“Sorry. I think I got a little too worked up,” said Mio. She squeezed me tightly, her arms trembling. I could smell my own lingering scent on the uniform she was wearing, but also her distinctive scent beneath it. Her hug was so warm, and the aroma so calming...
Wait, no! This isn’t the right time to be calm at all! “H-Hey! You know I’m angry, right?!” I yelped.
“Right, right. Sure you are,” said Mio. As if the repetition wasn’t bad enough already, she also patted me on the head in the same sort of way you’d comfort a child throwing a tantrum.
Oh, come on! What’s the big idea?! I’m mad at you right now, really! And we’re the same age! I did try to struggle as best as I could, but Mio was hugging me pretty darn tightly, and I just couldn’t seem to shake her off...
Ah?! It feels like someone’s staring at me from behind, and not in a good way...?! O-Oh, jeez, I feel it for sure! And not just one person! There’s one, two, three...a-anyway, a lot of them!
“You were right, and I’ll admit it. I really was trying not to say everything that I thought about the show,” Mio said without letting me go.
Huh? Wait, we’re just gonna keep talking like this?
“Maki?” said Mio.
Makina hesitated for just a moment. “What is it?”
“Your last solo was really good.”
“It...what?” Makina said, gaping at Mio in shock.
“What’re you making that face for? It’s not like I never compliment people,” Mio awkwardly muttered.
I had a feeling that it wasn’t the fact that Mio had complimented Makina that surprised her. It was the way she’d complimented her. I couldn’t see Mio’s face at the time, though, seeing as she still had me firmly pinned in her grip...and her tone of voice had been so uncharacteristically gentle that I couldn’t even begin to imagine how she’d looked.
“I said before how I always thought you could do everything perfectly and never got nervous at all, right...? Well, if you want to put it another way, I could’ve also said that you sorta seemed like a robot to me. Today’s show, though? That was something totally different.”
Mio squeezed me a little tighter. I could tell that following this thought to its conclusion would take a lot of courage for her.
“I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s just like you to somehow pull off an above-average show while you have a case of the nerves so bad, you’d think you’d never performed before at all. But the end, though...I’ve never seen anything like it from you. It was emotional, and passionate, and just...just so human.”
“Mio...” said Makina.
“Ha ha ha! You know, I was planning on saying this eventually, even if Yotsuba hadn’t jumped in like that...but I’m not so sure I would’ve actually managed it. I probably would’ve lost my cool and flown off the handle again instead. To me, you’re a rival and a teammate, all in one. I can’t imagine Shooting Star without you in it. And that’s why...I wanted you to feel like you belonged with us. And then when I saw you up on that stage, I started wondering what we even were to you, and it got under my skin so badly...”
Mio released me. I finally got a chance to look at her...but just for a moment, before she buried her face in my chest. Almost as if to hide the tears that had started pooling in her eyes.
“Sorry, Yotsuba,” Mio choked out in a voice so quiet, only I could hear it. Only seconds later, though, she jerked her head right back up again with exactly the sort of determined, perfectly idol-like smile on her face I’d come to expect from her. “I’ve lost our bet. It really was an incredible show.”
“Huh...?” I grunted.
“Heh heh—honestly, I didn’t think there was any chance I could lose at first, and even if I did, I figured I could just lie and say I won anyway. But after that show? I just can’t. I have to admit it. It’s my total defeat!”
There was something sort of refreshing about her tone of voice, but there was a certain sadness to it as well. She wasn’t celebrating how the bet had turned out, of course, but she also wasn’t in despair over it. It was clear that she’d thought this through and processed the whole event before finally coming to the conclusion that she’d lost, so all I could do was nod in agreement.
“Yeah...” I said.
“What, are you gonna cry again? Need a hankie...? Oh, but I guess this was in your uniform’s pocket, so it was yours from the get-go,” said Mio.
“It’s okay... You can use it.”
“What for? I don’t even need it.”
“Umm, Mio...? And Yotsy too,” Makina sort of hesitantly spoke up. “What bet? What are you talking about...?”
O-Oh. Right. I still have to explain that whole thing to Makina and the—
“Oh, it’s not a big deal or anything. I just made a bet with Yotsuba about whether your show would be good enough to satisfy my quality standards. The deal was that whoever lost would have to do whatever the winner asked them to.”
“What?” said Makina.
“Huh?!” gasped Yuna.
“I’m sorry—Yotsuba...?!” said Rinka.
Three slightly accusatory gazes swung in my direction. For what it’s worth, that wasn’t exactly what the actual stakes of the bet had been...but it wasn’t totally wrong in the grand scheme of things either.
But. Well. Yup. I definitely deserve those reactions, don’t I?
Anyone would get upset if they learned that a performance they’d worked that hard on had been used as fodder for a bet without their knowledge. Even I’d get mad about that! Probably. That said...the fact that Mio had seemingly gone out of her way to not mention that the point of the bet was to drag Makina back into her idol career was probably her way of being nice—assuming she hadn’t just dodged that part because she was too embarrassed to admit it, which also felt pretty plausible.
“Excuse me, anything?!” exclaimed Yuna. “What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“What exactly were you planning on telling her to do, Yotsuba? And what do you suppose she was planning on asking from you?” asked Rinka.
“Wh-Whoa, calm down, okay?! Please?!” Gaaah! Yuna and Rinka are both super mad?!
“Anything means anything. Right, Yotsuba?”
“Mio?!”
“And as for your order for me...well, let’s talk about it later on, okay? In private, where we can really take our time. Sound good, Yotsuba?” Mio said, watching Yuna’s and Rinka’s overblown reactions—plus Makina, who had seemingly frozen solid—very closely. She was definitely enjoying it, and was definitely being as obviously, intentionally provocative as possible...
Smooch!
...and then five gasps rang out in unison.
Sh-She kissed my cheek?! B-But why...?!