“Velvet Choker?” Emi asked.
Kana clicked the girl’s necklace in place and admired her in the mirror. The moment she came back on Saturday, they had decided that they were going to Ward D to have some fun that night. Emi already looked perfect in that magenta dress, and this silver necklace was like the cherry on top.
“Mhmm,” She explained, “What color do you usually associate with velvet?”
“Uhh, crimson?”
“Shut the fuck up. Just say red. Now, what gemstone is red in color?”
Emi looked back at her with a frown, “You named your whole duo as a call out to Ruby Passion?”
“Yeah. But, eh, they’ll never realize.”
“Isn’t that such a waste, though? You could have named it something cooler and deeper. Now…it’s just you claiming that you will strangulate the members of the most popular idol group in the country. That’s not exactly the greatest look, is it?”
Kana got closer to her ear and whispered, “They. Will. Never. Realize. It. And, well, for the fans, it’s just another duo trying to be both sweet, edgy, and sexy at the same time. Nothing new, is it?”
“I guess…”
“You look so cute. Kiss me?”
“No?”
Holding back to peck her on the lips, Kana sighed, moved back, and started to leave the room, “What a shame. I’ll be in the living room, then. Yamazaki-san is already here, so we’ll leave as soon as you’re done.”
“Yeah. Be right there. Also, Yamazaki-san? Are you sure you want your manager to be with you on a night out? Isn’t that, like, the opposite of what someone would ideally want?”
“Ideally, yes. But not us. He’s been as much help as Jina has. Even more, maybe. We wouldn’t be able to pull off half the things we do if he weren’t handling most of the behind-the-scenes complications. Anyway, be quick.”
Kana got out of the room and down the stairs.
Jina was resting on one of the new barstools they had bought yesterday. It broke away from the monotone of the dining table conversations and allowed you to directly talk to the person in the kitchen. Not that it would ever be possible, considering Kana never woke up on time to see her cook breakfast. For now, she went and took a seat on the couch instead, where Yamazaki was.
He was on his phone, just scrolling social media for once. It was a rare sight to not see him doing work, so she tried peeking into it. Kana didn’t want to invade his privacy. She just wanted to know what kind of content he was into.
“Yamazaki-san? Are you…watching Pink Beats on Insta?”
“Huh? No.” He laughed, “I’ve just been going through their page to check their engagement. It has been consistently rising over the last few months, so if that crack ends up becoming permanent, it’ll be moderately big news. And then, when Sanada-san does that feature for you, it’ll be even better. The last song she will be singing under the Sakai Entertainment banner.”
“Hmm.” Kana took the phone and turned it off, putting it back in his hands, “You can worry about all of that tomorrow, so forget about it today. Come on, we’re gonna go, get drunk, and then…uh, come back home…”
“And who will bring you home, Minami-san?”
“You will, Yamazaki!” Jina put her drink down, jumped down from the stool, and hugged him from the back.
All he did was sigh and put her hands away, “Well, that solves the problem about me apparently needing to be drunk, then.”
“Got that, Jina? Yamazaki-san will break whatever law he wants to. For example, illegal surveillance, corporate sabotage, or even voyeurism, but he draws the line at drunk driving! What a standout human being!”
“No, I am pretty sure I haven’t done that last one, though!?”
“Who knows, Yamazaki? Maybe you do some really freaky things in the background…” Jina shook her head in disapproval and started walking to the front of the couch.
“Isn’t Yamazaki-san married?” Emi appeared at the top of the stairs, putting on her earrings as she walked down.
Kana looked at her, and her heart skipped a beat. But she quickly put it back in its place and tried to calm herself. She was not for her. Not anymore. And anyway, she had just said something else that was way more concerning.
“Yamazaki, you’re married!?” Jina asked, plopping down between him and Kana with her arms crossed, “What the hell? Don’t you think I, of all people, deserved to know that before KanKan’s girlfriend?”
“Stop calling me that…”
“I-I’m not…her gir-l~”
Yamazaki stood up, walked to, and opened the main door. “Ohara-san, how about you stop implying weird things first? Also, yes, I am married. I ended up coming to your apartment last Saturday to pick up some things, and that is when I ended up talking to Kitamura-san over here.”
All of them got out of the house one by one. Kana, at the very end, locked the door behind her. As the keys clanged in her hand and she passed them to Yamazaki, her heart felt at peace. Here she was, on the 38th floor of a semi-luxury apartment in Ward D. Three weeks ago, this would have been a dream in a dream. As if that wasn’t enough, she was with three people whom she would never replace.
Looking at them bicker and laugh as they waited for the elevator filled her with warmth, but then she reminded herself that was not her personality, and suppressed that smile. She could keep it to herself. They didn’t need to know all that. So, she just squeezed through them and got in front to remind them that she was the one at the top here. Even as the elevator opened, she got in first and pressed the button.
The goal today was simple. They were going to have fun. As much as possible. Mainly because right after Sakai had asked them to go ahead with a full choreography, he had given them a bonus for the performance. Once she had that money, there would be a point to saving it. Not yet, of course. She could consider investing it or something smart like that once she had a steady source.
Today, she wanted to spend it all on celebrating her victory over Pink Beats. On celebrating getting one step closer to beating Ruby Passion once and for all. That day would come soon, too.
“What next?” Jina asked as the car started moving.
“Next?” Kana looked out of the window, her hand unconsciously wrapped around Emi’s hand. For some reason, she wasn’t complaining either, which was good. “We need to get to Rank 3, at the very least. You remember those spiders, right? There is a massive gap between what points they get and what points we get. You can’t get to the top without beating that.”
“Positions 2 and 3.” Yamazaki added, looking through the rearview, “They have been switching between themselves for the last thirty-five weeks. There is no beating Ruby Passion for them, so they just compete among themselves. That’s the hell you don’t want to be stuck in, but also the hell you’ve got no option but to be stuck in.”
“Is that how wide the difference is? Between Rank 4 and Rank 5?”, Emi asked.
Jina nodded, “You get Rank 4 when you hit position 3. You get Rank 5 by hitting first and having a substantial lead over the first team. Once you’re Rank 4, that gap becomes harder and harder to maintain, which is why Ruby Passion was the first group to get it out of luck. Once that was done, though? There was no stopping them because of the level gap that was born.”
Kana scoffed, “And I’ve never seen them use anything other than their base weapons either. Yuko Suzuki, at least. She only ever takes out her base sniper to fight the demons. It’s like she doesn’t even consider the other four weapons to be important in any way. Either the weapons just become that obsolete, or the effort put into using them is too much. They have no reason to use them.”
“Sounds annoying.” Emi said, “But, well, once you get there, you can force them to start using those, can’t you?”
“Mhmm.” Kana looked at her, holding their intertwined hands up, “Always so supportive, aren’t you. Kiss me?”
“No?”
“Oi, Kana. Stop doing such indecent things in Yamazaki’s car. What will his wife think!?” Jina looked back with disgust.
“What’s so disgusting? Holding hands?” Kana frowned.
“Yeah! You think Yamazaki just holds hands with his wife like that, do you? He’s not an indecent fellow like that, got it? He’s a respectable man who would never do something so disgusting. Would you, Yamazaki!?”
He kept his eyes on the road, “I fear for when you are actually drunk, Ohara-san. Please sit back down before someone pulls us over.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t get you into trouble.”
“Yeah, what will his wife think if he gets pulled over…” Emi sighed, nodding.
Jina laughed and sat back down. Yamazaki ignored the two of them. His dark circles hadn’t gotten any better, but at least the slight smile on his face was more promising than before. She remembered the first time she had met him, and how hopeless he had looked. Illegal or not, their activities had definitely put that there. It was nice to see. His wife was probably happy to see him happy.
The moment that last thought came into her head, she bit her lip as punishment. How dare her humor fall to the same level as Jina Ohara?
They made their way through the wards as the sun set. Ward D was not that far from their apartment, so they had asked Yamazaki to take the long way around and hit the prettiest spots in the city before they got to the restaurant and bar that they had a reservation at. And the places he did take them through were marvelous indeed.
There were a couple of good bridges, but she did not have the greatest memories with those, so she ignored them. Otherwise, there were some well-preserved buildings and temples from the medieval eras which gave the city its distinct vibe. Along with them, the highly-contrasting neon buildings were certainly a sight to see. Kana preferred the older ones, though. All the loud colors gave her a headache.
Once they were done sightseeing, it was about time for their reservation. Quickly moving to Ward D, they got to the spot and were led to their seats. Yamazaki claimed he felt a bit nervous sitting there, considering the other famous people around, but Kana couldn’t care less. She didn’t even recognize half of them. Jina and Emi, though, could not stop hyperventilating about all the talent in the room.
Kana focused on the food and drinks. It was some of the best she had ever had, though the portion sizes were hilariously small. For once, despite getting a substantial bonus, she felt like she might run out of money. Jina had gotten the same amount, so they did have a safety net, but it was still something to think about. If both of them failed, then that is why Yamazaki was here with his years of savings.
Which explained why his wife was always so angry at him.
“Why is it now a fact that she hates me?” He asked, gulping down some water to clean his palette.
“Don’t question her choices like that, Yamazaki! If you start questioning what she thinks of you, what will she think about that?”
Even jokes had their ends, and Kana was once more embarrassed to have been the architect of this one. At least it gave them something to laugh about as the meal continued.
Once they started wrapping up, it was almost nine. It surprised her to see people actually roaming around while looking tired once they walked out of the restaurant. She had gotten so used to sleeping at two in the night that she forgot normal people didn’t do that. It was a weird feeling.
“I’ll be right back. Please, wait in the car.” Yamazaki said, bowing.
“Why? Are you calling your wife to complain about us!?” Jina asked.
“No. I just need to deposit some cash, and the machine is nearby. It will only take five minutes.”
“Ha! I should do that too, shouldn’t I? Come on, let’s go together!”
“Uh…”
Jina pushed him from the back, grunting, “Yamazaki! You might have a wife, so you’re being oblivious, but just read the room. Come on, come on!”
As the two of them walked away, Kana and Emi nervously looked at each other. Clearing their throats, both of them got into the backseat of the car. For a while, the tension was stretched tight. Neither wanted to say anything, or do something risky. It had far too long since they broke up, and even part of Kana was afraid of being hurt again if something went wrong. Yet…
“Thank you. For the choreography, I mean. I forgot to say it while we were eating.”
“Oh no, that’s alright. I just gave you some random steps based on your humming. It was pretty close, though, wasn’t it?”
“Oh…very close.” Kana laughed, “I’m actually surprised how good we were at that. Almost nailed it with the final product, though we had to change some timings and tempo, here and there.”
“That was to be expected. At least, now you’ve got nothing to worry about. Just need to make sure the Pink Beats breakup goes well, right?”
“Yeah. I don’t want to hurt them too much. It would suck if one of them ended up getting too affected. That’s why I’ve been propping them all up in their own eyes. Even if they break apart, none of them will feel bad about it. Their egos will handle the healing.”
“Always so smart, Kana-chan.”
The sound outside the car grew louder, for some reason. Whether people had just started shouting for some reason, or if her senses were just overloading, she did not know. But every part of Emi’s face was just so perfect right now. She could not focus on anything else. Her eyes, her nose, her lips. Her cute, cute cheeks. Kana moved forward on her own, still unsure about what she was doing.
Thankfully, there was no resistance. Before she knew it, they were already kissing. Her hand on Emi’s cheeks, she almost felt like crying. How had this happened? How had things gone so well? Kana had spent the last four years believing she needed to take everything from fate. That no matter what, she was always going to have to build her own luck. Now, it felt like she had finally done it.
Emi pulled back for a second, smiled, and then came right back.
“I love you, Emi.” Kana whispered, barely able to get her voice.
“I love you, too, KanKa-”
“Kana!”
A sound at the window caused them to break apart. Jina was there, hand on glass, with a horrific expression on her face. A look of pure shock. Kana groaned in annoyance and rolled it down.
“Read the room, was it?”
“Kana, get the fuck out. Look at this.”
“What?”
“Just get out and see!”
Kana begrudgingly opened the door and stepped out. Looking up at where Jina and Yamazaki’s eyes were, she noticed the many screens that lined the intersection they were close to. Usually, they showed whatever advertisements they had been paid to. But right now, they were showing something completely different. They were showing a public announcement that everyone had stopped to watch.
A few people were laughing, a few were confused. Nobody else knew who any of these three even were. Except Kana and Jina. Except Yamazaki. On the screen was that girl. Posing with a massive smile that sold the same shy-girl persona that she had tried to keep during the auditions.
“Nobuko Kimura.” Kana whispered.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Jina asked, still happy for her.
Text appeared on the screen along with the images of the three girls. A repeat of what the announcement had been.
‘Lilac Shower announces new idol group under their banner. Taking inspiration from the highly-popular original, the new group will be called Ruby Passion Jr.’
“Oh, fuck you.”