Flying Through the Skies Above

by Falneou17

After the events of Aiming for the Skies Above, the life of Aoba Moca slowly but surely started to return back to the same as always. That was, of course, until she got called upon by an old friend who asks for a big favor. Moca accepts, but has she gotten herself into more trouble than even Afterglow's famous lead guitarist herself can handle?

So… when I said that I was working on something that would surpass The Final Glow of Afterglow, people apparently interpreted that as me announcing that I am writing a oneshot with more angst in it than that story. At least, the few people who I asked that question to directly… While that did catch my interest for a while, there was another thing I could base a oneshot on that would make it "surpass" TFGOA, and I am sure that you already realized what I am talking about by now without needing me to outright say it…

This is going to be a sequel to a story I have published earlier: Aiming for the Skies Above. And while I could make that a twoshot… it is also part of the SRDC2019, so I want to keep it a oneshot so all stories in the SRDC2019 can be a oneshot as well. Has no relationship whatsoever with Soaring Through the Skies Above.

Anyways… a special thank you to the amazing Reiriniverse on Tumblr for the cover image of this story! This oneshot would probably not be the same if it weren't for her, so give her some love too, please~

Disclaimer: I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party

---

"You are going to wait, aren't you?"

"Of course~," Moca grinned, falling back in her usual demeanor in front of her friend before adding, "Moca-chan will wait for however long it will take~. Hours? A day? A month? Years? Moca-chan will do it for who Moca-chan loves!"

It had been about a week since Moca had confronted her love interest and confessed to her. But without having received a response in return since that day, Moca's life slowly but surely started to return back to its usual pace. From waking up as late as she possibly could to teasing the living daylights out of her childhood friends, Moca kept telling herself that she had moved on and was no longer affected by her attempt at her senior's heart.

She knew that she was lying to herself.

Moca could not focus on her studies anymore, even less so than she usually could; instead, she found that her mind was drifting off to other places. As a result, she had seemed even more distant than usual, something that did not go unnoticed by the remaining members of Afterglow.

"Moca-chan! Wait for me!"

Moca stopped walking and stepped to the side of the hallway, looking over her shoulder to see her best friend wade through the sea of students to her. On any other day, Moca might have broken out into a grin seeing her friend try so hard, but this wasn't any other day.

A few seconds after hearing her name get called, Moca was standing there with a neutral look on her face as Tsugumi was trying to catch her breath.

"S-Sorry… Sorry to make you… make Moca-chan wait… for me…" Tsugumi managed to say in between gasps before she realized that this was not very effective. The brunette raised her hand up to show that she needed some more time and took the opportunity to regain her composure. After another few seconds, Tsugumi nodded once, although Moca could not tell if it was to her or to herself, and tried to pick up where she had left off, "So, Moca-chan. Tomoe-chan said that she and Ako-chan found a new arcade the other day and asked if Moca-chan wants to come, too."

Tsugumi was looking up at the slightly taller girl with hopeful eyes, but if she was expecting for Moca to agree to come along she would be disappointed.

"Sorry, Tsugu, maybe another time," Moca said with a small smile. Tsugumi turned to look at Moca in time to see the glimpse of sadness and genuine guilt that flashed across her features. Tsugumi knew, however, that Moca would deny it if she were to ask about it, so the brunette kept quiet about it.

"Moca-chan has to do something else right now," Moca explained as she picked up her bag and slung a strap over her shoulder. Sparing her childhood friend one final glance, Moca added, "I promised to meet up with Lisa-san. Work stuff, you know? Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow."

And without even looking back, Moca walked down the hallway, leaving Tsugumi behind and alone with her thoughts. Tsugumi would not remain the only person in the hallway for a very long time, however, as another girl took that moment to stand by her side.

"I caught the last part of the conversation. I suppose it would have been too much to expect it would go as you had hoped," the taller girl said, her words succeeding in coming over as both stern and supportive at the same time. Slowly, almost hesitantly so, she placed a hand on Tsugumi's shoulder and added, "There is always the second plan."

"Yeah… but that one might be a bit much, wouldn't you think?" Tsugumi asked with a defeated sigh. When she did not receive a response right away, the brunette tried again, "I mean, it's Moca-chan we're talking about here. Something like that won't fit her at all."

"That might be true, but if your plan did not work at all then all we have is the second plan," the other girl reasoned, and Tsugumi had to admit that she did not disagree with this. Before Tsugumi could properly think of the possible consequences, the taller girl had started speaking again, "Unless, of course, you have another idea on how to handle this?"

Tsugumi was quiet after this as she thought this over. Her parents had taught her well, and among the many lessons that she had been taught one rang crystal clear right now: Tsugumi should never give up before the very end. No matter how difficult the situation she was presented with seemed, there was no locked door out there without the right key. All Tsugumi needed to do was find where the key was, but this was when Tsugumi had to take a moment.

Was there another way to handle this? Tsugumi thought long and hard over this and, after a few moments, her mind had come to a conclusion. A conclusion that was backed up by her mind drifting back to one of her closest friends and how she had been like lately.

"You're right… there is no other way…" Tsugumi finally relented with a defeated sigh. Tsugumi suddenly started to feel slightly lightheaded and walked over to the stairs to sit at one of the steps. The girl who had been talking with her just now had excused herself, saying that her sister was calling her and that she needed to answer it.

For the second time in less than half an hour, Tsugumi found herself completely alone, and it was only now that her mind wanted to process what had just happened.

"Hazawa Tsugumi…" Tsugumi whispered softly to herself, keeping her voice low despite the fact that nobody else was there to overhear her next few words. With a raspy intake of air, Tsugumi covered her face with both of her hands to try and muffle her words even more.

"What have you gotten yourself into?"

---

Blissfully unaware of what her precious childhood friend was going through after she had left school, Moca was making her way down the streets whilst humming a random tune that popped up in her head. With her bag slung over her shoulder and the weather being as warm and bright as she was, Moca knew that she had nothing to worry about.

That is, of course, if she didn't keep reminding herself of where she was going. And now that she was standing in front of the now-familiar building, Moca could not really imitate a Ran anymore even if she wanted to.

Out of desperation and hoping that she had mistaken where she needed to be, Moca dug through her pockets to try and find her phone, opening her LINE account and checking the address that she was given. There was no mistaking it, Moca noted with a slight pang of worry as she looked up at the building in front of her; this was the place. Now that she knew for sure that she was where she needed to be, the building in front of her looked that much bigger and more intimidating.

"Come on, Moca-chan… it's for Lisa-san, you can do it!" Moca said to herself, slapping her cheeks in an effort to regain a grip on herself. Quickly walking towards the door and knocking on the wood, Moca barely had time to blink before the door opened. On the other side of the door stood a girl who was even shorter than Himari, and she did not seem at all happy.

"Who dared disturb my deep focus?! Awakened from a thousand-year slumber, this power in my right hand— Ah, Moca-chin!" Ako exclaimed cheerfully, instantly dropping the façade as soon as she saw who had knocked. Not wasting another second, Ako grabbed Moca by the wrist, pulled her inside the house and closed the door behind her, "Ako and the others have been waiting for you, Moca-chin! This way this way!"

Moca was not even given a chance to try and break free, Ako's grip was even stronger than her sister's at times. Unfortunately for Moca, now was such a time, so Afterglow's guitarist allowed herself to be dragged inside.

And Moca had to admit that if she wasn't reminded by who lived in this house, she would have been in awe at how luxurious it looked on the inside. The stories she heard from both Ako and Lisa did not give it justice at all.

The floor, walls, and ceilings were of the purest of white, not a single smudge or crack visible on the paint at all. The ceiling was also so high up that Moca first thought that she wasn't even inside, it was that high. The high ceiling gave the hall a really cozy and welcoming air to it as it guided Moca to the rest of the house.

Peeking through one of the windows as she got dragged away, Moca could see a vast collection of different vases with a multitude of unique flowers held in them. Flowers that, much to Moca's silent surprise, she could identify by just looking at them for a split second. Moca thanked her frequent visits to the Mitake household for that skill.

Moca's train of thoughts came to a grinding halt when Ako skidded to a stop, almost making Moca crash into her as a result. Moca was about to scold the younger girl but that was when she saw why Ako had stopped so suddenly.

In front of Ako stood a woman who Moca guessed would be in her forties. She had beautiful hair that was blacker than any night or the black hole that is Moca's stomach, and her smile was brighter than any that Moca had ever seen. Yet despite how different she looked, Moca felt like she recognized her from somewhere.

"Rinrin's mother!" Ako exclaimed happily, eliciting a smile from the older woman and confirming Moca's suspicions on who she was. With a smile of her own, Ako motioned towards Moca and said, "This is Moca-chin Ako told you about. Can she get some of that yummy juice as well?"

"Pardon Moca-chan's intrusion," Moca said quickly, bowing deeply in front of Rinko's mother the moment that Ako stopped talking. Moca knew that she needed to say more in greeting but she was not fast enough.

"Please, drop the formalities," Rinko's mother said while waving off Moca's worries. Whilst tucking some of her hair behind her ear, she added, "I'm happy to see that my Rin-chan is making more friends every day."

Moca flinched visibly at this comment despite thinking that she was prepared for any comment. Thankfully for her, Ako was quick to pick up on this and diverted the attention of Rinko's mother back to her.

"Sorry, Rinrin's mother, but Ako and Moca-chin have to go now. Ako is sure that the others are waiting already," Ako explained quickly, grabbing hold of Moca once again and pulling her along with her, this time up the flight of stairs. Ako did not let go of Moca's hand until both girls were two floors higher and standing in front of another door.

As Ako took a moment to catch her breath, Moca looked around her and found, much to her surprise, that each floor of the house was decorated differently. The ground floor had been almost completely white in color, the second floor had been painted in a sapphire-blue color and the floor that Moca found herself on now was predominantly dark purple. Moca was about to peer through the windows when Ako finally spoke again.

"Sorry about that, Moca-chin," Ako said, her breathing still slightly irregular and her forehead glistening in the sweat. Using one hand to wipe off the moisture and the other to turn the handle of a seemingly random door on the floor, Ako added, "But we're here! Sorry to keep everyone waiting!"

Moca stepped into the room after Ako did and she had to cover her mouth to muffle the gasp of astonishment and amazement when she saw what she had gotten herself into. The room was a large and bright room painted in the same purple as the rest of the floor was. With windows that were large enough for Moca to sleep in if she could reach them, the room felt as if it was just in the open air.

"Hey, Moca, took you long enough to get here~."

A familiar voice greeted Moca and succeeded in distracting her from looking around any more. When Moca turned to try and see who had called out to her she saw Roselia's bassist and mood maker lounging on the couch waving at her with a grin.

"Yo~," Lisa greeted, motioning for Moca to join her by her side. Moca returned Lisa's bright greeting with one of her own before plopping down by her senior's side with an audible sigh of relief. Lisa, having grabbed a can of mocha off the coffee table before Moca entered the room, was now offering it to Afterglow's guitarist, "Great to see you again, but I'm not the only one here. Isn't it common decency to at least greet everyone else?"

As Lisa said this, she motioned to the other girls in the room, all of whom were familiar faces for Moca. Among these faces were a short girl with long hair who was leaning against the wall on the other side of the room, a brightly smiling brunette who waved at Moca enthusiastically when their gazes locked and, Moca gulped as she saw her, the girl Moca tried to confess to only a week ago.

Shaking her head vigorously to try and clear her mind of those memories, Moca quickly tried to regain her bearings by going with what Lisa suggested her to do. Making sure to look at each of the other girls in the room as she greeted them, Moca acknowledged their presence one by one.

"Right right. Hi, everyone, the great Moca-chan has arrived," Moca waved in what Lisa could only describe as 'Moca-like'. Moca opened her can, took a sip of the drink and sighed contently before turning back to Lisa, "So, Lisa-san, why is Moca-chan here anyway? Tsugu and Tomato-chin invited Moca-chan to an arcade and Moca-chan had to turn down the invitation because Lisa-san said she needed Moca-chan here."

"I'm not the one who should be answering that question of yours, Moca. She is," Lisa said, nodding in the direction of her bandmate who was sitting on a chair a little bit away from her. Shrugging off the temptation to say something about Moca's manners, Lisa instead decided to focus on something else, "It's funny that you mentioned the others in Afterglow, though."

"What does the rest of Afterglow have to do that I am here?" Moca thought out loud, looking at Lisa and watching for a reaction that would give away an answer in the process. Moca's efforts were fruitless, however, as Lisa held up a pretty effective poker face.

So with Lisa no longer being an option for her to try and pry an answer out of, Moca turned to the girl who Lisa had directed Moca's attention towards. After taking a few moments to think of the right words to say, Moca finally asked the older girl, "So what does my band have to do with why I am here? Moca-chan is not scout-able into another band~."

Unfortunately for Moca, Lisa was not the only one who would not respond to her questions right away. The girl who Moca had directed her question to quickly reassured Moca that they were not here to try and get her to leave the band, but as soon as she had said that she had fallen silent again. Right when Moca was on the verge of losing what little patience she had left, someone finally broke the silence again.

"Sheesh, Sayo, if you're already this hesitant in front of Moca you're going to be a wreck when the day comes," Lisa said in a playfully teasing voice, avoiding Sayo's death glare by turning to Moca and adding, "No offense, by the way."

"None taken," Moca assured the bassist with a smile of her own. Taking a little break to let what Lisa had said properly sink in, Moca sipped her drink again and lowered the can when she was ready, "So what is going on, anyway? Moca-chan is still very much in the dark here…"

"This is really embarrassing to say out loud… and I need you to promise not to tell the other members of your band, Aoba-san," Sayo finally said, the determination in her eyes perfectly contrasted by the tremor in her resolve and the slight red tint on her cheeks. Sayo did not speak again until Moca had given her her word, and even then the guitarist of Roselia seemed to second guess herself at every other word, "I need your help in confessing to one of your bandmates, Aoba-san. It should go without saying that the one who knows someone from Afterglow the best would be someone from Afterglow, which is why I asked Imai-san to ask you to come here today."

Silence. Absolute silence followed.

Moca was simply staring at Sayo with wide eyes ever since she heard the reason why she was brought here, her brain needing all the energy to try and process this, while the others in the room could only watch in wonder. All of them had known Moca for a long time, and this was the first time that they had seen Moca be so quiet for so long.

That is, of course, until Moca suddenly threw her head back and started to roar with laughter.

"M-Moca!" Saaya, being the first to recover from this sudden development, exclaimed with worry in her voice. The brunette rushed over to stand in front of Moca, grabbed hold of her shoulders and added, "That's not the right reaction for a time like this, is it?"

"Sorry, Saaya, Moca-chan couldn't help it," Moca said, her voice still laced with laughter as she gently pried Saaya's hands off of her. Once freed, Moca wiped the corner of her eyes to try and dry the tears before turning back to Sayo, "Sorry, Sayo-san. Moca-chan just didn't think that Sayo-san would fall for Tomo-chin. Oh, Moca-chan can't wait to see the look on Tomo-chin's face when—."

"I am afraid that Tomoe-san is not really my type," Sayo said in a steady voice, interrupting Moca and causing her to flinch visibly. In this brief window of opportunity, Sayo turned to the shortest and youngest of the group, "Please do not take that the wrong way, Udagawa-san."

"Of course not, Sayo-san, Ako understands," Ako reassured the older girl with a cheerful wave. Then, in a more playful tone, Ako added, "But if Sayo-san doesn't tell Moca-chin who Sayo-san was talking about then someone else here will."

Sayo grimaced slightly at this as she realized that what Ako had said was true. She was stalling and she knew better than she let on how bad of an idea that is in the presence of Aoba Moca.

Steeling herself for what she was about to do, Sayo gulped down her hesitation and finally answered Moca's question, "It's Hazawa-san."

"Tsugu?" Moca echoed with a blank look on her face. When Sayo nodded without looking at her fellow guitarist Moca knew that she had not misheard her, "Hm… I guess I can see why Sayo-san needs Moca-chan's help with this."

"The short story of it all is that Sayo here felt like she had started to fall for Tsugumi when she joined that baking class in the Hazawa Café… when was it again? A few months ago?" Lisa explained for Sayo when she saw that Sayo was in no position to explain it herself. Lisa did, however, turn to the guitarist for confirmation and received a single stiff nod for her efforts. Satisfied enough, Lisa continued on where she had left off, "Tsugumi being Tsugumi, and Sayo being Sayo, I'm sure you can guess how well that would go if we don't have someone who knows Tsugumi explain it to Sayo. You understand that, right, Moca?"

"Yeah…" Moca nodded absent-mindedly as she began to put the pieces together, much to Lisa's relief. There was still one thing that Moca did not quite understand yet, however, and she was quick to find the right words to admit this out loud, "But why ask Moca-chan? Moca-chan hasn't had a very good record when it comes to confessing."

Moca, realizing what she had said and remembering that the object of her affection was currently in the room there with her, quickly looked away to hide the look on her face. Because she did this, however, she missed the reactions of her friends.

One other girl flinched visibly when she heard Moca say this while the others had varying expressions ranging from understanding to sympathy. Saaya was eventually the first to shake everybody back to reality.

"A-Anyway… Sayo-senpai, how about you tell Moca what you had in mind?" Saaya asked Sayo while gently guiding Moca back to the couch. With the help of Lisa, the two girls succeeded in getting Moca to sit down again before Saaya added, "It might help Moca understand what she can help you with if she knows how far you have come already."

"Aoba-san, how do you think Hazawa-san will react if I were to ask to meet her alone in the nearby park or something to tell her?" Sayo asked Moca as she pulled her chair closer to where Moca was. Then, slightly slower than before, Sayo motioned to some of the other girls, "Everybody else here has had other ideas on how to handle it. Imai-san told me to follow my heart, Yamabuki-san suggested impressing Hazawa-san with more baked goods, Udagawa-san said something about explosions, Shirokane-san refused to answer my question for some reason and Minato-san..."

Moca looked up at Sayo curiously when she noticed the brief pause in Sayo's speech. Seeing that Sayo was looking off somewhere else, Moca turned to see what was so interesting for the older guitarist.

That was when Moca noticed the presence of the seventh girl in the room.

"So what did the great Minato-san suggest for Sayo-san~?" Moca asked in a sing-song voice, finding herself extremely curious now. Then, as if in an effort to urge the vocalist on, Moca tried poking the bull again, "It can't be much worse than trying to burn a mattress and writing out the words 'I love you' in the ashes~."

"Hey! Ako worked hard on that!"

"No… but Sayo refused to wear cat ears and hug Hazawa-san as she says how she feels about her," Yukina explained, somehow managing to keep a straight face as the words left her mouth. Without skipping a beat, Yukina lowered her glass away from her lips and closed her eyes, "Sometimes I think that Sayo needs to learn to be more honest with her emotions."

Yukina took that moment to take another sip from her glass, something that might have been good as all the other girls were giving Yukina weird stares. The uncomfortable period of silence would have lasted forever, or be broken in an uncomfortable manner if Moca was not there.

"Moca-chan can understand why Sayo-san has trouble thinking of something for the big confession, and that the others are only confusing you rather than helping you," Moca reassured Sayo with a small smile. Turning to both brunettes sitting on either side of her to receive either a smile or a nod of reassurance, Moca continued, "What Moca-chan thinks is the best way to do it is to take what people think you would do and do the exact opposite. That way it will not only be the confession itself but Sayo-san will also leave the impression that you went out of your way for Tsugu. I am sure that Tsugu will really appreciate that kind of effort from you, Sayo-san."

"The opposite of what I would do…" Sayo repeated with a small frown, "So if I want to do it quietly and in private… Aoba-san is telling me to make it as loud and public as possible? Would Hazawa-san really appreciate such a thing?"

"Believe me, Sayo-san, Tsugu would definitely appreciate it!" Moca grinned. She seemed like she was about to say something else, but instead changed her mind and turned to Saaya instead, "Say, Saaya, doesn't your band have a live show in two weeks from now?"

Saaya, who had not been paying too much attention to the little pep talk that Moca was giving Sayo, was caught off guard at this question and had to take a few seconds to think of the answer. It was clear that Saaya had not expected to be put in the center of attention again, but she was not the only girl in the room who reacted at this development.

Sayo paled slightly hearing this, quickly figuring out what was going to happen. If Moca were to ask Saaya about a big live show in two weeks, that would mean that Sayo would be thrown into confessing well before she had expected she would need to. Would Sayo be able to get herself ready in just two weeks' time?

"You're right, Moca; our next live is two weeks from today," Saaya's voice said from what seemed like far away for Sayo. Sayo tried to focus on the conversation that was going on in front of her and saw in time that Saaya was showing something on her phone to Moca, "I'm sure that I can convince Kasumi and the others to set aside some time for Sayo-senpai. The more important thing, though… do you think that Sayo-senpai will have enough time to get ready before then?"

"What if I fail in telling Hazawa-san—?" Sayo began, but she was quickly interrupted.

"You don't get it, do you, Sayo-san? Just look at Hii-chan; Hii-chan fails all the time," Moca explained, the guitarist sure that she could hear a familiar sneeze in the background. Shrugging the feeling off as just part of her imagination, Moca continued, "There's nothing disgraceful about messing up or failing; at least not in Afterglow, Moca-chan doesn't know how it is like in Roselia. But it is so much more disgraceful for you to not give it your all because you are afraid of messing up!"

Sayo was silent after hearing this, watching Moca with wide eyes as the other girls in the room all smiled. Thinking it over, Sayo could start to see what Moca was trying to tell her, and it was at this realization that Sayo could feel it. The warmth of the radiance that is Afterglow.

Slowly but surely, the corners of Sayo's mouth curved upwards before she had even realized.

"What do you have in mind, Aoba-san?"

---

"Thank you so much for everything, Aoba-san."

Sayo was bowing deeply in front of a Moca who did not quite know how to accept the praise. The girls had all brainstormed ideas for Sayo's big day with Moca taking charge of the conversation. Now, almost two hours after Moca had first stepped inside the room, they found themselves at the point where they were satisfied enough.

Both Ako and Yukina had left the discussion early at different times. Yukina had silently excused herself without elaborating where she was going after about forty minutes. Ako, on the other hand, had jumped to her feet and raced out a few minutes after Yukina did, screaming something about having to meet her sister.

"Now all that's left is for us to wait until that day finally comes," Lisa said with a short laugh. Lisa then stood up from the couch for the first time in over an hour, stretched her arms high above her head and sighed at the satisfying sound her shoulders made. Content, Lisa turned to a Saaya who was checking over her belongings as well, "Saaya, can you ask Kasumi and the others if it is all right for Sayo to do it during your live and when we can do it? There should be enough time for us to meet up again and change our plan if something goes wrong."

"Of course. But it isn't Kasumi I am worried about, it's Arisa…" Saaya admitted with a sheepish chuckle. Saaya then looked back into her bag and, seeing that she had everything, nodded silently to herself, "Say, Moca… try and keep this a secret from the others in Afterglow. I'm sure that Ako has already told Tomoe by now, but make sure that Tsugu doesn't know."

"Moca-chan won't, don't worry don't worry~," Moca waved off Saaya's worries with a Moca-like smile. The smile soon faltered, however, as Moca realized that everybody else was ready to leave except for her, "You all can go on ahead, Moca-chan still needs a bit."

"All right, bye, Moca," Lisa patted Moca's shoulder as she passed by her on her way to the door. She opened it and took a step back, letting both Saaya and Sayo exit before her. Once they did, Lisa took a moment to turn back to Moca before leaving the room herself, "See you tomorrow at work, Moca. Or who knows? Maybe we'll run into each other at school again."

"Bye-bye~."

Moca did not see the knowing look on Lisa's face as she closed the door behind her; Afterglow's guitarist had already turned around herself. She had taken out her phone at some point to check on the time only to remember that there was a clock hanging right above her head.

How Moca was regretting it now that she didn't just put her phone back into her pocket when she had the chance to.

As Moca was searching through the room for her phone she failed to notice that she was, in fact, not alone in that room.

"M-Moca-chan…"

Moca stiffened visibly when these words reached her ears. She knew that she would be able to recognize that voice from within a crowd, but she had not been aware of her presence. Until now, that is, as Moca groaned internally that she forgot whose house she was in.

"Hey, Rinko-san, what's up?" Moca tried to smile but knew that it lacked the same light that it usually had. Moca said her greeting at the same time as she turned herself around, and she had to do her best to try and keep a straight face. Rinko had indeed been standing behind Moca, but it wasn't that that caused Moca's determination to almost falter.

Rinko was wearing a navy-colored dress reaching right above her ankles with long white sleeves. She had her hair up in a high ponytail and allowed her bangs to fall down freely to help frame her face.

If Moca had not been caught as off guard as she was she may have noticed the adorable red tint on Rinko's cheeks. As it stood, however, Moca was more focused on what Rinko held in her hands.

"Ah, Moca-chan's phone! Thank you so much, Rinko-san!" Moca said, grabbing her phone from Rinko's grip and returning it back safely in her pocket. Then, almost as if knowing that an uncomfortable and painful silence would follow if she remained quiet herself, Moca added, "All right, Rinko-san. Thanks for having Moca-chan over, but Moca-chan has to go now. Bye~!"

Moca had already turned back around and was about to head out when she felt a surprisingly strong grip on her sleeve. Stopping mid-stride, Moca looked back around to see Rinko clinging on to the fabric of Moca's jacket, "Is something wrong, Rinko-san?"

Rinko was fidgeting around and fumbling about, more so than she usually was. And while Moca knew that it had gotten weird between the two girls ever since Moca had tried to take the next step, Moca also knew that this was more than what Rinko should be doing.

Feeling like she needed to do something, Moca did the first thing that came to her mind, "Rinko-san? What's wrong?"

"Well… um… here!" Rinko cried out, pushing a small slip of paper into Moca's hands. Before Moca had the opportunity to even look at it Rinko had already blurted out the next few words, "Those are the... tickets for Yamabuki-san's live. Yamabuki-san… gave them to me… but forgot to give them to you before… she left…"

Moca looked at the small ticket and smiled, for more than just the ticket itself. Not only did Moca now know that she no longer had to spend her hard-earned money on a ticket herself, but this did put a big burden off of Moca's shoulders now. Moca had been afraid that she had ruined whatever chance she had at Rinko's affection ever since her failed confession, but now she knew that not all hope was lost.

'Even so…' Moca thought to herself with a defeated smile as she eyed her senior in front of her, 'Moca-chan has had enough experiences with Ran and the others to not push her luck… I guess Moca-chan will just have to take whatever little victory she can take and be happy with it.'

"Tha—"

"A-And, Moca-chan?" Rinko asked, her voice a bit louder and more forceful than it usually was. Moca fell silent right away, and Rinko took this opportunity to continue where she had left off, "Um… there is something I want… I want to show Moca-chan… something in NFO."

"Moca-chan understands," Moca said with a smile, knowing where this was heading. Waiting until Rinko looked up to face her, Moca winked, or at least tried to, "Moca-chan will head home and then meet Rinko-san at our usual meeting spot? Let's see… it will probably take about forty minutes before Moca-chan gets home, so shall we say in about one hour from now?"

"That… sounds great," Rinko nodded, sighing in relief in the process. While she tried to keep the sigh subtle and relatively hidden, it was not something that Moca did notice; Moca kept quiet about it, however, and waited patiently for Rinko to speak again, "Have a safe… safe ride home, Moca-chan."

"Thank you, Rinko-san~" Moca waved as she pulled her bag up with a grunt and pushed her arms through the straps of it. Stumbling slightly at the sudden increase in weight, Moca tried to keep a straight face as she left the room and closed the door behind her.

As soon as Moca heard the familiar sound she allowed herself to break into the grin she had been holding back since Rinko started talking to her. Rinko had been talking to her again and Moca had another chance! What's more, Moca had been directly asked by Rinko to join her in an adventure in the game that began it all.

Moca almost skipped down the steps of the stairs, not even once looking back. Because she was in cloud nine, however, Moca had missed the opportunity to wait by the door and potentially hear what was happening on the other side of it.

On the other side of the door, Rinko had dropped down on the floor while leaning against the door behind her. Her hair had come undone from its ponytail and was now falling in front of Rinko's face, greatly obscuring her view of the room she was in.

It was quiet in the room, very quiet, and Rinko remained unmoving on the floor. That was until Rinko slowly raised one of her hands and held it close against her heart.

---

"So this is the place that Saaya will play live at, huh?" Moca thought out loud as she looked at the building in front of her. The big sign hanging above the entranceway spelled the word 'Galaxy' in a multitude of colors, but Moca did not need to read the sign to know where she was. She had performed here with the rest of Afterglow in the past as well, after all.

It had been about twenty minutes since Moca had left the Shirokane household, and while her original plan had been to go straight home…

"Moca-chan's stomach really had other ideas, huh…?" Moca groaned with a sheepish chuckle to herself, holding her stomach with one hand as she tightened her grip on the half-eaten pastry in the other hand. Moca looked at the pastry longingly for a moment but eventually tore her gaze away to look at the girl standing beside her, "Speaking of… fancy running into you here of all places, huh, Ran?"

"Yeah… father needed me to run an errand, so I can't really hang around and chat for long if that is what you wanted," Ran said nonchalantly while brushing a fallen leaf off her jacket, "If there's nothing else you wanted to say I'll be taking my leave. The store I have to go to will close in half an hour so I have to hurry."

"Well, Moca-chan actually has a request for the great and amazing Ran. Ah, but don't worry~ it has nothing to do with tracking down a legendary rare item in a game again," Moca added the last part quickly when she saw the look on her friend's face. Then, in a more serious tone, Moca started speaking again, "It's just… Moca-chan ran into Lisa-san and Sayo-san earlier. And Moca-chan may or may not have promised them that Moca-chan would bring Afterglow to Poppin' Party's next live."

"…And you need my help, because…?" Ran asked, raising an eyebrow slightly as she did this. Before she even gave Moca the chance to actually answer, Ran added, "You know that I'm not the best at that, sheesh… you should have tried convincing Himari or something."

"Maybe, but if it is just Moca-chan who says it then Tomo-chin and the others might say no," Moca whined, widening her eyes and allowing her arms to drop down against her sides. Then, whilst making sure that she raised her hands up again and clasped them together, Moca begged her childhood friend, "Please, Ran… is it so much to ask the others to join Moca-chan?"

"All right all right, just… stop making that face, people are watching. I'll try to tell them later," Ran said, feeling uncomfortable at both the look that Moca was giving her and the looks that passersby were giving them. As Moca did a little celebratory dance, Ran subtly dragged Moca with her to the store that she needed to go to for her father.

Moca had already calmed down and returned to her usual self by the time that the two of them had stepped inside. Moca didn't quite understand why she was here with her childhood friend but she had known Ran for long enough to no longer question it.

"Do tell me, Moca…" Ran trailed off as she picked up two bags of fertilizers. After checking her little note to make sure that she had gotten the right one, Ran carried the bags with her to the counter with Moca waddling behind her, "You've seen Kasumi and the others perform so many times already. What's so special about this one and why do you need us to go watch them?"

"It's… actually not for Moca-chan that Moca-chan is asking everyone…" Moca finally admitted with a sheepish smile. When Ran looked at her funny Moca couldn't help but laugh, though the lead guitarist did have the decency to remind Ran that she still needed to pay. As Ran gave the cashier the right amount of money, Moca explained what she was talking about, "See, Sayo-san asked Moca-chan to get Afterglow to watch… Moca-chan thinks that Sayo-san wants to do something then that needs everyone from Afterglow there."

"Oh?" Ran looked at Moca as she picked up the bags and led the way back outside. Once the two girls could feel the cold breeze embracing them in the late-afternoon again, Ran turned back to Moca and voiced the thought that had been on her mind, "And this whole plan has nothing to do with Sayo-san needing Tsugumi there to try and confess to her?"

"W-Wha—?! How did Ran?"

"Come on, Moca. We've been friends for so long, isn't it normal for me to be able to read you at least this much?" Ran asked with a playful smirk, glad that she managed to startle the girl who always managed to have a good comeback ready. Ran did feel a bit guilty, however, so she confessed the real reason why she knew that without looking at Moca, "That, and I ran into Lisa-san on my way here. Lisa-san told me the basic idea of what is going to happen and told me to play along. Sorry about that, Moca."

"Don't worry about it, Ran…" Moca sighed, silently accepting her fate before regaining her composure, "So Ran will help Moca-chan?"

"I can't say that what Sayo-san will do will be successful. You know how Tsugumi can be sometimes," Ran said with a little frown while wrapping her jacket tighter around herself. Ran had never been one to be too affected by the cold, at least amongst the girls in Afterglow, but even she could feel the piercing chill now that she was outside again. As she suppressed a shiver, Ran added, "But I guess I owe it to Tsugumi to at least give Sayo-san that chance. Tsugumi deserves to get a break every once in a while, and maybe Sayo-san can do exactly that."

"It's great that we're all good friends, huh, Ran? Can you imagine what it would be like if we couldn't stand each other?" Moca thought out loud as she quickened her pace to walk by Ran's side. Not one to let the topic go just yet, Moca continued her train of thought, "Maybe in an alternate universe Ran hates Moca-chan but still needs Moca-chan for something. And then Ran hires Tomo-chin to try and get Moca-chan but Tomo-chin ends up turning against Ran and tries to kill Ran instead?"

"Yeah, and none of us would know either Tsugumi or Himari… sounds rather unlikely, wouldn't you say? You've been reading too much manga again, Moca," Ran played along at first but knew that she had to cut the conversation there. Not only did she find it highly implausible that a universe existed where Ran, Tomoe, and Moca would hate each other, but Ran and Moca had reached the bus stop that Ran needed to take to get home.

Moca was about to wait with her as well but then saw that her bus was already nearing the stop. Reluctantly, Moca waved at Ran and said her goodbyes, "Bye, Ran~. Don't do anything that would get Ako-chin in trouble if Tomo-chin were to find out~."

"Heh. Same goes to you," Ran didn't waste any time with her response, causing Moca to laugh when she heard it. As Moca was about to turn around to board her bus, Ran stretched her hand out, "Have a safe ride home, Moca."

Moca looked at the outstretched hand for a few seconds before she made a move of her own. Smiling brightly, Moca accepted Ran's hand and the two childhood friends knew that the other understood.

"Yeah, thanks, Ran. You too."

Moca seemed like she wanted to say more to Ran but it was at that moment that she heard the bus driver clear her throat. Knowing that she needed to actually board the bus, Moca reluctantly let go off Ran and got into the bus that would bring her home.

---

The bus ride home had nothing too out of the ordinary happening to Moca; or, at the very least, her mind had already blocked out that part of the ride where the bus driver slammed the brakes and Moca flew forward in her seat. The one thing that Moca could complain about the bus ride was that the driver had to take a bit of a detour, so now Moca was running late.

Moca had thrown the door open, barely remembering to close it again behind her, and ran inside. She narrowly avoided her mother in the hallway as Moca made a beeline to the kitchen to get a can of mocha. With a can in hand, Moca ran up the stairs two steps at a time and didn't slow down until she reached her room.

Once she was in her room the first thing that Moca noticed was that it was cold, maybe even colder than it was outside. It did not take long for Moca to find the reason behind this: her mother had opened the windows while she had been out and this was what let the cold air in.

Moca suppressed a shiver as she closed the windows and turned on the heater. While waiting impatiently for the room to become warmer again, Moca decided to keep her jacket on for the time being or freeze to death.

"Let's see if Rinko-san is still online…" Moca murmured to herself as her computer whirred to life. Glancing over at her cold can of drink, Moca contemplated going downstairs again to get a hot drink instead. She eventually decided against it, however, feeling that it would be way too much trouble than it was worth to go down the stairs again.

Moca was brought out of her inner debate by the computer screen lighting up and revealing the log-in screen for NFO. Moca quickly logged in and, as the game would load in her avatar into the game, took off the jacket as the heaters were already doing their job.

By the time that Moca had gotten back in front of her computer the game had finished loading, and once again Moca found herself in awe at how beautiful the game was.

"I've played this for so long now… it never ceases to amaze me…"

The game had loaded Moca's avatar, the Black Snow Raker, in a metropolitan area. Skyscrapers filled the safe zone, the buildings that reached towards the stars being a popular meeting spot for the average player. Moca, however, was not an average player, so she headed straight for the only place she could be heading off to.

In the middle of the area stood a tower that dwarfed all the other skyscrapers around it, and it was this tower that Moca was walking up toward. Ever since she had gotten to a high enough level, Moca had been introduced to this place by Rinko. From what Moca remembered, Rinko used this place to meet up with Ako all the time, and today that tower would be used for Moca to meet up with Rinko.

When Moca stepped inside the futuristic-looking tower, she was met with two surprises. The first was that there had apparently been an update to how the interior of the tower looked like, giving it a far cleaner and pristine look than Moca remembered it being. The second was that she was the only person there at the time.

"I am late, but not that late, right…?" Moca thought out loud, taking out her phone to look at the time again just to make sure for herself. Seeing that she was, in fact, only ten minutes late made her frown a little, but Moca did not let this bother her too much.

Moca let her avatar stay in the corner of the room while Moca herself took out her phone and mindlessly went through the apps on the device. She wanted to do something, knew that she needed to do something to pass the time, but something was holding her back. It didn't take long for Moca to finally break and shout out in annoyance.

"ARGH!" Moca cried out, entangling her fingers in her short locks and savoring the pain in her scalp that followed. Moca was quickly growing tired of waiting once she received the notification that she had been online for over an hour.

Moca would have decided to ultimately leave the tower behind and go hunt some monsters when she heard the distinct sound of another player logging in at that very moment. Moca turned to look in the direction of the beam of light and saw a familiar figure: a mage-class character dressed almost exclusively in purple with a hat that was nearly half the character's size.

The arrival of this other player brought with it two things: the first was that Moca finally had something else to think about other than her annoyance for having to wait for so long. There was actually another player here who Moca could annoy if she so chose to do, but Moca held back when she noticed the nameplate hovering above the character's head.

The second thing that this second player brought with them was the reminder who Moca was waiting for and the understanding that, for the first time in a long time, Moca would be alone with her again. Moca knew that she had a little time with Rinko earlier, but she somehow could not see that as the same.

"I am so sorry for making you wait so long for me, Moca-chan (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞. I could give you all the reasons why I am so late but I do not want to waste any more of your time. Are you okay with following me now, Moca-chan?" Rinko typed as quick as ever, leaving Moca in a dizzying daze as she tried to keep up with her senior. After Moca had finally read through everything that Rinko had typed out and responded in the affirmative, Rinko started writing out the next part of her message, "All right, thank goodness. To be honest with Moca-chan I thought you might not want to go with me now that I made Moca-chan wait so long for me."

"Moca-chan has waited this long, the least that Rinko-san can do is show Moca-chan why she had been waiting so long, right~?" Moca responded in kind and paused a bit to let the words linger in the air. When she didn't receive a response right away, Moca quickly typed in the next few words that popped up into her mind, "So, Rinko-san, where are you taking me?"

If Moca had expected Rinko to tell her where she was taking her or make a move to head outside to this mystery location, she would be very disappointed. Instead of leading the way to what Rinko wanted to show off to Moca, Moca received a notification stating that she was being challenged to a one-on-one battle with the player going by the name 'RinRin'.

"Rinko-san? Why? I thought Rinko-san wanted to show Moca-chan something cool or something?" Moca asked, glad that there were two screens separating her with the older player. Moca felt that if the two were face-to-face right now that she would not be able to keep her calm, but she knew that she should take this opportunity to calm herself down. After taking a moment for herself to do exactly that, Moca chose her next few words very carefully, "Why is Rinko-san challenging Moca-chan to a fight?"

"Please do not misunderstand, Moca-chan. I will show you the place after this fight, but there is something else about that fight if you do not mind…" Rinko's response came really quickly, so fast that Moca had a sneaking suspicion that the keyboardist had already readied her response after having predicted Moca's. Rinko did not take too long to send her next message, "If I beat Moca-chan, I want Moca-chan to do something for me. I have the number of both Udagawa-san and Uehara-san and can tell either of Moca-chan's friends if Moca-chan was too scared to accept a challenge."

"Ah, that's not fair, Rinko-san!" Moca cried out before she realized that Rinko would be unable to hear her. Taking a moment to type out her reaction properly, she sighed before reluctantly adding, "Fine, you leave Moca-chan no choice, do you, Rinko-san? Let's just have this fight over with…"

Deciding that she might as well wrap up the fight, one way or another, Moca quickly accepted the challenge with a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. She knew that she had improved a lot over the course of a month, but Moca was also well aware that she was facing someone who had been playing the game infinitely longer than she had. In addition, ever since Moca had started playing the game it had been Rinko who had taught Moca everything she knew about NFO.

As soon as the button was pressed, the scenery changed. The interior of the tower that Moca and Rinko had found themselves in dissolved into an open field. The field stretched out as far as either player could see and there were no trees or any other object that would help either of them hide behind.

"With such a field I'm at a huge disadvantage against Rinko-san…" Moca thought out loud to herself while taking a look at the battlefield. Disregarding the gap in experience between Rinko and herself, Moca knew that her character was more suited for close-range attacks while Rinko's focused on attacking from far off. And with nowhere to hide, Moca would have a tough time ahead of her just trying to get close. But…

"If I can get close at all to Rinko-san, it's Moca-chan's victory!" Moca said to herself in an effort to reassure and motivate herself, remembering how bad Rinko was at close-range fights. She did not get a lot of time to try and come up with a clever strategy as the screen already showed the timer counting down until the start of the match.

Moca made a move the moment that she could, dashing forward towards her opponent without a shred of hesitation. Moca knew that she needed to get as close as she possibly could to Rinko, and Moca also knew that Rinko would do everything she could to keep Moca away, but Moca had not expected how Rinko would force Moca to stay back.

"Flame Caller!" Rinko cried out, but it were the words that caused Moca to stop in her tracks. Much to Moca's horror she saw the humongous red longbow materialize in Rinko's hands; the very same bow that she had given her senior only a week ago.

"To think that Moca-chan would have to face that now of all times… Rinko-san must really want Moca-chan to do that favor of hers…" Moca laughed at her misfortune, but she would soon regret this moment of distraction as Rinko was not one to let an opening go to waste. Rinko had already made her move well before Moca could realize her mistake.

"Flame Torrent!" Rinko announced as a small orb of fire ignited in the open palm of her hand. Moca, from her position on the other side of the battlefield, could see Rinko tightening her hand into a fist before an arrow of fire was held in her hand.

Rinko drew her bow, took aim, and fired the arrow high into the skies above, leaving Moca wondering what Rinko's plan was.

'I guess now's a good a time as any!' Moca thought to herself with a confident smirk, resuming her dash towards Rinko only for a weird sound to distract her once again. Moca looked to her front where Rinko was standing motionlessly, then looked to her right, left, and back only to find those directions empty as well.

"Nothing all around me…" Moca thought out loud to herself as she tried to suppress the feelings of unease. Her eyes widened when she finally realized what was happening, and Moca's fears were realized when she decided to look above her, "No…"

What had been only a single arrow of flames fired by Rinko had now split into a thousand smaller streams of fire, and they were all raining down at Moca with terrifying precision. Moca, now more scared than she had been when she faced that boss monster the first time she started playing, did everything she could to try and avoid the arrows. And for Moca's part, she was doing a pretty good job at it, too, managing to dodge most of them.

The arrows that did not hit their target struck the ground below Moca, raising a thick cloud of dust in the process. It did not take long for the cloud to be so large and thick that Moca could not see anything at all.

Out of desperation more than anything, knowing that she would be at a huge disadvantage against Rinko if she couldn't even see her, Moca dashed out of the cloud and found herself—

"Sorry about this, Moca-chan…" Rinko apologized, her character having moved up to the edge of the cloud in anticipation of Moca to come out of it. With her legendary bow in one hand and a bundle of flaming arrows in the other, Rinko pointed her weapon at Moca's character. Rinko had already called out her next move before Moca even had the chance to cry out, "Flame Vortex!"

The arrows in Rinko's hand got consumed by a tornado of fire and, with no way for Moca to try and escape, the attack pierced through Moca's character and sent her flying across the battlefield. The one-on-one battle had ended as fast as it had started, and the two girls were transported back to the tower they met in.

"Sorry about how that battle ended, Moca-chan, I really needed to win," Rinko apologized again as soon as she had walked up close to Moca. Without wasting much time, Rinko added, "And now that I won, you promise to do any one thing I ask of Moca-chan, right?"

Moca, despite being bitter at how she was completely overpowered back there, admitted her defeat rather quickly. She was aware that Rinko, who had been playing this game for so much longer than she had, simply had more experience. That, and the fear of being blackmailed spurred her on as well.

"All right, Rinko-san, it's your win," Moca said, trying to comfort herself by reminding herself that she had only been playing the game for less than a month. Shaking her head to get back to the present, Moca remembered that she still needed to do something else for Rinko as well, "So what will you make Moca-chan do?"

"I won't make you do anything, it's a request. Moca-chan is free to say that she does not want to do it if she really doesn't want to. I promise I will not tell Udagawa-san or Uehara-san if it were to come down to that," Rinko typed quickly, adding the third sentence of her message before Moca even finished reading the first. Then, as soon as Moca sent a message of her own to tell Rinko that she was listening, Rinko began writing her actual request down, "I want Moca-chan to come with me to the live show of Poppin' Party. The one where we all agreed Hikawa-san would try and confess to Hazawa-san."

When Moca had heard that Rinko wanted to ask a favor from her she had steeled herself to do something crazy. She would almost have thought that she would have to do something embarrassing or something of the like if she hadn't reminded herself that this was Rinko and not Himari she was talking to. Moca had even been prepared, although she would not be happy should it come to it, to be forced to stay away from Rinko after having made things awkward between them. But of all possible requests, the one that Rinko voiced was by far the one that Moca had not expected to hear.

"…I'm sorry?"

"Moca-chan read it correctly, right? I want Moca-chan to come with me to the live show of the Poppin' Party," Rinko typed out again in case Moca had potentially misread the request she had sent. When the keyboardist realized that Moca was starting to understand, she tried to explain her request more, "I mean, Moca-chan probably will have made plans to go with the rest of Afterglow. But if you haven't yet I was wondering if you would want to watch that live with… me?"

"I guess it would make more sense that way; Tsugu might be expecting it less if Moca-chan is not constantly by her side," Moca thought out loud while her fingers conveyed her words over to Rinko. After a moment of hesitation to weigh the pros and cons of voicing this next thought to her senior, Moca finally decided that she should at least try and began typing again, "But is Rinko-san okay with going there with Moca-chan? The others in Afterglow and Roselia might be getting the wrong idea if you do."

"Ah, that… please do not worry about that, Moca-chan. I really do not mind," Rinko typed quickly in an effort to reassure Moca. Moca was about to send a message when Rinko had already sent over another, "I am sorry, Moca-chan, I have to go now. Hikawa-san and Imai-san said that they would like to practice that at my house tomorrow afternoon, so I will see you then? Bye-bye, Moca-chan. Good night."

Moca could barely send a quick 'ok, you too' message back before Rinko had already logged out from the game. As Moca watched the fire mage dissipate into nothingness she was left with several thoughts swimming around in her head.

Deciding that she needed a bit of a break from the day's events, Moca logged out herself, turned her computer off, and slumped over to her bed in the corner. Throwing grace and dignity out the window she allowed herself to fall face-first into her pillow, the ominous creaking of the bed frame below her trembling the room. Moca could not care less about that.

What Moca did care about, however, was trying to sort through everything that happened.

"Moca-chan is happy for Tsugu, but how will Moca-chan keep quiet around her?" Moca murmured against her pillow, pushing her face more into it in the process. Ever since Moca had announced to the other girls in Afterglow that she was trying to steal the heart of Shirokane Rinko she had noticed that her friends had been looking rather gloomy lately.

Out of her four closest friends, Moca had noticed that Tsugumi was looking the worst off. The young brunette could often be seen with very dark bags under her eyes, and while she usually tried to smile off her exhaustion Moca knew better. Moca knew that Tsugumi was pushing herself too hard once again, and being reminded of what happened the last time the youngest member of Afterglow pushed herself solidified Moca's decision.

'Maybe being with someone like Sayo-san can help Tsugu out… Sayo-san seems like the person who would force Tsugu to pull away from the stress if it gets out of hand,' Moca thought to herself with a small smile. Not trying to think of the other side of the coin where the additional burden of a relationship might push Tsugumi past her limits, Moca instead allowed the soft embrace of her blanket to carry her into dreamland.

Moca never even realized that Rinko never ended up showing her a special place in NFO that day.

---

The next day went by in a blur for Moca. The classes were the same as always and kind of merged together into one big blob of fuzzy memories. Moca figured that the fact that she slept through all of her classes was to blame, but she could not really be sure of it. So instead of worrying about the past, Moca did what Moca did best: let bygones be bygones and focus on the issue at hand.

And the issue at hand for Moca was a girl of one-hundred-and-sixty-one centimeters, long teal-colored hair and a lot of anger directed at Moca herself.

"Do I really need to be doing that, Aoba-san? There has to be another way!"

"Nope~ if you want to surprise Tsugu then this should be the best way. There's no way that Tsugu would expect you to do this, after all," Moca reasoned with the older guitarist, knowing that this would be something that Sayo would not normally do. When she saw that Sayo was about to try and speak against the suggestion, Moca turned to Lisa for help, "Lisa-san, what do you think?"

"Well… I can't say that I don't understand how Sayo feels. It's going to be something really difficult for her to do, but…" Lisa trailed off, letting her words linger in the air for a bit. With a smiling Moca beside her and a stunned Sayo in front of her, Lisa smiled a warm and radiant smile, "That's all the more reason to try and surpass it and show Tsugumi what you can do, right, Sayo~? Think about it, Sayo; Tsugumi would expect everything but that from you."

"Imai-san…" Sayo breathed out as the two members of Roselia had a silent conversation between the two of them. Finally, after several seconds, Sayo let out a deep sigh and turned back to Moca, "All right… Aoba-san, could you please demonstrate it one last time?"

Moca nodded silently and walked to the other side of the room, her silence due to the fact that she still could not believe how loaded Rinko and her parents are. As Rinko had told her last night, Sayo and Lisa wanted to meet up again at Rinko's place to discuss ideas further. The girls had only just come together and Moca had spiced things up by dropping her idea.

'For Sayo-san to win Tsugu's heart, Sayo-san needs to do something even more than she would usually do,' Moca thought to herself with a small frown as she positioned herself at about the halfway point between the wall and the windows, 'And in order for Sayo-san to do that, she needs to be able to do this.'

"Here I go, Sayo-san!" Moca announced loud and clear, facing her senior in the process. Instead of doing the exact thing that she had suggested Sayo do, Moca motioned to the empty area around her, "Imagine that this is where everybody of Poppin' Party is during the live. When Kasumi gives the signal, Sayo-san walks up to the stage from the back and stands right… here!"

To enunciate her point, Moca took two steps forward and Sayo, who was watching from the other side, gave a rather stiff nod to show that she was following. Saaya, who was playing as a stand-in for Kasumi during this practice round, handed Moca a mic before stepping back again.

"Test, one two, test!" Moca spoke loud and clear into the mic while clearing her throat. After a moment of hesitation, Moca picked up the mic again and made a dramatic motion with her free arm, "With the permission of the wonderful members of Poppin' Party here, I, the great Hikawa Sayo-sama, want to—?"

"You can do it without all the fancy schmancy introductions, Aoba-san."

"R-Right…" Moca chuckled sheepishly before regaining her composure quickly after that. Moca motioned towards Lisa who nodded in understanding as Moca herself walked back up to stand by Sayo, "Anyways, after Sayo-san has made her move, Lisa-san and Tomato-chin the strong will roll out the carpet leading Tsugu to the stage. And then it is all up to Sayo-san to finish it all up."

"All right, I think I understand it now," Sayo trailed off as she tried to remind herself of everything that she would need to do and say on the stage. When both Lisa and Ako rejoined them to reassure Sayo that she could do it, Sayo nodded with a bit more confidence than before, "Can we practice it one last time from the top?"

"There's no need to rush it too much, Sayo-senpai," Saaya said in an effort to try and reassure her senior. The drummer of Poppin' Party pulled away from the conversation soon after to hand a pastry from her family's bakery to everybody in the room, but once she finished with that she turned back to Sayo, "Our live is still a bit away, so Sayo-san has more than enough time to practice this."

"That may be true, but with every day that I am unable to do this perfectly is another day closer to the day I have to do it for real," Sayo reluctantly admitted, the sound of teeth being gritted and ground against each other resonating through the room. With a defeated sigh she added, "Maybe I should have gone with something I could have done more readily after all…"

"With that attitude, you might as well give up now."

Sayo turned her head in the direction of the voice only to find that it belonged to someone she had not expected would talk at a time like this. And, Sayo noted as she took a quick glance at the other girls around her, she was not the only one who had been caught off guard.

"Moca-chan is right, Hazawa-san would love it if Hikawa-san were to do this. She would really remember all the effort that Hikawa-san has put into it, so I stand by Moca-chan that Hikawa-san should pull through and do it this way," Rinko said in a calm and gentle voice, her eyes closed as she visualized the events of the day in her mind. When she finally opened her eyes again, Rinko saw the looks she was getting and panicked, "Ah, I'm sorry! I spoke out of turn!"

Lisa and Moca took a moment to look at each other, both girls quickly realizing that the other was just as surprised as she was. Saaya, on the other hand, was giving Rinko a warm smile of encouragement and Ako would have cheered Rinko on had it not been for Sayo.

"No… you did not, Shirokane-san," Sayo reassured her bandmate. Sayo knew that both Moca and Rinko had been right all along, and this knowledge helped her to make up her mind. With the newfound motivation to perfect the routine that she knew she had to do, Sayo stood up tall, "Imai-san, Udagawa-san, Yamabuki-san, Aoba-san. I want to try it once more. Can we start from the top, please?"

"Yeah!" Ako cheered, jumping on her feet and rushing to her position. Lisa and Saaya were just as excited as the young drummer was, but they managed to hold their desire to gush back and return to where they needed to go in a much more dignified manner.

Moca was the only one who did not move back to the makeshift stage, instead turning to a Rinko who just let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Rinko-san. Sayo-san really needed to hear that from you," Moca said with a smile before she, too, ran back to where she was needed. Even though she had just told Sayo that there was more than enough time for the older girl to practice, Moca also knew that time would fly. Especially with how all of their schedules clashing as they would, Moca knew that they needed to make the most out of the time that they had.

With Sayo standing in the center of the makeshift stage area the girls had prepared, they all repeated the routine until well after the sun had set. The practice was a harsh one, made even harsher by how much of a perfectionist Hikawa Sayo was, but when all of the girls decided to call it a day on the practice they all had satisfied grins on their faces.

"Good work, everyone! Sayo-senpai especially, that last run was amazing!" Saaya exclaimed happily and enthusiastically. Silently and keeping those thoughts to herself, Saaya had to admit to herself that Sayo had improved much faster than she would have expected. Unfortunately, this was as far as the practice session for the day could go, and Saaya was the first to announce her departure.

Slowly but surely, everybody started to take their leave. Moca, having been unusually slow with gathering her belongings for a change, was trailing behind. She would have run off after Lisa if Sayo did not take that moment to grab a confused Moca by the wrist.

"Aoba-san, I… thank you, for everything that you have done so far," Sayo said while tilting her head slightly downwards in the process. The tallest girl in the room would have said more if Moca had not taken the opportunity to raise her hand and stop her right there.

"No need to thank me, Sayo-san; Moca-chan is more than happy to help you," Moca said with a playful shrug before she turned back serious again. She knew that, since she was not talking to someone from Afterglow, she had to keep her usual antics limited. With this in mind, Moca lowered her hand back down and smiled, "Just make sure to take good care of Tsugu or I will tell Hina-senpai all of Sayo-san's embarrassing secrets~."

"There is no need for that, I will take care of Hazawa-san as if my life were to depend on it. Being someone's significant other means that you do everything in your power to support them no matter what, right?"

"Beats me. It's not like Moca-chan would know anyway~," Moca said with a playful shrug before picking up her bag and turning around. Waving back at Sayo and Rinko in a nonchalant manner, Moca added, "Moca-chan will take her leave now. Bye-bye, Sayo-san, Rinko-san."

Without wasting another moment, Moca left the room and closed the door behind her with an audible click. This left Sayo and Rinko alone in the room, neither girl moving until well after fifteen minutes had passed since Moca had gone home.

"Are you sure about this?"

The other girl flinched upon hearing the question. She should have been expecting to hear that question at some point now, but it was only when she actually did that she knew that she had not been prepared. She shook her head, her long hair flying from side to side with her head, before finally making up her mind.

"Yes, I am. There is no other way and I just have to do it…"

---

The following two weeks went by in a fast blur for Moca, her attention throughout the days being focused on either sleeping in class, helping Sayo prepare for the big day, keeping it all a secret from Tsugumi, and annoying the living daylights out of Himari. Especially the annoying Himari part, Moca noted to herself with a snicker.

Moca knew, however, that she needed to be serious right now and could not afford to slack off. She looked at herself in a nearby car window and saw, much to her relief, that she was still rocking the outfit; Moca's favorite grey hoodie was worn comfortably around a white blouse and above a pair of black pants.

"All right, no more stalling, Moca-chan!" Moca told herself with a smile. Today was finally the big day that she had been waiting for, and Moca was more excited for it than she could ever have expected. She had even left her house well before she needed to in anticipation for the big day!

The only thing that was standing in between Moca and the place she needed to be was one small little detour that she needed to make. Moca had promised to meet up with Rinko in front of the café that was right next to the live house, but Moca could not see Rinko anywhere.

"She's late…" Moca muttered softly to herself, having taken out her phone for the umpteenth time that night to see if Rinko had sent her a message. Rinko had yet to do so, however, and this was what made Moca as antsy as she was. Moca did not know Rinko to be the type who would come late to appointments and it was already nearing half an hour that Moca had been waiting out in the cold.

Moca was about to give in to her annoyance and go inside without Rinko when she heard her name being called. Turning around, Moca saw the girl she had been waiting for run towards her, skidding to a stop in front of Moca before doubling over to try and catch her breath.

"So-Sorry… I'm so late…" Rinko's words were barely audible; the keyboardist was bent over and each syllable was accompanied by a raspy intake of air. For Moca, seeing Rinko in this state was a sight she wanted to get rid of as fast as possible, so she stole a chair from the café and helped Rinko sit on it.

As Rinko tried to catch her breath, Moca could not help but glance at the older girl and be remembered of how much she had fallen for her senior. Rinko had decided to go for a simple and loose ponytail for her hair, the tips of it barely reaching below her shoulders. Rinko was wearing a simple but fashionable obsidian-black jacket over a dress that was just as black.

It took Moca a couple of seconds before she realized that she was openly staring at Rinko, and another to suppress the feelings of being severely underdressed for the occasion. Once she got back to her senses, Moca coughed softly and tried to look away.

"It's all right, Moca-chan hasn't been waiting here for very long anyway," Moca lied, not wanting to make Rinko feel even worse knowing that she had made her wait for long. Moca wanted to say something else but decided against it when she saw the state that Rinko was in. Instead, Moca offered her hand towards her senior and prayed that Rinko would not see through her smile too fast, "Shall we, senpai?"

"I already told you, Moca-chan… don't call me 'senpai'," Rinko scolded her junior as she grabbed Moca's hand and allowed herself to be pulled back on her feet. As Moca returned the chair to its rightful place, Rinko added in a much mellower tone, "Moca-chan can call me… Rinko-san… or like Ako calls me… Rinrin is okay, too…"

"All right all right… Shirokane-sama~," Moca said, adding that last part with a playful smirk. Not giving Rinko a chance to comment on Moca's choice of words, Moca grabbed Rinko's hand and pulled her with her inside the live house, "Come on, the live is about to start~ we wouldn't want to be late for it now would we, Rinko-san~?"

'No… we would not…' Rinko thought to herself with a small smile, allowing Moca to guide her through the sea of people and into the live house. Rinko had been inside this new live house a handful of times already so she felt comfortable allowing someone else to drag her around.

Rinko took the opportunity to look around her, and she had to admit that she was impressed. Poppin' Party had slowly but surely grown in popularity and nothing proved this more than the huge crowd waiting for the live to start. Rinko almost felt sorry for Sayo for being convinced to do it in front of such a crowd, but before she could think too much of it Rinko had to quickly step to the side to avoid crashing into Moca.

"M-Moca-chan?" Rinko breathed out as she turned to the younger girl and wondered what was going on. Rinko would have asked Moca further if it weren't for the fact that Rinko had noticed for herself what the reason was, "Ah, Hikawa-san! Are you… Are you ready?"

In front of Moca and Rinko stood Sayo, but she seemed a lot different than she usually did. The first thing that both Moca and Rinko noticed right away was Sayo's hair; instead of being let down like it usually was, Sayo had somehow managed to get it braided into a pair of simple but elegant-looking braids.

Sayo's clothes were also not what Moca had been used to, either. Moca, however, approved of the black jacket that Sayo was wearing and hoped that Tsugumi would, too. While Moca was not quite sure about how well the fingerless gloves fitted the older guitarist, she had enough self-control to stay quiet about them. She had seen how Sayo could be when annoyed, and Moca wanted to avoid being Sayo's main target of anger. At least for that day.

"Aoba-san, Shirokane-san," Sayo inclined her head slightly before nodding in response to Rinko's question. Sayo then turned to Moca and, all the while tugging at the collar of her jacket, added, "Where is Hazawa-san?"

"Oh, Tsugu should be here any minute. She decided to go with Ran and the others," Moca explained and saw, much to her relief, that her words visibly calmed Sayo down. With a smile Moca could only pray would come over as supportive, Moca added, "Good luck, Sayo-san! Come on, Rinko-san, let's find a good spot to watch the live from~!"

"Eh? M-Moca-chan?"

Rinko had barely enough time to wish Sayo luck herself before she was whisked away again, leaving Sayo alone for another moment. That moment lasted until Sayo was approached by another girl.

"This better works…" Sayo murmured to her companion, her voice low and controlled and barely above a whisper, but she knew that the other girl had heard her. Sayo was dragged out of her train of thoughts when she heard the soft chuckles from her side.

"I am sure that it will," the brunette said in her form of reassuring Sayo. With a gentle hand on Sayo's back to help guide her back to position, she added, "Come on, it's almost time."

Almost as if on cue, the lights dimmed before dying out completely, basking the interior of the live house in total darkness. This would not last, however, as seconds after the lights turned off another set lit up to illuminate the stage.

"Welcome, everyone! Thank you all for coming!"

Everybody in the crowd turned around as the five members of Poppin' Party walked up to the stage. Under loud cheers and applause, the girls took their respective positions and Kasumi walked up to grab the mic in the center.

"Once again, thank you all for coming! We are Poppin' Party and we hope that you will enjoy tonight as much as we do!" Kasumi announced with a cheerful wave to the crowd, her grin growing wider when she was met with a wave of cheers. Not wanting to wait another moment as Kasumi herself seemed pumped and ready to go, the vocalist of Poppin' Party gripped the mic a bit tighter before shouting the next few words, "Let's start today's live off with a bang! Time Lapse!"

The members of Poppin' Party then proceeded to play one song after another, each of them managing to combine their unique individual melody into one beautiful, unified symphony. Their hard work was paying off quickly as the crowd was loving their performance. No, they were enamored by it, everybody in the crowd standing on their feet and cheering as one while Poppin' Party performed.

Much too soon for everybody's tastes, Kasumi struck the final chord on her guitar and the crowd awarded them with one last round of applause. The girls of Poppin' Party took a moment between themselves to smile and congratulate each other for an excellent performance. Saaya eventually ended up surprising a large number of people in the crowd, in addition to Rimi and Arisa, when she stepped forward to grab the mic out of Kasumi's hands.

"Everyone, that is all for today from us, thank you all for your heartwarming support and love," Saaya began before she had to pause for a moment for the audience to quiet down again. Saaya took this opportunity to raise her hand towards the side of the stage and then went back to facing the audience, "Before we leave for the night, there is one last thing: someone wants to make a little announcement, so please welcome her to the stage, everyone! Sayo-senpai, the stage is yours!"

Saaya took two steps to the side to make room for a sixth girl on the stage. Under the watchful eyes of the people in the crowd, all the while trying her best to ignore the murmurings she could pick up as well, Sayo walked past the members of Poppin' Party and accepted the mic from Saaya with a smile.

Now with everybody's attention focused on Sayo, Saaya and the rest of Poppin' Party silently made their way off the stage and headed to the back of the room. There they were welcomed by Lisa, Moca, and Rinko, all of whom were wearing bright grins on their faces.

"Good job out there!" Moca congratulated the girls from Poppin' Party, giving Saaya a high five in the process. Moca knew better than to waste a lot of time now, knowing that she needed to get straight to the point. With a serious look on her face, Moca addressed each member of Poppin' Party before adding, "Let's go! Sayo-san should start at any moment and we should be ready for when that time comes!"

"Everybody knows where they need to be?" Lisa asked to make sure. She was confident that Saaya would have filled her bandmates in, but Lisa knew that she couldn't be more careful at a time like this. Thankfully, everybody nodded in response to Lisa's question which helped ease what little worries Lisa might still have, "All right, everyone! Get in position and wait for the signal from Sayo!"

A cacophony of soft but excited cheers followed soon after before the girls split up. Moca, who happened to be positioned near the stage with Rinko and Saaya, took a moment to look around her and see where everybody else was. Moca's actual attention, however, was focused on finding a specific face, and once she saw the radiant face of her childhood friend Moca turned to Saaya.

"Tsugu is about a third into the crowd," Moca whispered to Saaya who nodded and took out her phone. With Saaya's attention focused away from her, Moca decided to turn to her other companion for the night, "So, Rinko-san, how is Sayo-san doing?"

"Well…"

---

"And I would like to thank the members of Poppin' Party for giving me this opportunity tonight. The truth is, I want to say something very important and personal to someone here in the crowd."

Sayo paused for a moment, already having spoken about her journey in Roselia and how grateful she was for the people who had gotten her this far. Now that she had reached the point of no return, Sayo needed to wait for the signal that everybody was ready to continue on to the next step.

Sayo scanned the audience in hopes that she would be able to see some familiar faces. It did not take too long for her to find Tsugumi in the crowd, and while she felt her heart skip a beat when her eyes locked with Tsugumi's, Sayo knew it wasn't the time yet. So instead, Sayo looked directly down towards the front row of the crowd to see Moca giving her a thumbs up.

Seeing this was all that Sayo needed to see. Sayo closed her eyes, took a deep breath to calm what remained of her lingering hesitation, and opened her eyes with newfound courage and determination. Tightening her grip on the mic as she reminded herself why she was doing this in the first place, Sayo began talking again.

"But now… may I please ask for everybody's full and undivided attention?" Sayo asked, making sure that her voice was loud and clear so nobody could possibly mishear her. The moment that the words left Sayo's mouth, almost as if on cue, a beacon of light shone down and illuminated a very specific person in the crowd.

This caused a multitude of reactions. Some people, like Himari who was standing by Tsugumi's side, quickly figured out where Sayo was taking this, and the room was soon filled with the sound of their squeals of delight. Ran, on the other hand, looked at Sayo with eyes of admiration and slight surprise that the guitarist was actually going through with this.

Tsugumi was a bubbling mess closely resembling a tomato. Her cheeks had flared up as soon as Sayo had made it clear that she was the reason for Sayo's bold actions. Moca had been right: Tsugumi certainly would not be forgetting this experience any time soon.

The few members who were still able to follow along what Sayo was doing could appreciate what Tomoe and Lisa had done. The moment that Tsugumi got basked in the beacon of light, the two of them had pulled out a red carpet and rolled it out from the stage to where Tsugumi was standing.

"Hazawa Tsugumi-san," Sayo began, her words emphasized by the soft thud that Sayo's feet made when she jumped off the stage. Sayo then began to walk forward as she spoke each word as loud and clear as possible, "You are an amazing and incredible person, and since the first day we met, I knew that you were special. I knew that you had a light to you unlike any other, and at first I was blinded by it. I did not know how to get closer to you, but thanks to everybody's help I can stand here before you."

"Hazawa-san? Will you please join me on the stage?" Sayo asked as she offered her hand to the brunette. Under loud cheers and squeals, a reddened Tsugumi timidly accepted the hand and allowed herself to be led by Sayo.

As soon as Sayo had returned to her spot on center stage, she helped pull Tsugumi there with her and the two of them stood there silently. Motionless. Even when the spotlights all turned to bask them in a beam of light, neither Sayo nor Tsugumi moved a muscle. Tsugumi was patiently waiting for Sayo to take this to the next step while Sayo herself was frozen to the spot. She was having second guesses about this at the very last second.

"Come on, Sayo! You've gotten this close, finish it up!"

Sayo flinched visibly when she heard this, but she also knew that Lisa was right. With newfound determination, Sayo nodded firmly before turning back to a smiling Tsugumi in front of her. Sayo could now finally see that Tsugumi had started to regain her composure and the brunette was no longer as red as she was earlier.

"Hazawa-san, there is something I have been wanting to tell you for a long time now. That I need to tell you," Sayo began before being forced to take another momentary pause. After a few seconds the squeals had died down and Sayo could pick up where she had left off, "Hazawa-san, I…"

"Before you finish that sentence, Sayo-san… there is something else that needs to be said, right?" Tsugumi asked in a calm and gentle voice, her hands wrapping themselves around Sayo' in the process, not allowing Sayo to finish her sentence. With an even brighter smile than before, Tsugumi gingerly pried Sayo's fingers from the mic and took the opportunity to speak into it, "Let's say it together on three, okay? One… two… three!"

Sayo and Tsugumi both took a deep breath to gather the voice for what they were about to do. Then, as one, the two shouted into the mic at the top of their lungs.

"Saaya-chan!"

"Yamabuki-san!"

Saaya grinned a sinister grin when she heard her name called by the two girls on stage, and she moved into action as soon as she saw the opening that she needed. Glomping the girl who stood beside her, Saaya made sure to wrap her arms around her prey in order to reduce the target's struggles. This did not stop her from shouting, however.

"S-Saaya?" Moca cried out as she tried to squirm her way out of Saaya's grip. Having helped train Tomoe's physical strength over the years, Moca was no slouch when it came to her muscles, but Moca quickly found that Saaya was holding on to her for dear life, "What are you doing? Let me go!"

"Lisa-san! O-Tae! I can't hold her for much longer!" Saaya cried out to the two taller girls before two extra pairs wrapped themselves around the bundle of Saaya and Moca. Now that the burden of restraining Moca was not hers alone to bear, Saaya took a moment to apologize to the captured girl, "Sorry about this, Moca, but there really is no other way."

"It's about time you answered for what you did, Moca~," Lisa said with a playful wink as she helped Saaya and Tae drag Moca on to the stage. Despite Moca's struggles, she was no match for the combined efforts of her three captors, and she had no other choice but to allow herself to get dragged about.

Something about the way that Lisa winked at her was disturbing the lead guitarist of Afterglow. Moca had only seen Lisa that way once, and that time had not been a very fond memory of Moca's…

It was only a matter of time until Moca was forced on her knees in front of Sayo and Tsugumi.

"All right, you got Moca-chan… now what did Moca-chan do to deserve this?" Moca asked the crowd in front of her before focusing her attention on Sayo and Tsugumi, "Moca-chan helped Sayo-san prepare for this big day, so why me? Did Tsugu find out that it was Moca-chan who replaced Tsugu's shampoo for mayonnaise the other day?"

"No, Moca-chan, it's nothing like—wait, that was Moca-chan?!" Tsugumi tried to reassure her childhood friend by staying as calm as possible, but even the great Tsugumi could not stop herself from shouting that last part. In an effort to not get too angry at Moca, Tsugumi tightened her hands into fists and hissed through gritted teeth, "It took me weeks to get the smell out of my hair."

"Hazawa-san, I am aware that you want to talk with Aoba-san about this… incident…" Sayo began in an effort to calm Tsugumi back down. Quick to realize that she had at least succeeded in distracting Tsugumi long enough to lose her train of thoughts, Sayo turned back to Moca and said, "This has nothing to do with what you did to either myself or Hazawa-san. I appreciate your hard work, Aoba-san, and I always will."

"However…" Sayo trailed off with a smirk plastered on her face that made a cold shiver run down Moca's spine. Thankfully for Moca, Sayo's smirk subsided soon after as Sayo wasted no time in talking again, "You did something else recently, Aoba-san. And now is the best time for you to be made to face the consequences."

"The consequences… of what…?" Moca asked, clearly still confused about what is happening and why she was in this situation. Moca had a million other things that she wanted to ask her so-called friends when two words made her choke on her own voice.

"Moca-chan…"

Moca froze at having her name called, but this did help her in one aspect: Moca finally understood what this was all about. She finally understood what she had set in motion by agreeing to help Sayo several weeks ago.

"It's about time we showed everybody here who the real star of tonight's show is~," Lisa laughed as Saaya and Tae helped Moca in a standing position. As Sayo and Tsugumi knelt down in front of Moca's left and Saaya and Tae did the same on Moca's right, Lisa made a dramatic motion towards the person walking up to them, "It's your time to shine!"

"Moca-chan, I…" Rinko began, her voice already filled with the fear of both messing up and the knowledge that so many people were in front of her. Rinko, in her effort to escape the pressure, glanced at her kneeling bandmate. Seeing the reassuring and comforting smile on Sayo's face was all that Rinko needed to continue.

"Moca-chan once said… said that to make a good impression… Hikawa-san would have to… have to… do something that… that Hazawa-san would not… expect… right?" Rinko, despite hoping that she could talk without any stutters or pause in her speech, involuntarily paused each time she heard somebody in the crowd cheer. With Himari in the crowd as well, this could have been at every other word that Rinko was trying to say.

"That is why… why I… asked everyone… to set this up… for me…" Rinko continued, slowly starting to gather her courage as she allowed her words to dance around the air. With a shaky intake of breath, Rinko tried again, "When Moca-chan… came to me and said this… I was being unfair to Moca-chan… Moca-chan did so much to prepare and do it… and yet I never responded… I'm… so sorry, Moca-chan."

"If you… if you still think the same way… about this coward… then…" Rinko paused again for a second, her complexion most accurately described as 'tomato-like'. Already starting to feel lightheaded thanks to the blood that rushed upwards, Rinko knew that she had to act quickly. Rinko bowed deeply and shouted at the top of her lungs, "PLEASE BE MY GIRLFRIEND!"

A prolonged period of silence followed after Rinko's declaration, everybody in the live house having fallen silent in anticipation of Moca's reaction and response. The girls who had been kneeling down in between Moca and Rinko had been looking up at Moca in anticipation as well.

Finally, after what felt like a lifetime for Rinko but could also have been two seconds, Moca rushed up to Rinko and threw her arms around the older girl's neck. As Moca did this, she also said a couple of words to Rinko that made her turn even redder, if at all possible. Nobody but Rinko could hear what Moca had said, however.

The instant Moca had hugged her now-girlfriend the crowd had broken out into a variety of loud cheers and whistles. Even the normally cool, calm, and collected Hikawa Sayo had broken out a smile of her own seeing the young couple in front of her.

With the show now officially over and not having a reason to stay any longer, the majority of the crowd started to slowly shuffle their way outside. The only ones who ended up staying were the friends and bandmates of Moca and Rinko who made their way to the stage to congratulate the two.

Moca removed herself from Rinko and instantly turned to the guitarist standing behind her with a defeated smile, "You knew about this all along, didn't you, Sayo-san?"

"Yes, I did. Everybody here except for Aoba-san did, actually," Sayo admitted with a hand motioning the others around her. Before Moca could properly respond to this, Sayo tried to explain further in what she could only hope was a comforting tone, "After Aoba-san's… attempt… with Shirokane-san a few weeks ago, Shirokane-san came to us to ask for us to set this up."

"Basically what Rinko-san wanted to do was make Moca-chan think that Sayo-san and I were confessing to each other to catch Moca-chan off-guard," Tsugumi explained, picking up where Sayo had left off. As she casually wrapped her arms around Sayo's arm, causing the taller girl to flush slightly in the cheeks as a result, Tsugumi smiled at her childhood friend, "I'm glad that it worked out after all. Congratulations, Moca-chan!"

"Thanks, Tsugu," Moca smiled, realizing too late that she was a lot redder than she thought she would be when Tsugumi suddenly burst out into a giggling fit. As Tsugumi clung on to her own girlfriend, Moca turned around to look at another friend of hers, "So, Lisa-san… how did Rinko-san convince all of you to do this?"

"Shouldn't you be asking your girlfriend that~?" Lisa asked, putting emphasis on the 'girlfriend' part and enjoying the reaction she got out of Moca as a result. As she wiped the tear from her eye, Lisa glanced at Rinko to see that she was in no condition to tell Moca herself, so Lisa took it into her own hands, "It all happened the day after your, uh… attempt…"

---

It was a bright and unusually warm day for the time of year, even though the sun's rays had failed to break through the blanket of clouds in hours. Rinko and Ako could not afford to sit back and enjoy the weather, unfortunately, as both girls were running through the empty streets as fast as their legs could carry them. Rinko, being a few centimeters taller than the drummer, had a bit of a head start, but Rinko had never been the athletic type; she was already panting and breathing heavily despite only having run for two minutes.

"Ako is… Ako is sorry… Rinrin!" Ako cried out in between breaths of air as the two turned the corner. Their destination was already in sight from here, and Ako found that she had regained the strength to run now. Within a few seconds, she was already running side-by-side with Rinko, "Ako should not have… overslept."

Rinko did not trust herself to tell Ako what she thought, already feeling lightheaded from the lack of oxygen. It wasn't until both girls burst through the open doors of the Galaxy live house that they finally skidded to a stop. Both girls bent over and were panting heavily, and it took the sound of a voice five minutes after their arrival for them to finally look up.

"I said, you did not need to rush here. I told everybody that the practice studio got booked again so we would have to push back our practice for another half an hour," Yukina said in a calm voice, seemingly not at all surprised to see the state that her two game-loving bandmates were in. Yukina seemed to want to say something else but stopped when another person stepped in.

"Now now, Yukina, is that really the way to talk to Rinko and Ako when they are so motivated to come to our practice sessions?" Lisa asked, giving Yukina a wink before gently helping Rinko and Ako to regain their breathing. As soon as she saw that this part of her job was complete, Lisa turned back to Yukina and added, "Besides, I heard that Sayo is right around the corner as well. Shall we head out to that new café that Moca and Himari have been talking about while we wait for our turn in the studio?"

"I guess we might as well…" Yukina relented with a soft sigh as Ako agreed with a lot of cheers. As Ako followed Lisa outside, Yukina noticed that the fourth girl there had not moved at all. Yukina walked up to her and asked in a gentle tone, "Rinko? Are you all right?"

"Ah, um… can I tell Yukina-san… with the others…?" Rinko asked with a shaky smile, already making her way outside to follow her bandmates before Yukina could properly respond. Rinko heard Yukina walk up beside her, but remain quiet otherwise. Rinko was very grateful for this period of silence, but it was eventually Rinko herself who broke it, "Where is this café… that Imai-san talked about?"

"That… is actually a very good question," Yukina finally admitted after realizing that she did not know the details about this café, either. She was about to reach for her phone to try and call Lisa for directions when she heard her name being called.

Yukina and Rinko turned in the direction of the voice to see Lisa, Ako, and Sayo standing in front of a two-story building. The name of the café was written out in obnoxiously big, black-colored letters, and Rinko could not help but think that this did seem like the café Moca would like visiting.

The members of Roselia quickly exchanged pleasantries with one another, most of which were directed towards Sayo, before they finally entered. The interior of the café, Rinko noted to herself silently as she followed closely behind Lisa, certainly caught her eyes.

Decorated with wooden furniture that Rinko saw was not too different from the ones used in the other café they went to that belonged to the parents of Moca's childhood friend, Rinko also noted the vast array of abstract paintings that hung on the walls. The tiles on the ground were of the purest of white and the surprisingly high ceiling gave the café a warm and welcoming air to it.

The five girls made their way to an empty table and sat down. After each of them took a moment to look through the menu for something to drink, Lisa excused herself by saying that she would order for the group.

When Lisa rejoined her friends a few moments later, Yukina was in the middle of asking Rinko something. Lisa had not heard what the question was, but she could make a guess based on how Rinko was responding.

"Well… to tell everyone the truth…" Rinko began, seemingly a lot more nervous than she usually was; something that the others were quick to pick up on. Rinko's dress became a jumbled mess in a matter of seconds and it took the combined efforts of Lisa and Ako for Rinko to calm down enough to give them a proper answer, "Afterglow's Aoba Moca-chan… um… yesterday… Moca-chan… um… ah… con… confessed… to me…"

The reactions that Rinko received were immediate. Ako began squealing happily and latched on to Rinko, Lisa muttered something that sounded like 'about time', and even Yukina was congratulating Rinko.

Sayo, on the other hand, frowned when she heard what Rinko had said. The guitarist waited long enough for her bandmates to calm down a bit before she turned to Rinko and voiced her worries, "Shirokane-san, did something happen? You do not seem at all happy that Aoba-san confessed to you."

The rest of Roselia stopped what they were doing, turned to Sayo with varying degrees of surprise and confusion on their faces, and saw what Sayo had meant. Rinko was curling up more than she usually was, and even Ako was quick to shift gears in trying to comfort her.

"It's… well…" Rinko trailed off, but not seeming to be in the right enough mindset to continue her sentence. Already feeling the familiar burning sensation in the back of her eyes, she used both of her hands to cover her face before her entire body started trembling.

"Rinrin…"

"Well, that settles it. All in favor of helping Rinko tell Moca that she feels the same way, raise your hand," Lisa said, her own hand shooting into the air faster than Ako could make her mattress burst into flames. Lisa was disheartened by the looks she was getting, but she knew that she had expected this, "Come on, Yukina, Sayo. Rinko is in no state to be practicing in this state at all, let alone perform lives with Roselia. Shouldn't it be our highest priority to get Rinko right back into the swing of things?"

A short period of silence followed as Lisa's words stayed in the air. Even Rinko, despite still having her face buried in the palms of her hands, was motionless. Then, finally, Yukina nodded.

"Lisa is right on this one. What do you two think? Ako? Sayo?" Yukina asked the group, turning to Ako and Sayo when she mentioned their names. When both girls voiced their agreements, Yukina faced a Rinko who had already revealed her face again, "Do you have any ideas on how we can help you, Rinko? I will admit that this is a new thing for me, but I speak for all of us that we will do our best for you."

"Actually…"

---

"Sayo here then told us that she had recently started dating Tsugumi in secret for a while. I'm sure that if Tsugumi hadn't arrived at that moment we wouldn't be here today," Lisa finished her story, adding that last part with a light chuckle. When she saw the look on Sayo's face, Lisa added with an undertone of amusement in her voice, "Aw, come on, Sayo. You know as well as all of us that we wouldn't know about you and Tsugumi if Tsugumi wasn't there. You had perfect timing coming to that café at that moment, by the way, Tsugumi."

"Don't worry about it, Lisa-senpai; I'm happy to help, and so is Sayo-san. Right, Sayo-san?" Tsugumi asked as she gently tugged on the taller girl's arm. Sayo remained silent despite Tsugumi's question, but this was enough of an answer for Tsugumi as she had already focused her attention on someone else, "I'm sorry for staying quiet about this, Moca-chan, but I am sure that you would understand. Rinko-san wanted to surprise you so it wasn't my place to ruin it. The whole part about you doing this to help Sayo-san confess to me was all part of the distraction… I knew about this from the start."

"You really got Moca-chan there, Tsugu…" Moca admitted with a sigh, but both Tsugumi and Sayo could see the smile that was playing at Moca's lips. Moca brightened up again soon after, however, and spun around on her heel. Before she left, Moca added, "You two better tell Moca-chan how you two got together, but for now…"

"Rin~ko~san~" Moca called out in a sing-song voice, skipping over to the girl and trapping her in her arms. Taking advantage of the confusion that occurred as a result of her interference, Moca quickly whispered the next few words in Rinko's ear so only she could hear her, "It's getting a bit crowded, isn't it? Shall we head outside?"

"O-Okay…" Rinko did not trust herself to give a proper and lengthy response yet, but she did manage to voice her agreement. She then felt Moca pull her along to the nearest exit and did not try to break free of Moca's grip. As the two girls ran past their friends, Rinko could hear some of the cute comments made about them.

The next thing that Rinko's brain managed to process was the cold sting of the evening breeze as it slapped her in the face. She let out a soft shiver involuntary before remembering that she really wasn't dressed for the weather. Rinko would have run back inside the live house if Moca hadn't wrapped her own scarlet-colored scarf around their necks, binding the two together.

"M-Moca-chan, this is?" Rinko asked as she gently held on to the scarf. It was warm and soft and, Rinko found much to her surprise, so very comforting. Rinko would have stopped walking to relish this feeling had she not been pulled along by Moca. Since Rinko was curious where they were going, she quietly asked the question to the girl beside her.

"Moca-chan doesn't know~," the innocent reply came with a smile as Moca led Rinko around a corner, the younger girl showing no signs of stopping. After a moment of hesitation, Moca added the real reason why she had dragged Rinko outside, "To tell Rinko-san the truth… Moca-chan wanted to talk with Rinko-san in private… and Rinko-san already seemed like she was at her limit just now, so… it all worked out in Moca-chan's favor~."

"Moca-chan…"

"If Moca-chan remembers it correctly, there should be a bench around here somewhere…" Moca trailed off, using the momentary pause in her train of thoughts to look around her. It was also an excuse to remind herself where she was, as dragging Rinko along with her had been a spur of the moment thing for Moca.

It didn't take Moca too long to find where they were, nor did it take long for Moca and Rinko to make themselves comfortable on the bench Moca had been talking about. Or as comfortable as one can be sitting on a metal bench in such a cold evening.

The two girls sat in silence, both of them knowing that they wanted to break it as soon as possible but neither girl knowing how. They remained sitting there for over half an hour without saying a single word to the other.

Finally, one of them gathered enough willpower and courage to break the ice. She grabbed the other girl's hand in both of her own and opened her mouth before she could start to second guess herself.

"Now that both Moca-chan and I… finished… finished confessing… it means we're… girlfriends…?" Rinko asked, trying to keep her voice steady but slowing down after the sixth word. She was already starting to feel lightheaded and dizzy thinking about what she had just said when she felt a gentle squeeze in her hands.

"Ever since Moca-chan first asked Rinko-san out, Moca-chan kept thinking about it…" Moca admitted, her voice soft but surprisingly steady. Moca knew, even without looking to her side, that Rinko was looking at her and listening to every word she was saying, "About how much Rinko-san means to Moca-chan, and… how much Moca-chan really wants to be with Rinko-san, after all."

"If Rinko-san is okay with calling someone like me her girlfriend, then Moca-chan would love to," Moca said with a warm smile, a smile that helped melt away any lingering doubts that remained in Rinko's heart about this decision. Moca, seeing this, felt like she could finally risk saying what she had wanted to say three weeks ago.

Moca stood up, silently slipping her hand out of Rinko's grip and taking a few moments to untangle herself from the scarf. Finally free again, Moca took a moment to dust herself off before she stood in front of Rinko and offered her hand.

"Shall we go home, Rinko-san?"

Rinko, still slightly dazzled at how fast Moca was able to switch gears and sound so mature all of a sudden, found herself staring at the object of her affection with wide eyes. It took Rinko a couple more seconds before she realized that she had been asked a question, and another three to think of an answer.

Instead of voicing her response, Rinko accepted Moca's outstretched hand and allowed herself to be pulled back on her feet. Rinko wobbled for a second once she stood up, still not used to standing, before Moca grabbed both of Rinko's arms to help steady her.

The two girls smiled at each other, both much shyly so than they usually would have, before setting off.

Moca and Rinko both knew that this would only be the start of a brand new chapter for them. They knew that this new bond would certainly be the reason for the many obstacles that they will face in the future.

But instead of worrying about all of that, the two girls were smiling brightly as they walked home hand-in-hand. Because both girls knew that, no matter what the world would throw at them to try and break them apart, they would never be alone again.

They would always have each other. And that was all that mattered to them.

---

And that wraps up this oneshot! All right! To give everyone an idea, this single-chapter oneshot is longer than the eight-chapter The Times We Lost that I first started uploading over two years ago!

I hope that you all enjoyed this oneshot, please tell me what you thought of this oneshot in a review, and until next time! Take care, everyone!