ｋｉｄｓ ｃａｎ＇ｔ ｃｏｍｐｅｔｅ
ｗｉｔｈ ａｄｕｌｔｓ

『 your p.o.v 』

          With soft knocks against the hospital room door, a certain brunette slipped inside with a gentle smile gracing his features. "Good morning my special girl, miss me?"

          I sat up in my bed, muffling a yawn with the back of my hand as my idol placed down a small backpack onto the blanket beside me. "What are you doing here so early, Rei-chan?"

          "Did you already forget that I said I'd be bringing you back to the resort once you were cleared to be released?"

          "It's early and I just woke up so do you really expect me to remember what we discussed yesterday?"

          Reiji shook his head as he walked over and ruffled my hair some. "You're a cutie. Now c'mon, get dressed and I already signed your release papers so you're free to leave once you're good to go." He said, nodding his head in the direction of the backpack before taking a seat on one of the two chairs placed just in front of the large window, the same one Ryuuya had sat in actually.

          I looked from him to the backpack, opening it and seeing what exactly he brought me for clothes considering he doesn't have access to my hotel room back at the resort. "You're allowed to sign my release papers?"

          "We're technically family." He responded with ease as I pulled out a pair of pale forest green skater shoes, a pair of denim shorts, some black socks, and a surprisingly large plain black T-shirt all from the small backpack. "And I'm an adult who's listed as your emergency contact when mom isn't available so in the eyes of the law, I can act as your guardian when mom isn't around. But don't go thinking of me as your brother or anything or else I'll never get to flirt with you." He then laughed happily, making it very difficult to tell if he was truly joking around or not.

          Eyeing the brunette for a moment, I went ahead and held up the shirt. "Cute outfit you picked out for me, but why is this shirt so big?"

          "I couldn't decide on a shirt to buy you yesterday after I left so I thought I'd just give you one of my shirts to wear." Reiji responded with ease.

          "No wonder it smells like your cologne."

          "You know what my cologne smells like?"

          "I stole one of your jackets to wear and it always smells like your cologne." I said lamely as I gathered up all the clothes into my arms and slipped out of my hospital bed. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you just go into your closet and spray all of your clothes every couple of days." I then scoffed, slipping into the bathroom and closing the door behind me so I could change in peace.

          Hurrying to get ready, I didn't want to keep Reiji waiting as I changed into the outfit he bought me to wear. He probably asked mom for my shoe and shorts sizes since everything fits perfectly- aside from his shirt that is. I'm pretty sure this plain black shirt is already a little large on Reiji when he wears it, making it obviously large on myself. Though I can't exactly deny that wearing his clothes doesn't make me a little happy. It's comforting in a way, almost like a constant hug since I'm always surrounded by the pine-scented cologne he loves so much while I'm wearing his jacket and I guess now also this shirt.

          "So, you like wearing my clothes yet?" Reiji asked as he now sat on the edge of the hospital bed with a smirk dancing across his lips. "Because I'm beginning to really like seeing you in them."

          I rolled my eyes at his flirting as I walked by the other side of the bed and grabbed my laptop, the stickers from yesterday thankfully still holding on well and hopefully won't be falling off for many years to come. "It's every fangirl's dream to get to wear her idols clothes," I responded as I sparred the brunette a glance before making my way over to the door to the hospital room, "but I think you're having much much fun with this than you should be." I then scoffed, leaving him behind in the room as I head down the hallway.

          Reiji laughed while he followed after me. "Awe c'mon, can't I enjoy a cute girl wearing my clothes?" He asked as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to his side. "It's almost like we're a couple when we're like this."

          "You sure this has nothing to do with the way my friends were yesterday?" I asked.

          "Hm?" The brunette hummed curiously as we made our way outside the automatic front doors to the hospital, stepping out into the warm breeze that smells faintly of the ocean. "What would you wearing my shirt have to do with those kids?"

          Smiling up at my idol, I couldn't help but to laugh a little. "You got pretty possessive of me when my friends were thanking you for looking over me, even going as far as to remind Tokiya that us being family instantly makes you closer to myself than any of them." I said, repeating the general gist of yesterday's ending to my school friends heartwarming visit. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say this is your way of having me go back to the resort and showing everyone just who has the one-up here."

          Reiji chuckled, his arm around my shoulders tightening some. "Can you blame me? They're all handsome, I'll give them that, but kids should learn their place. Even Ringo agrees, those kids can't compete with adults like us."

          Scoffing, I rolled my eyes at this brunettes flirtatious antics. "I'm beginning to wonder if you're going to cause me as much trouble as Ren. I don't think I could handle two of him."

          "The one I bought your laptop with, right?"

          "Yup, the orange haired flirt that blew me a kiss right in front of you while Otoya was dragged out of the room by Masato."

          "Oh, I'm more classy in my flirting than he is."

          "Don't make me laugh."

          Pouting, Reiji looked down at me with large puppy dog eyes as he led me towards a rental car he got for himself from the airport just yesterday when he first landed in Okinawa. "What? You think Ren has a better chance at sweeping you up off your feet than I do just because he blows you kisses?" Reiji's voice suddenly dropped some as he stopped us from walking and leaned down so that his lips were no more than a few inches away from my own, his arm around my shoulders tightening some. "How about your favorite idol gives you a real kiss and then we see which one of our flirting approaches you like better, hm?"

          Reaching up with my free hand, I mushed the brunettes cheek as I pushed his face away from me and tried to ignore the hammering of my heart against my chest. "I'm beginning to truly question whether or not you're just playing, Rei-chan." I said as I shook his arm from around my shoulders and slipped into the passenger seat of the rental car.

          Reiji's suitcase was already shoved into the trunk as he hopped into the driver's seat. "When you're a little older, you'll get your answer." He said with a playful smirk dancing across his lips, no intention whatsoever of expanding on that little hint he gave me. "Anyways, how is your duet project going? Work on it some last night?"

          "The laptop you and Ren got me works like a dream. I finished the duet song and I'm finalizing the last details on both Ren and Masato's solo songs now." I answered as the rental car's engine roared to life. "Next comes Quartet Night's debut song and don't worry, I've already started playing around with possible melody ideas so I'll throw a couple of different concept pieces together to show all four of you once I return from Okinawa. I promised Syo I'd write him a song over this vacation of ours so I have to do that as well as work on Tokiya's secret song. So, to answer your question, I got the duet project mainly finished, now I have to worry about everything else."

          "Don't burn yourself out kiddo. I'm not exactly keen on getting another phone call about you ending up in the hospital anytime soon." The brunette driving said as he patted my thigh before leaving it there to rest on the exposed skin below where my shorts don't go down far enough to cover, my skin there feeling almost as if it's burning under his touch as I try to will my heart to slow down some. "Learn to be a little selfish sometimes and put yourself before your friends."

          "Tell me that again when you can do it yourself." I murmured softly, the conversation dying down as we drove in a mostly comfortable silence, one of Reiji's latest songs softly filtering into the car through the speakers as a dull sound filling any void the silence might have created.

          As we drove over a bridge, I couldn't help but to look out to the glistening ocean. Mom is gone and so is Aine, both being taken under by the currents of the salt water, the ocean itself having no remorse of course while Reiji and I suffer in our own little worlds that couldn't be more different and yet similar if we tried.

          It's suffocating.

          Shaking my head, I tried to clear my thoughts. Facing those demons right now won't solve anything. Reiji is fine, I'm fine, and we both have lives to live without getting hung up on the past. There's a time and place to mourn my mother and for Reiji to truly beat himself up over Aine's disappearance; now is not that time.

          "You're leaving to head back to Tokyo tonight, right?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the shimmering and sparkling water of the ocean as the sun shines brightly down upon it.

          Reiji hums in response, squeezing my thigh a little as well and nearly making me jump in surprise. "I'm headed straight for the airport once I drop you off. Are you going to miss me?"

          "Is that even a question you need to ask?"

          "It's nice hearing you say it."

          I couldn't help but laugh at the cheeky grin plastered to my idols face. "Fine, I'll miss you. Happy now?"

          With a grin, Reiji nodded, his hand never leaving my thigh for the entirety of our drive to the resort. "Ecstatic."

          Just before I could slip out of the car once we had made it to the resort, Reiji grabbed my wrist and pulled me back, quickly placing a chaste kiss to my cheek before nudging me gently out of the vehicle with an angelic smile. I closed the door after wishing him a safe flight back to Tokyo. He's flirtatious and sweet as ever I see. I watched as the rental car disappeared down the street once more, my new laptop held protectively in my arms before I began walking inside once the car had long disappeared from my sights.

          Glancing around the main foyer of the resort some, I quickly took notice of how empty it was when compared to how it's usually bustling with life what with all the idol and composer students wanting to head to and from the beach at all times of the day. Now there are just a couple students here and there, mainly composers with a few idols sprinkled about, all sitting about on the open chairs and couches and working on their songs. Must be a fair number of teacher check-ins for the duet projects going on today.

          I made my way around until I found the small little lounge room Ryuuya and Ringo had hauled themselves up in near the westward wing of the resort. This was where they usually ran off to together when they weren't teaching, me being here one evening while I was composing which is how I ran into them in the first place. Now here they are once more, sitting across from each other as Ringo sips from a wine glass and Ryuuya casually takes another drink of his beer.

          Oh, they're talking. Without thinking, I press my back flush against the wall just next to the door frames, not wanting to be seen through the open doors as I listen in on the conversation. Normally I wouldn't stoop so low as to eavesdrop like this. But, something tells me I would want to hear this little talk of there's and I just can't bring myself to walk in and interrupt.

          "So many of these idols are nothing short of full of themselves." Ryuuya sighed, taking a drink of his beer as he paused. "What the hell are we going to do with a bunch of arrogant assholes?"

          Ringo chuckled as he swirled the crimson red contents of his wine glass around, the alcoholic beverage sloshing about some. "Well, there's always hope someone will knock them down a peg. I'm sure one of your kids would do it."

          "Ichinose is pretty good at putting people down."

          "Exactly. Just have your kids show everyone that unless they're at their level, then there's no point in acting so full of themselves. I only have three kids who I can use as examples so we have to put our six together somehow to show everyone who their true competition is."

          With a devious smirk, Ryuuya looked out the windows opposite of the lounge rooms large double doors that I happen to be peering curiously inside the room from. "Well, ___ seems to be determined in having those kids succeed at becoming the schools top idols so I'm sure we won't have to do much to anything this year around. They'll do our job in knocking down the pompous idiots for us."

          "Aren't you close to knocking down Hayato's brother into my class though?" Ringo asked curiously. "You know as well as I do that he isn't singing with his heart despite the fact everything else he does is perfect. Will you really allow him to continue in S-Class if he can't sing with everything he's got?"

          Ryuuya thought for a moment. "I've already warned him that if he doesn't figure something out soon, I'll kick him down into your class. He seems determined to better himself so I'm giving him some time. Who knows what he'll be capable of when he works with ___ so I'll wait until then to decide his fate."

          Tokiya never told me Ryuuya has already told him he's in danger of falling to A-Class...

          "How do you know they'll work together soon?"

          "She always manages to fix everything before we need to step in and I just have a gut feeling she'll do it again with Ichinose."

          "Those boys are lucky." The pink haired idol murmured as he let out a dreamy sigh. "To have a composer as caring and loving as her must be amazing."

          My eyes widened some from where I'm leaning against the wall directly beside the open doors, staying out of view entirely while I eavesdrop on this conversation as Ryuuya chuckles. "This isn't going to last. Only one of them will get her in the end anyway."

          "Do you really think she'd let it come to that?" Ringo asked. "You've seen how she is when she sets her mind on something. ___, that darling girl, will fight even Shining if she has to in order to not leave a single one of those boys behind."

          "And you think he'd listen to her?" The orange haired actor asked in return. "Shining isn't a pushover and you know it. Hell, we're stuck doing most of his work! Now more so than ever since he's been on that extended business trip from the time this school year practically started, not to mention he's now swamped with things relating to Quartet Night..."

          Ringo laughed, the sound warm and melodic as it floats out of the lounge room through the open doors and into the empty hall I stand in with my back pressed firmly against the wall. "Shining wouldn't be able to say no to her if she can prove herself and show that she's going to continue to work hard just like Reiji does."

          "He'll want the kids to prove themselves too."

          "Sure, but Ren and Masato are already proving themselves now and so is Otoya. Whoever works with ___ has a change of heart," Ringo said knowingly, "they become better idols and better people overall. That's just what she does. Even Reiji is affected by her bewitching spell and he hasn't even sung one of her songs yet. I'm almost jealous."

          "Almost? I think we're past the 'almost' faze for you being jealous of a bunch of kids."

          "Okay, shut up."

          Knocking on the wall, I went ahead and peered inside the lounge. "Hey you two, did I keep you waiting long?"

          The cross-dressing idol with the long flowing pink wig immediately stood up and walked over to hug me as I made my way into the small room, his arms tight around my smaller frame as I tried to protect my laptop that's currently held closely to my chest and being squished between both Ringo and I now. "___! I was wondering if Reiji had stolen you and brought you back to Tokyo." He laughed happily as he grabbed my shoulders and pulled back just enough to get a clear look at my face. "How've you been, love? Feeling any better?"

          I smiled at the cute pet name. "Much better now that I'm out of the hospital. Have the boys gotten themselves into much trouble yet?"

          Ryuuya sighed. "Shinomiya decided it would be a good idea to try his hand at cooking at the barbecue a few of the students held yesterday night."

          "A number of idol students now have food poisoning." Ringo explained as he led me over to sit beside him on the couch opposite of Ryuuya, a small coffee table separating the two pieces of furniture as sunlight cascades in through the large windows to our left. "Oh, and we talked with them as well as our other idol students yesterday on how the duet projects are going. Both Masato and Ren said you're working hard and that your songs sound amazing."

          "They're working together too." Ryuuya tacked on. "Never thought I'd see the day when they'd get along well enough to actually work together."

          "Masato punched Ren, so that probably pushed things along." I said with a small laugh. The pink haired idol beside me wrapped an arm around my shoulders as I went ahead and leaned forward some to open my laptop on the coffee table. "I actually have all three of their songs done and was wondering if you two could listen to them for me and give me some feedback before I hand them over to Masa and Ren?"

          "That's fine. How's working with them from your perspective- besides Hijirikawa punching Jinguji which I'm sure he deserved?" The orange haired idol sitting across from me asked.

          I thought for a moment as I began opening up the composing program, my wallpaper currently being an HD picture from one of Reiji's most recent photoshoots that he sent me, this picture in particular being one they're not going to be using for the magazine spread so I'm the only one that will ever get to see how handsome he is in this particular frame. "Both Masa and Ren are very helpful. They gave me a lot of feedback and criticism on the compositions I first presented them with before we all came together to discuss the project as a whole and no longer focused solely on the duet. Without them, I doubt I would have been able to make these three songs not only embody their personalities and talents but also manage to feel as though they belong on a true unit cd. I wouldn't trade them as my partners for the world." I murmured, clicking open the duet and then the two solo songs.

          "How did you get Ren to start putting forth such effort now anyways?" Ringo asked curiously. "I don't think I've ever seen him so determined to actually do well on assignments like he has been lately."

          Shrugging, I started the duet song for my two friends to listen to. "I've been trying to get through to him for over a month now and I guess those efforts finally paid off."

          Ryuuya and Ringo remained quiet as they listened to the duet and then the two solo pieces. The pink haired idol beside me went ahead and opened up a notes app on his phone and began typing up some small ideas here and there as he listened, Ryuuya simply tapping his foot to the beat as he kept his eyes closed and really listened to the music.

          Once Ren's song had come to an end, Ringo smiled as he nodded. "Those are better than your previous songs."

          "It's impressive how quickly you're improving." The orange haired actor added on as he opened those golden colored eyes of his and offered me a small smile. "Good work. The duet piece has a mixture of Hijirikawa and Jinguji's preferred musical styles and you've given them adequate amounts of time to shine without having to truly outperform the other for the spotlight. Once the lyrics are written and they've practiced, I'm confident that your duet piece will earn the highest grade from both classes."

          "Though I think the solo songs could use some fine-tuning, just a little bit." The handsome pink haired idol then said as he showed me his phone, a couple of idea changes to the composition being listed in bullet point fashion. "You definitely understand Ren and Masato, but there's just a couple of composition aspects I'd change like making the transitions flow better in each of their pieces and trying to have the two song's melodies resemble one anothers a little more. It would be nice for those two solo songs to almost talk to one another in a way."

          My eyebrows knitted together some in confusion. "But you know how different those two are and their songs reflect that. How am I supposed to make them sound more like they're somehow connected?"

          "If you can't have the songs correlate to one another," Ryuuya spoke up once more, "then have them relate to the duet piece. To get the highest marks, you need these three songs to be connected somehow so if they're connected to the duet piece then that's fine too."

          Slowly, I nodded. "Alright, I think I can tweak some things here and there real quick and still hand over the finished compositions before the end of the day for them to start writing lyrics. When are the idols coming back?" I asked, glancing between my two teachers.

          Ringo hummed as he thought. "Natsuki left about two hours ago with everyone else after we spoke so I'd guess you have another three hours before they're all back." He said as I began closing the composing application and shutting down my laptop.

          Alright, three hours to fix the solo songs a bit and then I'll finalize them with Ren and Masa once they return. Sounds good. I can do that and once I send them on their way with the songs downloaded onto their phones, it'll be up to them to write the lyrics together so I'll be free to start really focusing on Quartet Night's debut song. But I also can't forget about Syo and Tokiya's songs either, especially not Toki's now that I know he's truly in danger of being placed in Ringo's class if he doesn't start performing better. I doubt it'll come to that, but, I definitely need to compose a song good enough to keep him in S-Class.

          I have to.

          "How are you really doing ___?" Ryuuya asked after a few minutes spent in a comfortable silence had passed, both his beer and Ringo's wine glass sitting empty on the coffee table now. "I mean, after nearly drowning and losing your mothers laptop and all..?"

          "You can't just ask her that." Ringo hissed at his fellow teacher.

          With a small smile, I patted Ringo's thigh. "I don't mind the question, it shows you guys really care about my wellbeing and that's really sweet." I murmured as I thought of how to exactly respond. "I'm, um, I'm doing okay? I guess..? I don't know really. It still feels a little bit like a dream in all honesty. I don't think it's sunken in just yet so for right now, I'm just fine." I said with an added nonchalant shrug of my shoulders.

          Ringo pulled me in for a tight embrace, placing his chin on top of my head as he gently held me close to his chest, a strand of long pink hair from his wig separating from one of the main curls to fall over one of my shoulders as he leans over a little closer now. "If you ever need to talk to anyone, we're here for you love, okay? Don't think that Reiji is the only one that really worries about you. We're here too."

          Ryuuya nodded, obviously not being as good with words as Ringo but that's fine. Knowing they're here for me is more than enough.

          "Thank you." I murmured, accepting the hug and relishing in how warm and safe it feels to be held in Ringo's surprisingly strong arms. "I'll try to rely on you both a little more from now on."

          "Ah, we should be headed off for our meeting." The orange haired actor said as he stood up from the couch and dusted off his dress pants, grabbing his beer bottle as he begins walking out of the lounge. "Good work on the songs kid, and talk to me if you need reasonable advice. Ringo is too much of a bleeding heart to not let his emotions get in the way of things." He then scoffed, leaving the room with a nonchalant wave.

          Ringo quickly released me from his hold as he got up and grabbed his wine glass, ruby red heels clicking some against the wood floor as he walks after his fellow colleague. "Aw c'mon Ryuuya! You know I give great advice!" Right as the pink haired idol was about to step out of the lounge, he stopped. "That reminds me," Ringo paused as he looked to me from over his shoulder with a kind smile, "you should head up to your room and change your shirt. It's annoying seeing you wear Reiji's clothes, love. Didn't I tell you that things like this would make any man jealous- including myself?"

          As Ringo normally does, he left me alone in a somewhat dazed state, his long pink hair flowing some behind him as he disappears down the hallway, still calling after Ryuuya who's walking without intending to wait for his friend to catch up.

          Sighing, I went ahead and closed my laptop that's been off for the better part of twenty minutes now. Ringo reminds me a bit of Reiji and Ren, except Ringo's flirting isn't even really flirting- I don't think it is at least..? It's just a comment thrown here and there, something small said almost in passing with usually such a sweet smile accompanying it it's hard to tell what's going on through that mind of his. At least Reiji is clear with his flirting, and so is Ren and even Otoya is pretty transparent too.

          Ringo is simply a mystery right now...

————————

          Ringo and Reiji are truly something else oml like what are they doing??? I mean, I'm not complaining but my heart can't take all this cute flirting and testing to see just how far they can take things lmao needless to say they're fun to write for~

          Question of the Chapter: Do you think Reiji, Ryuuya, or Ringo will make a true attempt at winning the heroine over yet? Or do you think they'll just offer her support and lowkey flirt with her up until she graduates from Saotome? I was originally going to have the Triple R Squad chill during this first third of the story so the starfish boys could shine, but clearly my mind has other plans in store cuz Ringo and Reiji never seem to be short of direct with their advances and I'm dying every time I write them into a chapter lord save me

          I can't help but find it funny how determined Reiji is to prove to the reader that he likes her while also insisting that it's just a joke and that his flirting doesn't really hold any truth to it just yet *cough cough* exactly how he was when he sang "Never" for Haruka in the anime *COUGH*. He's contradicting himself constantly whenever I write for him and I don't know why my brain is like "this is what Reiji is gonna be like from now on, you're welcome" but I can't say I necessarily hate it either lul (but now I can't help but wonder how he'll act when he's constantly around QN like how is everyone going to react to him flirting and how is he going to react to all of them flirting with the protagonist lmaO the world is going to implode when QN gets their third of the story to shine)

          Also let's just take a moment to appreciate that little convo between Ryuuya and Ringo. For as much as they bicker, they're actually pretty close and it's clear to see that they understand each other well. And it's really sweet to see that they're both watching over the protagonist cuz otherwise they wouldn't be talking about her so confidently. Even though she doesn't always see it, they're there for her and it's really cute and I'm a sap for this kind of stuff omgggg

          As always, I love each and every last one of you lovely cuties and thanks so much for taking the time to read this chapter <3

    ~ ｋａｔ ♡