𝒩ᴼᵂ 𝒫ᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : ❝ 𝒦. ❞ 𝒷ᵞ 𝒞ᴵᴳᴬᴿᴱᵀᵀᴱˢ 𝒜ᶠᵀᴱᴿ 𝒮ᴱˣ
↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺
ɪ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ ɪ ʟɪᴋᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ʙᴇꜱᴛ ᴡʜᴇɴ ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴍᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ɴᴏ ᴏɴᴇ ᴇʟꜱᴇ

"ꜱᴀʀɪɴᴀꜱɴᴜᴍʙᴇʀᴏɴᴇꜰᴀɴ ᴏɴ ᴛᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀ says, 'I love Sarina so much, guys. Like, you don't know how much I love her. I could squeeze her until she suffocates.' Apparently, proper grammar isn't something they love."

Aqua narrowed his eyes on his phone, pulling it closer to his face. "I think this person's username is pronounced 'cloudy stars', but they replaced the O in 'cloudy' and A in 'stars' for X's. They say, 'I told you guys the latest episode would be about Akane. Y'all F-R didn't—'"

"For real," Akane said, smiling. "F-R is the abbreviated version."

"Thanks. 'Y'all for real didn't notice the little details hinting towards her? They just forced Melt to share his past so the episode can erase her. I'm literally Akane Kurokawa's biggest fan.' 'thisu'—'you' spelt with just a U—dot-underscore-underscore replied to clxudystxrs with an image of clxudystxrs's tweet hating on Akane.

"dilucsleftballsack" —he didn't miss her giggles— "says, 'I love,' with a bunch of E's, 'Melt so much. He's literally my baby. I love, love, love, love, love my pookie bear. He's my pookie pie. Literally the pookiest pookie of all pookies in the history of pookies in this big world of pookies.'" He looked up from his phone to ask, "Do you know what a 'pookie' is?"

Akane was still laughing, but she brushed off the question and said, "They're probably speaking in gibberish."

He decided to take her word for it for now.

Aqua had come by Akane's hospital room even after the episode came out. He knew Akane wanted to try to get herself back into the world of social media, so he thought he might be able to help with reading posts he found on social media related to The Beginning of an Idol. The fans had calmed down since the last episode came out, and everything seemed calm enough. Akane seemed to enjoy him reading them to her.

He kept scrolling for more posts he was sure Akane would like. "This person's username is spelled X-O-P-Q-L-X, all lowercase. They say—"

"Read their username!" Akane said, her smile growing.

"They say, 'Nobuyuki is such a cool person. More people should watch Idol's Beginning just for him.'

"iamsarah, 'Sarah' spelt with two H's, underscore-underscore says, 'Mem-Cho has saved so many people with her smile alone.' In brackets, they add, 'I am so many people.'

"duckie914 says, 'Repeat after me: Girls don't want boyfriends, we want Yuki from Idol's Beginning.'

"peachesgaloree says, 'I am literally malfunctioning whenever I look at Kengo. He's what I want. He's so cute—'" Aqua paused to frown at the post. "'He's so cute...' And then they put K, D, J, S, H, S, H, D, H, and S immediately after 'cute.'"

"You're not supposed to read the extra letters out loud," Akane said through giggles. "You're supposed to say 'cute' with a lot of emphasis."

"Then why would you add a bunch of letters?"

For some reason, that only made her laugh more. "You remind me of an old man when it comes to the Internet."

He shrugged. "Do you want me to read more?"

She shook her head. "I think you had enough trouble reading them already."

"They weren't that bad." He still wanted to know what a "pookie" was, though.

Akane's eyes brightened. "Oh, I think I'm finally going to try out my new prosthetic leg soon. I might leave the hospital soon!"

"That's good. That means you might get back to acting soon, won't you?"

"Maybe. I already told you I probably won't be in Tokyo Blade, didn't I?"

"That one has a lot of action, so it makes sense. What about smaller roles with less action to ease you back in?"

Akane thought for a moment before shrugging. "I'm not sure about that. Maybe I'll wait to get more used to using a prosthetic leg before I act for anything." She stayed quiet for a second before asking, "You're auditioning for Tokyo Blade, right?"

"I am. Why?"

"No reason. Visiting hours are going to end soon, so maybe you should start to leave." Her eyes widened and quickly added, "I didn't mean to sound like I'm kicking you out."

Aqua smiled. "I know you weren't. I'll see you later, Akane."

. . .

ᴀQᴜᴀ ʜᴀᴅ ɢᴏɴᴇ home to find Ruby already there, though she wasn't alone. When Melt saw him enter, he immediately straightened himself. Ruby turned to see who it was and smiled. "Hi, Aqua! Back from visiting Akane?"

He nodded. "What's Melt doing here?"

"I can leave," Melt quickly said just as Ruby said, "He's my best friend, so I can invite him over if I want."

"I didn't mean I didn't want him here," replied Aqua. "I was just curious why you were here. You've never been here before."

Melt shrugged. "Ruby never invited me here before."

He knew that. He should be treating him more normally and not feel awkward around him after the newest The Beginning of an Idol episode. That might help, so he said, "So, you know her real name. I thought everyone on Idol's Beginning called her Sarina without knowing her name is Ruby."

"Of course he knows. You know, Melt almost called me 'Ruby' while the cameras weren't filming, then remembered to call me 'Sarina', and Mem-Cho thought 'Rusa' is a nickname. That's where Sarina's childhood nickname actually came from, not from her name mixed with her ruby eyes." Ruby whispered something to Melt, causing them both to laugh.

Once they finished laughing about whatever it was, Ruby's eyes turned a bit serious. "Oh, Aqua, are you auditioning for Tokyo Blade? Kana said you both were. Melt is, too."

Melt looked at anything but Aqua. Aqua himself said, "That's nice. We might be working together again, Melt."

"You know, Aqua," Ruby quickly said, "I don't think you ever told me why you were auditioning for Tokyo Blade. If it's just because of Kana, then I'll have you know that I don't think you should let her boss you around! You're your own person! Be brave and stand up for yourself."

"I'm pretty sure it's not that serious." Melt glanced at Aqua before turning his eyes away.

"We wanted to audition together," Aqua told both of them. "There isn't anything more than that."

"Uh huh..." Ruby turned to Melt. "What do you think about this?"

He shrugged and kept his eyes on his hands.

She rolled her eyes. She cupped her fingers over her mouth and acted like she was whispering, "Melt is still very shy around you even though Sweet Today ended so long ago...! He still thinks—"

Melt covered her mouth with her hand before she could continue. He quickly said, "Kana came by earlier. She was looking for you. She told us how you and her auditioning for Tokyo Blade. Ruby said you were visiting Akane, so she left."

Ruby nodded with Melt's hand still over her mouth.

"Do you know where she is now?" asked Aqua.

Melt shook his head. "She looked a little angry after she found out you were with Akane. Maybe you should leave her alone for a while."

Aqua had been hiding his frown earlier, but it showed now.

Ruby finally removed Melt's hand over her mouth. "Come on, Melt, let's go somewhere. It's no fun with Aqua here. No offence, Aqua," she told him. "You're a cool person, but not right now. You look too moody."

Aqua was fine with that. For now, he wanted to know why Kana was angry at him being with Akane.

. . .

ᴋᴀɴᴀ ᴡᴀꜱɴ'ᴛ ʀᴇꜱᴘᴏɴᴅɪɴɢ to any of Aqua's attempts at contacting her. He eventually found himself at Taishi's house. He had no reason to be in his bedroom, but he told Taishi about his plans for Tokyo Blade to pretend he did.

"Tokyo Blade..." Taishi muttered something under his breath. "Any reason why Tokyo Blade?"

"Kana mentioned auditions for it soon," Aqua explained, "so we planned to audition together."

"Of course..."

His smile caused Aqua to frown. "Is that supposed to mean something?"

"No, no. It's just not a surprise Kana was involved in your choice with auditioning for Tokyo Blade."

"Why?"

"No reason." Taishi leaned back in his chair. "Where is Kana, by the way?"

Aqua's shoulders slumped. "I don't know... She won't answer her phone or respond to my texts. Melt said she was angry after finding out I was visiting Akane. I've been visiting Akane every day for a while now, so I'm not sure why she's upset now. Whatever I did must be bad..."

"I'm pretty sure it's nothing too big." Taishi laughed as he said, "She's probably just jealous."

"Why would she be jealous?"

"You said it yourself; you're hanging out with Akane every day. Akane's a pretty girl who seems nice to be around, so no wonder Kana would get jealous."

He wasn't sure if Taishi was implying that Kana would have a romantic interest in him, which felt odd to think about, but he still replied with, "Kana knows there isn't anything other than friendship between us."

"I know she does." He paused before adding, "But the amount of time you spend with Akane is probably digging into the time you used to spend with Kana. That might be a key factor in the jealousy."

Aqua didn't believe Kana would be overcome by jealousy so easily. In his eyes, she didn't let her emotions override her goals and relationships so easily. She wouldn't be jealous of his friendship with Kana simply because he's spending time with Akane. Akane attempted a suicide not too long ago as well; she needs friends, and he was willing to be one of said friends. Kana should understand that.

Despite that, he still felt he perhaps should spend more time with Kana. The thought of her being mad at him made him feel uneasy. The thought of anyone being mad at him did, but it was worse with Kana. He wasn't sure why, but he wasn't planning on thinking about it too much. At least, he wasn't going to right now.

Aqua was about to ask Taishi how to get a woman to forgive him—even in his past life, he didn't have much experience with women—before realizing perhaps Taishi wasn't the best man to ask that to. Instead, he told him, "I'm going to go find Kana now and apologize to her."

Taishi nodded. Before he left, he added, "Oh, Aqua? About Tokyo Blade..."

He stayed quiet for what seemed too long before he said, "Be careful of who you meet there." Taishi turned his chair around towards his computer, signalling the conversation was over before he could ask what he meant.

. . .

ᴋᴀɴᴀ ᴅɪᴅ ꜱᴇᴇᴍ a bit mad when she finally responded to his texts. Ruby wasn't the best person to ask for help with women either, despite being a woman herself, but she was with Melt, and when Ruby found a way to force him to call her through text, he said he knew how to make any girl forgive him. All three of them knew that from The Beginning of an Idol when Melt started talking about his past, yet Ruby said he was a liar anyway, but Aqua had some faith in Melt. Granted, it wasn't a lot, but it would do.

The constant texts were Ruby's idea, however. Melt claimed that was a bad idea, but Aqua wasn't sure how else to find out where Kana was. Ruby's idea managed to work, even if Kana looked annoyed when she finally agreed to meet him at a nearby park. It was a bit cold outside, but she seemed to have taken the cold seriously, wrapping herself in a long brown coat and a dark red scarf. The cuteness of it had lessened how intimidating her glare was, but he wanted her to stop looking at him like that nonetheless.

Right now, he thought the best way to make her forgive him was getting straight to the point. "I'm sorry for spending so much time with Akane."

Kana's face still had her annoyed look. "You don't even know why I'm mad, do you?"

"You're jealous that I'm spending more time Akane than you."

Her face had a faint tint of pink after she heard his words. "I'm not jealous! Why would I be jealous? I'm not jealous!"

"You said that twice."

"I'm not jealous!"

She wasn't jealous.

"Then..." He tried to think of a good answer. "You don't like Akane?"

After a second, she nodded. "Right. I don't like her."

That caused him to frown. "You never told me that."

"Well, I did now."

"Why don't you like her?"

Kana crossed her arms and stayed silent, reminding him of a child that was annoyed at not getting what they wanted. It would have been a bit cute if not for him taking a genuine liking to Akane.

"Kana," he started, "if you have a good reason why I should spend less time with Akane, you should tell me. From what I see, she's a nice" —he didn't miss how she scoffed at that— "girl who attempted to kill herself after receiving a mass amount of unwanted hate when she slapped my sister. I don't see any reason why I shouldn't spend time with her."

"You just said she slapped Ruby. Hurting your sister should be a good enough reason."

His mind went to how Ruby acted after she found out Akane attempted suicide. "Ruby forgives her. I don't see why I shouldn't."

It only made Kana scowl more. Melt had told him to go along with and say what he knew Kana wanted to make her more inclined to forgive him, making Ruby ask him if he ever did that with her and have him hurriedly deny that, but he wanted to know why she didn't like Akane.

He was left with nothing to do but guess. "Do you not like her because she slapped Ruby? She regrets it a lot. You don't like her acting? I'm sure she's a great actress, but it's fine if you don't like her acting skills. Do you—"

"It's personal, okay?" After a moment, she sighed. "But do you really want to know?"

Aqua nodded, keeping her eye.

Kana was the one to break the eye contact, looking up to the right. "Akane and I met when a while back. We were both auditioning for the same role, but before the auditions, we got into an argument. She didn't understand how the acting world works, and because of that, we got into an argument. Long story short—"

"I want the long version." When she frowned, Aqua explained. "I want to hear the long version of the story."

She hesitated before she said, "Fine. Like I said, Akane didn't know the acting world that well. She was confused why I would get the role, and when I tried to explain it to her, she got angry. She started an argument with me, and then had the audacity to act hurt by it afterwards. Really, she's nothing but a hypocrite. She's probably just acting nice to you because she hopes you'll give her something."

That didn't seem like Akane. Granted, Aqua didn't know her too well, but he knew she was rather quiet on The Beginning of an Idol, and even in the hospital, she didn't speak much. She seemed more comfortable in her body as the days went on, however, and she never struck him as the type to be a hypocrite.

"You're not going to visit her anymore, right?" Kana quickly asked. "You're going to focus more on other stuff and other people? More important people?"

Instead of answering, he asked, "Do you want to get ice cream?"

"Ice cream? Now? It's a little cold..."

"Is that a no?"

Kana smiled. "It's a yes."

Aqua made himself smile back, though he felt off around her now. Despite not knowing her for long, he didn't want to believe Akane would act like that; he wasn't sure he did as well. He could ask Akane about it some other day—though he wasn't sure about her opinions on Kana—but for now, he would ignore it and get ice cream with Kana. He was going to get chocolate ice cream.

- - - -

𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝: 𝟸𝟼𝟼𝟹