BUBBLE GUM DANCE - According to The Dream (5)

……

(There’s still a bit of time before my next meeting… I’ve ended up with too much free time on my hands.)

(Apparently they’re still keeping our workload lighter since we’re still finding our footing or something…)

(But honestly, can we really afford taking things this slowly…?)

(Shouldn’t we be doing everything that we can to promote MELLOW DEAR US and get us in front of more people?)

(We still aren’t very well known in Japan, so it seems like our ticket sales have only been decent so far.)

(I hate to say it… but I can’t fully bring myself to trust Anzu as our producer yet.)

(She’s not a bad person. Anyone can tell that she’s sincere, but…)

(The bond of trust between idols and their producer takes a long time to build, and ours is still way too new.)

(I’m sure the others feel the same too. Well, maybe not Tsuzura. He worked with her through the whole Megastream Project, so he seems to be on her side.)

(Even Nice doesn’t seem to be offering her any advice. He’s just standing back and observing how things unfold.)

(Could it be that he’s not just observing, but simply leaving her alone in this…? Knowing Nice, that’s not impossible…)

(Well, there’s no point in overthinking it.)

(For now, Nice said he’ll be producing us alongside Anzu. That doesn’t leave me much choice but to follow her.)

Now then. How should I spend the free time before my next meeting…

I heard ES had a staff room… maybe I could go have a cup of tea there?

Oh, Deer-chan!

Woah, that really is Kojika-san… Seeing him walking around ES still feels kinda surreal~

Hm…? Oh, it’s Trickstar.

I had heard that MELLOW DEAR US is working under Rhythm Link now. NiceP and Anzu are producing them together, yes?

What? Has word already gotten out about it? We only started working here a few days ago.

It’s some pretty big news, after all~ Word gets around fast here.

Anyway. Akehoshi, what did you just call me…?

Huh? I called you Deer-chan.

It’s because you’re Kojika¹ Juis! So you’re Deer-chan! Pretty good right?

Deer-chan…

Oh! Did you want something like Bambi-chan instead? I can still change it, you know!

No… If those are my options, then I’ll stick to Deer-chan. For now.

Or… you could just consider calling me by my surname?

Sorry. Subaru has this instinctive habit of coming up with his own nicknames for everyone.

Heyyy, don’t make it sound like I’m some dog…! It’s a good thing! Nicknames make things friendlier~!

Maybe just keep in mind that having someone suddenly spring a weird nickname on you might make you feel awkward…~

Well, I don’t really care what people call me. It’s just a nickname. I was just surprised since nobody’s ever called me that before.

By the way, Kojika-san, what are you doing here? Are you heading to work?

No. I actually had some free time to kill before my next job. What about you?

Our unit has practice now.

Ooh! I know! Deer-chan, if you’re free, wanna come watch our practice?

Hm?

……(Quietly observing Trickstar’s practice)

♪〜♪〜♪

That last run was pretty good, wasn’t it?

Yeah. There weren’t any big mistakes, anyway.

Deer-chan! Whaddya think?

Dude, are you really gonna ask the guest you invited for feedback~?

It’s fiiiine! I wanna hear what you think, Deer-chan!

……

…You all looked like you were enjoying yourselves the whole time.

Ahaha… That’s not exactly feedback on our technique. I guess in your eyes, we’ve still got plenty of room for improvement, Kojika-san.

But if it looked like we were having fun then that’s all that matters! That’s literally the key to being an idol!

……

When idols have fun singing and dancing on stage, the fans get to have a piece of that fun too…

Isn’t that what being an idol is all about? There’s nothing better than that~★

“What being an idol is all about”, huh…

Yes, I agree. Even if our technique isn’t perfect, we make up for it by the amount of joy we bring. That’s what makes us “Trickstar”.

No no, wait. We can’t just settle for the fact that our technique isn’t perfect, though. That’s still something we gotta work on.

Yup! Your turn, Deer-chan! Technique pointers please!

……

Oh, wait! Aren’t you out of time? You mentioned you had another job after this, didn’t you?

No. I’ve still got enough time for about one more song, so I’ll stay a little longer.