The show must go on

Backstage 1

It's dark, It's loud. I'm waiting for my name to be called.

After a moment that felt like an eternity, I hear it.

"And now, cheer for our new idol! Kiyuki!"

I run to the stage, I keep a false smile during all the concert. They keep cheering for the facade I'm showing them.

When it's finally over, I head to the backstage of the scene. My manager come to me.

"Congrats for your first concert! You did well."

"Thanks." I don't really care, I just go in my dressing room. I hear footsteps coming to me.

"Hello mother."

"Kiyuki! You did great!" She stopped calling me by my name, her too, only care about Kiyuki the idol.

"Thanks."

"You'll be a great idol. You need to be, since I couldn't be one."

I don't really care about the idol world. The only thing I want is to play with my guitar, but I barely have time to play it now.

Being an idol has nothing to do with music, I'm just a pretty face for someone else's music.

"Yes mother."

"I will show your father that I'm better than him."

They're both horrible, they never cared for me. My father left my mother when she was pregnant, she became pregnant at 16 and couldn't chase her dream of being an idol.

"I need to rest now."

"Oh! I understand, rest well, Kiyuki."

Why can't she call me by my name like before? I look at me in the mirror. Is Kiyuki better than me?

I woke up, I don't remember falling asleep. It's 3am, the concert is over now.

I can't sleep anymore, so I roam around, I see two girls trying to enter a room.

I recognize one of them, she's a popular idol. But I've never seen the other.

"Hey you!" The popular idol point at me, I don't want any troubles.

"Yes?"

"You won't tell anyone you saw us, right?"

"No, I don't even know what you're doing."

"I'm Haru, but you maybe know me as Kiyohime." Yeah, it's the top idol of the agency.

The other girl was focused on lock picking. She saw me and start introducing herself.

"I'm Emiko, my stage name is Aki. I'm new like you, so I hope we'll get along well.

I don't really care about them, so I just go.

"Hey! What's your name?"

"You can call me Fuyuko."

"I hope we'll get along well too, Fuyuko"

It's the first time in a month I heard someone say my name, since my mother found Kiyuki she can't stop talking about it.

"I hope so, too." I don't know if I mean it, but it's not so bad to have friends, I guess.

The days pass, I see Emiko and Haru often. They're nice. Haru is a big Idol and teaches lots of stuffs to Emiko and me.

We decided to hang out together for lunch today.

On the way to the roof, we see a girl introducing her to everyone.