Dear Diary,

Class today has gone by decently.

I say ‘decently’ because if you average them all out, I did well. Chemistry and math were tough to sit through as usual, but I think I aced my literature test! History was also okay, we spent another day on the warring states era, but I surprisingly knew a lot about it.

There was a novel I read earlier this month that had to do with a couple who found themselves trapped between two different factions and their love for each other, and I guess it since it took place in that era, I was able to learn about it from there.

Who would’ve thought?

Another thing, I also noticed I’m doing better in gym class now. I was able to do 10 pushups today! And during relay running, I almost finished fifth!

It might be because of all of the training I’ve done lately?

Sorry again for not writing as much as I have been, it’s just that we all were working really really really hard for the live show last weekend. I wrote about this before, but it’s all I’ve been thinking about in these past few days.

I finally had my chance to shine, but it wasn’t anywhere close to being the perfect performance. I couldn’t sing on my own at first, but I’m still really grateful for everyone who was there for me until I could.

I still can’t believe how much I’ve done since I started this diary. It’s only been a few months, but there’s just been so much to write about ever since I became an idol again. Now that the NeoStars have put themselves out there in a concert, there’s so much to do.

More concerts, commercials, maybe even our own songs…

The feeling of a broom brushing against Hana’s school shoes brought her out of her writing trance.

Looking around, she was one of the few people left in her classroom, and the only one who was still sitting down. It was the end of the school day, so people were now cleaning up the room and putting away desks and chairs for clubs to use.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to disrupt you,” a taller girl with blonde hair and glasses said to her. “You looked really focused.”

“No it’s okay, I should have already left by now,” Hana looked at her phone to see the time. It had already been eight minutes since the final bells chimed. “I really need to go, actually.”

“Is it idol work?”

Hana nodded as she placed her bag on the top of her desk to put her stationery inside of it. “My Producer wanted to meet with me after school before my lesson today starts. I have no idea what for, though.”

“Maybe your last performance?”

“Maybe…” Hana sighed. She put her bag over her shoulder, walking out of the classroom. “I need to go, see you tomorrow!”

She waved off her classmate, nearly running into another one on the way out. As she walked across her school to reach its gymnasium, she tried her best to not bump into any of the other students still roaming the halls. Apparently, Akari was also someone who the Producer wanted to talk to, so she figured they would go to the office together. By now, the upperclassman should have been ready to leave with her.

“Akari-senpai?” Hana asked aloud once she reached the gym.

She yelped as the redhead nearly took her legs out with a dust mop. “Sorry, excuse me!”

“Watch where you’re going!” another student yelled at her.

Akari ran past her, sweeping the floor so quickly that she was almost running from one end of the gymnasium to the other. She was dressed in red shorts and a white t-shirt, with her hair tied up in a high ponytail swaying back and forth with every step.

“Akari-senpai, we need to go!” Hana said to her.

“I know, but I’m almost done cleaning!”

“Do you need any help?”
“That’s fine, don’t get your uniform dirty!” Akari responded. “Just relax, and I’ll be done before you know it!”

Hana sat down on the gym bleachers while her fellow idol swept the gym. She just wanted to get their meeting with the Producer over with, so any distraction was only giving her more time to wait anxiously.

She opened up her phone while she waited, looking at social media to catch up on what she had missed while she was in her classes. She had a few new notifications, with all of them including a media attachment.

The first one included a photo that she was tagged in, posted by Otokura Kyoko. It was taken before the night had actually begun, capturing every girl performing for the live posing for the camera with the Million Stars next to them. The majority of faces in the picture looked optimistic for the show to come.

I was super excited to be the leader for our first live concert! This has all been like a dream come true! Here’s to the next live #NeoStarsFighting, Kyoko captioned her post. The rest of the pictures in the post had selfies of the wine-haired girl in various places backstage and posing with other girls.

The next post Hana had been tagged in was by someone she didn’t know but apparently had recently followed her. It took her a few seconds to realize what the video was about, but the music in the background told her that it was a recording of her performance. The video was shaky, but it was definitely her in the cetner of the frame.

She struggled to not pause the video once the camera focused on her, but she wanted to see how she looked in the audience’s eyes.

She saw someone who was vastly out of their element once she froze up. She hadn’t heard it at the time, but people in the audience were murmuring about her during this.

“Is she okay?” someone said.

“How am I supposed to know?” the person behind the phone responded.

“Maybe you shouldn’t record this performance...”

Hana cringed when she saw herself crying. She was having second thoughts on continuing the video, also wondering why someone would want to tag her in it, to begin with.

“Ready to go?” someone asked her.

Looking up from her phone, she saw Akari leaning right in front of her. Their faces were uncomfortably close to each other. Hana leaned back immediately, almost falling over from how fast she moved to get herself some personal space.

“Ah, sorry,” Akari said. She was back in her school uniform, with the same white shirt and red plaid skirt Hana was wearing. “You looked really absorbed in your phone. Whatcha watching?”

“Oh, I just saw that Otokura-san tagged me in something,” Hana responded. “I was just waiting for you.”

Akari started heading out of the gym. “Let’s go then!”

The last stop before they left would be to pick up their casual shoes from their shoe lockers. There were a few rows separating them from each other, with a few other students also getting ready to leave. Hana bent down to remove her green-accented school slippers. Opening her locker, she replaced her casual shoes with the slippers.

She put on a pair of black Mary Jane shoes she had bought last semester, still shiny good care. They fit perfectly over her white knee socks, and once they were both on she met up with Akari outside of their school doors.

Summer was in full swing, so students were no longer required to wear their blazers with the sun shining so strongly over them. Still, it was quite hot outside. As the two of them walked towards the office, Hana started wanting to be back in an air-conditioned room or for the sunset to arrive early with some cooler weather. There weren’t a lot of clouds out, making it so the day was even hotter.

If anything, it was still her favorite season after spring. Summer was when the world looked the most alive, with many holidays and events taking place during the hottest season of the year. It was also the setting of many of the romance books that she liked to read, giving her a warm reminder of her favorite books every time she thought about the season.

“So…” Akari said. “...your performance?”

“Huh?” Hana responded. She was too busy admiring the scenery around them and noticing some flyers around the city to hear everything that was said to her.

“I said, I saw that you were watching your performance on your phone.”

“Oh…”

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t think you’d be willing to watch it.”

“I wanted to see what I looked like to other people,” Hana said. “I just remember a lot of nervousness, and then you showed up, and it turned out fine in the end!”

“A lot of us were trying to figure out what to do with the performance after you froze up, but they were wasting more time talking than actually doing anything.”

“Have I thanked you yet?”

Akari laughed. “At least three times, yes.”

“Well thanks again,” Hana said sheepishly. “I don’t know what I could have done without you. Or Oozora-san and Sato-san, too.”

Hana had been told that the other two girls who joined them and provided an instrumental didn’t plan on doing it. A lot of the people who had helped her out apparently just moved without thinking, before they even thought of how badly the performance could have turned out.

Akari stopped to look at the flyer attached to a telephone pole.

“Akari-senpai, we have to go,” Hana told her.

“Sorry, I guess it’s my turn to be distracted,” Akari responded. “I just noticed this was hanging here.”

There was an advertisement for an upcoming Million Stars tour across the country, featuring all 39 girls grouped together and wearing a brand new live outfit for the occasion. Many of the girls Hana recognized from training and the occasional moments where they gave her advice.

“They’re all around the town,” Hana responded. She noticed it was attached using the same type of tape she had used for their own flyers. “Do you think their Producer made them walk around the city to put these up?”

“Maybe. It’s weird to think they’re so far ahead of us but still doing some of the same things, though.”

“Yeah…” Hana said. Despite being in the same company as them, she couldn’t help but feel that the level of skill her seniors were at was so far and beyond her own.

Akari smiled at her. “That’s fine, though! That just means that good fundamentals are important!”

“I wonder if they get stage fright, too,” Hana said.

“I’m sure they do. They’ve just learned how to deal with it.”

They spent another ten minutes walking before they arrived at the office, entering with the keycards given to them when they joined. Hana went there almost daily, but she usually felt giddy every time she entered. This time, her giddiness was absent with the results of their live performance in mind.

“Do you think I’m going to get fired?” Hana asked quietly as they entered the elevator.

“Wait, what?” Akari responded.

“Uh, nothing?” Hana said. She realized it would mean talking about her past experience as an idol. “I wonder what the Producer wants us here to talk about.”

“It shouldn’t be anything too bad. I think our performance was overall a success, so there’s not much to worry about regarding that.”

The elevator stopped on the top floor, which had fewer practice rooms and more office space than the rest of the building. Today was one of the few occasions Hana noticed that Harumi Kiyoshi, the office’s assistant, was present.

“Good afternoon,” Akari said to him.

“Good afternoon,” Harumi replied. His desk was right outside of the Producer’s office, making him also her secretary in some circumstances. “The Producer is waiting for you inside.”

Their Producer’s office was large, with enough space apart from her desk to additionally have a couch and coffee table inside of it. Several wooden shelves lined the wall, although not many of them were actually filled. With how new the Supernova Project was, Hana assumed that over time, the room would end up being filled with promotional material for the NeoStars.

Akari knocked on the open door once they entered. “Pardon our intrusion.”

“Watanabe-san, Kanagawa-san, you’re here,” their Producer said. Today she was wearing a professional blouse, while her dark hair was worn loose. “I was almost going to have Kiyoshi-san call one of you.”

“Sorry if we’re late. I was caught up cleaning after school.”

“That’s no problem, your education is important,” the Producer gestured to the armchairs facing her desk. “Take a seat, there’s a lot to discuss.

Hana sat down at the one farthest from the Producer’s chair. She still didn’t know what to expect from this meeting, so she tried her best to not be in the way. The last time she was in an office with one of her closest idol friends, it didn’t end up well at all.

“There’s another girl who’ll be here, but she’s currently fulfilling a photoshoot offer,” their Producer said.

“Already?” Akari asked.

“After the concerts last weekend, a few offers ended up coming out for the girls who performed. Those who didn’t have academics to worry about were given work as early as yesterday.”

“So why are we here, if we still have school to worry about? And then a training lesson in an hour or so?”

“I asked you to be here early before your practices because, in a few months or so, there is going to be another performance featuring the NeoStars girls,” their Producer explained. “I haven’t made this announcement yet, but this time, it’ll feature every girl.”

“That’s great!” Akari said.

“Because we have thirty girls, it’ll also mean this live show will be two days, featuring fifteen girls on each night.”

“So, why are we here, instead of having you speak to every girl at once?” Hana asked.

“That’s because I want to say that the two of you, along with a few others, will be having your CD debut within the next month.”

“Oh thank goodness,” Hana sighed in relief. She wouldn’t be getting fired, after all.

“Along with a single debut, this initial batch of girls will also be featured on the company’s first three albums. I truly believe the two of you are ready enough to do this.”

“I won’t disappoint,” Akari said.

“Although, I do want to talk about your individual performances from this weekend.” the Producer said. “Specifically, Kanagawa-san’s performance and the impromptu changes resulting from it.”

“Ah,” Hana said. She had let her guard down too early.

The Producer looked at her. “Kanagawa-san, you should know that we can’t have an incident like that happening again.”

Hana looked away and nodded. “I know.”

“I was well aware of your last performance before joining 765 before I hired you, but I know you can do better than this.”

Why choose her for another solo song knowing she might mess up? Hana felt honored, but at the same time, incredibly nervous she wouldn’t perform to expectations again.

“Producer-san, I’ve returned from the photoshoot,” a familiar, cool voice said from behind them.

Fukuyama Reina had entered the office, wearing a dark blue sundress with a horizontal stripe on the edge of her skirt.

“What is she doing here?” Akari asked. She took the words right out of Hana’s mouth.

The blonde crossed her arms. “I was going to say the same thing.”

“We can continue this conversation another time, Kanagawa-san,” their Producer said. “Please sit, Fukuyama-san.”

Reina sat down at the last available seat, leaving Akari between her and Hana. The pink-haired girl shifted nervously in her seat while waiting for their Producer to continue talking. She had tried to make small talk with Reina after the performance, but as usual, not much had resulted from it. With how serious the older girl was about being an idol, Hana both wanted and didn’t want to know what Reina thought about her performance that night.

“Fukuyama-san, I want to start off and tell you that I was very impressed by your performance on Saturday,” their Producer said. “While I could not be there, but the recording Harumi-san had sent me made me wish that I was.”

“Thank you very much,” Reina responded. Her tone of voice barely changed despite the thanks, but Hana swore she saw a slight smile on the girl’s face. “Although I understand we needed at least one supervisor at each venue.”

“Now that all three of you have been informed about the next concert, you should all be familiar with how a traditional idol concert is in terms of setlists.”

“Should we?” Akari asked.

“Compared to the mini-live that we performed, which was only around an hour-long, full concerts are upwards of two hours,” Reina explained. “The concerts are meant to show a live version of songs from recent CD’s and drama tracks, while also showing off idol’s abilities to perform as an individual and as a unit.”

Their Producer nodded. “That would be correct.”

“Producer-san, please tell me that our gathering today doesn’t have to do with my last statement.”

“Unfortunately, it is.”

Reina took a deep breath before continuing the conversation. “In the most polite way possible, I would prefer to not work with them. Give me Tae, and anyone else, instead.”

“What is she talking about?” Akari asked.

“What’s happening?” Hana added.

“The true purpose of this meeting today,” their Producer started to say. “Is to announce that for the foreseeable future, the three of you will be performing in a unit together.”

“...Huh?!”