Chapter Text
Dark, ominous giggles flooded the room, they seemed all consuming, rapidly taking over the entirety of it. The chilling sound washed over the neatly made bed, journeying from there to invade the cupboards, and once they had been suitably raided, it moved on to it’s next target. Ultimately though, the way it filled the room was irrelevant. As it only fell on the ears of the one who had spawned it.
Kasumi stopped her giggling, frowning to herself. She had expecting a more villainous cackle, rather than the cutesy giggle she actually had. Her disappointment was only momentary, however. As she recalled that there was much more that needed her immediate attention.
She had devised her cruelest, most black-hearted plan yet. One that was sure to destroy her rival’s idol careers, leaving her the sole victor among them. Or at least, out of the three of them. For a long time now, she had been struggling to gain any sort of advantage over Setsuna and Karin. And whenever she tried they would never fall to her attempts, they would never lose. They would merely smile at her or be kind to her in their sickly sweet way. The disgusting way that made Kasumi’s face grow hotter and her heart race faster.
But now, she had conquered it. She had ingeniously invented the perfect response, one that would use their overwhelming kindness and affection against them. She scrawled it down quickly on a piece of paper in two distinct colours. Red and blue. She wouldn’t want to forget her mission after all.
Holding aloft her precious plan, she smiled and read it aloud to herself. “Step One: Date both Setsuna-San and Karin-San.” she nodded in acknowledgement, proud of her plan already. “Step Two: Reveal to them I’m dating the other, breaking their hearts and ruining their careers as idols.” she grinned and nodded to herself again. She leaned back, moving out of the sunlight and into the shadow as she once again, failed to cackle, and ended up giggling creepily.
She sat up, pondering for a moment if they’d hate her for it. She concluded yes. And after a few minutes more of silent pondering, she shrugged and leaned back. It wasn’t something to worry about right now. Once again, she sank from her thinking sitting position, and leaned back into the shade.
“Now all I need to do is actually do it.” she concluded. “That should be easy.” she thought aloud, taking out her phone, seemingly resolved to begin her plot to take down her fellow idols. However, she hesitated. She hadn’t even turned the phone on yet, she just stared at it, uncertainty taking a hold of her all of a sudden. Gritting her teeth, she placed the phone down on her bed, glaring at it as if it were the cause of all of her problems.
As she struggled to understand and control her feelings, she descended into anger. Falling further and further into the abyss of emotion with the more she thought. Eventually she managed to stop herself, clearing her mind and reminding herself of her core objective. She breathed out heavily, looking at her phone again.
She was truly resolved now, taking the phone in her hand. For a moment, she pondered whether to call or message, but quickly she resolved to call. She was confident she could pull off a convincing enough performance. She decided to call Karin first, she would probably be easier.
A moment’s hesitation grasped her. Just for a moment, an invisible force held her wrist, preventing her from tapping the call button. And even when she did tap it, it didn’t go away. It’s presence was there, it was just merely unable to stop her.
Tentatively, time passed, the shrill cry of the calling sound repeating itself over and over. “Hello?” Karin’s voice eventually said.
Kasumi relaxed her shoulders. It was time. “Hello, Karin-San. I-I have something to talk to you about.” she said, doing her best to sound nervous.
“Oh? Well what is it?” Karin asked casually, entirely unaware of the bombshell that loomed over her, waiting to be dropped.
“Well, I just sort of…” she paused. “I don’t really know how to say this, K-Karin-San.” it all came surprisingly naturally to her, she found herself getting so into character that she was blushing.
“That’s okay, take your time.” Karin sounded amused, she had definitely caught on to the confession. She just wanted to hear Kasumi say it herself.
“I-I like you Karin-San!” she blurted out, automatically covering her mouth afterward. She tensed up, waiting with baited breath for Karin’s response. She told herself she shouldn’t really care, that she wasn’t in love with her so it’s fine if she said no. But Karin was instrumental to her plans. So her saying no would be a definite spanner in the works.
She was silent for a surprisingly long time. Kasumi would never have expected her to react so much to a confession. She figured she’d just shrug it off and respond. “Perhaps she’s thinking about it?” she thought. “Maybe I should add a bit more to really seal the deal.” she grinned devilishly, having the perfect idea. “I-I’m sorry I didn’t do this in person. I was just too nervous!” she mentally pat herself on the back, the image of a cute, nervous Kasumi would absolutely get Karin to say yes. In the back of her mind, however. She wondered if she really could’ve confessed in person.
After another few seconds, Karin finally replied. “Aw, Kasukasu.” she said, almost in awe. “You’re so cute. I love you too.” she replied. Kasumi had won.
Although her victory wasn’t as sweet as she had expected. She had expected to feel amazing right now, knowing her plan was coming to fruition. But instead, she felt flustered. Her face was a bright red and rather than keeping up a cool, collected silence and controlling her next response, she instead squeaked in shock. “J-just because we’re dating doesn’t mean you can call me Kasukasu.” she grumbled, not even acting at this point.
“Okay, okay. Sorry Kasumi-Chan.” she replied. “So, should we have some fun then? Since we’re dating now?” The way she spoke left nothing to the imagination. She put on a sultry, seductive tone that left Kasumi’s entire face a heated scarlet. She figured she should be used to her flirting by now, but she really, really wasn’t.
“N-no thanks. Let’s just have a date, okay?” Kasumi suggested, hoping to take Karin’s mind off of it by suggesting a date.
“Sure, how about you come to my place tomorrow?” she asked eagrely. While she seemed a lot calmer, her previous tone wasn’t gone, and neither was Kasumi’s face-dominating blush.
“Th-that’s better.” she nodded in acceptance, although it was pointless, since Karin couldn’t see it.
“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow then! Goodnight Kasumi-Chan!” she chirped, pure joy in her tone. Despite her change of mood, she still left traces of her teasing tone in the goodnight. Just for fun.
“N-night, Karin-C-chan.” Kasumi mumbled, flopping back on her bed. The exchange had taken a lot out of her. Not only did she have to confess to Karin, she had to keep herself from showing how flustered she truly was. She didn’t feel deterred however, she was energised and excited. “Okay, now for Setsuna-San!” she exclaimed aloud, sitting up and calling her.
The same motions went by, only with a lot less tension. Confusingly, she took a lot longer than Karin to answer. Which was atypical, Setsuna always answered quickly.
A yawn and a sleepy “Hello?” came from the phone.
Kasumi reeled for a moment “D-did I accidentally call Kanata-San?” she wondered. Before checking the phone again. “No, it’s definitely Setsuna-San. Weird.” she shrugged it off and simply gave her a “Hello.” back.
“Oh, hi Kasumi-San! You woke me up. I had just gotten to sleep.” she didn’t speak normally, it was more of a fusion of yawning and talking.
“Now,” Kasumi thought. “I’ll just do what I did with Karin” she opened her mouth to speak, but the words refused to leave. The confidence she had previously built up seemed to fall away, she could almost see it, falling away like Autumn leaves from a tree. She decided to stall instead, to give her more time to prepare emotionally. “Why are you sleeping? It’s only ten!” it came out more aggressively than she intended, but it was nothing atypical of her. So she wasn’t too worried about it.
“Idols need their beauty sleep Kasumi-San. I figured you’d be asleep now too, honestly.” she commented, an implicit meaning in mind. Although she worried Kasumi may not have comprehended it, so she made it clearer. “Since you’re so beautiful and cute and all.” she yawned unintentionally as she spoke, cursing herself for how it ruined her compliment.
Kasumi’s face fell heavy into her hands, being called both pretty and beautiful absolutely demolished her. She was reduced to a flustered mess, entirely immobilised by the direct hit Setsuna had struck to her heart.
“Kasumi-San?” she asked, wondering if she had left for whatever reason.
“I-I’m here. S-sorry for calling you so late.” she got herself back on track, returning to her plan, although there was a fair bit of unplanned embarrassment too. “I-it’s just. Well…” she mumbled, struggling to express what she wanted to. “I l-l…” she began, but she quickly changed it, remembering what Karin had responded with “I love you, Setsuna-San!”
Setsuna had a lot shorter of a pause, while she still paused, her response came far faster than Karin’s. “I love you too, Kasumi-Chan!” she exclaimed, bursting with joy and love. It came flooding from her, Kasumi could almost feel each wave of it, crashing against her.
“I-I’m so happy!” Kasumi said, hardly controlling herself in the face of the onslaught of love and affection that Setsuna had just assaulted her with.
“This is great! I can’t believe this.” Setsuna said to no one in particular. A pang of guilt struck Kasumi, her being unable to believe it was ironic. After all, she was believing it, she was completely taken in by Kasumi’s devilish plot.
“We should go on a date!” Setsuna declared, a passionate heat emanating from her words. Kasumi giggled, in her usual creepy way. She didn’t bother trying to hide it, Setsuna was used to it by now. It was so amusing to her, Setsuna had just saved her all the work!
“Okay! But just not tomorrow. I have to do something with my family.” she lied, sowing the seeds of deceit. It was an odd feeling, a hot throbbing in her chest combined with a pit in her stoumach. She didn’t ponder on it very much, all that mattered was that the seeds were planted, ready to grow into a terribly beautiful tree, that would break both Karin and Setsuna’s hearts.
“Alrght!” Setsuna accepted it wholeheartedly, not even thinking to ask. Kasumi felt absolutely despicable. It was odd, she had imagined it to feel far more satisfying.
“Okay, go back to sleep now. I want you looking as beautiful as possible.” she told her, pushing the unsatisfactory feeling aside for the time being. Although she should’ve been, she wasn’t too proud of her performance. She felt it was perhaps too hollow. She shrugged, deciding not to overthink it. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.” Setsuna mirrored with a yawn, however she didn’t hang up the phone. Instead, she waited. Before out of nowhere, Kasumi heard a kiss noise. She almost flew back in shock, while they were technically dating, the concept of Setsuna blowing her a kiss really got to her. She covered her face with her hands, laying back on her bed and trying to deal with what had just occurred. As she did this, the call ended.
She ended up laying there for much longer than intended, processing everything that had just happened. She recollected it. “I’m dating Karin-San and Setsuna-San. I have a date at Karin-San’s house tomorrow and I need to plan one with Setsuna-San.” she recalled. She sighed heavily. “Being an evil mastermind is a lot more work than I expected…” she complained, deciding to just sleep. After all, she had a date tomorrow. As she closed her eyes, she winced at a feeling, one that she should’ve stamped out long ago. Excitement. Not anticipation for her plan to go through. But excitement to be with Karin. She let out an “ugh” of disgust and let herself drift off out of consciousness.