“N-No, it’s not what you think! I mean, okay, I guess it kind of is...but Makina’s taking it super seriously! It can’t have been easy transferring in at this time of year, but she’s doing her best to make something amazing with her new classmates anyway, and...” I babbled, but the truth was, all of that was just speculation on my part. I just hoped that was what motivated her.
I was, however, absolutely positive that she was taking the performance seriously. She’d written a song, collaborated with her classmates to come up with choreography, and spent who even knew how long giving Yuna and Rinka lessons. It might have been a far cry from a professional performance, sure, but I’d never had the slightest impression that Makina was just playing around with it all.
“How...interesting,” said Mio.
“What?”
“You have my attention now. When’s this cultural festival happening? You don’t seem like much of a liar, so I’m guessing all that confidence from before was totally sincere, right?”
“I-I mean, I’m not sure if I’m confident, really... I just believe in Makina, I guess...?”
“Well, if you believe in her that much, then how about the two of us make a little wager?”
“L-Like a bet?!”
“I’ll come to your festival and see your show. If I come out of it believing that Makina really is taking this seriously, and that this hiatus really will give her whatever it is she needs to up her skills as an idol, then I’ll step back and wait for her without complaining. If I come out of it thinking that she really is wasting her time, though...then you, Yotsuba, will have to do everything you can to help me convince her to give it up and come back to the group.”
“Huuuuuuh?!”
Mio flashed me a smirk—and that smirk was what finally made the pieces click together for me. This was her plan all along! She was going to make me into her ally like it or not, no matter what sort of dirty tricks she had to play to get me on-side!
It was clear that Makina had a soft spot for me, which meant that I had a unique chance of convincing her in a way that Mio wasn’t capable of. She knew that, and she’d been waiting this whole time for the perfect opportunity to bring me around to her team. And so, the second a cultural-festival idol show—the absolute perfect opportunity to draw a line between Makina’s life as an idol and her life as a student—came up, Mio had latched on to it without wasting a second. Her eyes glimmered with an elated confidence that told me she was positive the key to victory was already in her grasp! I, meanwhile, was fully confident that I could not get away from her. The pain gradually spreading out from my shoulders made that pretty darn clear!
“This bet is purely between you and me, Yotsuba. It has nothing to do with Maki,” said Mio. “All that’s on the line is whether or not you’ll help me. That’s not a problem at all, is it?”
“Wh-Whether or not it’s a problem isn’t really the problem...”
“What, are you saying all that confidence from before was just a bluff? You don’t really believe Maki’s taking the show that seriously? It’s just going to be a silly little game after all? Heh heh—well, how about this? We’ll add another layer to the bet: If I lose, then I’ll do anything you want me to. You get one favor that I can’t say no to! I’m offering you a pretty sweet deal here. Are you really going to run away when everything’s stacked in your favor?”
It was so, so obvious that Mio was trying to provoke me. She couldn’t have possibly been more blatant. She wasn’t even trying to hide it. Even an idiot like me could tell, for crying out loud! All I had to do was say, “Oh, I see, I’ll think about it” and brush her off. That would be the mature way of dealing with the situation, and I knew it perfectly well. I was a second-year high schooler, after all!
On the other hand, Mio was probably convinced that a performance put on at a high school’s cultural festival could never possibly come anywhere close to touching the things she and her co-idols could accomplish as pros. What she didn’t know, however, was that we were all dedicated to making our show the real deal...no, to making it the best show in the whole wide world! She was underestimating us, no question about it—but maybe that was intentional too? Maybe me assuming she was taking us lightly and agreeing to her deal was exactly what she was aiming for.
I knew I’d feel a little bad about it, but I’d found my decision. I would resist the urge to prove what we were made of and tell her that she wasn’t going to bait me—I, Yotsuba Hazama, would never fall for that sort of cheap provocation!
“I’m super confident, actually?! Makina’s show—class 2-A’s show—is totally going to be the best idol performance you’ve ever seen, and you’ll never, ever, eeever in a million years see it coming! You’re gonna be so shocked by how amazing it is, for sure!”
Gah! What just happened?! I didn’t mean to say any of that stuff!
The next thing I knew, I was declaring preemptive victory as loudly as I possibly could, pointing confidently at her while I was at it for good measure. Mio’s grin, meanwhile, grew broader than ever. It was a truly belligerent sort of smile, but at the same time, it was exactly the sort of smile I’d expect from an idol of her caliber—one that was so overflowing with charm, I knew it’d be a very long time before I managed to forget it.
“Well, then—it sounds like we have a deal.”
And that was how I ended up getting dragged into a bet that, really, I had no business participating in. If I won, Mio would give up on pulling Makina out of her hiatus, and if Mio won, I would have to help her convince Makina to return to her idol career. It was, in other words, a tremendously important bet with Makina at its center!
O-O-O-Oh, no! What am I supposed to do now?! I frantically wondered as I squared off against Mio, a torrent of cold sweat pouring down the small of my back.