star gazer 2

Hokuto: By the way, only students who haven’t joined a unit and who only engage in solo activities are allowed to perform at the Venus Cup.

There are plenty of other top-performing students, but they weren’t selected because of this.

Subaru: Ohh, like how Gami-san is in that one unit?

But then why wasn’t Natsume picked? I thought he was best student in the whole year?

He’s the only first year who’s part of the Five Oddballs.

Hokuto: Yeah, I was curious about that, too, so I asked the teacher... He said he had something else to do, so he gave up his spot.

Which is how it fell to us instead.

Subaru: Huh, what else would he be doing? I guess he’s been super busy since they made him an Oddball, huh~ Always running around everywhere.

Maybe he just doesn’t care about people his own age since he’s got four genius upperclassmen fawning all over him.

And we talked a whole bunch when we first started school, too.

Man, it really sucks! So you gotta promise you’ll always be my partner and always be my friend forever, Hidaka-kun ☆

Hokuto: Since when were we friends? Idols fight a solitary battle; we don’t need friends.

Well, they did put that “unit” system in place, so maybe that’s not the case anymore.

Hokuto: But... my club president is one of the Five Oddballs, but we haven’t been getting along recently.

It comes across like he’s rehearsing our play without fail, but his instruction has been getting more and more harsh.

We have a performance today, though, and I’d like to make sure we’re attuned with each other.

Personality issues aside, at least he has real talent. There’s nothing to worry about there.

But I’m anxious. He’s finally letting me get on stage, but I’m still just a novice.

If I make a big mistake, he’s really going to give it to me later.

Subaru: Wait, you’re doing a performance today too? What’s it about? Are you gonna be some kinda princey thing?

Hokuto: What is a “princey thing,” first of all... It’s an adaption of Sleeping Beauty, and it calls for a pretty difficult role that torments the other actors.

I’m pretty sure the president will play a more serious character. That’s rare for him.

He can pull off anything, but he has the most appeal when playing the role of a trickster.

But that makes him annoying to costar with, since I never know what he’s going to do.

Subaru: ...Trick star?

Hokuto: Have you never heard of them? They’re supporting, but invaluable characters which serves to disrupt the story.

It’s an important role that requires even more skill than most leading roles.

I’m not good enough yet, so I’ve never had the chance to try it for myself.

But my dream is to one day pull off the best trickster role Buchou has ever seen and give him a surprise.

Fufu. That guy always seems like he’s putting on a performance for others. It’s kind of thrilling to imagine him totally shocked still right there on stage.

Well, for now that dream will have to stay a dream...

Subaru: Hehe, but it’s good to dream, right? So by trickstar, is it supposed to mean the star is pulling tricks on people?

Ahaha, it sounds like lots of fun~ ♪

Hokuto: Oh, you have the spelling wrong. It’s not star, it’s ster. They sound similar, though.^[1]

Anyway, the drama club will put on their play, and then afterwards a famous unit is set to perform in a DreamFest...

The Venus Cup is basically the opening act for that.

Tickets are sold separately, but they thought it might attract attention if it were a way to kill time before a bigger event.

So far, though, this place is deserted.

I guess there’s still an hour before the show starts, so maybe that’s just how it goes.

But there’s so few people here that I keep worrying I got the time or even the day mixed up.

Well, I’ll do what I’m here to do, whether there’s anyone watching or not.

Subaru: Eugh, but it’s so lonely without any people! If you wanna sing and dance all alone, just go to karaoke. Idols are here to entertain people, yanno?

Hey, why don’t we go fishing for attendees?

Hokuto: We don’t have time for that, seriously. Don’t be so antsy right before the show, Akehoshi.

We have to work together without any prior experience with each other, so we should be rehearsing as much as we can so we get in sync.

I want to do my best in this job I was entrusted with. So let’s do what we can to make the Venus Cup a good show.

Subaru: Obviously! I love lives~ It’s been a while since I worked with anyone else, so I dunno if I’ll be any good at this, but whatever ♪

Oh, hang on... Is it really just you and me up here, Hidaka-kun?

I thought you said Class B also got to send some students.

Hokuto: Yeah, I was wondering about that too. Maybe they’re skipping out; the students at Yumenosaki Academy are notoriously unmotivated, after all.

I feel like things have been changing a bit, though.

Anyway, let’s prepare ourselves for anything that could happen, so that we can see through this live perfectly.

Our relationship might not last, but I look forward to working with you... Akehoshi.

Subaru: Yup! Let’s go, Prince Charming~ ♪

Hokuto: Stop calling me a prince.