Chapter 1

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Ehehe, you’re Nito-senpai, right? Our costume looks really good on you ♪

Yeah, the size is perfect. I’m so glad~ We messed up our order, so I’m glad it didn’t go to waste.

… ♪

Umm, but I am sorry for getting you caught up in something so weird. You really don’t have to worry about us…

Like, it’d be fine if you went home, y’know?

Well I mean, we would be in trouble if you did. We only just started school here…

And since our test scores were in a pretty low percentile, our reputation is at the bottom of the barrel.

We were rejected right off the bat for every unit we looked at—We failed all the screening tests to get into them.

There were some times when only me or Hajime were accepted.

But we want to stick together with everyone if we can. We worked so hard to get into Yumenosaki together, after all.

So I don’t want us to get split up.

When you join a unit, you’ll have to fight others. It looks like this whole live showdown thing is pretty bloodthirsty at its core.

It’d be way too hard to fight against my friends.

But there’s no unit that’ll take all of us together…

I get where they’re coming from, there’s no merit to taking in a bunch of underachievers like us.

So we didn’t have much of a choice but to make a unit ourselves… So we’ve just decided to give it our best shot.

But we don’t know right from left here. I’m having a hard enough time just filling out the paperwork.

And of course our lessons and idol activities are hard too, since we’re all complete noobs.

We could get a teacher or one of our senpais to give us lessons, sure.

But that costs a fee, and the best trainers are always snatched up by other units.

And we’ve already used up our funds doing other things… We just can’t seem to make ends meet.

Well, that’s all thanks to you-know-who, though.

Huh? What’s up, Tomo-chan? I’m doing great today too! ♪

What are you so excited about, huh? We’re completely stuck in a rut here…

I’m glad you’re so carefree and all… But Mitsuru, we’re all out of money because you decided to buy dedicated costumes for us, remember?

Can’t you at least act like you’re sorry? We don’t need this kinda thing right now!

If we don’t build a solid foundation for ourselves first, all of this is just a waste!

Huh~? But I got ‘em dirt cheap compared to the normal price!

I have this senpai on the track team—Arashi-chan-senpai, I think? He asked a friend to help me out~ ♪

Eheh. I was like, this is a steal~ But you don’t like ‘em? The costumes’re so cute though! And easy to move in too—Hmm-hmhm~ ♪

Well yeah, the costumes themselves are great and all, but…

The school specializes in training male idols, so there’s not a lot of options for cutesy-type costumes.

So it does help that we could get these made for so cheap, but even if we have costumes, we can’t even use them without the funds to perform in lives, y’know?

We were able to scrape together the last of our money for this Dream Fes—this A1.

But we’ll have to build a foundation for all our future activities right here… Things are seriously not looking good for us, got it?

So that brings us back to… Umm, your name’s Nito-senpai?

I’m really sorry, I don’t mind if you’re just helping out temporarily! But we really need you to help us—We’re completely backed against a wall at this point!

We can even pay you for the work you do! Umm, because we’re gonna work really hard to get some money! So please, please just perform with us this one time!

I get that we barely know each other, and I get I’m asking for something unreasonable.

But for this A1… we’re just going to be using the generic songs and dances they teach you in class.

So you should already know them too, Nito-senpai.

Please do this with us. If it’s just the three of us, it’s gonna be hard to get through this performance.

With this A1, we have to prove that we can somehow perform to the bare minimum standards… Otherwise our unit will have to break up.

The A1 is an official Dream Fes, so it’ll affect our grades.

So if we can’t get any good results because of how bad we are, we’re gonna stay at the bottom of the class… And if we’re really unlucky, we could even get expelled…

Even though we went through so much to get into this school! It’s only April—Our high school lives have only just started!

……

Umm, Nito-senpai? Please let me know if the costume is too tight, okay~? I’m pretty good at sewing, so I can fix it right up for you ♪

… ♪

C’mon Hajime, what’s with that carefree attitude? Help me convince her!

Nito-senpai, this is the last thing we’ll ever ask you! I’m kinda worried ‘cause that masked pervert introduced us, but we really have no choice but to grasp at straws.

But Tomoya-kun… Nito-senpai is a girl, isn’t she?

And umm, even if she ends up helping us… What if they find out she’s a girl? Won’t that be a problem?

I know this is a little late since we’ve already had her put on the costume, but…

Oh, right. This is a school for training male idols, isn’t it~

The idol department is exclusively for boys, too… So if she’s a girl, that’d mean she’s not in the idol department.

So she can’t get on the stage with us after all, huh?

I’m not too sure. The A1 is an official Dream Fes, so it should be that people who aren’t in the idol department can’t perform, right?