Posted this late before, still reposting it late. Bleh. Anyway, I didn't think how much I had to re-edit this. It was just so all over the place that I can't believe you guys were able to understand the points I was trying to make. I hope you would still find this new version enjoyable, though.
And again, belated Happy Birthday, Momo! And a belated Happy Valentine's Day to you all!
As always, she was the center of attention. And once again, it wasn't how she expected it to be.
You'd think a super famous idol like Kisaragi Momo would have the privilege of a downtime as her fans celebrate her birthday with her. But with her new album's inevitable rise to the charts, the company had decided to schedule a Valentine's Day concert.
She was sweating like crazy. Hyperventilating, even. It's not because she was too exhausted to move, nor was it because the performance routines could get tricky. She'd been in this industry long enough to have her body conditioned to all the work and stress. Momo was instead nervous over being so disconnected with her songs.
Love – sweet or bitter, fluffy or heartbreaking – has always been one of the most saleable concepts. Romantic love, that is. What her whole album was about. A move that has long been ironic in this business that prohibits idols to date. Yet Momo has to keep up the illusion of momentarily dissolving people's worries away through her music, to make them believe she could relate to all of them.
As the smoke and pyrotechnics died down, the stage lift slowly propelled her up to view. As a professional, though, even without the surging emotions she was supposed to feel, Momo did her best with each performance, not once relying on her Eyes to do the trick of pulling the audience in.
And then she finished the supposedly last song.
A familiar tune sounded through the speakers, bewildering the band up on stage with her.
Momo covered her mouth that had dropped wide open in surprise.
It was difficult to distinguish faces in a dome so big and with lights so bright pointed at her, but Momo now remembered that the eight significant people in her life had been there all along. Through her concert, through all that time they can barely get a hold of her. And they knew it'd make her happy to be able to sing for them, so they made a way for her to do so. It was like a gift, their way of saying "Happy Birthday" from afar.
With a genuine smile she hadn't been able to show in the past months of endless practices, recordings, and meetings for the concert, Momo did not miss a single beat and sang one of her brother's masterpieces with all her heart.
It was another love song, but one that's written to describe the deep love for friends that had already become family. She had proposed this song to the company, but it was rejected because of the irrelevance to the album theme. Yet now that a certain virus tweaked with the sound system, Momo saw her fans' unwavering, if not increased, appreciative smiles and louder cheers. She could only wait until the end of the concert to look at her manager as if to say 'I told you so.'
"Thank you," she breathed out in the end, more so to the Mekakushi Dan than to all the other fans gathered there.
There's so much more things to say, so much lost time she wanted to make up to. And so much of this joy and gratitude that she herself can't put into words.
Momo still had to attend the fansign event and film for the behind-the-scenes footage after the concert, yet she couldn't be more excited. She'd most likely be ready to pass out by the time she'd join the gang in a private room feasting on cakes, pastries, and the free food from her sponsors. But no matter what plan they have to celebrate her birthday, all she ever needed was their company. Her comfort, her happiness, her home. She couldn't have asked for more.