I'm so so sorry for the crappy idol nicknames. I had so much fun writing this though, especially having Pillar pair as cute girls! I came up with all kinds of outfits for them, but only wrote a couple of them. If I could draw my tumblr would just be full of cute Aozu girls in cute outfits. Also, I wanted to show some of the creepier side of idol culture because a lot of it is really creepy and crappy for the performers. I don't claim this is an in-depth look at it or anything, I just felt it was important to include it.
Tezuka Mitsuko quickly dressed in her first outfit of the show. It was the first night of their Japan-wide stadium tour and she could feel the butterflies erupting in her stomach. Around her, the rest of her unit were getting ready. Fuji Shuuka and Echizen Ryo looked calm and collected as Fuji did Echizen's make up for her (Echizen could do the foundation and lipstick, but would always mess up one eye, so got Fuji to do it for her), but next to Tezuka, Oishi Shuuko looked as nervous as Tezuka felt.
Their group, Seigaku Club, was currently one of the biggest groups in Japan. They'd started off as idols simply to promote their school, but had somehow hit the big time. They hadn't changed the name as their old school still enjoyed the free promotion, although no one had ever explained what the 'club' they were supposed to be in was. Tezuka was sure their management would come up with a TV show or anime to explain that at some point. Either way, Tezuka was the captain of the club and Oishi was the vice-captain with the other two just being members (although Tezuka was sure Fuji had once been put down as the Secretary in one photobook they'd done).
Tezuka finished buttoning up her frilly white shirt and the pulled on the black skit with lavender netting. Each member of the group had been assigned a colour; she was lavender whilst Echizen was red, Fuji was green and Oishi was yellow. The colours were always reflected somewhere on their outfits.
In this outfit is was in the netting under the skirts, the lace used to lace up their black, knee high wedged boots (they had been heels, but Oishi had almost broken her ankle during dress rehearsals and they'd been hurriedly changed) and the feather attached to the little hat they had pinned in their hair.
Once she'd finished dressing, Tezuka tied her long hair back in a high ponytail and attached the hat fascinator at a jaunty angle on her head.
"Buchou, I need help with my hair," Echizen said once Fuji had put the finishing touches to her eyes and Tezuka nodded. As well as eye makeup, Echizen couldn't be trusted to do her own hair without getting it wrong.
It didn't take long to put Echizen's thick, long black hair into two bunches on either side of her head and then tie them up with her trademark ribbons (which, today, were red and white striped).
"Thanks," Echizen said and set about putting on her boots. Echizen was the youngest member of the group and was often the centre for their songs. She was very dedicated and hard working despite her brash and lazy demeanour, often staying behind with Tezuka long after the other two girls had gone home to practice dance routines and songs.
She was also dating Tezuka, something that both girls were keeping very quiet. It wouldn't do either of them any good to let it out in the open.
Tezuka gave Echizen's shoulder a quick squeeze and then went to help Oishi plait her hair into two pigtails.
Sometimes, Tezuka envied Fuji, who only had to brush her short hair.
"Are we all ready?" Tezuka asked as the start of the show drew near. They were currently under the stage, ready to get onto the platforms that would push them up through the stage. The girls around her nodded.
"Remember, if you do something wrong, pretend it's deliberate and move on," Oishi said, although more to herself than the others.
"Let's give them a good show," Fuji said.
They separated to their platforms and Tezuka stood in the dark, listening to the crowd chant their group's name as the introduction music and light show started. Slowly, Tezuka rose out of the stage.
"Buchou!" The crowd screamed as the platform reached it's full height and a spotlight shone on her. To her left, Oishi was rising out of the stage.
As a spotlight shone on her the crowd cried, "Onee-chan!"
Next out was Fuji, to the cry of "Fujiko-Hime!"
And finally was Echizen. "Ryo-nya!" The crowd screamed and Tezuka felt the surge of pity for her girlfriend she felt every time her nickname was brought up. Echizen hated it, but was stuck with it. It came from her propensity to post pictures of her cat on her blog and nothing else.
The intro music stopped and there was a moments silence, filled only by a few members of the audience shouting their favourite member's name, and then the first chords of 'Don't Look Back' started playing and the crowd went wild.
With all the lights in her face as she sung and danced, Tezuka couldn't really see the audience, beyond multicoloured specks of light from the penlights, but she knew there was tens of thousands in the arena.
The first song went off without a hitch and they lined up in the centre of the stage to give their introductions.
"Are you all having a good time?!" Fuji called to the audience and received a resounding 'Yes!" in response.
"Thank you for coming today," Tezuka said, "we are-"
"Seigaku Club!" the four girls cried in unison.
Once the cheers from the crowd had died down somewhat Tezuka said, "I am the club Captain, Tezuka Mitsuko."
The crowd yelled her nickname in response.
"I'm the vice-captain, Oishi Shuuko," Oishi said next and received a resounding call of 'Onee-chan' in response. Oishi really was the big sister of their group, always the one you turned to when you were in trouble.
"I'm Fuji Shuuka," Fuji introduced herself.
There was a pause then and the three older girls turned to look at Echizen, who had her arms crossed and was looking offstage.
"Echizen," Tezuka prompted her in her buchou-voice.
Echizen sighed, "I'm Echizen Ryo."
The crowd wasn't put off at all by Echizen's disinterest, if anything it made them love her more.
"We hope you enjoy the rest of the show," Fuji said, "please don't be offended by our little Ryo-nya. She's just shy!"
Echizen glared at Fuji, "make sure you don't trip over anything, Hime."
"Enough," Tezuka butted in before the (rehearsed) bickering could go on any further. "please enjoy the rest of the show!"
The next song was 'Kakaeta Kiseki' and after, Tezuka, Echizen and Oishi left the stage to allow Fuji to sing a solo.
"I can't believe I missed that note," Oishi moaned as they hurriedly walked back to the dressing room.
"No one noticed," Tezuka assure her.
"Yeah, everyone saw me almost trip up," Echizen said, "Buchou caught me though."
Fuji's solo allowed them all time to get changed into their next outfits. Oishi into a school girls outfit for 'Koi Kaze' and Echizen in shorts and a t-shirt and Tezuka into a lacy lavender dress. Oishi hurried away just before Fuji's set ended, as she was doing a solo next, leaving Echizen and Tezuka alone in the dressing room.
"I wish they'd stop calling me 'Ryo-nya'," Echizen muttered as she sat down on the sofa next to Tezuka, and leant against her.
"I'm afraid it's stuck," Tezuka said, wrapping an arm around her and kissing her hair.
"You're lucky, you have a half-way sensible nickname," Echizen muttered.
"It's our duet next," Tezuka said, changing the subject before Echizen could start bitching about other aspects of being an idol.
Echizen chuckled, "our lovey-dovey duet. I can't believe people don't think we're singing it to each other."
"Let them have their fantasies."
"Che, at least I don't need to fantasise." She leaned in and kissed Tezuka gently on the lips, not wanting to smear either of their lipgloss.
A small cough from the doorway caused them to pull apart immediately. They looked and saw Fuji looking at them, completely unamused.
"Practising for the doujinshi, are you?" She asked snappily.
Nothing else was said whilst they waited for Oishi's solo to end, the room was just full of an awkward silence that Tezuka was very grateful to leave.
She tried her best to put her whole self into 'Hikari no Saki', but part of her mind was constantly worrying about what Fuji was telling Oishi back in the dressing room.
The rest of the show was awkward, judging by the looks Oishi was giving them, Fuji had told her exactly what had happened, but there was no time to talk about it between numbers as they changed into a variety of outfits.
Finally, the show was over. They'd done their two encores and were now completely shattered.
Tezuka just wanted to drink a lot of water, shower and then go to bed, but it looked like Fuji and Oishi were going to confront them as soon as they were at the hotel.
"I really want a bath," Echizen muttered as they left the stadium, now dressed in comfy, loose fitting clothes. Before becoming an idol, Tezuka had liked to dress well, but now, after being in tight, revealing outfit after tight, revealing outfit, being fully covered up in loose filling clothes was very nice.
Fuji hummed in agreement as they got into the car.
"The audience enjoyed the show," Oishi said. It had been a good show, Tezuka was thankfully very good at hiding her true emotions, as was Echizen.
Fuji nodded, casting a look at Tezuka. Tezuka wondered what her problem was, she had always been into the slight lesbian fanservice they'd done. Maybe she was only okay with it if it was only pretending.
They were all really tired and they should leave whatever conversation they were going to happen till the morning when they had slept and were feeling more rational. But it looked like Fuji was determined to confront them tonight.
They all ended up in Tezuka and Echizen's room. Echizen sat on her bed and stared at Fuji, who was leaning against the wall opposite, staring right back.
"So," Oishi started, "how long have you been together?"
"A few months," Echizen replied airily.
"Why?" Fuji snapped, "we're not allowed to date."
"We hoped no one would find out," Tezuka replied. She wanted to go and sit next to Echizen, but didn't want to move from her own bed.
"And that makes it okay? You're putting the whole group in jeopardy!"
"Right, so it's okay when it's for our fans to jerk off to, but when it's real it's bad?" Echizen snapped back.
"Echizen!" Tezuka said warningly.
"What?" Echizen turned on her, her eyes blazing, "that's the only reason we act so touchy-feely with each other in public!"
"It's not that you're lesbians," Fuji said, "it's the fact that you're dating!"
"And you haven't broken any rules at all?" Echizen countered, "at least we're still virgins."
Fuji's eyes flashed dangerously, "you said you wouldn't tell anyone," she said venomously. For a second, Echizen looked like she had realised her mistake, but then glared back.
"What?" Oishi jumped in. "Fuji?"
Tezuka was shocked as well, Fuji may have a flirty public image but she had no idea that she's had sex with someone.
"It was with Kawamura," Fuji said.
"The guy we went to school with?" Tezuka asked, knowing the answer already. Fuji and Kawamura had been close throughout school and she knew Fuji still went to visit him a lot.
Fuji nodded, "I would date him too, if I were allowed."
Then it hit Tezuka why Fuji was so bitter. She and Echizen could be with each other constantly and no one would think it was weird, they were in a group together and could easily pass as 'just friends' in public. There was no way Fuji could do the same.
"Echizen, apologize," Tezuka commanded, "I'm sure Fuji told you that in confidence, you shouldn't have said it."
"I'm sorry, Fuji," Echizen said.
Tezuka gave Fuji a look and Fuji capitulated, "It's okay. I shouldn't have yelled at you."
"As long as we keep all this a secret it should be okay," Oishi said and Tezuka nodded.
"None of this is to leave this room," she added, "we will think of a way for Fuji to spend more time with Kawamura as well."
Fuji seemed to brighten at this, "thank you," she said genuinely.
"It's late and we've had a long day," Tezuka said, "we all need to go to bed."
The other's agreed and Fuji and Oishi left for their own shared room. Fuji gave Echizen a long hug before leaving, one that Echizen returned.
Tezuka felt relieved. The whole discussion had not been pleasant, but now everything was out in the open they could help each other.
"Being an idol is weird," Echizen said once they were washed and dressed for bed. They were sat together on her bed, Tezuka brushing her hair. "We exist just to be fantasies."
Tezuka hummed in agreement.
"Do you think any of our fans think we're real humans?"
"I'm sure some of them do," Tezuka replied.
"They just don't want us to fall in love with someone so they can continue pretending that we'll fall for them," Echizen said, "they're all delusional."
Tezuka finished brushing her hair and kissed the top of her head, "we need to go to bed."
They crawled under the covers together and Echizen kissed her deeply.
"Sleep," Tezuka said when they pulled apart.
"Yes, Buchou," Echizen replied, snuggling against her.
She was asleep in seconds and Tezuka watched her for a while, smiling happily to herself. "Goodnight Ryo-nya," she whispered and then quickly fell asleep herself.
How long this whole idol thing was going to go on for she wasn't sure of and whether it would all explode in their face one day. Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. Either way, they would one day fade into obscurity and all of this would just be a memory. That, or the scandal they would create would go down in history forever.
Tomorrow, they would put on another show and another the day after that and then they would be off travelling around Japan, promoting and putting on even more shows. Tezuka was just glad to have all her friends at her side and, despite their ups and downs, they would always be friends.