Hi all, new chapter up. Quick note: I am including a scene from Shakespeare (which play could it possibly be?!) but I am using the modern equivalent rather than the original text because, frankly, it will mean more to everyone in contemporary English than 16th Century rhyming couplets. Besides, Mio and Ritsu would have been using a translated Japanese version anyway, right? (I don't think I've ever justified my lack of culture quite so well.)

That said, enjoy.


CHAPTER FOUR

It was three days later and the school corridors were rife with speculation. All week Mio could barely walk five yards without someone wishing her luck, congratulating her or, worst of all, expressing how excited they were to see her reprise her role.

It only made her more nervous, particularly given that the cover was having some... teething problems. Mio was struggling with the 'acting' side of things. That was the trouble with spoken word: in some ways it required more effort than either singing or acting and, although she had done fine with the first verse, it seemed she was winning no awards for the second. She was beginning to dread Mugi's concentration face and her awkward how-do-I-put-this? expression.

"Mio-chan, this verse is about jealousy," she had said, brow furrowed. "Keep that feeling in your heart as you play."

Mio knew what Mugi meant, but she had never been in love with anyone: she had never been jealous that way. How could she draw on an experience she hadn't really had? Every time she thought she was getting to grips with the singer's feelings, she was told she just wasn't showing it enough in her voice. Was she just not forceful enough to pull it off?

There had been one breakthrough: the "making love" hurdle had finally become surmountable, thanks to Yui of all people.

"Ne, Mio-chan, why don't you say something you like instead?" Yui had been eyeing her gateau thoughtfully at the time. "Like 'cake'?"

Azusa's eyebrows had almost shot off her forehead. "Yui-sempai, that's it! Until the performance, Mio-sempai could say, 'made cake' instead of-"

"Kawaii."

"Yui-sempai! I didn't even say... that phrase!"

Yui tackled Azusa and started rubbing her cheek against the top of her head. "But it is kawaii! My favourite person is talking about my favourite food!"

Azusa turned crimson. "F-favourite person?!"

When Mio still couldn't get it right, Ritsu invited her over to help her practise. That was where she was now, stood before a cross-legged Ritsu and singing her lines.

Mio stopped and looked up from the lyrics bashfully. "How was it?"

From her seat on the floor, Ritsu was made a face. "Still sort of stiff."

"So, what should I do?" Truthfully, Mio enjoyed time like this with Ritsu. It reminded her of the time Ritsu had helped her with her speech all those years ago. Ritsu could be a pain but her boundless enthusiasm and relentless confidence cut down Mio's shortcomings, instilled her with a borrowed boldness.

"It's just like the play, isn't it?" Ritsu said, switching on the TV. "Just act it."

"Don't be so flippant!" Mio snapped. "You're the one who said you'd help me!"

Ritsu sighed and swivelled back around. "Last time you pretended to be me, right? Couldn't you do that again?"

"Why? Have you ever been jealous and in love?" Mio asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ritsu averted her gaze. "Don't ask dumb questions."

Mio chuckled. "Sorry."

A silence fell which lacked its usual ease. Ritsu broke it. "Haven't you?"

"Pardon?"

"Some of your songs are about love, right?" Ritsu tilted her head to the side.

Mio fought to recall her own lyrics and suddenly realised how they could be interpreted. "I suppose I've never really thought about it."

"You wrote them and play them every day," Ritsu pointed out. "How have you not thought about it?"

"I just haven't." Mio blushed in embarrassment. "But I haven't been in love. The closest I've ever been to romance was when you and I..."

"What?"

"You know... the kiss?" She had to be a whole new shade of red by now.

Ritsu's eyes widened. She cleared her throat. "Oh. That."


"Cut!" Mio and Ritsu looked to a clapping Mugi. They were in the classroom, reading their lines at the front. Most of the class was either rehearsing or running errands for the play, so few, to Mio's utmost relief, were paying them any mind at all. "Well done, Mio-chan, Ricchan. Now! Let's try Act 1, Scene 5."

Mio went rigid. That scene?! Mugi was really going to...?! Ritsu, ever tuned in to Mio's fear and discomfort, had apparently noticed her reaction because she said, "What's up?"

Mio glanced at her but couldn't bring herself to make eye contact. "Act 1, Scene 5 is... Mugi, are you sure this is necessary?"

"Of course, Mio-chan."

"Wait, is what necessary?"

"Ricchan, this is the scene of Romeo and Juliet's first kiss." Mugi smiled serenely.

"Oh, right, that's what it is." Ritsu matched Mugi's smile. Mio, through the pints of extra blood in her face, waited patiently for the inevitable snap.

"How is that necessary?!" Ritsu barked.

"I'm afraid I agree with Tsumugi-san," said Nodoka. She was standing beside the blackboard looking genuinely apologetic. "As the play is a romance, it would be odd for the kiss to be omitted."

"Even you, Nodoka?!" Mio sputtered.

Ritsu's attention was still on Mugi. "B-but we're both girls! And it's Mio!" she added pointedly.

"What's wrong with kissing Mio?!" Mio said. Then she remembered herself and buried her face in her hands. "...What did I just argue for?"

They pleaded until Sawa-chan intervened from the sidelines.

"The play is an important school event," she said. She looked like she was regretfully deliberating something but Mio had witnessed enough of her true character to know it was a put-on. "If you can't practise what you need for the play I'll have no choice but to suspend practice for the Light Music Club as well..."

Unseen to their classmates, Sawa-chan's eyes took on a spark of menace. Oblivious, Ritsu blew a raspberry. "Go ahead! We don't practise for that eith- ack!"

Ritsu clutched her foot where Mio had stomped on it. "We'll do it," said Mio.

Armed with their scripts, Mio and Ritsu got into position. Shaking, Mio took Ritsu's hand and said, "Your hand is like a holy place that my hand is unworthy to visit. If the touch of my hand offends you, my two lips stand here like blushing pilgrims, ready to fix things with a kiss."

Ritsu blushed, though Mio doubted it was down to Romeo's smooth pick-up line. "G-good pilgrim, you don't give your hand enough credit. By holding my hand you show polite devotion. After all, pilgrims touch the hands of statues of saints. Holding one palm against another is like a kiss."

Mio's nerves were out of control, and seeing the person she was trying to imitate look equally apprehensive was hugely unhelpful. "Saints and pilgrims have lips too, don't they?"

"Yes, pilgrim―lips they're supposed to pray with," said Ritsu.

"Well then, saint, let lips do what hands do." Mio swallowed hard. "I'm praying for you to kiss me. Please, grant my prayer so my faith doesn't turn to despair."

"Saints don't move, even when they grant prayers," said Ritsu.

Mio steeled herself. "Then don't move while I act out my prayer."

Mio stepped toward Ritsu, closing the gap between them. Stood nose to nose, Mio tried not to think about Ritsu's breath tickling her nose, or the heat of Ritsu's body, or the fact that she was about to kiss Ritsu full on the lips. She inched nearer, flushed and terrified; inch by inch, millimetre by millimetre.

"Gah! I can't do this!" yelled Ritsu, ruffling her hair and scratching herself all over. "Itchy, itchy, itchy..."

Then Mio hit her and they devolved into bickering, and after that it was time to go home. To Mio's surprise, by the next rehearsal Mugi actually decided not to make them kiss after all. Nodoka didn't push for her to reconsider and Sawa-chan's threat to the Light Music Club never came to pass.

Presently, in Ritsu's room, Mio smiled faintly. "We should have kissed, shouldn't we?"

"Huh?!" Ritsu shot upright to stare at her.

Mio flopped back on Ritsu's bed, feeling silly. "Well, everyone was disappointed. Especially Mugi."

Ritsu scoffed and leaned back against the bed. "Well, duh! Mugi's Mugi. Oh, yeah…"

Ritsu stood and went over to her desk. She took out a piece of paper. When Mio got a look at it, she saw it was a blown-up picture of a battered Ritsu and Mugi, thumbnail photo booth pictures of the two of them serving as the background. The main picture, Mio recalled hearing, came about when Ritsu had finally hit Mugi. "What do you think?"

"It's cute," said Mio.

Ritsu grinned sheepishly. "I've been making it for Mugi. You know how much it meant to her when I hit her; I thought she might like it for her birthday."

Something rose up in Mio, sharp and painful.

"Her birthday is in June, you know," Mio said. There was an edge to her voice she couldn't quite control. "You have over two months."

"I know, but it's better to be prepared," Ritsu said, feigning wisdom.

"You're one to talk," grumbled Mio.

Mio stared at the picture, at Ritsu's grinning face and Mugi's glowing, victorious one even as she winced. Ritsu never did anything on time, let alone in advance. She gave Mio, her best friend, gag gifts to scare her, yet she had sat down of her own volition and made something sweet and sentimental for Mugi. It should have been cute but all Mio could see was her own absence: was Mugi, her wonderful and important friend Mugi, stood where Mio should have been.

She had felt the same when those pictures were taken, listening to Ritsu go on and on. Mugi this and Mugi that, and she had lied, okay? She had lied to Ritsu when she had said she was jealous of Ritsu for getting to hang out with Mugi.

She was jealous of... of...

"Hello? Mio?" Ritsu waved a hand in front of her face. "What do you think? Do you think it needs a frame? I think it would really- ow!"


And I dreamed your dream for you, and now your dream is real
How can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals?

Mio clutched the mic, bass forgotten.

When you can fall for chains of silver, you can fall for chains of gold?
You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold
You promised me everything; you promised me thick and thin, yeah
But now you just say, 'Oh, Romeo, yeah; you know, I used to have a scene with him.'

Juliet, when we made cake you used to cry.
You said, 'I love you like the stars above; I'll love you till I die.'
And there's a place for us, you know the movie song
When you gonna realise it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?

She stopped and was met with cheers from her fellow band members.

"Ho!"

"Amazing, senpai!" said Azusa, dropping her strumming hand to her side.

Mio smiled. "You think?"

"The jealousy is coming through perfectly, Mio-chan," said Mugi.

"Is… is that so?"

"Mm." Mugi nodded emphatically. "You must have found something that really inspires you."

"Oh. Nothing in particular." Mio avoided Mugi's eyes.