nazunyan427

Chapter Four

Hop, Step

Location: Cafe Cinnamon

Tomoya:

Huh. Now that I’ve calmed down a bit, I suppose I should clear up what’s going on, once and for all.

Hajime:

Oh, yes! We ended up veering totally off-topic. It’s been a while since we’ve had a chance to just sit down and chat like this.

I was so happy that I kept bringing up a bunch of things completely unrelated to work.

That said, work is work, and we are being compensated after all. Shall we go back to the topic at hand?

Tomoya:

Though all of us idols are basically on a commission system.

ES has every kind of idol-essential under the sun, but there’s nowhere to just hang out. Feels like we’ve got no choice but to talk about work-related stuff.

Hajime:

Yeah. At the end of the day, circles like Flavor are dorm-based, first and foremost.

Tomoya:

Yeah. So, anyway. Ack, this is kinda hard to say...

But right now I’m the #1 person responsible for Ra*bits, so it feels like if I don’t say it, who will?

Hajime:

Mmm, you really should try to get it out of your head that just because you’re the Leader you have to be the one to do something.

Mitsuru:

Right! You might know the most about being an idol on paper, but out of all of us you’re the most incompotent on stage!

If there’s something you’re stuck on, we want you to talk about it with us as a group!

Tomoya:

Don’t call me incompetant... Believe me, I’m more aware than anyone about my own lack of skill.

Well, whatever. I guess I’m used to having my lack of skill and talent pointed out to me, thanks to the Drama Club.

And so what? The things I can’t do today I might be able to do tomorrow.

Hajime:

Yes! That’s the spirit, Tomoya-kun!

Tomoya:

Yeah… But there really is no easy way to say what I’m about to.

You know how Nii-chan was talking about how things have calmed down for him now that he’s adjusted to college life? And that it’s about time he resumed his idol activities?

Mitsuru:

Yeah! Niichan’s break was only ever a temporary thing. He swore that he’d eventually come back some day!

Though for me, even a second apart from Nii-chan feels like a lifetime!

Hajime:

Yes, and our fans probably feel the same. Which is exactly why Nii-chan is going to be welcomed back with open arms on his return.

Tomoya:

Of course.

And so, since we might as well, we were talking about gathering together a whole bunch of Ra*bits fans—

—so we could put on a special concert to celebrate Nii-chan’s official return to the group.

Hajime:

Yes! Our original plan was to set something up during MDM, and hold Nii-chan’s ‘Welcome Back!’ concert then.

MDM is a huge event with thousands of attendees, so we thought it’d be a great chance to make our announcement then and there. “Ta-da! Guess who’s coming back!”

Tomoya:

Yeah. A huge event like that would’ve been optimal to spread the news. We’d have been able to reach fans who aren’t even necessarily Ra*bitsP.

Mitsuru:

Though there’d be no promising they’d be as excited as our actual fans. Still, it would’ve been way better than not celebrating in any way at all!

Tomoya:

Yeah, but Crazy:B and ALKALOID ended up stealing the spotlight at MDM—and explosively at that. The Main Story pretty much focused on them.

Hajime:

The Main Story...? Well, they certainly felt like the protagonists of something.

True, it just didn’t feel like the right time to announce Nii-chan’s “Welcome Back!” concert. Not on that stage. Something tells me even if we’d tried, we would’ve been cut off.

Tomoya:

Yeah, and Nii-chan didn’t seem super on board either. For some reason, he kept on talking about how he didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.

Hajime:

Haha. Nii-chan is a very modest person. Or rather, he’s never really been a “Me! Me! Me!” type of person.

He always saves the most delicious part of anything for us.

Mitsuru:

Yeah! Whenever we got sweets and stuff after whatever idol work we did Nii-chan always waited until last before taking anything.

The first time it happened I thought the extra was just leftovers, so I ended up eating Nii-chan’s share too!

Hajime:

Ahaha, that’s so like him.

Then when you noticed you’d taken too many and apologized about it, he probably said something like, “Don’t worry, Mitsuru-chin; I wasn’t really hungry anyway!”, right?

Mitsuru:

He did! Even though we’d just finished a show and he must have been low on energy—there’s no way he wasn’t!

Tomoya:

Yeah. But Nii-chan’s always been like that, putting us first.

I want to give him a huge “Welcome Back!” concert, filled with all of the gratitude and appreciation we feel towards him. I want Nii-chan to be at the center of it all, and do everything I can to make him happy!

I tried my best to come up with the perfect proposal, and when it looked like Nii-chan’s schedule would finally allow it, we all geared up to put our plan into action.

Hajime:

Yes, that’s what we decided to announce during the second half of MDM. That in September we’d hold a concert just for Nii-chan.

Tomoya:

Yeah. Since we couldn’t do it during MDM, we talked about holding it on another day instead.

I asked Anzu for her help and we put another proposal together, which should've gotten the green light to go ahead.

But since MDM is a combo event with all four agencies coming together—or rather, an event organized by ES as a whole...

...if we wanted to change the day and put together an event just for us, we’d need to get direct approval from management. And we’d be relying on them for both staff and a budget too.

Hajime:

Well, it’s not as if it would be completely impossible with the L$ we have on hand.

But it’d be a lot of work to put together everything all by ourselves. In any case, we’d have to rethink our event with a much smaller scope of attendees in mind.

Tomoya:

I don’t think they'd be too happy about us acting on our own terms either.

Plus, even if I was willing to go ahead with all that extra work, you two don’t exactly have the time to spare. Especially with all of those personal projects you’re involved in lately.

Hajime:

You know we’d do anything for Nii-chan, right? These are his number one fans you’re talking to, Tomoya-kun.

Mitsuru:

Yeah! I’d carry the whole world on one hand for Nii-chan!

Tomoya:

...Mmm. But I don’t think Nii-chan would want us to shoulder that amount of extra work.

If it came down to that sort of plan, Nii-chan himself would probably pull out.

So that’s why I wanted management to support us however they could. That way, we could put on the best concert possible, just like I’d wanted.

This morning I got Glitter Mail asking me to come to the office all of a sudden.

Looks like you two caught us halfway into our discussion, but the whole thing began when one of the higher-ups called me aside with an apologetic look on his face.

He told me that since management couldn’t approve of our proposal, they wouldn’t be able to give us any staff or a budget for our event.

Mitsuru:

What? Wait, seriously? Why not? I don’t get it!

Tomoya:

Yeah, that’s why I got so worked up about it. I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. Like, I had zero clue how to take it.

Hajime:

Of course, that’s only natural. I don’t follow myself either.

The proposal was already supposed to have been approved, right? And we were all excited, and we’d even started putting together lessons to prepare for the day… By suspended, do they mean it’s completely off the table?

Tomoya:

Beats me...

I was so angry I felt like I was about to pop a blood vessel, so I ended up cutting them off and storming out of the office. I really need to hear them out properly, now that I’ve calmed down.

But based on what the last guy was saying, it seems to be pretty non-negotiable. So, you guys should probably be prepared for the worst.

We’re probably not going to be able to give Nii-chan the “Welcome Back!” concert that we wanted to.