The girl took a moment to admire the building before passing through the rusted black of school gates.

Before she could take a deep breath or start to follow the plot of a slice-of-life shoujo anime, she broke into a sprint and narrowly avoided crashing into what looked like the shape of a third year.

"Hell yeah!" she shouted, earning a few well-deserved glances from tired students who wanted nothing more than to sleep. "Back to school! Back to Tengoku!"

Her bubble of joy was interrupted when she ran into the first-year classroom by accident, catching the attention of the new students who were already confused enough—and she muttered an apology before dashing out again.

"Ah, I forgot that I'm not a first-year anymore..." The teenager trailed off, glancing at the stairs and trudging upstairs in a state of embarrassment. "Oh well! I have no idea who my classmates are this year, but I'm sure they can't be totally evil."

She flung open the door to the right classroom this time, spotting some students from the general course, and she was only able to recognise a few of her fellow friends that were in the idol course.

"Seiun!" the girl exclaimed, making her way over to her classmate's desk. The girl's head was collapsed on the surface as she fiddled with her phone in a disinterested manner, but she was oblivious to that.

"...can you be quiet, Evi?" Seiun sighed, raising her head slightly to peer at the idol before lowering it again. "It's seven in the morning and I'm trying to rank for a Ritsu card."

Evi bounced on her feet, delighted that the girl had actually bothered to respond. "Ensemble Stars again?"

"So what?" the girl defended, swiping a few buttons and burying her head in her arms. "Whatever. I'm going to sleep, so wake me up when class starts."

"You trust me with waking you up now?" she gasped. "You didn't even talk to me last year! This is a miracle!"

"...what?"

—

Evi forgot to wake Seiun up.

Instead, another classmate—Jhorna or something—tapped on the girl's shoulder, and Seiun never glanced in her direction for the rest of their first two classes.

When recess came, she leapt to her feet, eager to get back to pestering her friend, but Jhorna was already perching on top of the student's table as both of them scrolled through messages she couldn't make out.

"What unit are you joining?" Jhorna asked, voice gentle as she peered down at the other girl's phone. "You're not in anything now, are you?"

"My old unit disbanded," Seiun replied. "So yeah, I don't have a unit."

The black-haired girl gave her a smile. "You got any offers? I'm starting my own unit, so you could join mine if you wanted to."

"I'll consider that," she mumbled. "I've gotten offers from chamomile and Milky Way, but I'm not particularly inclined to joining them. Chamomile only wants me because my old unit placed third in the Dream Tournament."

Jhorna tilted her head. "They're both pretty new, aren't they?"

"Yeah," the student replied, and she gazed out of the window for a good few seconds as she pretended to pay attention to the conversation. "I don't know anyone there."

"Hmm..." Her friend trailed off as she looked at the emails Seiun had received. "Hey, isn't that another offer? Why are you deleting it?"

"It's not worth looking at."

Jhorna's eyes widened. "Hang on, it says it's from the Student Council President."

"No, I saw Shithead Asshole. You must be looking at it wrongly."

Seiun tried to stare out of the window again, but her chair scraped against concrete as she noticed a figure flying down to one of the lower floors.

"Swap seats with me, Evi," the girl uttered. "I'm not going to go through this shit for the rest of the year."

"The Student Council President can fly?" Evi was fascinated, and she wasted no time into sliding into her classmate's chair. "I want to see that every day—it'll perk me right up no matter up! Are you sure you don't want your old seat?"

Seiun stared at her with an irritated look. "I would willingly engage in active conversation with you every day if it meant I didn't have to see Shithead Asshole again."

"I'm always up for active conversation—wait, you don't want to do that on a regular basis?" Evi pouted. "You're so mean!"

Another few moments passed before her classmates finally processed her words. "I mean, it's not because of you!" she protested. "I just don't like people in general. You should get that."

"Aw, so you don't hate me?" She regained her cheery personality in no time at all. "I love you too, Seiun!"

"But I never said I loved you?"

"I can feel it!"

—

"Oh, you're here, Haruki. Please use the door next time."

Aerien looked up from the book he was reading to see the boy open the window, giving him a nod in greeting.

"I was sorting out things in the Student Council room," the student countered, seating himself in his chair and getting ready for class.

"Right, you're the new President, aren't you?" His classmate gave him a smile, copying the other boy's actions and digging out a chemistry textbook. "I think I voted for you. Are you coping well with your new duties?"

Haruki stared straight ahead. "No."

"Well, good luck with everything!" Aerien continued. "I'm not part of the council, but I'd be free to help if you need anything."

"You could do my paperwork."

The boy laughed nervously. "You have a great sense of humour as usual, Haruki!"

The President didn't even spare him a second glance. "I'm not joking."

Aerien wanted to keep the conversation going, but the bell rang then and their teacher entered the classroom—and he had no choice but to shut up and start focusing on the lesson.

—

Haruki frowned when one of his cameras didn't return to him by the time he'd planned for it to.

The device reappeared a few moments later, however; it sailed through an open window with a piece of paper attached to it.

A note?

He set the camera down on the table, prying the paper off it and unfolding it to take a look at the short message scrawled inside.

stop stalking me you weirdo asshole go find someone else that actually likes you and would join your stupid ass unit

The boy frowned at that—he didn't have the energy to deal with it, but he didn't want to have to form a group with a bunch of ragtag, incompetent idols just before the Dream Tournament. He didn't have any choice in the matter.

Sighing, Haruki switched his phone on, taking the time to collect his daily diamond from Ensemble Stars before sending his junior another message.

please i'm desperate,,, can we at least meet at the fountain to discuss

A few seconds passed before his phone rung in response.

do you have any idea how far the fountain is from the piano room do you want to fight because i do

What had he done to get her so worked up? He'd seen her performing at the tournament last year—she'd been the epitome of calmness and that was why he was contacting her in the first place. Had his stalking go too far?

i can go to the piano room then

God, he could almost sense the irritation the next time his phone vibrated.

no are you dumb i never agreed in the first place

Haruki got to his feet with a great deal of reluctance—if he remembered correctly, the piano room was on the floor below the Student Council room. He'd have to spend more than a few minutes walking there; curse the school for putting the music rooms near the second year classrooms.

It was the last thing he wanted to do.

—

It turned out that Seiun wasn't alone, but it was just as well, because he recognised the other girl she was with.

"So it's A flat, right?" The indigo-haired girl pressed the corresponding key before playing out a few seconds of music. "Is this OK?"

"Hm..." Evi—that was her name, right?—thought for a few seconds before responding. "Try G instead. I think that'll make it more sparkly."

Her classmate played once more, and he could see Evi's eyes light up from where he was standing. "Yeah, that's it! I think we're done now, thanks so much!"

"I mean, I had free time..." Seiun trailed off as her gaze wandered to the door. "Give me a minute. I saw a rat, so I'll just go take care of it."

With that, she made her way to the door, her tired exterior morphing into something much sharper as she shut it behind her and glared at the student lingering outside. "How long have you been standing there? I told you no."

"We hardly even talked last year." Haruki was genuinely puzzled, but he tried not to let it show. "Why do you hate me?"

"That doesn't even matter!" she bit back. "You're creepy as shit and you don't even deserve the position as President, so don't try to get me and join like your status means everything. You were unitless for a year, so what makes you better than a piece of self-entitled human turd?"

"You never answered my question."

"I told you it doesn't matter." Seiun had calmed down a little. "And even if I didn't hate you, what makes you so different from the other two groups who want me to join?"

Haruki pondered the question for a short while. "Nothing."

"God, you're hopeless," the girl exclaimed, and let herself back into the piano room. "Hey, since she actually admires you, why don't you ask Evi to join your unit?"

The president didn't blink. "I don't know anything about her singing and dance capabilities, but I could consider that."

"Ooh, you were talking with the president?" Evi bounced to her feet and yelled from where she was in the room. "Ah, you actually do talk about me, Seiun! And by the way, Prez, I'd be down to join your unit, whatever it's called!"

Haruki smiled. "Why aren't you more like that?"

"It's because she's oblivious to how much of a jerk you are," Seiun grumbled. "She'll want to leave two days after you've formed your silly unit."

"But you don't have a unit," the President pointed out. "So you should join us."

The girl exhaled. "You know what?" she managed to say between gritted teeth. "I'm joining Milky Way. I'll tell them that I'm free to meet up tomorrow."

"You can't, Seiun!" Evi begged, latching on to the girl's arm. "I've always, always wanted to form a unit with you! In fact, I was going to ask if you could help write lyrics to the song I'm working on, and then we can include Prez!"

"That would work out," Haruki agreed. "My field of expertise is choreography, so we would have most things covered."

"And you think I would want to write lyrics for a rat?"

Evi continued to tug on her classmate's sleeve. "But he seems like a nice enough person! Wouldn't it be fun to be in a unit again?"

"I'm not here for fun," Seiun complained.

"That settles it." Haruki clapped his hands together and ignored his junior's protests. "I'll fill in a form when I get back to the Student Council Room."

"Fill it in for you and Evi. I couldn't care less about your circus act." Seiun grabbed her bag from the corner and made her way out of the piano room without a second glance. "I'm going to that stupid club meeting because I can't stand the both of you."

With that, she was gone.

—

"Are you alright?"

The boy next to her tilted his head, staring at the half-formed image above his club member's head. If he squinted, he could make out the form of an angry face swirling in the air. "Your magic doesn't indicate that you're very happy."

"No, I'm fine. Fine as wine." Seiun squashed the projection and turned back to her work. "I'm just thinking about something."

When her phone beeped and it was Evi sending her a Garageband file—and pleading for her to help with the lyrics—she wanted nothing more than to throw herself off the nearest building.

—

stab haruki

you can still submit (pls do) im just writing the first chapter lolol

also vote for your favourite character so far in the inline comment here hoho it will decide,,,things™