September 26, 1980

In a backstage dressing room, a white-haired girl about 16 prepared herself for what would be her first televised performance. As she looked at herself in the mirror, she grabbed a vinyl record from a box that read "JUNKO'S MUSIC-DO NOT TOUCH!"

An assistant looked over and said, "You like them?"

"Yeah," she replied. "My father took me to see them when I was like 11, and from there it was like a match made in heaven." She then pulled the record out of its sleeve and placed it on a record played. "I play them to calm myself down." As she pressed play, the beginning to what was then Queen's newest album, The Game, began. Once the song began, Junko began quietly singing to herself the lyrics to Play The Game as she applied some makeup.

Then, another assistant ran in and said, "About 10 minutes, Junko!"

"Got it," she replied. She then thought to herself, "This will be the day I stake my claim in music. I've rehearsed for God knows how long. I am ready."

After the performance, she and her father were celebrating backstage with several crew members. "Your hard work paid off, Junko! Not a single beat was missed!"

"Thanks, Dad," she replied as she hugged him. "I rehearsed well."

Then, another crew member came running in from a break room. He was white as a ghost, and looked as if he had received shocking news. "Konno-san!"

Junko's father asked, "Which one?" Both him ad Junko were worried about the crew member.

"You'll never guess what just happened!" The crew member then took a deep breath as he collected himself. "John Bonham... He..."

Immediately, Junko ran up to him and asked him in a serious tone, "Asui-san, what happened to John Bonham?"

"He's dead," the crew member replied. "The radio just announced it."

"What? No way," Junko's father replied in disbelief. "He can't be." He then looked over at his daughter, who was now shaking. "Junko, honey, are you alright?"

"John... John is dead..." His death hit the young girl like a ton of bricks. Her first concert had been on Led Zeppelin's first tour of Japan in 1971 when she was just 7 years old, followed by seeing them again a year later on their second and last tour of the country, and the year before in 1979, she and her father had seen them again in Knebworth while he was away on business. One of the many tapes Junko had sent in for auditioning was one of her singing Communication Breakdown and Rock and Roll, among other songs she sung in both Japanese and English.

December 9, 1980

Junko spent most of the day locked in her room, depressed over more tragic music news. As she wiped tears from her face, she changed the vinyl records out on her record player and put in the album Imagine.

As the title track began playing, her father walked in to check on her. He was about to say something, but remained silent as John Lennon's voice came through the player. As Junko burst into tears again, her father sat down beside her and hugged her, whispering to him, "I know, honey. I miss him already, too."

October 20, 1982

In Fukuoka, Junko was backstage at a Queen concert. Having finished a short promotional tour recently, she had decided to follow the band throughout the Japanese leg of the Hot Space Tour. After the Fukuoka show on the 19th, she had met the band, and they invited her to backstage for the other 5 dates of the tour. As she listened to the band finish up Somebody To Love, she said to herself, "They must have skipped Play The Game."

Suddenly, as the stage went quiet, Roger Taylor, the drummer of the band, rushed to backstage from his position on stage as Junko saw the lights dim. He looked white as a ghost and sickly. She asked him as he went past, "Roger, are you alright?"

"Nope!" The drummer quickly ran to another hallway as Brian May, the guitarist, looked out.

"Bloody hell," he said to himself. "Roger's sick."

Then, the man himself, Freddie Mercury, as well as bassist John Deacon, also looked at where Roger had ran. Junko asked the three of them, "Is he gonna be okay?"

"He will be," Freddie replied back. "He better be. We have to figure out how to break to over 15,000 fans that we have to cancel the rest of the concert."

John replied to his suggestion, "Cancel?"

"What else can we do?" Brian was frustrated. "We can't continue without a bloody drummer!" He also looked deeply concerned for Roger, wondering what was wrong with him.

"I can play the drums," Junko immediately spoke up. "I know the setlist, and I know how to drum to the songs." She was eager to see the concert not get cancelled early.

"I don't know," Freddie skeptically noted. "We also need someone to fill in for his vocals."

"I can do that," Junko replied. "After all, my English is good enough speaking. I sing in it perfectly. Please, let me take over until he starts feeling better."

"Why not?" Brian spoke up in favor of it. "It wouldn't hurt." At this point, the guitarist of Queen was willing to go with anything to keep the concert going.

"Fine then," Freddie agreed. "Let's get out there. Junko, you do know what's next right?" He seemed a bit reluctant to let Junko take over.

"Calling All Girls," Junko replied.

"Correct," he replied back, impressed. "If you ever get lost, the setlist is on the floor next to the stool."

The four of them then walked back out onto stage. As Junko took her seat, she noted the bright lights above her and the screaming crowd before her. She had never played to such a large crowd before, her highest being 3,000. It was exhilarating to her.

"Okay," Freddie addressed the audience. "So, sorry for the delay we had there. Unfortunately, Roger got a bit sick, so he'll be taking a break for a bit. However, we do have a friend you may know on the drums in his place for a bit." He then pointed to Junko. "Her name is Junko Konno." He then turned to her. "Did I pronounce that right?" The audience cheered at the mention of her name.

"Yeah!"

"Okay," he continued with the audience. "She's really good, and she'll give you all a hell of a time!" He then have a hand signal to Junko to start with the next song. "This next one is in fact a Roger Taylor composition! This is a message of love called Calling All Girls!"

Junko nodded and began drumming along to the beat of Calling All Girls. Her drumming was tight and constant, playing almost exactly like Roger. She would ultimately drum and provide backing vocals from Calling All Girls up to the end of Under Pressure, upon which Roger took back over. At the end of the show, she was allowed back on stage to bow with the rest of the band for God Save The Queen.

October 1, 2018

In the present, Junko and Ai were listening together to a live album of the former's only headlining tour before her death. It had been released several months after her death in her memory. As they listened to her perform a cover of Maybe I'm Amazed by Paul McCartney live at the Budokan, Ai asked her, "For a Showa-era idol, I would have never guessed you'd play this on stage."

"Yeah," Junko replied. "The crowd ate it up, of course. Before the crash, I had already begun some planning about how to move on in the music industry after I got "too old" to be an idol. I was self-studying production, and I had helped to direct a film of my first night at the Budokan."

Her last comment reminded Ai of something. "Hey, Junko-chan, I want to show you something I found on YouTube."

"Youwhat?" Junko was still not fully used to the Internet. "What is that?"

"It's a video-sharing site on the Internet," Ai explained as she opened it up. "I want you to see something." She then typed in to the search bar 'Life Is Real Live in Japan 1985' and pressed enter.

"Life Is Real? That song?" Junko immediately recognized it. "I thought they only played it a couple times live in America."

"You said Queen was one of your favorite bands, right?" Ai then sighed as she clicked a video titled 'Life Is Real/Teo Torriatte by Queen at Yoyogi National Gymnasium 1985" and watched.

As the video began, Junko noticed that the band had most likely just finished up Love Of My Life. She was still getting used to the band's post-Hot Space work, and a world without Freddie Mercury. "I always liked that song. It was a nice tribute to Lennon."

Freddie in the video stated, "Okay, so... These next two songs we added to the set because about a year and a half ago, we lost a dear friend." He then wiped his forehead of sweat. "You may know her. We are going to do two songs in her memory, and the first is a song called Life Is Real."

Junko immediately knew who they were talking about: her. "Oh my God..." As the song went on, a tear fell from her eyes. Then, when a line was changed to replace John Lennon's name with her first name, she gasped as Ai hugged her. "They really..."

"I read up on what happened," Ai replied to her. "And the whole band was quoted as saying they were devastated by what happened to you. This was Freddie's last tour in Japan."

Junko nodded as the song ended. On the video, Brian May put his acoustic guitar away and then went to the piano to play Teo Torriatte. As the song began, Junko silently sang the song to herself as she tried to fight back tears. When the song reached the bridge before the third and final chorus, Junko could no longer hold back, and broke down.

As Ai comforted her, she patted her back and told her, "It's okay, it's okay."

December 20, 2018

A few days after Franchouchou's breakout performance, Junko relaxed by playing at the piano in the mansion to herself. Wearing headphones, she played along to piano-less backing tracks of various songs. As she played along to We Are The Champions, Ai noticed her and walked in.

Ai looked at her, noticing Junko had not even seen her walk in. She thought to herself, "She puts so much effort into playing the piano."

Then, the Showa era idol took her headphones off and turned around, saying, "I knew you were there, Ai."

Ai, flustered, replied, "You did?! I wasn't spying or anything!"

"It's fine," Junko told her as she smiled. "I was about to move to another song anyway." She then began to play the intro to Maybe I'm Amazed. "I've always loved this one. Ai, please, close the door."

Ai nodded and closed the door to the piano room. As she did, Junko began singing the song as she played. She sang it with such conviction that Ai smiled and nodded along to the beat. When Junko got to the chorus, she nailed the high notes as she had done many times before. As the chorus ended, she paused and looked at Ai, saying, "Heh... Maybe I was a bit too loud. I tend to go all out with that son-"

Ai bent down and took her by the chin to give her a kiss on the lips, surprising her. Junko then closed her eyes and accepted it as the two continued. As the two split, Junko got up. Ai immediately realized what she had done and said, panicked, "Junko-chan, we... Oh no..."

"Calm down," Junko assured her. "You're fine. Ai, there's nothing wrong with being a homosexual. Listen, if I was disgusted by it, would I listen to some of the music I do? Sit down, I want to talk about this."

"Okay," Ai replied as she nodded and sat down. "Junko, spending time with you has made me feel something. I've had dumb little schoolground crushes before on boys, but nothing like this."

"It's normal," Junko assured her. "I have, too. Of course, with the way idol stuff was back then, I had to keep it even more repressed than you did in your life. I'm probably going to sound insensitive or old-fashioned, but maybe the constant repression of those feelings drew us to start looking at our own sex."

Ai laughed. "It is old-fashioned thinking, but not entirely. Maybe with the pressure of being told to "stay pure" and stay away from boyfriends, we began to realize our own innate attraction to other girls to compensate, since nobody would bat an eye at two girls acting really close."

"Besides," Junko mentioned to Ai. "It felt great kissing you. I wouldn't mind doing it again." She then kissed Ai herself as the two began to hug each other and feel each other up under their clothes.