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I do hope you enjoy the chapter and I will update again as soon as I can :)
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Rima sighed; for the past two hours, she had been modelling in various outfits and posing with all of the Guardians either individually or in pairs or in threes and now they want them all together in a group?
Kill me now…
She turned to look at Amu and Aiko who were the last to return from changing back in their usual style of uniform. She had observed that the twins seemed much more comfortable in the photo shoots compared to everyone else; so much so that they posed boldly with each other and finished their shots rather quickly yet with ease and poise. It almost seemed like the two had posed for photo shoots before because it looked like they were in their element. Of course, this reminded Rima to remember the time Amu had modelled with Yua last year. She always thought Amu would shy away from things like that since she usually avoided pictures with her fan club members but Amu surprised everyone by her natural performance in front of the camera and her chemistry with an established model like Yua.
Had Amu ever modelled before?
"Mashiro-san! We are ready for the shoot; could you please join the others?"
Rima turned and saw everyone patiently waiting in front of the green screen and so she came toward them, moving to stand in the centre of the former Guardians. Formal shots were easy but the tiring ones were the fun shots; goofy faces, jumping about, hugging and all sorts of others ridiculous poses. There was even a shot of Aiko and Kukai carrying Tadase easily on their shoulders with Amu and Nagi doing the same with Rima as a show of the Guardians loyalty to the King and Queen.
After the photographer was done, Amu and Aiko clapped and thanked the crew for all their hard work making several members of the crew blush and smile at their sincerity. Before the rest of the former Guardians could chime in their thanks, Manami appeared and ushered the group to an empty classroom where two older schoolmates were waiting.
"Hi, I'm Yumi and this is Yuu-kun. We'll be conducting this group interview. Please have a seat everyone."
Nagi observed the interviewers curiously; Yumi seemed the athletic type, noting her long brunette hair tied into a high ponytail and her school team's tennis jacket that was worn over her dress shirt instead of the regulation blazer. She playfully nudged at her friend's shoes with her expensive sneakers to get his attention. Yuu with very neatly-combed hair seemed like the book-smart type. He wore his uniform strictly following the regulation and wore black rectangular spectacles; he seemed to be looking over at everyone in a calculating way even though everyone seemed to be more occupied in eating their melon buns and drinking their juice boxes provided by Manami.
"Are all of you okay to start?"
Aiko took one long swig of his juice box loudly before lifting his feet up on the table and sitting in his chair, completely laid back, "Go on right ahead."
Amu smirked seeing Yuu wrinkle his nose in distaste and cast a small smile at Yumi, giving her the signal to start. Yuu smartly turned on his recorder as Yumi took a breath to steady herself.
"Well first off, we want to ask how do you find Seiyo Middle School thus far? We know it's been only a few days but we adjusting to a new school is quite an experience."
Nagi spoke first, "Well, the school is definitely much bigger here as compared to the elementary school and there are so many more after-school clubs here. It's pretty amazing."
Yumi nodded, "We all know that Amu and Aiko had joined our Magazine but what about the three of you? Any extra-curricular activities that you guys are interested in?"
Tadase smiled, "Well the three of us had actually all agreed to join the Student Council. I know Fujisaki-kun will be joining basketball as a second club."
Kukai grinned, "So I guess I'm having Nagi as my basketball kouhai huh? That's going to be fun! But this year is going to be tough, I'm planning to take both my teams to the big leagues this year."
Nagi and Kukai shared a fist bump causing Yuu to clear his throat for the attention to turn to him.
"Souma-kun, you are the oldest among the Guardians, do you expect Seiyo Middle School to change in any way now that your former squad members have joined you here?"
"Hell yeah! I bet things are going to get a lot more noisy! I thought my fan club was bad but I know first-hand that their fan clubs are just bad!"
Aiko let out a snort whilst his sister, Amu laughed uneasily along with the rest of the gang.
Yuu adjusted his glasses before speaking again, "Has it been difficult for you in your first year without them?"
"No not at all! I see them all the time after school when I'm not at practice. I never really miss them and I have all my soccer friends in my class for first year to keep me company so it's all good."
Yuu nodded and wrote it down giving Yumi a chance to speak.
"What do all of you think about your fan-clubs?"
Nagi smiled, "It's flattering to be honest."
"But does it ever bother you? I mean surely it can get frustrating with girl/guys chasing you all everywhere right?"
"They don't chase us all the time." Rima says suddenly much to the former Jack's surprise.
"Do you enjoy the attention your fanboys give you?"
Rima's expression remained passive, "I think any girl would at least enjoy a little that she's able to attract some attention for the opposite sex."
"What do you think Amu-san?" Yumi asks, turning to the other female in the group.
"I agree with Rima. It's normal for any girl to feel like that when it comes to attention" Amu answers plainly, shrugging nonchalantly.
Yuu looks up at Amu, side-eyeing Aiko curiously, "I've heard rumors that your brother isn't very tolerant of your fanboys though."
"Hn, you make it sound like I've manhandled them. I had never touched any of them. I just glare at them to keep them away from my sister when she's in class. The fanclubs can follow us around, take pictures of us or approach us as they wish but not when we're in class when we need to focus on our schoolwork."
To say Yuu was surprised was an understatement; the teen was impressed by Aiko's seriousness towards his schoolwork and noted so in his notepad.
"What about the rest of you? We have heard stories that some girls can go as far as to touching you."
Aiko shrugs, "I've been kissed, hugged and even tackled by fangirls but just like the others here we shrug it off and usually for the rest they politely tell them not to do it again but for me, I would tell them off. Nobody should be touched like that without permission."
Yuu nodded while his partner, Yumi looked thoughtful.
"Have any of you ever wondered why fangirls are more aggressive with physical contact than fanboys? From what I've seen, fanboys and fangirls usually bring the person they are obsessing over gifts or chocolate or bentos but I haven't seen any fanboy trying to reach out for a touch like fangirls do."
Amu shrugged, "Personally, I think it's just gender respect. I mean if a guy suddenly grabs a girl or touches a girl intimately, a girl would naturally be uncomfortable and might even scream molestation but for guys when it comes to intimate touch, it doesn't really bother them as much as it bothers girls from what I've seen."
The guys all nodded in agreement and Yumi noted it down. Yuu then asked his next question.
"Amu-san and Aiko-san, why did you two join Seiyo Magazine to begin with? Why didn't you remain with your friends in another club? Or even join Student Council with them?"
Amu sweatdropped at her senpai's forward questions but Aiko was more that ready and did so in a smooth tone to let his sister gather her thoughts.
"Amu and I always try to make it a habit to venture out of our comfort zones as much as we can so when Wakana and Manami came to us with their offer, we became interested after hearing them out so we joined them without a fuss. My sister and I have always been strong in language and literature but we wanted a challenge so when the opportunity came up to write articles and doing interviews, it intrigued us."
Amu nods at her brother before addressing the interviewers herself, "Our parents actually are both involved with the publishing industry so it is needless to say that we were curious to find out for ourselves what and how is it like to do the things our parents does to make a living and provide for our family."
"Ah right! We heard that your mom is a celebrity journalist and your dad is a really famous fashion photographer."
Amu let out a loud snort at what she said that it even made her brother smirk. Yumi however was confused, wondering what did she say wrong so she listened intently as the female pinkette corrected her.
"My mother, Hinamori Midori is not a journalist but the editor of the magazine, Housewives' Knowledge; you probably know of it as it is pretty popular. My father, Hinamori Tsumugu is not a fashion photographer but a freelance wildlife bird photographer and my father's day job is working as a photography professor at Tokyo University."
Yumi's jaw dropped in shock at how wrong the rumours were but her companion remained passive. Yuu adjusted his glasses before asking in curiosity why the twins had never corrected their fans. Amu shrugs nonchalantly in return, explaining that the fans were always so excitable around them that they found it hard to get a word in to tell them the truth about their parents.
Aiko runs his hand through his pink hair, almost bored as he speaks up again, "Anyway, back to the topic of the Guardians, all of us here are friends but that does not mean we need to cling on to each other by the hip forever. It was bound to happen sooner or later that we would be separated by our interests, all of us here are pretty different from each other after all. Tadase wants to make the world a better place so he will eventually go into politics, Rima enjoys comedy and Nagi loves sports and the performing arts. All of us here have separate paths that will take us from each other but that does not mean that our relationship will become strained. We Guardians have a strong bond with each other so you can bet that it'll take a lot to break our friendship."
To say Rima was touched by Aiko's passionate words was an understatement, she could feel tears in her eyes. She resisted the urge to sniffle until she felt a familiar warm hand moving to clasp hers. She turns to see Amu smiling at her gently. Without hesitation, Rima mouthed 'sorry' to her friend making Amu smile wider and squeeze her friend's hand more in hers as a silent way of telling the small blonde that all was well.
After a few more questions, the interview was finally over much to the relief of everyone who was eager to get home and get to their school work. Seiyo Middle School teachers had the habit of giving a lot of homework. The Guardians graciously thanked the interviewers for their time before leaving the school together as a group for the first time since they started middle school and this time, everyone was smiling.
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