Starlight Mission

JIMA

For the next two weeks, the boys worked hard in both their singing and dancing lessons, all with the same determination to win the JIMA New Artist award and then Black or White. On the morning before JIMA, they gathered in the meeting room and watched last year's broadcast for JIMA when TRIGGER won the New Artist award.

"After that, as Yaotome-san declared in this video, they won last year's Black or White." Iori told the others

"They were genuinely moved." Tamaki noted

"Of course they were. They won the most prestigious New Artist award only given to one group a year." Sougo said

Tamaki hummed, "I thought they were always where they are now without having to work for it."

"I watched this last year. I had mixed feelings since I thought Tenn-nii had abandoned me. But now I'm genuinely happy for him. I understand how hard it was to reach this point." Riku said with a small smile

"I want the New Artist award. I want to win the award and challenge them!" Mitsuki declared

Nagi nods along, "Yes! Let's win this award and challenge TRIGGER together!"

"""Yeah!"""

...

In the late evening as the sky darkens, they were driven to the venue of the JIMA event and they changed into their stage outfits.

"Good luck out there. We'll be watching you guys from backstage." Feiyun said

Riku sighs heavily and plops down unceremoniously on the chair, "I'm so nervous..."

Iori frowns, not wanting to risk Riku getting an attack before their performance, "Please don't. Not here of all places."

Riku chuckled, smelling the worry in Iori's scent despite the neutralizer he was wearing, "I won't!"

"Just make sure your throat doesn't get cold, Riku-kun." Sougo reminded him

"There's so many flowers." Mitsuki said as he looked at the bouquets around their waiting room

"Mr. Shimooka-san and Clara sent some too!" Nagi said, pointing at the flowers for Mitsuki to see

"Ah..." Mitsuki pointed out another bouquet with three types of flowers and written on its card... "TRIGGER sent some too."

"Can we safely assume that they support us?" Riku asks

Yamato nods, "Yeah, we'd better work hard."

Mitsuki's eyes caught sight of a bouquet of white moth orchids and leaned in, "Huh? These don't have a name written on them."

"They're nice flowers." Riku commented

"I hate to bring up the price, but I believe these are fairly expensive flowers." Iori said, turning to Sougo, "Ousaka-san, could they be from your family?"

While Sougo shakes his head and chuckles at Iori's assumption, since he knows that his family would not do such a thing, Feiyun suddenly sees an aura of displeasure from Yamato for a moment. Turning her eyes to Mitsuki, as she had expected, he was casting a confused look at Yamato now.

"Just pretend that they are, even if they're not." Yamato said with an encouraging smile on his face this time

Sougo smiled and nodded at their leader's suggestion.

"Then I'll pretend they're flowers from Aya." Tamaki said from beside him

"I'll pretend they're from Zero." Mitsuki said with a grin, "He's cheering me on!"