It was during the time µ's went to NY (Love Live! School Idol Movie). Eli started to have dreams about an Angel figure and was trying to figure out more about it. She noticed Umi had been writing about Angels and was curious what was on it but she was worried more when Umi got lost with Kotori and Rin.
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The Stars (Part 1)
Chapter 5: The Wonder
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Before I knew about the next Love Live at Akiba Dome and the sold-out ticket concert, I thought the world was as beautiful as it was. I already had Umi and the rest of the µ's by my side and did everything that we really enjoyed. I was no longer as afraid of the dark as I was before – that was thanks to Umi. I remembered waking with the feeling that I was in a familiar place. As blinding as it was warm, a certain mirage that I was sure where the warmth came from, somehow I knew, who it was. Maybe an Angel I presumed. But I then got to a dead-end regarding this figure. Umi?
Ever since we visited the shrine she had not let go of me for quite some time and we had been staying at each other's place more often. That evening the whole µ's cried – I didn't know goddesses could weep. It was like they were becoming human. The fact that µ's would disband had brought sorrow to our hearts and Umi fell on me, downhearted. She stayed cheerless the whole ride whilst her arms were wrapped around my right arm and her head rested pleasantly on my shoulder. She sat not a foot further during dinner. She had not let go of me when we sleep until the morning. And she hadn't moved an inch further ever since. But she began to feel better when I stroke her hair to wake her up the morning after. Umi…
Umi was going to stay at my house again. She had been writing for some time and some of her work she wouldn't even show me, not only the unfished ones but the ones she had rewritten over and over under the same title. But there was one that I peeped as she was nodding and falling asleep on my desk the day before we took off to New York for our Big Bang. It was called 'Angel'. Maybe there's an answer to my dreams after all, I thought, but I could not completely see the lyrics under her navy hair.
'Hey, Umi,' I muttered while nudging her shoulders gently. 'Let's go to sleep. We have to go the airport quite early tomorrow. And don't forget you have to pick up Kotori otherwise she would forget the little things for our costumes and all.' She then murmured something I didn't even understand, probably agreeing on going to sleep and disagreeing on waking up early – well that would be me if I were her.
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Finally came the big day, I arrived with the amulet Alisa had given me earlier and met up with the rest of the group. Honoka wasn't there, Hanayo informed. With her wit, Umi clarified that Honoka was in fact there, and showed me the text. Though I was not paying attention to her phone. Just the thought of how well she looked that morning, impeccably debonair. The bondi blue blazer fit perfectly above her tucked white shirt under the grey wavy skirt. The blazer was a present I gave her when we went for shopping. It suited her perfectly like a suitor of repute.
'Hey,' Umi called softly as we walked to get Honoka. 'Can we sit together on the plane? It would be a long flight and...' Before her shy and decreasing volume could finish I interrupted, 'you'll have me for both flights, Umi. You can have my shoulder too you know.' Her red shades spread even further than before, almost reaching her ears. 'Just let Honoka know about switch and confirm Kotori because she's booked next to me.'
During the flight I tried asking her about the song I curiously wonder while we were watching a movie. 'What do you think about angels, Umi?' There was some chocolate beverage on my table, it didn't matter how much I like chocolate I would gladly share them with this Umi-chan. She had become more childish-like and dependent whenever she was with me – she had tilted her head and eventually was resting on my shoulder, with a pillow she tightly clinched as if that very pillow was a substitution for what she wanted to be holding. Maybe I was like that too when I was around her.
'I don't know,' she replied with still chocolate in her mouth that I recently fed her. 'I guess they are beings made purely of light. So pure they're glaring. They are… the definition of authentic beauty. Maybe. I don't know. Why?'
I didn't want Umi to be suspicious, she might had not let me turn on the lights a little bit when we sleep if she knew that I peeped at her work. 'Umi, are you just trying to describe me?'
That put a little spark on her, like lighting a fire on a canon while she tried to defuse it. Jumped, she rushed to turn to me with the pillow squeezed harder that it would break the bones if the pillow had some. 'What? Eli! I-it's nothing like that!' She expressed with a volume that I was sure the others would have heard if they weren't sleeping.
'I'm just joking, Umi.' Then I patted her on the head twice and ended with a brush on her hair to the tail while I gave her a jesting smile. She didn't look embarrassed anymore, but it turned into a rather focused gaze with those yellow topaz gems that probably stole most girls' hearts away pierced through me and stole mine away.
'Eli, I…' unfinished, she was interrupted again, by the announcement. She got further interrupted because the girls started to wake up. Honoka and Kotori popped and were finally visible from where we were sitting, trying to look out the window where the city was noticeable. Umi was not focused on me anymore, as we both looked out the window just like the rest of the muses, because we had finally reached New York!
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'Next person, please,' the airport staff announced for taxi call. Honoka, who had given the name of the hotel to Umi and Nozomi, decided to go with me while Hanayo automatically tagged along. This was because I already knew the name from the start. Umi was not impressed, she got worried as soon as she knew we would be in separate taxi. 'It'll be fine, Umi,' I calmed her. 'There will be Rin and Kotori riding with you, and they'll take care of you.'
'Eli!' she whined a worry, disappointment and sadness in her voice called to me again. 'I-is it really okay?' she added.
'It's fine. Just give that note to the driver, one that Honoka got for you.' Then I closed the door behind me.
Not long after we left the airport, we emerged out from a tunnel that eventually revealed the skyscrapers of the famous Manhattan. Familiar structures like bridges I once saw in a travel book seemed so clear and enormous. And not long after, we arrived at the hotel followed by the other group but yet I had found Umi's. The hotel looked like a mix of modern and classic. But it was gigantic as Honoka expressed.
I slowly grew worrier and more than sad for Umi's group. We had all checked in and took our belongings in but there was still no sign of Umi, Kotori and Rin. The rest went to their lodges to put their luggage, and I stayed behind at the lobby while I trusted my things to Nico and Honoka. My hands were hovering over my phone to check on them. "Maybe they got caught on the famous traffic," I thought. Uneasiness filled me even more after Hanayo and Maki joined me at the lobby. Every movement the front door made or through the transparent glass I checked if it were Umi. "I shouldn't have left Umi." I kept it repeating in my head. My phone was no longer lit – must have been a while since it had.
Then the doors were pulled, letting a way for 3 Japanese girls with a navy-haired girl with water in her eyes in the middle being held by the other two. I didn't like it. It didn't suit her. Especially not on those precious gems I would like to wear.
Those tears. I quickly wiped them away as soon as I ran to hug Umi under the chandelier. Sobbing under my right collar, she clenched on my green sweater like she did with the pillow on the plane only tighter. It was like that time at the train station after we visited the shrine. Almost trembling she wouldn't open her wings to hug me like she wanted me to hold her and keep her safe. That was what I vowed that instant and whispered, 'I shouldn't have. I'm sorry, Umi. I really am.'
I moved my right hand from her back to her head. She tried to speak but it was difficult – gasping for air except there was none. Once she finally made a sound it was fluctuating and repeating as she was trying to clarify because she knew it wasn't coherent with her sobbing. 'Don't… don't do that. Don't do that again. I was scared, Eli. Don't leave me again, please.'
I removed her from my chest with my hands on both sides of her head to wipe the tears. She was still facing the floor but with a feeling of relived I kissed her on the forehead. For that, she had stopped her weeping and had already taken proper oxygen in. I added, 'I promise, Umi.'
Without realising the rest were already in the lobby and that Rin and Kotori were just behind me when I pecked Umi. They were still walking, and Kotori and Rin were busy with Maki and Hanayo. So I was sure that no one saw that.
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