^ About this... just quote myself...
Hello everybody!
Here's the preface of my new (horrible) fic 
TakAcchan of course...
...
Well, love isn't here for now, but it will.
ANYWAYS... My math exam went really well today, so I decided to post my new chapter tonight because I wanted to share my happiness
Even though this chapter isn't really about happiness, but yeeeeaaaahhhh.....
THANKS FOR YOUR COMMENTS!!!!! I AM HAPPY YEAH!
Got me out of lurking the second time. Let's see if you can get me to come back with a third comment. 
Is it a challenge?
So… Speaking of Hiroko and Takamina ages... I edited because I thought it would be strange xD So there's 3 years of difference between them. I don't know if it's credible, but in my fic, ANYTHING can happen >_>
I also want to say: I have a lot of work until the end of... well... February
Because I have to create a magazine about Japan for school (ya know, texts, pictures, page layout, etc), so I may take more time to update, sorry about that.
Okay.... so where were we? Oh yeah, Hiroko was Takamina's friend!! O_O
Oh yeah, lot of Flash Back in this chapter, but I thought it would be better than just description.
Sorry for the mistakes!
Chapter 7
Flash BackShe was young. She was seven years old. She just moved to Tokyo. It had been a week only. She didn’t know anything about this big city and was a bit afraid of it. She was scared of the big cars. She was scared that all those big buildings in the city might crash and fall on their little house. Her mother was in the kitchen, but she was playing outside. There was a little, mini, park near. Her mother trusted her enough to play outside alone. After all, it was Japan, a country where almost nothing could happen to a child in the middle of the afternoon. Also, she was really a good child and she knew she couldn’t go somewhere else. She knew she must not talk to a stranger. She was happy, even though she wished she had stayed at her home town.
She was playing with a small plastic ball. It was sunny. She was smiling because she knew she didn’t have to go to school for a while. And the sky was so beautiful… Not a single cloud in it. She was running after her little ball, jumping around and having fun when she heard a voice calling her.
“Hello!” The unknown person said.
The little girl slowly turned around, holding her ball so who ever the person was, she would understand it was hers. It was a girl, standing by her side, smiling. She was a little older, not too much though… She looked nice, but the little child knew her mother didn’t want her to talk to somebody she didn’t know. So she didn’t answer anything and shyly smiled.
“Can I play with you?” The unknown asked. “My mother is busy so I don’t want to be alone.”
She was wearing a cute dress and was obviously trying to be nice. The young child knew her mother didn’t want… But… She didn’t like being alone too. Nevertheless, she didn’t want her mother to be angry at her. She wanted to have a dessert today, and she knew if she didn’t listen to her mother, she wouldn’t have a piece of the delicious strawberry cake.
“Mommy doesn’t want me to talk to you.” She shyly said.
The unknown girl smiled as she said:
“But you are talking to me now.”
“I’m not.” The little girl pouted.
The unknown smiled even more as she said:
“You know you’re cute when you’re making this face?”
The little girl didn’t pay attention to her and continued to play with her ball.
“I won’t tell your mother, it will be our secret.” The unknown girl told her.
“Okay… But the ball is mine.” The child said with a little voice as she protected her pink and red plastic ball with her tiny hands.
“It’s alright, how old are you?”
“I’m seven!” The child proudly said.
“I’m ten.” The older answered. “We only have three years of difference.”
“Seven is better than ten!” The child repeated, pretending it was more than ten.
“Of course! You are such a big child now! Can I see you ball?”
The child didn’t want her to touch HER ball. It was a gift she had had from her friend before she had left her home town. She didn’t want to break it or loose it.
“But…” The little child hesitantly said.
She was shy and even though she wanted to have a friend here, she was afraid of the people from the cities. But she finally gave her the ball, even though she was staring at every move the unknown girl was doing.
“Do you want to play together?” The older girl asked.
The child nodded, smiling. She was glad, maybe she would finally have a new friend! And she could tell her mother… No, she would wait to tell her mother because she wanted to have cake for dessert.
“Hey, what is your name?” The unknown asked her after a moment.
“Tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine!” The child smiled.
The other girl couldn’t resist to so much cuteness and answered with a gentle voice:
“I’m Hiroko Sato.”
The young child seemed to try to remember the name for a minute.
“Hiro… ko… Sato?”
The child saw Hiroko nodded as she happily answered to her new friend:
“I’m Takahashi Minami!”
End of Flash BackEverything…
Everything her manager had done to her before disappeared from her mind. Even her pain seemed to leave. It was… just… out of her mind. In fact, the only thing she was thinking about was the last sentence she had just heard. She suddenly remembered the great times she had shared with Takamina, her graduation, the meeting with her new manager, the pain she had felt after the punch, the conversation… And the revelation her manager had said to her. She almost had a heart attack when she heard herself asking:
“Fr… Friends?”
Hiroko suddenly seemed to realize what they were talking about.
“Yes,” she said, coming back to her glacial voice, “but I bet she didn’t tell you that.”
She didn’t even wait for Acchan’s answer as she kept talking with an angry voice.
“And I’m sure the only thing she told you about me was about the sad past I had, right? She must have told you everything about my mother and my life, right? But probably not a word about the relationship we had together, right?”
Somehow, Acchan thought Hiroko seemed both sad and angry. And she wasn’t sure if she really wanted to know the truth about it. Her manager and Takamina… friends?! How could the person she hated the most right now and her best friend forever and ever be friends?! It was the last thing she thought that would have happened.
“You probably know my life now… and the life of my mother too, don’t you?”
As Acchan stared at her manager, she really thought she only seemed to be… mad. Well, she had no choice but to accept it. Her manager must not like to talk about her mother, especially in this kind of situation. Acchan hated it when people suddenly changed their comportment with her when they learned about her being the popular Maeda Atsuko. She could understand Hiroko’s reaction. Maybe she was afraid she would never talk to her the same way… Maybe her manager thought she was going to pity her and be nice… Well, she wouldn’t, but it was sure Acchan would never look at her the same way now that she knew about her past. But Acchan knew how Hiroko was. She knew the last thing her manager wanted was pity.
“Don’t look at me with those eyes! It looked like you’re sad about what happened to me!”
The cold and dark Hiroko was back. The one Acchan feared. The one that probably hid the real heart-broken woman behind this fake personality. Acchan could understand this reaction… And she felt that for the first time, Hiroko was just a child trying to hide her pain… But it didn’t help her to know more about what really interested her: Takamina.
“She told me about you… because I asked her to.”
“Did you tell her about what I did to you?” She asked with a frightening voice.
It freaked Acchan to see how fast Hiroko’s question was.
“N… no, of course.” She stammered. “She told me that she had heard about you… So I asked her about that.”
Hiroko was not really happy to learn it. She had thought she could FINALLY have a “normal” relationship with someone who didn’t know about her past… She thought she could finally talk to someone without caring about what the person thought about her… But it seemed that everything was over now. She knew even if Acchan pretended she wouldn’t, the idol would never act as before with her. It was always the same… As soon as her friends or acquaintances knew about her past… their comportments changed too. She hated it. She hated being the sad little girl everyone had to care about. That was why she was so rude now. She wanted to show Acchan she wasn’t weak. She was strong.
“She told you everything, I guess…” She whispered to herself.
She really hated it. She thought she would have a more normal life after her mother’s death. She thought that maybe now people would stop seeing her always as “Sayuri’s daughter”… They didn’t even call her by her name! It was always “Sayuri’s daughter”! She thought she could have a normal life after this tragedy… But the way it happened had messed everything. Now, it wasn’t only “Sayuri’s daughter”… No, now it was something like “The-child-of-Sayuri-that-you-have-to-take-care-about-because-she-is-sad-about-her-mother”. Or even better: “the child of the celebrity who died in tragic circumstances”. How could she love those nicknames? Nobody would.
“What did you mean by “friends”?” Acchan asked, trying to stay as calm as possible.
Hiroko sighed impatiently as she answered:
“Well, what do you think? Friends… You know, like you and she are right now!”
Acchan didn’t really like the comparison. She and Takamina had a… special relationship. They were friends, but at the same time, they were more than just friends. And once she had lov-… liked her very much! And… she knew she still had this feeling, sleeping somewhere deep in her heart. Each time she saw Takamina, she still had this warm feeling in her heart… So yeah, she really hated this comparison. She didn’t know what Hiroko was thinking when she said that, but it was definitely the worst comparison she had ever heard. Like if she was reading in Acchan’s mind, Hiroko frowned and said:
“How can you be so stupid? Not like this! We were friends like normal persons would be, unlike you.”
Acchan frowned at Hikoro’s last words. “Unlike you”? What did she mean by this?! That she wasn’t normal?!
“Don’t you think I haven’t seen how you looked when you thought about that girl?” Her manager said with a “it’s so obvious” look. “Hello? Welcome to earth Acchan! Seriously, you really had to like the only girl in the world that would be blind enough to not see you’re in love with her!”
Acchan blushed as she listened to her manager. She wasn’t…
“And to answer your silent question, we were friends. Only friends. But we were as close to each other as sisters would be.”
Hiroko tried her best to keep her mad expression, but failed. In fact, she looked frustrated, but sad too.
“What happened that made you so frustrated about her?” Acchan asked.
“The same thing that will happen to you if you stay with her.” She answered with a cold voice. “Once something new will happen to boost her career, she will cruelly leave you.”
Acchan didn’t understand well. Was Hiroko mad because of something so… stupid? She felt she was in some teenager movies where the ex best friends of the main character was trying to take revenge for something that had happened years ago. This was just stupid. And did Hiroko really want her to leave Takamina because of this?! Acchan was totally lost… and against it.
“I don’t think so.” Acchan said.
“What?”
“She’s not like this anymore.” She answered, thinking that Takamina would never do something like that. “The fact that something bad happened to you doesn’t mean it will happen to me. Plus, you wouldn’t have hit me if it was the only reason.”
Hiroko froze as she heard Acchan talking about the punch.
“Don’t think about it anymore. Past belongs to past.” Her manager said.
Acchan’s fear disappeared.
“Well, if past belongs to past, stop thinking Takamina is cruel and heartless!”
“She is.”
Acchan didn’t move. The way she had said those two words was just… just…
“But you’re right to think I’m worried about you because of my mother. It may be selfish, but I know I’m doing the right thing.”
Acchan wanted to scream that, no, it wasn’t the right thing at all! Stealing her cell phone, hitting her, saying those horrible things to her… It wasn’t a good way to tell someone that you were worried about her!
“Stop talking this way about Takamina.” Acchan said with a painful voice.
She didn’t like this situation at all. She felt useless to defend her friend. She still wasn’t sure if she really wanted to know about it. The only thing she was sure about was that Takamina would never hurt a friend without a great reason. It must had been misunderstand… But what was so horrible to make Hiroko hated her friend so much?
“What do you know about her?”
Acchan frowned.
“Why do you ask me this question?”
Hiroko looked sadly at her.
“Because, dear Acchan, I’m sure you don’t know her as much as I do.”
Acchan wanted to argue, but she didn’t know what to say. What could she answer to this question? She didn’t even know anything about Hiroko and Takamina friendship.
“I know her since she’s seven.” Hiroko told her. “I supported her when her father died. I protected her when she was victim of ijime (bullying). I helped her practicing for the auditions of AKB48.”
Acchan froze. Takamina had been a victim of ijime? When? She never knew about it! Sure, she knew about her father being dead, but she never learned anything more about it. Takamina never talked about those things.
“As you probably begin to understand, I know her from our personal life.” Hiroko said. “We used to talk about anything. We used to help each other anytime anywhere. Unlike you, we didn’t only talk about AKB48 or anything related to work. We were normal friends. We were having normal conversations.”
The idol froze as she realized how right her manager was. It was true… Most of the time, she had seen Takamina because of her work. If not, they saw each other for fun… but they always ended up talking about AKB48. Now that she wasn’t on the group anymore, they could talk about something else… but they never got the chance to be together. What did she know about Takamina’s personal life? They never talked about it…
“Really, as your manager, I’m not even supposed to talk about it with you. We’re supposed to be only co-workers! If it wasn’t because of her, everything would be fine!”
“Ijime?” Acchan whispered, still thinking about this.
“Well,” Hiroko said with an ironic voice, “that’s what we call being late in the news. Didn’t you know about it?”
Hiroko seemed to have forgotten about her “I don’t want to talk about it”. Now, it seemed that all she wanted to do was to talk about Takamina… Like she really needed to release all those feelings that were stuck during so long time in her heart.
“Seems that you really don’t know about it…” Hiroko said as she saw the way Acchan looked. “What were your conversations about?! I and she were friends for about seven years… And during almost four years, she had been victim of ijime! It’s a big part of her life. How could you not know about it?! And you still call yourself her friend? You’re even more idiot than I thought you would be. Didn’t I tell you to leave her? See, now you want to know everything about her… And it will hurt you to know about it since Takahashi never tell you herself about it.”
What Hiroko didn’t say to Acchan was that, even if she talked to her this way, she felt guilty. Another reason why she had wanted Acchan to leave Takamina was because she knew something like that was going to happen. And each time she saw Acchan, it remembered her mother… They looked so similar… It was the reason why Hiroko had wanted to work with her at first. Then, she had discovered that Acchan was a pretty nice girl… until she knew how close she was with Takamina. Of course, she had heard about it, but she never thought it could be so close to reality! Takamina was even closer to Acchan than she had been with her when they were children.
“I don’t want to know…” Acchan whispered.
She wanted to ask Takamina instead. If her friend hadn’t told her about it, there must have a good reason, right? But Hiroko was cruel. She knew Acchan didn’t know a damn thing about it… She wanted her to know. She wanted Acchan to realize that she didn’t know Takamina like her, Hiroko, did. She wanted Acchan to realize their friendship wasn’t the way she thought it was.
So maybe if the same thing happened… Maybe if one day Takamina called Acchan while she was working… Maybe Acchan would not help her… Even if the way of doing it was heartless, Hiroko just wanted to protect Acchan from what had happened to her mother, years ago.
“I found out about it when I came back from school… At the beginning, I thought she was a child like… you know… normal. And then, after only one week, I discovered that she was really more mature than any other child I knew. She almost thought like an adult. We knew each other for about two months only, but we were already close to each other. Takahashi didn’t know anybody except me…”
Flash BackTakahashi was trying to hold her tears as she was walking home alone. It had been a month since she had begun to go to school to Tokyo. At the beginning, everything was fine. Other children were talking to her and wanted to know about her. And then, without reason, they had begun to avoid her. Without reason… well… not really. In fact, they said she was coming from another country then Tokyo so she couldn’t play with them. So the little seven year old girl was always playing by her side. She was also mature for her young age, which probably didn’t help her. They had begun to say she wasn’t welcome here… That she should go back to her home town… That everybody hated her. She never thought people could be so cruel with somebody.
“Hello!” A happily voice said behind her.
“Hiroko?” Takahashi asked as she turned around.
Hiroko was older than her and was already going to college next year. But the two girls were best friends. After their first meeting, they had played a bit together… before seeing each other practically everyday.
“Are you alright?” Hiroko asked nicely to her young friend.
Takahashi slowly nodded
“Really? You don’t seem to.”
Takahashi wasn’t especially shy with Hiroko since they were great friends… But she knew she was younger than Hiroko so she didn’t want to look weak when she was with her. She wanted to look as strong as Hiroko. In fact, she was afraid her only friend may leave her alone too so… she NEEDED to look stronger.
“I’m alright.” Takahashi answered with a little voice.
Somehow, she wanted Hiroko to understand she wasn’t. It was always like this. She always said something she didn’t think, and hoped the person would understand it was false. Luckily for her, Hiroko was that kind of person. She was also taller than Takahashi. So she squatted down and looked at the little girl in the eyes while she said:
“You aren’t.”
Takahashi began to sob. Even though she wanted to look strong, she just couldn’t. Her day had been horrible. The other children weren’t nice with her at all. She wasn’t as strong as she wanted to be. If she were a guy, she could totally kill them. Well, maybe not kill them, but take revenge.
“Takamina, look at me please.” Hiroko asked.
Takahashi raised her head.
“Takamina?” The child asked. “What is that?”
“It’s cute, isn’t it? It’s a nickname I created for you! So use it whenever you want!”
“A nickname?”
“Because we’re close friends, I didn’t want to call you “Takahashi” or “Minami”… Since you’re special, I wanted a special nickname too!”
Takahashi Minami looked at her while her eyes began to shine. A nickname! She had a nickname! Now, she wasn’t only Takahashi Minami, she was also Takamina! She was so glad… It meant someone really cared about her.
“Thank… you…” Takamina said. “Do you want me to find one for you?”
“Don’t’ worry about it, tell me what’s wrong.”
Takamina felt so good with Hiroko. She was like the sister she never had.
“I’m... ictim…me.”
“What?” Hiroko asked. “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand.”
At the same time, a group of children from Takamina’s class passed near them. A little girl pointed Takamina and said something as the others began to laugh. It didn’t seem to be nice. As they walked farther, Hiroko frowned and asked gently:
“Tell onee-chan what’s going on.”
“Ijime…” Takamina managed to say with a guilty voice, like if everything was her own fault.
Takamina closed her eyes, expecting Hiroko would stop being her friend… but she suddenly felt Hiroko’s arms around her shoulders. She hugged her while she said:
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it. If you ever want to talk to someone about this, come to see me.”
Since this moment, Takamina had being supported by Hiroko a lot. She was still sad at school, but when she came back, she was smiling, because she knew her friend would be there, waiting for her. She was talking about it to Hiroko, crying a little, hoping things would get better. One day, it went farther as a boy hit her. But then again, Hiroko had protected her as her onee-chan. Seeing Hiroko cared so much for her made Takamina cry even more.
“I promise… when I’ll be older, I’ll be stronger and it will be my turn to protect you.” She once said to Hiroko.
From this day, Takamina had always wanted to be stronger… But she had no idea about what was going to happen…
End of Flash BackAcchan stared at the woman in front of her. Was Hiroko really talking about herself? All Acchan could see when she saw Hiroko was a cruel woman who had hit her… And now the same woman was telling her she had helped Takamina when she was young?! She felt like she was dreaming.
“And what was going to happen?” Acchan asked, sceptic.
The actress/idol had doubts about it. Really… Takamina being harassed? It was hard to believe… Acchan knew Takamina as the boyish from AKB48. The one so strong and so nice and cool, sometimes sweet and… yeah. Were they talking about the same Takamina?! And how come she didn’t know a thing about it?
“Well…”
Acchan didn’t want her manager to stop, even if she knew she should ask Takamina instead… But she also knew Takamina must have had a great reason to hide it from her.
“I need to go somewhere…” Hiroko suddenly remembered. “I told my grandmother that I would visit her today… She’s at the hospital…”
Acchan didn’t have the intention of ending the conversation now.
“Tell me about it!” She said.
Hiroko looked at her.
“I really have to leave now, but if you want, we can talk in the car. I’ll leave you at Shibuya.”
Acchan was glad to hear it. She had to meet Takamina in Shibuya later. It was almost twenty minutes from here. And for the first time, she though she could trust her manager to do what she said. They went in Hiroko’s car as she started to tell Acchan what had happened.
Flash BackHiroko and Takamina were friends since almost one year. Hiroko spent most of the time with her since her mother was never with her. Takamina was her only way to stop thinking about her mother’s popularity. Sadly, Takamina was still victim of ijime at her school. Her mom had tried to talk about it to the director, but he hadn’t believed her. He had said they were just little kids playing around, which was a lie. But Takamina had Hiroko. The pain she felt at school was replaced by happiness when she came back home. Hiroko was always there, waiting for her. She helped her to be happy. She showed Takamina that she could still survive even with those problems.
One day, after school, Takamina had come back from school, a few students from her class following her. She didn’t know about them. She had come back and her mother had told her a horrible new… It didn’t take a long time for the others students to understand what had happened. Takamina’s father was gone.
As perfect children they were, they had listened a lot to their parents. They were saying that a family needed a man to help his family. They were saying that, if the husband died, the family would be useless to society… Like when a man lost his job. So unfortunately, they children thought the same too. The week after they had learned about Takamina’s father being dead, they had insulted the poor girl like never before, saying she and her mother were useless. But they could also say things more horrible like…
“They told me my father died because he didn’t want to be with me anymore.” Takamina cried as she was telling everything to Hiroko.
Hiroko did her best to console her friend, but it seemed useless. What the others children had told Takamina was even worst than before.
“They… They told me everything was my fault… They told me… Because of that… mom will hate me!”
“Those damn kids!” Hiroko thought as she was saying sweet words to the little girl.
Takamina was crying with all her might, asking herself what she had done to receive those words. She even blamed herself for her father’s death.
“They told me I would die because of that!”
Hiroko froze. There was a limit about it. Really, they were heartless! They were… WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH THOSE KIDS?!?
“Takamina? Takamina, look at me.” She said with a soft voice. “You are strong. You will not die because of this. Your father still lives in you. Do you think you’re useless? You’re everything to me! You’ll always be!”
“If only I could kill them…” Takamina whispered to herself. “Maybe my father would come back to life then!”
“No,” Hiroko gently said as she took Takamina’s hand, “don’t think about such horrible things. You don’t need to kill them. You father will not come back… I’m sorry, but this is the truth. It hurts, but you have to accept it.”
Takamina looked at her with tears in her eyes as she whispered:
“I know it… I know everything… He’s gone now… Forever.”
Hiroko was surprised to see how Takamina seemed to understand everything at such a young age. She was surprised to see her friend wasn’t avoiding the truth. She was surprised to see how strong Takamina was.
“Sometimes… You talk to me with a strong voice. Sometimes you looked like you’re capable to move Mt Fuji. Why don’t you act like this at school? They will see you’re strong.” Hiroko said.
It was true. After a year of friendship, Hiroko knew Takamina wasn’t the girl who would wear a cute little dress anymore. Even though she was crying about ijime, she knew Takamina was already a little boyish… Maybe it was precisely related to what she endured.
“I’ll wait before.” Takamina answered with determination in her eyes. “I’ll wait until I become stronger. Then, I’ll be able to protect myself forever.”
“I’ll leave it to you then!” Hiroko smiled. “I know you can do it.”
Takamina looked at her with fierce in her eyes… before she began to cry again. Hiroko patted her shoulder as she said:
“Come on, let’s go eat ice cream together.”
They ate their ice creams silently before Takamina turned to Hiroko and said, smiling slightly:
“Thank you…”
“Everything will be fine.” Hiroko just said.
End of Flash Back“So that’s what happened…” Acchan thought.
“She’s been sad for a long time about it. When she finally stopped being insulted about that, it was almost the end of the year. After that, she would go to college. She was even more afraid about it, but she never showed it, even to me. I think she really wanted me to think she was stronger.”
Acchan smiled. It was typical of Takamina. Even if they were best friends, she and Takamina would never really talk a lot about sad things. They would support each other silently. But even so, she wondered why Takamina had not told anything about it to her.
“Everything went fine after. She developed a strong personality, so the next year, when she arrived to college, she was not victim of ijime anymore.”
Acchan smiled. College… She still couldn’t believe she had never talked to Takamina even if they were in the same class. Maybe it was because… she thought Takamina was too boyish to be her friend… she had been so stupid to think that. Hiroko stopped a little, like she was thinking of something nostalgic. Then she said:
“Everything was fine. She couldn’t be happier than that. Everyday we spent together was fun. And at school, she had friends she could talk to. Her new personality helped her to protect herself when someone was bad with her, but the most important was that… ijime had stopped. So I think it was during college that she gained self confidence. It was nice to her coming back with that huge smile on her face.”
She took a deep breathe before she said:
“And then, I’ve helped her practicing for AKB48. She didn’t trust herself to do it at all. She kept saying she was never going to be accepted. See? Even if she had a strong personality, she was still telling me what her fears were. We practiced together. I didn’t want to be part of an idol group, so all I could do was to support her. She had asked me if I wanted to do it with her, but I didn’t. My mother was already popular enough like that, I didn’t need more.”
Acchan felt relieve. If ever Hiroko had been in AKB48 too… Well she would probably not be friend with Takamina now.
“She was accepted.” Hiroko added a few seconds later. “To her, it was the opportunity to become even stronger. It was an opportunity to say to those who had insulted her that she was able to be someone. She wanted everyone to see how far she could go. She kept saying that she was going in AKB48 because she wanted to be stronger. But when we were alone, she changed that fact. She told me she wanted to become a singer, so she would be able to touch the heart of everyone. And she liked to sing a lot. She was always singing when we were together. She said she wanted her dream to become true. She also told me she would not have time to talk to me a lot, but it didn’t matter, I was glad for her.”
“She was fourteen and I was seventeen when she began to work as an idol. It was something new for her. A new chance for her career, so of course, we didn’t have so much time together as we used to. I missed her, but we still called each other… You know, like you’re doing now with her.”
Acchan didn’t say anything. Hiroko was right, it seemed a lot like their current relationship.
“One day, after about three months, I was so tired of it that I tried to see her after work. It’s been a month since I’ve heard nothing about her, so I was a little worried, you know? I called her before I came and she said it was alright. I thought it would be the perfect time to tell her I missed sharing times with her and that I didn’t want her to forget about me because of AKB48. I knew how much it was important to her but… after seven years of friendship and a month of nothing, it was normal that I missed her.”
Somehow, Acchan could understand how Hiroko must have felt… Probably similar to what she had felt the last month.
“So we met. She said she had free time to be with me a little so I was hoping we could at least eat together. But as soon as I told her I missed her, she pretended to have something to do relating to work and left.”
Acchan flinched. It couldn’t be true. Takamina wasn’t the kind of girl that would do something like this! Takamina would never do that… If it was that, then Takamina would have left Acchan too. So it couldn’t be because of that…
“And then… After half a year… she stopped talking to me right at the moment I needed her the most.”
Acchan immediately knew what was coming after. She remembered Takamina’s words from their latest conversation.
“She was busy with her work, I can understand that… But it doesn’t mean she had to leave me, right?!”
Hiroko’s voice sounded angry. Acchan was a bit anxious because she knew Hiroko had to stay calm… She was driving after all…
“Just because it was important for her future career… After all I’ve done for her… I supported her all the time, and the only moment when I needed her, she wasn’t here! Just because of this new opportunity! Do you understand that, Acchan? She will leave you as soon as something new will happen. She will focus on her dream, not on you. As important you may think you are to her, you’ll become nothing in front of her dream.”
Acchan wasn’t sure to understand everything.
“You asked her to come when… your mother died?” She slowly asked.
Hiroko turned her head and looked at her in the eyes as she said:
“Yes. I asked her, I implored her to help me. I wanted her to support me like I did with her when she was young, but she never answered anything.”
Hiroko’s eyes seemed lost in the past as she said:
“She just disappeared from my life.”
Acchan wanted to say something. It couldn’t be true! She knew Takamina, she would never do that to somebody! She would never work when a friend needed so much help! And Takamina had talked about it to Acchan. She was sad about it too! How come she had left Hiroko alone? And she was confused… She wasn’t sure if she still had to be angry at Hiroko for having done such horrible things to her after hearing about the story behind it.
“Why did Takamina-”
“Who cares? She just did it.”
Hiroko’s voice was glacial. If she felt pain, she hid it perfectly.
“I don’t think-”
Acchan suddenly stopped talking as she turned to Hiroko and screamed:
“What are you doing?! Stop looking at me or the car will-”
She didn’t have the chance to finish her phrase and she heard a loud sound coming from Hiroko’s side. A second later, the car was heading towards a tree.
Acchan had not even the chance to ask for help, everything went dark.
***
“Where is she?” Takamina thought as she looked at her cell phone.
It was 3:20 pm and Takamina was waiting for Acchan to come. They had to meet at three o’clock. Acchan was late.
Takamina had spent the day to think about what Mariko had told her this morning. She was hoping seeing Acchan would help her to forget a little about it, but she wasn’t here. She hated thinking that Miichan may be right about her being “not herself”. But she had to meet with some members in two days to talk about something important related to the group. According to the mail Sayaka had sent her before, it was about a new movie or something like that. It would be the perfect opportunity to tell them she was normal.
But now, she was waiting for Acchan to come. Where was she?! She had tried to call her, but she didn’t get any answer. Well, she could understand Acchan was late. It was her first day off, she must have slept until midday. And knowing Acchan, she must have taken it easy.
Takamina smiled at that thought. When Acchan was in AKB48, she was always the first to sleep like a baby. It was really cute to see. And Takamina was always the one who had to wake her the morning. In fact, Acchan never listened to anybody except Takamina, which the others members found really funny. When someone else tried to wake her, she said she wanted Takamina to wake her. It was cute. So Takamina was always the one who had to say “Wake up Acchan~!”… But she was also the one who had to receive a pillow from Acchan when it was five o’clock in the morning.
Thinking about it made Takamina sad. Those were the best times… They were gone now… She shook her head as she thought:
“Come on Takamina, don’t think about something so sad when you’ll see Acchan!”
She looked around, trying to see her. Where was she? She was about to call her again… Seeing that Acchan was so late kinda worried her. Usually, Acchan would only be late for about ten minutes maximum, but this time, she was late for almost thirty minutes! She stared at the little ribbon she had received from her friend. She really liked it. She felt Acchan was with her all the time… except now because she was late. She began to walk around to see if she wasn’t somewhere else when her cell phone rang. Thinking it was Acchan, she answered:
“Where are you?”
It surprised her to hear Miichan’s voice.
“What are you talking about? I’m the one supposed to ask you about it!”
“What do you mean?” Takamina asked, wondering if she had missed a meeting with the group.
“Where are you?” Miichan asked impatiently.
“Shibuya…” Takamina hesitantly said.
“Don’t tell me you’re waiting for Acchan to meet you there?” Miichan’s anxious voice answered.
“Well… Yeah… Why? Do we have something today?”
“Oh. No, we don’t. It just surprised me that you were waiting for her… I mean… After what happened...”
Takamina thought that Miichan’s voice sounded suddenly… horribly quiet.
“What do you mean?” She asked.
“Don’t you hear about it? I thought you’d be the one to learn about it. It’s already on everyone’s blog.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about, but I’ll have to leave you soon.” Takamina said.
There was a frightening silence.
“Hello?” Takamina asked.
Silence remained. When Takamina was about to hang up, she heard Miichan talking to someone. She didn’t understand what she said though.
“Hello?” She repeated.
“Takamina?” Mariko’s voice asked.
“Mariko-sama?” Takamina asked surprised.
She did not expect Mariko to be there too. She didn’t want to hear about her saying she had being stupid to spend time with Acchan while they had worked. She had heard enough about it. But Mariko’s voice sounded soft… Maybe sad too.
“Takamina...” Mariko said with a soft voice. “I… Um… You know… I think you should stop waiting now. Acchan won’t come today.
There was a moment of silence before the older member of AKB said:
“She… has an accident.”
Takamina’s eyes stared at the mini ribbon for a second… and she froze as she heard the sound of an ambulance, somewhere far away in Tokyo.
TBCENDNOTE1: Ijime is Japanese bullying that many people decide to support in silence instead of talking about it because they're afraid of others' reactions. This situation is hidden most of the time.
ENDNOTE2: Even if I said that I would kill everyone if things went worst in FoF's fic, this chapter was written before, so it has nothing to do with it
Just in case you would ask >_<
ENDNOTE3: You guys still don't know everything about Hiroko... And I'm sorry for making such a sad past to Takamina, but as I told you before, anything can happen in this story O_o
ENDNOTE4: Does somebody here speak French? T_T Just asking.
Topic: Pink Vitriol (AtsuMina - COMPLETED) + Sequel - CHAPTER 4 (3/10/2012) (Read 105003 times)