"Oi, Haruki. How's everything going with the preparations for the Dream Festival?"

The white-haired boy stifled a groan as he tilted his head upwards to meet Shoko's gaze, unhappy that he'd been woken from a perfectly good afternoon nap. "Don't ask me...it's held at the end of the year, so we haven't even touched it yet."

"I guess that can't be helped," she sighed, disappointed at the prospect and turning back to her seat to concentrate on the work that the teacher had assigned. "I was hoping to at least have a concrete goal to prepare for."

"Hey, don't sleep," Aerien chided from behind him, tapping his shoulder lightly as Haruki returned to his former position. "You'll get caught by the teacher and people will think you're an even more dubious Student Council President after that."

"Whatever," the shorter boy yawned, not paying his classmate's warning any heed as he continued to rest his head on the table.

Shoko turned back to face them, worksheet still half-completed in her hand, and Aerien gave her a helpless smile as he gestured to the sleeping figure in between them. "How's Telescope going? Are you still having a break from unit activities?"

"We're resuming practice today," the boy hummed, twirling his pen between his fingers as he spoke. "Unfortunately, we didn't manage to get as many people to come to our live as we expected, so we need to start earlier and practice harder for our next live."

"It can't be helped," his friend replied with an encouraging grin. "After all, it's the first live of the school year, so units are still new and the turnout won't be as good. You three are pretty good, so don't give up just yet. I'm sure you'll be able to do better next time."

Aerien nodded. "Thanks; you're right. Even if we aren't the best, I really enjoy performing with Kazura and Sou, so I want to keep on having unit activities with them. I'll use that as my motivation to improve."

"Well, that's the right kind of mindset," Shoko replied, and the bell rang just then. "Oh, good. I managed to finish the worksheet in time."

"Same," the boy hummed, reaching over to wake Haruki up and thanking the girl as she helped him pass up his paper. "It looks like Haruki was done before he fell asleep, so that's good. Uh, Haruki, if you're awake, could you pass your worksheet to Shoko instead of just lying on it...?"

It took a few seconds for Haruki to push himself off the comfortable, comfortable wooden surface of his desk, ignoring Aerien as he shoved his paper into Shoko's face. "Ugh. Is it time to do legitimate things now? That sucks."

"You were supposed to have been legitimate during class," Aerien chided. "You have student council work and unit activities, right? You better get going if you want to complete everything in time."

"That sucks," Haruki repeated, but he did manage to pack his bag without any further complaints. The boy then got out of his seat, zipping his bag close with a swift moment, and got out of the classroom before Aerien could even say goodbye.

Shoko glanced at the President's retreating back. "How did he become Student Council President with an attitude like that?"

"He was a lot more on top of his game last year," Aerien offered in response.

"If only that was the case for this year."

— 

Carin glanced curiously at the claw machine before them. "I've never really been to an arcade before...why did you ask me to come along?"

"You were free and we were free!" Evi grinned. "Prez has to take care of his student council stuff first, so I wanted to go to the arcade while we wait for him. Seiun said she didn't want to go, but she looked really lonely by herself so I dragged her along anyway!"

"I see," the boy smiled, pulling his sketchbook out and gazing around the dimly-lit area. "I can't decide whether it's pleasant or not yet, but it's a new experience for sure. I'll surely get inspiration for my lyrics like this."

"Good for you," Seiun grumbled in response. "I hate arcades. They're loud, crowded, pointless, and did I mention loud?"

Evi paid no mind to her friend's complaints. "Come on, you need to stop holing up all the time! I bet you just haven't had a really good experience yet. Trust me, I go here all the time, so I'll be able to show you all the good games."

"No thanks," the girl muttered, plugging in her earphones so that she could block out at least some of the noise. "I'm not interested. I told you I didn't want to come here."

"Let's check out the crane games first!" Evi continued as if Seiun had said nothing, and dragged the two of them towards a row of machines. "See, I'm a pro at these sort of things, so I'll win all the prizes I want to! Anything you want?"

Seiun raised her eyes towards the claw machine. "The You nesoberi at the back," she sighed as her gaze drifted back to her phone, as if not believing Evi's words. "You better not stay here until it's too late for practice."

"Done!" Evi cried, striking a pose before prying the plush from the chute. "Told you I was a pro! Is there anything you want, Carin?"

"Hm..." The olive-haired boy peered through the glass as Seiun blinked in surprise. "There are a lot of creatures that I don't recognise, but they give me inspiration to draw..."

The black-haired girl turned her attention back to the game, moving the controller around with an ease that came from practice. "They're probably just cheap things that the arcade got to fill these machines, but they're still cute! OK, here goes no—wait, huh?!"

She let go of the controller just as the claw dropped the tiny black dragon down the chute, whipping around at the tingling she had felt in the air. "Woah, why is the dragon coming out from your book?"

Seiun looked a lot less shocked, but her expression was still one of wide-eyed surprise. "Carin, don't use your magic in public...people are starting to stare and it would get messy..."

A few moments passed before the boy realised what he was doing, and with a faint pop, the paper returned to its original, two-dimensional state. The two girls breathed a sigh of relief then, and Carin had the common sense to shut his sketchbook.

"Sorry," their friend apologised. "I was too absorbed in drawing to realise that I was using magic."

"It's alright, just, uh, don't use it in such a public area?" Seiun sighed as she scratched the back of her neck. "It's fine if you do it in the art club, though. It's happened there enough times for me and Jhorna to be desensitised."

The idol nodded before accepting the soft toy that Evi had handed to him. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Looks like we're done here," Evi chirped. "Let's go try the Project Diva game next—I was never able to pass the songs! Seiun should be good since she plays piano, right?"

"I never said anything about playing it, though..."

—

"Ugh, the drums would be completely overkill, but what do I do? Use trumpets?"

The redhead glanced at his friend, trying to catch his attention. "Sou, I—"

"No, I can't do that. We'd sound like a marching band otherwise." Sou frowned as he stared at the window in frustration. "But..."

He didn't want to disturb him, not when Sou was in such deep thought, but he'd waited for a good fifteen minutes. "Sou."

"Maybe I should just go with synthesisers again? Violins seem too classy for our theme—"

"Sou!"

That seemed to snap his classmate out of whatever trance he'd been in, and the taller boy glanced over

to see him hovering anxiously in front of the classroom door. "Oh, it's you, Hayato. Is there anything you need?"

"If it's alright, could you leave the classroom?" Hayato was apologetic as he gestured. "I'm on day duty today, so I can't leave until you do. Could you use the library for today?"

"Oh. Yeah, of course." Sou blinked as he shut his laptop, shoving it into his back and standing up. "Sorry, I didn't notice you. Must have keep you waiting for a while. I was just troubled over something and got lost in thought."

His classmate grinned. "That's fine! What were you thinking about, though? I'm not the smartest person around, but I could offer moral support or something!"

"Thanks." Sou wasn't sure if he wanted to just straight-out tell Hayato about his worries, but his fellow first-year seemed far too earnest to and besides, he didn't want to seem rude turning down an offer from one of his classmates. "It's just a small problem with composing."

"I can't help with that," Hayato sighed. "I don't know anything about it. But it must suck...what about trying to do something a little different to get inspiration? Maybe you could try to do a handstand while thinking!"

The orange-haired boy sucked in a breath. "Interesting, but how would that even work? I can't even do a handstand."

Hayato's ideas were ridiculous as always, but the sheer amount of energy in his tone was more than enough to perk him up. He didn't even need to tell him about the extent of his dilemma before the boy was set on cheering him up.

In actual truth, he was less bothered about the composing issue than the fact that he was worried about Telescope being a flop—and that Kazura and Aerien's last year in high school would be wasted—but with Hayato talking his ear off, he was starting to forget that he had a problem in the first place.

"...Sou? Are you there?" Hayao waved a hand in front of his friend's face.

"Yeah,"  he replied, feeling a small smile flit across his face. "Actually, do you want to study at the library together instead?"

—

Jhorna felt her right eye twitch as she glanced at the sheet of lyrics in her hand.

She was in the mood for some snacks, and her bag was just across the room, but she was sure that Shoko wouldn't appreciate her announcing a break just because she wanted to eat some cookies.

"Are you alright?" the blonde inquired, raising an eyebrow as she stopped humming their song's tune under her breath for a moment. "It looks like you're spacing out. Even understanding and appreciating the lyrics needs to be taken seriously, you know."

"Yeah, I just daydreamed for a moment," Jhorna exhaled, wanting desperately to say no just so she could eat some damn snacks, but that would seem very immature of her and she needed to save such childish outbursts for when she was at home.

She turned her focus back to her lines. Shoko had written the lyrics while she composed and while she had no complaints about them, she just wasn't in the right mood to look at them. Most of the time, she would look over things at home when the environment was just right, but the practice room they had rented felt foreign.

"...and so I was thinking that we could include masks in our costumes." Shoko's voice made her realise that she'd drifted away again. "What do you think?"

"What do I think...?" Jhorna took a moment to ponder the questions. "That would be a cool idea, but shouldn't we take care of our performance and budgeting first?"

That was what she had said, but in actual fact, she really wanted to put masks in their costumes too.

"I suppose you're right," Shoko nodded. "As expected of 2-B's chairperson. You're really responsible."

"Is that so? Thanks." She got that a lot, so she supposed it was one of her good points. "Well, I think we've prepared long enough. Should we get started on our vocal warm-ups?"

--

do you ever just go to an arcade and summon a dragon because same

first years are so pure www

also results for the poll yay (didnt get a lot but enough to get a 1st place lol)

1. Evi (4 votes)

2. Shoko/Hayato (3 votes)

3. Seiun/Carin (2 votes)

the next 5* pair will be (pairs were already decided before everything) Evi and Carin with the theme RPG!

lincc to this chapter's form here! my holidays are coming up --> time to draw --> i promise i'll actually make fake character screenshots this time www  

talking about themes have the completed valentines day cards

Aerien - Unbloomed

bloomed:

Kazura - Unbloomed

bloomed: (wow sudden glo up)

sayonyara