✽ imeeji: memory three

[wonderlandgirl]

Yes, okay, so it sounds a little funny, the thought of being scolded by pretty, petite Chisato Shirasagi, but it was only amusing if you'd never been on the receiving end of one of her only-for-your-own-good sermons.


✽ breaking training

It's a beautiful evening, a beauitful place to be seeing it from. The beach is almost empty at this time of night, day-trippers corraling their tired children and bundling them back toward stations and car parks, ready for the ride home, or back to hotels and campsites, holiday villas. The sun is sinking over the water, casting long shadows across the sand and the strip, burnishing the water a rich gold. An evening like this goes a long, long way to making the stress of the day seem worthwhile.

The water is cool, but not cold: the first touch of it against her toes, her shins, and she's straight back to being a kid again. Laughing, she splashes and wades out intil she's up to her waist, then turns...

Because that's what makes this truly perfect, isn't it? The touch of the unexpected that is the presence of so many friends.

She's not alone on the beach, after all. The tourists might have called it an evening, but for a part-time worker who's spent the day ministering to those same tourists' sandy, sunburned needs, this is the first time this whole blissful summer's day she - part-time cafe manager seconded to a day on the strip - had more than five minutes to herself to enjoy it in. And with friends, too...! She doesn't want to think what the day would have been like without Lisa and Himari and the others showing up like that, right at the point she was starting to worry her boss would melt away in the midday heat, from stress and too much sun.

"Mmm~♪" She says, almost absently, feeling the water lap away her sore feet, her own stifled stress. "There's nothing like swimming in the ocean!"
Himari's tireder, she's not laboring under the weight of a day's frustration, she's still stood in the shallows, while the other girls wait on the shore. She calls her name, as if to catch her attention. "Since you were the manager for the day, does this mean this is your first time to go in the water?"
"That's right!" She turns back to the others, seawater lapping at the tips of her fingers as she moves. How much fun is a day at the beach when you have to spend it working? "The water was right there, but I couldn't go in... it was driving me crazy!"
"In that case, let's go and have lots of fun right now!" That's Ako - Lisa's bandmate, right? A year younger even than Himari, she's a bundle of pigtailed energy even now. She's running out to join them even as she speaks, the water kicking up spray as she splashes through the shallows. "There's still some time before it gets dark!"
"Really? Yay, thanks!" She thinks she could hug Ako. "Lisa-chan, Rinko-chan, are you guys gonna come too?"
"Of course!" Lisa says: she thinks she even catches her wink before she turns back, wordlessly, to her bandmate - Rinko, shy and quiet and surprisingly knowledgeable about promotional drinks campaigns, still stood uncertainly at the water's edge with a coverall about her shoulders. Clearly nervous about being seen out in a swimsuit, though the only problem with her dark, vintage-styled one-piece is how nervous being in it makes her look, poor thing. Rinko, that look is saying, aren't you going to come too?
"Just... to the shore?" Rinko manages. Quiet, hesitant, it's hard for her to catch it from out here.
And Himari, of course, takes the typical mile to someone else's awkward inch. "Okay, then!" She cries. "Get ready for a sunset-splash battle!"

Rinko looks like she wants to bolt back to the beach and hide in the cafe's ice-cream freezer. She's outnumbered four to one, though - it's actually a really good idea! Because she's not here alone, is she? Good fortune has brought her her friends, and she's determined to make the absolute most of it. A nod and a wink from Lisa, Ako's already stooped and ready to start: she wades toward them, a smile splitting her face.

"Ready?" Himari asks. "Let's go...!"

They thirty happy, laughing minutes like that. Thirty minutes as the sun sinks lower and the water shades from golden to orange, to almost red: the splash battle goes three rounds with victory to everyone and nobody. She takes the chance to swim, to sit in the shallows with the waves washing about her legs and wrists, catching up with Himari, with the struggles she has with Afterglow that sometimes seem to so mirror her own, to schedule a shopping trip, then reschedule so that Lisa can come too...

Eventually, Lisa stands. She rubs at one bronzed shoulder, and winces.

"Lisa-chan?" She tears her gaze away from the sunset. "Are you leaving the water already?"
"Yeah." She smiles a little apologetically. "The water is starting to sting a little..."
She gasps. Springs up, the water sluicing from her limbs. "Oh! Did you get sunburned?"
"I think so." Lisa sighs, shakes her head. "And I made sure to put sunscreen on, too. Oh, well..."
"Does it hurt?" She's concerned. She's leaning forward for a closer look. Ouch. That looks like it's going to sting. "Are you okay? I have some moisturizing cream you can use. I'll grab it for you!"
Lisa shakes her head. Determined, it seems, to laugh it off. "Nah, this is nothing. I'm okay! Thanks for worrying about me, though!"
"Nope!" Nice try, Lisa. She's already to the water's edge. Her bag's sat a short way up the sand, with their towels and sun hats - it'll be no trouble to grab it. "You shouldn't underestimate sunburns," she says, as she roots through her bag. Now where did she leave the wretched thing...? "Just use the cream, okay? Sunburn doesn't just turn your skin brown. It can also create blemishes. Which," she adds, as she turns back to the others with the tube in her hand, "is exactly what Chisato-chan said when she told me off."

That makes Lisa laugh, just a little. She frowns. Yes, okay, so it sounds a little funny, the thought of being scolded by pretty, petite Chisato Shirasagi, but it was only amusing if you'd never been on the receiving end of one of her only-for-your-own-good sermons, the kind that left you - well, her - mute and blushing and suddenly tearful, stinging with shame. Goodness knew Hina never had any problem laughing her off.

"'An idol must take care of her skin', is what she said," she tells Lisa - she can't make it sound even half as - as searing as Chisato does. "and even though she had a smile on her face, she was kind of scary..."
"Wow." Perhaps it's another minor miracle, but Lisa seems to be following along. "Idols have to worry about so many more things than the rest of us, huh?"
She nods. Oh, so many things. Singing and dancing isn't the half of it. "The day I accepted the manager thing, Chisato-chan went as far as giving me some sunscreen that's really strong, but soft on the skin. Even though I told her it'd be okay because the beach hut has a roof, she was like 'No, be sure to apply it multiple times' every day for about a week or so..."
Lisa laughs, shaking her head, but she's following. "Wow... I guess it just goes to show how hard it is being an idol. Is there anything else you guys have to be careful of?"
"Besides getting sunburned?" She hesitates. It's funny, but the moment Lisa asks, it's like all that advice decides it's got better places to be than her own mind. "Let's see..." Oh, of course: the other thing Chisato keeps saying every time she takes a shift at the burger place. "Be careful not to get any little cuts or scratches. Oh, and always turn on your humidifier before you go to sleep! If your throat ever feels weird, immediately put on a mask. Stuff like that."
"I see, I see," Lisa says, still nodding along. "A vocalist has to take good care of their throat, huh~? Yukina is super careful about everything as well."
"That's right! Apparently, it's easy to catch a cold when your throat is weak too!"
"I've gotta say though, it sounds so tough being an idol and having all those things to be careful of," Lisa says, thoughtfully. "I don't think I could do it. I think I have a new-found respect for you, Aya!"
She laughs, blushing: a little awkward, a little pleased. "It's not that special! It's all easy once you get used to it!" Now she can't stop thinking about it all, about the million and one little rules she's been mostly managing to live by for the last three years. She counts them off on her fingers as she speaks. "Other than that, there's... If you're going to eat chocolate, eat it before a meal... and if you go to bed late, make sure it's before the date changes. Oh, and cut back on junk food and soda. What else? Hmm..."
"Huh?" Lisa blinks. "Wait a sec. Didn't I get an immediate response from you when I texted you at one in the morning the other day?"

She blinks. She's thrown. When was that? she almost says - only then she remembers, and she'd been about to go to bed, really! It had been the last thing she did, or almost...and anyway, hadn't it been important? She's sure it had been... she just can't remember what it was right now, that's all. And anyway, it's one thing--

"And didn't you order fries last time we went out together?" Lisa says, remorseless, and the look on her face says she's enjoying this, and she realizes she really should have stopped at the sunscreen. "And then there was that time you had a chocolate cake, for dessert... If Chisato finds out, she'll..."

Chisato.

Oh, she knows what Chisato will say...!

"Don't tell her!" she blurts out. "Lisa-chan! I'm begging you...!"

So much for newfound respect.

At no point is Wednesday's name heard.

✽ notes

✽ Meet Himari and Lisa, Wednesday's friends from home. They're the girly ones in their respective bands, and that's exactly why they both get on so well with her. Not that this stops Lisa teasing her, of course.

✽ Idol life is always suffering. No chocolate?

✽ How many jobs does Wednesday have? Hopefully this is the end of them - meaning that she's not only an idol and a high-school student, she's also got a part-time job in food service, and apparently she's good enough at it she's sent to help out with promotions elsewhere. Exactly when she finds time to sleep is, honestly, up for debate, and since arriving in Imeeji she's clearly been having the most free time she's had in years.

✽ Though she takes being an idol very seriously, she's still very much a teenage girl who struggles with really, really enjoying all the wrong things. Ganbatte, Wednesday-chan.

✽ Chisato is one of those friends: the one who's not only passive-aggressive, but who always has a point and is usually right. Wednesday respects her, she even likes her, but she's absolutely, definitely quietly terrified of her.

Code by efryndiel