Arc-1 Ep-11
“Stop!! No good! No good, Ichihara-san! You’re lagging behind everyone else again!!”
“S-Sorry…”
As June arrives and the rainy season settles in, the lessons have become even stricter in preparation for next month’s debut evaluation. The dreary rain keeps pouring down, and with my mood already weighed down, this is pretty tough.
“Ichihara-san! If you keep this up, you won’t be able to debut with the others. Is that what you want?”
“N-No…”
“Then put more effort into it! …Alright, from the top again.”
“““Yes!!”””
“Y-Yes…”
Today’s lesson is dance training. The members training with me are Nozomi-chan, Shion Owada, and Mami Ichihara—four of us in total. The problem is Mami-san, who keeps getting scolded by the dance trainer. Lately, she hasn’t been herself at all, lacking the spark she usually has. Right now, because of Mami-san, the lesson isn’t progressing smoothly. When we keep stopping like this, it’s hard for me to stay fully focused on the lesson.
Thankfully, the group is made up of me—someone who just likes cute girls—Nozomi-chan, who’s gentle, and Shion Owada, who’s sort of the leader among the sixth-generation candidates, so the atmosphere stays manageable. If it had been some of the more hot-headed trainees, things might’ve gotten tense.
“Ichihara!! You’re falling behind again! Focus!!”
“Y-Yes!”
The trainer’s sharp voice echoes through the practice room once more. This doesn’t exactly feel good.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※
“Phew…”
“Good work, Mikuri-chan.”
“You too, Nozomi-chan…”
After dance training, we have a short break before the next lesson. In the break room, it’s just me and Nozomi-chan. Shion-san stayed behind in the practice room to discuss something with the trainer, and Mami-san went to the bathroom.
“Hey… Mikuri-chan.”
“…What’s up?”
“It’s about Ichihara-san…”
It looks like Nozomi-chan is worried about Mami-san too. Well, she’s been looking especially down lately, so it’s hard not to notice.
“Hmm… Maybe she’s really homesick?”
From what I’ve heard, she moved here alone after passing the audition and starting high school, so both the emotional and physical toll must be heavy for a first-year high schooler. She doesn’t seem to have strong communication skills either—so much so that people in the agency think I, who haven’t even talked to her that much, am one of the people she talks to the most.
“Is there… anything we can do?”
“I’d love to help, but I’m not sure what we could actually do…”
Even if I add my past life’s age into the equation, I’m still clueless when it comes to solving a high school girl’s problems. The only thing that comes to mind for homesickness is maybe letting her go home for a visit.
“What if we try cheering her up ourselves?”
Nozomi-chan’s voice is soft, and her cute face looks slightly clouded. For me, there’s a selfish motive too—I want to help a cute girl and boost my likability—but Nozomi-chan, without any ulterior motives, is probably just being her kind self.
“…If we had a good concrete idea, that’d be great. Any thoughts, Nozomi-chan?”
“…I can’t think of anything right now…”
As we lean close together, whispering back and forth, we hear the sound of the door unlocking. Looking over, we see Shion-san walking in.
“What’s this? You two are awfully close.”
She seems curious about how close we were sitting. Nozomi-chan, realizing only after being pointed out, quickly pulls away from me.
“No, it’s just… we were talking about Mami-san, right, Nozomi-chan?”
“Y-Yes. She’s been looking down lately, so we were wondering if we could cheer her up.”
“Oh, that matter…”
Shion-san sits across from us, takes a sip from her water bottle, and looks our way.
“That’s actually why I stayed behind in the practice room.”
“Really?”
“So everyone’s been worried about her, huh?”
“Yeah. The staff and I are going to handle it, so you two just act normal, alright?”
It seems this has already become an issue high up in the agency, and steps are being taken to address it.
“But…”
“Nanazawa-san, I think it’s better for her to hear it from someone older, like me or the staff, rather than being fussed over by younger girls like you and Kayanuma-san.”
“…You might be right.”
“Exactly. Ichihara-san’s a first-year in high school. She probably has some pride as the older one, Kayanuma-san.”
From my perspective, I don’t really see that kind of pride in Mami-san, but I can’t fully trust my own judgment. It’s probably best to follow Shion-san’s advice and leave this to the agency.
“Nozomi-chan, the staff probably have more experience and can handle it better.”
“You’re right… Please take care of it. I want all eight of us to become sixth-generation members…”
“Of course. I want us all to debut together too.”
Come to think of it, if those of us with more talent as idols tried to help, it might come off the wrong way. For now, we’ll leave Mami-san’s situation to the adults. By the way, Mami-san didn’t return to the break room until it was time to head to the next vocal training session. During vocal training, she looked even gloomier, which worried me, but I got kicked out since I don’t need the training. Later, Nozomi-chan told me that Mami-san made a lot of mistakes in vocal training too, and it’s starting to feel like something needs to be done urgently.