"We have this room booked until three, right?"

Trevor nodded, barely looking up from his dancing as they moved to the music. "I think Zankyou's using it after us, so we'll have to make good use of the time we have."

Makoto paused from singing along to the song they'd put on—it wasn't theirs, but the both of them knew it well enough to sing and perform the choreography. "Are you still having trouble with the song? I could try to help, but I don't have much experience."

"Thanks," his unit member breathed, lowering his arms as the song's last few notes sounded into the air. "I was just having trouble composing. I thought I would get an idea after seeing how we blend together when it comes to dancing and vocals."

"Have you gotten any inspiration?" The boy tilted his head. "As I said, I wouldn't be of much use composing, but I might be able to try to help out with the lyrics or something."

Trevor scratched his head. "Well, I guess I do have a few themes in mind. I'll polish them up when we get home and send the basic melody to you this week. You sing well, by the way."

Makoto offered him a small smile. "Thanks. I really like your dancing too—it's very pronounced. You completed those moves so easily too."

"I'm better than dancing than singing, so I decided to practice until I could use it as my strongest point," Trevor replied, reaching for a bottle of water on the nearest chair. "I suppose we fit together well, since you're good in singing and I'm good in dancing."

"We'll have to become better, though." His friend said it in a joking manner, but they both knew that an idol always had room for improvement. "I mean, there're probably people who can figure out that we're just both covering up each other's weaknesses."

The other third-year hummed in response. "That's definitely true. Guess we'll have to see how everything turns out in the end."

"This will work out, right?" Makoto sighed, letting himself flop onto the floor and staring at the ceiling. "I mean, we're third-years already and we're starting a brand new unit. What happens if we can't get people to come to our lives and graduate without any achievements?"

There was a pause before Trevor spoke, his eyes softening as he glanced at his friend. "I understand how you feel, but we will get our names out there. Even if we don't, it won't be a useless year. There are still plenty of things we can learn. Besides, both of our names are well-known enough to gather at least a small audience."

"I guess you're right," The black-haired boy admitted. "Sorry. I guess I'm a little nervous about everything."

"That's fine. I feel the same, to be honest." Trevor raised an eyebrow as he placed his bottle on the chair beside him again. "Shall we dance to this song one more time before letting Zankyou take over?"

Makoto smiled. "Yeah."

—

"Hey, Carin, you there?" Kawarau peered into the art club's clubroom—it seemed to be empty on first glance, but once he looked closer, he could see his friend huddled away in the corner. "Geez, why are you here when you don't have a club meeting today?"

It took a few moments for the green-haired boy to notice his friend. "Oh, you're here," he mumbled, not even answering the question. "Is there practice today?"

"There wasn't going to be, but I managed to find work for us." The teenager's eyes were bright as he switched on the rest of the lights, crossing the room in a matter of seconds and thrusting his phone in front of Carin. "Do you think this would be suitable?"

"Hm..." The boy trailed off thoughtfully as he set down his sketchbook. "It's interesting. Performing at a festival would be fun."

"I know," Kawarau grinned. "It totally fits our theme too, right? We could get a lot of new friends from this event, and it's pretty-large scale too. The only problem would be that they might not accept us because we're only school idols."

Carin shrugged. "It's worth a try, isn't it? Besides, Zankyou is the top unit in Tengoku right now...I say we have a pretty good chance of getting in."

"Well, I guess you're right too." Kawarau looked at the information again, bookmarking the website and shoving his phone in the pocket. "We'll be able to gain a lot of popularity as well, so it's a really ideal opportunity for us."

"Is it settled, then?" Carin hummed, brown eyes giving away more excitement than his face did. "I can't wait. I'll definitely tell Seiun and Jhorna to come."

Kawarau smiled. "I'll ask the student council. Who knows—they seem like the type with lots of connections."

His friend smiled at that, slipping his sketchbook and pencil case into his bag as he stood up to join Kawarau. "I'm sure they do. Are you going to post about it on our social media...? Oh, that means we'll have to practice more too..."

"You're jumping the gun a little," Kawarau quipped back. "That's assuming if we get into the festival in the first place. There's bound to be lots of other groups trying out for the performance slots, and some of them are actual professional bands."

"Zankyou will get in," Carin insisted. "We have the perfect theme and we're well-known. You're worrying too much."

"And you're confident as always," his friend smiled. "That's a good thing about you, though. Yeah, we'll get in, alright?"

—

Haruki raised an eyebrow, folding his arms as Evi reached out to pause the music. "Your singing has improved. You aren't straining as much on the high notes anymore."

"Really? Thanks!" The girl laughed as she took a gulp of water. "I've been working hard on that. It's still pretty difficult, though."

"You'll get there before the actual performance." Their unit leader pushed himself off the wall he was leaning on. "Seiun, stop using your phone at every chance you get. We're going to rehearse a few more times and then call it a day."

The teenager pretended not to listen for a few moments, but she complied in the end, turning her phone with a sigh and setting it on top of one of the shelves. "Weren't we taking a break? Besides, who are you to comment on Evi's singing when you cant sing long notes?"

"Your words wound me," Haruki replied. "But if you're so worried about our performance—" Seiun rolled her eyes at that moment. "Most of my assigned lines don't have notes that are too held out, and I'll be able to handle the ones I have. That aside, have you been working on your dancing?"

"You've watched Stellarium's performances," Seiun grumbled back. "I'll give a satisfactory dance on the actual day."

"Yes, but it's been a few months since it disbanded." The boy's tone was one of contemplation instead of mockery. "Wouldn't you have gotten rusty if you hadn't practiced?"

That seemed to tick her off even more. "No, what the heck? Evi, start the music or I'm ditching practice."

"Wait, no, don't do that," her friend whined, moving to press the "play" button before Haruki could speak any further. "I'd be really sad and it'd be hard to do it with just me and Prez, so don't do it, alright?" She stretched out the last syllable of her sentence.

"Yeah, whatever..." Seiun trailed off, realising it was her turn to sing and letting her words transition seamlessly into her part of the melody, and she continued after it was Evi's solo. "I get that Shithead Asshole's making us practice a whole bunch, but do we even have a live planned?"

Haruki shrugged. "Not yet, but it's essential to be ready by the time we do hold one. If you two are patient enough, we could perform for the Tanabata Festival in July."

"We could, but the other units would have left us in the dust by then!" Evi exclaimed. "I wanna hold one as soon as possible! I'm really, really excited to hold a live, y'know?"

"Tanabata's pretty big, so it'll be better for our debut," Seiun sighed. "Still, you're right. It's been more than a month—if we wait too long, we'll miss the prime time."

Haruki seemed to think about if for a little while more, until even the music had stopped and the three of them had stopped dancing. "I'll run through the Student Council documents and check for any suitable lives that are upcoming, then. If not, we'll wait for Tanabata."

"Incarnation's only gaining attention now because two of us were from old units and the other one is a fresh face," Seiun offered. "It's become a pretty hot topic amongst those in the idol course—I heard it spread to the general course as well. But if we don't push out any content, they'll just forget about us."

"You have a point." The boy shoved his water bottle into his bag. "We have a YouTube channel and a Twitter account, right? Maybe we could upload a preview of one of our songs."

Evi's face lit up. "Mm, yeah, that could work. Or maybe we could even upload self-introductions—wouldn't it feel more professional that way?"

"People want to hear how good we are first before learning more about us as people," Seiun countered. "That's how the idol industry works. I suggest we upload a preview, like what Harushit suggested, and spew out some fancy lines about our theme and unit. We shouldn't upload our whole song, though—if they like our music, then they'll come to our live."

"Was that what Stellarium did?" Haruki asked, his tone thoughtful.

"Yeah." The girl didn't even try to deny it. "It worked for us even though we weren't that well known at first, so I'm guessing that it'll bring results."

Evi jumped up from where she was standing, a grin on her face as she spun to face her two unit members. "Even if our first turnout is like ass, it'll be fine—I don't mind! And as for all the fancy lines you were talking about, Seiun's doing it, right?"

"We'll sort it out after practice." Haruki interrupted the conversation before Seiun could bite back a reply. "The verse before the chorus still isn't clean enough. I want to get it down by today, and it's already getting late."

Seiun muttered something like slave-driver under her breath, and Evi pretended to collapse on the floor with a dramatic groan.

"Can I go home?" Seiun complained.

"No."

—

From: other person from stellarium

hey seiun

To: other person from stellarium

?? it's been like 5 months why did you message me

From: other person from stellarium

nah i was clearing my messages and saw your contact

you're still in the idol course, right? how's everything

i heard you joined another unit

—

She could hear Jhorna telling her to actually work on club activities when she attended club meetings, but she ignored her classmate for the time being and turned her attention back to her phone.

—

To: other person from stellarium

yeah, i joined incarnation, why

everything is fine ig how's general course

From: other person from stellarium

ahh incarnation! i've heard about it are y'all planning to hold a live

well it's better than the idol course. i've made new friends and everything. you're in 2-B right

To: other person from stellarium

glad to see you're enjoying yourself

and we're still deciding on when to hold it? it's cool that the general course knows about it

From: other person from stellarium

tell me when you have a date and i'll spread the news to the general course kids

honestly, it's admirable how you're still in the idol course? first year was such a shitstorm and we weren't allowed to do anything at all. i'm not sure how you're able to take it

—

Sighing, she rubbed her temples. She knew that the other second-year from Stellarium had different views about their old unit—hell, she'd tried to complain to her many times, but Seiun just couldn't see the point she was trying to get across.

Talking with her had dredged up memories of their first year. It had seemed strangely long ago, what with the third years disbanding the unit as soon as the Dream Tournament had ended, but now it felt like it was just yesterday.

—

To: other person from stellarium

mm different opinions i guess? and thanks advertisement is always welcome

gotta blast now sorry. art club prez is yelling at me to get off my phone whoops

From: other person from stellarium

yeah

and sure! sorry for messaging you out of the blue

do you want to hang out sometime? we never got to talk much last year even though we were unitmates

—

Seiun sucked in a breath and typed out one more message before switching her phone off and shooting back a sarcastic remark to counter Jhorna's constant nagging.

—

To: other person from stellarium

sure whatever

--

seiun the local cryptid (worst boy)

i'm alive i guess??

fun fact my favourite unit isn't actually incarnation uwu

poll results: (got into some shit w my dad so i might not be drawing after all, sorry)

1. Shoko (4 votes)

2. Makoto (3 votes)

3. Jhorna/Sou/Seiun/Aerien/Hayato (2 votes) (lmao the 5 way tie)

as usual, this chapter's poll is linked in the inline comment here h

u can vote for more than 1 person!