"...And that concludes today's meeting for the idol club. Thank you all for coming."
Honoka started clapping for the flustered azure-haired girl, who was lowering her clipboard back onto the table. "Yay, good job, Umi~"
"Hey, aren't you supposed to be the Center? Why aren't you the one making the announcements and leading the group discussion?" Nico remarked from her seat, shooting a baleful glance in the second-year's direction. "What kind of impression are you trying to give to all of us?"
"Eh? I...uh...I'm not so very good with these things...Umi is good at taking care of important things like schedules and appointments," Honoka managed a sheepish grin and a laugh, "But, Miss Nico, being a third-year and the founder of the idol club, wouldn't it be more appropriate if you headed the meetings instead?"
Nico's cheeks instantly lit up, and they burned brighter than Maki's own hair as she fidgeted in her seat. "Well, I...I don't want to take away the experience...from my u-underclassmen, that's all...!"
"Eh? Never thought Nico would turn down the chance to show off,"
"F-Forget about it, okay?" Nico wasn't very good at crafting plans or strategies for their idol practice that didn't involve performing 'nico nico nii' over and over again. That didn't go over so well the last time she'd tried it.
Umi sighed. Another meeting done. She was not a public speaker, never would be one even in a million years, but when it was among close friends like her fellow Muses, the potential fear and humiliation was always an afterthought. Writing down the date and sorting the papers back into their proper order, she slipped them into the file that Eri would later store for safe-keeping. It was important for a club to keep all of its information intact and on-hand.
From what they had discussed, they had all agreed that there was going to be no training on the roof that afternoon. Everyone had different plans, all of them conflicting with the intended schedule, and with their recent performance less than a week ago, there was mutual consensus among the group that a break was well-deserved, at least for a single day. Normally the one to try and keep the others in line, especially Honoka, this time Umi wasn't going to argue against it. She felt like a rest would be wholly appreciated on her part.
"Come now, there's no reason to fight, you two," Kotori remarked with a sheepish grin. Sitting beside the orange-haired girl, she happened to reach out and placed a hand on Honoka's shoulder. She ran her hand up and down, like a massage.
This tiny act of physical connection between them surely did not go unnoticed by anyone in Muse, but to Umi it felt like she was the only one. Her brow furrowed, but she tried to keep it a slight change, so that it wouldn't seem too obvious. She shuffled the papers some more, a little rougher than before, to try and give herself something to do, to keep her mind off of it. Honoka and Kotori were dating. They'd already announced it, and everyone, Umi included, had cheered them on and congratulated them for their success in love. Umi cast her eyes away from her two childhood friends.
She wanted to be nothing but overjoyed for them, but now she was the one left alone, and they rarely had time to spend with her anymore. The bluenette despised feeling this way, especially toward Honoka and Kotori of all people, but her heart and her brain just couldn't reach a proper agreement. On one hand, she wanted to see them as a couple, they really did belong together, and she didn't wish to stand in their way. Yet, on the other hand, she was silently fuming, out of jealousy and out of loneliness, because they were no longer a trio. Now they were just a duo with a third wheel barely hanging on, like a limp appendage you didn't need. Umi never tried to discuss it with them, out of fear of upsetting her friends, out of determination to conquer these hateful thoughts and emotions on her own.
"Fine, fine...sorry..." Nico sighed, crossing her arms and leaning back into her chair. She eyed a certain red-head from the corner of her eye. Of course, she was still looking at Maki, even now, despite knowing she had long since lost her chance.
Maki, Rin and Hanayo all sat side by side. Maki was scrolling through the songs on her ipod while Rin quietly hummed a song to herself, Hanayo staring off to the distance like she was trying desperately hard to ignore her two best friends beside her. Maki and Rin both had one arm half-submerged beneath the table; they had been holding hands throughout the entire meeting. Umi sighed. She'd heard about fans or outside lovers causing rifts in the friendships between idols, but who knew that romance between idols in the same group would have the same effect?
Eri clapped her hands.
"Okay, everyone, if we're done here and have nothing left to discuss, I think we should all be on our way. Nozomi and I have some parfaits to attend to."
"Right, right. Let's go, Kotori! There's this new cafe I wanted to try in Akihabara! I heard it has green tea cheesecake on sale!"
"O-Okay, Honoka...!" As the two of them rose up from their seats, they took each other's hand. Umi pretended not to notice.
"Yeah! Let's go, Maki!" Rin literally bounced onto her feet.
"W-What? Go to that cafe they're talking about?" Maki asked.
"No, silly, we had our own plans to do, didn't we? Even I could remember that, nyah!"
Maki's cheeks flushed. "I...! Of course I remember...I'm not dumb...!"
Rin gave Maki's hand a squeeze. "I remember that too!"
"You two have fun," Hanayo waved, wearing a smile so fragile it could have toppled over and shattered under the calmest wind, "I have some work I need to do after school today."
"Oh, okay! See you later, Kayochin! Text nya later!"
"Heh heh, sure."
"Bye, Hanayo - woah, R-Rin, don't pull so h-hard...!"
"Oh, I can almost taste that green tea cheesecake; I want to smother it in whipped cream!"
"Honoka, do you have enough money for it, though?"
"I probably do!"
"You PROBABLY do?"
"I can haggle!"
"Oh, Honoka...ah! See you later, Umi!"
"Bye, Umi!"
Umi gave them a placid wave and a half-assed smile, but she said nothing.
Nozomi decided to ask what Hanayo was planning, for the sake of conversation. She must have noticed the first-year looked sad, although she seemed to fail noticing Umi felt the same way. "What're you going to be doing, Hanacchi?"
"Eh?" Hanayo reacted with some surprise, like she honestly didn't expect she'd been asked about her plans, and already Honoka, Kotori, Rin and Maki were nearly out the door, "Um...even though I'm an idol now, I still have my duties to help with taking care of the school alpacas. I'm going to be working on that for a while."
"Oh, my, but isn't it hard work for a girl your age and size? You're only a freshman, after all."
"No, it's...well, it IS hard, but I really enjoy it, even if I'm the only one."
"Wow, it's no wonder then that those alpaca seem to love you so much!"
While listening to Hanayo and Nozomi's discussion, Umi thought of what her own plans for after-school were. She did not have archery practice again until later that week, when she would begin training for an upcoming tournament. That was going to put a damper on her idol training, as well. Honoka and Kotori were definitely not going to be available, Eri and Nozomi were going out for 'parfaits' (everyone knew what they were really up to), Nico didn't seem interested in hanging out, Rin and Maki were a couple too, which just left herself, or maybe she could try to get to know one of her fellow Muses better. After all, they were all friends, and considered each other precious, but some members spoke less with certain others.
Umi intended to rectify that, if at least so she wouldn't be stuck feeling so alone anymore.
"Hanayo."
The young woman turned to address Umi, "Huh?"
"Er...uh...could I, I mean, if it's not too much trouble, could I join you?" Umi asked as the heat steadily rose in her cheeks. She was turning back, into her painfully awkward and socially-inexperienced state, the way she was at her most vulnerable moments.
Hanayo was blushing now too. "What?"
"She means she wants to help you take care of the alpaca," Nozomi explained with a wink and a giggle.
Umi and Hanayo walked out to the stables, carrying buckets of food, water, and a pitchfork to brush around the bales of hay. The bluenette grunted as she carried the food bucket in one hand and the water bucket in the other; they were both heavy on her slim frame, probably weighing ten pounds or more each. Hanayo was constantly casting worried glances over at the second-year. She had insisted to take one of the buckets herself, but then Umi insisted right back, saying she could handle them both. Granted, Umi was a little stronger than Hanayo because of her archery training, but what she was doing was no small feat on its own. Umi seemed so desperately relieved when the stables finally came into view, she didn't even try to hide it.
Hanayo shifted the pitchfork in her arms to keep it steady. "We're going to need to remove the old hay so we can move in the new hay."
Umi's head swiveled in the other girl's direction. "What was that now?"
"Don't worry," Hanayo grinned, "We already have the hay here, so you don't have to go and get it."
"Oh, that's good..." Umi heaved a great sigh of relief.
"Have you ever had any pets at home, Umi?"
"No, I haven't."
Hanayo's grin became even wider. "Then you're going to love it when it comes time to brush their fur!"
The two girls spent the next hour working diligently, barely a word exchanged between them, so engrossed were they with cleaning the stables and feeding the alpaca. Umi, however, took a moment now and then to chance a glance at the younger girl. She and Hanayo had never spent any time alone together like this before, not once, as far back as them first becoming friends with her. Musing on it even further in the past, Hanayo had been an early supporter of theirs, one of the first to join Muse to make it larger than a trio, even aiding in the recruitment of both Rin and Maki. She had been essential to the formation of Muse as a whole; she was a shy, quiet girl who managed to overcome her own doubts and trepidations to do what she loved. Umi had never met another girl who reminded her so much of herself. Hanayo was a larger idol fan than she was by far, but Umi knew where she was coming from.
Hanayo dabbed her wet face with a small cloth she'd been carrying. She had been throwing around bales of hay for thirty minutes now. "Ah...it's really warm out today, isn't it, Umi?" it was a simple question, but so sudden and unexpected, it managed to catch the archer a little off-guard.
Umi nodded. She was valiantly scrubbing down some sort of black smear on the floor she was certain had once been feces. "Yes, summer has always been rough on us here, and this year is no different."
The two girls resumed working. For a time, neither said anything again. Neither was even sure what they should say. They had never shared a conversation before now. They hardly knew a thing about each other aside from their mutual interest in being school idols. Umi could have possibly discovered some sort of connection with Rin, and she and Maki worked on the lyrics and music for their songs together many times before. Umi sighed. In the end, what she wanted most of all was to get to know her better, and doing nothing but fret wouldn't help. She opened her mouth to speak.
"Umi," Hanayo suddenly spoke the bluenette's name, and Umi instantly clamped her mouth back shut.
"Could I ask you something a little personal, if that is okay with you? Since we're both in the same idol club together?"
"Huh? Uh, sure, alright, if you want to," Umi wondered what it was Hanayo wanted to say.
Hanayo kept her back turned to the bluenette as she spoke, only taking a few moments' pause, "What do you think about Honoka and Kotori? I mean, they're your best friends, and they're dating, but...you never look happy about it?"
Umi sighed. Admittedly, she had wanted a chance to talk about this to someone for a very long time. "No, I'm happy for them, but I'm jealous too. I never thought I'd feel left out by my two childhood friends, but I do. I'm probably not fit to be an idol, let alone their friend, to be feeling this way, huh?"
"I felt similarly when I first found out Rin and Maki became a couple, so no...I know how you feel."
Umi turned to find herself caught in that powerful stare of Hanayo's shimmering violet eyes. Like moons, it almost felt as if they were pulling Umi in with a gravitational pull. The two young women were yet again at a loss for words with each other, an impasse. They'd both just openly admitted something that they never would have told anyone else. Especially not the friends in particular they felt this way about. It had come out, the dams holding their emotions built on too weak a foundation to hold back any longer. It wasn't everything they could have done, there would been much more frustration and tears if it had been, but getting off their chests for now was good enough. They had something new they could agree they shared experience in.
Umi and Hanayo exchanged grins; they were weak ones, full of fear and uncertainty. Still, there was a hint of hope in there too. A tiny glimmer, but it was there.
They weren't going to discuss the issue any further, and they quietly returned to their work in the stables. The alpaca were lucky that animals such as them did not need to ever concern themselves with human affairs.
"Aaaah! So soft...!" Umi cooed. Her face was almost completely buried into the white alpaca's neck-fur.
"Hee hee, I told you that you'd like it," Hanayo chuckled. The brown alpaca blew air out from its nostrils as it watched its mate garner so much attention.
"It doesn't smell very good, but I love how soft it is!"
"You probably shouldn't rub your face in it too much...!"
Umi pulled back. Her face and hair were literally covered in white fuzz and stray hair, almost resembling a faint beard around her mouth. She sneezed and the hair flew off all at once. Hanayo started giggling at the sight.
Umi wiped her face with a towel. "How long have we been here?"
"It's almost 6." Hanayo looked at her cellphone.
"What? 6? That long already?"
"It's okay, though, we already finished everything we needed to do today." Hanayo pet the brown alpaca, stroking the length of its face, "These two are full and happy now, so our work is done."
Umi looked at the white alpaca, and she thought about petting it, but she was afraid she'd agitated it enough with her 'snuggling' before. "When do you need to care for them again?"
"Not until next week; a second-year named Kobata is going to come out next. I take less frequent shifts than the others, because of Muse."
"Oh."
Umi and Hanayo bid the alpaca farewell as they walked back to the shack to return the pitchfork and buckets. They walked close, side by side, but still keeping enough space between each other that their shoulders would not touch.
"That was fun," Umi casually remarked.
"It was? You really thought so?" Hanayo seemed more shocked by this claim that Umi would have expected.
"Yes, I had a good time," Umi explained, "It was...something new, right?"
"No one else helps me out when it comes to my turn to care for the alpacas. Not even Rin anymore." Hanayo noted.
"Well, could I come here again? With you?"
"Eh? You would want to do that...?"
"Sure!" Umi started to reach out. She hesitated at first, unsure if it was proper or not, but eventually she decided the gesture would be harmless, and placed her hand upon Hanayo's shoulder. She gave it a friendly squeeze.
Hanayo trembled; Umi's touch was gentle and light, not like Rin, who was always so energetic and hyper she sometimes didn't realize how much pressure she was applying. It was soothing, this touch. It was not only a woman who wished to befriend her, but who wished to understand her, and share things with her. They'd both exchanged one very personal secret with each other. If that wasn't some sort of certification for a bond to form, then Hanayo didn't know what was.
"Umi, would there be any chance I can see you in archery sometime? I'd heard about it from Honoka and Kotori, but I'd want to see you do it in person!"
The second-year hadn't doubted she'd be able to get along with Hanayo, not really, but she was so happy that this had turned out better than expected.
A/N: Please let me know if I should continue this story or not, because while it is friendship for now, it will eventually become yuri, and would feature more about the other yuri pairings already set up as well. Thanks for reading!