Part 13Two Days Later.
"So, then what?" Maki asked, chewing the end of her straw as she listened attentively.
"After he got out of the taxi, he ran all the way to the place where they were supposed to meet. But then, something happened." said Nacchi, her face full of dread, not wanting to say what happened next.
"What? What? Tell me!" Maki whined.
Nacchi started fanning her eyes of the tears that were beginning to form. "So she thought she got stood up but he was on his way to her. But before he got there he...he got hit by a car!"
"Oh, my god! What happened next? He didn't die, did he?"
Nacchi stopped tearing. "I don't know. I haven't seen the next episode yet."
Maki nearly fell out of her chair from the disappointing answer. "Argh, Abe-san. Don't tell me things like that. Now I'm dying to know what happened next."
"Ah, isn't he cool? So sweet and senstive." Nacchi sighed, thinking about the K-drama she had just gotten into recently. "I wish it was winter again, watching that snow makes me want to play in it back in Hokkaido. You should watch it with me next time, Gocchin. You too, Ayaya." She glanced at Aya who didn't even move a muscle. "Eh? Ayaya?"
Aya heard her but didn't listen. Her mind was off wandering again, like a balloon drifting far far away. She was tired and frustrated. Nothing has been going right lately and all her efforts to fix things were useless. What else could she do? Suddenly the string of her mind was being pulled down as she was snapped back to reality by the flailing of Nacchi's hands in front of her face. "Huh? Uh yea, cool." Aya agreed but didn't know what for.
Nacchi pouted, slightly annoyed from being ignored. "Ayaya, you've been really quiet for the last few days." She grew concerned. "What's wrong? You were like this since, since the day you went to check up on Miki. Is everything ok?"
"Or did something happened between you and this
person you are seeing?" Maki mumbled.
"Gocchin!" Nacchi hissed and nudged Maki.
"Oh no, everything's fine." Aya lied, chuckling nervously. She was surprised they haven't figured out what was going on by now, not that it was any of their business anyway. They definitely knew, however, that there was someone on her mind but they didn't know who. Aya hoped it stays that way. Just outside her peripheral vision, Yossi and Rika were passing through the lobby. She followed them with her eyes until they disappeared from her sight. Somewhere, a voice inside told her to follow them. At first she hesitated but eventually got up and disappeared down the hall in the same direction, leaving her fellow group mates behind again. She didn't know what came over her but her mind was scrambled with random thoughts now. She sped unusually fast in her high heeled boots until she finally caught up with the couple halfway down the hall.
"Yossi!" She squeaked.
Yossi and Rika stopped in their tracks and turned around. A surprised look came over Yossi's upon seeing that it was Aya who called her. "Ayaya? What's up?" She asked. Aya came at close proximity to them and stopped. Her face showed no sign of emotion but she was feeling furious inside right now. After a few awkward silences Yossi looked around and waited for her to say something. "Yes? Is there something you wanted to tell me?"
"Yes, I do." Aya answered and without warning she slapped Yossi across her face and with the same hand she used on Miki days before. She held back the pain that was gradually throbbing in her fragile hand as she ended their encounter with, "Happy Birthday!" and stormed off back down the hall, leaving Yossi and Rika completely dumbstrucked.
"Yossi? Why did she do that for?" Rika asked, examining Yossi's face.
Yossi rubbed her cheek from Aya's weak slap. She merely giggled. "Hey, Ayaya!" She called to her. "Tell Miki I said thanks for the early birthday present!" She smiled villainnously and Aya could sense it though she didn't look back. "Ayaya!" Yossi continued to call to her. "Ayaya!"
"Ayaya! Ayaya!" Nacchi yelled, shaking the girl by her shoulders. Aya shot up awake, huffing and gasping. Sweat dripped from her forehead and a look of fear came over her as she looked around. "Are you ok?" Nacchi asked, feeling Aya's forehead with her hand.
"Where am I?" Aya asked, feeling lost for a moment. She wiped the sweat off her forehead and sighed deeply.
A dream. She realized and dropped her head.
"You're in the lobby." Maki answered her. "You really creeped us out there, staring off like that. You didn't respond to us or anything. Then you fell asleep and started doing weird things." Maki then handed Aya her cellphone. "And your phone kept ringing so I answered it for you. Tsunku-san wants to see you in his office right now."
She looked up at Maki with wide eyes at what she just told her. "Really? Right now? For what?"
Maki shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know but it seemed important." Aya nodded her head as she collected herself and stood up. She glanced at her group mates who could give her nothing but blank looks on their faces. She then started down the hall.
What does Tsunku want from me? She thought though deep in her gut she knew what it was about. Suddenly she felt her stomach turn completely around when she saw Yossi heading in her direction. She tried not to panic.
"Ayaya!" Yossi greeted her warmly. "I didn't get to tell you the other day but I was wondering if you want to hang out with some of the girls to-" but Aya walked on without stopping or even looking at her, "-night?" Yossi ended. She turned around and watched Aya walk away. She scowled wondering why Aya ignored her like that but soon turned her frown into a little sneer.
*****
"Miki, how's your back?" A concerned Mari asked. She looked at Miki who was buried in her arms on the table which seemed inappropriate to do in the cafeteria. She's been doing that a lot, Mari noticed, wondering if the girl had been getting enough rest. With their busy schedule, futsal, and other things going on in Miki's life, Mari wondered if it was starting to take a toll on her. Even she herself had been feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of work they've been doing lately.
"It's getting better." Answered Miki's muffled voice, shifting herself in her chair to get more comfortable.
"Will you be ready for the upcoming performances?"
Miki lifted her head and looked at Mari with her tired eyes. She nodded her head. "Yes, of course. I'll be fine."
"Good, because I need you to work hard and encourage the others to do the same. I feel it's time we should step up as a group, especially with this new formation. As the next oldest member I trust that you will help me out sometimes."
Miki nodded her head again.
Yaguchi-san's acting a bit strange. She thought. She wondered if she was handling her new role well. Lately she noticed that Mari had been confiding in her, but Miki wasn't of much help. She felt a bit guilty though, feeling she should take some responsibility and help Mari and the group. Then again, that was what the sub-leader was for, and she wasn't the sub-leader. On top of that, she had her own problems to deal with.
"Have you seen Yossi?" Mari then asked her.
"Why?!" Miki barked, her head shot straight up. She calmed down and answered, "I mean, I haven't seen her." She giggled nervously but Mari didn't noticed her overreaction.
"It's ok, I'll find her later. She's always running off somewhere, it seems." Mari figured as she leaned her hand against her face. "How about Aya?"
"Why?!!" Miki barked again and calmed herself once more. "Sorry. I haven't seen her either." Mari nodded her head, saying she understood and went about her business.
Why does she want to know? Miki wondered. She watched Mari take out her cellphone and messed with it, trying to do something about the awkward silence that suddenly fell between them.
"So..how are you and Shun?" Miki finally broke the silence.
"Oh, we're great." Mari answered cheerfully, but somehow Miki wasn't convinced. She looked the way Miki had looked for awhile now, tired and bothered by something. Maybe she missed Shun, Miki thought. At least she had someone to go to after all the chaos of work. Sadly, Miki realized she'll never have the opportunity to do the same. She never thought silence could be so loud, it was driving her crazy. Miki wished something would happen to get her out of the situation. Then as if something was listening to her thoughts, her cellphone rang. It startled her but she was even more surprised to see that it was from Aya. She immediately cancelled the call and continued what she was doing, nothing. Her phone rang again and she cancelled it once more.
Stop it, already! she growled in her head. Finally, her phone beeped to indicate a text message was sent. Frustrated, Miki decided to read it.
Tsunku's office. Now. It read.
Surprised once again, Miki got up and said goodbye to Mari without explaining anything to her. At least now she had an excuse to leave all the silence back there. The halls were like an endless maze to her and somehow they seemed to stretch for miles into the unknown. At one point she got lost, in her mind and sense of direction. She had an idea why she was being called to Tsunku's office but she didn't know what was going to happen. She then spotted his office at the end of the hall and with each step the feeling of apprehension grew inside her. She finally reached her destination, hesitated a bit and finally knocked on the door.
"Come in." Answered the muffled voice behind the door. Miki entered and greeted Tsunku with a bow. She then saw Aya sitting in front of Tsunku's desk but didn't say anything to her. She sat in the chair next to Aya and avoided eye contact with her as well.
"Ladies, I'm sure you know why you're here?" Tsunku asked, glancing at both of them. They both knew why they were there but none of them said a word. "Very well." He sighed. He stretched out his hands and cracked his knuckles as if he was some gangster boss but he failed to look the part. "Now, I don't know how far it's gotten but I'm going to put a stop to this now. I can't have this going on in the company. You know very well what it says on your contracts or at least you should know. Not only does it apply to outside the company but also within. So I hope you do what's expected of you if you want things to go smoothly."
Aya and Miki just sat there frozen and quiet. They knew they did nothing wrong and even if it was, it was none of his business anyway. Miki spoke up out of the two. "Who are you to tell us how to live our lives?"
Tsunku raised an eyebrow. "I'm only doing what's best for you two. The life of an idol is a hard and sometimes harsh one. You think you can go on living normal lives with your statuses? It's impossible. "
Miki smirked, coughing up an attitude. "We are NOT together, if that's what you're thinking, Tsunku-san." She scoffed and glanced at Aya who did nothing but stare at the floor. She then returned her eyes to Tsunku. "But what about Yossi and Rika? Why haven't you stopped them? I don't it's right for us to be accused for something we didn't do while those two have been together for a long time, it seems."
"Ah, those two." Tsunku smirked. "Stubborn as ever. I warned them so many times but they don't listen. I told them there will be a consequence for their actions." He leaned forward and spoke in a low voice. "Why do you think I'm graduating Rika next month? She'll have Biyuuden and many photobook shootings while Yossi has futsal and subleading Morning Musume. They'll be so busy that they won't have time to see each other."
Miki mentally scoffed.
He thinks of everything, huh? She thought. Somehow she didn't think that was right, even if she did hate Yossi with a passion now. "That doesn't seem fair." She protested. "Our private lives shouldn't have anything to do with our work."
"Fair? It's for their own good. Like I've said, you are idols. Privacy is almost unheard of, so you must be careful what you do on your own time. It's better to do nothing rather than try to hide something that might be found out. But please, don't label me the bad guy here. I do have a reason for it." With that said, Tsunku opened his desk and took out a large envelope and plopped it on his desk. It was quite thick and full. He opened it and spilled the contents out on his desk. As Miki and Aya leaned in for a closer look they found out they were photos and not the professional kind taken by UFA.
"What is this?" Miki asked, grabbing a handful of pictures and flipping through them. They were pictures of other Hello Project members, some with guys and some with each other. They were taken by paparazzis who always seem to find some way to invade their personal lives. It seems no one was safe from their stealthiness. Many photos seemed a few years old. Tsunku must've been keeping up with this for a long time, Miki thought.
"All those photos together nearly cost me a third of my salary trying to prevent them from being published in those tabloid magazines." Tsunku said. "See? I'm only trying to protect you guys. I would never let anything happen to give a bad name to this company. I admit, I made the mistake of involving outside people in this current situation, but you know it would've been much more devastating if they found out something within the company. I cannot always watch over you guys every single time, so you must be vigilent of yourselves as well." He leaned back in his chair and sighed. "It would be nice if we could all live normal lives and still do our work. Even I wish I could sometimes, but that is just a distant dream now. This is the idol life, there are no normal lives. Now if you don't want this to happen you'll do what I say, right?"
Miki shook her head. She knew he was right but what could they do? "Like I said, we are NOT together, in fact, we're not even friends anymore so don't even worry about it." Miki declared. She then looked at Aya again. "And you. Why aren't you saying anything? Don't you have something to say about this?"
Aya just shook her head cowardly, on the verge of crying.
Miki scoffed at her. "Whatever." She sat back in her chair and thought long and hard. She thought about the last few years working in this company and all that had happened to her up until now. She figured it was about that time now. "Ok, Tsunku-san. I know what to do." She made her decision.
Tsunku listened and waited.
"I'll resign from Morning Musume, and Hello! Project even." She said without any hesitation.
"What?!" Aya finally spoke up. "What are you doing?"
"Fujimoto-san?" Tsunku was surprised as well. "Are you sure about this? Losing you would be as bad as losing Matsuura, or Goto even."
Gomattou? Miki thought.
Whatever happened to that? It was the start of everything, she remembered. She sucked in her teeth and sighed. "Whatever. I've made up my mind. Besides, I'm used to having things taken away from me anyway. I think I can handle one more." She looked at Aya who now returned her glance with a horrid look on her face.
"No, don't do it, Tsunku-san." Aya pleaded. "I...I'll quit."
Miki laughed at Aya's response. "Yea, right! You wouldn't do that. Didn't this whole mess started because you wanted to keep your job? And now you don't want it? Geez, can you ever make up your mind? You really don't know what you want, do you?" She turned back to Tsunku who thought long and hard.
"Really, Fujimoto. Think about what will happen if you do this." Miki shrugged her shoulders, she had nothing further to say. Tsunku sighed in frustration but didn't try to oppose any further. "Very well. If this is what we have to do to stop then I'm sorry it has to come down to this." He jotted down something on paper. "We'll make an official announcement in a few days then." He then slammed hand on his desk like a gavel. The judgement has been made. Miki got up and bowed to him as she exited his office. Aya still sat frozen in her chair trying to make sense of what just happened. She looked at Tsunku with her tear stained face but he could only stare blankly back at her. As he was about to say something to her she shot up from her chair and went after Miki in the hall.
"Miki!" She yelled. She stopped Miki midway in the hall but she didn't turn around. Aya ran up to her and faced her. "Why? Why did you do that?"
Miki's face was cold and unresponsive. "You don't have to worry anymore." She spoke solemnly. "You're free to do whatever you want. I won't bother you anymore."
"Miki you're being unreasonable. You didn't mean that, huh? You don't want to quit Morning Musume, do you?"
Miki's face tightened for she knew Aya had figured her out.
"Baka!" Aya yelled and shoved Miki. "Go back there and tell him you didn't mean it! You didn't mean to say that! And what do you mean we're not friends anymore? Why are you giving up like that? That's not like you at all."
"What is me then?" Miki asked. "What else is there for me? Everything I had is ruined. I might as well have nothing at all. Besides, I didn't hear you say anything back there. Maybe I wouldn't have said what I've said. I'm not taking it back though. After all that, how can we go back to how things were? How can we go back to normal? I can't. My thoughts of you are different now. I just can't stay here and work here knowing that you're around. I can't deal with that." She started to walk away but Aya stopped her.
"Miki, don't." She pleaded, wrapping her arms around Miki.
"You know," Miki choked up on her words. "I wanted to be the first to say 'I love you.' But I guess I couldn't do that either. So please, just let me go."
"Miki-" Aya whispered through her tears, holding on to her tighter.
"Goodbye and good luck, Matsuura-san." Miki said, looking straight into Aya's eyes. She brushed away Aya's arms off of her and walked on. She stood straight and tall, like a soldier marching onward, retaining the dignity she had left in her. But as she turned the corner of the hall she broke down and ran away.
Aya could hear Miki's running footsteps until it faded away and she was alone with the silence. She fell to her knees, completely overwhelmed by what just happened. She didn't want to believe it so she closed her eyes tightly.
This is a dream. She thought, but when she opened her eyes again the scenery hadn't changed. She was still at the studio, sitting in the middle of the hallway outside of Tsunku's office. Aya hung her head. "No." She dreaded and started crying all over again. She's gone, Aya realized. She'll never see her again.
"Aya-chan? What's wrong?" Mari had spotted her, heading in her direction. Aya stood up and wiped her eyes. She shook her head as if to say that nothing was wrong when it was clearly obvious that something was.
"Something happened?" Mari asked.
"Yaguchi-san, help me!" Aya cried. She slid back down to the floor and cried once again. The short Morning Musume leader bent down and held her. "I don't want to lose her, Yaguchi-san. I don't want to lose her."
Her? Mari thought. She must be talking about Miki. "It's ok. That's just Miki being Miki." She consoled her.
"No, it's not ok! She's gone!" Aya bawled.
"Gone? What are you talking about?"
"She quit. She's gone. I've ruined everything!"
Mari held Aya's face and spoke down at her. "It's going to be all right, ok? Look at me. It'll be ok. Ok?" She then shot a look at Aya as if she was trying to tell her something more with her eyes. Aya eyes widened as if she understood what was being said. She shook her head in response.
"No!" Aya broke away from Mari's arms and ran the opposite way down the hall. Mari called to her but she was gone. She stood up and brushed herself off and looked around. Now she was alone. She looked at both ends of the hall. She knew of Miki and Aya's situation for some time now and this time it had escalated into something greater, she suspected. She looked ahead of her now and was faced with the door to Tsunku's office.
Maybe he'll have an answer. Mari thought as she went up to it and knocked on the door.
"Come in." She heard Tsunku's voice. She opened the door and entered, giving him a surprise. "Yaguchi-san? How may I help you?"
------------
I'm not helping you guys at all with this suspense huh?
Mikan - You'll see
KrazyForKamei - hehe I didn't want to give it away but you were kinda close about Aya getting back at Yossi. Unfortunately it was just in her dreams
rndmnwierd - you got it backwards again! it's
°e 
Topic: Milestone: A Reluctant Idol (complete) (Read 27904 times)