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deus-ex-mona · 3 years ago

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Watashi, Idol Sengen: part 3

Hi, this is part 3 of the Watashi, Idol Sengen novel!

mona vs LIPxLIP hostility index for this part: ★★★★★★★

Previous part (part 2)

Next part (part 4)

(Ah, that person often appears in men’s fashion magazines!)

Hidden behind a vending machine, Mona followed the path of a man as he entered the office with her eyes.

That day was a Saturday, and her classes had only lasted throughout the morning. Following that, Mona had returned home to change her clothes before heading out to the office that had been indicated on the business card. Truth be told, she looked rather shady, as she was wearing a mask on her face, with the hood of her hoodie draping low onto her head.

Families of parents and children gave Mona weird looks as they passed by. However, she was so engrossed in her surveillance efforts that she was completely oblivious to the fact that she looked like a suspicious person to them.

(A girl from an idol group entered the building earlier. So this really is an entertainment agency…)

Mona took out the crumpled business card from within her pocket and checked it again.

(...If I work here for a bit, I’ll be able to earn some money.)

“That’s right. I’ll be able to afford to attend lives and buy CDs!” Mona clenched her fist, muttering to herself.

Just as a part-time job…

After straightening herself out and fussing with her hair a little, Mona headed into the office.

★~★~★

It was about a week later that Mona found herself in the office, seated directly opposite the president of the company on the sofa. A young man was working at his desk a short distance away.

The interior of the office was not that large. There were only two staff members present. Mona wondered if the other staff members were out at the moment.

It was Mona’s third visit to the office. The first time she visited, she just heard out the president, as well as exchanged greetings with him. Her parents had accompanied her for her second visit, which had been to listen to his descriptions. She had made her third visit that day in order to sign the contract.

“Huh, could it be… that you’re the sister of Narumi Sena?” the president, who had been looking at Mona’s resume, asked as he glanced up at her.

Mona figured that such a thing would be discovered rather easily. No matter how big the industry was, it was also rather confined.

“...I’m her younger sister,” Mona replied honestly, finding no point in concealing the truth.

“Eh, you’re Sena’s younger sister?” the female staff member, who had brought in the tea, commented in surprise. “You sisters are so beautiful. I’m envious. Come to think of it, you do look a little similar to your older sister.”

“No… it’s not like that at all. I’ve been told that I’m not similar to her,” Mona’s voice decreased in volume as she spoke.

“Being the younger sister of Narumi Sena is bound to generate a lot of buzz.”

“Don’t you think it’d be great if they could do magazine interviews or appear in commercials as sisters?”

“Ah, that sounds like a good idea!”

In spite of the excited chatter of the staff members, Mona found herself standing up from her seat. The teacup on the table rattled as she did so, spilling tea onto the saucer.

“Please keep it a secret that I’m Narumi Sena’s younger sister.”

“Eh, but…”

“I want to do it under a different name, instead of ‘Narumi’... please,” Mona bowed her head.

The staff members looked at each other with troubled expressions on their faces.

“Well, isn’t it fine?” the president spoke. “Let’s give it a shot.”

With just those words, Mona’s face lit up brightly as she replied with a “Yes!”

★~★~★

That day, after reaching home, Mona ate dinner and took a bath before immediately going up to her room. She headed for her study desk and took out the small pieces of coloured paper that she had bought.

mona.

Having finished writing the word, she put her marker down onto her desk. She picked up the piece of coloured paper and looked at it for a moment before a wide smile spread across her face.

“Yeah, this isn’t bad.”

It was her stage name…

Rather than it being ‘Narumi Mona’, it was a new name for her.

Holding up the piece of coloured paper, Mona reclined in her chair, a clicking sound ringing out from it.

“An idol, huh…”

Mona had never expected that she would be employed by an entertainment agency. Her heart was pounding, and she felt as though she was floating on cloud nine. Her mouth naturally curled into a smile, as though it was proof of how elated she was.

“Alright, let’s do thiiiiis!!” she found herself yelling.

Mona then heard a knock on the door. When she turned around, the door cracked open and her older sister, Sena, poked her head in.

“Mona, did you decide to work at the agency?” Sena asked.

Mona cleared her throat proudly, before showing the coloured paper to Sena.

Sena smiled as she ran up to Mona to hug her from behind. “Congrats! I know you will definitely be able to do it, Mona.”

“...You think so?”

“Do your best.”

Sena’s long hair tickled Mona’s cheeks as it brushed against her.

Mona gave a small nod as she held her older sister’s hand in hers. “Yeah.”

“Let’s eat some cake to celebrate. The Mont Blanc at the shop that Akari told me about is really delicious.”

“Big Sis, will it be your treat?” Mona asked, looking up at Sena.

Sena laughed. “Guess I have no choice but to treat you, then.”

★~★~★

“Eh, a live festival sponsored by… the record label?” Mona, who had been called to the office on her way home from school, asked in confusion.

“Yup!” the president, who was seated on the sofa, snapped his fingers. From the huge smile on his face, Mona knew that he was talking about something good. “LIPxLIP will be there too. It’ll be a great opportunity for you to get your name out there, mona.”

“LIP… LIP?!” Mona frowned, taking on an unpleasant edge in her voice.

“Huh?” the president looked at Mona. “You know about LIPxLIP?”

“Eeh, I know about them, but…”

“This is the point where you’d usually jump for joy, you know.”

“...Yaaay… hooraaay. I’m amazed to be able to perform with LIPxLIP,” Mona replied monotonously.

The president gave her a look as he was momentarily lost for words. “I thought that you’d be more happy about it. It’s an amazingly rare opportunity for a newcomer to be able to sing in such a big venue.”

“I know that. But I don’t even have an original song yet.”

“Yeah, that’s why I think you should sing covers instead. Mona, please list the songs that you’d want to sing before our next meeting.”

“Y-yes…” Mona nodded a little nervously.

The president stood up and patted her head. “Well, don’t worry about it. You’ll be able to take advantage of the other performers.”

“Yes,” Mona nodded, watching the back of the president as he left the office.

Following the president’s departure, a female staff member entered, carrying some cake and tea with her. “Isn’t it amazing, Mona?! It must be nice… to be able to perform with LIPxLIP, that is.”

“Don’t tell me, you’re a fan… of them?” Mona asked, picking up a teacup.

The female staff member smiled brightly and grabbed Mona’s hand. “Mona, please… get their autographs.”

“I-I don’t wanna! I’ll feel like I’m a fan of theirs…”

“Eh, aren’t you a fan of them?”

“You’ve got it wrong. You’ve got it completely wrong!”

“It’s strange. I thought all girls liked them.”

“I’m an exception!” Mona lifted her teacup to her mouth with both of her hands. Owing to the hot temperature of the drink, she was only able to drink a little of it at a time.

(A live festival that LIPxLIP is going to appear in, huh.)

They would be meeting face-to-face again…

An image of Yujiro’s face surfaced in Mona’s mind, even though she did not want to remember it. Her lips curled downwards into a frown.

(They may have debuted earlier, but they’re 16 years old, just like me!)

Even if Mona had never gone on stage, she had attended lives many times. She had watched DVDs of lives dozens of times. As such, she knew a lot about staging. She was self-taught, but she did her voice training by reading books and doing online research.

“There’s nothing I can’t do!” Mona quickly stood up, holding her teacup in her hand.

“That’s the spirit, that’s the spirit! Please get their autographs, if possible. The ones of the two of them!!”

“I told you, I don’t wanna do it!”

★~★~★

The day of the live festival—.

(You’re kidding… What’s the meaning of this?)

Mona subconsciously gripped her arm tightly as she witnessed LIPxLIP’s live performance. The reaction of the audience was completely different from when Mona had performed.

That was a given. She was a no-name newcomer. She had no fans.

Even so, she had simple-mindedly thought “I’ll be fine as long as they listen to my singing.”.

The songs she had chosen were the songs that she sang the best, and loved the most. The songs were all fast-tempoed and lively.

She had been so nervous that her voice had been trembling, and she almost bit her tongue when she introduced herself, as well as the songs that she sang, during the emcee portion. Despite that, she still managed to do it.

The atmosphere did not turn stale, and she felt as though she had been well-received by the audience. She was satisfied with the cheers of “So cute!” and “Do your best!” that had sounded out from them.

Unlike her initial fears, she did not sing the lyrics wrongly. She had been able to perform properly and cohesively with the people in the band around her. She did not make any big mistakes.

When she walked off the stage, the staff, as well as her manager, greeted her with smiles. “Good job. You did well for your first performance.”

Mona stared at her trembling legs as she listened to the increasingly loud cheers and clapping in the distance.

(I did it properly…? I really did it properly… right? I did well? For my first time, right?)

That was all that had been expected of Mona. She was satisfied that she had cleared the lowest benchmark of “something like this”.

…Was the audience properly immersed in her performance?

The people in the front had clapped and waved their hands along to her singing, but… the people at the back had merely listened to her.

By the time Mona got off the stage, the conversational topic of the audience members had already shifted to the people who were set to perform next. “LIPxLIP is up next, right?!”

No one was talking about Mona at all.

(It can’t be helped. I mean, everyone came to see them.)

That was why, it was… a given that they were this excited about it.

Raising her head, Mona saw the two of them singing and moving about on the stage.

As soon as the song had ended, the two of them waved their hands, which were grabbing onto their microphones, up high. Loud cheers erupted from the audience.

The cheers did not dissipate for a while, even after the two of them had left the stage.

That was wrong—.

That was not the case. That was not how it was.

When the two of them made their return, sweat-drenched and exhausted, the staff greeted them with a large smile and rewarding pats on the back. The two of them, holding towels and plastic bottles, walked in front of the spot where Mona was standing.

The one who stopped in place was Yujiro.

Mona looked up at him in surprise.

Their eyes met.

Just like when they had encountered each other at the CD shop, there was a frosty edge to his eyes. The expression on his face was completely different from the one he had worn when he was standing on the stage.

“Hey you… just why are you here?”

“Eh…” Mona’s shaken-up mumble spilled out from between her lips.

“You’re not cut out for this, are you?”

With that said, Yujiro turned around and walked away. He no longer spared Mona a single look…

“Oi, wait,” Aizo, who was trailing behind, gave Mona a single glance, before chasing after Yujiro.

On the stage, the song of the next performer had started to play, and the level of excitement had visibly increased.

A bottle of mineral water nearly slipped out of Mona’s grasp. She squeezed it tightly.

(Just why was I satisfied with that kind of performance…)

The two of them, the other performers, as well as the staff knew their roles well, and were producing work of a professional quality. They had been striving for perfection in order to put on a performance that would satisfy the audience.

The only amateur was Mona.

She was incredibly embarrassed. She wanted to disappear from that place.

Mona looked down and covered her face with both of her hands. She bit her lip so hard that it started to turn a little white.

(I… couldn’t do it at all… I didn’t understand a single thing.)

#honeyworks #narumi mona #narumi sena #lipxlip #someya yuujirou #shibasaki aizou #mona's idol sengen: the novel #instant ramen instructions comprehensions

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