The Blinding Stage Lights

A Fourth Member

"You're sooo wrong Aether! It's obvious that Diluc is wayyyy better than sir Kaeya! I mean, his voice is way better trained! Not to mention Kaeya is just there for fan service. And don't get me STARTED on Tartaglia!, " Venti said, ranting about the group they were going to see next weekend in concert.

"Kaeya might be there for fan service! But look at Zhongli! He's so cool and beautiful! His voice is like heaven. There's a reason he's the leader!," Aether argued back.

"There's no way! Diluc sings more, Zhongli is only leader because he's the oldest! Everyone knows that," Venti pointed his fork at Aether, his eyes narrowing.

"You're just saying that because Diluc is your idol~ you know that Zhongli is the real talent!," Aether huffed, crossing his arms and turning away.

"Guys, guys, I think you're scaring Xiao," Kazuha pointed out.

Xiao was having fun listening to the conversation, at least until it got heated. He was so mesmerized by Venti's passion for something so seemingly simple. But, it was rather frightening to see him be so aggressive. Truly and interesting combination.

Venti and Aether looked at each other with a glare before looking at Kazuha. “Sorry Kazuha,” Aether apologized first.
“Yeah, sorry Kazuha, it’s not my fault Aether is blind,” Venti giggled as Aether shouted.
“That’s not fair!,” Aether exclaimed, standing up and pointing at Venti.
“Is too~,” Venti laughed harder, leaning onto Xiao.
Aether huffed, sitting back down. Kazuha sighed, shaking his head and comforting Aether by softly patting him on his head. Xiao observed the situation that went down, looking down at Venti and then up at the others. It was weird how normal people spoke to one another. In the acting world he couldn’t be so loud and fight over such simple things.

It would ruin the public’s image of him if he were to ever act out or cause such a scene in the real world. However, this seemed to be something completely normal to Venti and his friends. They argued so freely, but it didn’t hurt their relationship whatsoever. It was odd. A good odd, or at least he thought it was.

He wished he could be as free as Venti, but he was stuck in this cycle of “you can’t be rude or unhappy, it’ll ruin your career” since he was a child; hence his current personality. He hoped it didn’t bug Venti too much. The last thing he’d want is to be a bother.

Venti laughed triumphantly, eating his food with a satisfied smirk. He turned to Xiao, his eyes sparkling "what about you Xiao? What do you think of them?"

"Me? I uh...Don't know who you guys are talking about," Xiao said with sheepish shrug.

Venti gasped loudly, "How have you not heard about them!? They're literally the biggest idol group out there right now!! It's who we inspire to be!"

"I uh didn't know. But did you mention Mr. Zhongli?," Xiao tilted his head in question.

Aether perked up, "Yeah! I did! Do you know him?!"

"I do, I've met him a lot, we do a lot of television together. He's like a dad to me," Xiao smiled softly.

Now it was Aether's turn to gasp, "You HAVE to let us meet him!!! That's literally my dream! We couldn't even get backstage passes, they were too expensive"

"I could ask, Mr. Zhongli enjoys meeting fans," Xiao nodded to himself.

Aether smile brightly, "thank you!!!!!"

Kazuha chuckled at how excited Aether was as he caught Venti staring at amazement at Xiao. He wouldn't say anything, at least, not yet.

Lunch continued as the boys spoke more and more about idol groups.

"Hey Aether, isn't your twin sister an idol?," Venti asked as they cleaned up their table.

"Yea, she's just in training right now. She wanted me to join her but I wanna be with you guys, once we find a 4th member," Aether smiled.

Venti returned the smile. "You're the best Aether!," he half hugged the blond with a chuckle.

"I dunno about that," Aether said, somewhat flustered.

Kazuha smiled at the two as he continued to clean himself. Xiao looked at the males and looked at Kazuha.

"Can I.. Ask you something?," Xiao anxiously looked up at Kazuha.

"Of course," Kazuha turned his attention to Xiao.

"What is...this club? What are you guys? What do you do?," he asked, hoping that he asked the right question.

"Oh, well, we're aspiring idols, the club was formed for us to look for a 4th member, but he haven't really gotten one. I mean we have you, but I doubt you'd want to sing, you're already rather successful. As for what we do, it's pretty easy! Venti is the main singer, Aether usually joins him in singing or he dances with me. We're looking for a rapper and then we can enter the training camp. Aether's sister Lumine is already there. It's all our dreams to become idols...but we can't do it without a fourth member or without making it through training camp," Kazuha explained, taping his chin and looking up.

"Ah, does it make Venti happy?," Xiao asked, rather seriously.

"Yeah, I believe so. He has the talent for it, he sounds beautiful," Kazuha smiled softly.

Xiao nodded and after a few seconds his mind was made up. "I'll be your fourth member. I've taken voice lessons since I was young, rap was one of the various styles I learned"

"Really? Are you sure? It's incredibly tedious," Kazuha looked at him, furrowing his eye brows.

"I'm positive."

"Then why don't you tell them yourself? Venti will be thrilled," he smiled, softly pushing Xiao towards Venti.

Venti was humming to himself as he cleaned when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He jumped a bit and looked to the side he was poked on. "Oh! Xiao, hey," he smiled.

"I would like to be the fourth member for your singing group," Xiao made direct eye contact.

Venti stood straight up and looked Xiao up and down skeptically "are you sure about that? Aren't you already busy with like- acting?," he raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, I am positive!," he nodded.

"Okay then, but there's a lot more to it than you think," Venti shrugged. "After school, we'll help you in the club room"

"Okay"

Venti squealed, "We have a fourth member!!!"

He hugged Xiao tightly as the bell rang, and the group couldn't be more excited for that school day to end.