Arc-2 SS-06

 “Rookie Kayanuma-san was amazing, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah, the sixth-gen one… Was she really that amazing?”

“You wouldn’t notice unless you were close. She was seriously…”

Some nickname-less members walked past me chatting while I was catching my breath in the wings. I knew. They were saying it on purpose so I would hear, timing it exactly as they passed by.

Tch, the nerve of bottom-rank members who can’t even make it to Seven Satellite. Yet even trash like them looked down on me now. This was all because management kept pressuring me to graduate.

Every time I refused, rumors somehow spread that I was selfish and a problem child. Considering my contributions since the very beginning, demanding my graduation was absurd.

Maybe someone in upper management hated the founding members. The first-gen had started with eleven, and now there were only eight. We had tightly controlled graduations, yet three were already gone.

Now that we were approaching the president’s “ideal” numbers, the pace of cuts would only speed up. Even the original over-all captain, the first-gen leader, had been forced out this summer.

The first-gen who had supported Sistema Solare from the start were being erased one by one. Something had to be done, but the new first-gen leader who replaced her was useless.

“Damn it.”

I muttered a very un-idol-like curse under my breath just as another group approached.

“Mikuri-san’s dance really is incredible!”

My eyes shifted toward the cheerful voice.

“Mikuri Kayanuma…”

The rookie the nickname-less girls had just been gossiping about. The junior who had been singing right behind me during the opening. It was only natural that my gaze turned harsh.

During the opening song, a sizeable portion of the audience’s attention had been on our area. It felt good since it hadn’t happened lately, but midway through the song I noticed the stares shifting.

When the odd and even rows swapped left and right. When I moved left, the eyes went right; when I moved right, they went left. And not just side to side. The gazes were subtly drifting upward.

Meaning the fans who had seemed to be looking at me were actually looking at Mikuri Kayonuma, one row above me. The moment I realized that, a fierce emptiness hit me. In the end, stupid, foolish fans changed their oshi so easily.

Because of that, I lost focus on singing and dancing, and after returning to the wings, the Seven Satellite manager scolded me. A manager should side with their idol.

Everyone, everywhere, was an enemy now. In this situation, I couldn’t help glaring at the junior who caused it. Then another irritating junior entered my sight.

(Nozomi Nanazawa…)

The privileged daughter of a major corporate group. The junior who used that connection to land related commercials. A total rookie still learning, yet already starring in CMs.

I had never appeared in one except as just another Sistema Solare member.

Speaking of CMs, Mikuri Kayanuma was in a recently airing one too. And with the famous pretty reader-model Miho Miyashita, no less.

[T/N- Reader Model basically means, models for magazine and stuff rather than runaway ones.]

(Anyone paired with Miho Miyashita in a CM would make headlines anyway.)

Why weren’t jobs like that given to first-gen members or to me, who had worked hard when Sistema Solare had no popularity?

God, it made me sick. But I couldn’t leave Sistema Solare now. Until I had a clear path afterward, I had no choice but to cling here.