Ch 06: Will You Cheer For Me?

Kissiks had been practicing as a group for a few months now.

They'd released three covers to their Hivideo channels since 'The Dawn', none of which Airi and surprisingly no additional songs by 5year.

There had been more fights between Juri and Minami since then too.

Juri would tell them they would do a song, they would record it, and Juri would replace the document last minute with new lyrics for them to do a different song, then claim she didn't know what happened to the previous, but since the lyrics were already gone, they might as well scrap it.

Saki didn't seem to mind and just recorded whatever she was given. Although, she and Juri did have their first fight as well when Juri switched a solo with Saki, and took the one Saki had really wanted.

That had resulted in Minami receiving a boat load of texts from Saki like, "My beloved leader! I'm so sorry!" "My super leader, I know how you felt now." "Leader please save me!!!!" "Leader, my precious Minami, my perfect idol, please do something about this…"

Which also in turn caused a rift between Minami and Saki since Minami couldn't do anything to persuade or talk to Juri.

Despite all of the internal fights and arguments, they'd gained a steady following in that time, although it was nothing hugely significant.

A whopping total of 400 followers is more than they could've imagined reality would bless them with.

Minami managed to set up a performance for them at a small venue as the opening act for a Net-idol group called Carrot Star.

They were relatively big online, gaining a large following very quickly, although they weren't with an agency and didn't have the finances to fund a large scale concert.

It was thanks to their humble beginnings and Minami's friendly demeanor that they decided to help out a fellow up and coming group in need and select them as their opening act.

Kissiks would be performing "Only My Love" by 5year, which Minami was ecstatic about. They'd gone shopping and purchased form fitting black dresses.

All of the stress from the fights with Juri and the constant threats of having all their work deleted had caused Minami to gain some weight and she felt self-conscious in her costume. It also didn't help when Juri laughed at her when she came out of the dressing room.

The dresses were plain, but Minami returned home and did some DIY work.

She hot glued long red ribbons across the upper body of the dress and added rhinestone details to them to give them an extra shine. She tried her costume on and added a belt around the waist and looped some tule around it to give it some more umph and appear more stage worthy.

Minami sent both Juri and Saki the line distribution, informing both of them that she was in charge of it, no ifs ands or buts in order to ensure that no little switcheroo stunts would occur like had happened in the past.

She also learned the choreography to "Only My Love" and edited it to accommodate for three people, added in audience interactions and changed some steps here and there to make it flow better between the three of them as well as to go with the solos each of them had been given.

She then filmed herself doing each person's part and sent it to them to learn on their own before coming to practice. She found a dance studio which she rented until the performance date so they could have a quality practice and see themselves in the mirrors.

However, they ended up only practicing together a total of three times.

Juri kept missing practices all together saying things like, "Next time, next time," or "Something came up today, I can't make it, sorry." While Saki just laid around saying, "Can't we do this later? Can't we just do something else instead?" We know all of 5year's songs by heart, why do we need to practice?"

The concert was rapidly approaching and Minami begged the two of them to show up for practice.

"You guys, we're going to look really stupid if we don't practice together! We're going to be performing LIVE, I don't know how you can be okay with not practicing, we need all of the practice we can get." Minami pleaded.

"It's going to be fine! We don't need to!" Saki brushed her off, waving her hand in the air.

"We DO need to! This is edited choreography, it's not the original like you learned before!" Minami slid her fingers into her hair and grabbed at clumps near her scalp. She felt like she was losing her mind trying to reason with them.

"You sent us the video! It's going to be fine, stop worrying so much! I'll learn it on my own like I learned the other choreography!" Saki smiled and laughed like nothing was wrong.

★ ★ ★

"Thanks for coming you guys." Minami stood in the middle of the dance studio, Akina and Naoto sitting on the floor in front of the mirrors.

"Of course!" Akina smiled and waved a cheap yellow lightstick in the air.

"I'm here for the free entertainment!" Naoto joked, clapping his hands in an encouraging manner.

"Okay, can one of you hit play when I say go?" Minami got in her starting pose.

"I'll do it!" Akina grabbed Minami's phone that was on the floor next to her.

It was synced with the speakers in the room and Minami had created a custom instrumental of the song that only played the instrumental during her solos and the original mp3 with Saki and Juri's.

That way, she could properly sing her solos and keep on track without the two of them there.

"Okay, go!" Minami shouted and Akina promptly hit play.

The music started and Minami immediately turned on her charm, singing and dancing her heart out.

"And you are my only love! Only my love! Perfect immunity~"

She winked at the two of them acting like they were audience members and looked around the rest of the room to make sure she didn't practice only looking at two people.

Akina and Naoto played their parts perfectly, fist pumping and shouting her name as she performed. Akina waved her lightstick high in the air to the beat and Naoto did the same with his invisible one.

Minami ended the song, stumbling a bit on the final pose. Akina and Naoto applauded so loud that they were sure everyone else in the building would be able to hear them.

"How was that?" Minami asked as she took deep breaths, trying to steady her breathing.

"You were A LITTLE off around the second verse pitch wise and your choreography seemed to be a beat behind, but I think it was really great other than that!" Akina said with a big smile on her face.

Minami nodded and did a dry practice of that portion, humming the tune as she danced it.

"Lower. Go a little lower on the second part." Akina instructed.

Minami repeated it, applying Akina's advice. It took her a few times to find the pitch and get the timing of her steps correctly, but she eventually nailed it.

"Perfect! Now, try it with the whole song!"

They hit play and Minami repeated the performance, once again stumbling on her ending pose.

"Here, do it like this." Naoto stood up and stood behind her, "Do it again?"

Minami did it again, stumbling like she did every other time. "He grabbed her waist and shifted it to the side, "You're leaning, keep your waist straight."

He proceeded to slide his hand down her leg and steadied her with one hand while lifting her foot and pulling it into a point. "Like this. Try it like that, got it?" he looked up at her but she couldn't look back, her face was fire red from blushing.

"Mhmm!" she responded quickly, wanting him to let go so she could calm herself down. He returned to his seat next to Akina and they played the song once again.

Minami ended the performance as Naoto had instructed her and ended the final pose flawlessly.

"YEAH! You got it!" Naoto yelled and held two thumbs up.

Minami smiled and rubbed the back of her head, "Thanks for helping!"

"No problem!"

"Do you guys mind if we run through it a few more times just so I can make sure I've got it down?"

"Go for it!" Naoto waved his invisible lightstick in the air, "I'm ready!"

"Yep, that's what we're here for!" Akina hit play again and Minami went through the routine again and again.

By the time they were done, Minami was hunched over, hands on her knees, sweat dripping from her face, and breathing hard.

However, her work had paid off and she had done a perfect run through of it the last six times.

Naoto patted her on the back, "You did great! I think you're due for a good rest now. Are you satisfied?"

Minami shook her head, "I feel like I'm still not prepared enough…. I want to run through it again!"

Akina stared in shock, "Are you kidding? I think you're going to peel over…"

Naoto laughed, "Noooo, you're done. Come on, there will plenty of time to practice later. You did great, end on a good note."