Hello! Yes, i wrote another one XD. So... You may have noticed that i just posted chapter 9 and 10 again... this is because i opened them and realized that this wonderful page (sarcasm) had erased my lovely scene cutters (or however you want to call them) making the story look completly nonsensical -.-
I dedicate this chapter to the lovely pookelucy from tumblr 'cuz she's awesome and i love her. That's it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no Prince-sama or any of its characters.
After Otoya left the infirmary, he decided to pay Shining a visit. He felt it was really weird how the crazy principal hadn't been popping out of nowhere lately.
As he got to the office, he noticed the door was open so, as curiosity urged him, he walked in. To his surprise, it seemed his boss was nowhere to be seen.
He felt like leaving but something told him to stay. Maybe it was curiosity, or maybe… destiny?
The redhead walked all the way up to the principal's desk and sat on his chair 'Huh, what a view' he thought looking out the windows behind him. As he looked back at the desk, he found a lot of papers all over it. 'Oh look, he actually does some paperwork' he thought giggling. He opened one of the drawers out of sheer curiosity noticing that it had a little lock to it. 'Maybe you can close it with a key? Why would he leave it open then?' In it there were more papers, but Otoya decided to pay more attention to them this time even though he thought: 'I really shouldn't be here… And I shouldn't be doing this either…' And then, a particular paper caught his eye. It had his name on it. He started reading it without giving it a second thought. When he finished, he was shaking. 'So that means he… How did Haruka find out?' he thought.
The redhead neatly put the papers back in closing the drawer in the process and slowly got up. Walking away, he thought: 'Should I do something about this? No. Why would I? At least now I know who my anonymous "helper" was… The person that invested money not only in my orphanage, but to every school I went to… And for some reason: I still don't care… I... I should go about it as if nothing has changed, because honestly: it hasn't'
The only thing he regretted was the fact that he didn't know if his friends would be there for him if he needed them. But there was no time to mope, in a couple of hours he needed go back to work, and after what he did the last time it wasn't likely that they would forgive him for acting absentmindedly again.
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After Otoya left her room, Haruka had drifted off to sleep again. But after a couple of hours of rest, her cellphone started ringing. She was so startled that she just picked it up and answered: "He-hello?" in a really groggy voice without checking the caller ID.
"Haruka? Are you okay? You usually wake up at seven or something…"
"… Tomo-chan?"
"Yes, who else would I be?"
"Oh, I'm sorry… I was just sleeping"
"Yes, I noticed"
"Eh? How?"
"Your voice, silly"
"Oh"
"So, anyways, I just wanted to call you to let you know I'm coming… You called me yesterday, right?"
"Oh, yes… Yes, I did…"
"What happened?"
"Ummm… Well the thing is-" Tomochika cut her off midsentence.
"Nono, you'll tell me when I get there. I'm sure there is a reason why morning person Nanami Haruka would be sleeping at 12 pm on a Thursday"
"Yeah… there is…"
"Okay, I'm just a couple of blocks away… I'll be right up in your room in seconds"
"Oh… I'm not in my room…"
"What do you mean?"
"I… I'm in the infirmary…"
"Why? What happened? Nope, don't answer that. Nevermind… I'll be right up" And with that, she hanged up.
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Haruka heard a soft knock on the door as she finished getting dressed (apparently someone had changed her clothes the night before to some winter pajamas and left her a new outfit next to the bed… She didn't want to think about whom). "Come on in" she replied.
Tomochika entered looking slightly surprised and intrigued at the sight before her. But she didn't have time for suspense, so she ran all the way to Haruka's bed and sat next to her. "Explain" she said.
After many retellings and ridiculous questions, Tomochika seemed to be up to speed with the latest -as she called them- "Haruka's adventures"
"So… You're dating Otoya-kun… That's nice… I've always known you'd end up dating one of them" And then she muttered under her breath: "But I SO knew that it would be him"
"Um… Okay?"
"… And then you almost slept with him?"
"…" Haruka looked down embarrassed.
"And afterwards you just… hit your head with a door and passed out…"
"Yeah… sounds about right" she replied still looking down.
"What. A. Day"
They stayed silent for a while then as Haruka fidgeted with her thumbs. Then, suddenly Tomochika stood up and pointing at her friend, she said: "Listen girl, you need to show those boys who is the boss here!"
"I… What?"
"Yes! Do you want them to fight over you all the time?"
"No! Of course not!"
Tomochika smiled mischievously and said: "Then follow my lead"
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The dorms were quite empty by then. All the boys were out working and all the senpais had a recording that day. This left Haruka and Tomochika alone in that gigantic place. The pink haired girl was glad that this was the case, because if it weren't she would've been pretty embarrassed about what her friend was telling her.
"You know Haruka, I love you to pieces and being cute and all is nice, but if you want these boys to respect your choices, you're gonna have to act tough every once in a while"
"… I don't…"
"Okay okay, I know you're confused but after today you will be a completely different person!"
Haruka looked sadly at her friend and said: "But Tomo-chan, I don't want to change. I just don't want them to fight!"
Tomochika sighed and replied: "Umm… Okay, how do I put this? Ummm… okay: you know how you always need a little let's say 'encouragement' to believe in yourself and try hard in what you do?"
"… Oh… It's not like I 'need' it-" her friend cut her off.
"But let's say you do for all intended purposes in this case" Haruka nodded. "… I don't want you to change who you are, I want you to change the way you act. So just like you're telling me now, you don't need no man to tell you how awesome you are, am I right? So you need to show that confidence, show them you are serious about Otoya and act according to that towards them"
"I don't… How?"
"That's what I'm here for!"
"Okay… What do you want me to do?"
Tomochika thought about it for a moment and then said: "Picture this: everyone in Starish suddenly confesses to you. What do you do?"
"I… What?"
"Just answer the question"
"Well, I don't know… I'm already dating Otoya-kun and-" Tomochika cut her off.
"Haruka, that's not what I'm asking. What do you do if they all confess to you on the same day?"
"Um… Well… I guess I'd have to reject them"
"Yes! Exactly. Now: How would you do that?"
"… I'd try to be as gentle as possible; I don't want to hurt their feelings…"
"… That's really sweet… BUT: do you think they would still be your friends and members of the band if you did that?"
"I… I don't know… I'd hope so"
"Just think about it honey"
Haruka closed her eyes then, trying to think as much as she could, but her slight headache was still bothering her. She still tried to imagine the situation though, to think about everyone's personalities and relationships with each other and about how the outcome of that situation could go.
"I… I think they would"
"Would what?"
"Still be my friends and members of Starish!"
"Okay then. Now that that's settled, think about the situation you are in now: isn't agreeing to date one of them pretty similar to rejecting the others? Because if it were coming from someone else maybe I'd think they still have a chance, but you? You would never cheat on your boyfriend"
"Oh… I didn't think about that"
"Well, now you have. You don't need to worry about losing them; there is no reason to act like you're not yourself in a way just to 'protect' their feelings… I'm not telling you to make out with your boyfriend in front of them, but you shouldn't be afraid of what they think. What you're doing is perfectly fine and if they truly love you, they would only want the best for you, and I'm sure we both know how happy Smilieface makes you. So you should show them the confident woman that I know you are, don't hide yourself under a: 'I love everyone equally' mask 'cuz you might hurt them and if you do…" She got closer to her friend and in a creepy voice whispered: "They'll eat you aliiiive" Haruka quickly got up terrified and yelped. She regretted that instantly as standing up so fast made her headache worse.
Tomochika giggled and said: "But seriously, you need to try to make this work as hard as you do with your songs, understood?"
"I… yes"
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It had been one of those really long days for the members of Starish.
Syo and Natsuki had to record some songs at the studio which made them stay in the place the whole day. It usually would've taken three hours tops, but the day before there had been an accident in the studio and some of the recording was ruined.
It was a pretty funny sight considering that Natsuki had a black eye patch on his right eye and a monocle on the other one. So if it weren't for the fact that it was pretty exhausting to sing over and over again the same songs in different tones, Syo would've been laughing at his friend the whole day (this is not to say that he didn't try).
"Couldn't I just wear a contact lens?" asked Natsuki blushing in embarrassment.
"Don't you remember? Looking ridiculous is a part of your punishment. Besides –he looked at the floor and whispered- I'm not sure a contact has the same effect to hide a certain someone"
"What?"
"No-nothing… we should get back to recording"
"But this is not fair! I don't even remember punching Ren!"
Syo sighed and replied "Yes, I know. But you did. Come on, it could be worse, man up!"
Natsuki grunted and leaned back into his microphone to continue with the session.
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Ren had a photoshoot that day so needless to say, he had to apologize and ask for a reschedule. His face looked horrendous; he had multiple bruises on his cheeks and even a couple of cuts on his forehead. This is not to count the purple bags under his eyes and other injuries he had in the rest of his body. But he didn't actually care.
After all, before he got in Starish he would get in fights just to get hurt. He wasn't as much of a narcissist as people seemed to think. In a sense, he always wanted to attract the ladies, but it was a pretty superficial act for him, it didn't mean anything. But Haruka was different. And once again, things seemed to be falling apart, so his careless attitude was coming back. He knew when he realized how much everyone loved Haruka that this couldn't possibly end well, but he still hoped for it.
Ranmaru had assigned him to exercise that day. Obviously, he wasn't supposed to (according to the doctors) with all the bruises he had; making any sort of physical effort would only make the pain worse, but the senpai was quite serious about it so he did it anyways. He tried to work out the parts of his body that were better (like his legs) so he jogged for a while (even though that made his chest hurt like hell) until he felt numb; both mentally and physically.
When he finished, he went back inside the dorms to hydrate himself and take a warm shower (it was freezing cold outside). It surprised him to find the place so silent; it seemed that everyone else was still out working.
After he showered, he roamed through the halls thinking 'Maybe I went too far…' Afterall: he truly cared about his friends and he didn't want Starish to be disbanded. But it seemed that he was a little too possessive of The Little Lamb.
As he walked, he found himself at the entrance of the girls' dorm and without thinking it twice, he walked in.
Not too far away he could hear giggling. He guessed it must've been Haruka so he just kept walking in the direction of the sounds.
He found himself standing at the pink haired girl's door. For some reason he felt himself freeze. He couldn't lift his arm to knock; he just stood there for the longest time, frozen, speechless. 'What the hell am I doing? Move your arm dumbass!' he thought to himself. But it didn't matter how much he told himself it was not a big deal, that she would just open the door and smile at him: he couldn't do it. And the worst part was that he couldn't even bring himself to think about why he couldn't do it. If he thought about it that would make the reasons real and he didn't want that. But he couldn't walk away either. Some part of himself was brave enough to be there but not to the point of actually doing something about it.
A/N: Yes, i called Otoya- Smilieface XD