Chapter 15: Partners and Idols


That night, Ritsu woke up to use the washroom, and when she got up from her bed, she noticed Mio still awake and typing away on her phone with a smile on her face. The drummer glanced at the clock in their room, which read '12:30'. Strange, Ritsu thought, Mio never stays up this late. After Ritsu stepped out of the bathroom, Mio's face was still illuminated with her phone's light.

Her curiosity taking over, Ritsu silently sneaked over to Mio's bed, and quickly turned the bassist's phone screen around, which displayed a LINE chat. But right before Ritsu could get a good look at who Mio was texting, the drummer was swiftly karate-chopped by the latter.

"Baka!" Mio scolded, "What are you doing?"

"Hehe, just wanted to surprise you," the drummer laughed weekly, massaging the rising bump on her head. Mio glared at Ritsu, before shutting off her phone. "Sooo," Ritsu continued, "Who were you texting?"

"Oh," Mio replied, her cheeks reddening a little, "My partner for my Literature project. We agreed to meet up to do our project tomorrow afternoon, or well later in the afternoon."

"Oh," Ritsu said, starting to get a strange sense of curiosity, "What's she like?"

Mio's face suddenly glowed up as she broke into a smile. "Her name's Hanako and she's so nice!" Mio beamed, "She plays the sax and so we played some jazz together the other day and it sounded so great! Also-"

"Yeah, I heard enough," Ritsu waved her friend off, "Just don't have too much fun with her, you have a project to do."

Mio raised her eyebrows and replied, "I always do my work, you need not worry."

"Don't do too much work either," Ritsu yawned, "You have been coming home looking really tired for the past week."

Mio blushed as the drummer returned to her bed. Mio had always felt warm inside whenever the drummer showed concern for her.

"I won't," Mio replied, smiling at the drummer.


*Knock*

*Knock*

*Knock*

Azusa opened her eyes slowly. Someone was knocking at her door, did she oversleep? The guitarist glanced at the clock which read '5:54', frowning after reading the time.

Azusa sleepily walked to the door, opening to reveal a bubbly Yui. "Good morning Azunyan!" Yui happily greeted the younger girl. The older guitarist was already dressed up and looked much more awake then the younger girl. "Yui-senpai…" Azusa muttered, "What are you doing here at this ungodly hour?"

"For our date of course!" Yui replied, "I thought we could go earlier since we have to get to our job later."

"Yui-senpai," Azusa replied, blushing, "First off, stop calling it a date, we're just eating out together. Secondly, did it cross your mind that we have much more time after we're done with our shift?"

Yui blinked in confusion, before laughing sheepishly. "Hehe, sorry Azunyan, I guess I got a bit excited," Yui giggled, "So what do we do now?"

"Let me sleep," Azusa growled, closing the door in Yui's face.

One hour later...

Azusa texted Yui to tell her she's ready to go, only to get no response. Azusa had a suspicion her senpai went back to bed… which was proven right when she knocked on the latter's dorm door. The younger girl was greeted with a sleepy looking Yui, who was wearing her pajamas, complete with bed hair.

After dragging Yui out of campus, the two guitarists hopped onto a bus towards the mall where the Max Burger they worked at was located. Thankfully, they managed to arrive right on time, but they did not manage to escape the scolding their fellow employee gave them.

A few hours passed and Yui and Azusa were dismissed from their shift. "Ahhh! Now where should we go to eat?" Yui grinned, opening her wallet, "I didn't bring much cash."

Azusa sighed at her senpai's clumsiness, taking out her wallet which contained nothing but air. The two guitarists stared at the empty wallet for a moment before Azusa blushed furiously. Yui giggled before saying, "That's okay Azunyan! I think if we just have two cups of tea at the cafe, we would still have enough money for your bus fare."

Azusa's face turned redder if that was even possible, but nodded anyway because, well, she couldn't refuse or she would have to walk back to campus.

In spite of Yui's assurance that they had enough money to get tea at a café, the only drinks they could afford were canned, which were twice as expensive as the same kind of drinks sold in a vending machine. And so the duo found themselves on a park bench, sipping from canned juice purchased from a vending machine.

Yui smiled sheepishly. "Sorry Azunyan," the older guitarist apologised, "This probably wasn't what we had in mind."

"No, it wasn't. But that's my fault too, I got careless and didn't check how much money I had," Azusa said, her cheeks red, "On that note, I have to thank you Yui-senpai. You're really thoughtful."

Yui grinned at the younger girl, before falling into a deep thought. "Hey Azunyan, how long has it been since we were together."

Azusa, who was sipping from her can, nearly spat out her drink. "W-what do you mean?" Azusa stuttered, cheeks beginning to redden again.

"Y'know, since we met," Yui said, paying little attention to Azusa's weird spasm.

Azusa internally face palmed, heart still beating fast. "O-oh, that's what you meant," Azusa said, "Uh, around three years?"

"Ooh… then I think we are rather close aren't we?" Yui said nonchalantly. Where is she going with this, Azusa thought, feeling her face heat up. "I suppose so," Azusa said cautiously.

"Well, then," Yui said, turning to face Azusa, "Do you think you can drop the 'Senpai'? I think we're close enough to forget the whole Senpai-Kouhai thing."

Azusa blinked in confusion, this topic of conversation was not what Azusa expected.

"I've been calling you that for a long time now, it's gonna be hard to," Azusa huffed, not looking at Yui, "Besides it feels disrespectful."

"Aww come on, just try it! Yui! Like that!" Yui whined, standing up and facing Azusa. Azusa narrowed her eyes and sighed. "Fine," the younger girl relented.

Azusa stared into Yui's eyes, with Yui smiling widely in anticipation. The younger girl swallowed, opening and closing her mouth. Eventually Azusa managed to find her voice and said, "Y-Yui..."

"Awwwwww," Yui said, glomping the younger girl, "You're so adorable!"

Azusa blushed upon noticing stares targeting the duo. "Yui-senp-, Yui," Azusa said, "Stop it, people are watching!"


A tall girl with long silky red hair stood near the entrance of the University's library, waiting for a certain bassist to show up. "Hanako-san!" Mio called out to Hanako, "Sorry I'm late, I think I slept too late!"

The saxophonist smiled at Mio and said, "Don't be sorry Mio-san, it was kinda my fault for keeping you up texting."

Mio giggled, holding out a small box. "I bought some cake earlier, so think of this as an apology for being late, and I'm not taking 'no' for an answer," Mio laughed as Hanako looked at the beautifully decorated cake in awe. "All right, all right," Hanako surrendered, "But let's get some work done before we enjoy this treat."

The two women then headed to the library to work on their project, sitting at an empty table both giggling silently, joking with each other as they worked. A few bookshelves away, two other girls were crouching behind a bookshelf, one of the girls staring at Hanako with malicious intent.

"Tsk, they seem to be having fun," Ritsu scoffed, eyes narrowed at Hanako. Mugi smiled at the drummer and rubbed her back soothingly. "Now, now, Ricchan, isn't it nice that Mio-chan made a friend on her own?" Mugi said, "On another note this scenario seems rather familiar-"

"I'm gonna talk to them," Ritsu said, standing up. Mugi gasped before pulling Ritsu back to the ground. "Ricchan!" Mugi scolded, "If you do that, you might annoy Mio-chan and if you annoy Mio-chan, you two will get into a fight again!"

Ritsu blinked. Mugi was right. Back in High School, Mio had been spending a lot of time with Nodoka after they got into separate classes. Ritsu got jealous of Nodoka and started interrupting her and Mio whenever they were spending time with each other. This annoyed Mio and culminated in a fight in the clubroom. The drummer shook her head. She did not want to go through that kind of drama again.

But why was she jealous? She didn't think Mio would have a limited social circle forever did she? She's pretty, friendly and an all around good person to be around.

"Yeah you're right," Ritsu said, still looking a little dejected. "Hey I know!" Ritsu said, an idea popping up in her head, "Let's go out and have fun Mugi!"

Mugi smiled at the drummer. "If that makes you happy Ricchan," the keyboardist replied.


"All right girls, you ready for another day of practice?" Akira grinned at Sachi and Ayame as they entered the Studio building. Sachi and Ayame made unintelligible noises in agreement. The band walked towards their studio room, not before noticing a group of four girls talking to Maeda nearby. Akira raised her eyebrows at the group talking with Maeda, only to have a surge of anger rush through her body. Yuki. And her group of friends. Talking to Maeda. For what?

Akira stomped her way towards the group, clearing her throat to get Maeda's attention. "Ah, Akira-chan," Maeda greeted. Akira smiled weakly, turning to Yuki, saying, "Hey Maeda-senpai and uh, Yuki, what are you doing here?"

Yuki grinned at Akira, replying, "Oh, Mae-chan didn't tell you? My friends and I are joining the company as idols!"

Onna Gumi tried their best to have a smile on their face, all of them internally cringing. "I-I'm sure you guys would do great," Sachi said, trying her best to sound sincere.

"Thanks!" Yuki said, a false smile etched on her face, "Let's grow as stars together!"

After entering their studio, out of earshot of Yuki's group. "What the fuck is this Yuki bitch's problem?!" Akira lashed out. "Yanderes go to great lengths to keep their bae," Sachi reminded the guitarist, "We should have seen something like this coming."

Akira rubbed her temple, and replied, "Forget it, let's practise."


After Onna Gumi were done practising, they went to the Studio's café, where Yuki was sitting with her group. Yuki waved at the band and called them to sit at their table. "Akira-tan!" Yuki called out in false excitement, "Come sit with us!"

The band exchanged looks of exasperation, before reluctantly sitting with the newly formed idol group.

"So what inspired you to form this group Watanabe-San?" Ayame asked Yuki, trying her best to sound friendly. Yuki's mouth twitched. "Ohoho," Yuki laughed, "You see, it was a humble start actually, I was inspired by this this idol franchise called 'Love Live!'."

"Really Yuki-chan?" one of Yuki's friends piped up, "I invited you to watch the anime with me but you turned me down and said it wasn't your taste."

So her friends don't know about her true intentions forming the group, Ayame, Sachi and Akira thought. Yuki's mouth twitched again, covering up any sense of annoyance with another Ojou laugh. "Well, y'know, I succumbed to peer pressure and binged the whole anime series," Yuki lied through her teeth.

Akira sneered, "Well then, how good are you guys at this whole idol thing, can you dance any good?"

"We got a video actually!" another one of Yuki's friends said, "We aren't very good but I'll show you!" The girl then whipped out her phone and showed the band a recording of the aspiring idols' terribly coordinated dance. Akira gave a spiteful laugh. "That's dancing?" the guitarist laughed.

Yuki's mouth twitched once more as Onna Gumi and her friends were giggling away.

After they finished eating, the band and the idol group began to leave the building. After the idol group walked out of the premises, Yuki turned around, facing the band.

"Laugh all you want Wada-san, but let me remind you that I have almost no interest in the whole idol thing, the main idea is to keep Mae-chan away from you and I will do exactly that," Yuki whispered to Akira. Ayame raised her fist only for Yuki to pull out a small blade. "Don't try to get in my way, any of you," Yuki grinned, "I can and will make your life hell if necessary."

"Just having the displeasure of being in your presence already feels like it," Akira growled, "Fuck off."

"Yuki-chan!"

Yuki turned and gave a thumbs up to her friends who only just reappeared to call for her. Yuki flashed one final smirk to the band before skipping out of the building.

Akira, Sachi and Ayame stood where they were, a silence looming over them. "You know," Ayame piped up, "The smart thing to do is to inform her friends or like literally anyone we can trust that she's not right in the head."

Akira shook her head, "No. She will think we are weak. I'm not letting her think that I can't take what she throws at me."

Sachi nodded and added, "She's also an Ojou who has influence online, she can very easily make our life miserable."


Just then, a voice called out to the band. "Yo! You guys gonna keep standing there?"

Onna Gumi turned around to face Ritsu and Mugi, holding bags of clothes and snacks. "What are you guys doing here?" Ayame asked as the group walked to the bus stop together. "We were in the area," Mugi replied, "So we thought we would stop by. How was everyone's day?"

Onna Gumi related the events that occurred, causing Ritsu and Mugi to frown. "I don't see why you are still bothering with that woman," Ritsu sighed, "Akira, no offence but it would be best to stop chasing after that Maeda."

Akira raised her eyebrows and snapped, "This isn't about me! It's clear that that sad excuse of a human being Yuki Watanabe is dangerous, and she could hurt Maeda-senpai!"

"Tell someone about it then!" Ritsu argued.

"That's what we are afraid of," Sachi replied, "Watanabe-san has a lot of influence and she's rich, and with her personality, it could mean her making our life miserable for example, one post containing false info about Akira-chan and us could result in shit like us being the subject of gossip. Everyone would hate us."

"Watanabe…" Mugi muttered, "I think I know her." Onna Gumi and Ritsu looked at the keyboardist. "Of course you do," Ritsu quipped.

"My family has a professional relationship with her's for years now," Mugi said, "I was asked to play with her at a company party once and she's- sadistic to put it nicely."

Ayame widened her eyes curiously, "What do you mean?"

"My mansion has a small garden out back," Mugi continued, with Ritsu doubting Mugi's garden being 'small', "We were given magnifying glasses to observe the flora and such, and… she burned the ants alive, and a fire would have broken out if I didn't use the garden hose in time. She even convinced me not to tell anyone about it."

"So she was always one fucked up bitch then," Akira said, "She cut my back with a knife the first day we met."

Mugi gasped, "That's terrible! Why didn't you tell me Akira-chan?"

Akira laughed sheepishly, "Well I didn't want many people fretting over me y'know? Let's talk about something else."

Mugi reluctantly nodded. After Ritsu and Mugi told the band about their Girl's Day Out. Two other girls hopped on to the bus. "Ah Ricchan! Mugi-chan! Everyone!" Yui said, dashing over to where the group sat, Azusa following after.

"Senpais," Azusa greeted the group. "What have you two been up to?" Ritsu asked, a smirk forming on her face.

"Oh, nothing much, after we finished our shift, Yui-senpa-, ahem, Yui and I went to the park," Azusa said. The seniors looked at Azusa in suprise. "When did you start calling her 'Yui'?" Ritsu gasped as Mugi's eyes sparkled. "Could it be that you two are an item?" Mugi asked excitedly.

Azusa blushed furiously. Yui smiled, "No, it's not like that, I just thought that we are close enough for Azunyan to be less formal."

"Ooh, in that case, remove the 'senpai' part for us too!" Mugi requested, holding both of Azusa's hands.

"M-Mugi," Azusa said, face reddening more. Onna Gumi, Mugi and Yui 'awww'ed at Azusa's moe.

"Now me!" Ritsu demanded, squeezing Azusa's cheeks. "Ow! Okay!" Azusa said, "R-Ritsu...ke!"

The group erupted in laughter at what Azusa just said. "Ritsuke!" Ayame laughed. "Good one Azusa-chan," Akira praised, laughing to the point her stomach hurt.

Ritsu pouted as she pulled Azusa by her cheeks. "Nakano…!" the drummer scolded.


"Hahaha," Mio laughed, "Ritsuke?!"

"Yeah, yeah laugh it out," Ritsu pouted. Apparently, Yui had texted Mio about Ritsu's apparent new nickname, the drummer making a mental note to punish Yui the next time they see each other. "So where have you been the whole day?" Mio asked the drummer.

"Out with Mugi," Ritsu replied, not looking Mio in the eye, "Enjoyed your date with Honoka or whatever?"

Mio frowned, blushing. "Hanako," the bassist replied, "No, it was not a date but yes, I had lots of fun, I went to her dorm room after we made good progress on the project. We even made some chocolate together "

Ritsu felt a surge of jealousy. "W-well, I had lots of fun too!" Ritsu said, "Mugi and I went to see that Demon Slayer movie and we went to an arcade and it was really cool. Y'know more interesting than making chocolate." The drummer stuck her tongue out to the frowning bassist.

"I made quite a lot of chocolate for you," the bassist said, picking up a tied bag and holding out to the drummer, "I spent quite a lot of time on it too."

Ritsu paused, taking the bag, opening it to be greeted to the sweet aroma of chocolate. Ritsu then realised how embarrassing the situation was for her, turning her back on Mio to hide her blush. She plopped a chocolate in her mouth, embracing the sweet taste satisfying her taste buds. Ritsu smiled, turning back towards Mio.

"Ehh, it's mediocre," the drummer teased. Mio narrowed her eyes before snapping, "What?! I spent so much time on it, and I tasted it too! You're so blunt sometimes you know that?! You could have at least-"

"Thank you, I appreciate it," Ritsu grinned to the bassist, placing the chocolates on her bedside table. Mio's heart fluttered for a moment as she blushed at the real sincerity of the drummer's words of appreciation.

"L-let's go to sleep baka," Mio stuttered, "You have classes tomorrow."

Ritsu smiled, as she got under her covers. "Yes ma'am."


Sorry for the late update! I'll be heading into the more plot and romance related chapters now, I hope anyway. Thanks for waiting and until next time!