“Please take one!” Akari yelled out to a passerby. Hana could hear her from the other side of the road. “765 Productions double live, this Saturday!”

The Supernova Project’s first mini-live would be in a few days, so the company was doing its best in advertising the event by sending girls to hand out promotional material across the city. Akari and Hana were spending their afternoon helping out, although Hana’s upperclassman was currently being much more successful at engaging with other people. The two of them were at a four-way street crossing, which made it so that there was a steady stream of people who were passing by.

Hana felt her school uniform’s skirt pressing against one of her legs as a gust of wind came in from the left. Her hair started flying across her face, and the stack of flyers in her hand threatened to escape from her arms and go flying into the summer afternoon. With a tape roller in one hand, the flyers in the other, and her school bag on her shoulder, it was a little hard to keep hold of everything. 

If anything, the wind wasn’t cold. The weather in the middle of June was making it perfect for them to spend their free time going through the city. After about half an hour of working, her stack was down to about twenty, although Akari kept taking from her pile every time she ran out. When Hana wasn’t handing out a promotional flyer for the concert, the pink-haired idol was taping one to a nearby telephone pole, notice board, or street lamp. 

Someone bumped into her shoulder, knocking the tape roller out of her hand.

“I’m sorry!” Hana said. The person stopped mid-walk, looking down at the ground.

It was someone who went to a different high school than her, with a cream-colored blazer on instead of gray. He picked up the tape for her. “Is this yours?” 

“Sorry! I guess I wasn’t looking.” 

He handed her the tape roller. Once they made eye contact, she saw that he had a pair of glasses over his brown eyes. His hair was styled in a messy bowl cut. “What is this for?”

“765 Productions is having two mini-lives on Saturday, in two different places across the city,” Hana explained while handing him one of the flyers. She tried to tell as much information as possible in as little the amount of time.

He looked at the flyer for a few seconds before showing it to her. There were different versions of them to accommodate for the number of different girls who would be performing, but she had managed to give him one with her picture on it. “You’re performing?” 

“You should come!” 

“Haruto, the light’s green,” another guy said, walking up to the two of them. He had short blonde hair, cut short on the sides, and stood half a head taller than his friend. “Let’s go.”

“We still have time,” the first guy, who Hana assumed was Haruto, said. “She was telling me about a performance on Saturday.”

“Let me see,” the blonde said, snatching the flyer from his friend’s hand. “765 Productions? Are the Million Stars going to be there?”

“Well, no,” Hana responded. “But the NeoStars are going to be just as good one day!”

“You’re all brand new. Who would go and watch a bunch of amateurs performing?”

“I’m sorry about him,” Haruto said to Hana. He looked a little sheepish. “He’s really… specific with idols.”

“Aren’t I allowed to ask?” the blonde looked at his friend. “It’s the 765 name but I don’t know any of these idols. Who is this Watanabe Akari?” 

“That would be me,” a familiar voice said from behind him. From the looks of it, Akari had just finished handing out her flyers and crossed the street to meet back up with Hana. Her face didn’t look very pleased. 

“Oh, I remember you now,” the blonde said, turning around to look at Akari. “You were the girl who couldn’t keep up with Fukuyama Reina earlier this month.”

“Excuse me?” Akari responded. 

“Like I said, really sorry,” Haruto said, sighing.

“That’s an example of a good idol,” the blonde said to him. “Honestly, you should go to this concert just to see her again.”

“You go to the concert to see all of the people who’ve been trying hard for months,” Akari corrected him. A quick glance at her hands showed she was clutching her school bag pretty tightly.
“Sorry, I don’t speak amateur.” 

Approaching from the end of the street was a familiar, pinafore-wearing head of light blue hair.

“Anyways,” the blonde started to say. His face started looking uncomfortable as he put a hand to the back of his shirt. “That’s really cold.” 

“Are you okay?” Haruto asked.

The blonde looked at the two girls. “Did one of you put ice down my shirt?”

“What?” Akari asked. “Where would I get ice from during the middle of summer?”

“I don’t know, the convenience store?” the blonde guessed. He untucked his shirt. More than a handful of ice cubes fell down onto the sidewalk, rapidly melting once they touched the asphalt. With the light turning green again, he started to cross the street. “Let’s go, Haruto.”

“I’m sorry about my friend,” Haruto said, bowing in apology. “I’ll see about being there on Saturday, I’m interested.” 

“Good luck with being idols, NeoStars,” the blonde said. 

From their brief conversation, she noticed he was conventionally handsome with his height and build. Although his personality made him a long way away from being the perfect man. Haruto, in comparison, seemed a lot more mild-mannered than him. He at least had the politeness to apologize for his friend’s behavior. 

After the two boys left, Fukuoka Yuki arrived to meet Hana and Akari. “Was the blonde one bothering you two?”

“Nothing that I couldn’t have handled, but thank you,” Akari responded. “Why, were you the one who put ice down his shirt?”

“Yes, actually.” 

“Where did you get the ice from?”

“I made it, of course,” Yuki said. The way she said it sounded like she expected the two of them to know. 

“I see,” Akari said. “You showed up right on time.” 

“I finished handing out my flyers, and I just happened to be on the way to the cafe when I saw the two of you,” Yuki responded. She was dressed warmly despite the warmer weather, with a long-sleeved shirt under her pinafore. “Are you two still planning on meeting there?”

“We said to meet up at 4:30, right?” Akari asked.

Yuki looked at her watch. “It’s already 4:36.” 

“I’m sorry!” Hana said. “I’m taking so long…”

Akari went to take some of the flyers away from her. “Here, let me have some. Yuki, do you want to help?”

“I’d love to.”

“I’ll take this street, Hana can keep taping, and Yuki can get the other street?”Akari asked. She offered half of her stack to Yuki, who accepted and crossed the street after. 

“Thank you for helping me,” Hana said. 

“What are friends for?” Akari responded, grinning. “Now let’s get this finished before we keep the others waiting.” 

The group of three didn’t make it to the cafe until 4:50. Right as they opened the door to enter, Hana’s nose caught a rich smell of coffee in the air. Tae also called out to them immediately from a booth at the side of the restaurant. “They’re here!”

“I’ll go order our drinks,” Akari said to Hana. “What do you want?”

“A coffee,” Hana responded. “Well, can you see if they have a latte? If not then get me anything.”

“No problem. Fukuoka-san?”

“Hot chocolate, please,” the blue-haired girl responded.

“I’ll be right back,” Akari said, leaving them to get in line to order. She had a few people in front of her. 

It was the redhead’s idea to have the group of idols meet up after handing out flyers. She picked Café Papillon, which was somewhere roughly in the center of where all of them were assigned to work. The coffee shop didn’t seem too busy at this time of the day, with less than half of its tables actually being occupied by customers. A cute boy was currently sweeping around the area, wearing a purple apron and hat. Regretfully, he never gave Hana any attention as he cleaned the seating area by her.

The place also seemed to be in the middle of a collaboration with 765 Productions’ Million Stars. Posters featuring the girls wearing maid outfits and holding dishes from the cafe lined the walls. There was also a large mural on one of the cafe’s outside walls with the girls on it. 

Once Hana sat down with the rest of the girls, she noticed the tabletops were also split into multicolored sections with her senpai’s pictures on them. The space she was sitting at had Kousaka Umi on it, while to her left and right were other Million Stars girls. She sat down after Yuki, and across from them were Sonoda Tae and Miyagi Nari.

“I’m glad you’re finally here,” Tae said to her. Today she was wearing one of her usual types of outfits: a long skirt and blouse. She looked a lot more mature than Hana despite the two year age difference. “A few more minutes and I would’ve needed to get another coffee.”

“Sorry about that,” Hana said. “I took way too long to hand out my stuff.”

“I got done with passing out my flyers early.”

“I’m not surprised. You always seemed good with people.”

“Well…” Tae started to say. 

Nari spoke up. She was also wearing her school uniform, which had a tan blazer with a dark brown skirt and yellow cross tie. Her light-green hair was short and styled neatly, with two clips keeping her bangs out of her face. “She tripped at one point and lost half of them.”

“Oh.”

“I could have picked them up, but let’s be realistic,” Tae tried to explain. “I don’t think a crumpled flyer is going to be a good first impression.”

“Which is true,” Nari responded. “That’s why I gave her half of my stack to compensate for the loss!” 

“What about you, Fukuoka-san?” Tae asked.

“I stood by the subway, so I didn’t have any issue handing things out,” the blue-haired girl said. She seemed to be the least into the conversation at the moment, instead looking around at the cafe’s decorations.

Akari walked up to their table holding something in her hands. “Our stuff is going to take a little bit to make since I also bought a sandwich, but I did come with presents.” 

She sat down next to Tae, handing Hana and Yuki wrapped packets that were small enough to fit in one hand. A golden, stylized butterfly was printed on the packaging.

“What’s this?” Yuki asked. “Candy?” 

“Not quite,” Akari said. “Let’s open them. In three, two, one.” 

Plastic crinkled as the Akari opened up her packet, and the other two followed her after. After opening, Hana pulled out a keychain of a cartoon girl in a maid outfit. It looked different than the actual thing, but she realized it was supposed to be her senpai, Kasuga Mirai. There was also a folded piece of paper describing the idol and naming some of her songs. 

“Is this supposed to be Satake Minako-san?” Yuki asked, holding up her keychain with her pointer finger. Hanging from the accessory’s chain was a cartoon version of a blue-eyed girl with a brown ponytail. To go with the theme of a cafe, she was also wearing a maid outfit. 

Akari’s eyes lit up. “Fukuoka-san, can we trade, please? I got another Julia.” 

She showed her the keychain she ended up getting, which had a girl with short-red hair wearing a butler’s outfit.

“You can just have it,” Yuki offered.

“Thank you!” Akari said, accepting the keychain gratefully. She held it up to the window to admire. “I’ve been trying to get the Minako one for a week now.”

“Akari-san,” Nari said. “Did you pick this place just for the prizes?” 

“Absolutely not,” Akari responded quickly. She went to attach her new keychains to her school bag, which already had some other keychains to accompany it. “Anyway, what did you and Tae-san get?”

“Hakozaki Serika.”

“Makabe Mizuki,” Tae responded after. “The Serika one is really cute, by the way. Almost as much as she is in real life.” 

“It must have been really nice getting to perform with the Million Stars,” Nari said. “There’s so much to learn from them.”

“They’re on a completely different level,” Yuki added. “It’s weird to think we’re working in their company now despite that.” 

Thinking back to the conversation they had earlier on the street, Hana looked over at Akari. The redhead noticed her watching and looked back at her, giving a slight smile.

“Our senpais are doing their own thing,” Akari said to the others. “For now, let’s just do our best in getting as far as we can, together.” 

A bell rang from the cafe counter. “Number twenty-six!”

“Is that us?” Akari asked. She started to get out of her seat, but Hana stood up first. 

“No worries, I’ll get it!” Hana said. 

She walked up to the counter, excited to pick up her coffee. By now, the orders had slowed down, and only one other person was standing in line to order. 

She noticed that the workers’ uniforms at this cafe were cute. Like the boy sweeping, the girls at the counter had on purple hats and aprons, while their shirts were white with light-brown stripes. The girl who wasn’t at the register even had a big pair of glasses framing her face cutely, with a pair of light purple eyes looking back at her as she approached. 

“Hana… chan?” the girl asked her. Her brown ponytail was now tied up in the back instead of the side, but now that she was up close, the pink-haired idol recognized the flower-shaped hair clip she was wearing. 

“Ayaka…” Hana almost whispered. It had been over a year since they last talked, but by pure chance, they were meeting again. In front of her was Ichihara Ayaka, her former idol partner. Dread started creeping into Hana’s entire body. The last time they talked was over a year ago, and it didn’t end well for either of them. 

Ayaka tilted her head to the side, making both of the long strands of hair at the sides of her face sway with her movement. Hana spent a few uncomfortable seconds in silence while the other girl scrutinized her. This would be a conversation that she had no idea what to expect, nor did she know where to begin speaking.

“Your hair got longer,” Ayaka said, breaking the silence.

“You look different, too,” Hana responded meekly. What was she supposed to say after not talking for so long? The first thing she thought of was to clear up why she was still in the city. “You’re still living in Tokyo?”

“I’m at a training school at the moment, so that’s why I’m working part-time to afford everything.”

“Ah,” Hana said. She didn’t want to mention how in comparison, she was already working for a new production company. 

“What about you?”

“Me?”

“You haven’t given up being an idol, right? No way you would.”

“Well… I wouldn’t, but-”

“You’re hesitating…” Ayaka cut her off. Her eyes were always curious, always looking for more information. The glasses she wore only drew more attention to them. “That means you are still trying to be an idol. Did you find a company yet?”

“Um…”

“You hesitated again. Where is it?” 

“765 Productions,” Hana said reluctantly. She wanted to finish the conversation without mentioning it, but it was too late now. At this point, it was just better to say everything. “I’m going to be in a mini-live this Saturday.”

It felt like a weight lifted off of her chest, but now, she didn’t have to hide anything from her old friend. She just had to deal with Ayaka’s reaction.

The brunette opened her mouth in surprise. She caught herself, smiling after. “I’m really happy for you.”

“Really?” Hana asked. It wasn’t quite what she expected.

“Every one of their idols ends up becoming famous. I can’t believe you made it in.”

Another worker walked up to the counter from the kitchen. “Ichihara-san, you should probably get back to work.”

“Ah, gotta go,” Ayaka said.

Hana had completely forgotten how the two of them might have been holding up the line. Looking to her right, there were now a handful of people at the line, and the person to make them their orders was busy talking. 

“Your stuff is on the tray,” Ayaka said. Before she went back to work, she stopped to look at her former partner. One of her fists was raised up. “Hana-chan, keep fighting.”

Hana simply gave her a smile in response, also raising one of her fists. 

With how many questions Ayaka had asked her, she never had the chance to invite her to her concert. She also never ended up apologizing for their last concert together. At this point, it felt like bringing it up before she left would have felt too awkward and direct. Inviting her former partner to one of her concerts before apologizing would have been even worse.

Hana picked up the tray with all of their orders on it. She tried to compose herself as best as possible before she made it back to her table. If anything, it wasn’t like she had taken too much time talking to Ayaka. 

“What took you so long?” Tae asked her once she came back.

“Akari’s keeps talking about her sandwich,” Nari said. 

“I’m sorry,” Hana said, putting the tray on the table. “I just got caught up talking to one of the workers.”

“Oooo,” Tae sounded interested. “What about?”

“Um,” Hana didn’t mean to say that. She had to come up with something. “I saw she was wearing a flower pin, so I wanted to say it was cute, and then we started talking about flowers!”

“As expected from Hana,” Akari said. She took a bite from her sandwich, silently whispering a ‘thank you’. “You’re always wearing flowery things.” 

“Like the outfit you had in the photoshoot,” Tae said. “It was really cute!”

“And in character,” Nari added. “I thought that what you wore was really representative of yourself.”

“You did a good job overall, with how composed you were for the pictures,” Yuki said to her. She kept blowing into her mug to cool it down. 

“Thanks, everyone,” Hana said. She didn’t really know how to accept the praise, so she held her coffee mug between her hands and looked down at it. One of the workers had drawn her a butterfly on it with the cream. 

“Compared to me, my pictures were really bad,” Tae said. She reached into her bag, taking out a handful of prints with a glossy finish. True to what their Producer had told them, each girl received several copies of their photos a few days after their shoot. While she was wearing a lovely and mature outfit, her poses just looked… awkward.

She sighed. “I had no idea what to do, and I went so early compared to everyone else.”

“I went early too,” Akari said. “I think I did okay, though.”

“Let’s look,” Nari said. “I’ll share mine, too. They’re saved on my phone.”

“As a big coincidence, I also have a copy on me.” 

The next few seconds consisted of a rustling of school bags and tapping on screens as each girl took out their photos from last week. Hana moved her coffee cup to the side to make way for the flowery folder containing her idol portfolio.

It was a few years old, but she’d been using it ever since she started her career at 14. Her mom had bought it for her and also helped put everything together when she was first starting out. Now that she had new professional photos, a copy of each of them went right into her portfolio. 

She spread her group of photos on the table, looking around to see what everyone else had. Akari and Nari had traded phones, looking at each other’s pictures. 

“That picture is nice,” Tae pointed at one of Hana’s pictures. 

Hana gave the older girl the print that was taken while she was turning and her skirt was captured mid-motion. She was smiling in the picture, looking at the camera with a content face.

“I really like how you can see the motion in it,” Yuki said. “It looks and makes it feel alive.” 

“What about your pictures?” Hana asked her.

Yuki turned hers so both Tae and Hana could see. Like Tae, some of the poses she had were awkward, although she looked much more composed. There was also a slight sparkle in each of the photos as if it were snowing while they were being taken. 

“I love your outfit,” Tae said. “You always look warm.” 

“It’s always cold,” Yuki laughed.

Tae pointed at a picture behind all of the others in the folder. “Are those our group photos?”

“I want to see!” Nari said. She ended up putting her phone down.

Yuki took out her copies of the company’s first group photos. There were two with the Producer, and two without her. Hana took one of the ones including their Producer, admiring how the workday was able to end with the entire company together. She, Akari, and Tae were almost in the direct center of the group shot. 

“All of us are in the middle row,” Nari said. “Although I have no idea why Tae was.”

“I wanted to be with all of my friends!” Tae responded. “I had to crouch down for it too.” 

“Which is why you should stand in the back row!”

“Look at Fukuyama-san,” Yuki spoke up. “She’s almost out of frame. In all of these.” 

Hana hadn’t seen it until now, but while their Producer was squeezing in to fit into the picture, it looked like Reina was trying her best to not appear in any of them. 

“I noticed that, but didn’t want to say anything,” Nari said.

“I don’t understand that girl,” Akari said. Out of all the girls there, she and Tae probably had the most interaction with Reina from dancing with her. “Why join a production company if you don’t like the people there, or why stay at it?”

“Let’s not assume what she wants to do before she hears it,” Yuki said. “Although she doesn’t seem to be enjoying herself in these pictures.” 

“Her body language says she doesn’t want to be there,” Nari said. “Look how everyone is close together, but aside from her position away from the rest of the group, with her feet pointed towards the door. She wants to leave.” 

Akari looked at Hana. “Hana-san, didn’t you talk to Reina after practice one day? On the rooftop?”

“Um, I went up there to write, and I saw her there, yes,” Hana responded. She didn’t want to start anything amongst her fellow idols. “I don’t remember a lot though, it was like a month ago.” 

“Didn’t she say something about not planning on staying at the company? That there were other ones she could go to?” 

Hana was a horrible liar, so she had to tell the truth. “Yes.”

“Reina is an idol, but for the position,” Akari said. “Why though?”

“Don’t take it too hard,” Tae said. “She must have some really big ambitions, considering she was an idol ever since she was eight, and always going to a different agency. I mean, can you say that you still have the same friends from a decade ago? She might just be afraid to make friends because she changes agencies so often.”

“She’s just always so distant whenever I talk to her. After that performance with Sayoko ended, she just looked at me before walking away. There was no ‘good work’ from her,” Akari responded. “She at least can be polite to the people she’s working with.”

Hana held her latte in her hands, finally deciding to take a sip. As good as it tasted, she couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation that she had with Ayaka earlier. She thought that she had gotten over everything that had happened with her former partner, but meeting her again brought a lot of the bad memories back. Despite their failures, the cheeky brunette was still in Tokyo trying to make her idol dream come true, just like Hana. One of them just happened to catch a lucky break and ended up pulling ahead.

Not only that, but this conversation reminded Hana of the fact that out of the two performances that the company was having on Saturday, their Producer picked Reina to be in the same group as Hana and Akari. As the days before her first performance with 765 Productions grew shorter, she felt more and more pressure begin to hang over her head.

She now had a sinking feeling that Reina’s opinion of everyone after that day would be highly dependent on everyone’s individual performances. 

“If you’re looking to be friends, I don’t have time for that,” Reina had said to her. 

When it came to being professional, the blonde was always courteous when she needed to be. The polite conversation that she had last week with the photographer and Producer, and how she spoke to the audience at the concert came to mind. Outside of that, all interactions that Hana had with Fukuyama Reina felt short and nearly one-sided. 

Hana had to do well this weekend. For Ayaka, for herself, and for all of those who might have been doubting her.

Her dream of becoming an idol couldn’t end yet.