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Meeting with fans was still a strange experience. Minori had spent so long in their shoes, the long lines, the merch…
To have people trying to buy Minori poster prints and glow stick… and plushies??? They don’t actually have plushies, but the fans keep asking about them! The merch they do have is limited, and the others’ stuff definitely sells more… but not by much.
The feeling of sticking her own idol poster up on her wall, right next to her Haruka poster… it felt incredible.
She’d ordered the others to stay off of fan social media pages, offering to be a social media manager of sorts. She’d show them some nice comments from time to time, the inspirational stuff…
But, as an idol fan, she knew what kind of stuff was out there. Stuff Shizuku and Haruka should never have to look at. Airi might be able to stomach it, but there was no need. Minori was a veteran.
It was still odd the things she’d see… a lot of ship posts, which was amusing considering all four of them were dating. Arguments about which of the girls Minori liked the most had ardent defenders of each option, but Minori knew they were all right.
There was… weirder stuff out there. Art Minori had to scroll past, fanfictions that… well maybe it was weird to read a romantic fanfiction about yourself and your girlfriend, but it felt nice to indulge in some of the fluffier stories.
She used to check their fan pages on the roof before streams, but ever since Haruka peered over her shoulder and asked about what she was looking at… never again.
How was she supposed to respond to the question ’What does omegaverse mean’??? The truth??? Of course not! Haruka shouldn’t know something like that… neither should Minori and yet…
She would act as the wall between her girlfriends and the weirder side of their fan pages.
She knew it would all catch up to her one day, that she’d have to face this fan within her. The anniversary of their group wasn’t… the day she’d thought it would be.
They were holding an event to celebrate, part of which was a handshake meet and greet. Seeing their fans show up in MMJ t-shirts felt like a dream come true. A culmination of their efforts over the past year.
Then… a girl came up to Minori’s line. “Minori-chan! I’m a huge fan, I can’t believe I’m meeting you!!!”
“Of course!” She grabbed the girl’s hand, “Thank you so much for coming!”
“I actually had a question to ask you… but I haven’t been able to come to your past events.”
“I’ll try my best to answer!”
“Well… I know you used to be an Asrun fan, so was I! Back then I used to follow this fanfiction author called Mana-tan.”
Mana-tan… oh god. That name sent a chill down her spine, her old pen name from when she’d write… Haruka fanfiction. A name she had to erase from her mind after becoming an idol herself.
“I think the way you talk is a lot like how she used to write! And well… she stopped posting around the same time More More Jump debuted. So I was wondering if…”
“Fanfiction? What’s that!” She put on her best stupid face… poorly. She couldn’t do it on command! Sure she was naturally a bit dumb sometimes, but she was no actor! Not for something like that.
“You’ve definitely talked about fanfiction before on stream.” Shit… leave it to fans to remember minute details like that. It’s what Minori used to do. “So I was wondering… if maybe Mana-tan was you?”
“Oh oh!” A girl from Haruka’s line chimed in, “I remember Mana-tan! She wrote the best-“
The girl stopped herself, recalling Haruka was in earshot. No self respecting Haruka oshi would admit to reading self insert x Haruka fanfiction in front of the idol herself. Or worse… wrote it.
“She wrote good stuff about Asrun! Why, do you think she’s here today?”
The girl in Minori’s line gave her a glance, “I have a feeling she is.”
No no no… “Who could say really, no way to ever find out.”
“Minori,” Haruka called to her. Oh god no… “You were an Asrun fan, right? Do you know this person?”
“NOPE NEVER HEARD OF HER.” She screamed, with the guiltiest expression she could possibly manage.
“Well… I think that’s my question answered. Thanks for letting me ask, Minori-tan.”
The girl left… the other one in Haruka’s line stared at Minori bug eyed. She clearly understood.
The secret she had to hide from Haruka. Self insert has a meet cute with Haruka at a bowling alley, coffee shop au, gets sold to Asrun as Haruka’s personal cuddle assistant…
Minori had lost the password a while ago, and had no way to delete these dark chapters of her past. It was just sitting there for anyone to find… and now Haruka had a name to search up.
Minori managed to get through the rest of the event without issue, though some of the girls in her line seemed to want to know more about… the thing. They didn’t ask her anything directly, but the stares took a bit to die down.
All she could do that night was pray. Pray no one brought it up again, pray the account faded away into obscurity.
The next day Haruka asked her the worst question in the world… “Minori, can I look up that… Mana-tan thing from yesterday?”
Her face froze up… how could she say no? Then she’d have to explain… surely she would.
“Um… no.” Maybe that could be it. Maybe no one would question her on it.
“Oi Minori, that’s totally you, isn’t it?” Fuck… Airi must have overheard during the event yesterday, “What sort of Haruka fanfictions don’t you want her to see?”
“Oh… you went by Mana-tan in the past?” Shit shit shit… now Haruka knows. She’s gonna look it up and find out… “Well, if you don’t want me looking then I won’t. I’ll respect your privacy.”
“HARUKA-CHAN!!! THANK YOU!!!” She tackled her girlfriend into a hug. Of course Haruka would be respectful of her wishes! Of course she wouldn’t pry! Unfortunately she wasn’t the only person here…
“Let’s see… here we go, Mana-tan.”
“AIRI-CHAN NO PLEASE???” Minori did her best to get the phone away from Airi, but there was no point. She could always look it up later…
“Minori, what does y/n mean?”
“Um… your name. It’s where… you’re supposed to imagine your name is.”
“Oh damn… self insert x Haruka coffee shop date? Self insert x Haruka meet cute at a bowling alley? Hits means views, right? Damn these are popular.”
If she kept scrolling down… oh god she might get to the worst one. “Self insert gets… sold to Asrun as Haruka’s personal cuddle pillow?”
“AIRI-CHAN PLEASE NO MORE!!!”
Haruka did her best to console the girl that it was ok for her to have written that stuff.
“I PROMISE I STOPPED UPLOADING THIS STUFF ONCE I MET YOU!!!”
“It’s alright Minori… though, you mean writing, right? Not just uploading?”
Minori’s silence spoke volumes, and Airi couldn’t help but enjoy the unfolding scene. Looking back down at her phone… Minori had really written a lot. Not all of it was about Haruka… but most of it was. She did a quick search to see if Shizuku or Airi were there but no dice.
Being sold as Haruka’s personal cuddle pillow… that was by far the most ridiculous title of them all. Airi at least understood the urge, being hugged by Shizuku… or Haruka too, it felt great.
If she was going to read any, it would have to be this one. It was by far the longest (really Minori? 65 THOUSAND words of this? TWENTY EIGHT chapters???). The prose was… surprisingly not bad? It was still clearly Minori, she had a unique flavour of gay Airi had never really seen before. She’d at least give this story a bit, just read the first tiny part to see what it was like.
That night Airi read the entire thing… she’d need a proper hug from Haruka, the real Haruka, the next day.