Work Text:
The day started like any other. Waking up, Mizuki opens her eyes to her room, looking the same as usual. Well, besides the mess of clothes from yesterday that were left on the side of the bed.
Before even worrying about that, she looks to her left, staring at the alarm clock on her dresser, trying to calculate how much time she has before she has to go.
"Already 9:30, huh...". It wasn't the time that was abnormal, she's used to waking up late after a good work session with the rest of Nightcord, most of the time even later than this. No, it was the fact that she actually has plans today that start a lot earlier than the regular late-start school she normally does.
Recently there's been an increase in the amount of pop-up shops in the area, particularly in the shopping mall she and her friends all frequently visit. Most of the time it's nothing special: an anime collab she's never heard of, a brand she's not interested in, the list goes on.
But this time it's different, a new pop-up that actually made it worth keeping track of all the other ones that weren't of interest.
'La Harmonieuse'. A French fashion brand that, by international standards, wasn't all that famous. Mizuki had heard of it a couple of times from her sister, who talks about it quite fondly. She and her sister both talked about it quite a lot when she found out it was coming, and Yuuki encoured her to go check it out.
Well, Mizuki sure didn't need an excuse to check out some new fashion shop with cute clothes, but with the backing of her sister, she was sure to pay it a visit.
"Well, I better hurry, I don't want to make Ena wait for me there." She said, eyes closed and still half asleep from the near all-nighter she pulled not very long ago, working on a new MV for the group.
Seeing as her fellow group member didn't have classes until later in the day, it was the perfect time for them to check it out together. Mizuki always likes going out shopping with Ena, seeing they both have quite a good yet similar eye for fashion. Well, that was one of the reasons anyway.
After what feels like no time at all, Mizuki puts together an outfit, does her daily makeup and hair routine, and is ready to leave. It's good that the mall isn't far from her house, giving her at least a little more sleep before starting the day. She decides against getting some food, seeing she isn't feeling hungry and can always just get some food there. It's more enjoyable eating together anyways.
When she gets there, it's surprisingly busy. Normally it's supposed to be a little more empty, seeing as people normally go to work or school around this time. She doesn't even think about it, instead scanning every face of the crowd for a familiar one. She doesn't know if Ena has already arrived, seeing as she hasn't gotten a text from her yet, but she might as well try and spot her, seeing she has nothing else to do.
Walking around, she does see some familiar faces roaming around various shops. Some classmates, who also took the liberty of skipping the classes she also wasn't going to attend. Better to avoid those, seeing as they don't get along that well, to say the least. Looking a little further, she sees an ad pop up, and boy does she recognise those faces.
It's an ad promoting a new live show for More More Jump, taking place in that same cafe she helped them out with a while back. Something she already knew about of course, and had planned to go see with a couple of other friends. Just looking at it makes her kind of nostalgic, she did have a lot of fun when helping her out, and is glad that Airi asked her to do so. The money was nice of course, but she would be lying if she didn't enjoy the day a lot more than some yen amount.
Seemingly lost in her thoughts, she keeps on walking through the mall, almost not even noticing the people talking a little loud to the side of her. Rather, it would be great if she didn't notice it at all, but her hearing and perceptiveness is way too good sometimes.
"Hey, you! Yeah, you there, with the ■■■!" An unknown young voice calls out in her general direction. She couldn't quite get the last part of that sentence, and quite honestly doesn't really want to look if they really are calling out to her. Mizuki doesn't really have quite a good track record of unknown people calling out to her, and she didn't really want to add to it today.
Planning to just keep walking and not react, as if to not hear it at all, that plan is interrupted by a tap on her shoulder, jolting through her entire body and making it so she's forced to acknowledge the his presence.
"Hey, aren't you the ..." Before the boy can finish his sentence, time stops. Well, for Mizuki at least.
She's heard this phrase way too much, and does absolutely not want to hear it again. Be it the lack of sleep, food or any other factor, she feels she knows what's coming next and isn't planning to stick around for the rest of it.
"Sorry, I don't have time, I gotta go." Her flight reaction kicks in. She looks away from the boy, who doesn't realise that Mizuki's eyes aren't processing him at all, let alone the work uniform and magazine ads in his other hand.
Nothing is going through her mind at all, apart from a slideshow of all the other times people her age have called out to her, having some not so nice things to say. Her hearing starts to ring, her vision is getting blurry.
She picks up her pace a little, trying to slip back in with the crowd of people she was just walking in. It was certainly no easy feat, seeing as her entire body feels as if it's shutting down, only running the most essential programs. Being both too heavy to move, yet not feeling anything at all.
Why again, why now? It was supposed to be a nice little shopping session with Ena, getting to see a shop her sister was so fond of. But now her mood is ruined, she begins to drown out any and all parts of the outside world, and her thoughts are beginning to race again, like they always do in these situations.
Before getting completely lost in her now looping negative thoughts, she jumps at the sound of a familiar voice, dragging her back to reality in an instant. "Ah, Mizuki, over here!"
She doesn't even have to look at the source of the words to the right of her. She can feel their warmth, familiarness and even a little relief coming from miles away. It's Ena, who spotted her out of the crowd, standing between the entrances of two small shops, looking amazing as usual.
"Ena!" She is quite relieved herself to see her face, flushing away all her not so pleasant thoughts in an instant. She'd never say it out loud, but Ena did come at quite a good time, otherwise she may not have even stayed here. "...Wait, why are you looking at me like that? Did you forget to get your beauty sleep or something?"
"Hah? You're joking right? If anything, arent you forgetting something, like answering my texts for instance?"
"Wait, What do you mea....Ah." She realised all of a sudden why she wasn't getting any response from Ena.
Seeing as the rest of nightcord went to sleep already, Mizuki decided to turn on airplane mode last night, to decrease the number of distractions from her work. She simply forgot to turn it off when she woke up, probably due to the lack of sleep she'd gotten, her brain not being fully functional due to lack of food, and the fact she doesn't do this often.
After explaining what happened, Ena seems a little less irritated than when they first started talking. "I'm sorry Enanan, I didn't mean to do on purpose. Forgive me?" Despite often being compared to a cat, Mizuki looks at the artist with the biggest puppy eyes she can muster, and puts her hands together almost prayingly. And who is she to decline the girl standing in front of her?
"Yeah yeah i forgive you, just please stop looking at me like that. In any case, the shop you mentioned better be worth the wait."
"Eh, you were waiting for me? For how long?" "Not important, let's just go already, I'm getting tired of just standing here." Ena had in fact not been waiting that long, but seeing as Mizuki wasn't getting any of her messages, she was beginning to get a little worried. That worry being made exponentially bigger when she spotted the pink haired girl in the crowd, staring in the distance with quite the look on her face.
She knows that something probably happened a little before meeting up with her, but Ena knows better than to ask right away. As much as she wants to, she knows that indulging in some good old fashion shopping will do Mizuki much better at this moment than to talk about her feelings. She will ask, just not now.
The two of them walk around for a bit, talking about nothing in particular. The new song they, Kanade and Mafuyu are working on, some of the latest news, you name it. "Ena, what do you think about these kind of effects? I think it elevates your drawing here a lot, but what do you thi-". Before Mizuki can finish her sentence, her body speaks for her, and it isn't particularly happy with the lack of sustenances it's gotten.
"Mizuki, don't tell me you haven't eaten anything?" Ena seems rather annoyed, and certainly not because this is the first time this has happened. "Ahaha...." She could almost die from embaressment even just having Ena hear her stomach growl, and this being having happened before doesn't make it easier. "Well you see, I had to hurry here, and I was really busy last night and-"
"Mizuki." Just hearing her name was enough to stop her flow of excuses dead in its tracks. It may seem that Ena's mad at her, but she just doesn't want to hear all these excuses, not when there's a bigger problem they now are both aware of.
"Come, let's eat first. There's a really nice cafe just ahead." This wasn't a suggestion, it was a demand. They both know Ena won't budge on this, so might as well comply with it. Besides, if there's anything she can trust besides Ena herself, it's her taste in some good food, and they both know Mizuki is in some need for it.