The Muse

Twenty-third Melody

Confessing her welled-up emotions had relieved a heavy burden off of her shoulders. Every time she saw them, she didn't feel like running away anymore and looking at them and hearing news about them were easier. She felt as if a major goal had been accomplished. 

"Haruka, what are you humming about?" Rei asked from his seat across from her. She stopped to look at him smiling, not noticing that she had been humming.

"It's nothing really", Haruka replied. "It's just...it feels like these past few days, my body has become so light and airy! I feel like celebrating every day."

Ren  chuckled. "That's nice to hear. I thought you ate some poisonous mushroom or something!" Haruka had a confused expression on her face.

"I didn't eat any mushrooms though these past few days", replied Haruka, still perplexed. This caused Ren to fall over in laughter over how dense she was. 

"Haruka, don't mind Ren. He's always like that", Sou said nonchalantly. Haruka nodded her head slowly, still trying to process what Ren had meant by what he had said. However, despite knowing Haurka's cheery attitude, they had already known what had happen. At the party, they were close enough to hear their conversation loud and clear. Rei, Ren, Sou, Reiji, Director Tanaka, and Producer Genjiro had been eavesdropping from behind a wall and though they knew it was wrong, they couldn't help it. As they watched their argument, they were secretly rooting for Haruka. Although they had wanted to punch Otoya for making Haruka apologize even though nothing was her fault, they were glad that Haruka had made it through. Seeing her now, she really did seem as if a huge weight had been lifted off of her. They were thrilled. 

"Come to think of it, Haruka. The world tour is happening soon, isn't it?" Rei asked, changing the subject.

"En! I'm really looking forward to it!" Haruka nodded her head happily. 

"Do you have all the songs down?" Sou asked.

"Yep", Haruka replied, pointing to her bag with her desktop in it. "I've got it all saved and printed. The only things left are to finalize some last scores within the composition. Ah! I also have your guys song down!" Haruka began rummaging through her bag for her folder and found out. She gave each person their own copy of the composition.

"Woah! You finished it already!" Ren exclaimed, rotating his hat back.

"Yep! I was so excited to compose songs for you guys in such a long time that I immediately began writing this. It's the first song that I had began to write. I intended to give it to you guys a pretty long time ago but the timing just didn't really seem right" Haruka said light-heartedly with a nervous chuckle. 

"We know it's been busy these past few weeks. We didn't really have time to discuss things with one another", Rei said with a smile. 

"That's right! Besides, this is perfect!" Ren exclaimed as he waved the papers in the air. 

Sou nodded in agreement. "The melody and harmony is perfect. It's the image that we originally had in mind for our new group song."

Rei and Rei enthusiastically nodded. "Haruka really does know us the best!" Ren said as he jumped on Haruka, hugging her. Rei and Sou immediately began pulling him off of her as Haruka tried to calm down her blushing face.

"We'll write the best lyrics for your song, Haruka", Sou said smiling. 

"It'll be a song worthy of the work of world class artistas", Rei said finally. They all nodded with determined looks in their eyes, knowing that the tour will be a success. 

"Let's do it!" Ren exclaimed as he jumped up happily. They all immediately began going to work. President Ryuu watched along the sidelines, smiling to himself. He was glad that everything had been cleared up between Haruka and STARISH. All that was left was for Haruka to step forward as the number one idol and win the world class artista title and award. However, even without a competition, it was a definite victory for Haruka.