"One, two, three, four. One, two—your timing is off, Seiun."

The girl gritted her teeth together in annoyance, but she paused for the extra half a beat anyway and corrected herself. "No one asked for your opinion."

"Does anyone want cookies?" Evi called from her position, and she sighed when no one answered her. "I have some in my bag if you two want to take a break."

Seiun ignored her. "I think I'd actually consider what you say if you learn to hold a note."

"Learn how to dance first," the boy retorted. "Sure, your vocals are good, but you look as though you're being forced to move. No audience would come to see that."

"I am being forced," she grumbled back. "I could be in the art club right now, but someone had to drag me here."

Haruki's focus drifted back to their practice for a few more moments. "You said you'd perform with us for one live, and since you said that, you should at least put some effort into it. Shouldn't you be used to practice at this point?"

"I'll never be used to practice," the girl complained. "Look, I'm just a temporary helper, right? As long as I'm decent by the day of the live, it'll be alright."

"Unacceptable," Haruki shot back. "Don't pull the group down. Be serious."

Evi flashed them a nervous grin in an attempt to ease the tension, and Seiun huffed as she fell back out of the original rhythm on purpose. "Guys, let's just get along, alright? I don't think we can make people smile if we aren't happy."

"For someone who doesn't want to put in effort for this, you sure seem to be trying really hard to piss me off." Haruki raised an eyebrow as he paused the music blaring from Evi's phone. "Let's take it from the top again and try while singing."

"Right!" Evi squeezed out a response just as he replayed the track, and she moved her arms fluidly as she sung. "Er, I didn't hit that note right."

"We aren't supposed to talk during actual lives, but yeah. The original note was a little higher." Her classmate's actions weren't as energetic or pronounced as hers, but it followed the beat this time and her singing made up for it.

Haruki sighed, using his magic to propel him for a particularly tricky move. "If only your dancing was as good as your voice."

The plum-haired girl mimicked his exasperated tone. "If only your attitude was as good as your dancing."

"Oh yeah!" Evi's face lit up just as the song came to an end. "We should use our magic during the live, right? Like I can use mine to make people happier, Seiun can make our show pretty and Prez can make us fly or something!"

The third-year's voice was flat. "I think we should work on the basics first. A bad performance won't be made much better if it's covered up by magic."

"For once, I agree with Shithead Asshole." Seiun paused as she took a gulp of water. "If you look at most professional idols, their performances usually have minimal magic. Our actual performance could get smothered if we're not careful."

"Alright, alright." She raised her hands in defeat. "I get your point."

Haruki glanced at the two of them. "I think we should try a few more times and call it a day. I'll review the dancing, Seiun can be in charge of vocals and Evi can think of ways to improve our performance."

The taller girl didn't spare him a glance as she fiddled with her phone. "If I remember to."

—

"So, our live is tomorrow."

"I mean, we all knew that, but yeah," Aerien pointed out, letting out a breath as the song came to an end and the three of them took a short break. "Our costumes came yesterday, right? Do they fit?"

Sou raised an eyebrow. "Mostly. My jacket was a little tight, but I managed to find someone who could help adjust it. Besides that, is everything else done?"

"I made chocolates!" Kazura piped up, gesturing to the huge bag he had left at the corner of the clubroom. "I didn't make that much, seeing as we're a new unit, but it's a good thing if we end up running out of them. It means a lot of people came."

"Good for you." Sou had already turned to his laptop, opening up a program and starting to make last-minute adjustments to their instrumental. "I think the drums in the chorus are a bit too loud, but I can fix that in two minutes. The lyrics are alright, aren't they?"

Aerien glanced at the crumpled sheet of paper they'd pinned up on the wall. "Yeah. It took me a lot of time to come up with them, but they turned out well."

"They're relevant," Sou muttered in response, adjusting the last bit of EQ and closing his computer once again. "It's unfortunate that we can't pair up with another more experienced unit, but this means we get the whole stage to ourselves."

"It's too early in the year, isn't it?" Kazura shrugged as he turned to face his unit members. "From what I've seen, most of the units are newly-formed. Zankyou's the only unit from last year and they didn't want to perform in the Valentines' live this year."

The first-year blinked. "I tried asking Hayato, but he only formed his unit last week. It seems like everyone will be debuting later."

"Hey, but that means we have the advantage!" the brown-haired boy replied. "People will know about us when everyone else debuts, right?"

"I suppose that makes sense," Aerien smiled. "We shouldn't be too careless, though. We don't want them remembering us for our mistakes."

Kazura waved his phone at them, eyes sparkling in excitement. "Hey, there's a meteor shower event tonight! We should totally go and pray for luck or something!"

"Oh, like how people 'wish upon shooting stars' or something?" The other third-year glanced at his friend's screen. "That would be fun. It fits our unit's theme too, so I agree."

"Doesn't it say that it's at eleven at night?" Sou wrinkled his nose. "That's a little late. We should get a good night's sleep before our first performance as Telescope."

"But that's exactly why!" Kazura whined. "We have to do something special to commemorate. If you're worried about sleep, it's near my place, so you two can come over and we can have a sleepover. My parent's won't mind."

His junior looked at him. "Whatever, then. As long as we don't underperform on the actual day."

"Well, you have the most experience out of all of us, since you performed in middle school too," Aerien commented. "If you say it's fine, then we'll go along with it."

"Yeah, we can go," Sou answered flippantly. "We'll just stay for a few minutes, though."

—

Trevor tilted his head as he fiddled with his laptop. "To be honest, I was surprised when you told me you were OK to join. We didn't talk much in second year."

"We were in the same class, so...I guess it's not that out of place?" Makoto shrugged as he turned back to his sketchbook. "It's not like im particularly close to any of the other third-years either, so I'm grateful you asked me. My grades would have slipped otherwise."

"No problem," the treasurer replied, keying something in before looking up again. "So, uh, is there anything in particular you want to be in charge of? I'm alright with composing and writing lyrics, but I don't have much experience in other areas."

Makoto fidgeted with the edge of his pencil. "I can try to handle the costumes? I'm not sure about choreography, though..."

"It's alright, I guess. We're not in a hurry." Trevor hummed a tune as he continued working on a song. "We both have some form of prior experience, though, so it's not like we're totally lost or anything."

"Yeah," the black-haired student replied. "Maybe we could attend another unit's live to get inspiration or something. I heard Aerien from the other third-year class is holding one today or something..."

"I think they were called Telescope or anything," Trevor mumbled. "And it's a relief they decided to sign up, because the school needed something to commemorate Valentines'. They would have hounded the student council if no one had done so."

"You're pretty busy, aren't you?" Makoto offered him a sheepish smile. "Should we come back another day?"

Trevor sighed. "No, the student council's doing alright now, so it's fine. Still, the library's closing soon, so maybe we should go check out Telescope's live after all."

"It's on in fifteen minutes," his unitmate offered. "Thankfully, it's in the school compound, so we should be able to make it on time."

The boy across him stood up. "Let's go, then."

—

"Jhorna, do you have to discuss your unit matters in the clubroom?"

The girl shot a glare at her whining classmate. "There's nowhere else to do it, Seiun. All the practice rooms are rented out and we can't use classrooms unless we're the ones on day duty."

Shoko glanced over at the second-year with an irritated look. "What, do you have a problem with me?"

"Stellarium held a joint live with your old unit once and you were the most overbearing asshole I ever met."

"Hey, the live succeeded in the end," the blonde shot back. "I don't remember even talking to you in the first place, so you don't really have any place to speak."

Seiun huffed at that, stabbing her pencil hard enough to poke a hole in the paper and turning back to the other member of the art club. Shoko hadn't really spoke to Carin before—only his unit leader—but she knew enough about the second-year to satisfy her.

"The two of them are kind of weird at times, so ignore them if you want." Jhorna forced a smile as she gestured at her two friends. "Anyway, we're naming our unit...Masquerade, right? That was my original idea, but I'm flexible, so you can suggest something else if you want to."

"No, that's fine," Shoko replied. "I'm not particular about the name. The unit theme seems interesting, though."

"Thanks," the second-year grinned. "At any rate, we should get started on a debut song and when to hold a live performance. I'm not too sure about the schedule, but we need to plan to debut strategically."

Her senior waved it off with a flick of her hand. "I'm in the same class as the student council president, so I can weasel it out of him. Well, I don't like him that much, but I can still do it."

"That would help, thanks." Jhorna pursed her lips as she took down a few notes in her phone. "You don't like Haruki? For some reason, I think you and Seiun would get along great because of that."

"He just doesn't seem to care about anything. Honestly, who voted for him during elections?" Shoko scowled as she opened her phone. "His unit seems promising, though. As much as I dislike them, he and that girl over there both made it to the Dream Tournament, and I've heard pretty good things about their other member."

"Ah, Evi? She's a really nice person." The black-haired girl smiled at the mention of her classmate. "Um, we got off track, so let's focus again. Do you want to meet up some other time?"

Shoko's eyes were thoughtful as she spoke. "Yeah, we should. I'll try to get some ideas for a song by that time. You have my number, right?"

"No, just your email. Here, you can put it in." Jhorna handed her the phone, and her senior took a few seconds to type in her number before handing it back. "Hopefully we'll be able to rent a practice room next time."

The taller girl smiled. "Yeah. See you, then."

—

"Thanks for hanging out with us today, Evi!" The brown-haired girl grinned as she took a sip of her milkshake. "I know you're not part of our unit, but it's still fun to have someone else join us."

"No problem," the second-year laughed. "FeSTA!!'s kind of weird, though. Why are you shopping when you're supposed to be having unit practice?"

Laurel shrugged. "I mean, neither of us have any idea on what to do, so we decided to hang around at the mall until we get some inspiration. After all, there are so many shops, right? It's hard not to get some kind of idea."

"Ooh, that's a good idea," Evi hummed. "I should drag Seiun and Haruki here next time."

"Right?" Hayato piped up, and despite being the only first-year, he was just as energetic as the both of them. "I think we kinda lost track of time, though. We wanted to go catch Telescope's live, right? It's starting soon..."

Evi tensed up. "Oh, shit! Do you think we can make it if we run?"

"I got an A in physical education last year, if that counts!" Laurel squeaked as Hayato started running, and the both of them rushed to catch up.

"That's great!" Evi yelled back. "Alright, let's sprint!"

—

i know there's probably no excuse with the delay in art at this point but hear me out,,,i started on it but my dad confiscated my phone, i won't have access to it until next next tuesday rip

besides that! all the new characters are introduced lol 

you would Not believe the amount of inside jokes i have with my friends about this book lol (example: "makoto? do you mean machete?", "haruki best girl", "i feel like seiun shoko and haruki would all hate each other", "baruharu")

anyway, results for the previous poll:

1st: Aerien - 10 votes

2nd: Seiun/Carin - 5 votes

3rd: Evi/Kazura - 3 votes

since everyone's finally debuted, this chapter's poll contains all the characters! unit polls will be after i've fleshed some units out more ahah~ link will be in the inline comments as usual

that's it lmao byee