Chapter 03: You're Here to Turn Into Dreams

"I want to shine my entire heart out!"

The eight girls dancing in the practice room waved their arms back and forth as they stepped left and right to the beat.

"It's something that I can do because I'm not alone."

They moved in unison, extending a number 1 hand sign to their left, middle, and then to their right.

"You can say (miracles) are what this is called. These are our DIAMOND DAYS, let's enjoy them!"

Their reflections in the mirror looked back at them as they practiced along to the voices of the Million Stars. Hana stood next to one of them, Kitazawa Shiho, at the center of the formation while Haruka supervised the practice. Shiho had a white and blue training shirt and wore her dark hair loose, while the All-Star wore a red shirt and training pants, with two matching ribbons accenting her brown hair.

"I'm so happy that now I want to tell you,"

For their mini-live in three weeks, this would be the final song of the night.

"Thank you so much, now let's go and continue with me,"

They repeated the same moves as earlier but this time bowing instead of pointing.

"This dream we all share now is neverending."

Hana's hands reached out to an imaginary crowd as the song started to end. She had been keeping up with Shiho until now, and she just had to finish strong.

"Truly, having friends, it really really is,"

The girls dancing finished the chorus by turning around, throwing a peace sign into the air. Their next line was more of a shout than actual singing.

"The best!"

With no lyrics left, both hands were free as they danced to the ending of the song. Everyone moved nearly in sync, their hands outstretched, turning, and then finally going out of order with the song's concluding moves. The girls spent the next twenty seconds taking turns pointing a finger to the sky before lowering them as a group and then repeating the process.

The song ended with everyone holding the same pose: hands on the hips, a foot behind the other, and heads tilted to the right. Hana let out a deep breath as she looked around to see the faces around her. This was the last song they practiced today, but everyone looked as focused as ever.

"Good work everyone! That's it for today," Haruka said now that DIAMOND DAYS was over. "Is there anything you guys want to go over before we end the session?"

Miyagi Nari raised her hand from the end of the line. "Haruka-senpai, can we go over the chorus for Lunar Dolce again?"

"Of course!" the All-Star smiled. She turned towards her right side, where Hana's unit stood between members of Almandite. "Triple Point, is there anything else you want to practice?"

Hana hoped that no one would respond from her unit. They had been practicing for two hours now. She wanted to take a break, but she didn't want to hold back everyone else.

"Today's lessons were sufficient for me," Reina said from Hana's left. "I'm fine with letting the others practice since they��re newer."

"Can we stay and watch?" Akari asked.

Haruka smiled in response. "Sure!"

"Me too," Hana said. She looked over at Akari. "I'll watch some of this with you."

The two walked to the back of the room and sat down on its wooden flooring. This was her time to get a break now that practice for her was over, but she still wanted to see how the other girls would do. The two separate sessions only joined together to learn their group song, so she hadn't been able to see what Almandite was like.

As for their third unit member, Reina was already carrying her water bottle and headed for the door. She bowed to the two senior idols in the room. "I'm going to get some water before I leave, thank you for the instruction today."

"So," Haruka said to the remaining 5 girls who were standing. "What part of it do you want to go over?"

"The last chorus," Nari responded. She brushed some of her green hair out of her face. "I just want to practice it one more time."

"Okay. Shiho-san, take the lead, please," Haruka started clapping her hands together with a metronome-like cadence. She looked at the Million Star in the middle of the formation. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight…"

Hana watched them from her spot at the back of the room, her eyes darting back and forth across each member's profile and their reflection in the mirror as they started going through their dance routine. Compared to how she tried to focus on everyone's dancing, Akari's gaze was entirely focused on Shiho.

Since it was a joint practice, Kitazawa Shiho was there to help Almandite before the two sessions merged. One of the girls in the NeoStars' newest unit was currently absent today, so the dark-haired idol was doing a more hands-on demonstration by filling in for her. As the practice went on, Hana couldn't help but also focus on Shiho a little bit longer than the rest.

The senior idol's training clothes were different from what the NeoStars wore, but that wasn't what made her stand out. Despite only being a replacement for today, the Million Star still practiced the song effortlessly. Every step, turn, and wave of her hands was done without hesitation. Whenever Hana looked to see Shiho's reflection in the mirror, she had a laser-focused look on her face. It was hard to believe she was one of the youngest girls in the room given her overall skill.

In comparison, the other four girls looked determined to hold their own. The ones who Hana knew the most, Fukuoka Yuki and Nari, did the best out of the members there. They were the oldest present at ages 16 and 17, and both were working hard to keep up with the 14-year-old Million Star in the center. Even Hirose Miyako and Niijima Sumire, two girls she used to take remedial dance classes with, didn't seem to be struggling.

The routine for the chorus finished in no time. The girls finished with a pose where a hand behind their back and their free hand's index finger pressed to their lips. The move was a good ending to go along with the song's slow, graceful choreography.

"I think that went well!" Haruka said, dropping her hands to her side. "Good work for today."

Shiho quietly raised her hand. "I think they could use some extra practice."

"I don't want to tire them out too much…"

"That's okay!" Miyako spoke up. She was currently catching her breath, but she didn't look too exhausted. Hana was surprised to see she actually managed to keep up with the rest of her unit up until now. "I want to keep going, I'm so close to leveling up my dancing!"

"Me too," Nari said. "I'm not done learning what I can yet."

"Let's do more," Yuki suggested. She didn't look like she broke a sweat yet, even as her long blue hair rested naturally instead of being tied up. "I want to fix one of my steps."

"Really?" Haruka tilted her head to the side, her hair ribbons moving slightly along with her movement. "Does everyone want to continue?"

The rest of the members looked at Sumire, the only one to not say anything. For a few seconds, the 14-year-old didn't respond as she looked to be in deep thought. The look of her eyes behind her glasses frames was pensive as she stared at her reflection.

"Niijima-san?" Shiho asked her. "What do you think?"

"Huh?" she responded, looking away from the mirror. "Why did we stop practicing?"

"Looks like everyone wants to keep going," Nari laughed.

Haruka nodded in understanding. "Okay, let's go over the chorus one more time then! Does anyone need to go over your moves again?" she asked. No one responded, so she started clapping again to the song's beat. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight."

Hana watched as Shiho led the members of Almandite through their dance routine again. She doubted that her fellow NeoStars had practiced this song for very long, but they looked better every time they went through their moves. It was as if Shiho being next to them was bringing out their best by giving a visible demonstration of the level they could reach one day. Their moves were looking cleaner and more precise while their actions looked more synchronous. This seemed a lot less sloppy than when they were learning DIAMOND DAYS, although today was also their first time with the choreography for it.

Despite all of that, Hana felt like the Million Star wasn't even trying as hard as she would during an actual performance. Something gave her the idea that she was intentionally holding back enough so that the others would feel inspired to try harder, but not get discouraged.

When the chorus ended for the second time, Nari spoke up again. "One more time, please!"

She was incredibly hard-working, which was what Hana assumed was the quality that made their Producer choose her to perform in their mini-live two months ago. The pink-haired girl had a feeling Almandite would be there for more than just one more time. She was feeling inspired to put in some of her own hard work, so she quietly waved farewell to Akari and slipped out of the room.

Before they practiced the final group song, the pink-haired girl ended up receiving criticism from both Haruka and Shiho. Without the need for a stand-in, the three girls in Triple Point were able to have close supervision from both of their seniors, which led to the latter mentioning over a dozen things that should be improved on. A third of the comments were about Hana's dancing, but she took the advice in stride. All suggestions on how to improve were valuable to her as they neared the date of Almandite's release concert in three weeks.

She entered her usual training room since there wasn't any sound coming from it, which meant that there shouldn't have been anyone in there.

After opening the door, she found Reina practicing in front of the mirror. When her fellow unit member said she was done learning from their seniors, Hana didn't think that meant she'd keep practicing without them. It had been a long day of practice with both Triple Point's session and then more training when Almandite joined in, and now Reina was still going. She didn't seem to be performing any less intensely over two hours in, either.

"Don't hold me back," the golden-haired idol said out loud.

"Me?" Hana asked.

Reina looked over to her as she took one of her earbuds out. "You're here to practice, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Hana responded, even though she had intended to practice alone. She recognized Reina's moves from the group song they had just learned. "Can you start from the beginning?"

"Sure," Reina said as Hana got into formation next to her. She left their imaginary line to reconnect her phone from her earbuds to the speakers in the room instead.

"I'm surprised you're not practicing on the roof," Hana said to her while she waited for the song to start.

"The other flower girl was up there, so I went here instead so I could practice in peace."

"Flower girl? Do you mean Ayumi-san?"

"Green hair, always wearing a hat, not in a unit yet?"

Hana nodded. "That sounds like her."

Reina walked back to her part in the formation as the song started playing through the speakers. "Let's get back to practice."

The conversation came to an early end as they both started to focus on their dancing, albeit Hana did so reluctantly. The piano intro quickly finished, and soon the two were waving their hands in sync in time with their idol side steps. She did her best to keep up with Reina as they practiced together, although the golden-haired idol was far less tired than she was.

Her coworkers were still working hard in the next room over, so she couldn't be the one giving slack. She kept a careful gaze on herself as she did the routine from memory, which wasn't too difficult considering they had already gone over it a few times. Her only issue was that the longer they practiced, the slower she felt in executing what she wanted to do. She tried putting more effort into her moves, but eventually, it started messing with her timing. The moves in this song were simple, but doing them correctly and in a way that looked polished was taking away energy that she didn't have a lot left of.

The two of them went through the song another time. When they were halfway through the second chorus of Triple Point's song, the music suddenly cut out.

"What happened?" Hana asked. With the music on pause, she tried to steady her breathing.

Reina had walked over to the speaker and unplugged her phone. "You should take a break."

"It's okay!" Hana tried to protest. "I can keep going."

Reina crossed her arms as she eyed the pink-haired idol. "You're trying too hard to keep up with me."

"I'm fine, it's just practice."

"Don't force yourself to catch up, you'll get there eventually. Nothing worthwhile comes from trying to rush perfection."

Hana sat down on the floor, leaning her back onto the mirror. She looked up to the ceiling as she took in a deep breath. "I just want our performance to be good. We only have three weeks to go."

Reina gave her a fresh bottle of water, which she quickly opened and started drinking. Her unit member sat down next to her, although both of them stared at the wall in front of them. "You're improving steadily, what matters is that you don't do anything to mess up that progress."

Hana pulled her legs up to her chest. "Do you really think so?"

"You've always been able to sing, and now that you can perform in front of a crowd, you only need to worry about your dancing. "

"Shouldn't that mean I have to work harder to catch up to you and Akari?"

Reina looked at her. "Kanagawa-san, isn't exhaustion what happened to your last partner?"

"Yes?" Hana responded. It was a sudden question, but all of Triple Point knew about her last attempts at being an idol now. It wasn't anything for her to be ashamed of.

"This is early to say, but don't let that happen to yourself, too," Reina told her. "We remember the past so we don't repeat it."

"I guess you're right…"

This was the longest conversation the two ever had with each other. Reina was still a person of little words, so she eventually stood up and walked over to get her phone. "I don't mind if you stay, but try not to block where I'm dancing."

Hana got up to move. "Right, sorry, I was just still catching my breath." She went to open the door and bowed before leaving. "Good work today, Reina-san."

After getting her bag and changing back into her school uniform in the locker room, she went to the rooftop to write a little bit in her diary before going home. This time, she took the elevator to the third floor instead of taking the stairs the entire way.

The sun was setting over the "7 6 5" sign on the building as she opened the door to the roof. The next thing that she noticed was a new flower bed amongst the growing garden that different girls had been cultivating in the past few weeks. When she walked up to see it, she saw a note hanging off of the edge of the bed saying, "Please don't touch!" in neat cursive handwriting. Nothing was growing out of it yet, but the fresh soil let her know that something had to have been growing in there.

Hana let go of the note and took a few steps back. She assumed it was placed there by Midori Ayumi since Reina mentioned that she'd been up there earlier. At the moment, there wasn't any sign of the 15-year-old florist anywhere.

She walked over to some of the other flower beds that were there with her, taking a look at the rainbow of multicolored petals around her that were in various stages of bloom. Her favorite ones up there were a handful of daisies that fit in a space half as wide as she was tall. She crouched down to take a closer look at the tiny white petals, taking in some of the fresh, green smell of the flowers.

They were the same type of flowers that reminded her of her favorite love story: the day her parents first met. After hearing about it years ago, they became her favorite type of flower, too.

Hana turned her head away from the greenery when she heard someone opening the door. She saw the person exiting soon after when they tripped from pushing too hard on the handle and fell onto the roof floor.

"Ow, ow, ow," the new arrival said.

Hana ran over to help her off of the ground, seeing that the visitor was today's lesson instructor, Amami Haruka. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be alright, I'm used to falling!"

"Amami-senpai, what are you doing up here?" Hana asked her.

"Since I haven't been to the new office yet, I wanted to see what everything was like," Haruka explained. She took Hana's hand as the pink-haired idol helped get her back on her feet. "Thanks for the help, Kanagawa-san," she said, rubbing some of her brown hair at the back of her head. She sounded a little embarrassed.

"What do you think?"

"It's a lot bigger!" Haruka responded. Hana had never been to 765 Productions' original office, so she had to take her word on it. She watched as her senior walked around, looking at the sunset and all of the plants around them before turning to look at her. "Do you come up here often?"

Hana nodded. "I like to write in my diary up here. Usually, when practices are over, it's nice and quiet."

"So would I, if my rooftop was this pretty!"

Hana remembered something that she wanted to know from the top idol. "Amami-senpai, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure!" Haruka responded cheerfully.

Hana could only assume what her senior had been through to get to this point, what struggles her senior might have endured becoming the top idol that she was today. They couldn't talk back when they were on the TV show together, so this was a second chance for her to ask.

She had to speak now in case they didn't meet again.

"What do you cherish the most about being an idol?" Hana asked.

The 17-year-old looked surprised. "Huh?"

"I'm sorry if it's sudden of me, but you've been an idol for so long, and you've done so many things I can only dream about doing one day…" Hana's words came quickly out of her mouth while her voice trailed off at the end of her sentence. She took a deep breath, resolved to say her question without being shy about it. "I just want to know what makes you work as hard as you do."

Haruka didn't respond as she walked around some of the elevated flower beds. The senior idol stopped to look at the tulips growing in front of her, taking a few moments to think about how to answer. Her green eyes looked lost in thought as she seemed to sort through millions of memories in an instant.

A small smile appeared on her face under the light of the setting sun when she finally found an answer. "I keep working because of my friends at 765."

"I can understand that," Hana responded. She smiled when she thought of how Ayaka and Akari helped her perform two weeks ago. "I'm happy to have friends helping me along the way, too."

"But the All-Stars and Million Stars aren't all," Haruka said. She walked over to Hana, clutching her hand between her own. "I want to be friends with the NeoStars, too!"

Hana was surprised by the sudden contact. When she looked at Haruka, her senior had a rare look of determination on her face, her green eyes filled with resolve. "765 is more than the 52 idols who paved the path for you to get here. You're here to turn into dreams for the next generation of idols, too!"

Hana nodded, not knowing how to exactly respond to the All-Star's optimism. "Do… do you really think so?" she asked.

"Of course!" Haruka responded with a big smile. She let go of Hana's hand as she walked in the direction of the sunset and the building's "7 6 5" sign. The pink-haired idol followed her senior's footsteps to the edge of the roof. Although, when they both looked over the street below them, Hana took a step back as she felt her stomach drop.

"Are you bad with heights?" Haruka asked her.

Hana nodded, but she moved back to be next to Haruka. "I'll be okay."

It was a gut reaction to turn back immediately, but she felt safe being next to her. The two of them sat under the 7, feet dangling from the rooftop.

"This reminds me of the theater," Haruka said out loud, looking into the distance.

"I've never been on the roof before…" Hana said out loud.

"You're always welcome to visit!" Haruka smiled. "Tell your friends in the Supernova Project, too!"

"I will."

"I talked to one of your unit members before she left, she seemed really nice."

"Akari?"

Haruka nodded. "She's going to be performing at the theater soon, isn't she?"

"Next week," Hana answered. She looked up above the sunset, starting to look around for some of the first stars to show up in the sky. "This week will be Reina-san's turn."

"Do you speak a lot with her?"

"Not as much as I want to," Hana admitted. "I try, but sometimes she's too busy thinking about practice…" she looked over to Haruka. "Did you ever have a coworker like that?"

The All-Star put a finger to her cheek as she tried to think. "Everyone works towards their dream in different ways," she started to say. "But only when you get close enough to them is when you start to see where you're both coming from."

"One day, then…"

Hana initially became an idol because her parents asked her to audition, and it wasn't until a few weeks ago that she finally found her reason to stay as one. Now, she wanted to be an idol because of the promises she made to everyone who helped her become one. Plus, the fun she was having again after so long was a feeling she almost forgot about, and she didn't want to let go of it now.

She just felt so small being next to someone like Haruka. Hana hadn't even seen her perform yet, like with Shiho during this practice, but something about the way this conversation was going made it clear that this girl was the center of 765 Productions. Idols were more than the person who they were on stage. There were countless hours of dedication that led up to those moments in front of an audience that most people would never know about. Not only that, but they also radiated their brightness to others in simple conversations just like this.

Right now, Hana was getting inspiration to do her best in this upcoming mini-live. As the two of them enjoyed the summer evening together, Hana wondered if her senior knew about how much of an effect her words had on people.

After a few moments, Haruka stood up, making sure not to hit her head on the sign. "Kanagawa-san, it was nice meeting you today."

Hana stood up too, bowing in response. "Thank you for taking the time to help us out today."

Haruka simply smiled in response. "Of course!"

They waved to each other as the All-Star left the rooftop. With hopefully no more unannounced visitors, Hana sat down at one of the benches and pulled out her blue star diary from her school bag. She used her phone light to find a pen in her bag and started today's entry when she found something to write with.

She tried a few times to hold her phone while also holding the diary open and attempting to write at the same time. She squinted as she tried to read what her last entry said now that the natural light from the sun was nearly gone and light from her phone was all that remained.

After a few, sloppy attempts at writing, she closed the book and put everything back into her school bag. She'd have to try again later during the train ride back to her apartment, but she didn't regret needing to do so. Like every day in being an idol, today was memorable, and she wanted to write everything down so she wouldn't forget about it.

Tonight was no exception. After everything that had happened today, she had even more things than normal to write down.