"Say 'cheese'!"

It was moments like this one when a beautiful, talented, and smart actress sitting next to him in a classy café made some weird facial expression for the camera only to acquire a unique post for Instagram, which made him believe that the youth these days was as far removed from him as they could possibly be.

"Didn't you call me old for using that phrase not so long ago?"

"I did. But turns out; Instagram loves it! I have been using it as a hashtag ever since you mentioned it to me and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Analytics loves it as well!" It was such a blessing that he didn't have one of these accounts.

There were one or two fake profiles of himself out there, however, which Ruby had shown him at one point with a devilish smirk plastered on her face. Let´s just say; the less he would ever have to think about the content on these pages the better.

"I think I get it. It´s a trend. Guess people are right when they claim that everything comes back eventually. And could you also explain to me why you are making such a weird face in this selfie? We both know you can look better than 95 percent of your fans without even trying, so why do you want to ruin that?"

Apparently hearing that sort of easy compliment from her 'boyfriend' was already too much for Akane, because the contrast between her now red face and her blue hair was becoming ever more apparent.

"Thank you… Oh, but you have to switch it up sometimes you know? If your gallery is only stacked with pictures in which you look close to perfection, people might think you are not being realistic enough and turn on you." Her bashfulness evaporated, the more she explained the topic. "I rather not have that… for obvious reasons."

Before he could worry about her too much, she perked right up again.

"And with you as a part of this post, this is my perfect opportunity! Because you can always look good, seeing as you don't even have an account full of pictures to worry about. It´s the ideal contrast." Her innocent smile made him believe that her former sorrow had truly been forgotten at this point.

Or at least been pushed as far away as it possibly could, so that it wasn't able to do any more harm.

"Well, thank you for the compliment. I´m glad I can be of help. Just please don't use that sparkling filter again. It's irritating."

"Of course, I won't silly. It would make me look better and I don't want that right now, hehe." Aqua raised an eyebrow at her, clearly questioning the validity of this statement, but she just stuck her tongue out at him for a second before going back to working on her phone.

The café they were in right now was one of Akane´s preferred meeting spots for when they wanted to post something online, to confirm their ongoing relationship. It wasn't fancy enough to be recognized by anybody, at least just by looking at a random photo, but it was also tasty enough to visit regularly.

It was close to his home too so he was completely fine with it.

They had planned to meet this week anyways for appearance sake, but because their shared moderating job was rapidly approaching, they had also agreed to get on the same page in that regard.

Aqua wasn't very focused though. The news from the director had thrown him off his game quite a bit. His initial eagerness had cooled off since then and had been replaced by a solid amount of doubt. Doubt if he was really doing the right thing by following this potential lead or if he was just chasing a ghost in a futile attempt to hold on to his old ways and avoid moving on.

He really didn't know anymore.

"By the way" The post seemed to be completed because Akane put her phone back in her purse. "I watched the last eight charity streams of Strawberry Production in their entirety over the last couple of days and I think I have gathered a good understanding of what they expect from their moderators."

She pulled out a notebook and proudly showed him some of her results.

"If you´d like we could go over them a little so that we are both on the same page?"

"You seriously watched all eight of them in their entirety?" Those streams were around six hours long on average and she had only been notified of her role around three days ago.

"I skipped most of the games in which the moderator wasn't involved in and I also avoided advertisements. Wasn't a big deal honestly. So, what do you say?"

This girl.

"I´m not opposed to it. I´m very sorry but I only ever watched the last one and not completely either. I simply asked Pieyon what he expects of us and as you might know, he is more the 'call it on the spot' sort of guy."

The man hadn't been helpful at all. "Be yourself and don't worry too much" had been his exact words and from what Aqua had seen of the last stream, that pretty much hit the nail on the hat.

"Not a bad plan either! I don't have any connection to him, so I had to use a more indirect approach. Don't wanna leave anything to chance on such a big scale project you know?"

"I get it, but I´m afraid I´ve got some bad news on that front as well."

"What do you mean?"

"My sister. She has pushed threw some sort of punishment game, in which the losers of certain games have to do some stupid tasks which are either decided by the chat or at random. Seeing as the moderators have to partake in these games regularly, some stuff will by its very nature be left to chance." He had never heard of such an annoying practice before and wasn't looking forward to this change at all.

He sort of expected the rather introverted Akane to agree with him on that, but when she started giggling, he figured maybe not.

"Don't make such a face because of it!" Huh? What kind of face was he making? He was only observing her. "Those things are commonplace in streams like that. Especially when the people involved know each other well. It will be fun trust me."

"I do trust you. It´s my sister that's the most likely cause of trouble here."

"I-" For a split second, he saw her hand flinch in his direction, but then it remained where it was. "I´ll be there to help you out if worse comes to worse." Once again she was smiling brightly at him and he had to wonder what exactly it was that made her so happy when she was with him. "We´re a team after all."

No.

No, they were not. They may be partners on the upcoming stream as well as in their current stage play, but in the grand scheme of things, he was still alone. He had to be because he couldn't drag anybody else down with him without becoming a monster himself. Much less someone as innocent as Akane.

The goal of avenging his mother and rectifying his mistakes was all this life was for him. It had been that way since he was four and he had eventually made his peace with that.

At least that's what he had always believed.

But now he had the chance to change that. To change everything.

He could become someone else. Someone who enjoyed the life he had been given to the fullest and forget about the horrible things that had happened to him and his family in the past, while never forgetting the person that had been his personal idol along the way.

Maybe… he could even find a new star to light his way into the future.

His mind inadvertently flashed back to the first concert of the newly formed B-Komachi.

He had been in the crowd from the get-go, observing each and every one of the three girls on stage with a critical eye. One of them in particular, because he had been worried about her for at least a couple of days at this point.

At first, she had looked out of place. Unhappy, uncharacteristically unsure of herself, and distracted. Like she wanted to be anywhere else but there. Like she believed she didn't belong. The crowd had noticed that of course, and even her fellow teammates were clearly trying their best to lighten her mood. Nothing seemed to be able to cheer her up.

Then he had made his move. He hadn't really known why at the time. It just seemed to be something he needed to do. The routine itself had also been engraved in his mind for the better part of two decades now, so it wasn't like he didn't know what he was doing.

The way her eyes had lit up after she had seen him cheer her on. Her whole appearance had seemingly changed after she had looked straight at him for the first time in days. There was no doubt about it in his mind. She was performing for him and only him from that point on. He knew it in his heart, no matter how much he tried to rationalize it.

It was no use denying it. He wanted to see that exact same face on her again. As often as possible in fact. He wanted to be the only one to enable her to be this mesmerizing and the only one for whom she would strive to appear this way.

He wanted her to be his star.

Unfortunately, every time his mind came to that conclusion, the next image would eventually be a young girl with an enormous knife wound in her belly, lying motionless in some random apartment building.

Nightmares like this were close to common for him at this point in his life. He had been having them since he was four years old, and regardless of what his therapist had tried, they weren't going away.

Each and every time it happened, it would always shake him to his very core, but when that bleeding girl with the knife wound suddenly had red hair instead of purple. When it was cut off at the shoulder instead of her waist, and the eyes that were slowly losing their light had been bright red before turning colorless, that was when he knew he was truly in trouble.

This couldn't happen. He wouldn't let it happen. There was no chance he was going to survive something like that twice. This story needed to be different.

The feeling of a warm hand against his arm made him snap back into reality before he could lose himself even more in his dark imagination.

"Is something wrong? You zoned out there for a second…"

It always had to happen when he was with someone, huh? Maybe he was getting careless around Akane since she already knew so much about him and his… ambitions.

"It´s nothing. Just some annoying thought." The decision to ease her mind by showing a small hint of a smile was a foolish one in retrospect. She looked right threw his cheap facade. It more or less confirmed her suspicion that something was up.

"Aqua." One glimpse into her eyes was enough for him to know that he wouldn't get away with this sort of easy excuse anymore. She simply knew too much to believe him.

"Something came up. In regards to the… the thing I told you about on the balcony the other day." If she wanted him to be direct, he was going to be direct, but without telling her any details. This had nothing to do with her. "To be frank, I´m not sure if I want to pursue it. There is a strong chance I´m just clinging on to an ambition of mine that has long become meaningless."

His 'girlfriend' didn't respond right away. Instead, she seemed to be mulling over what he had just told her in her mind. Clearly trying to figure out what exactly he could mean by that.

When she came to her conclusion, her look turned cold and her face nearly emotionless. Her appearance couldn't be further away from the almost giddy young actress turned moderator from only a couple of minutes ago. Somehow, Aqua thought she resembled himself in many aspects and he hated that from the bottom of his heart.

"Are you saying you found-"

"Akane stop!" The raising of his voice seemed to turn her back to her normal self somehow. "It´s not that. And it is never going to be that. Do you understand?"

Again she was pondering her response. Analyzing each and every move he made while talking to her. This must be how a person on trial feels when he gets interrogated by the best attorney in the country.

When she spoke up again, it was slow and thoughtful.

"Even if it is. You are not going to tell me. That is what I understand." Wait. Was she seriously getting angry at him now? Did she even comprehend what they were talking about here?

There was no need for him to respond and she knew that he wouldn't, which is why she quickly followed up.

"I told you that I wanted to help and I meant it. How am I supposed to assist you if you lie to me constantly?"

"I don't want you to help me and I don't need your help either. I never have. I don't know what got you that impression."

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe the shuddering image of you alone in your bed, having some sort of trauma-based nightmare and crying for your mo-"

"Shut up!" In a reflex, he had hit the table with his fist, only to immediately come to regret it, when a good portion of the café was now staring at them.

Akane easily seemed as shocked as he was.

He wanted to go now. Wanted to leave the café and never look back. Wanted to just let this end. Surely someone like Akane could still be professional around him at work even if he did that. It was all getting far too complicated at this point and his flight instinct was a strong one.

…But that wouldn't be fair to her.

She was not at fault here. It was his unholy ambitions that were driving this kind and caring girl in a direction she shouldn't be heading. And it was his responsibility to stop that.

"I´m sorry."

"I´m sorry."

Both said in unison after they had calmed down a little.

"No this was on me. I shouldn't have started with it all. And I definitely shouldn't have yelled at you. You don't deserve that."

"No, Aqua that's not the problem! I overstepped out of frustration and I apologize. I shouldn't have said what I said, but I stand by what I told you before. Don't close yourself up even more now as a result. I thought we were past that point."

That was exactly the problem. They were past that point. He had already revealed too much. She wouldn't let it go so easily if he was simply feeding her cheap lies. There was no other choice right now, he needed to be honest with her.

"Look. I got some… conflicting information as of late. Depending on which one is true, my goal may have been futile from the very beginning." As much as it pained him to open up, it was kind of relieving to finally be able to speak to someone about this, even if it was in the vaguest way imaginable.

"I don't know what I´m supposed to do at this point and I feel lost. I have never felt as uncertain about myself as I do right now. And it bugs me immensely that I have no other choice than to admit that to you." Not wanting to look her in the eyes, he concentrated on his coffee mug before him.

This was as far as he was willing to go. He wouldn't tell her anything more. Nothing about the stream and Akira Shiratori, nothing about his supposedly dead father. She was already in way too deep for her own good. He needed to protect her. She was nothing more than a child. He couldn't drag her down alongside him. It was his responsibility to look out for he-

All of a sudden he felt a head fall on his shoulder and something that he believed to be an arm wrapping around his waist.

She didn't say anything to him.

She was just… there.

Only a couple of minutes ago he had yelled at her, considered walking away from her without any explanation whatsoever. Making it very clear that she needed to stay at an arm's length.

Now she was again crushing the boundaries that he had set. And as much as he hated to admit it, he couldn't help but feel comforted. Which is why he didn't flinch away from her.

The diabolical side inside him made him smile just a little at a particular thought:

Kana would a hundred percent be furious if she saw this.

After a little while in which they did nothing but sit together, she slowly let go of him and returned to her seat. Another couple of seconds were needed to collect herself apparently, but when she spoke to him again, it was like the last fifteen minutes or so had never actually happened.

"Wanna start going over my notes with me now?"

A simple nod for confirmation.

Over the next hour, they looked at the previous charity streams in so much detail, Aqua never would have believed himself capable of. When it came to research, Akane could rival the best of them. There was no doubt about that.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, he decided that he still needed to get something off his chest because she deserved to hear it.

"Thank you."

As the words registered, she stopped talking about her notes and turned towards him. Apparently, she realized right away that he was sincere now which made the smile from the beginning of their date return to her face, alongside the blush that had been there most of the time.

"Don't mention it."

.

.

.

"Senpai!"

"…What?!"

"Put your phone away already! The lecture is about to start."

"…The dude who is supposed to teach us isn't even here yet. And since when are you becoming such a do-goody student?"

Ruby was sitting next to her, wearing glasses for a change, although she didn't need them. To look smart was her goal is what she had told them. A whole desk full of writing utensils was on display in front of her including a sign with her hand-drawn name on it, as if she was getting ready for her final exams in middle school.

"Since the lecture is important to me becoming a successful idol of course! That's extra motivation a math test could never compare to!" God, she looked so sincere when she said that too.

Kana wondered who of the two siblings might drive her crazy first. The ever-annoying little sister who was far too fixated on a single goal, to even think about school, or the far too aloof older brother who wouldn't let a single emotion show on his face except if you literally pulled a gun on him or something.

And who was currently at fault for her being completely distracted!

"Psst."

Or maybe it will be none of the former and instead the also far too motivated third part of her idol group.

"The post is not coming right away you know? Akane told me she will listen to your advice and set a timer this time, since, and I quote: 'Even our precious natron lover may have a good idea once or twice a century'."

She could literally feel her blood boiling underneath her skin. This flipping witch! How dare she use her advice on another (fake!) date with Aqua! She should have the decency to reject the advice of a rival if she actually took her seriously!

Wait… did she not even take her seriously anymore? Did she believe her to be a joke?! Nothing but a small bump on the road of her highway to acting success and eternal love?!

Oh, she will so show her!

"Calm down Kana your crushing your phone! You are crushing your phone!"

"Ah shoot!" She got so surprised, she actually dropped the thing instead of crushing it.

"Senpai you are getting weirder every day, you know that?"

"You watch your mouth, young lady!"

Her phone wasn't broken, thankfully, but her nervousness had not disappeared.

A couple of minutes later another one of Strawberry Productions' big-time YouTubers going by the name F1/24/7… or Dave… walked into the room. Apparently, he was supposed to be the one coaching them today, because he had a lot of expertise in the field of assistant moderation because he had been traveling with the Formula One circuit all around the globe, reporting on every event right from the frontlines.

His channel had been growing pretty successful out of that as well, at least judging by the reaction he got from Mem.

Not that the guy wasn't equally as excited to meet the former reality star turned professional idol as well.

Ruby also knew the guy beforehand, just like every employee and talent at Strawberry Productions, so she immediately felt like a third wheel as usual.

That rapidly changed however when they got into the actual meat of the class.

Kana knew she had a talent for talking. You wouldn't get into a career in acting if you didn't. However, the amount of praise she got for her performance in various tasks all three of them needed to compete in, ranging from simple things like pronunciation and improvising all the way to appropriately reacting to her interview partner and dealing with difficult people in general, was… flattering to say the least.

Neither Ruby nor Mem were doing bad in her opinion, far from it. They were completing every task exactly how they were supposed to. But for some reason, that F1 guy would praise her above all else.

Honestly, in the end, it was starting to get a little annoying. Was this guy maybe a secret admirer from her childhood days? He was easily twice her age, but you could never tell with those people.

They were close to wrapping up, when Mem approached her again, while Ruby was still busy presenting an interview to their teacher she had written on the spot.

She was pretending to be stealthy as well.

"Want to feel a little better about yourself?" Her voice was only a whisper, so the other people in the room couldn't hear her.

"What do you mean?"

"Make a selfie with that guy and I´ll post it on my Instagram. You still don't have your own account right?"

"Huh? Ehm, no. But why would I do that? And how would it make me feel better about myself? Which, for your information, is entirely unnecessary since I currently love myself, thank you very much." Mem always thought she knew everybody better than they knew themselves. In many cases, that was true, but nobody knew Kana Arima quite like herself!

…At least at the moment!

Perhaps!

"You've been watching your phone like a hawk for the entirety of the class. If you are in any way confident about yourself, let me post a photo of the two of you. Arm in arm preferably. If need be, I´ll be in it too, but he has to be close to you. Got it?"

No, she didn't get it.

"Why would I take a photo with that geezer?"

"Helloho? To make Aqua jealous obviously! He´s been living rent-free in your jelly soul the entire evening, I think he might actually deserve a little payback for it. Plus; I was planning on taking a photo with him anyways and you being in it might push the clicks even further if you catch my drift."

Kana lost her cool faster than a freezer that got airdropped into the Saharan desert.

"I- I- I- I´m not jealous! I was just checking my watch!" Mem simply continued to look at her as if she hadn't said anything. "And besides, w- what makes you think Aqua would get jealous because of something childish like that? He´s not really the type for it in case you haven't noticed."

The catlike Youtuber simply smirked at her.

"Wanna find out?"

Yeah. She did.

So they took a picture. Several pictures actually. One for the B-Komachi channel, with all three of the girls, one for the official YouTube and Instagram channel of the charity stream, and one for Mem´s personal account, in which Kana and the F1 guy were, reluctantly, at least on her part, arm in arm.

The dude was extremely excited afterward and even asked for her number, which Kana gave him after briefly checking with Mem.

It wasn't like he was a creep after all. He really wasn't. By all means, he seemed to be a decent guy and they would most likely meet again at the charity stream and get along just fine. If he actually decided to ask her out, she would let him down easily. However, somehow Kana felt like this wasn't… okay. Like she had lowered herself somehow to achieve a petty goal.

Aqua didn't deserve payback. He hadn't done anything wrong. Sure, she wasn't happy that he was still seeing Akane, even though he claimed the whole thing to be nothing but business. But she understood why he was doing it. She also knew that Akane was helping him somehow. Apparently stabilizing him in a way she wasn't capable of… yet!

Had Ruby taken her attention from the subject only a couple of seconds later, she would have asked Mem to delete the post.

This wasn't her style after all.

"Ahhh! This was so great! I think we can really do a good job next week! I just hope I don't get nervous! I´ve never worked in front of a camera this way before! I need to keep my cool. Absolute Zen mode for the whole event." The blonde girl's passion for her job really didn't know any bounds. She kind of envied that a little.

"It´s a piece of cake! We have performed in front of reasonably big life audiences a couple of times at this point, we can definitely handle a stream no problem!"

"I´m so exciteeeed!"

Both blondes grabbed each other by the hands and began jumping up and down in glee, while Kana just stood there and watched with a small smile.

At some point, both her friends simultaneously grabbed her by the hands and forced her into the huddle as well. Somehow, she couldn't help but feel at least a tiny bit excited as well.

After a couple of minutes, they calmed down once more and sat down on the ground, grabbing a little something to drink.

"Okay. You girls have done it. You've convinced me. This might actually be a ton of fun." Ruby and Mem nearly jumped her again after that confession, but she managed to keep them in check. "But Ruby, didn't you want to speak to us because of something else as well? You were being kind of vague about it on Line so what is it?"

"Oh yeah. I almost forgot. Another idea of mine got excepted for the stream!"

Both older girls were visibly gulping. This couldn't be good news.

"What kind of idea?"

And there it was. Ruby was pretending to be the devil again. It was cute, it was still Ruby after all, but also sort of frightening.

"The people who lose at a game at the event are getting punished! I´m still collecting ideas for that by the way! They might get randomly drawn out of a hat at the end. So your participation would be much appreciated."

"Wait, wait, wait, slow down. What are you talking about?"

And so, Ruby explained her idea in more detail.

The more she heard, the more uncomfortable she got. Surprisingly, however, Mem was the first to snap.

"Are you crazy Ruby?! Giving that sort of power to the chat is always a bad idea! You are delivering yourself and others at the mercy of some random people on the internet! This could be catastrophic! I can't believe Pieyon was okay with this."

"It's fine. We are all friends here, right? Nobody is going to be too mean about this." Her innocence was downright adorable at times.

"You say that, but you don't know it for sure."

"Yes. What if somebody was trying to be really funny and you would have to, I don't know, shave your hair off or something?"

That seemed to hit a little too close to home for the young idol because she was frantically rubbing her hands through her hair at that comment. "What the heck is up with everybody and my hair!? Nobody is going to make me cut it! That´s just crazy talk!"

After a lot of convincing, Ruby finally succeeded in easing their mind somewhat. They had faith in their fellow colleagues after all, so the whole thing was very unlikely to go out of hand. If it did, the youngest member of B-Komachi promised to fix it herself.

Which wasn't really a big relief for either of them, but they appreciate the sentiment behind it nonetheless.

In the end, they both agreed to pick some light but funny punishments and promised to give her their ideas at the promotional Video shoot that was coming up tomorrow.

A little while later, Kana was on her way back home together with Mem. She lived a little bit further away, but in the same direction so they always walked together when the weather was too good to take a cab or if Miyako was too busy to drive them herself.

When her private phone buzzed, signalizing an incoming message from a close contact of hers, Mem was already giving her a shady kind of look.

She played it cool though. For all intent and purposes, that could be Ruby who had forgotten to tell them something before they left. So, she calmly opened her phone and immediately recognized, that the message wasn't from Ruby.

It was from Aqua.

She tried her best to not get flustered over a stupid little message, especially because they had written each other countless times in the past, but somehow… she expected something from this one.

If she were to drop her phone now because her hands were getting sweaty, Mem would never let her hear the end of it. So, she was especially carefully as she opened the message.

"Ruby showed me Mem´s Instagram Post. Everything went well at your lecture I gather?"

…

That's it? Nothing more? That's all he had to say about it?

This was… disappointing.

She knew it was childish and stupid from the beginning. Somebody like Aqua wouldn't get jealous as easily as she did. He had no real reason to. She was just some random acquaintance for him that happened to work with his sister and therefore happened to spend some time with him as well.

Oh, man. That thought stung more than she had initially imagined.

Apparently, her mood was visible on her face again, because Mem was stepping a little closer to her, obviously contemplating if comforting her was a valid option here.

Before she could do anything like that, however, her phone buzzed again.

"I´m sorry but I have to ask. Did you know that F1 guy beforehand? You two looked kind of close in the photo. Just wondering."

Her emotions did a 180 almost instantaneously. She stared at her phone and then at Mem, who was desperately trying to glimpse over her shoulder to get a better look at her messages.

Before she could realistically contemplate the situation, her phone buzzed a third time and both girls quickly sat down at the nearest bench and actually hovered over the communication device together.

"He´s like 42. And divorced. I´m just saying."

After a short moment in which they continued to simply stare, alternating between the phone and themselves, both of them burst out laughing.

"I guess you were wrong. He´s soooo is the jealous type. At least when it comes to you!"

It felt like her heart skipped a beat. Aquamarine Hoshino, the epitome of aloofness was getting jealous… because of her! Oh these text messages were going to be soo useful for her in the future! She couldn't wait to tease him about this.

"Yeah." The biggest smile was plastered on her face now. "Yeah, I guess he is."

This was so stupid. So unbelievably stupid.

But it felt so, so good for some reason!

Without a little hesitation, she relocked her phone and put it back into her purse, leaving the messages as simply "read".

"You´re not going to answer him?" Mem seemed a little confused by that.

"Nah. Not yet."

That night, she slept like a baby. And when she woke, there were already three more messages and a missed call from a certain someone.

Who would have ever thought that it felt so freakin good to be on top of a situation for once?

Maybe she would answer him a little after breakfast. If she was feeling like it.

Her smile was almost too big to hide in her cushions.