These girls are "gaijin", foreigners in the land of Japan. Shall they succeed in braving that very Japanese thing, "Love Live", the national contest of school idols? The city of Takarazuka, near Osaka, is home to the famous all-women theatre. Bella Flarkowska and her friends are no actresses, though. They are just pupils of an "international" school that teaches through English. Yet they decide to step onto the stage to try and become stars in the "school sport" of Japanese pop music. Some of them, however, refuse. Easy victory does not await them. But together - idol or "refusenik" - they will find out quite a few things about the origins and meaning of "idols", many other things... and of course, about themselves, as each of them rises to make her own choices and face the world. "It is a bad idea to stand between a person and her dream". === Supplementary materials, including background and character profiles: https://www.wattpad.com/story/261416512-gaijin-idols-supplementary-materials This work is fan fiction on the Love Live franchise, in anime continuity, in the Aqours timeline. While the author is a technical writer in English by trade, the author's native language is Russian. This is the author's first major attempt at fiction in English. So any commentary on language, style, and so on is much appreciated. A Russian version, which has all of seven chapters now, exists at https://vk.com/gaijinidols