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Hmm, hmm hmm~ Mizuki cheerfully hummed to herself as she walked down the streets of Shibuya. As she was looking at the various dresses and skirts in the windows, she noticed a small crowd gathering around the street corner.
"Huh? Is someone about to perform or something?" excited at the prospect, Mizuki rushed over to go see what all the fuss was about. When she got there though, she didn't seen any instruments, or mics, or anything music related at all… Unless you counted the tall blue- haired idol standing there. Which, yeah Mizuki would admit that most people would consider an idol music related. Suzuki's face lit up in surprise when she noticed that the idol was none other than Shizuku from More More Jump!.
She was absolutely crowded by people, all of them clamoring for a scrap of her attention. Geez, if she garnered this much attention now, imagine the amount of people she would attract at her peak. Mizuki shuddered slightly, kind of scared at the thought of one person alone holding that many people's attention.
Oh, now that she was looking at Shizuku more closely… she seemed to be rather uncomfortable. That couldn't be fun for her…
"Hey! Shizuku!"
Shizuku looked up in surprise, looking around to see who had shouted her name out. Spotting the pink-haired girl waving at her, she smiled back and quickly made her way over, giving apologies to anyone she had to get out of the way.
"Hello, Akiyama." She said with a serene smile. "Thanks for spotting me…"
"Here, it's really no problem." Mizuki shaked her head. Geez, how can someone remain this calm under that much scrutiny? Guess it's like some sort of idol super power or something. Oh wait Mafuyu could do that too… but that's honestly just how Mafuyu is.
As the duo walked away from the crowd, carefully avoiding drawing any attention to themselves - which was admittedly rather hard considering how much attention both of them drew. Once they were a safe distance away, Mizuki turned to face Shizuku.
"Soo… must be pretty exhausting having that many fans, huh?"
Shizuku laughed a little, shyly running her hands through her hair. I wonder how she keeps it in such good condition…
"It is… but fans really are what keeps you going as an idol, you know? And besides, you do get used to it the more time you spend in the industry. I suppose its just been a while since I've been bombarded like that."
"Wow, you really love your fans… I can tell they all love you back though, so that's nice."
The two continued walking, passing by various shops, including one where Shiho, Shizuku's little sister liked to frequent. Shizuku pointed it out with such enthusiasm it made Mizuki laugh. Teasing at how much she doted on her little sibling, Mizuki wondered if Yuuki talked about her this way with her friends… maybe she should give her a call today, it had been a while.
After a while of walking aimlessly and talking about various different subjects, they got to the topic of sewing.
"How's your dress going along? Last time I saw it looked almost done."
"Yup! Just need to add the finishing details now, so I was planning on going over today."
Shizuku paused at this, and then smiled. "What if we went to the sewing lounge? If I remember correctly, it should be just around here. I have some embroidery projects I wanted to start working on, and then we can continue chatting while working."
"Yeah, that sounds like a great plan!" Mizuki was already looking forward to it, Shizuku was always so fun to talk to. "Plus, you can help me figure out the finer parts of the design!"
Shizuku giggled, before looking around to see where the lounge was. "Hm… I remember going that way…" and then immediately proceeded to go in the exact opposite direction. Mizuki shaked her head exasperatedly. Airi wasn't joking at all when she mentioned Shizuku's absolute lack of direction wasn't she?
At the sewing lounge, Mizuki hummed to herself. The repetitive sound of a sewing machine clicking in the background while the background chatter was very familiar to her, and always helped her remember all those times spent with her sister talking together as she made new clothes for her. Man, her sister really was the best…
Like she had said earlier to Shizuku, the dress really was almost done, it just needed to be touched up a little. A little flourish here, and a little sparkle there and the dress was done!
Setting the dress down, she leaned over to see how Shizuku was doing with her project… Suzuki's mouth literally fell open. It was a picture of a small snowball looking bird perched on an autumn branch. The embroidery was legitimately perfect. Everything was even, the colors all matched so well, and nothing seemed out of place. She would definitely need to take a picture of this and send it to Niigo!
"Shizuku!!! How is your embroidery so good!?!"
Looking up, Shizuku smiled, clearly happy that Mizuki liked it. To be fair, Mizuki was sure that everyone would like it but Shizuku was really just that kind of person.
"Here, I've been practicing since I was… I think 6 years old. It's always been a special hobby to me, so I work very hard on it." She then went on. "It's also helped a lot in noticing the finer details and concentrating, so it's definitely come in handy in idol work too."
"That's amazing… you should definitely teach me some day!"
"Oh, you're just flattering me at this point… but I wouldn't mind teaching you, I'm sure you'd be a wonderful student."
Mizuki scratched her head. Here… "I wouldn't be too sure of that… but thanks!"
Packing up all of her sewing supplies, she turned to Shizuku. "Hey, since it's you're off day (I think), do you want to go with the mall with me?"
"Of course! There are some things I'd like to buy, and Airi's told me many times that if I go shopping I should probably bring someone with me…"
Yeah, Airi's not wrong at all… "Great! Meet me at the front in like, 10 minutes."
"Man! That was great!" Mizuki cheered, carrying 2 bags filled with clothes and other items.
"Yes, it was! You're so knowledgeable about fashion and make up, so thank you." Shizuku replied. "We should do this again sometime, when we're both free."
"For sure." Checking her phone, she suddenly noticed the time. "Ah! It's noon already! We should go and get something to eat." Putting her phone back in her pocket, she suddenly noticed that Luka had popped onto her screen. Uh oh, hope Shizuku didn't see that…
"Sure, you go lead the way then."
At the food court, they spotted a table, and Mizuki headed off to go buy some food. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Akira and Baito. Or as Ena spitefully called them, Students A and Student B. Oh gosh… I hate those two…
Shaking her head, she tried to forget about the two. After all, they were all high schoolers, and high schoolers go to the mall all the time. It wasn't that strange, she just needed to avoid them. And after the mess earlier today with the crowd, Mizuki was pretty confident that they wouldn't notice her. Finished with buying the drinks and food for Shizuku and her, she headed back to their table and saw… oh.
Akira and Baito were talking to Shizuku, clearly fans of her, or at the very least in awe of her beauty. Which, yes was a normal reaction when talking to Shizuku, her beauty was sometimes said to be of heavenly levels, but that was usually said by her hard-core fans. Or Ena... I really wish Ena was here to deal with these two bigots.
"Oh my gosh!!! You're Shizuku right? From Cheerful*Days?" Didn't he know that she wasn't in Cheerful*Days anymore?"You're so cool and amazing! I look up to you a lot…"
That was kind of unexpected actually… she didn't take Akira to be a fan of J-pop. But she shouldn't judge someone or assume things… unlike certain some ones.
"Here, that's nice to hear. I always love meeting fans in person." Shizuku responded, showing an idol smile. Shizuku really was an amazing idol… being able to be perfect all the time and show such grace and elegance. And she seemed to love what she was, an idol and her actual self. Here, for once Mizuki was willing to agree with Akira, Shizuku was truly remarkable.
"Man, I can't believe we ran into an world-famous idol in a mall…" Baito shook their head, clearly amazed by his luck. "What are you doing here? I was kind of under the impression that idols were super busy all the time."
"Oh, it's my free day today, and I ran into my friend here, so we're just doing some shopping." Shizuku responded. She then spotted Mizuki with their food, and waved her over. "Oh look! There she is, if you want to introduce yourselves to her. She's a wonderful person."
Oh crap. Suzuki's heart started beating faster, though she really hated the fact that these two still had an impact on her. She tried looking for a way out of the interaction, but there was unfortunately no escape. Plus, she would need to explain why she didn't want to be around the two to Shziuku and that would be… really awkward and she'd lose another friend, and then she'd be all alone again and no one would like her and she'd be an outcast and Shizuku would shame her and— no. Mizuki couldn't think like that. Shizuku wouldn't do that to her, they were friends. She could do this, she could talk to two idiots. Yes.
"Hey! Shizuku! I'm back." She smiled, hoping that would mask her discomfort well enough to get rid of the duo.
Akira and Baito both turned to Shizuku with barely concealed looks of surprise on their faces. "You're friends with… Akiyama?"
Shizuku tilted her head, clearly confused at why that would be a problem. "…Yes? Is there a problem?"
"Well… since you don't go to our school I guess you don't know about how Mizuki is —"
Much to all of their surprise, Shizuku stopped Akira before he could continue. "Please be respectful to my friend." She looked at Mizuki with concern, asking her if she was okay with what the two of them were saying, clear as day. She shook her head, feeling a little out of control.
"Since she's clearly uncomfortable with what you two are saying, I'll kindly ask you to both stop. If she wanted to tell me whatever you guys think are important, then she can tell me it on her own terms, not on other people's."
"…" The four of them stood there in silence. Shizuku was still staring at Akira and Baito, though Mizuki would say that it was bordering a glare. The mentioned duo were just standing there, looking between themselves like they were debating something. The world was rather disorientated to Mizuki right now… that wasn't the expected out come at all. Though, if this happened again, the defending Mizuki part, she really wouldn't mind…
"Well, if that's all, I'd like to eat lunch with my friend now." Shizuku finally broke the silence, sending Suzuki's classmates away with a smile. Once the two were out of earshot, the duo settled into their seats, sitting there in uncomfortable silence. Didn't this happen before? I'm sure it did…
"So… uh. About earlier…" Mizuki said, glancing to the side. She wasn't quite ready to meet the idol's striking stare right now.
"Like I said earlier, if you don't want to talk about it, you can just relax. I don't want to pry if that would make you uncomfortable." She frowned, and then continued. "If I guessed right, those 2 are your classmates… to think that those two would be around you for an entire year and have the idea of your secret being revealed is quite… troublesome."
Mizuki laughed awkwardly. "Well, basically everyone at my school that isn't new knows. If they were then they would've surely heard the rumors."
"… I still want to help though."
"Huh?" Mizuki stared at the blue-haired girl, unsure how to respond. Last time someone had said that… no, no. Don't think like that. Ena was there to help at the end, and it all turned out well after all. Maybe she would be more accepting then everyone else.
"I get the feeling that you really want to be the "you" inside of yourself." Shizuku took a breath and continued. "I know that it gets even harder when everyone around you thinks that you should be the image that isn't you. Even with people that support you for being yourself, it's hard to truly express yourself that way. It was only after meeting people that truly accepted me for being myself that I learned to let go of that false image, and fully embrace me." She smiled at Mizuki, as if reaching a hand out to the pink-haired girl sitting across from her. "I know that I went on for quite some time, but I do hope that my words got through to you."
"Heh…" Mizuki said with a small smile. "Even on your break day you're still trying your best to spread hope to everyone around you… idol's truly are amazing, aren't they?" Unwrapping her untouched sandwich picked out all the cheese. "… yeah, your feelings did reach me." Looking up from her sandwich, she laughed. "Thanks for being so accepting. It's really nice."
Shizuku shook her head slightly. "Oh no, you shouldn't thank me for basic human kindness." Mizuki was genuinely awed by how someone could be that… idol-like. Or maybe she was just so unused to people not running away the minute they had a slightest clue of what she was truly like that she thought that this was amazing. Heh, what a sad life she had… oh well, no use thinking about that now.
"Let's eat!"
Now that she was finally home from the mall trip, she prepared her supplies, ready to begin another sewing project. "Cloth… needles… thread…" Looking around at the array of materials, she sat down at her work desk, already planning out ideas in her head. Right as she was about to start, she noticed her phone screen light up with a text from K.
"Okay, I'll go check that soon… hey wasn't I supposed to call someone today? Oh right! I was going to call her today! Good thing I remembered huh?"
Setting down her pencil, Mizuki picked up the phone and dialed her sister's number. After a few short seconds of ringing, Yuuki picked up.
<Hi Mizuchip!> Her sis really was still the same huh? Keeping up with the silly nicknames… Mizuki didn't mind of course.
<Hehe, hiya sis. How're you doing oversees right now?>
<Oh, it's going amazing! Everything around me is such good inspiration… from the outfits in the windows to the bricks in the buildings, everywhere I look I get a new idea for a outfit.>
Mizuki smiled to herself. Her sister was having so much fun overseas wasn't she? <That's amazing! I just finished my dress today too!>
<Woah! Can I see?> Yuuki leaned towards the camera in excitement. Wow, Mizuki really missed her sister's excitement over her outfits.
<Hehe, of course!>
Flipping her phone camera to show her the dress, Mizuki heard Yuuki gasp in excitement. <That's so pretty! It's so you too!>
"Thanks sis! If I keep this up I'll totally surpass you one day!"
<Aiya, you're underestimating yourself. You're doing leagues better than what I was doing at my age!>
"Well, I did have an amazing teacher, so I suppose it only makes sense."
<Hehe, you're flattering me too much.> Mizuki faintly heard some noise coming over from her sister's end.
<Well, I have to go now, sorry I couldn't talk much.> Yuuki sounded unhappy with that fact, but it really couldn't be helped.
<Aww… that's too bad. I'll call you later though!>
<You better! Bye Mizucookie!>
Clicking the end call button, Mizuki set her phone back down on the bed. Shizuku was right, having people who supported you no matter what was really amazing. Looking up to see the Nightcord notification on her screen, she smiled.
Hehe, life really was looking up for her, wasn't it?