"That smells great! What are you making?"

The third-year grinned from his place at the frying pan, the smell of baked goods mixing with the scent of fried rice and creating something else they couldn't quite place their finger on.

"Cookies!" Evi replied, taking a seat by the oven and switching on her phone. "They're really fun to make, and I could share them with Haruki during practice. His choreography is tough, so sugar would help to give us energy!"

"Sounds good," Kazura grinned, pushing the rice around for a little longer before switching off the fire. "Hey, could you teach me how to make chocolates sometime? Telescope's participating in the Valentine's Live and we wanted to do something special. I only know how to cook, so..."

"Chocolates..." His junior thought for a few seconds. "Sure! I don't make them often, but I can still bake them just fine. I'll get some ingredients and we can do it next club meeting, OK?"

"Thanks," the teenager laughed. "Hey, do you want some of my rice in return? I made way too much and Telescope won't be able to finish all of this."

Evi's eyes lit up as she grabbed a spoon from the nearby drawer. "I'd love to! Could I take some for Haruki and Seiun too?"

Kazura nodded, bringing out the tupperware container he'd brought along and spooning a portion of the rice into the box. "Take as much as you want. I'm pretty sure this would be able to feed your entire class or something."

"I'll help myself, then!" She hummed as she closed her lunchbox with a grin. "I'll bring the ingredients next week, so tell me what type of chocolate you want to make before then!"

"Alright!" Kazura yelled after her, waving as she closed the door to the kitchen behind her. "Though I wouldn't be able to make anything very complicated..."

—

"I went to the art club by accident," Hayato sighed. "It would have been good if I'd gotten someone to join my unit, but they all refused!"

"That sucks," Sou mumbled, continuing to take down notes from the previous lesson. He wasn't really focusing on the one-sided conversation, but it was common courtesy to at least make vague noises to show one's interest.

The shorter boy rested his head in his arms. "Still, the seniors were all great! Jhorna's really collected, Carin's friendly and Seiun seems cool!"

That piqued his interest a little. "Carin's in Zankyou, right? And Seiun was in Stellarium."

Hayato tilted his head at that. "What?"

"I went to one of Zankyou's lives before," Sou replied, twirling his pen between his fingers as he spoke. "They had a lot of skill. Stellarium disbanded after last year's Dream Tournament, but they were a popular unit that Telescope drew inspiration from."

"Wow," the first-year breathed. "I never knew about all of that. You sure are well-informed, Sou!"

"No, it was because I started performing in middle school..." He shook his head. "Regardless, I'm having a little trouble composing, so perhaps I should ask one of them. I wouldn't want Telescope to turn out like a copy of Stellarium, so having a Zankyou member's input would be helpful."

The red-haired boy grinned. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but it looks fun! Good luck with everything!"

Sou sighed as their next teacher walked into the classroom. "Thanks."

—

"Hello? Is this the art club?"

Sou waited for a few moments, and he started to think that the club didn't have activities that day, but the door creaked open to reveal a face behind it.

"Well, it looks like we have another first-year visitor," the black-haired girl announced, letting him in and turning to face the rest of the club. "Is there anything you need?"

"I'm Natsume Sou from 1-A and I'm in the unit Telescope." He figured he had to introduce himself to the confused second-years. "Um, if it doesn't inconvenience you, I heard about you from my classmate and wanted to ask you some things about composing."

Carin waved at the younger boy. "I'm a lyricist, but I can pass on your message to Kawarau. It depends if I remember, though."

Seiun ignored him for a few moments, choosing to focus on her laptop instead, but she turned to him in the end. "What do you want?"

"It's just that..." he trailed off. "I used to be in an idol in middle school and my unit's theme is completely different than what I'm used to. Since you used to be in Stellarium and the themes are similar, I thought I could ask how your unit composed."

"I wasn't involved in Stellarium's songs," Seiun stated. "Our performances were created by the third years, but you may not want to base your performances off us...personally, I enjoyed the unit, but I know others who weren't content with it. "

"But you created songs that pleased the audience, right?" He was confused, but if he needed to bullshit his way through to get what he wanted, he would keep making things up as he went.

The second-year blinked. "I have no idea."

Next to her, Jhorna leant over and whispered something in her ear—it sounded like "be nice", but he couldn't be sure and he didn't care either way.

"I know a bit about composing, but I'm not sure I could be of much help," the other student replied. "I'm still busy with starting a unit and everything. Either way, you could try looking for Trevor in 3-B. He's much more experienced."

Sou hadn't heard of the boy before—he assumed that Trevor had been in a unit that hadn't been able to make it to the Dream Tournament or something—but if his senior had recommended him, maybe he would try asking.

"Thank you," he replied, even though he wasn't sure they had helped with anything much.

Seiun had turned back to her laptop, as if having forgotten that the first-year even existed, and Carin moved over to point out a mistake in one of the lines. Jhorna shot him an apologetic smile as she moved to open the door for him again.

As he walked out and embraced the smell of fresh air once again, he let out a sigh.

—

"So, I was wondering. Do you think pigeons have feelings?"

Seiun paused for a moment, turning to stare at Haruki with the most disgusted expression she could muster before returning to the piano. "What the hell."

"Besides that, you've been holing up in the piano room for the past week." The white-haired boy handed her a box. "You're not only inconveniencing everyone who wants to use it, but I don't think it's very healthy for someone to spend so much time there. Evi made you cookies."

"If Evi wanted to give me cookies, why did she send you here...?"

Haruki shrugged. "A peace offering. What do you even play all day?"

"Haruki Is A Piece Of Shit," the girl replied, moving her fingers and bashing them against the ivory keys of the instrument as loud as she could. When the boy didn't reply, she sighed. "Whatever comes to mind. It gives me motivation to work on your shitty lyrics."

"That reminds me," the President said. "Evi wrote the song when she thought you were joining. We need a soprano for some parts of the song."

"Then change the song, I don't care." Seiun started playing a tune that was suspiciously similar to Knights' Silent Oath. "Besides, I'm an alto. I can't hit high notes."

"Your only solo in Stellarium's last performance was that whistle-register note."

The melody changed to something from Love Live! he couldn't recognise. "So what? Why should I join your unit?"

"I'll get you milk tea."

Seiun's eyes remained on the piano. "Tempting, but I can just get it myself."

"Milk tea with tofu," Haruki added.

Seiun stopped playing. "I'm joining."

She then realised what she'd just said and started playing another song with renewed anger, and it almost made the boy laugh. "I didn't know it would be so easy to get you to join."

"Says the one who doesn't realise what's been following him for the past day," Seiun shot back, and she got up with the barest hint of a smirk gracing her face.

"Huh?" He took a moment to glance upwards, and it was then that he saw an image hovering above him—and the more he looked at it, the more it seemed to resemble the shit emoji he'd seen on his phone's keyboard before.

The third-year sighed. "So, are you joining?"

"I'll never find another unit like Stellarium," Seiun bit back. "That's a pity. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to join a unit without comparing it to that. Besides, you know I hate you."

"I know you hate me," Haruki answered. "But Evi's been looking forward to everything, and you're one of her best friends. Even if you hate me, both of us want you to join our unit. Do it for Evi."

"Stop putting words in Evi's mouth," the girl complained. "I'm already doing the lyrics. Isn't that enough?"

Haruki shook his head. "I asked you to form a unit with me, remember? Your seniors never brought out your potential, and I was thinking that—"

"Don't talk shit about Stellarium," Seiun warned. "I don't care about whatever potential anyone has. I'm not aiming to become the best idol. I'm just here to fulfil a goal. I'm not here to listen to fake philosophical speeches by someone who was a unitless douche by his second year."

"Ah." It took Haruki a few moments to realise. "I'm the person who's giving the fake philosophical speech."

"That wasn't the point."

Seiun stood up and pushed the piano chair back with more force than she needed too, and she gathered up her sheet music within moments. "I'll send Evi the lyrics by tonight, so stop pestering me. I'll consider joining if it doesn't take too much effort."

"So you'll consider it—"

The door slammed shut before he could speak.

—

"I got another member for my unit! Can you believe it!"

Jhorna was the complete opposite of her usual, calm self—her eyes were sparkling, and it was the good kind of sparkle Evi looked for when she went to see live shows. "He's a third-year, but he saw the notice I was putting up and was interested!"

"That's great!" Evi enthused, shoving a cookie into her friend's mouth before she could protest. "Have you met up with him yet?"

"Not yet." The second-year's words came out muffled as she took a bite out of the biscuit. "But we'll be having our first practice tomorrow. Carin and Seiun heard about it and put together some kind of grotesque-looking poster for me. Seriously, those two airheads..."

"They're sweet, though," the shorter girl replied. "I can't wait for your first live! Tell me when it is so I can book front row seats, alright!"

Jhorna laughed at her classmate's overexcited response. "We haven't gotten that far yet, but I definitely will!"

—

"Did Kazura run off to unit practice again?"

Kawarau sighed as he inspected the stack of paperwork before him—he was supposed to have been done half an hour ago, but there had been more to do than expected. He'd had to shoot a text to Carin and hope that the other boy received his message.

"I think it's excusable this time." Trevor smiled from his place at one of the other desk, trying to sort out whatever bills they had to sort out. "Telescope has to rush preparations in time for the Valentine's Live, after all."

"That means it's just the two of us again," the second-year grumbled. "I bet Haruki fell asleep again."

"Cheer up," his senior offered tentatively, but it was clear that they were both bummed out at the workload. "We'll get through it, uh, sometime."

Kawarau buried his face in his arms. "Evening or night?"

"If Haruki wakes up, I think we could aim for evening."

—

okay but cooking/baking club is so?? pure??? can we just have the whole book be about cooking club

okay so!!! poll results!! thank you for the 51 responses even though there were multiple rankings HAHA

the full ranking will be shown, but only the vote count for the top 3 will be shown! the top 2 places will get--fake idol game screenshots HAHA it's just a sprite and edit of their character along with a quote probably

(there were so many plot twists for this one)

1. Sou (12 votes)

2. Carin (7 votes)

3. Aerien/Haruki/Seiun (6 votes)

6. Evi/Kazura

8. Hayato/Trevor

11. Jhorna/Kawarau

the new characters i received will make their debut when i get enough of them for all the current units!!