Chapter 03: We Are

Reina liked to start her days with a morning run.

After waking up at 8 AM, it allowed her to wake up and also warm up her body for the day's practice. She ran for 30 minutes around the block, pacing herself to not get exhausted, but still get a workout in.

After coming back home, she ate breakfast and took a hot bath.

Going out to get a full body massage and spa session was an option, but it would've ended up wasting too much time. Aside from that, she had already gone out to get her nails done the day before. That left bathing to be the best option for her to loosen her muscles for tonight's show, along with having a bath in the comfort of her home being more than enough for her to relax.

Once it was 11 AM, she started getting ready to leave her house again. Hair and makeup would be done once she arrived at the 765 Live Theater, so she only had to do minimal work in her bedroom. Either way, any preparations would end up being ruined by the additional practice that she had for the day.

She arrived at the theater around noon, immediately going to the practice room. The performance wouldn't be until another five hours, but she wanted to be ready for it. In the hours before the show started, the entire building was eerily quiet. She was one of the first people to arrive at the theater, which now felt much different than the bustling atmosphere right before a concert.

Reina entered one of the training rooms, putting down her bag with a change of clothes in it. She went to work wearing her practice clothing, meaning her outfit for after the live performance was currently stowed away. This room was larger than the practice rooms at the office, being able to fit over fifty people in it rather than ten to thirty.

With only her in the room, she looked small in the reflection from the wall's mirrors. She was a single teenager getting ready to practice for her debut in her newest production company. Compared to how she would look singing alone in the middle of a sea of fans one day, this was nothing. This wouldn't be her first debut, although it would be her first in a while where she'd have to share the spotlight.

Either way, she had to make it count.

Putting her earbuds in, she queued up the tracks for tonight's concert. As a tease for the new Supernova project, 765 Productions decided to allow five NeoStars girls to act as backup dancers for the Million Stars. Reina found it to be no surprise that she was selected to be one of the five given her skill level, but she couldn't hold back when it came to practicing. The Million Stars were at a level she wanted to surpass, so she had to do her best from the start.

No more than four girls would be on stage at a time, giving at least one girl a chance to rest between songs. Additionally, some solo and group songs would only consist of Million Stars girls, meaning Reina had about 37 minutes of being on stage divided among the eight songs she'd be dancing in. It wasn't much, but it was more time on stage than if she was just watching everyone from the sidelines.

The golden-haired idol went through each song at least once, refining some of the more difficult moves in some of them. She wanted to make sure there would be no margin of error with her dancing, that the moves would be ingrained into her muscle memory by the time of the show.

Through the reflection of the mirror, Reina noticed someone staring intently at her while she practiced. A taller girl, with dark hair reaching slightly past her shoulders and bright olive-colored eyes, was sitting down at the other end of the room.

Reina took one of her earbuds out, making eye contact with the new arrival through the mirror. "Can I help you?"

"Sorry, Reina-san, you just look so focused," Sonoda Tae told her. She held a coffee cup between both of her hands. "I wanted to say hi to you when I walked in, but you were busy practicing."

"How long have you been here?" Reina went back to focus on her moves. She couldn't let a conversation stop her practice.

"Just a few minutes or so. What about you?"

"Around an hour now."

"That's so early! The Million Stars aren't even all here yet."

"If you're early, you're on time," Reina responded. "If you're on time-"

"-you're late," Tae cut her off. She smirked at Reina. "I think my dad said that once."

"Likewise."

"I would've been here sooner but I overslept," Tae sighed. Reina learned through earlier practices that the older girl was a fresh graduate from high school, so she didn't have to worry about classes conflicting with her schedule today. "Did you skip class today?"

"I just need the bare minimum for graduation if I'm just going to be an idol."

She had been skipping school ever since the age of 9 to do idol work. High school was less of a path to success to her as much as it was something that she was required to do. Remedial work was tedious, but necessary if she would have to skip class in favor of idol work.

"Come to think of it, you're always practicing more than anyone else," Tae said.

Reina attempted to shrug in between moves. "Everything for tonight has to be perfect. Which is why you should probably start practicing too."

Compared to Reina with her training outfit, Tae was wearing a long skirt and blouse. She looked much more professional and composed than other 18-year-old girls would normally look. If they had met in the street, Reina would have assumed that she was a working woman rather than a fresh highschool graduate.

"I already practiced a little at home. My dancing I'm confident in. Everything else, not as much," Tae responded. "Good thing I'm confident about dancing."

The NeoStar girls selected today were for their dance skills above anything else, which was fitting for a job as backup dancers. Tae's height gave her long, graceful limbs to supplement her strongest point in dancing, despite some of her other skills lagging behind. Still, she had enough raw talent to represent 765 Production's newest branch tonight.

Reina caught her breath as her song finished, ending the dance with her hand outstretched towards the mirror and a foot placed forward. Tae gave light applause, although Reina didn't respond to her coworker's praise.

"Are you the only other NeoStar here?" she asked. She took her other earbud out, walking towards the other girl.

Tae shook her head. "Elise-san was finishing up her makeup in the dressing room. The other two are probably still at school, though."

The last two girls wouldn't be arriving at the theater until around an hour or more from now. Reina would have preferred if the girls chosen for the day didn't have such complicated schedules, or if the NeoStar's first performance was held on another day, but it wasn't her decision. For now, she had to trust in her newest Producer.

Reina grabbed a towel from her bag to wipe off some of the sweat that came from practicing for an hour. "I'm going to get ready for the show."

"Do you need any help?" Tae offered. ��I can help with your hair, or with getting your outfit on."

Reina was already walking out of the room. "I'll be fine, don't worry about me. Just do everything you can to get yourself ready."

Tae ran up to follow her. "I'll just do my own makeup along with you then."

With the 52 Million Stars and All-Stars having their own spaces to get ready in, the theater had to have multiple large dressing rooms to fit them all. Only around fifteen of them would actually be performing today, meaning that the NeoStars were allowed to use some of today's unused spaces to get ready in.

It took Reina a little under an hour to get ready, which included Tae's attempts at small talk. The rest of the time was passed by making her post-practice hair performance-ready, applying makeup, and most importantly, putting on her stage outfit.

Today, the NeoStars had outfits consisting of white, short-sleeved button-ups with a metallic blue vest. Ruffled metallic blue skirts with golden accents and a pair of white boots completed the look. It was reminiscent of what the Million Stars would be wearing, an outfit called Lumiere Papillon, but not extravagant enough to take away the attention from them.

In the time that had passed for Reina to finish getting dressed, more idols had slowly started arriving through the theater's side entrance. With school ending across the country, those who chose to not skip classes were finally showing up. Next door, she could hear the other girls chattering while an electric guitar played in the background. Every so often, a non-performing girl wearing a black 765 shirt would pass. A few of the other NeoStars were also present to help out, although Reina didn't know any of them enough to strike up a conversation.

Everyone needed for today's performance was there, except for Watanabe Akari. With the time before the performance dwindling, Reina was starting to think that the NeoStars would be performing without their fifth member.

"She's going to be late," she said, looking at her phone for the time.

Tae was working on getting her outfit finished up, and she was turning around in the mirror to check how she looked. "The train is probably taking her a while to get here."

"She has 30 minutes. Otokura-san also had school today, and she's already waiting backstage."

"She'll be here. I don't think any of us are willing to give this opportunity up."

Reina got up to leave the dressing room. "I'm going to ask what to do if she's late."

"I don't think you'll like their answer," Tae said on her way out.

She walked to the next room next door, where most of the Million Stars were getting ready. Given their reputation, they had to know what to do in the case that Akari didn't show up on time.

The door was already open, meaning she was welcome to enter. As she neared the entrance, she felt that the atmosphere was a lot different than what she was used to.

At first glance, Million Stars were a lot less… organized than she expected. Two people on different sides of the room were simultaneously playing the recorder and electric guitar without much care for each other. Three other girls sat at a table having a tea party. Most of them were already wearing their stage outfits, but others were still in their casual clothing.

Having only practiced with one or two of them at a time, this wasn't what she pictured her superiors to be like before a show.

One of the girls, seeing Reina at the doorway, walked over to greet her. She was around the same height as her at 162 cm, and her blue eyes met Reina's lighter blue pair. Mogami Shizuka, from Reina's initial impressions while practicing with her, was a serious, hardworking idol. Her singing ability was leagues ahead of Reina, despite being only 14.

Like Reina, she was already dressed for the occasion, wearing a light-blue and gold outfit with a blue jewel in her shoulder.

"Fukuyama-san, let's do our best today!" she said. "Are you nervous about your first performance with us?"

"Not at all," Reina responded. "I've performed on stage before."

"No wonder Producer-san picked you for tonight. Is there anything that you need, then?"

"I just had a question about Watanabe Akari. She's one of the backup dancers today and..." Reina meant to continue her thought, but she just noticed that one of the girls at the tea party was actually asleep.

"You sound distracted."

"Is it always like this?" Reina asked. "I've just never seen a dressing room so… hectic."

"Huh?" Shizuka asked, looking behind herself at the scene in the dressing room. "Well, we usually end up sorting everything out in time."

Another younger girl, one with a side-ponytail called out through the noise from inside the dressing room. She had a pink gem in the shoulder of her butterfly-like outfit, although many of her other accessories were missing. "Shizuka-chaaan, I can't find my dance boots!".

Shizuka looked like she was trying not to make a face. "Mirai, you're already wearing them."

"No wonder I felt taller! Thank you!"

Reina watched as Mirai walked away without any other care in the world. She had to give herself a mental reminder that she was still working with middle schoolers.

"You wanted to ask about one of the other NeoStars?" Shizuka asked her.

"Yes. She's not here yet."

"There's still time for her to show up. I'm sure she knows how important this is to everyone."

"That's just the thing," Reina responded. "What do you want to do if she shows up late? First impressions are everything, after all."

"We'll cover for her until then! It's not the first time we've had issues."

"Thirty minutes until the curtains start openin'!" someone yelled from across the hall. "Be ready at backstage in twenty!"

"Trust in your coworkers, Fukuyama-san. Not every performance can be perfect." Shizuka said. She turned to head back into the room. "I need to go make sure everyone is ready.

Cover for her? Reina thought. She felt like she was the only person concerned with the fact that Akari wasn't there yet.

She headed towards backstage to get another opinion on the matter. She assumed there would already be other people waiting there as tonight's performance was about to begin.

In the event that Akari was a no-show, someone would have to do her dances instead, as Shizuka said. However, that meant that one of the NeoStars off of rotation would have to be dancing, which would tire them out faster. Additionally, not every girl knew the same dances.

The alternative was to just include one dancer, but only one backup dancer would end up making the staging look imbalanced.

A pair of footsteps grew louder as Reina turned the corner in the hallway leading from backstage to the dressing room. She was too busy thinking about other options, that she wasn't looking in front of her when someone crashed into her.

Both girls fell backward and without injury. Reina looked up at the person who collided with her, finding the very person she was worried about.

"Sorry about that!" Akari said. She sounded out of breath and was still wearing her school uniform. "I got here as fast as I could."

"You're the last person to arrive," Reina responded. Akari offered to help her up, but she declined. Reina smoothed out her skirts once she stood up. "You're late."

"The show doesn't start until five!"

"You should've been here for practice at least an hour ago"

"I was still in school an hour ago," Akari argued. "It's not like I could skip class."

"You could have. That's what I did."

The two of them were the same age, but their backgrounds were completely different. She was a newcomer to the idol world, compared to Reina's eight years of experience.

"Did you even practice today?" Reina asked.

"During lunch, and before I left my parents' house in the morning."

"That's adequate, I suppose," Reina said. This conversation wasn't going anywhere. The more they talked, the less time Akari would actually have to get ready. "Be ready ten minutes before the curtain opens. Try not to hold me back."

"Don't worry," Akari responded, walking past Reina and towards the dressing room. "I never disappoint.