"Maki, look at all these comments!"

Maki buried her face in her palms deeper. "Please don't remind me that that actually happened."

Nico scanned the screen of her laptop. "Maki is so cute! Does she have a youtube channel?"

Maki lifted her face from her palms and peered at Nico's computer screen. "Wait, what?"

Nico continued reading. "Maki is so much cuter tha- HEY WHAT THE HECK?"

Maki crawled to Nico's side and read the comments. "Wow.."

Nico crossed her arms. "Great, now you're more popular than ME on MY youtube channel. No fair!"

Maki's mouth was wide open when she read all of the comments praising her. "Maki is a cute tsundere... I haven't heard this kind of praise since our school idol days..."

Nico smiled. "That's why I chose this job. I never wanted our school idol days to end, but I also needed a job. This was the closest thing I could think of. It's not like I could join an idol group that's not μ's ."

Maki stared at Nico in awe. Is this really Nico? Maki studied Nico further and saw changes she had not seen before. Nico's face was less chubby, her hair was smooth and fine, she was taller, but she was still quite petite.

Nico put her hands on her hips with a sour look on her face. "What?"

Maki snapped out of her trance. "Nothing, really. But I just noticed.. did you lose some weight?"

"Yes, I did! I lost 5 kilos!"

Maki frowned. "That doesn't sound very healthy..."

Nico pouted. "But I wanted to be healthier!"

"You know, I think you were fine as you were before I left."

"Well there's always room for improvement, right?"

Maki opened her mouth to protest, but Nico cut her off.

"Besides, my diet is over. Let's go make something to eat!" Nico jumped up and bounced out of the room.

Maki sighed, took off her jacket and followed her.

Nico's apartment was not as luxurious as what Maki was used to, however, it was big enough for one person living alone and was cozy.

Unfortunately, Nico's fridge was almost empty.

"Nico, have you been living on take-out food ever since you lived alone?"

"No no no! I cook, I swear! Um, it's just that I haven't really been shopping for groceries recently..."

Maki sighed, ever since she came back home in May, she hasn't been cooking for herself at all. "Well, I guess we could try to make dinner with what you have."

Nico had a carrot, some whipping cream, and some shrimp. She also had a random container of pasta in her cupboard.

Maki took out everything and set it on the counter. "Let's make pasta."

Nico nodded and took out a frying pan. "Okay."

Maki took out a pot and filled it with water. She placed it on the stove and turned up the heat. "Hey, Nico?"

"Hm?" Nico added some oil to the pan and cooked the shrimp. "What is it?"

"When I left for America, did you finish your bachelor's degree?"

Nico grimaced. "I did, but my GPA was a like 3.0, while Eli was the valedictorian and got 4.0. Geez, how she did it, I have no idea.."

Maki pressed her lips together while slicing the carrot. To be honest, she also finished with a 4.0 average, but she was so disconnected from the rest of the world, she almost wished she could relive everything and try to have a social life. "At least you had a social life."

Nico poured cream into her pan and mixed everything with a spatula. "To be honest, I started my youtube channel right after you left. And at first, I wasn't that popular. I even got a ton of hate. But then, of course, anyone who criticizes me is clearly mistaken!"

Nico turned to Maki, who was dropping the pasta into the boiling water. "Can I have the carrots?"

Maki handed Nico the cutting board and Nico scraped the chopped up carrots into the sauce. She gave everything a good stir and continued, "I started going on a diet for my own personal health, and a lot of viewers thought I was being insecure. And, well, my grades started to drop when I got busier with youtube."

Maki nodded. "Sounds pretty tough."

Nico flipped her hair. "Well, nothing I couldn't handle, of course! Eventually, I gained a lot of popularity, and now here I am!"

Maki sat down on a chair. "You are exactly the same."

"So, we've talked a lot about me now. How about you, Miss I'm-too-good-to-answer-our-emails?"

"Nothing happened, really. I just studied constantly and graduated with good grades."

"What about friends?"

Maki blushed slightly. "Uh... I didn't really have many friends..."

"WHAT?"

"Hey, I think the pasta's cooked. Let's add it to the sauce."

Maki added the pasta to the sauce and Nico stirred gently. "Well, I guess we're done. Let's eat!"

The pasta came out beautifully, and after Nico took 20 pictures, they started eating.

That night, Maki slept on the couch. It was uncomfortable, but Maki persevered. Anything to spend time with your friends, right?

...Right?

"Maki, can you make more videos with me tomorrow?"

"NO."