Disclaimer: I do not own any character or material from the Love Live! School Idol Project. All rights and trademark belong to their respective owner.

Chapter 1 - The little bird

It was a cold winter morning. Piles of snow could still be seen here and there despite the obvious effort that the people living along this route put into clearing them early in the morning. Most people would find this cold not to their liking and to be honest, while I love playing in the snow, I don't like such low temperature either. But today was different, instead of finding this coldness uncomfortable, I found it easing my mind.

And so I continued my walk to Otonokizaka High School, the school that I was attending. Usually I would be accompanied by my two childhood friends, but not today. Today I messaged them to tell them to go to school first without me because I had to help my parents with my family's Japanese sweet shop. And that resulted in me walking alone through the frigid air to go to school. And with no one to talk to, my mind started to think.

My train of thought first took me to my two childhood friends. One of them is Sonoda Umi, a blue-haired girl whose beauty can turn any head! She's really an amazing girl! She is not only a member (and the main lyric writer) of µ's, our school's idol group, but also a member of the archery club! That's not all, now that the responsibility of being the student Council President is mine to bear, I (naturally) dragged my childhood friends into handling this great responsibility with me (I believe I will screw up hard if they are not there with me!). Handling all of those at once may be a bit too much for me, but somehow she still manages to strike a balance between them all! I'd say she is the most level-headed among the three of us second years.

Usually she spot a cool and stern attitude, but I know better than that. In truth, she is a very shy girl who doesn't dare to do anything that is a bit "out of the norm", not in front of others anyway. I have caught her practicing her pose in front of the clubroom's mirror a few times, when she think that she is "safe" and no one will come for a while. That's why I keep pushing her, because I know she can go so far, do so much more than the limits that her usual shy and reserved attitude had set for her.

My other childhood friend is an ash haired angel. I know not how she appears in other people's eye, but to me she is truly an angel. Her name is Minami Kotori. Why do I hold her in such high regard? It's simple, because I love her!

I love her gentle and soft sing-song voice, the voice she had used to cheer me on and support me in whatever impulsive decision I had made, even if others would think that I'm crazy for even attempting such things!

I love those ash-colored locks of her! Just the sight of them fluttering in the wind send me into a trance, lost in a daze wondering just how someone's hair could be so beautiful. And those occasional opportunities where I was able to touch her hair, god! I can swear that there is nothing silkier than those fine locks!

I love her big and adorable amber eyes! Whenever she sees something that she consider as cute, especially the alpacas that live in our school's stable, her eyes will shine with such light that make me always say "yes" to her question "Aren't they cute !?" that soon follows after she manages look away from whatever it is that she finds to be cute. Though that answer is about her and just her alone, those eyes make me unable to see anything else!

On some occasions when I am able to hug her in my arms. If I have to compare her and my favorite hug pillow (which is so fluffy I always have a hard time letting go of it every morning), I'd say that she is better! So soft and smells so nice, if I can hug her and go to sleep then even Yukiho, my little sister, wouldn't be able to wake me up at all!

But of course I don't just love her appearance. Her personality is what really made me fall in love with her. In this world where the fast pace of life and its harshness are making people think more about themselves, and less about others, she has managed to put others' feelings above her own. Always genuinely care about her friends, especially their feeling. She is also more than willing to shower other people, even strangers with kindness, this is what got her the tittle "Legendary Maid Minalinsky" of Akihabara.

But that kindness of her is also a weakness. Too considerate of others' feeling, her own true opinions were never voiced, and thus never heard, or at least by me anyway. Since we were small, I have been dragging her and Umi-chan around to do a lot of things, many of which were too "adventurous" for the two of them to attempt by themselves. At first it was because I wanted to have fun with the two of them and even now that hasn't changed. But I guess somewhere along the line, I started to become too pushy to the point that many would call me bossy. Umi-chan thinks so herself, but she doesn't know that I know she think about me that way.

To be honest, I didn't. I have always set my sight in front of me and push forward with all my mind, not paying the risks any mind. This has allowed me to achieve many wonderful things, µ's can be considered the best example of them all. But that straightforward way of living also brought about bad things as well.

I started to realize this when I and µ's found out Kotori-chan's part time job at that Maid café in Akiba. For the first time Kotori-chan told me how she truly felt, she thought about herself as someone who always follow me and Umi-chan around, unable to do anything by herself at all. I tried to tell her that that wasn't true right away, and thankfully Umi-chan and Maki-chan helped with that as well. But that wasn't enough. The expression she made when she denied our effort to prove that she was wrong effectively prevented any more possible attempt to convince her. And so we left it at that and proceed to have some drinks there instead. That night, however, as I was lying in my bed, I started to think about Kotori-chan's words. I was determined to make her feel better and more confidence then. With the help of µ's, I succeeded. The song "Wonder Zone", lyrics written by Kotori-chan herself, was warmly accepted by Akiba's people. This had boosted her self-confidence greatly. And so I allowed myself to relax, thinking that I did well for the girl I cherished so much. I was a fool for having thought so.

Time passed after our performance in Akiba and the first Love Live! tournament was closing in. µ's had one last chance to hold its rank or even rise on the ranking list and our performance in the school's festival was exactly that. However, due to bad luck and my own carelessness, we failed and I fell ill. µ's decision to withdraw from the Love Live! tournament shocked me greatly, leaving me depressed for days. After a lot of much appreciated effort from µ's to cheer me up, I got over my disappointment and sadness over the Love Live! contest. But throughout all of this, I was totally blind to the troubles of my most cherished childhood friend. Because of that, when Umi-chan told me about Kotori-chan decision to go study abroad, I was totally shocked. Even more so when I realized that she had told Umi-chan about it but not me, not even a single word! And so that shock and jealousy soon turned into anger, anger so great that it totally blinded me. And so I did what I now consider as one of the worst mistake of my life.

"I still can't believe I yelled at her like that!" So I said, as I watched my breath turned into white smoke in the chilly air while still walking to school.

Yes, I yelled at her, not as loud as those delinquents who cause trouble all the time, but still I yelled at her, I questioned her "why!?" I wanted to know why, why did she tell Umi-chan but not me!? Why did she not ask me for help!? Did I really mean that little to her!? I pressed her for an answer. And I received just that. With so much tears in her eyes and a cracked voice, she gave me the answer. It was me all along, my fault for being the insensitive fool that I was! I hurt her, god I hurt her! Why did have to be so fixated on the Love Live! tournament!? Why did I not notice the troubled expressions that she made!? All these question ran through my mind as watched her ran away, tears still falling from her eyes, those amber orbs that I adored so much.

Once more µ's become my savior, especially Eri-chan and Umi-chan. Eri-chan talked some sense into me, made me realized just how much being a school idol meant to me. And thanks to that I was able to make up with Umi-chan, who told me about how she and Kotori-chan felt about me. And so I ran, ran as fast as my legs could carry me to the airport where Kotori-chan was about to embark upon an airplane and leave us, leave me for who knows how long. Luckily I made it in time. And then I held her in my arms tightly, begging her not to leave, hearing her saying that she didn't want to leave either, I was incredibly relieved. Then and there I realized the truth at last, the girl I was holding in my arms meant more than anything in the world to me. Then and there, I knew that my heart beat for her, and her alone.

For her I would do anything.

"Yes…anything…" As I said this, pain suddenly gripped my heart with its invisible unforgiving hands. It hurt so much that I had to rely on a nearby tree for support with one hand, the other clutching my chest as hard as I could, hoping that would help ease the pain. At one point, I thought that I would collapse again. But thankfully I didn't.

"I guess … that wasn't the best idea, huh?" I said mockingly to myself as I the pain slowly left me. After a while, I was convinced that I could walk normally again, and so I continued my walk to school. This is gonna take a while to get used to - I thought.

I raised my head to check where I was, I had no idea I was lucky or not, but I was still quite a distance away from school. I checked my clock and saw that I still had some time left. And so not having anything else to do nor any reason to rush, I started to think…again. This time about the rest of µ's, or to be more specific, the other µ's romantic lives.

Author's note:

Hello everyone, thank you so much for taking the time to read through this story of mine. It's my first attempt at writing fanfiction so I'm fairly certain that I will make (and most probably already made) a lot of mistakes. I will be very thankful if you can point them out for me (if that's not too much trouble for you, of course!)

A few notes regarding my use of tenses:

- Most of the time I use past tense from Honoka's POV to tell the stories, whether they are from the past (meaning before Honoka's current walk to school) or "now" (meaning the time during and after Honoka's current walk);

- I use present tense when Honoka introduce the others. And most likely I will use it for the final chapter as well, you will see why then.

This way of using tense may not be correct but since English is not my mother language, please understand. I would be delighted if you would kindly point it out for me, of course!

Well then, thank you again for reading this story of mine!Reviews are very much appreciated! I hope to see you around for the next chapter(s)!