Sorry everyone, even though I said that I'd update soon, a week has passed already! As an apology, I made this special since chapter one is still half-way. This one's actually short so I'm sorry. I actually blame my endless and painful dance practice for that- it's eating my free time! ;A;
Extra: The first Meeting (MariMii Extra)
It was still in winter season when our ever so unpredictable producer decided to promote an ordinary waitress of the theater’s café into a member of AKB. The viewers voted for her to become a member too, as he says. But of course, since she didn’t have to go through an audition, she had to do something else to prove that she really is worthy for the group. And believe it or not, the task given to her by our Producer, Akimoto Yasushi, was for her to memorize and perform all twelve songs and choreographies we, the members, performed inside the theater in four days.
‘That’s impossible!’ ‘Only superman can do that, I bet.’ ‘She won’t make it…’ Were the words left by the ‘fans’ who knew about the requirements given by Aki-P to the waitress. But despite hearing all of those discouraging words, she still tried the hardest. She would stay until past three in the morning, practicing nonstop while endlessly watching footages of us performing on stage. I knew how hard it was to try and memorize dance movements from a mere video, but after two days, she had nailed almost six choreographies already. It was unbelievable, really. Even our most attentive member, Takamina, was surprised by the waitress’s performance by far. It may be true that some of our dances were easy, but she memorized the one which took us one week to remember in just two days. And I have to admit, I’m very surprised by that.
As much as she wanted to practice, she still had to do her duty as a waitress. So from ten in the morning to six in the evening, she would be stuck in the theater’s café, serving whoever would decide to drop by for something to eat. After her shift ends, she would immediately head to one of the theater’s training hall to practice. Aki-P told her she could use it, after all and the fact that it had mirrors so she can see her own mistakes was useful. I wasn’t really sure why, but she was the ‘talk’ of the current members by then, even I couldn’t help myself from observing her every time I was free.
On the third day, however, we could see that she was pushing herself to the limits. She began practicing around six on the evening as usual on the night before the said day, but instead of ending it around three a.m. as per norm, she stayed up until eight. I wasn’t standing by the door until she ended her practice, I swear! I just heard the information from someone. She really wanted to join the group, that, I could see, and she really tried her hardest to memorize all twelve songs assigned to her. But… To her dismay, on the night of the third day, she was two dance choreographies short. And the remaining two were the hardest ones to memorize at that… Once again, I only knew that from another member. I didn’t stalk her or anything.
‘Coincidentally’, I decided to stay late in the theater that night and saw her practicing her heart out as soon as I peeked in through the small opening of the training room’s door. ‘She’s near to snapping…’ was the only thing I could think of when I saw how she was desperately watching the video flashed on the TV. Her eyes were already screaming out for rest, and her body was packed with nothing but salonpas. She even had a gallon of water resting on her side (which was half-empty, by the way). It was a pitiful scene, really… And since I was a good girl, I decided to walk in and offered her some help.
“I can teach you the remaining two, if you want.” I immediately voiced out as soon as I entered the room and closed the door behind it. She jumped up from my sudden presence as a response before slowly turning her head towards me. I flashed her a smile by then. “If you want me to, that is.”
She blinked twice- no, thrice or more before frowning. “I… But… I’m not even sure if the producer is fine with the thought of having someone to teach me the choreography…” she replied with her brows furrowed to the middle- which, in my opinion, suited her. Just kidding…
“Hey, if you’re going to become a member soon after this, then we can excuse ourselves by saying it’s ‘teamwork’, right?” I simply gave her a shrug before lifting my thumb up at her. “Come on, the mighty Minegishi Minami’s offering you some help, after all. You better not say no.” With that said, I winked at her while putting on a wide, mischievous grin.
And at that very moment, I saw her smile for the first time.
As expected, teaching someone how to dance wasn’t easy, especially when at the same time, the two of you are throwing each other different mocking names. Both of us took it as a mere way to entertain ourselves out of boredom though. She even went as far as calling me a ‘Gachapin’ while I called her ‘Gigantic Stickzilla’. Even though the ‘nickname’ she gave me actually made sense since I looked like that cursed mascot, I gave her a more ridiculous and nonsensical one. Really, a Gigantic Stickzilla? Even I can’t imagine how it looks like.
We successfully finished our ‘training-and-insulting-each-other-at-the-same-time’ session before seven a.m. and believe it or not, she was able to memorize the remaining two choreographies and we even performed all twelve one last time to check if she really did memorized them perfectly. And indeed, it was flawless.
Two hours after our ‘training session’, the waitress went to perform all twelve songs without rest. And even though she didn’t close her eyes even for at least a second or two, she still danced perfectly- and filled with energy at that. She was asked to perform on the theater’s stage while I and the other members were forced into watching her along with our Producer. I hoped inwardly that no one knew I was actually teaching her…
But the huge black circle under by eye gave out a huge clue as she had one as well.
“Miichan, what happened to you ey-”
“I wanted to be a panda.” I cut Takamina off before she could even finish her question. She replied with a mere ‘Ahh’ before turning her attention to the female performing infront of her again.
I’m actually glad that she can be dense sometimes.
As promised, as soon as the waitress finished dancing and singing all twelve songs given to her, Aki-P announced to all of us that she passed and that she was now a member of AKB48 and finally, introduced her to all of us formally.
“Her name is Shinoda Mariko. As you all may know already, she was formerly working as the waitress in the café, but starting today, she will be working as an AKB48 member.” With his glasses covered with the light’s reflection as usual, Akimoto Yasushi proudly informed us as he gestured his hand towards the actually tall girl (which I just noticed) standing by his side.
The said girl, despite being covered with sweat and drowned in exhaustion, smiled at us whole-heartedly before bowing down slowly. “It’s a pleasure to meet all of you.”
The members, including me, bowed back in reponse.
After straightening ourselves up, she smiled once again- But this time, her attention was only locked onto one person… And that person was me…
I stared up at her, dumbfounded, before slowly shifting my eyes to the side.
“Stop staring at me, stupid Stickzilla.”
“Oh, I’m sorry; I just thought you turned into a panda, Gachapin.” She grinned.
That's it, I've decided... I hate her already. I frowned
Extra 2: A sad smile
It was on a nice yet rainy day when I found out how a close friend of mine- namely Oshima Yuko has been suffering all this time. Even though she had a smile on her face the whole time she told me her story, I could still feel how deep inside her, she wanted to cry. As I listened to her talk, the only thing I could do was stare on the table in front of me. I didn’t know what to say, nor did I have the words which I thought would cheer her up. But even with me still locked up in silence, she continued on talking.
“Why do you continue on doing this then, Yuko…? You’re suffering just by being at her side, right? So why…?” I muttered out quietly as I shifted my head up to her and looked at her with my brows slightly furrowed to the middle.
She gave me a sad smile with a sigh in response, “It’s because I love her. Even though it means that I will have to throw away my own happiness, then by all means, I am more than willing to give it up… There were times where I thought of telling her my feelings, you know… But then I thought… ‘Nyan-nyan has better things to worry about rather than my own selfishness’, that’s why, for her sake, I will not confess. For her sake, I will simply watch her from afar in silence… While quietly hoping to myself that someday, she will find her own happiness.”
I cast my eyes down once again.
It was too hard for me to believe. All of this; I couldn’t even understand how just half a minute ago- While the other Team K members were still sitting down by the dressing room with us- Yuko was laughing around ‘happily’.
“Aside from being an idol, I’m also an actress, after all. So that’s no surprise, yeah?” Was what she said earlier while still putting on her usual blinding grin, and indeed, she was a good actress. Not even our worry-wart of a Leader knew how she was actually about to break into tears. Not even her fellow midget Takamina found out her lies…
Not even Haruna knew how serious she actually was whenever she told her those three words I came to hate…
Not even me…
Topic: The most important person [TakaminaxAtsukoxMiichanxMariko etc] 24/09/2011 (Read 7870 times)