"Oh, Moko-san, I'm so excited!" Kyoko gushed, flitting about the Love Me room getting changed.
Kotonami looked on in fond exasperation. "And why exactly do you feel this way?" she asked, half curious and half dreading the explosive outpouring of emotion she was sure was coming her way.
"Oh, Moko-san! A friend from Kyoto is coming to live in Tokyo! And I'm having lunch with her today! Oh, I haven't seen her in so long, I wonder how she's been…" And before she could interject, Kyoko had started mumbling to herself about this friend.
"A friend from Kyoto? I didn't know you had any close friends from home, from what you told me…" Kotonami commented.
"Oh, we weren't that close. I mean, she was one of the only girls who didn't care that I was good friends with Sho, but she was two years younger than we were, so I didn't get to spend much time with her, plus I was always hanging around Sho anyway…" Kyoko explained, her face drawing up sourly as she started thinking about the past.
Trying to defuse the situation before Kyoko's mood worsened (and also, she was rather curious about this mysterious girl from Kyoko's past), she interjected, "So tell me more about this girl. Is she looking to get into showbiz as well?"
Kyoko turned to look at her, her old memories forgotten for the time being. "Not that I know of, although come to think of it, she has always liked to sing and dance. No, she's coming to university in Tokyo! She managed to get a full scholarship to study law at Tokyo University! Minori-chan always was smart," she said, beaming proudly.
"Wow," Kotonami said, unwillingly impressed. Tokyo University was the best university in Japan.
Just then, they heard a knock on the door and Hizuri Kuon entered the room. "Good morning Kotonami-san, Kyoko-chan. Are you ready to leave?" he asked Kyoko.
"Oh, you're going to have lunch with Minori-chan as well?" Kotonami asked, somewhat surprised (and a little peeved that she hadn't been invited to meet this interesting character).
He smiled at her. "I see Kyoko-chan has been talking about Minori-chan to you as well. She's been excited for the past few days, ever since Minori-chan called her. But no, I'm just dropping her off." With that, he picked up Kyoko's bag and ushered her out of the room, both of them saying goodbye to Kotonami in the midst of their argument about whether or not it was appropriate for him to carry her things.
(one year later)
Hamasaki Minori strode through the lobby of Akatoki agency, following the prominently displayed signs that directed her towards the studio where backup dancer auditions were to take place. It had been a hell of a school year, and after her final exams ended she'd slept for two days then promptly come for auditions. It would be fun to spend the summer indulging in one of her favourite hobbies, she thought.
When she found the holding room for the audition, she walked in and was shocked at the intensity of the scene she immediately saw. Over fifty svelte young dancers were in various stages of warming up (which wasn't all that surprising) and aggressively glaring each other down (which was rather surprising).
A little intimidated, she walked over to an empty spot, placed her bag against the wall and shed the cardigan she'd worn over her simple black tank top and leggings, before silently starting her stretches.
"I don't think I've ever seen you before, what's your name?" a friendly-looking girl with rainbow hair leaned over and asked.
"Hi, I'm Minori! I've never auditioned before; I'm just looking for something to do over summer break," she explained.
"That's cool," the girl responded. "I'm Kumiko. I'm old hat at these auditions. You picked a good one for your first audition! The summer audition is the best because a lot of artists do summer tours, and they sometimes come to the auditions to handpick their backup dancers. I heard that Fuwa Sho may be coming to watch this one!"
Inwardly, Minori rolled her eyes, less than impressed by the thought of Fuwa Sho, but not wanting to be rude she giggled along. "Really? Fuwa Sho, that's so cool!"
Kumiko grinned. "Isn't it, though! He's so dreamy," she sighed.
Yeah, dreamy, Minori thought a little bitterly. If by dreamy she meant awful and selfish narcissist who has no compunction about tricking a girl who loved him into running away with him to be his maid and earn rent for him, then sure. Kyoko had explained the situation to her one night when they'd been slightly tipsy at her apartment, and although she was slightly unnerved by the atmosphere change and – were those mini demons? She still wasn't sure – when Kyoko started talking about the past, it was overshadowed by her rage at how terrible Sho was.
(She might have continued drinking as Kyoko explained the whole situation, and had to be held down by Kyoko when she swore she was going to Fuwa Sho's house right now to teach him a lesson. Maybe. She would never admit anything.)
Fortunately, she was saved from having to make further small talk by the door abruptly slamming open. "All right, listen up ladies!" a man dressed fully in black bellowed. "You will be auditioning in groups of five. You will be taught a short routine, which you will then perform individually followed by sixteen bars of improv. I have a list of all of you here, and you will come and take the corresponding number tags and pin them onto your shirts." He threw the list and number tags onto the ground.
"First five ladies, I expect you in the next room in five minutes! If you are not there in five minutes, consider yourselves disqualified!" he barked before leaving.
Minori rushed over to where the girls were congregating around the number tags and the list. Fortunately, she was in the third group which meant she had some time to calm herself.
She went back to her corner and found Kumiko gathering up her things. "Are you in the first group?" she asked, perhaps stupidly.
"Yeah! And don't worry about that guy. He likes to act all dramatic and scary, but he's not the one who makes the ultimate decisions. Wish me luck!" Kumiko exclaimed, before rushing to the entrance even before Minori could respond.
"Break a leg!" Minori called after her, receiving a thumbs up in return.
Smiling slightly at the whirlwind that was Kumiko, Minori went back to her warmup.
"This is stupid," Sho grumbled at his manager Shoko as he fidgeted in his seat. "I'm so booored," he whined.
Shoko rolled her eyes. "Come on, you wanted to do this. Remember your last tour when you had to take the leftover dancers and you were irritated with them the whole tour? Do you really want a repeat of that?" She knew she didn't. The dancers really had been terrible, unable to keep up with the grueling schedule that the entire team needed to stick to if they were to stay on track, which had been a nightmare for logistics. Worse than that though, was how bad Sho's attitude had been. The more stressed he got about his tour, the more he yelled at everyone and acted like a spoilt little boy.
He sulked some more. "We've only seen one dancer that looks like she could possibly be able to keep up with the choreography, and she has ridiculously colored hair!"
"Yes, and this year you only need two female dancers, so you're halfway there," she said patiently. "And you've only seen ten girls so far! There's over fifty girls auditioning, I heard."
He grumbled and groaned some more, making disparaging remarks about the two girls that followed. When number thirteen came out, he scoffed on sight.
"What? She looks so plain! Just dressed in all black like that… where did she get her clothes, Uniqlo clearance sales? And her hair! It's so black and boring! Is she even wearing makeup? I can barely even see her eyes – "
Shoko shushed him quickly. "You haven't even seen what she can do, and you're eliminating her already?"
He sank back into his seat, sulking.
Then the music started and a beat later, she started dancing.
He shot back up, his eyes narrowed as he stared at her. There was something tantalizingly familiar about this girl, the way she was moving, although he couldn't really place it. Nevertheless, she was the best dancer he'd ever seen. Her movements were fluid yet sharp, strength and grace embodied in equal measure. Her improv was amazing as well; she managed not to repeat any moves, something that none of the other dancers so far had managed to do in sixteen bars.
"I want thirteen," Sho snapped at Shoko. "I'm going to get food from the cafeteria. Come find me once you're done here," he instructed her before leaving.
She looked at his retreating back and shrugged, then turned back to look at the girl. After finishing her routine, she simply bowed deeply and left the stage. That was good; some of the other girls had tried to impress the heads of the department and the stars watching the audition by prattling on about their experience and training, but they didn't seem to realise that backup dancers should be seen and not heard.
She sent a quick text to the head of manpower, letting him know about Sho's choices. She was confident that he would get his choice of dancers; after all, Fuwa Sho had been the agency's cash cow for a few years now, and they tended to let him have what he wanted.
With a sigh, she got out of her seat and went to find her temperamental young charge, ignoring the next girl who was going through her routine.
Minori sighed as she exited the auditorium where the audition took place. She wasn't sure if she had done well or not; the casters had just watched her silently, then thanked her politely when she bowed. She felt good about it, though. If nothing else, it had been a fun afternoon, she thought as she found a restroom to change out of her sweaty clothes.
As she left the restroom, clad in a simple t-shirt and jeans (that she had, coincidentally, bought from a Uniqlo clearance sale) she placed her sunglasses back on the top of her head as she walked towards the main entrance of the building.
She was supposed to have dinner tonight with Kyoko, Kanae and Chiori, to celebrate her 'return to society', as Kyoko put it. It was the first time she was going to see them since her finals had ended, since she had basically placed herself under lockdown in the school library for the entire duration of the study break and finals.
It was strange but the Love Me girls seemed to have adopted her as one of their own. Still, she wasn't complaining – they had been very helpful especially at the beginning of her stay in Tokyo, before her semester had started and she hadn't made any school friends yet. It had been lonely at first, especially since her mother had stayed behind in Kyoto.
Speaking of which, she needed to call her mother when she got home. She hadn't spoken to her since she called after her last paper ended, which was a few days ago, and had been calling less frequently than usual because of how stressful the finals period had been.
As she left the building, still caught up in thoughts about her mother, she didn't notice the eyes that were following her movements. Sho and Shoko had been about to leave when they saw her walking across the main lobby, and Sho had immediately stopped to frown at her, still trying to place where he'd seen her before.
"What's wrong, Sho?" Shoko asked. She'd only ever seen him so affected by one other girl, and she dreaded the thought that he would be working with another girl who would cause his emotions to run out of control like that. It would be a nightmare to control him on tour.
"I don't know… that girl looked so familiar when she was dancing. I feel like I should know her, but I just can't place it. I'm sure it'll come to me eventually, but it bothers me so much…"