studio - and was dressed in slightly relaxed clothing compared to the rest of the employees we'd encountered in the building. If I had to guess, based on the bags of food he had brought for Mr. Ono, he was probably an intern or other low level tech who had been sent out to fetch his superior's dinner.

    "Megumi, stop reading and look. So cuuute…"

    "I see. So that's your type, Ms. Inagawa?"

    "What? No. That's not my type." The blonde had a particularly sharp edge in her voice, perhaps from trying to avoid drooling. "Ikemen are *everyone's* type… Ahhh..."

    Despite her unassailable logic, our visitor left without so much as giving us a glance, leading to the most ridiculous pout I've ever seen.

    "Wanna play Rock-Paper-Scissors, then?" My roommate held up a closed hand, prompting a rude laugh from the girl next to her and an end to her moody attitude.

    "Are you serious? How lame! That's a game for little kids!"

    "Then… wanna thumb wrestle?" Rinko suggested the next most obvious activity that one could do with an already extended hand, wiggling her thumb back and forth.

    "Hah! Sure, why not. Just don't complain when I break that scrawny wrist of yours!"

    The two girls joined hands, and Eimi made a ridiculous looking face somewhere between ferocity and embarrassment. All of this was occuring to my right, on one of the two couches at the back of the recording studio. To my left, sitting with me on the other, were my two juniors. Chiyo was sitting - if that's the right word - at the other end of the sofa, her yellow socks braced against the wall and her hair dangling messily just above the floor. She was a nervous wreck today. Not about the recording - she had evidently gotten the hang of that sometime during her extended work with Mr. Ono yesterday, and was now as comfortable as any of us inside the recording booth - but because Lina has put her foot down about having a hamster in the studio.

    *"Do you know how much trouble a single bitten wire could cause?"*

    Momo had always seemed to be well-behaved - possibly even the most obedient hamster ever - but it was hard to fault Lina for that logic, even if it seemed a little cruel.

    "I hope she's ok! She hates being in her cage this long!"

    "I'm sure she's fine. You just got her that new wheel, right? She looked pretty happy before we left." Kanon - situated directly between us - spoke more today attempting to keep Chiyo calm than I'd heard her utter outside of the recording booth. The two of them seem to have bonded a bit outside of practices, and it was easy to tell that they were now fast friends.

    "You cheated! Best two out of three!" Back on my right, the thumb wrestling had been decided. Even though I could only see her back, I could tell that Rinko was having fun. It seemed like I was seeing a lot less of Rinko these days. We were still roommates, and schoolmates, and group mates, so I was still objectively around her a whole lot, but it all felt extremely different than how we were only a short time ago. Now, with her responsibilities as group leader, she had to share herself among everyone. She still seemed to idolize Eimi, even after discovering what she's really like, and she'd started relying on my advice less and less. Rinko has always been a better singer than me, but when it comes to the technical aspects Megumi may be even better than her. Dam-Bi is more stylish, and Eimi has a wealth of experience that I don't. Compared to them, is it any wonder that I've been relegated to what I shamefully admit I've been mentally referring to as "the kid's couch".

    Though looking at them, even though Chiyo was sitting in a very childlike way, she was still causing less of a fuss than our star idol. And Kanon hadn't uttered a single complaint about the entire situation, though this sort of calm, quiet environment seemed to be very much her speed.

    Kanon turned to look in my direction, catching me watching her. Her cheeks turned ever so slightly pinker from the awkwardness, reminding me of the shade of Rinko's eyes, which now that I was thinking about it weren't all that different in color from Kanon's. Her attitude and energy were entirely different, but there was a lot about Kanon that triggered the same sort of instincts that had led me to being so adamant about protecting Rinko all those years ago. Panicking at this odd train of thought, I said the first thing that came to mind.

    "What're you listening to?"

    She cocked her head slightly. The only thing I could think of was to ask about the headphones she nearly always had with her, even though they were around her neck and not over her ears at the time. It was, at the minimum, better than blurting out something like "I like your eyes" or "why are you so cute and small". I tapped one ear of the headphones lightly with two fingers.

    "Oh. Um…" She reached into her pocket and pulled out the end of the cord, the brassy jack plugged into absolutely nothing. "No phones in here, so…"

    "Oh, right. Obviously…" With any luck that will be the dumbest thing I say all day.

    "You cheated again! Megumi, thumb wrestle me! This girl's a cheater!" My best friend laughed hysterically, having bested her opponent a second time.

    "Wanna…" The girl next to me who actually paid me any attention - by which I mean Kanon - held out her hand and flexed her thumb once.

    "Sure. Why not?"

    As we locked hands, Kanon was intensely focused on them, staring at our thumbs. Hers was warm - warmer than mine - probably because it had just been in her jacket pocket. Warm, but not gross or sweaty. Just… pleasant.

    "I guess… on three? One, two…"

    As she said the final number, both of us started moving our thumbs around, looking for an opening to attack. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what was going on. I'd done this with Rinko plenty of times in the past but have never been particularly good at it, nor did I have a head for thumb strategy much more complex than hoping I came out on top. Sometimes I did, but usually I didn't. This was one of those times. Not that I particularly minded. It was just a silly game with no stakes, and even though Kanon caught me when I had a momentary lapse in concentration - thanks to Eimi loudly continuing her losing streak with Megumi's first victory - it was still a little bit fun.

    "You win. Congratulations." I bowed my head in deference to her superior thumb wrestling skills, intent on making a show of how one can accept defeat with grace and humility to my junior.

    "Th-Thanks…" It was a moment before Kanon realized that having won meant the game was over and she could let go of my hand. Though having seen her console Chiyo in that fashion several times, she probably isn't as sensitive about that sort of thing as I am. For me, even this much contact felt for some reason overly embarrassing - even when it was with someone like my roommate… actually, especially when it was with my roommate - and so to me it felt like this had been a very substantial step toward bonding with my teammates. Maybe I'd even make an ok big sister, like Kanon had previously said of all of us.

    Thankfully Dam-Bi put a quick end to my overthinking it.

    "You're up, Juney!"

    My head got much clearer as she pulled me out of my own thoughts and back to the studio, and I headed over to take my place in the recording booth. Glancing back before I entered, Dam-Bi had taken my place on the couch and was watching Chiyo and Kanon try to thumb wrestle despite their mismatched orientations. I smiled, having decided that maybe where I'd ended up isn't actually so bad.

    On the way out of the studio, Lina scolded us for not paying attention as we checked our phones, having just gotten them back for the day. Half of our group had already left about an hour ago. Having completed her recording and, understandably, annoying Lina to no end, Eimi had been given permission to take a break in the hallway. As she told it, she took a walk to the lobby and, "looking positively faint from hunger", Toshio at the front desk had instinctively called one of her usual drivers to pick her up. By the time she returned and let Lina know, her car was practically already here. So Lina made the best compromise she could - sending Megumi and Dam-Bi along so at least she could work more peacefully for the last few sessions. Not that either of those two make all that much noise, but I think it was Lina's way of spoiling whatever Eimi had been planning and making sure she went promptly back to the dorm.

    Right before we exited the building we ran into a familiar face - literally, thanks to our attention being entirely on our newly liberated devices - forcing Lina to try and cover for us.

    "Ah, Mr. Shishito. Forgive my girls. Kids these days, you know? What brings you here?" Lina gave the head of I MY ME her most professional smile, somewhat on edge after the embarrassing encounter. The company president really doesn't have any need to be in the studio - that's why he has assistants and producers, after all - so seeing him here raised some alarms.

    "Hello, everyone. I see you're done recording for the day. I'm just here to look around and make sure that the building is okay." He patted one of the walls, mirroring Lina's smile.

    "Oh, how wonderful. I hope you'll find all the walls exactly where you left them." She replied, rather snarkily considering who she was addressing. "And here I was thinking you were just here to keep an eye on us, seeing whether or not these girls were worth your time or not! How silly of me."

    "You know as well as I do that this project isn't good enough for your time. I don't know why you're wasting it with these girls when you could be working with so many other talents." He finally directed his attention to us four girls present. Both Rinko and I instinctively moved forward to cover Kanon and Chiyo respectively, ready to protect our younger members in case he started to get really nasty. He laughed at us. "Try to impress me, girls. Your careers depend on it. Let the rest of your group know as well: I won't tolerate failures."

    "Alright, girls, let's go." Our producer pulled open the door of the company van, leaving her superior one more message. "I'd really like to have those couches changed in my usual studio. Someone spilled some coffee on them today and they're so dirty! Thanks boss."

    "So, do you mind telling us what that was about?" I inquired in the van once we left the lot, looking at Lina in the rearview mirror.

    "Don't worry about it." Lina assured. "It's not you guys in particular. Well...maybe. Since you girls come from such different backgrounds, he's worried that your group won't make it because of the huge talent and experience gap." She groaned in the way she always does when she has to put effort into anything. "Do you know what it took to even get Eimi to join you all? And I don't mean convincing *her*. She's already so successful as a solo idol, it took pretty much every favor I was owed in the company. A few of hers, too. To be honest, I'm still surprised even that was enough for them to allow her to do this. They weren't exactly thrilled when Dam-Bi decided to join a group act, and she's barely a top fifty talent..."

    Rinko chimed in, taking the most positive possible lesson from Lina's small rant.

    "So what you're saying is that we just have to do well, then Mr. Shishito will have to recognize us as a success!"

    "Rinko, that's easier said than done…"

    "Rinko's right!" This time Chiyo jumped in with concerns of her own. "There's so much that could go wrong, you know? I'm scared of messing up or tripping or singing off-key when we perform…"

    A small hand rested itself on her shoulder, comforting Chiyo as she started to breathe heavily. This was a constant concern for the green-haired girl - that was readily clear - but even though they hadn't been friends for that long of a time Kanon seemed to do a wonderful job keeping her fears in check, like… an emotional support idol. After a little while, Chiyo calmed down and whispered a quiet "thanks" to her friend. The way they act kind of reminds me a little bit of me and…

    I turned to look at Rinko. She was peering out the window, still smiling ear to ear, having come away from today with no other lesson than "we need to do well, so we will." That's how it worked for Rinko, even though so much hung on this for so many people. Failure wasn't an option she accepted and so, sometimes frustratingly for those around her, for her it simply didn't exist. Never mind that we had failed as a duo once before. So had Megumi, and Chiyo never even got *that* far, and even the *President* of our *own label* doesn't think that we're good enough to-

    I became aware of two things nearly simultaneously. First, by a split second, was that I was breathing just as heavily and erratically as Chiyo had been a minute ago. Second, that the same hand that had seen Chiyo in distress and reached out to comfort her was now resting on my shoulder instead. It was as though I had suddenly been grounded, and the buildup of electricity in my frenzied mind had sought the path of least resistance, passing harmlessly through Kanon on its way to someplace else. I touched her hand briefly - still pleasantly warm - and nodded my thanks. She did the same, looking more concerned than anything, before going back to chatting quietly with her friend. As she doted on her and tried to keep her calm, it suddenly became clear that it wasn't really Rinko who Kanon reminded me of, but myself as a younger girl. I found that strangely inspiring.

    "Hey, Rinko?" Finally, upon being addressed directly, she turned her gaze toward me. "Want to get dinner out tonight? Celebrate the successful recording?"

    "Sure!" She unlocked her phone before I could even propose a restaurant. "Lemme see where the other group ended up quick."

    "Rinko." Saying her name was, apparently, the key to getting her attention back on me. "I was thinking maybe just us. That noodle place we used to go to down the street from the dorm. Yakisoba?"

    Eyes the color of roses glimmered as my best friend considered my suggestion, a place we'd eaten dozens of times in the past.

    "Sounds great, bestie! It'll be just like when we were in training." For once I didn't care who saw me look like a smiling idiot, and didn't even bother to hide my face. If even someone as awful as Eimi could be honest with the entire group, surely there was no reason for me to be embarrassed that I was happy to spend an evening with my best friend. "Can we get ice cream for dessert, too?"

    "Sure, Rinko. We can get ice cream for dessert, too."

    "It'll be just like old times!"

    "That sounds wonderful. Just like old times."

\_\_\_\_

# Chapter Navigation

* Next Chapter
* Previous Chapter
* Back to Contents