hello! how are my readers doing? this is a longer chapter (i think!) so i hope you enjoy it! again, advice is appreciated! anyways, to the new chapter! (replies to reviews will be at the end!)
Yoshiki gasped in surprise as he studied the girl he had bumped into. She was short, had her dark blue hair tied into pigtails, and was blushing as she stared back at him. His face reddened a bit as well. As he was about to speak, he was interrupted by the other person beside her.
"Y-Yoshiki K-K-Kishinuma!" Mayu stammered, flustered. Ayumi finally stood up properly, surprised by the sudden contact with the celebrity as well. She calmed down, telling herself that she was only getting worked up because he was famous. Then, Ayumi remembered something.
"Ah, Mayu!" Ayumi said looking over to her friend. "The autograph!"
Mayu gasped putting a hand to her face before starting to rummage through her bag. Yoshiki waited in silence as he watched the two girls, especially the one in pigtails. She had caught his attention, not only because she had just bumped into him, but because of something else. The girl seemed-
"If it's not too much of a bother!" Mayu exclaimed a bit too loudly, interrupting his thoughts and holding out a copy of his album, "C-could you please sign this, Yoshiki-kun?!"
Yoshiki quickly turned his head to face the brunette, giving her a relaxed smiled. "Of course," he said taking the CD case from her hands. "Who should I make it out to?"
"Mayu Suzumoto, please!" she replied.
"Ah, Mayu-chan it is then…" he said looking down at the case as he began to sign. Mayu was surprised for a second before she gave a big smile as he used her name with such familiarity. Ayumi, on the other hand, thought calling another with such familiarity upon meeting was a bit unusual.
As he returned the now signed album, Yoshiki began to speak. "Ah, well anyways, this area is actually off limits, even for VIPS, so, uhm…"
"Ah, well, we really wanted to just get your autograph, so," Ayumi looked over at Mayu to see her nodding, understanding where she was going with her statement. "I guess we'll just take our leave now..?"
They turned around when they heard Yoshiki start to say something again.
"If you want, I can, uhm, maybe show you guys some exclusive stuff like the dressing room…" The dark haired girl had really caught his attention, and he wanted to learn more about her.
Ayumi and Mayu couldn't believe what they just heard. This wasn't some shoujo manga. Such scenarios didn't exist… They looked over at each other to see what the other thought.
"I-I think we should go for it," Mayu whispered to her friend. Ayumi nodded, with a bit of determination. She thought that if he offered, why not take advantage of the offer…
"We'd love to, actually!" Ayumi responded, giving him a big smile as she said it.
Yoshiki was glad, they agreed! He didn't know why he thought they might had disagreed, most girls would have said yes anyway, right? Whatever… He smiled back, blushing a bit at the pigtail girl's face. Wait, pigtail girl? Dark haired girl? Yoshiki didn't even know her name yet... he decided to ask as he went up to show them their way to his dressing room.
"So you're Mayu-chan… And you're…?" he inquired, pointing at Ayumi.
Ayumi looked back in surprise as he turned to face her, asking for her name. Her face relaxed as she answered back, "Ah, my name is Ayumi Shinozaki. It's nice to meet you, Kishinuma-kun."
"Kishinuma-kun?" he asked before chuckling. "I'm fine with Yoshiki or Yoshiki-kun, Ayumi-cha-"
"No," she replied a bit bluntly. "I'd rather you call me by my family name, please." He was a celebrity, but they weren't on close terms, so she felt strange having to explain this.
Yoshiki was taken back a bit. He could feel a cold sweat from the little awkwardness her bluntness created. "Alright then," he said laughing weakly. "I'll call you Shinozaki then." Ayumi sure was different than other fans he had met. An uncomfortable silence ensued.
Mayu looked around awkwardly not knowing what to do. Ayumi without knowing it had put a bit of an uncomfortable air because of the name issue. She decided to bring up other topics.
"Ah, Yoshiki-kun, we really liked your performance today!" she complimented, smiling with all she had. "Class rep- I mean Ayumi-chan really liked the last song, uhm…" What was it called?
As Yoshiki opened the door to the dressing room, he replied back saying "You mean 'Thrilling! Is this love?', right?" He smiled as the two entered. "It seems everyone likes that one."
"Yeah! That one!" Mayu replied. "Ayumi-chan really enjoyed it, she even clapped along!"
"Did you now?" he asked smirking, rummaging through the room trying to find something to show the girls.
"Y-yeah…" Ayumi responded, a bit annoyed with the tone of voice he used to say that. It was kind of sarcastic.
She looked around. "Aren't there other VIPs waiting for you? Not to be, uhm, rude, but…."
"They can wait," he said back. "I'd really like to get to know you guys better." Yoshiki had finally found the thing he had been looking for. The prototype CD case for his next album.
Ayumi was further annoyed. Although he was taking time to "get to know them better", he was making others who paid lots of money to potentially meet him wait. "Hm," she responded.
Yoshiki approached them with the prototype. "Here, look at this! It's the cover for my next album… What do you guys think? My sister actually helped give me ideas…" He seemed to be gushing over the mention his sister.
'They let the singer himself think of the design himself…. That's kind of ridiculous.' Ayumi thought, leaning in to look at it. It was decent digital art that she thought didn't really convey any strong feelings…. Ayumi had lots of passion and high expectations for what she considered good, and this just didn't cut it for her.
"Ah, what an interesting drawing." Mayu commented. A sudden thought went through her head. "Ah, you know, Ayumi-chan is really good at draw-"
"I can do better…" Ayumi's mutter interrupting Mayu. The two turned to face Ayumi. Mayu started to sweat nervously, and Yoshiki looked at her, eyes squinted.
"...What?" he said.
Ayumi looked up in shock, realizing what she said was a bit rude. Even if he had been sort of annoying, she shouldn't have said that. She put her hand to her mouth, covering it.
"I-I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have-"
"What did you say?"
Ayumi felt her thoughts scatter. "W-well, it's just, uhm, the anatomy is sort of w-wonky and-"
As she was talking, Ayumi noticed that Yoshiki had been digging through some drawers. 'W-what's he doing….' Ayumi immediately thought. He looked upset, so she started to get more worried.
"U-uhm."
Mayu grabbed onto Ayumi's arm. "C-class rep, what do you think he's doing…?" she whispered. Ayumi turned her head to Mayu to suggest they leave when Yoshiki had slammed the item(s) he was looking for.
"I'd like to see you do better, then!" Yoshiki demanded. He had placed a pencil and paper on the table in front of them.
"W-what?" replied Ayumi.
"I hired a professional to draw the cover with my sister's ideas, so I want to see. You. Do. Better."
Ayumi started sweating more and gulped thickly. She had no choice but to start drawing. Afterall, she was the one who put herself in the situation. Ayumi took the pencil in her hand and tried copying the CD cover to the best of her abilities in her own art style. Mayu waited awkwardly as Yoshiki stared off, clearly angry. Once she was done, however, he seemed to be a bit calmer.
"I-I'm really sorry for what I said Kishinuma-kun," Ayumi began as she reached over the table to hand him the paper. "I'm truly embarrassed about what I did and I know this isn't much actually so-"
She was cut off by Yoshiki's reaction.
"You…"
"Y-yes?" Ayumi replied, a bit frightened.
"You drew this?" he exclaimed. "Well, I mean of course you drew it, I saw you do it…. but… this is…"
Ayumi started to calm down. Was he complimenting her?
"Amazing," he said simply. "It's really good." He smiled up to her.
Ayumi felt her heart pounding and her face redden, just like when he turned to her direction during the concert. She slapped her face with both hands, and reminded herself she liked Satoshi. 'You like Mochida-kun!' Ayumi repeated in her head. How could the boy standing in front of her make her feel this way?
"Th-thanks…" she replied, blushing, still thinking of Satoshi.
"You know, I think you should-" Yoshiki began before being interrupted by a voice at the door.
"Yoshiki? Are you in there? There are groups of VIPs who want to meet you!"
Ayumi startled herself thinking the voice was Satoshi. She had thought about him too much, it seemed. Yoshiki called back, "I'll be out soon, okay?" He turned back to Ayumi.
"Sorry, that was my manager. As I was saying, I think you should be the one to be my cover artist instead! Your piece is way better than what that 'professional' did."
Ayumi was flabberghasted. "M-me?!" she exclaimed. "I-I don't think I-"
Mayu, listening to the conversation, decided to intervene. Ayumi was good at drawing! Why was she flustered over this? It could give a huge boost to her art career!
"She'll do it!" Mayu exclaimed.
All Ayumi could do was look at her friend, wide-eyed.
"Great!" Yoshiki said happily as he took out another piece of paper. "Here, let's trade numbers so that we can contact each other."
"Yoshiki! Your fans are waiting! I'm leaving now!" the manager from outside called again.
Ayumi, still startled, couldn't bare to move her hand to write down her number. Mayu took the pencil instead and looked through her phone to write it for her. She took Yoshiki's number as he motioned his hand implying it was time for him to go.
"Oh, one more thing, Yoshiki-kun! Can I take a photo of you?" Mayu asked.
"Ah, sure," Yoshiki replied. "Let's make it fast though, okay?"
Mayu opened her camera app as Yoshiki posed with a peace sign. Before she took the photo however, Yoshiki noticed the still in shock Ayumi and pulled her close by the shoulder so she could be in it too.
Yoshiki laughed as Mayu took Ayumi's hand to leave. Ayumi couldn't believe any of this was happening. Him meeting her, him asking her to be his cover artist, everything! It was too convenient to be true. She heard Yoshiki saying goodbye.
"Later Mayu-chan!"
Mayu turned to wave back.
"You too, Shinozaki." Ayumi felt her face redden even more, which she already thought to be impossible. She could feel his smile watching her as she left.
"What a strange guy," Ayumi muttered to herself.
FemaleCookieMonster ah, were you? (weak laughter) sorry i havent really gotten to your request! im glad that some of my tumblr followers are reading my fic, though!
Ilse Kagamine OH MY GOSH WOW... THANK YOU! SUCH A NICE REVIEW! ill keep up the hard work just for you v O
a/n anyway i hope you liked this chapter! not sure when the next one will come out, i have school starting soon m ! dont fret, im determined to finish this fic! also, special thanks to my friend stef (yourturntowatchmyback on tumblr) who helped me along when i had a bit of writers block! also chloe (shinysquirtlesquad on tumblr) who drew fanart for the first chapter! thank you guys so much, ill see you soon!