The Smile of an Idol

Chapter 2 - The Reflection of An Idol

My eyes shot open. All I saw was white. The ceiling was bare and I was lying down. The calm rocking of the cruise ship was replaced with solid ground. My eyes traveled to my body and I saw the powder blue material of a hospital gown. I glanced to the side and saw the white sheets of the bed. I closed my eyes again and rolled to the side, my body nearly falling off the edge of the bed. I buried my head in the pillow and furrowed my brow. It was silent until... I drifted off the edge of the bed. FWUMP! My head banged against the hardwood floor. Whenever I thought of a hospital room, I always imagined a white carpeted floor and a nurse waiting in the room, ready to check your temperature or to take some other test. No one else was in the cramped room beside me and the IV. Not even Karin bothered to show up. But I guess that's a blessing in disguise considering she'd probably scold me for being too careless once I woke up. Despite what it seems like, I don't hate my sister. I think she's quite sweet, actually. Karin and I were each other's best friends when we were kids. We were those kinds of sisters who did everything together, even school projects. Every year, we begged our teachers to let us be in the same class. They complied most of the time, but only to put a stop to our screaming.

It was around 8th grade, and Karin and I were 14. That was when we decided that we wanted to become school idols. Naturally, that didn't happen. Being a school idol is tough and neither of us had the patience or motivation to put up with the cruel industry or the time it takes to write songs. But we still wanted to make it work. We still had the passion needed to become school idols. Karin was an amazing dancer and she designed all of our outfits. She sewed each and every outfit with care and always made sure mine was comfortable. I could sing, but I didn't have the confidence to go on stage nor did I want to. I was kinda... roped into it. Eventually, though, my sister's distant dream became mine as well. We decided that maybe we could have our start with street performances. Maybe a guy working in the idol industry would scout us if we were good enough, right? That's what we thought. Karin worked her fingers to the bone sewing our costumes and I tried hard to choreograph dances and configure music for us. Somehow our wishes came true. At our 99th performance in Akihabara, a scout found us. He noticed our performance and approached us for a deal. He invited us to the Akihabara School Idol Company Audition Session. Various school idols from all around the globe will be auditioning for a chance with us, he said. We think you'll do wonderfully, he said. One condition, he said, only Lynn. At the time, I was too blinded by excitement and shock to see the sorrow and pain in her eyes and the ambition flowing through her clenched fists.

The bright sun was slowly setting on Akihabara. The sunset was beautiful, but I had better things to think about. All I could think about was the scouting offer. I didn't even care that the sun was blazing through my retinas. I turned to Karin. "This is amazing! What a steal, right, Karin?" I thought she would be happy for me, but the only thing I could glean from her expression was disdain and disappointment.

"It's... alright, I guess."

"Awww, don't worry, Karin, you could be my manager! You could still design the outfits and you would be in charge of the whole thing, too!"

"It's not the same as being the one on stage, though. Plus, the dancing was the best part, the designing was really only because I didn't want to pay for a professional to sew our outfits."

That's a lie. You always had such joy in your eyes when I saw you sitting at the sewing machine, pressing on the foot pedal.

"Still cool, though!~"

Looking back on it, I have no idea how I could've been so dense as to not notice how she really felt. I quickly sprinted back home to tell my mom the news, leaving Karin behind to bring back our performance set-up. 

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Yay! I'm not dead