Greedy Chapter 5

# Chapter Five - "Frustration"

### Dam-Bi

    "Guys, check it out!" Kazue shouted, pointing at her cellphone. "This is amazing news!"

    "What is it, Ms. Ono? I left my phone in my room so I wouldn't be distracted during rehearsal. Another update to that game you're so fond of?"

    "Nope! *Capsule Girls'* new zombie skins don't drop for another two weeks… This is almost as good though! Check it out!"

    "W-Wow! That's really great news!" Chiyo pumped a fist in the air herself while handing her phone off to Kanon, who until a moment ago had been "stretching" on a mat in the corner with her ubiquitous orange hat pulled down over her eyes.

    This wasn't a typical rehearsal. In fact, a *typical* rehearsal wasn't really a thing yet, at least not when we aren't practicing as a full group. It was a day for unit rehearsals, but because my unit consists of only two of us there isn't much need for structure. We just do whatever we feel needs doing, and it can get kind of boring. I love Chiyo! She's great! She's my cute little Chi-Bi bun buddy and my *Capsule Girls* partner! But it gets kinda boring when every single rehearsal is just the two of us and we don't even have an original song yet. It gets so boring that sometimes we go and rehearse with some of our friends just to make things interesting. Of course, sometimes we just sneak off and have group bonding exercises instead - which is what we call playing *Capsule Girls* or giving each other funny makeovers…

    "What happened?!" I want to know too!

    "My, what wonderful news." Megumi leaned in to read the screen of Kazue's phone. It appears Ms. Zhou secured the spokesman position we interviewed for."

    "With MiMeMi?!"

    It figures.

    Not that it's a bad thing!

    All publicity is good publicity, right? And this will definitely raise the group's profile even more.

    And I love Yume too! I would definitely rather the position go to one of my friends than someone else.

    It's just that I was the one who discovered the cosmetics company was looking for a spokesperson. I was the one who told Lina about the opportunity. And yet, only a few of us were allowed to audition so we weren't "competing too aggressively". I wasn't one of them. Megumi was. Junko was. Yume was, even though she hadn't even debuted yet. Even my bestie managed to secure an audition. They wanted a more "exotic" look…

    Korean is just as exotic as Chinese, you know!

    So I'm really happy for Yume, but still a little upset that I never even got to throw my eminently stylish hat in the ring.

    "I'm s-sorry you didn't get the position, Megumi! I know you really wanted it!"

    "Yeah, you would have done a really good job too. You're super stylish. I'm sure it was a really difficult decision for them."

    "I'm sure you'll get the next thing you try out for…"

    Chiyo, Kazue, and even Kanon expressed their sympathies in turn, but Megumi didn't seem phased in the slightest by the outcome."

    "It's perfectly fine. No sympathy is necessary, but I thank you for your kind gestures nonetheless. One of my friends getting to experience such a wonderful opportunity is as good as securing the position myself, and I would be the first to offer Ms. Zhou my congratulations. The success of one of us is the same as our own in a way, is it not, given how tightly our images are intertwined? Besides, the interview and audition process was in itself invaluable. I learned more from just that than I have from any of my other jobs so far."

    "Do you really feel that way?" I asked, hesitating slightly. Personally, I felt more like it was still a failure on my part. Only one person could take the position. That was a given for pretty much every major job out there. Only one girl could be the face of MiMeMi, and I hadn't even been allowed to interview for it. That's even worse than Megumi's position. At least she got to try!

    "Dam-Bi, are you okay…? You're making the same face Eimi makes when she thinks nobody is looking…"

    "I'm great!" I quickly upturned my smile at Kanon's sneaky little observation. "I just think that maybe the curry I had for lunch isn't sitting well. Would you mind if we stopped rehearsing a little early? I think I want to go lay down for a bit…"

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