"Well."

Evi blinked as she took a look at the document that Seiun had emailed her the day before. "Is it just me, or is this way deeper than I intended the song to be?"

"Let me see," Haruki replied, peering at his unitmate's phone as he took a drink from his water bottle. He took a few moments to lower the brightness before reading. "There's a lot of imagery in it, if that's what you're talking about."

"Yeah, she even put in flower language..." Evi trailed off, unsure what to make of the lyrics. "I mean, it's really good, but I hadn't even thought about the theme of the song. Then again, I shouldn't have expected her to write something more sparkly."

The third-year closed his bottle and shrugged. "You can always ask her to change them if you're not satisfied, right?"

"I really like it, but I'm not sure if it would fit our debut song," Evi groaned. "Besides, I don't want to ask her to change it so close to the deadline when she's not even in our unit."

"About that," Haruki pointed out. "I talked to her about it. She told me that she would consider joining."

The second-year's eyes lit up. "Really? What did you say?"

"I bribed her with tofu and milk tea," the boy hummed. "It was surprisingly easy."

"That's smart," she exhaled. "I should have thought of that. Anyway, are you done with the choreography? We can practice with these lyrics first."

"I finished it," he mumbled, digging around in his bag and emerging with a crumpled sheet of paper. "Ah, I think I brought the wrong stack. I'll float the right ones here, so just take a break for another few minutes or something."

The teenager nodded, taking another muffin out and offering one to her friend. Haruki accepted the treat readily, peeling off the wrapper and cupping his hands together to catch the crumbs that threatened to spill.

"I've been meaning to ask," Haruki said between bites, "how did you get to know Seiun? You two were never particularly close in first year. I'm just asking this because you two seem friendly enough for her to help out with this."

"The Dream Tournament, of course!" Evi's eyes lit up. "I was unitless, so I never got to go, but when I saw that one of my classmates was able to get up there, I knew I could do it too!"

"That doesn't answer my question, but that's a good goal," the third-year agreed. "After all, the Dream Tournament is the pinnacle of all the festivals held by the school. It almost guarantees excellent job offers after graduation if you do well."

The girl grinned. "You participated once, right?"

"Sometime back in first year," Haruki replied, but a frown crossed his face at that memory. "My old unit made it through the qualifiers, but we didn't get very far."

"Still, you got to go," she whined. "Let's aim for the tournament this year!"

The boy beside her laughed and nodded. "Sure."

—

"Why are we doing this again...?"

"Don't ask me," Seiun replied, fidgeting with one of her gloves and reluctantly standing still. "Jhorna said there was work for us, and we get to skip school for this, so I came along."

The black-haired girl looked up at them. "Someone requested for the art club to do a photo shoot. Besides, it's good experience and we get paid, even if the costumes are kind of uncomfortable."

"Money..." Carin trailed off as he spoke. "I'll be able to use this for Zankyou's future lives. It would make Kawarau happy."

"To be honest, I'm a little surprised that I was asked too," Jhorna grinned. "I mean, Zankyou has gained a lot of popularity in the past year—I think it's near the top of the unit rankings right now—and Stellarium almost became one of Tengoku's legends last year. Compared to both of you, I don't have many achievements."

Seiun shrugged. "But you're the most responsible out of all of us. Carin and I kind of like to do our own thing all the time, and you keep us in check. Seems pretty important."

"She's right," the other second-year smiled. "Without you, the art club would be in pieces."

Jhorna bit her lip, about to shoot back a reply because god, the members of the club were as sweet as they were air-headed, but the taller girl next to her broke her pose for a moment to nudge her. "You're stiff. It won't look good in photos, so relax."

"Way to change the topic," Jhorna grumbled. "Thanks, though. The two of you seem familiar with these sort of things."

"Zankyou gets asked to do photoshoots sometimes, even if Kawarau does most of the communication." Carin let his arms fall to his side. "It gives us money when we're not doing lives."

"The third-years were much more involved than we were, but yeah, it's the same as Carin," Seiun added. "It's generally long and annoying, though, so it's good that the first-years weren't as in demand."

Her classmate raised an eyebrow. "But you find everything annoying."

"Both of you need to switch," Carin pointed out, and they startled and hurried to swap places. "I like doing shoots. It gives me a lot of time to think of new lyrics for the unit, and everyone's very nice."

"But you find everyone nice," Seiun said in a bad imitation of Jhorna's voice, causing her friend to glare at her.

"Let's just get back to the shoot," the girl sighed.

—

"Kazura, help."

The vice-president held back a chuckle as he looked up from the misshapen chocolates he was trying to make. "I would, Evi, but in the first place, you're not supposed to do homework in the kitchen."

"But the teacher wants this handed up by this evening!" the girl cried out, rubbing away at a mistake she'd spotted and staring at the maths paper in front of her. "I don't understand this at all! Is this some kind of alien language?"

"I'm terrible at maths too, so I don't think I'd be of much help." Kazura hesitated for a moment before popping one of the chocolates into his mouth. "Mm, that's better than the last batch. What topic is it about, though?"

The second-year collapsed on the table. "Functions. I don't know why I have to do this in the first place."

"You did pretty well on your exams last year, so I think you'll be fine by then..." He took a break from baking to glance over at her worksheet. "Oh, we did that last year. I can help you after I wash everything up, but that's if I remember how to do it in the first place."

"Bless you," Evi sighed.

—

"Mm. Are those dance steps, Haruki?"

Aerien tapped his pencil against the wood of his desk as he peered in front. The teacher had asked them to spend the rest of the lesson working on a series of chemistry questions, but the school wasn't exactly harsh with their rules.

His classmate didn't look up as he continued to scribble down notes. "The final draft or something."

"Are you holding a live soon?" the boy questioned, taking a moment to write down an answer just as their teacher walked past. "You could join Telescope in the Valentine's live."

"Not really."

He's quiet as usual, Aerien thought himself, but he kept a smile on his face. "Well, good luck to you and your unit! I can't wait to see your debut."

"I can wait to see yours."

"Uh—" He had no idea how to respond to that; Haruki was probably just tired from student council duties, but it still stung a little. "We should get back to work? I mean, we've probably annoyed the teacher by now, so..."

The President shrugged. "Whatever."

With that, Aerien turned back to his work, biting his lip as he wrote out the answer to the last question on the worksheet. He would have unit practice later in the day, and he needed to add some last touches to his lyrics before that.

He left his worksheet on the edge of the table and opened up his laptop. The document from yesterday was still open, and he could see the squiggly red lines from a spelling mistake he had made at two a.m.

Accept this chocolate, like star like moon—

When had he wrote that? He was disgusted with the amount of things wrong with that sentence.

Hurriedly, he deleted the line, pondering on what to add next. Sou had said that they shouldn't follow the Valentines' theme, but he didn't know what else to do.

Sighing, he plugged in his earphones, listening to the soft piano melody of the first-year's unfinished song for what seemed like the hundredth time.

He couldn't find inspiration, but he'd wing it.

—

It was six in the evening, and she should have gone home some time ago, but that would mean having to start on her homework and she didn't want to do that.

She didn't feel like playing the piano idea, which was rare, but the problem was not having anything to do. The Ensemble Stars event that had kept her occupied had ended the day before, and all she could do was log in and stare at a pixellated card of her favourite character on her tiny phone screen.

Her phone lit up with a message, and it was then that she remembered that she hadn't checked her messages since that morning.

—

From: Evi

seeeiiunnnn the lyrics are great!! but uh it's a bit too sad for a debut song ;;;

—

She raised an eyebrow as she typed out a reply.

—

To: Evi

i don't care change it yourself i'm not in your unit

From: Evi

but you can be :DDDD

To: Evi

what no

From: Evi

oh yeah are you still in class???

lets go home together

To: Evi

i'm not planning on going home yet, but yes, i'm in class

—

Her friend didn't respond after that, and she let out a deep breath, burying her face into her arms and trying to catch a few moments of sleep before the school closed and she would have to be forced out one way or another.

The peace didn't quite come—it worked for a mere few moments before her classmate came barrelling in.

"Seiun!" Evi exclaimed, and it took half a minute of contemplation and reluctance for her to raise her head. "Are you ready to go home now?"

"No," she mumbled back, clinging on to her desk as the girl tried to drag her out. "Let me sleep."

"You can go and sleep at home!" The teenager whined, relaxing her arms for a moment before starting to tug at her again. "And you still have homework, right? If you need to finish that maths quiz we had today, you can copy off mine!"

Seiun shook her head. "I had a shoot after school. I have until Monday to hand it in."

"That's so lucky," Evi complained, sidetracked for a moment. "But the school's almost going to close, so hurry up! We can walk with Haruki if we see him too!"

She shot her down with the most deadpan stare she could muster. "Are you trying to persuade me not to go?"

"Sorry, sorry," her friend hummed, but her tone wasn't apologetic in the slightest. "Are you going to go, though?"

"You're just going to stand here and nag me until I agree," Seiun replied, forcing herself off the table and shoving her pencil case into her bag. "Can we stop by the piano room? I left some of my sheet music in there and I want to get it back."

"Alright!" She didn't understand how Evi managed to be so happy all the time. "You spend so much time in the piano room, so I'd be more surprised if you didn't leave anything there."

Seiun slung her bag over the shoulders. "So what? I have nothing better to do."

"That's why you should—"

"No, I'm not joining your unit."

—

Seiun glared at Evi as she swung open the door. "What's he doing here?"

"Oh, you came back for your stuff." Haruki waved a few sheets of paper at them in greeting, and he merely blinked as the purple-haired girl snatched it out of his hand. "I'm killing time. The piano room is really good for focusing, so I can see why you use it so often."

"I swear to God, if either one of you tell me to join your unit—" She shoved the papers into her file, wheeling away and gesturing to Evi. "Can we just leave already?"

"Actually," Evi piped up, "this feels kinda familiar, doesn't it? Me and Haruki formed the unit here, so it's a good feeling. If Seiun was to join here, it would feel more shiny, right?"

Haruki glanced at her. "Didn't you say you'd consider it?"

"I didn't say I would join," she grumbled. "Why can't you just leave me alone? You already have the minimum number of people required to start a unit."

"But I want to be in a unit with you," the black-haired girl pressed. "You got to stand on that sparkly stage last year. You got to shine, and I want to see just what you saw from there. I want to shine just like you did, Seiun!"

"Firstly, you have a weird definition of who shines." Seiun's voice was irritated. "Secondly, that speech was way too cheesy. Thirdly, you can go chase whatever sparkle you saw on your own, with Mr. Shithead Asshole over there."

The boy on the piano chair raised his hand. "If I'm the problem, I can always fix it."

"No," she shot back, "it doesn't matter. You're always a problem."

"It's not the same if I don't do it with you," Evi whined. "And I thought that you were shining, so I want you to help me."

"You don't understand, do you?" Seiun had nudged open the door, and Haruki had started to follow the both of them as they made their way to the gates. "I don't know what your unit will be like, but Stellarium was never about any of the nonsense you believe in. I can't be a unit that doesn't function like how it did."

The third-year coughed, getting their attention, and he had a contemplative look on his face. "So, those rumours I heard about your unit..."

"So what if they're true? I loved Stellarium." She shrugged at that statement. "Too bad it had to disband."

"What's wrong with wanting to change the way things are?" the other second-year asked. "Sure, me and Haruki won't be perfect, but—"

"And what's wrong with finding someone else? There are so many people, Evi; this is a school." Her flat tone didn't change as she walked. "There are plenty of people who come here to shine just like you did, and there are plenty of lyricists. It's simple."

Evi was about to bite back an answer, but Haruki put a hand on her shoulder and walked in front of her instead.

"Your grades will go down if you remain unitless," he countered. "Since you're in the idol division, you'll need to attend a certain number of lives if you want to pass the year. You could end up failing the year if you're not careful."

"If someone like you could pass and be unitless for a year, then I can too," Seiun protested.

They continued walking in silence for a while, even though they'd passed the part of the road where the purple-haired girl was supposed to turn left and catch the bus home.

"Hey, look!" Evi's voice broke the gloomy atmosphere. "The sun is setting! It's so pretty!"

The two students beside her blinked, not knowing how to react to the sudden change in topic, but they obeyed and followed the direction of her finger, gazing at the dark blue that spilled over the orange-stained sky for a few moments.

"The flowers look pretty like this," Haruki murmured, bending down to pick a small carnation and rubbing it between his fingers. "It's going to be dark in a few minutes, though, so we should probably get going."

"Yeah, they're all shiny like this..." The shorter girl trailed off for a few moments as she gripped a flower and sat herself in the field. "It's like they're glowing, y'know?"

"It's strangely comforting being here." Seiun joined them in the grass and stared at the almost-dark sky. "I almost feel like I can accept Haruki."

They didn't talk for a few minutes after that, until the the sun had waved its final goodbyes and the first stars started making their appearance in the night sky. Evi set in the middle of both of them, entranced by the blue expanse around her and the field of shining flowers.

"I got it," she muttered to herself, and her friends looked at her in confusion.

"I want to make everyone across this sky see what we're seeing," she explained. "Look, it stretches on forever! I want us to be able to reach everyone's feelings by shining on stage!"

"I see. That's admirable." Seiun got to her feet and brushed stray grass off her skirt. "Good luck with it."

She was about to leave, but she paused when a single white flower was shoved into her face.

"You felt it too, right?" Evi's eyes were sparkling brighter than any of the snowy petals scattered amongst them, and she pressed the plant into her friend's hands. "I'm sure you could feel the spark too! It's not too bad staying like this forever, right?"

Seiun was unable to speak—even if her throat allowed her to, the black-haired girl gave her no time to do so.

"So join me, Seiun." A determined grin was plastered on her face. "At least just for one performance, OK?"

Something in that expression of hers made the scales in her mind—once tipped dangerously to one side—right themselves a little bit, and she couldn't help but smile by her friend's infectious passion.

Behind them, Haruki was smiling too.

"Just one performance, Evi."

—

evi best grill

i'm just going to start having these chapter polls regularly because they are!! fun!!! and if anyone's getting less votes i know i have to focus abit more on them in the next chapter~

so link in the inline comment here!!

(also i swear im gonna get to drawing the cards- i did the sketches for the valentines 5*s but i lost them so i had to redo them and exams are coming up soon ;; )