"You'll be introducing Uzuki at the winter concert if your unit gets enough votes from the audience."
Kasumi's father Takehito crosses his arms as he leans on to his chair.
Yamato and Uzuki who still have no idea on what this was about had serious looks on their faces, meanwhile Kasumi who already knows about this just puts a blank expression on her face when Takehito announced this to the three of them.
'I won't be performing with them on the debut concert...?
What's going on here...?
Is it because I won't be able to catch up with the rehersals?'
These thoughts went through Uzuki's head for a short moment before she spoke up.
'Bang!'
She bangs the coffee table parallel to the two couches as she got up from the couch that the three pf them were sitting on.
"Wait a minute, I thought I was gonna be performing with them?!"
Kasumi who just saw Uzuki being upset about the current situation got up and attempted to calm down the blonde-aired girl.
Meanwhile Yamato just remained seated still maintaining the same confused look pasted on her face.
"Did you know about this?!"
Uzuki shouted with her emerald-colored eyes on the verge of tears because of the thought that Kasumi might know what's going on.
'I should've just kept quite.... What am I even doing...? I just made it worse...'
Kasumi couldn't but let out a sigh at the mistake that she just commited as she sees her childhood friend about to cry in front of her.
"Calm down... Getting upset won't help... Ok? Let's seat back down."
Kasumi calmly said holding both of Uzuki's hands trying to make her sit down one again.
Takehito didn't want it to be like this but he had to since that's what he and the other members of the board had agreed to do at the last meeting.
"I thought we were friends... I can't believe that you didn't tell me about this..."
Kasumi's attempts to calm her down were for nough, tears had started to drip down from her eyes on to her cheeks since Kasumi didn't really say anything...
Kasumi now feeling ashamed about the fact that she forgot to tell her about this couldn't help but avert her eyes from Uzuki's.
This just makes Uzuki clench her fists in anger towards her childhood friend.
"I'm sorry... I wasn't supposed to tell you since it might get in the way of your training..."
Tears had also started to stream down of the pink-haired girl's face as she apologized to Uzuki.
Uzuki who had enough of this whole situation just storms out of the room leaving the door opened in the process.
"Uzuki..."
Kasumi tried to catch up to her but when she got to the lobby of the building Uzuki was already nowhere to be found.
"This is messed up... It's stupid that I wasn't allowed to say anything..."
Uzumi who was in the lobby as well spots Kasumi in a panicked state and approaches her trying to find out what was going.
"What's going on, Miss Kasumi? Why are you panicking?"
The tears continued to stream down her face as she turns to the direction of the of voice of her unit's manager.
"Uzuki stormed out when she found out that I didn't tell her about the debut concert..."
Kasumi answered in a shaky voice wiping the tears off of her face.
Two whole weeks had now pa.s.sed ever since Uzuki's storming out and only a week is left before the debut concert, the blonde girl hasn't gone back to the agency ever since that day...
"It's time for the final rehersals, what are you s.p.a.cing out for Kasumi?"
The two members of Dual Rozen had been in the dance studio for three whole hours now practicing and Kasumi kept on s.p.a.cing out everytime she got the chance to because of what happened to Uzuki two weeks ago.
"What? Oh... Sorry."
She got up of the bench that she was sitting on with a serious expression on her face while thinking about the fact that Uzuki might quit because of the fact that she couldn't tell her and if she did her father would scold her.
"Are you all right? You've been s.p.a.cing out since we got here..."
Several thoughts went through Kasumi's mind before she could think of a reply to Yamato's question.
Questions like "Is Uzuki ever gonna come back here?", and "What if she doesn't wanna be an idol anymore?" were only two of many of the questions.
With Yamato just continued to look at her with a towel over her right shoulder and a bottle in her left hand.
She then continued: "Let's just focus on the rehersals, she'll come back eventually..."
She said so in a relaxed tone which made Kasumi just nod in response.
The day of the debut concert has finally come, The duo are currently in the backstage area inside the changing room...
The room had other newly formed units as well besides Kasumi and Yamato's unit, there were six in total including Yos.h.i.+no's unit.
There were still no sign of Uzuki ever coming back to the agency the previous week and Kasumi couldn't help but worry even more, she hasn't gone to school either...
When she asked the teachers at her school about it, they only told her that she had transfered to another campus and she didn't give them a reason as to why she did so.
She also asked the teachers about her adress and they gave it to her, she went to the said place to apologies but when she rang the doorbell no one answered.
This made her s.p.a.ce out even more...
Yamato ofcourse continued to make Kasumi snap out of it whenever she sees her s.p.a.cing out.
"Look who we have here... Well, if it isn't my unit's rival: Dual Rozen..."
the girl named Yos.h.i.+no from the other time approached the duo as they were getting changed into their costumes.
"Do you need something, Daimonji?"
Kasumi decided to just be polite to their rival since there was no point in being hostile anyway.
This ofcourse made Yamato gett a little iritated of Daimonji suddenly just talking to them as if they were close friends.
"Wh What the h.e.l.l...? Why are you being so nice to her? Didn't she act like a jerk before when she blocked the way to the dance studio?"
Kasumi turns her head to Yamato who had already put on the top of the costume with the b.u.t.tons still not b.u.t.toned up and shook her head.
"There's no point in being hostile, it's not like it'll help us win."
She then just shrugged with a sarcastic smile on her face as if she just told her something funny.
This made Yamato's expression change to an expression that someone would make if he/she didn't want to do something that another person told them to do.
"Seriously...? You're way to nice..."
"I'm bored now..."
This action that Kasumi had just done just makes a cross-popping vein appear on Yos.h.i.+no now looking mad p.i.s.sed off face before she walked away from the two who were about to finish getting ready.
"The h.e.l.l? She's bored now? What the h.e.l.l does she think we are? TV shows or something?"
Yamato blurted out seeing Yos.h.i.+no now changing into her costume while facing away from us.
The other units just kept quite to not get involved and just continued getting ready like they didn't hear them.
"It's kind cute when she tries to make me mad though... Too bad I don't easily get mad."
Kasumi whispered to Yamato before she laughed a little bit because she found her att.i.tude a little bit on the funny side.
"Are you really not easy to p.i.s.s off?"
Yamato t.i.tled her head after she finished putting the blazer part of her costume on.
"Yeah, since I don't really care about people like her most of the time."
Kasumi explained before just shrugging once more as if she was sarcastic.
"I shouldn't have stormed out like that! I need to tell them that I'm not quitting and apologize!"
Uzuki shouted as she ran towards the venue of the debut concert in her casual clothes that consisted of a light blue-colored hoodie and a dark grey skirt.
From the moment she transfered away from Kasumi's school, Uzuki regretted being so immature at the talent agency when she found out that Kasumi didn't tell her in advanced that She'll only be in the unit if Kasumi's unit pa.s.sed on the voting right after concert.
Wearing her running shoes she ran through the crossings of the area that lead to the said place after the signal light for pedestrians turned green, she had sweat dripping from her forehead even though it was a pretty cold day.
At this point of time Kasumi and Yamato as well as the other newly formed units were now inside the stand by area of the backstage area waiting for their signal to come up the stage.
There were people that were wearing s.h.i.+rts that had the word "Staff" printed on them running around with walkie talkies in one of their hands checking if everything was ready as well as some other last checks before the concert had started.
When Uzuki finally got to the venue Kasumi's unit was already on the stage performing the song that they rehea.r.s.ed several times before...
Kasumi's father Takehito and Kasumi's unit's manager/producer Uzumi noticed her run into the backstage area as they were observing the unit from backstage.
"Miss Uzuki?? What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be--"
Uzuki interupted her sentence explaining that she wasn't quitting and apologized about her behaviour that other time.
Takehito who was still facing the flat screen tv inside the backstage are that displayed the performance couldn't help but stay silent after Uzuki's apology was over.
"It's fine, Just be careful next time. My employees were asking me questions right after you did that, after all."
Takehito said in a tone as if he was taken aback by Uzuki.
Uzumi who was just staring at Uzuki as she opologized couldn't help but stay silent instead of saying something that she should in that kind of situation.
'I-Is Miss Uzumi mad...?'
Uzuki slowly raised her head careful not to accidentally make her mad.
"You're really lucky that the CEO was more forgiving, you could've been fired if he wasn't."
Miss Uzumi decided that it wasn't even worth getting mad for and just let out a faint sigh.
Uzuki bowed once again and opologized one last time to Uzumi.
At the same time Kasumi's unit had just finished their performance and introductions, as they got down from the stage the voting had began.
Along with the whispers of some of the audience members could be heard.
The voting period was announced to go for around a whole day then after that they'd tally up all the votes and announce the winner via the agency's website the next day at around noon.
Only the top three units are able to perform at the winter concert, while the units that fall under the top three are only gonna be able to either just quit and join another agency, do acting and modeling jobs, or just quit all together.
The audience began whispering things like: "Isn't there a rumour that Kasumi was the daughter of the legendary idol Kiara?" and "Her performance was great, She really is the daughter of a legendary idol..."
The tension was high inside the stand by area as the audience started going to the site and started voting...
Kasumi and Yamato quickly made their way back to the stand-by area of the backstage and they both spot Uzuki there talking to Uzumi.
"Uzuki... You finally came back..."
Kasumi couldn't help but feel relieved seeing Uzuki all right and that nothing bad happened to her and gave her a hug which made Uzuki get feel a little startled because she didn't Kasumi approach her from behind.
"S-Sumi-nee?!"
Yamato who had previously been walking beside Kasumi couldn't help but sigh at the current situation with a bright smile.
Kasumi finally let go of the blonde girl after a few seconds after she realised that there were other people in the room with them along with a blush on her face from the embara.s.s.e.m.e.nt.
"S-Sorry! It's just that I didn't expect you to come back now..."
Uzuki just shook her head to Kasumi's reasoning and said: "I-It's fine, I'm the one at fault here so i should be the one who's supposed to say sorry." With a expression that showed how bad she felt about what she did and at the same time feeling awkward because of Kasumi.
"I thought you decided to quit..."
"I'm not quitting don't worry."
The time of the final results had finally arrived...
The trio were together inside of Kasumi's house in the living room feeling nervous about the results of the debut concert last night.
At the same time Kiara was in a different room sketching some clothing.
With the screen of her laptop displaying the countdown of the results displaying only a minute remaining they clenched their fists as the countdown slowly reached zero...
Three...
Two...
One...
The webpage started to reload with the countdown not being there anymore and the list of the top thirty units displayed on it.
Kasumi's trembling hand slowly reached for the mouse and she slowly scrilled down the page to find out if they made it top the top three in the rankings...
They finally got to the top five part of the long list...
Their eyes slowly looked through the list and found thay they were only top three.
They let out a sigh of relief at the results of the voting with Uzuki starting to cry.
"F-Finally... We're finally idols, Sumi-nee..."
She sobbed attempting to wipe off her own tears on to her hoodie's sleeve.
Kasumi just smiled at her.
"You're not a member yet until we introduce you at the winter concert, you know?" She jested in a joking tone.
"I know that! But still... I'm just so happy that we're officially idols now..."
Menawhile Yamato was speechless at the results, she couldn't help but just put on a blank expression.
"I-I'm not dreaming, right...? Please tell me that I'm not dreaming right now..." She murmured in a slightly weaker voice than the voice that she usually had.
Uzuki finally stopped crying and spoke to her:
"No, You're not. Even if this was a dream I'd be a good one!"
With their pa.s.sing at the voting being victorious they started their studio recordings of new songs at the second floor of the agency where a actual sound booth was inside...
Their official first concert also ended without a hitch, meanwhile Yos.h.i.+no's unit didn't make it into the top three and chose to join another agaency and has been going neck to neck with Kasumi's unit ever since a third single of her unit had been released...
The news of Kasumi's mother Kiara didn't really help with their fame but that fact was treated as just mere trivia.
And so their music was aired on radio stations and their fame became almost reached worldwide...
-The End-