Time for the beach episode! *confetti*
Pushing their relationship too fast isn't exactly a good thing in a story. Although Eri might think otherwise.
Disclaimer still stands as is.
"Onee-chan, you're leaving today for the trip?" Honoka zipped up her bag for the trip, having just finished packing her clothes for the overnight stay she and the rest of Muse would have to make at a villa far from their school. "I thought the filming wouldn't start until tomorrow." Yukiho was in her school uniform, as they were leaving on a school day.
"We're leaving a day ahead of schedule so that there wouldn't be complications with uninvited guests." Honoka explained as she picked up the bag and headed out her bedroom door past her younger sister. "Everyone has permission from the chairwoman, since we're working on a 'school project' and all."
"Ehh? Sucks to be you then." Yukiho followed her sister down the stairs to the back door. "Onee-chan's a NEET after all."
"Shut up! It's not like you're any better, Yukiho." Honoka opened the door and stepped through. "Tell mom I'll see her in a few days."
"Have a safe trip." Yukiho waved until Honoka closed the door before lowering her hand. "She didn't deny it though...that she's a NEET."
"I'm not a NEET...right? I'm an idol now…" Honoka muttered to herself as she made her way to the train station, where she would meet with the rest of her group. "Though I still don't like spending so much time in the sun...and the idea of spending a few days at the beach makes me ill...that doesn't mean I'm a NEET!" Slowly, she became aware of the stares of the passerby at her declaration. She hurried on, hoping that they would ignore her strange outburst.
"Okay, we're just missing Nico-chi now." Nozomi commented when Honoka finally made it to the train stop they were meeting at. She took a few seconds to catch her breath, listening to the conversations the other members were having regarding their trip.
"Maki-chan, Maki-chan! Let me see the villa again!" Rin pleaded with the red-head, who was looking smug as she showed her friend the picture on her phone.
"It's cool, right? Of course, this one is only one of the many villas my family has." Maki handed her phone over to Rin and let her swipe through the pictures at her pleasure. "Maybe if we have some time over the break, I can get permission for us to go there."
"Really?! Then I want to go to this one, in the mountains!" Rin grinned as she pointed at the picture of the villa. "And Kayo-chin'll come too!"
"Hey, Rin-chan! Don't decide things for me without asking!" Hanayo grumbled. Maki shrugged and took her phone back.
"Then I'll just go with Rin. It should be fine, since you don't want to go, right?" She smirked, idly twirling a lock of her hair.
"I didn't say that!" Honoka tuned their conversation out from that point on, as the first years weren't even discussing their plans for the current trip. She turned her attention to the other second years in the group, wondering what they thought of the beach filming.
"I've already made a training schedule since the producer told me to." Umi said, patting her bag. "Everything's planned out."
"As expected of Umi-chan!" Kotori clapped her hands together in a gesture of applause. Honoka couldn't even follow with the idea of filming of a beach but they also wanted her to follow a training schedule while she was there? She had enough of training on a daily basis now and occasionally wished she could go back to the time when she agreed to be a character in the documentary and slap herself. Then again, if she hadn't chosen to audition on a whim, her life wouldn't be as interesting as it was now.
"Oh, she's here, she's here! Nico-senpai!" Rin waved as the third year walked slowly to their group.
"My siblings want souvenirs from my trip and wouldn't let me leave until I agreed." Nico said with a sigh.
"Then just get them some. We have plenty of time to do what we want until the production crew shows up tomorrow." Nozomi smiled and patted Nico on the back. "But before that, I think Eri-chi has something she wanted to say."
"That obvious, huh?" Eri coughed awkwardly and stepped into the center of their small group. "The script for this week's episode is focused on erasing the borders that separate us at school. Therefore, it would be good practice if we were to start addressing each other more casually today and tomorrow so that it will seem more natural."
"More casually...huh?" Maki turned to Nozomi. "Hm...Nozomi...onee-chan?"
"Ara, ara. I would be pleased to have such a cute little sister." Eri sighed, though she was still smiling at their interaction.
"That's a bit too much, Maki."
"Just 'Nozomi' then?" Nozomi pouted slightly at Eri's chastising, though she knew that having a sisterly relationship pronounced in their show would not do any good for the viewers.
"Yeah, that'll do. Everyone keep that in mind while we spend the next few days together." After she received assent from the rest of the group, Eri checked her watch for the time and froze. "Uh...we're going to be late if we don't run for it right now!"
"Um...even if we missed this train, there are others heading that way, just a little later." Kotori mentioned as she looked at the rest of her friends draped haphazardly on their seats, tired out from the sprint to the train. "...everyone knew that...right?"
"Let's not talk about it…" Eri said, righting herself in her seat by the window. Kotori nodded and sank into the seat next to Umi. Honoka leaned back in her seat, glancing around now that her heart rate was returning to normal. It occurred to her that she hadn't gone on a train to head outside the city in a long time, let alone with other girls her age and she was now curious as to what the outside looked like from inside a train. Except she couldn't see, as she had just flopped down in the closest seat when she was tired, and was now the furthest away from the window on their side.
As she strained to get a look outside the window, she inadvertently got Eri's attention instead. Eri looked at Honoka and the window a couple times before making the connection, at which point she decided to help her. "You're welcome to come and sit on my lap if you want, Honoka."
All the attention was on her again, and Honoka turned away, her arms crossed. "No way. I'm fine where I am."
"Okay, we've arrived at our destination. What should we do first?" Eri was the one who asked the question, but everyone looked at Honoka for an answer. She personally wanted to just stay in the villa for the rest of the day but somehow felt that no one else besides her wanted to stay inside the whole day.
"Let's put everything down inside the house first and explore the city, I guess?" Honoka suggested. "We'll be spending all of tomorrow at the beach after all." She just wanted to spend as little time close to the beach as she possibly could while she still had the chance to.
"That sounds like a good plan." Maki commented. "I'll show you around since I've been here before."
"Right. Let's meet up outside the villa in ten minutes. We'll walk around the town then. Sounds good to everyone?" Honoka looked at Eri, who was confidently directing the schedule for the day. If Eri was the leader, wouldn't they get a lot more done than the half-hearted way that she was urging them? She couldn't even keep up with them, sometimes, on the intensity of interest they had on becoming proper school idols. Even though it was her idea to start pushing for that goal. "Come on, Honoka. Don't you want to put your stuff down?" It was just the two of them; the rest of the group had gone inside for the time being.
"Yeah, I guess I should." Honoka hefted her bag once more and trudged into the building, Eri following close behind.
Honoka peered over Nico's shoulder as the third year scrolled through the pictures she had taken throughout their first day at the beach. "Jeez...why did I have to be the photographer?"
"Because everyone else forgot to bring a proper camera." Maki called out from the second floor. "Hanayo, catch!" She tossed a pillow down to where the other first year was waiting on the spread out futons. "Rin too!"
"Eh?" Rin was closer to the kitchen than the futons, and had to dive to catch the pillow that was on a direct trajectory to the floor. "I wasn't even close to the futons, Maki-chan!" She complained, tossing the pillow uncermoniously onto one of the blankets.
"You caught it though. Here!" Maki dropped another one.
"First years." Nico said, as if that explained all of the commotion going on regarding the transport of bed materials from the second floor to the first. "Here, if you want to continue looking. I'm going to get some tea." She handed the camera to Honoka and stood up, heading for the kitchen. Honoka followed her with her gaze as a misaimed pillow hit Nico in the back of her head.
"Sorry, Nico-chan! Can you toss that onto the futons?" Maki shouted, throwing another pillow down to Hanayo.
"Can you walk down with the pillows next time? It's only a few seconds longer than throwing it around!" Nico retorted, picking up the pillow and tossing it to Rin.
"Yeah, but this is easier!" Honoka turned her attention to the camera, flipping through the images. Maybe they shouldn't have let Nico be the photographer after all, even if she was the only one who brought a proper camera. There was a disproportionate amount of photos of one particular member compared to the others, she realized with a dry laugh. She turned the camera off and put it safely on the side table.
"Maki-chan, don't you think this is enough pillows?" Rin asked. There was a large mound of pillows in the center of the futons now. "We only need nine of them…"
"Three! Two! One! Juump!" Rin shrieked as Maki plummeted from the second floor into the stack of pillows. The red-head rolled to the side, laughing at Rin's face. "Rin should try it too!"
"No way! You could get hurt from something like that!" Rin protested. Maki shrugged, got up, and started building up the mound of pillows again. "Don't tell me you're jumping again?!"
"No, but she is." Maki placed the last pillow back onto the mound. "Okay. Hanayo!"
"Let's go!" Hanayo landed on the pillows and giggled as she got up.
"Can't we even trust you to get the futons laid out?" Eri chided, though, like the other members, she had a small smile on her face.
"But we did get the futons laid out!" Hanayo stated.
"It was just the pillows that we played around with!" Maki continued. "I'll put them back, so no worries, right?"
"We only need nine pillows, Maki-chan." Nozomi said gently.
"Okaaaay…" She looked at Hanayo, and they both nodded.
"You're going to carry them, not throw them." Nico said, finally with a cup of tea in her hands.
"Ah, we were busted." Hanayo said. She picked up a few pillows. "No choice then. Come on, Maki-chan." With a sigh of disappointment, the more stubborn first year followed suit and picked up some of the stacked pillows. The two started up the stairs to put the pillows away, slightly but not really regretting stacking so many pillows to jump down on.
Honoka sat up in her futon, unable to fall asleep. But she didn't want to disturb her friends' slumber, so she crawled slowly away from them until she could stand up without alerting any of them. "The beach...wouldn't have any people there right now." She paused. It was the Nishikino's beachside villa, so the beach right in front of the home was private property. There wouldn't be people there regardless of the time. "Guess I'll go."
It was quiet, down by the ocean, with only the soft sounds of the waves hitting shore. There were more stars than she had seen at night in Tokyo, and the moon shone brightly above the water. Such a strange place, to be the inspiration for so many paintings, songs, and shows.
"Did you know there are more grains of sand on this beach than stars that you can see in the sky?" Honoka turned around, startled.
"Eri-senpai." The third year 'tsked' and shook her finger at her.
"Try again, Honoka." Honoka had almost forgotten the 'no senpai' rule that was the focus of their trip.
"What are you doing out here so late?" She purposely avoided use of the older student's name and she knew that Eri knew she had opted out of addressing her in a much more casual manner.
"I could be asking you the same thing. Maybe I'm here to look at the stars. Or maybe I'm here to take a nighttime dip in the ocean." Eri grinned sheepishly.
"You shouldn't go for a swim at night. It's too cold. You could get sick." Honoka retorted.
"It was a joke. So...what's wrong?"
"Nothing much. Just thinking like 'is this what it's like to have a sleepover' or something. I've never done anything like it before." Honoka admitted reluctantly.
"Me neither." She looked at Eri in surprise. "I didn't like being popular, so I never tried to make friends or get close enough to anyone to do things like traveling together. But...it's kinda fun, isn't it?"
"Heck no. Everyone's loud and crazy and did you see what Maki-chan and Hanayo-chan did earlier?" Seriously...there's no way any of it could be fun."
"And yet here you are. At the beach, with a bunch of friends, and smiling like an idiot." Honoka flushed red as she touched her own face. Eri looked up at the dark sky. "The moon is beautiful, isn't it?"
"I'm not an idiot!" She hit Eri with her clenched fists, determined to knock that teasing smile off her senior's face. The last statement she made really had no context with the rest of their conversation and she couldn't see what the moon's beauty had to do with her supposed idiocy.
"Let's go back inside before we catch a cold. We still have filming to do, and they don't want to see sleep-deprived idols running around." Eri was headed back to the villa, and it was clear that she wanted Honoka to follow. She took one last look at the moon, still not understanding the meaning behind Eri's remark on the subject, and trotted after her. There really was no meaning to being sleep-deprived and slowing down the production of their show.
The next morning passed in a blur as the film crew showed up before any of them actually managed to get further than the kitchen in terms of waking up. They were briefed on the plans for the day over breakfast, with the producer stressing heavily on how she wanted to capture them being as natural as possible.
"Ah. I forgot my swimsuit." Honoka said as she dug through her bag of clothes. Or rather, she had simply neglected to bring it in so that she wouldn't have to be filmed in such skimpy clothing.
"Don't worry! We have an extra one in your size!" Kotori announced.
"Eh?! What the- How the heck did you get my sizes?!"
"Well...I took a look at the measurements they did to make the stage clothes and your sizes are pretty much the same as Maki-chan's so yeah!" Honoka backed up.
"Did you prepare extras for everyone too?" She asked.
"No. We got a text from Yukiho warning us that you don't have a swimsuit and to prepare one for you. So we did." Maki calmly replied. Honoka made a note to herself to smack Yukiho for putting her in such a situation. "You can't have a beach-themed episode without all the members in swimsuits, right?"
"Actually I was...planning on skipping out?" She made a dash for it as the rest of Muse paused to think about her statement.
"Wait, the main character can't skip out on an episode!"
"So this is the schedule I made as prop for this episode." Umi said, showing off the work she had put in for the filming. The other members, except for Kotori, who had already seen the schedule, and Honoka, who was sulking in the corner, gathered around to look at it.
"Swimming...10 km, followed by running...10 km?!" was the collective shocked response.
"No way, no way, no way! That's impossible!" Maki complained, voicing the thoughts of practically every other member who was looking at the schedule.
"That's what the script said. A nearly impossible training regime for Muse."
"O-Oi, Honoka! Say something!" Nico urged, finally grabbing their leader's attention away from sulking about being forced to wear a swimsuit.
"Rin-chan!" The orange-haired teen saluted smartly and took Umi by her arm.
"Umi-chan, look over there!" As Umi looked for the nonexistent thing Rin was pointing at, Honoka and the other members made a run for the beach.
She was huddled under the shade of an umbrella a few minutes later, taking a break from being on-screen. Even with the order to be 'natural' as they filmed this episode, she still couldn't get over the idea of being filmed in such a revealing outfit long enough to go along with the rest of the group.
"Honoka-chan! Let's play!" The beach volleyball rolled to a stop near the umbrella, and Honoka picked it up. Kotori waved at her, which made it all the more difficult to refuse.
"Okay! I'm coming!" She was still self-conscious about her appearance, but she would blend in more if she was with the larger group. Hopefully.
They still had one more day of play after the filming was done. Everything for the villa part of the episode had been filmed and the crews were headed back to the city to do the editing. Muse was left alone as they were still on a holiday from school and saw no need to return so soon. With the cameras gone, Honoka felt as if she could go on the beach, in a swimsuit, without getting embarrassed. Or she did, until A-Rise showed up at the villa.
"Ah, I invited them. The filming's over, so it should be fine, right?" Maki didn't think she had done anything wrong by inviting the three to join them on their last day at the beach, and couldn't understand why Honoka suddenly started hitting her head against the outer wall.
If you understood what Eri meant by her moon statement, you're awesome and deserve a internet cookie! :D