“I...don’t want to.”
I couldn’t say yes. I could barely say no either—I could actually feel myself physically trembling from the effort it took—but I still mustered up all the courage I had and shook my head.
“Makina thought as hard as she possibly could about all of this, and this is the decision that she came to... And, I mean, I think she’s really trying her hardest in all sorts of ways, so...I just don’t think I have any right to question that,” I said.
By no means did I understand everything there was to know about Makina. That was especially true when it came to her work as an idol—as Maki Amagi. There was no chance that I knew anywhere even close to as much about all that as Mio did. Just because I didn’t know everything about Makina, however, didn’t mean that I had to sit back and agree that she was “playing her little games” by going to school. I hated hearing her get belittled like that.
“Makina’s actually really amazing, you know?! Our school’s transfer student entrance exam is supposed to be super crazy hard, but she passed it anyway, and, like... She must’ve had to study a crazy amount to manage it, and she did it while she was still working as an idol, which means it must’ve been even harder for her than it would be for everyone else... She’s put so much hard work into all this, and I know you’re part of her group, but that doesn’t mean you can just wave off her effort by saying she can do anything with ease! It’s not easy at all!”
I was still scared witless, but something totally unrelated to my sense of reason had taken the wheel partway through my speech and put the pedal to the metal. By the end of it, I was straight up shouting.
Mio should’ve known way more about what Makina did behind the scenes when she was working as an idol. All I had to work off of was how I imagined her behaving. That said, I just couldn’t believe that she could have kept up her idol work and her studies without any trouble whatsoever. And that wasn’t even starting on all the hardship that the situation with her family and the stress of constantly having all eyes upon her from all directions as an idol must have brought her!
Makina really was incredible. She put someone like me—someone who couldn’t do much of anything at all—to shame, and I completely understood how easy it was to get the wrong idea about her. I also knew, though, that she was the same as us. She was just another high schooler, and more importantly, she was my precious childhood friend. I probably didn’t have any right to talk like this, since I was still putting off responding to her feelings...but at the very least, I wanted to respect the decision that she’d made. And even if someone else ended up being hurt as a result of that decision, I, at least, would still be on her side to the bitter end.
“Right... I’m realizing that I didn’t pick the right way to say this. I’ll admit that,” said Mio, hanging her head slightly. I wondered for a moment if I’d managed to get through to her—but it really did only last a moment. She looked up again right away and gave me a very self-assured glare.
Yup! This girl’s terrifying, all right!
“But I’m just as serious about this as she is. I’ve staked my whole life on it, and if you think I’m giving up that easily, you’re dead wrong. I can’t accept her bringing her career to a standstill just to go to a prep school, of all things...”
Mio really was serious. The air around her was so thick with tension, it almost made me shiver—but it didn’t make me consider backing down, even for a second. In fact, being hit with the full-force brunt of her dedication just made me more dedicated than ever! A surge of sentiment was spilling forth from deep within me, driving me to protect Makina with everything I had!
“Going to a prep school may seem pointless to you, but I know for a fact that it’s going to be valuable for Makina! She’ll make it valuable!” I insisted. “This is the path she chose, and she’s taking it as seriously as she takes everything else! And if she does go back to being an idol once she’s finished, her work won’t suffer for the time she spent at school. No, she’ll come back bigger, better, and cuter than ever! She’ll be the most super awesome amazing idol you’ve ever seen!”
“You seem awfully confident about that...even if you said it with the vocabulary of an elementary schooler. What makes you so sure? What exactly are you basing all that confidence on?”
“Huh? Well, umm...” That put me at a bit of a loss. I’d let myself get carried away and was coasting on pure momentum, which wasn’t exactly an easy mode to pivot away from to cite my sources. I was drawing a blank.
“What? You’re not basing it on anything?”
“N-No, just, umm... I just really don’t think Makina’s playing around, is the thing! She’s been working super hard on the idol show we’re doing for our cultural festival! She stays late after school every day, and—”
“Wait. What was that just now?”
Wham! Mio grabbed me by the shoulders all over again, but this time, she put way more strength into it! Her fingers dug into me so hard, I was worried they might actually leave a mark.
“O-Ow?!” I yelped.
“Answer me. What did you just say? Maki’s going to be in a show? At a high school cultural festival?!”
“Oh...”
When she put it that way, I could sort of see where this reaction was coming from. Belatedly, I realized that I had reached for an extremely sensitive nerve and straight up pinched it. Makina had put her idol career on hold for the sake of performing at a cultural festival as an idol...and while I thought that was really impressive and admirable of her, it seemed totally possible that Mio would see it as stronger evidence than ever that Makina was just playing around!