“Now just walk forward, be natural,” the photographer said.

“Will do,” Reina responded. Three quick clicks came from the camera’s shutter as she stepped towards the photographer, her heels clicking against the sidewalk with every step.

“Stop there, turn around please.”

Reina silently obliged, slightly correcting her posture before making an about-face. The sky was tinted slightly yellow as the sun was starting to set, leaving a warm glow around her with every picture taken. As the photographer said to her when they started shooting, it was currently golden hour, a time where the setting sun made photos more appealing.

More specifically, the main reason they were shooting at this time was so the blue in her plaid dress would stand out even more against the golden sunlight.

This dress fit her slim figure well, exposing her arms and shoulders and having a skirt ending just above her knees. The white lace section along with a bow on the front of her chest also added some extra intrigue to the otherwise plain design.

This Saturday afternoon had Reina modeling summer dresses in a nearby park along with two other Supernova idols. She had already finished her first session, which was a group photoshoot including all three of the girls together.

The job was business as usual for her, with photoshoots being a chance for her to make use of what she learned from a long career of standing in front of a camera or performing on a stage. She was vaguely aware of others around the park watching her from afar as she modeled, but thankfully none of them had ended up interrupting them while shooting.

“That’s perfect,” the photographer said. “Next shot, just look at me.”

Reina went to brush a strand of hair out of her face as she turned around to look at the camera lens. Her hair had been styled naturally for this shoot, falling across her back in gentle waves. It was different than what she was used to, but she knew how to adjust it to stay as photogenic as possible.

It was only a few days after the news that the Supernova girls would be placed into units, with Reina being in one of the first to debut. Since the announcement, practices started to be between units instead of between girls with similar skill levels. With everyone trying to get on par with each other in terms of skill, the past few days were less productive than what Reina expected.

It was a slow grind, but the other two were definitely improving. Tonight, she’d be meeting up with a music producer for her first solo song with the company. She was excited to see things moving along quickly, especially since knowing her song early would mean that she had more time to practice it to perfection.

A camera flash brought her back into focus. While she wanted to think about what would happen next, she needed to think about what was happening now.

A few more shots, and a few more poses, and her portion for this shoot was over. She was an hour closer to being able to find out what her

The photographer lowered his camera. “And that's it! Thank you for your work today.”

“Thank you for the opportunity,” Reina bowed. There was one more girl who needed to get her photos done. After that, she’d be on her way for her first recording session.

“No need, the pleasure is all mine,” the photographer responded. “It’s really lucky your Producer reached out to us about modeling. I didn't know how to contact you after you left your last company.”

“It was an enjoyable five months, but ultimately I decided to pursue other career opportunities.”

“Fukuyama Reina, always moving forward.”

“That’s one way to say it,” Reina said, picking up her bag that she set aside earlier. She looked around the park as she waited for the photographer to wrap things up with her. With the sunset soon approaching, people were starting to make their way out of the park.

“Are you excited to work with Harukaze-san again for this shoot?”

“Not particularly,” Reina responded. “As long as we do a good job, I'm satisfied.”

“Well, I can already say that you've made this a lot easier.”

“I’m flattered.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Reina saw an explosion of feathers across the park. It made a flock of ducks fly towards them, close enough that Reina yelped and moved to shield her face with her arm.

“No, come back!” a girl yelled from the direction they came from. She ran up to Reina and the photographer, wearing a yellow sundress that had red and white flowers blooming over it. “They all flew away…”

“Hazukaze-san, what were you doing?” Reina asked her.

“I was just trying to play with the duckies while I was waiting,” the girl responded.

At the age of 14, Harukaze Yui was one of the younger girls in the Supernova Project. Her hair was tied up in pigtails, a look that Reina had seen the younger girl wearing for years now. Although now, her bangs were stuck to her forehead, and one of her hair ties had started to come undone.

“We’re here for work. Messing around with park animals isn’t part of that.”

“But just standing around is so boring!” the middle schooler responded. She had been part of the industry for years now, but she didn’t carry herself like it. “You and Elise were taking too long.”

“Waiting is a part of the job. There are three of us modeling today, which means we’re sharing time in front of the camera,” Reina quickly looked at her watch. “Never mind that, we’re wasting time. If we keep stalling then the sunset is going to-”

“It’s no big deal,” the photographer shrugged. “She at least made sure to keep the dress clean. Harukaze-san, let’s fix your hair and start modeling.”

“Roger that!” Yui said, smiling.

“Thank you for the concern, Fukuyama-san,” the photographer said to Reina. “If anything, thanks to how well your session went, we have plenty of time for the rest of the shoot.”

“If you say so,” Reina responded. She turned to her fellow idol. “Harukaze-san, please try to not inconvenience the staff anymore.”

Yui pouted. “Okay…”

With her portion of the shoot over, for now, Reina walked over to a nearby park bench to wait for Yui to finish. For some reason, the last idol who was working with them today didn’t even notice Reina approaching.

Elise Ellingham was still wearing her dress for this photoshoot, an off-shoulder white piece with short sleeves and an A-line skirt flowing all the way to her ankles. Like all of the dresses today, this one seemed perfectly tailored to fit her, hugging her torso but still allowing her room to breathe. The blonde’s waist-length hair was pinned in the back, with a straw boater hat completing her look.

Overall, it was a very mature outfit that made her reminiscent of a summer bride.

She would have looked the part, too, if it wasn’t for the blissful, dreamy look on her face.

“Ellingham-san?” Reina asked.

“That’s such a cute dog…” the half-foreigner responded. She was oblivious to the other girl who had started speaking to her, staring off into the distance.

Reina followed the older idol’s gaze to see that across the park, someone was taking their tiny cream-colored pomeranian on a walk.

She waved her hand in front of Elise’s face until the older girl snapped out of her daze.

“Huh?” Elise asked. She blinked a few times, before looking at the source of the hand and making eye contact with Reina. “How long have you been here?”

“Not too long,” Reina responded. “I’ve never seen you so… distracted.”

Elise shook her head to wake herself up. “I must be more tired than I thought.”

“Has it been a difficult week for you?”

“Not necessarily,” Elise said. “Practices haven’t been too hard, but my unit as a whole has spent most of the time adjusting to each other.”

“Likewise.”

“Last night we went to Sonoda-san’s place to have tea and get to know each other more, and it ended up turning into a sleepover.”

“A sleepover?” Reina asked. “For a group of coworkers?”

“We had a lot to talk about,” Elise said. “So by the time we were done, it was already late enough at night that Tae just suggested letting us sleep there.”

“Your group seems to be much more social than mine.”

“Not necessarily. Our third member is actually really quiet outside of practice.”

“Minami… Mai-san?” Reina asked.

Elise nodded. “We met up to try and help her open up more. We’re getting there!”

Reina had never really talked to the girl, but Minami Mai was apparently good enough that she was chosen to perform in the mini-live at the other venue last week. In the past, they had taken singing lessons together, but Reina had never seen the dark-haired girl at dance practice.

“What about you?” Elise asked. “How is your unit?”

“It’s only been a week,” Reina responded. “I think we’ll need a lot more practice together before we can deliver a good performance.”

“Have you tried getting to know each other outside of practice?” Elise asked. “I think the audience can really tell how close people are offstage.”

Reina shook her head. “At the end of the day, it’s just a job. We just need to work on improving ourselves.”

“You should still get to know them,” Elise said. “If you get to know your coworkers, then I think you’ll be able to play off of each other and help each other improve. And it doesn’t hurt to have friends in the company.”

“It’s more important to worry about the present before thinking of something months from now,” Reina said. She wanted to move the conversation elsewhere, despite this being the most they talked with each other since they worked together as backup dancers. “For example, I wanted to think about the recording later, but not until I was done with my part of the photoshoot.”

“You look so much more comfortable posing in front of a camera than I do,” Elise said. “I’ve never really done modeling before.”

“It’s something you get used to the more you do it,” Reina responded. Looking over at Yui, the younger girl was doing a standard forward walk and nearly tripped while doing so. “At least, if you’re trying to improve the entire time.”

“Have you worked with Harukaze-chan before? You talk to her like she’s your little sibling.”

“I’ve known her for at least six years now, nothing special. Our fathers know each other, which naturally led to us working together.”

“Why aren’t you working at your dad’s company?” Elise asked. “Did you join 765 because you were looking forward to the idea of working with the Million Stars?”

“No. I left because I didn’t like the implied nepotism.”

“Oh,” Elise took a moment to add another thought. “That’s… understandable.”

Harumi walked up to the two of them. The office assistant’s hair was messy again, and his button-up shirt was lacking a tie. Something about him looked more uncomfortable than usual. “Fukuyama-san has been in the business since she was nine years old, although she took a year-long break when she was twelve. Meanwhile, Harukaze-san has worked since she was eight, or for six years and counting.”

“What are you doing here?” Reina said to him. “I thought you were doing remote work while we were taking photos.”

“I was, but I noticed something we overlooked when scheduling you for today,” Harumi responded. “You need to leave as soon as possible.”

“I thought you said we wouldn’t need to be at the studio until seven.”

“That would be the time for Ellingham-san’s session. Yours is in half an hour.”

“I see...” Reina said. “And how far is the next location?”

“The next train is going to take at least half an hour to get there, and I’m not going to be able to drive you there until Harukaze-san finishes with her shoot.”

Reina sighed as she stood up from the park bench. “I’ll go tell the photographer that we need to leave now.”

“Do you want me to call the studio to reschedule instead?”

“It’s fine,” Reina responded. “I’ll call someone to drive me there.”

“That might take too much time.”

Elise raised her hand to interject. “If you don’t mind my driving, I can take you there,” she said. “Both of us are done at the park today, so there shouldn’t be an issue if we both leave.”

“Let’s go then.”

Reina tried her best to stay calm as they walked to the photographer. She was planning on thanking Harumi for helping her schedule jobs in quick succession, but now it was only causing her more stress as she needed to scramble to make it to the next location on time. If she arrived late, then it would end up making a horrible first impression on the staff there.

“Photographer-san,” she started to say. “My apologies, but we need to leave now.”

“What’s going on?” the photographer asked, lowering his camera. They had interrupted Yui in the middle of taking a picture.

“There was an issue with scheduling, and we’re going to need to leave now to make it on time for a recording session today.”

“Since we’re both done, I suggested to drive there,” Elise said.

“Ah,” the photographer said. “I understand. You’re both fine to leave.”

“Where can we return the dresses?” Reina asked.

“You can have someone return them to our main office at any time. We can work out the details later.”

Reina bowed. “Thank you very much.”

She could have said more, but that would’ve meant wasting more time at the park and not going to the car. They walked quickly, and the engine was started before they even entered the car.

Reina closed the car door and moved her bag off of her shoulder. “Ellingham-san, if you can, let’s get there early.”

“Are you sure?” the older girl asked while she typed the studio’s address into her GPS. She was still wearing the hat that had been given to her for the shoot.

“Absolutely,” Reina responded. The inside of the car was spotless, and she could smell the leather of Elise’s seats as she sat in them. “Since this will be our first time there, I want to make a good first impression.”

“I’ll do my best.”

After putting on her seat belt, Reina went to take a pair of flats out of her bag. Now that she no longer had to be in front of a camera, she could afford to walk around more comfortably rather than in a pair of heels.

“Have you done music before?” Elise asked as she pulled out of the parking lot. “Since you’ve been in the industry for so long.”

“I was in an idol unit at my last company,” Reina responded. “But I left there due to creative differences.”

“What about a solo career?”

“Nothing impressive, only a few singles and a mini-album.”

“I think that’s still more than a lot of us have accomplished,” Elise said. Somehow, she was already exiting onto an expressway. “I’ve never had music made for me before. This is all really exciting.”

“If you haven’t done recordings before, it might be a lot to take in during your first session.”

“This will be fun,” Elise said. Her eyes were locked onto the road.

“We just need to make sure we can make it on ti-”

Reina couldn’t finish her sentence before her body jerked to the side of the car as Elise sped forward and changed lanes without using her turn signal.

“Ellingham-san, what are you doing?” Reina asked.

“I’m making it so we arrive early,” Elise responded nonchalantly.

“Ellingham-san, this is illegal,” Reina said. She took a quick glance at Elise’s speedometer. “You shouldn’t be driving faster than 90-”

Her voice was cut off again as Elise shifted gears and accelerated past two other cars. Her next words became more of a silent scream as she clutched the grab handle at her side of the car’s ceiling, feeling her knuckles turning white the longer she held on.

“We’ll be fine,” Elise said. “I haven’t crashed a car yet.”

“I somehow doubt that,” Reina responded. “This isn’t safe, can you slow down?

“Only if I see the police.”

“You can’t just drive at the speed limit?”

“I can, if being early doesn’t matter.”

Reina took a moment to weigh her options, her eyes never looking away from the road. There was no indication Elise would slow down any time soon, which meant there was no escape from the car until they either arrived at the studio or died trying.

Still, she hated being on time. Being prompt made it so there wasn’t time to prepare for any sudden events or emergencies.

Reina took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said to Elise. “Please continue.”

They made it to the recording studio eight minutes before the first meeting was supposed to be, even without any further complications during the drive.

“Good evening,” she said to the receptionist at the front desk. “We’re here from 765 Productions.”

“What are your names?” the receptionist asked.

“Fukuyama Reina and Elise Ellingham,” Reina responded. “We drove together, to save time after leaving from our last job.”

“That explains why you two look so nice. Most people who come in are dressed more casually,” the receptionist said. “Can you read sheet music?”
“Of course,” Reina said.

“Not really,” Elise said after her.

The receptionist looked through a stack of folders on the desk before giving both of them one with their names marked on it. “Your music producers said to give these to you beforehand. Try your best to get familiar with the songs they’ve prepared for you.”

Reina opened her folder, finding sheet music with notes and lyrics scrawled throughout the pages with a pencil. She didn’t have to look closely to see lines on the composition that had been written and erased multiple times, with faded marks all across each of the measures.

Only one thing was written clearly on the paper. At the very top of the front page in large, delicate lettering was the name of her song: Moving Forward.

It was an apt name for someone who wouldn’t stop in her path to reach the top.