My Crown: Reimagined [IDOLiSH7 Fanfiction]

02: My Spotlight

"Welcome back to the biggest live music broadcast of the year, Music Festa! We've been running nonstop for the past 4 hours!" The MC of the event, Mr Shimooka's voice filled the whole studio. People throughout Japan were glued to their TVs, waiting for their favourite idol groups to show up. "The next three are a hot bunch! I'm sure you can't wait for their appearance!"

What was louder than the MC's voice was the scream from the audience. Mr Shimooka was right; they were super hyped. "He must be talking about TRIGGER. I can't wait!" The entire room was buzzing with chatter. "Or it could be that new talent, Kujou Riku. I really wanna see his face up close!"

"Tenn-"

"I'll be fine, Gaku"

The truth was that Tenn was just putting on a brave face. His teammates were aware of it. After all, Tenn revealed a part of his past during that night when they were supposed to enjoy their night out. They went back to Tenn's place and had a good talk, which wasn't something that happened very often. The youngest pretty much kept every info about himself a secret.

"I had a brother, a twin to be exact." Tenn spoke with a shaken voice that night.

"Had?" Ryuu asked. Tenn could hear the concern in his voice. The boy felt slightly guilty, but he was in no state to stop talking. He was too emotional, too vulnerable.

"He was such a sweet boy. Too bad his body was frail and so he was always sick. Sometimes we never knew if he was going to make it through to the next day." Tenn fought hard not to cry. His mind was betraying him by making him think of the smile on Riku's face. Oh, how he wished he could pat that little boy's head.

"What happened?" Even Gaku sounded worried. That was also just as unusal.

"Our family business was on the verge of bankruptcy. My parents were worried they wouldn't be able to feed us, let alone pay for my brother's medical bills. Then, that man came at the right time, offering to take care of all our financial problems. But of course, he wanted something in return."

"Don't tell me-" Now Gaku looked shocked. The world was ending for sure.

"He wanted me, but my innocent little brother saw the whole event and couldn't accept it. He begged the man to take him instead, and so the man did."

A single tear dropped from Tenn's right eye. "My little brother is Kujou Riku."

No way in hell that Tenn could be 'fine'. Not when they were here at Music Festa, where Kujou Riku would also be performing. They were bound to meet sooner or later. The thought of that scared Tenn very much. Riku, or rather, the current Kujou Riku looked nothing like his sweet little brother. He saw not a single smile on his brother's face on TV that night during the performance. Something felt very wrong. No, something was wrong, and Tenn knew it.

"Well, well if it isn't the sexy group, TRIGGER."

Damn it. Tenn cursed. It had to be now of all times when they had to be on stage in 20 minutes? Tsumuko Ryo just had to show his fox face right here and now. And yeah, Riku was right behind him.

When Tenn caught Riku's stare, he flinched. His biggest fear had just come true. Tenn couldn't see any gentleness in those deep red eyes, nor that he could see any fiery fierceness from them. He felt like he could see right through them. They were empty.

"Tenn-nii." Riku called him. Somehow, Tenn was not expecting that.

"Oya?" Tsukumo acted surprised. He was so obviously fake that Gaku would probably be rolling his eyes if he understood what was going on. "Oh! My bad. I forgot you two have a history. Why don't you say something to your big brother, Riku?"