This story also is focused on Nishikino Maki.
Nishikino Maki, 24-year-old doctor from a wealthy family…
Flirting with a college girl?!
"What's wrong with me? I need to be an example for my family and I'm going around flirting with younger girls!" Maki groaned as she put her head on the coffee table.
She, Eli, and Nozomi were hanging out at the local café, a few minutes from the Nishikino hospital. She needed someone to talk to about her antics from last night, and she felt like her two seniors were the best people to discuss it with.
"My, my, Maki-chan. Quite the tease, aren't you?" Nozomi grinned as she rested her chin on her hands.
Maybe, Nozomi wasn't the right person. At least she knew that Eli was.
"Nozomi, stop making fun of her. Maki is dealing with a crisis right now." Eli lightly slapped Nozomi's arm, getting a playful pout from the curvaceous girl. "Now, just explain what happened to you. You seem nervous about it."
"A-Alright." Maki took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves down. "I was judging at the piano recital and the winner of it bumped into me. We were talking about the recital when I found out she was in Aqours and also that she was a fan of me. One of her friends is an idol as well, so maybe she met Nico and Honoka. Then we took a picture, which I kinda wrapped my arm around her. And then I put in my contact information and told her to call me Maki." As soon as she finished the story, she slammed her head on the table. "I'm so awful!"
"Hey, you aren't awful." Eli assured her friend. "You're still young and single, it's natural to be like that."
"I-I guess you're right."
"But Maki-chan? As a flirt? I never could picture it." Nozomi told the two girls. "You were always the tsundere-type of girl. What made you so affectionate yesterday?"
Maki comprehended Nozomi's question. And she groaned again and slammed her head on the table. "I don't know!"
"Nozomi, you're making things worse. Maki's already feeling bad." Eli scolded her girlfriend.
"Sorry, Elichi. Just speaking the truth." Nozomi put her hands up, defending herself.
"But, Nozomi has a point. There's not really any reason for Maki to be like that. Is it okay if we see her?" Eli asked.
Maki tilted her head up and darted her eyes between the two girls. "I guess. Let me text her, I need the picture."
Maki pulled out her phone and started to text Riko.
Maki:
Hey, could you send over the picture with me and you in it?
And can I show my friends?
Maki placed her phone on the table, just waiting for the text to come.
"Well, while we wait for her to reject me...Let's talk. How's have you been? It seems like forever since we last talked." Maki asked.
"We've been great!" Eli told the red-head. "We've been getting even more customers, but I have no idea why."
"Well, your food is delicious." Maki said, a bit of drool leaking from her mouth.
"Heh, you're leaking a bit. Our food is literally mouth-watering." Nozomi said, and giggled when Maki embarrassedly wiped her mouth.
When Eli and Nozomi graduated, they really grew attached to cooking. So, the two girls headed for culinary school. Nozomi was drawn to the savoury side of cooking, while Eli was the sweets girl. They decided to open a diner after finishing culinary school. They were instantly a hit amongst the Akihabara crowd (half because they were former idols, and maybe because they were cute girls that could cook. Explains the decent sized male fanbase, but not the major female one. Maybe it was them being from Muse…but that could also explain the male fanbase…). They were scared that the two of them couldn't handle everything, but Arisa was willing to help out. As they were getting better at running the restaurant, they had a lot of meetings with the former Muse members and cooked for them.
"Whatever." The phone vibrated, and Maki picked it up. Looking at her texts, it was from Riko.
Riko:
Yeah, I'll send the photo over now!
And of course you can show your friends, I asked that too.
Maki smiled at how cute the red-head sounded in just her texts.
"Eww, Maki-chan is being cute." Nozomi teased, earning a glare from both Maki and Eli. "I'm joking, ehe."
Maki sighed. "Could you not be…yourself, for once?"
"Ow, Maki-chan. That was mean." Nozomi said, but it was obvious that she was faking it.
"Well, is it okay if we see the girl?" Eli asked. Maki nodded and brought up the picture of the two red-heads.
"Wow, she's really cute! No wonder Maki-chan tried to seduce her." Nozomi grinned.
"S-Shut up!" Maki stuck her tongue out at the purple-haired girl. "But yes, she is really cute. That's why I kinda flirted with her."
"Maki, you know that looks aren't the only thing." Eli said, getting an exasperated sigh from the red-head. "Did you look at her? She's blushing like crazy in that photo."
Looking at it again, Maki saw the red on Riko's cheeks. "So what?"
"She must want to hang out more. Maybe you'll find something in common."
"Well, I already know that she composed everything for Aqours like I did for us." Maki smirked, already having a 1-up over her two seniors.
"Why do you look so smug? You only know that she plays the piano well. That's no reason to fall in love with her." Nozomi said.
"I'm not in love with her!" Maki said. "I think she is a nice girl. But, is it okay? I'm 24 and she's at least 19. Doesn't that seem wrong?"
"Maybe," Eli said, "But it's not the worst thing in the world. You could have a crush on much worse people. She does seem nice."
"You should ask her out!" Nozomi proposed. "Just have a small date-like thing. Maybe you'll like each other enough."
Maki blushed at the thought of going on a date with Riko. She felt self-conscious about going out with a younger girl and one that seemed so innocent. But…she couldn't help but want to try it.
"You know what, I'll try it. I need some sort of stress relief from working, and maybe Riko might be the good one."
"Whoa, stop right there." Eli put a hand out. "Stress relief? This is a person we're talking about, Maki. You can't treat her as a way to escape."
"W-What? I wasn't think like that! I know, I never meant it to sound like that. It's just…it's nice to just go out and enjoy myself, be it alone or with another person. I'm going to treat her right, she seems too good to not deserve the best."
"That's the good way to think." Nozomi stuck a thumb out. "You just have to have fun, and just treat each other right."
"Yeah, treat each other right." Maki said quietly, smile plastered on her face. 'I hope that Riko will want to do this.'
Maki:
Hey, would you want to hang out on Saturday?
Riko's brain almost short-circuited from seeing this pop up in her text messages.
'M-Maki-senpai…w-wants to hang out with me?!'
But why? Riko is just a plain college girl who just so happens to be good on the piano. Maki is an accomplished idol from one of the most popular groups of Love Live, a fantastic composer, and a highly acclaimed doctor.
'What would she want with me?
'I guess I could take it. Be around my favourite member from Muse. It's just…weird.'
Riko had short classes on Mondays, so she always made plans with Hanamaru and Ruby.
'I guess I could ask them. Maybe they'll know what to do.'
…
"Hello, Riko-chan!" Ruby gleefully greeted her at the door. They met at Riko's apartment. Hanamaru was good at blending in with crowds, despite how popular she was. To be inconspicuous with Ruby around, they decided to always meet at Riko's small home.
"Hi Ruby-chan, Hanamaru-chan. Please, come in."
The three girls gathered in the living room and sat on the couch. Ruby and Hanamaru were holding hands and snuggled into each other.
"Aww, you guys get cuter every time we meet up," Riko said.
"Thanks, Riko-chan," Hanamaru replied.
"Well, what's up? Are we planning a new song?" Riko asked.
"Not today, Maru said that she's going to keep her tour up. She has two weeks to rest, starting today." Ruby explained.
"That sounds nice," Riko said. "Well, how have you been?"
"We've been well, zura." Hanamaru said. "Ruby has gotten me into knitting, and I've been trying to knit a scarf. But that's boring, how about you, zura?"
"Well, I got first place in the Akihabara piano recital."
"Oh, I heard about that!" Ruby exclaimed. "You had Maki-chan as a special guest! That must have been so cool!"
"Y-Yeah, I guess you can say that…" Riko's mind was drifting away. 'Since Ruby said it…I might as well say something about it.' Riko cleared her throat. "I…uh…wanted to ask you guys something."
"You seem nervous about this," Hanamaru commented. "What's wrong, zura?"
"At that recital…" Riko couldn't say, "I met Maki-senpai." Why couldn't she, she had no idea. But, she did need to do something. So, she brought out her phone and showed them the picture of her and Maki.
"What is it, zura? It's just you an-"
"MAKI-CHAN!" Ruby surprisingly exclaimed, almost making Riko drop her phone.
"Shhh, Ruby-chan!" Riko put a finger to her lips. "Yes, I bumped into her when I was leaving…the auditorium…Hanamaru-chan, what are you doing?" Riko noticed that the girl had her phone to her ear.
"Nothing, zura. I'm listening, just keep explaining." Hanamaru assured her friend.
"Okay…" Riko was a bit suspicious, but she kept telling her story. "She was really nice, and I got to take a picture with her. When we were leaving, she put her contact information onto my phone. Now, she's asking me if she wants to hang out on Saturday. And I don't know what to do."
"That sounds cool!" Ruby said in awe. "Why don't you take her offer? If she's inviting you, she must have found you interesting enough to be around."
"B-But wouldn't I be interrupting her work schedule? I would just be bothering her, and then I'll feel bad. And then she wouldn't want to go again, and I lost my chance to be with my idol-"
"Jeez, is she going to keep rambling?" A new voice was heard, confusing Riko.
"Who the hell was that?" Riko was looking at the two girls, very unsure about how to feel right now.
"Oops, I pressed the wrong button. I'm going to put you on video chat, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. It's fine, Hanamaru-chan."
She pressed the button, and her phone showed two girls on the screen. Immediately, Riko knew who they were.
"Nico-chan?! Honoka-chan?!"
"In the…well, video flesh." Nico said. "So, you're the girl that caught Maki's eye. You are pretty cute."
"T-Thank you, Ni- Yazawa-sen-"
"Oh my god, just call us by our names." Nico was getting irritated with how prim and proper Riko was being. "You have to loosen up."
"It's okay, Riko-chan. Nico is just a bit grumpy today." Honoka apologized. "I heard about you from Hanamaru-chan, but it's nice to see your face! You are cute!"
"Heh, thank you, Honoka-senpai." Riko blushed at the compliments she was getting. "Hanamaru-chan, why did you call them?"
"Well, they know Maki-chan. So, maybe they'll know what to do, zura."
"And Ruby-chan? You aren't freaking out?"
"No, I've met Nico-chan and Honoka-chan before. Since Maru-chan and them are in the same idol company, I was able to meet them when I was with Maru-chan. Hi Honoka-chan! Nico-chan!"
"Hi Ruby-chan!" Honoka gleefully greeted the twin-tailed girl. "Riko-chan, I think you should go out with Maki-chan."
"G-Go out?!"
Nico sighed. "Not like that. Just go with Maki-chan and hang out with her. You can "go out" with her when you actually become a thing."
"W-What makes you think she actually would want to date me?" Riko asked, still contemplating about this get-together.
"Eli texted me. She was raving over you." Nico said. She looked away sheepishly and started to scratch her cheek. "M-Maybe I said to much." Everyone noticed how hard Riko was blushing, just from hearing that Maki was saying nice things about her. "My god, have some confidence in yourself! Maki thinks you are cute, which you are. You both play the piano. Just try it, there's no harm with going out with her."
"O…Okay!" Riko pulled out her phone triumphantly. "I will tell her okay!"
"Hooray!" Honoka clapped.
"Okay, thanks girls. I'll talk to you later, zura." The five girls said goodbye and Hanamaru hung up the phone. "So, tell her, Riko-chan!"
"Yeah!" Riko pulled up Maki's texts and started to type.
'I hope she'll like being around me. Because I know I will.'
Riko:
I would love to.