Chapter Text
Shizuku’s heart squeezed as she looked through the room full of trainees, just like her. Some of them were older than her, some younger, but she was somehow one of the tallest. Even sitting with everyone, she stood out like that.
But they were all there for the same reason. And that was some sort of comfort.
“Thank you all for gathering,” one of the managers said, bowing to the group of girls. Without waiting for a response, he steamrolled on. “As you know, we’ve chosen the lineups for our two new debut groups, QT and Cheerful*Days. We’ve had many people apply to become just trainees, so that you got this far should be something to be proud of. However, if your name is called for either lineup, you’ll of course need to work even harder than you did before.”
Shizuku took a deep breath, all the other trainees waiting for the manager to shuffle through the papers and hopefully call their names. Honestly, she was only a little worried; in a way, she wasn’t as invested as the other trainees, since her friend had submitted her for trainee auditions as a sort of joke. But there she was, waiting to see if she was one of the lucky ones to debut.
“First, QT’s lineup.” The manager listed off names one after another, hardly pausing to breathe. Only one stood out for Shizuku: Airi Momoi. Shizuku hadn’t had the chance to talk to her yet but she knew that the other girl was incredibly dedicated. A spitfire, of sorts. It made sense to Shizuku that she would be in one of the debut lineups.
“Hey, Shizuku! He just called your name!” One of the other trainees elbowed Shizuku, who startled. Opposite the now-finalized lineup of QT stood the other debut members of Cheerful*Days—and she was going to be among them.
She scrambled to her feet, standing next to the other members. On the manager’s other side, Airi was looking right at her. Something curious was written in her expression. Shizuku smiled at her warmly. She looked away, back at the other trainees.
“—and that’s it,” the manager said, folding the papers he’d come in with. “Everyone else is dismissed. I’ll be back momentarily to discuss logistics.”
The manager left the room, followed by the reluctant and downtrodden trainees who weren’t picked for either group. Shizuku felt bad for them; all of them were incredibly talented. Surely they would debut soon enough; they had to.
“Hey.” Shizuku looked to her left; Airi was standing right there, her fluffy pink hair tied with yellow ribbons. The other girls still in the room were making hushed small talk. “You’re Shizuku, right? I’m Airi. We’ll be debuting around the same time, so that makes us rivals, plain and simple!”
Shizuku blinked once, then smiled again. “Is that so? I look forward to it, then!”
Something in her heart shifted then. Her words would surely give them a good future as fellow idols.