Even though we were in a proper venue on Plaraqor, it only had a capacity for five hundred Plaqories, who were similar in size to Humans. Still, the space backstage was very limited. The entire team couldn't fit in the green room at once. Luckily, that was a rare occurrence as most of them were working elsewhere.

Sanae finally stepped out of the bathroom after fifteen minutes. I walked in and washed my hands and my face to freshen up, then I approached the toilet to use it. However, I hadn't even unzipped my pants when Sanae's yell made me jolt.

"Who ate my sour candies?!"

I sighed. Now what?

All of GIMA's team in the room glanced at each other in silence when I stepped out.

"It's your fault for leaving them on the table, in the first place," said Umi.

Sanae fumed, "It's not my fault that one of you is a glutton! Was it you?"

"No, I don't like sour candies."

"Then why—"

"Sanae, calm down," I scowled.

"I can't calm down, Kaito! I need them to calm down, and that was the last batch we brought to Plaraqor."

Aki hinted, "Maybe you should stop eating them."

Sanae's eyes set on fire as she glared at Aki.

"Did you just call me fat?"

"Enough, all of you!" I scolded. "Sanae, I'm sorry, but you'll have to put up with it until we get back home. There are only two concerts left."

She crossed her arms.

"Do I have a choice? At least I want to know who's the…"

My glare was enough to stop her from saying it again.

"…culprit."

I sighed. "Please speak up so that we can get over it."

After several seconds of silence, Astra raised her hand, staring down at the floor. We all looked at her in surprise.

"It was me," she said. "I thought anyone could grab them since there's usually some snacks for us to eat…."

Sanae frowned, "And you hadn't noticed that there have been no snacks since we started touring on other planets?"

"I'm really sorry, I was hungry and I didn't know they were yours, so I just grabbed them. I think I'm actually a glutton."

"That's enough," I said. "It was an accident that won't happen again, right?"

Astra replied, "Yes…."

We all stared at Sanae, waiting for her response. Her frown had disappeared, yet she merely stepped back into the bathroom without saying anything.

I need to use the toilet….

"She's furious at me," worried Astra.

I replied, "Don't worry, it's the heat of the moment. She'll apologize."

And I was right. They both apologized to each other and hugged it out just before the concert started.

 

The last two concerts on Plaraqor flew by and we returned home. We were even more successful than on Furenoora, which made sense since Plaraqor had a deeper connection with music.

Sanae also realized that she might've not needed the sour candies after all, so she didn't bring many to Slixam with her.

Slixam was surprisingly similar to Furenoora regarding culture and technology. However, Slixies were much smaller than both Furenoos and Humans, so dealing with the very limited space of the food places and parks was the most difficult challenge we had on the entire tour. The stage had to be cropped a lot.

Still, we managed to succeed. As we had expected, Slixies weren't that familiar with music, but the Humans, Furenoos, and Plaqories present in each show shockingly allowed the Slixies to get comfortable. We didn't expect to see the four species enjoying Blostars' performance together—not until the space stadium was built—but it was a great surprise.

Finally, the Life Is Life tour came to an end after almost a year, and the girls took another well-deserved vacation. They needed it, after having their first argument. I also needed it, but there was some paperwork to be done before I could do so.

It was my last day of work before a two-week break when Risa stepped into the office.

"Risa? What are you doing here?" I wondered. "You should be enjoying your vacation."

"I know, but… I wanted to use the dance studio a bit. Can I?"

I sighed. "You know that I don't like you working overtime."

"But I'm not working, I want to use it for fun. Please?"

Her puppy eyes pierced my soul. I had to take a deep breath before replying.

"Fine, you can use it."

She smiled, "Thank you."

As soon as she walked out of the office, I noticed everyone's glances toward me, then they snapped their heads away.

"You're setting a bad example for your employees," smirked Haru.

My cheeks felt warmer, making me look down at my desk again.

I continued working for the next half hour until I received a message from Risa, in which she asked me to come to the dance studio without telling anyone. It was a strange request, to say the least, but there had to be a reason.

Luckily, no one noticed me as I walked out of the office and upstairs into the dance studio. However, there was no one inside.

Where's Risa?

Out of nowhere, the door closed behind me. I turned around and Risa had already stepped in.

"I'm sorry, I had to use the bathroom," she apologized.

"Don't worry," I replied. "Why did you ask me to come? Do you need something? It isn't typical of you to ask me to talk alone."

"Yes, I need to tell you something."

"Sure, what is it?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she merely lowered her head.

The silence prolonged long enough that the mood became heavy.

The more time passed, the less I liked where the situation was going.

Finally, she answered.

"Kaito, I… I want to quit Blostars."

An arrow pierced my chest in that same instant, yet I somehow didn't overreact, as if I was expecting it.

"What? Why?" I asked. "Is it because of the argument the girls had on Plaraqor? They are bound to happen in any kind of group, it's not—"

"No, it's not because of that. I know it's normal. Sanae and I have argued many times and even fought since we were little, yet we still love each other."

"Then why?"

"It's because of me. I love being an idol, but I'm just following Sanae's steps, I have been all my life, but I'm an adult now, it's time I walk on my own. I need to find out if being an idol is what I'm passionate about. I might regret it, but I'll also regret not trying new things for the rest of my life, so I'm choosing the less bad."

What could I say to change her mind? Nothing, there was nothing I could say against such logical reasoning. Even if there was, I wouldn't have done that to her, knowing how difficult it had to be for her. I could only imagine how much time she had spent thinking about the most important decision of her life.

Instead, I asked her.

"Risa, are you sure?"

She looked me in the eye and didn't hesitate to answer.

"I'm sure."

I smiled, "Alright."

She smiled back at me and turned around. Thinking she was going to step out, she stood still for a moment. She brushed her eyes with her arm and started sobbing. I approached her, turned her around, and hugged her.

The hug continued for a long while until she spoke with a broken voice.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"I don't want to disappoint anyone."

I took a moment to think about my reply.

"That's impossible in life. Sometimes, you have to be selfish to be happy."

She hugged me back.

"Thank you."

 

It was hard to enjoy my vacation after that, and it was even harder to keep it a secret from Aki until we all came back to work, but that didn't take long.

I didn't want to delay it even a day, so I headed to the dance studio an hour into the first workday.

Satō was chatting with the girls when I stepped in. They seemed to be having a good time, making it harder for me to interrupt them.

"Boss, do you need something?" wondered Satō.

"Yes. Ah… could you leave the girls and me alone for ten minutes?"

Her brows raised, yet she didn't question my request.

"No problem."

She walked out of the studio and closed the door.

I glanced at the girls sitting on the wooden floor, despite there being chairs in the room. They merely smiled back at me.

It took several seconds for me to be able to talk.

"It's been a while since we've had a meeting like this, huh?" I sighed, "I'll get straight to the point. Girls, Risa is going to quit Blostars."

Everyone's eyes opened wide, except for Sanae's. They then looked at Risa, who merely stared down at the floor. I had already told her I was going to do this so that she wasn't surprised.

They kept staring at Risa until she stood next to me and explained what she had explained to me before going on vacation.

As soon as she was done, Sanae stood up and hugged her.

"I'm proud of you," smiled Sanae.

Risa smiled back, "Thank you."

"Wait. Sanae, you didn't know about it?" I asked.

"I didn't."

"Then why weren't you surprised like the girls?"

"Because I saw it coming when she stopped being next to me all of the time. It was a matter of time."

I smiled, "I see. Please sit down again, I have something else to tell you."

This time, the five of them frowned in confusion.

I waited for Sanae and Risa to sit down before I continued to talk.

"Hearing Risa's reasoning made me remember that there are two people whose main goal wasn't to be an idol, so let me ask: does anyone else want to quit Blostars?"

They all glanced at each other without saying anything. It didn't seem like anyone was going to answer, so I added.

"It'll be better if you do it now instead of delaying the inevitable. You already warned us, so no one is going to get mad."

An eternal silence later, Umi raised her hand, followed by Aki.

Instead of worrying me, it had the opposite effect.

"Thank you," I smiled. "I… I also need to confess something."