I can't remember why exactly I started writing in Niko's diary. But now I think it's how I think and plan things. So much is going on, so much is happening, every day. I feel so overwhelmed all the time. I need to make sure I think about us every day. It is sentimental but I believe if I focus on the love, it helps with everything else.
So I not only eavesdropped on a friend but I wrote down what she said later. I better not write any names, I will just say A-san talking to B-san. If Niko was writing this, I guarantee she'd say DD-chan talking to D-chan.
We were still talking about Niko when B-san called. A-san moved away but not far enough.
A-san gave B a run-down on what happened when Niko met the idol club. She noticed that Niko didn't like Honoka very much - again. Somehow Honoka can't make a good first impression with her. That led A-san to tell B-san about how Niko first met Honoka - and told her about ARISE and idols generally and basically gave her the idea to start a school idol group. The other Muses didn't even know about that, except Nozomi from Niko, because Honoka never mentioned it - she probably forgot about it. Niko was furious with her (it's in her nikki). Honoka must have come off as a total airhead without even a child's knowledge of idols. History repeats itself, and again, Niko is much friendlier with Hanayo than Honoka. And of course, really likes Kotori. A-san said it's because Niko back then was a lot like Umi - very driven and no-nonsense. And those people have a soft spot for Kotori.
A-san told B about how Niko met me the first time. It's in Niko's nikki as well. She's surprisingly honest in her diary entries. Basically, my parents told me to avoid Otanokizaka because it was going to close in a few years for sure, and could close during my time there. And that it wasn't as good a school as it was in its long-gone glory days. So I was simply looking over UTX - my future school - and watching their marquee when - and nowadays I can just write this plainly - a very cute, attractive girl came up next to me and started gushing over ARISE and how they were all goddesses. For a reason I now chalk up to jealousy I dismissed them. I said I was going to UTX to study pre-medicine and do serious music.
Niko of course bridled at that and demanded to know what I meant by serious music. I said I played classical, jazz, etc. And had won many contests playing music. And then - mistake - I pointed out I'd even won several composing contests. That flipped a switch in super-idol Niko's mind. Her own pet composer! She talked up Otonokizaka like her life depended on it. She said, correctly, that Otonokizaka was still rated higher overall for my subjects. That it still had a higher percentage of good colleges for graduates. She pointed out it was quiet and studious - more like Kana - where UTX was more like Akihabara. The fact that eventually I enrolled in Otonokizaka is absolute proof I was in love with Niko at first sight. It made absolutely no sense, and God bless Honoka for rescuing me from my folly. And if Niko wondered why I was hostile to her at first more than the rest? She had no one but herself to blame. When I heard the announcement about the school closing, Rin and Hanayo were nearby and they say my face went completely white. Under my breath, I said "damn you, Yazawa."
Anyway, A-san pointed out that Niko was back to being depressed and - honestly - a bit of a user. So, she said, she and Maki would have to watch out for that. But it was okay to give con-woman Niko a few victories here and there to keep her spirits up. And I will put up with her childish hugs much better this time around if it comes down to that.
Okay, to get to the part that made me want to write this down. Niko and mama Yazawa, this is the kind of secret stuff that can hurt people. I don't really have an excuse for it.
A-san suddenly confessed to B-san, over the phone.
I guess B-san was taken back by it, but eventually started asking A-san questions. A-san said "I am not giving you an ultimatum, [B]. I am seeing what they had, and what Maki lost, and I want that. I want it." Then, after a lot more discussion, she said "If Maki can fight so hard for this, I can, too. I want that kind of relationship. But I am not demanding anything, [B]. I am just stating a fact." And a sentence or two later, it was over and she ended the call and came back to where I was.
A-san had news for me, too. A good thing, as I had been quietly freaking out over what I overheard. She gave me something different to freak out about.
A representative of a talent agency, mostly for idols, called the Yazawa home. Not with an offer to represent Niko, obviously. This was the same sleazy agency whose senior producer had tried to force Niko to have sex with him when she was fifteen, and then told various agents and agencies she was too difficult to work with and had no talent and that anyone his agency represented wouldn't work with her. Basically ending her career before it could start. He also told Niko a poor girl like her never made it as an idol unless she was willing to pay with her body. And even that he liked little girls best. This all happened a month or two after the last time she remembers, thank goodness. Anyway, they asked mama Yazawa if she had a lawyer and she remembered Shirojima-sensei, who is charitably helping Niko and me with our damages from the train wreck, and is not at all a Yazawa family lawyer. So she said Shirojima was Niko's lawyer!
So now we have to meet with Shirojima-sensei again. When the agency called, according to A-san, Shirojima put them off and said Niko was asleep with pain medicine. She didn't say Niko was her client or not her client. Seriously? Is this month never going to end? I hope they are going to fire the senior producer and apologize to Niko, but that sort of nice outcome is not what Niko normally gets. But what do they want after three years?