The pinkette sat nervously on the counter, waiting for the phone to ring. She glanced at the corded dinosaur of a phone that was plastered to the wall every few seconds. Her eyes were glued to the device when it suddenly let out a loud ring. She gave a surprised jump and slipped off the kitchen counter. She quickly stood up, brushed herself off, took a deep breath, and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Is this... Hinamori Amu?" a voice asked on the other end.

"Yes! This is Hinamori Amu," she chimed.

"This is Kotou Shiragin. I have read your application and I am anxious to see you audition," said the man on the other end of the phone.

"Oh, thank you, Kotou-san. When should I come by?"

"Well, I have Tuesday and Thursday open, which would be more convenient to you?" he asked.

"I can come by on Tuesday," a smile spread on the girl's face.

"That's wonderful. Come by the EASTER building at 2 o' clock on Tuesday. My office is on the third floor, number three-fifteen. I'm looking forward to meeting you, Hinamori-san."

"You too, Kotou-san," she said as she hung up the phone. Amu stared at the phone on the wall for a few seconds before letting out a squeal of exitment. It had taken a few years, but she had finally gotten a start on a new career.

On Tuesday, Amu woke up early and took an extra long shower. She blow-dried her hair so that it fell with small curls at the ends. She grabbed a large lock of hair and clipped it apart from her head with a black 'x' clip. She searched through her closet for her most appealing clothes. After many outfits had been thrown on the floor, she ended up with a red and black plaid skirt with a red lace trimming and a black halter top with 'x' clips attached to the straps. She laced up a pair of Converse boots that went up to her knees, and a small red purse that held her cell phone, a bit of make-up such as mascara and eye shadow, and some pens and pencils and a small note pad. She ran downstairs and found her mom and dad watching television with her little sister, Ami.

"Mom, Dad, I'm going on a walk," she said to them as she left the house. She had decided to keep her audition a secret from her parents and tell them as a surprise after.

She strolled down the seldom busy streets of her neighborhood. She realized how many signs that were visible from her own streets. She looked up and saw an advertisement for the new Tsukiyomi Ikuto CD, "Black Lynx Lover." She absolutely hated him. He was a new singer, only about a few months famous, but girls were all over him. She didn't know what she hated more, how he sang, or how he looked. She stopped walking and observed every detail of the sign. He had long midnight blue hair that covered his face and was always a mess because his bangs were pulled into a point right in front oh his eyes. His eyes. He had blue eyes, just lighter than his hair. His eyes always made him look so sad.

Amu shook her head. All the girls at her school were always talking about how cool he is and how they're all totally in love with him and how they're going to marry him and have a bunch of little kids running around their beach houses in America and England and France. She tried to keep pointing out the fact to her friend, Yaya, that he was 18, and wasn't interested in 7th and 8th grade girls. Her friend, Rima, had only slightly fallen under his spell, and only liked him for his music. All of her guy-friends were on her side with hating the teenage-wonder. She approached the EASTER building and stared at with in awe. It was huge. Feeling a rush of adrenaline, she confidently strided through the revolving glass doors into the building for her audition.

"Where are the elevators?" she asked the woman at the front desk.

"Go down the hall behind me, then take a right, another right, then a left, then go down 3 more halls, then a right."

"Thank you," she said and started walking.

Amu started down the hall behind the desk and took a right. She got to the next turn and took a right. Or was it a left? She looked back. Was she supposed to take a right or left? She went back and took the left instead. She went down three more halls, and took a right. She wasn't at an elevator. She was at the broom closet. Maybe she should've taken the right back there... She nervously looked around. she wasn't lost, she was just... confused. She started walking up and down random halls. Okay, she was lost. After finding another dead end, she sighed and started walking backwards to the hallway so she could try a different direction. Before she got back to where the hallways met, she bumped into something warm and tall. She turned around to see a tall and lean teenage boy standing right in front of her. Tsukiyomi Ikuto.

"You lost?" he asked.

"N-no. I'm not lost, I know exactly where I am!" she said, irritably.

"Then why are you going to the power room?" he asked with a smirk.

"I... I... Ugh!" she pushed past him angrily and stomped off toward another hallway.

"Wherever you're trying to get, I'll take you there," he offered as he started to follow her.

She looked back at him reluctantly, "I need to find the elevators..."

Ikuto simply put his hand up and pointed in front of her. Amu looked forward to see two elevators, side by side. She looked back at Ikuto, who was smirking at her misfortune. She pressed the elevator button and waited. Ikuto joined her.

"What do you want?" she asked, obviously annoyed.

"A simple 'thank you' would be nice," he replied.

"I would've found it myself," she argued.

"Yes, but you still accepted my help, so I deserve a thank you."

The elevator opened and they both stepped inside. Amu clicked the third button from the bottom and waited for Ikuto to click whatever floor he was going to. He didn't. The elevator went up and dinged as it passed the second floor, and the doors opened at the third. Amu and Ikuto both stepped out of the elevator and the doors closed behind them. Ikuto strided off to the hallway on the right, and Amu followed him, hoping room 315 was that direction. Ikuto opened the door to a room and Amu read the sign by the window, "Room 315 Kotou Shiragin."

Amu stepped into the room and quickly read the clock behind Shiragin's head. 2:10.

"I'm sorry I'm late, Kotou-san. I got lost looking for the elevators," Amu bowed. She noticed Ikuto sitting on a couch on the side of the room typing on a laptop.

"It's perfectly fine, Hinamori-san. I got lost my first time here too."

Amu gave a small inward sigh as Shiragin started to read over a paper as she recognized as her application.

"'Name: Hinamori Amu, age: 13, birthdate: September 24th, talent: singing'... so you sing. Question is, are you any good?"

"Well, thats for you to decide," Amu said.

"Then how about you sing something for me then," he offered. He sat down, and motioned for Ikuto to stop typing. He gave an angry look to Shiragin, but then put his laptop aside and watched Amu.

Amu took a deep breath and started:

Lalala uta wo utaou

Kao age kokoro no mama utaou

Akirame ja ikenai

Dekinai koto nande nai yuuki no uta

Dare ni mo makenai Yume ga aru

Arukidasou mune hatte

Watashi dake no michi ga aru

Shinjiru no saho n ta sa

Dakai yama ga ja noshite mo

Ganbatte nori koe yo

Watashi ni nara dekiru sa kiseki oko so

Shiragin stared at her for a few moments, then a smile grew on his face. Amu smiled shyly back, and noticed Ikuto still staring at her, an emotionless expression plastered to his face.

"Wow. I expected you to be good, but not this good," Shiragin praised, "You were wonderful, even a capella."

"Thank you, that means a lot," Amu blushed.

"Did you write that?" Ikuto asked from the other side of the room, "I've never heard it before."

Amu looked him in the eye, "My mom used to sing it to me when I was little."

"Well that was great," complimented Shiragin, "We should get a recording of that."

Amu smiled. This is what she had always wanted. She looked over at Ikuto, who had a small smirk on his face. She wondered why he was here. Its not like he had to be around for her audition or anything. Shiragin cleared his throat, and Amu looked back at him.

"I'm sure you know that this is Tsukiyomi Ikuto," he motioned to the man sitting lazily on the couch, typing away on his laptop again, "I am his manager, and if your recording is good, I'll be yours too."

Amu stared at him. Her and Tsukiyomi Ikuto have the the same manager? This was definitely not what she wanted. She inwardly sighed. Though she didn't like the thought of having the same manager as Tsukiyomi Ikuto, she wanted to be a singer, so she'd just have to get over it.

"I have a few things to take care of and I need to get the recording studio booked. I'll be back in about 10 or 15 minutes. While I'm gone, I'd like you guys to get to know each other," and with that, Kotou SHiragin left his office, leaving Tsukiyomi Ikuto and Hinamori Amu alone together.

"So," Ikuto started.

"Don't talk to me."

"That's sort of harsh," he frowned with mock-sadness.

"I don't like you," Amu turned her head away from him.

"And why is that? You don't even know me."

Amu turned to look at him. She studied his visage. His expression was strong. It did look as if he was sincerely hurt by her words, but Amu could guess that he wasn't. His eyes, although sad, also had a glaring tone in them, as if sayig "What you just said was mean. I'm sad now. I don't like you. Get out of my sight, I'm so sad." His mouth was pulled into a small tight frown, and his eyebrows matched the same expression shown in his eyes.

"I... I don't like your music. And I don't like how all the girls at my school are so obsessed with you. They all say that they're so totaly in love with you, and they're going to marry you because you really love them and only them, you just don't know it yet. I hate you because of how much attention you can get after just one music hit on the radio. That's why I don't like you."

Ikuto stared at her. The same expression on his face, except with a tad bit more sad emotions. His facial expression then changed to be relaxed and nonchalant as had she had said sunk in. There was a bit of silence before he simply stated the quote, "Ignorance is bliss."

"Hmph," Amu crossed her arms across her chest and gave a small stomp of her foot.

"Come sit over here," he said as he patted the spot on the couch beside him, "Its not going to kill you."

Amu realized that she couldn't stand like that forever, so she reluctantly sat down beside him. The silence continued from there on, besides the monotonous typing that filled the room. Amu, having nothing else to look at, watched the screen as Iktuo typed lyrics for his new song. She watched as the empty letters turned to words, the words turned to lines, and the lines turned into verses. She had gotten so used to the sound of his typing that she gave a small frightened gasp at the sound of something popping. Ikuto stopped typing and moved his finger across the track pad and opened a different tab. A chat message had popped up on his Facebook. Amu read the name of the message, which was highlighted in a dark blue, with a red speech bubble with the number 1 in it. Utau Hoshina. It took a few moments for Amu to process what she read.

"You... You know Hoshina Utau?" she asked with wide eyes.

"Yep," he clicked open the message and quickly replied, "She's my sister."

Amu read what had been written:

Utau Hoshina at 2:23 HEY IKUTO-KOI! 3

Ikuto Tsukiyomi at 2:23 Leave me alone, Utau.

Utau Hoshina at 2:23 But I loooovvvvveeee you, Ikuto-koi! 3 3 3

Ikuto Tsukiyomi at 2:24 Utau, we're siblings. I'm leaving now.

Amu looked at him. He opened his chat options and went offline, automatically closing his chat with Utau.

"You know, its not nice to just stop talking to your own sister like that."

"Oh, you don't know how Utau acts around me. She's a total fangirl. She's worse than the other girls at your school, considering shes also my blood related sister."

"Okay, whatever."

There was more silence along with his typing.

"So, tell me about yourself," Ikuto said to her.

"What? Why?" Amu asked.

"Just because. Here, I'll tell you about me too. My favorite food is chocolate... Or maybe chocolate tayaki. Just depends. Now whats yours?" he smirked at her and closed his laptop.

"You can't be serious," she stared at him.

He simply stared back.

"Fine. My favorite food is also tayaki, though I prefer red bean over chocolate."

"Whats your favorite color? Mine is black."

"I like red."

"Where would you like to travel one day?"

"To New York City, New York. Or anywhere else in America, really," Amu felt as if something was missing, "H-Hey! You didn't answer."

"Oh, I didn't, did I? Well then, if it truely matters, I'd like to go to Paris, France, one day. So why do you want to go to America?"

"Well, for one, I've always liked western food and western music. But some other reasons are that its all the way on the other side of the world, and it just amazes me that I could go there. Also, its such a big country, and its so different from ours. Why do you want to go to Paris?"

Ikuto stared at her with the same expression he had when she told him that she hated him, minus the anger. It looked as if he was about to cry. Amu suddenly regretted asking the question, but she was now very curious as to why asking a simple question could bring along such an emotion.

Just as Ikuto opened his mouth to speak, Shiragin walked in with more papers than he left with.

"That's... a secret," Ikuto gave her a look.

Shiragin looked at Amu questioningly, "You asked him why he wanted to go to Paris?"

Amu nodded her head, and she glanced at Ikuto who was now slouched over with his elbows on his knees and his head hung, only supported by his hands. Shiragin gave him a knowing look, before turning his attention to Amu.

"Come on, Hinamori-san. The recording studio is ready. We'll record you, add some backgound music, and we'll see how it sounds, and then we'll send it to the boss. He's really the one that decides if a song is ready to go to the radio or not.

"Okay, Kotou-san," Amu got up from the couch. As she left, she looked back to Ikuto. She really wondered what was wrong with him. All she asked was why he wanted to go to Paris. It was obviously something he didn't want to talk about. That she was sure of. She let her thoughts drift to all the possible senarios she could think of, absent mindedly following Shiragin wherever he led her down the mass hallways of this massive talent trap.