Snip.
Snip.
Snip.
"There you go!" The hairdresser exclaimed.
"You look good," Eli remarked.
Maki watched her reflection in the mirror staring back at her. The long dull locks had been chopped off and now her hair barely touched her shoulders, the new look eerily resembling her old high school self.
Maki couldn't help noticing how much younger, vibrant she looks now.
"What do you think?" Kotori asked-it had been her idea to give Maki a haircut.
"It's definitely a new look," Maki stated and smiled at her reflection. "I like it."
Eli clapped. "Well, that's good because we have a long day ahead and now we have to go to some interviews. Let's get moving."
The interviewer was very sweet, not prying or demanding at all.
She had decided to interview the members in threes, accordingly to their subunits.
"So, Miss Honoka, where you the one who decided to reform μ's?"
Honoka smiled a little cheeky grin and pointed to herself. "It was me! We thought it would be cool to restart μ's with a cooler, more mature concept!"
Maki suppressed a sigh from behind the cameraman. Mature, you say, but you still act like a high schooler.
The interviewer nodded. "And who was in charge of songwriting again?"
"This time, Maki, Umi and Eli wrote the song," Hanayo said.
"I see... so when will the music video be released again?"
"Next week, December 12th," Kotori replied.
...
After droning out the rest of the interview, it was Maki's turn to be interviewed with Eli and Nico.
"So, Miss Eli, how did you come up with the song concept and theme?"
Eli smiled. "Well, we actually took a look at other idol group's work to see how idol music has evolved over the years we have been gone. And then we started putting our own spin to it."
"And who made the choreography?"
"Kotori did," Eli answered smoothly.
"And I helped too," Nico added.
"I see, and I'm sure everyone is wondering, why did you guys decide to become idols again?"
"I loved being a youtuber but as time went on, there weren't enough interesting things in my life that could make my vlogs more entertaining," Nico started and Maki made an internal fist pump because Nico finally realized that her vlogs were very boring.
"So when Honoka mentioned that she wanted to reform μ's, I was one of the first to agree."
"And Miss Eli?"
"Well, and I think this applies to most of us," Eli stole a quick glance at Maki. "I just felt like I wasn't satisfied with my life and that no job could replace being able to sing and dance with my friends for a living."
The interview turned to Maki. "And you, Miss Maki?"
"My friends forced me to join," Maki blurted.
"WHAT?" Honoka yelled from behind the camera.
The interviewer chuckled gently. "Do we have to cut that out?"
"No, no-it's fine!" Maki panicked. "Well-what I meant to say was that being a surgeon was stressful and maybe I like being an idol more!"
Maki gasped at herself and looked at the floor in embarrassment, unaware of Eli and Nico exchanging sneaky looks.
The interviewer cleared her throat. "Well, that brings us to the end of our interview. Before we end this segment, do you have any last things to say about your upcoming comeback?"
"We worked very hard for this so we hope you enjoy it, and as always thank you for your support!" Eli exclaimed, reciting her rehearsed lines.
The girls have gathered in Maki's piano room again, waiting to release the MV at 6pm, their designated time.
"5 more minutes until 6!" Eli called.
"I brought cheesecake to celebrate!" Hanayo declared as she entered the room with a big white box.
"Omigosh! Can we eat it now?" Rin squealed as she scurried over to admire the cheesecake.
"No, Rin, we have to release the MV first," Eli said.
"Maki, have you seen the memes people made about you in that interview?" Nozomi asked Maki suddenly.
"No, I haven't been checking social media much lately," Maki replied.
Nozomi handed Maki her phone.
"What- oh my god."
The lock screen wallpaper of Nozomi's phone was a meme of Maki blushing in the interview with the caption- 9 years later, still tsundere.
Maki glared at Nozomi. "Why?"
Nozomi shrugged. "I don't know, Maki. Ask yourself why you're tsundere."
"I really don't know. I thought college drained the tsundere out of me," Maki muttered.
"Aww, Maki do you have an identity crisis?" Nozomi asked jokingly.
Maki rolled her eyes. Probably.
"30 seconds, guys!" Umi cried from her position in front of the computer.
Everyone began crowding around Umi and Maki followed suit.
"27..." Umi began counting, others joining in.
"26..."
"25..."
In a few breaths, they were down to less than 10. Maki clenched her fist and joined in counting.
"7!"
"6!"
"4!"
"3!"
"2!"
"1!"
The clock flashed 6 pm and Umi hit upload.
Maki watched in anticipation as the video loaded and then the screen flashed with a text message that said that the video was successfully published on Youtube.
Everyone whooped and cheered.
"CAKE!" Rin yelled.
"Yes! We did it!" Kotori cried emotionally as she hugged Eli and Umi.
They probably did the most work, Maki thought as she joined in the hug.
"Good job everyone!" Eli called. "Now it's time to celebrate!"
Hanayo began slicing up generous helpings of fluffy souffle cheesecake and Umi passed them out.
"Oh my god, so good!" Nico, who for once was not vlogging, said as she took giant bites of the cheesecake.
"I didn't have time to bake a cheesecake so this one is store-bought," Hanayo explained apologetically.
"I don't care. It's cheesecake. It's good," Honoka interjected.
"Yup!" Rin said as she bit into her slice of cheesecake directly.
"This is it, okay? The real deal," Eli started, like a true motivational speaker. "We practised the choreography, we know the song, and now it is time for us to perform."
"Psh, cut the crap Eli, we're practically professionals now," Nico remarked. "And we're older now."
"Nico, why do you always ruin the moment?" Maki sighed.
"Well, I'm sorry-"
"Be quiet, Nico," Eli said sharply. "Everybody get into position, let's do this."
They filed into the stage and stood in position to loud cheers-Maki thought her heart was going to burst out of her chest.
But it did not, and before Maki had any time to organize her thoughts, the music started.
The first verse, sung by Hanayo, Rin and Nico went by without incident and Maki felt so out of breath as she was dancing she wasn't even sure if she had even power left to sing. But she did and nothing was more satisfying than letting her voice ring out through the entire concert hall.
It was the same feeling that Maki had had 9 years ago, the same adrenaline pumping through her veins as she danced and sang and did what she loved.
"I can't believe we did it! We debuted! We're idols again!" Nico squealed.
"Good job, everyone!" Kotori exclaimed.
"Yay! Is there any more cake?" Rin asked.
"No, Rin, we have to watch our weights now that we're idols again," Eli chided.
Rin pouts and crossed her arms while sitting on the light mattress that Maki had brought in for the "sleepover".
"WOOOOOOOO! BRING OUT THE BEER NOW BECAUSE WE DESERVE A CELEBRATION!" Honoka screamed.
"Not so fast, Honoka," Eli warned. "Because we're idols now, we have to drink responsibly. You have to be careful about your public image."
"Who cares? We're in the privacy of Maki's piano room-"
"We also have to promote our album more tomorrow, you can't get a hangover now."
Honoka groaned.
"We should probably go to bed soon," Umi said. "Tomorrow we wake up at 7 for a photo shoot!"
"I don't know whether to be sad or happy at that but whatever," Nico muttered as she slid into her bed.
Maki chuckled from her position under the blankets.
"Okay, we're turning off the lights now. Good night, everyone," Eli called and the room went dark.
Maki smiled slightly to herself.
Perhaps this idol thing might not be a bad idea after all.
The point of life is to be happy, no?
I can't force myself to be something I'm not.
Hair grows, people change.
But hair can always be cut.
And people never really change, do they?
Author's Note: My god, this story wasn't supposed to take this long to end at all.
To be completely honest, when I wrote the first chapter, I really had no idea what I was doing. And I was planning to take down the story shortly after posting it, but when I saw people actually reading it, I felt motivated to continue writing and create a story out of whatever gibberish the first chapter was. So I loosely created a storyline in my head but as you probably have realized by now, I was mostly making up the story as I was writing. And it didn't help that I didn't really know how to write that well when I first started (not that I know how to write well now). I wasn't planning the story to go on for over a year at all, but well, look how that turned out. I sincerely apologize to anyone who is still reading this story for the late updates. I really had no idea what I was doing. And I'm still not satisfied with how my story ended but everything is a learning experience, I guess.
Thank you for reading my story to the end, I really hope you enjoyed the ride, and as always please review!