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The archery club would be taking an early train to get to a tournament in a different prefecture.
This was not the first time Mafuyu had taken a train with Shizuku and the rest of their teammates. The first time was during the winter tournament in their first year. Just like back then, Shizuku was the center of attention when they arrived at the platform – well, she was usually the center of attention wherever she went, thanks to her idol career. But last year, Mafuyu recalled Shizuku looking quite uncomfortable with the attention, hence despite strangers stealing glances at their general direction, nobody dared to step up to actually talk to her. Today, however, Shizuku smiled back at her impromptu audience and even waved at the more enthusiastic individuals. This prompted some of them to come over to ask for signatures and photos, to which Shizuku happily complied.
“Hinomori-senpai is so cool!” one of their kouhai spoke up after the fans left.
Shizuku just giggled in response. “Thank you. It is only right for me to show appreciation for my fans’ support.”
“I support you too, Senpai! May I have a signature too?”
“Yeah, me too, me too! Please leave your signature on my uniform shirt!”
Mafuyu pretended to be exasperated by the way they were bothering Shizuku. “You would be removed from the tournament if your uniform has a huge signature scrawled across it, Hamasaki-san.”
Everybody laughed at the newbie’s expense.
The train arrived soon after. At this early hour, there were few people on the train, and so the team members had almost the entire car to themselves. Shizuku had a window seat and Mafuyu sat on her other side. She took a glance at Shizuku, noting that while her natural beauty had not changed since their first meeting, her current confidence gave her a kind of brilliance that she had been lacking in the past.
Deciding that it was none of her business anyway, Mafuyu took out her book to kill some time. It was then that Shizuku turned around to face her.
“It is thanks to Asahina-san,” she said suddenly.
“Thanks? To me?”
“That I am able to face my fans in the way I did today – it is thanks to many people’s help, and you are one of them, Asahina-san.”
Mafuyu tried to smile, but her smile might have looked a bit bitter. “I heard from my friends that Hinomori-san appeared on television recently,” she said on a tangent.
“Oh, on Idol Hazard? Did you also watch it?”
“I did. My friends showed me your interview,” Mafuyu answered. “Hinomori-san, you were able to admit that you had pretended to be a stronger version of yourself in the past. You accepted your own cowardice, and then you vowed to proudly display your true self from hereon forward, weaknesses and all. That was very admirable of you. I would never have been able to say something like that, let alone on national TV. So, how would your current successes be attributed to me in the slightest?”
Shizuku just grinned in response. “You never believed that stronger version of me did you, Asahina-san?”
“Eh?”
“I could not even introduce myself properly at the first archery club meeting I attended. I was clumsy when learning how to shoot and almost quit if not for your encouragement. And yet, you never hated that weak and imperfect me. That was one of the reasons why I came to accept my true self,” Shizuku said.
The train entered a tunnel and the two of them stayed silent for the duration, with Mafuyu digesting the words that Shizuku had just spoken. Hate? Why would Mafuyu hate anyone? Even if Shizuku had been terrible towards her, she would not have cared, because she would have hated herself more anyway.
“Are there other reasons?” Mafuyu asked in a scrutinizing tone.
“You taught me how to cast away my doubts and focus solely on the next shot, remember?” Shizuku answered.
The tunnel ended at that point and the train hurtled into an open plain. The day was breaking, and light peaked out of the horizon to bathe Shizuku in a golden glow.
“When you cast away your insecurities to focus only on the goal, you would find that it is not as impossible to reach as it might have seemed at first sight. It doesn’t mean that you would necessarily strike the target on the first try, but what is stopping you from trying again, and again, and again? It is not the act of hitting the target that makes you strong – it is the fact that you refuse to give up trying to hit it. The will to work on your own imperfections is what makes you a better person at the end of the day. Is that not what you taught me?” Shizuku continued saying.
She then smiled gently while taking Mafuyu’s hand. “So why would you say that you can never make the same kind of admission as what I did on Idol Hazard? To me, you have always been very strong, Asahina-san.”
Mafuyu wondered if Shizuku could see right through her façade. The thought of this left a tendril of fear within her, but the possibility that Shizuku accepted her the way she was also gave her a warm feeling.
“You are truly an idol who gives hope to your audience, Hinomori-san,” Mafuyu said, returning the smile. She held her spare hand to her chest from which she felt the warmth rising. “I feel like I might have also become your fan.”