Chapter Text
In a perfect universe, everyone within earshot rushed Nina and demanded her autograph after she finished singing. An agent from an entertainment label would be walking by in his haste to catch his train and promptly forgot about it as he tried to break through the crowd to see if Nina was signed, and if not, if she'd be open to an offer. She'd take over the music industry by storm, they'd sell out albums many times over and become bigger than Diamond Dust, and she and Momoka would look back on it as the day their futures had been set in stone.
As it were, Momoka felt the eyes of some dozen people intently watching them as the last chord of the song died in the air, she could see the drummer and the bassist were exchanging looks of awe between each other, and there was Nina breathing hard and flushing as what she had done dawned on her. Their impromptu performance had drawn a tiny audience. There were even a few people holding out their phones recording.
The rest of the crowd however kept walking, deaf to the diamond in the rough who'd poured her heart out to the world.
Holding her guitar low in one hand, Momoka reached out to Nina and clasped her on the shoulder, jerking her hand back as the other girl jumped in shock. "Not bad for your first live song," Momoka joked. "A little off-key but we can work on-"
Nina hugged her. "Thank you for coming back," she whispered into Momoka's shoulder.
Momoka smiled and shook her head. The girl was full of contradictions. Mild one moment and passionate the next, unable to string together more than a few words at a time in a small voice, but also capable of grabbing a microphone and shout a touching speech. "I always take care of my fans," she whispered even as she wondered if she was really ready to endure another month, another week, another day of living payslip to payslip, fighting back exhaustion to compose and sing after long shifts and bad sleep patterns, and holding out for one of her songs to be a hit as she watched Diamond Dust do just fine without her.
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Momoka was everything Nina's parents despised and her high school career advisor had cautioned her not to be: dropout, recreational alcoholic, and part-timer putting it all on the line for a dream in the music industry. Her father would probably call her a deadbeat with her head lost in the clouds, while her teachers would describe her as gambling with her future.
In her head, Nina referred to the list of everything Momoka had done for her so far.
She sold her a copy of her CD for a hundred yen coin, a fraction of the original cost and a loss.
She brought her dinner.
She lent her a couch for the night when Nina mentioned arriving in the city too late to pick up the keys to her place from the realtor.
She gave her own guitar as a farewell gift.
She signed her ticket for the cancelled concert.
She ran after Nina to give her phone back after Nina rudely stormed out.
She took her out to karaoke.
Most importantly, after her talk about just scraping by and throwing in the towel because not everyone beat the odds, she came back.
Against all those mounting kindnesses, putting Momoka up in her place was a small price to pay. Even if it meant having the woman sleeping in the same bed as her. Even if it meant having to start the morning watching her idol groan and clutch at the toilet seat while in the throes of a hangover.
There was also a part of Nina that feared Momoka would one day use all the kindness she'd given to Nina against her. Because that's what the other girls back in school had been like.
Nina squatted next to Momoka, wincing at the ripe smell of bile and alcohol. "You can have the yoghurt," she said softly.
"No-no," Momoka croaked. "It's cool, I got it under control."
"Did you know that this was going to happen when you finished all those beers by yourself?" Nima asked as she set the yoghurt down on the floor, reached for the paper roll and ripped off several wads.
"Usually my stomach's made of iron," Momoka grunted as she accepted one of them and wiped her mouth with it. "I'll bounce back in no time."
"I was always told that drinking is bad for you."
"They're not wrong."
Nina realized on some level that she should not be moralizing at such a time when her only lifeline in this cold, strange city was struggling to avoid hurling her guts into the toilet of the new apartment that Nina had just moved in to, but a morbid and curious part of her wanted to pry. "So why do it?" Nina asked.
Momoka didn't answer, and Nina felt like she'd picked the wrong dialogue option in a visual novel game. "When you hit twenty," Momoka joked. "Try it for yourself."
"I think I'll pass."
Momoka let out a chuckle. "Good choice," she croaked. Then she stiffened and Nina realized the other girl had lost the battle as her nose was hit with the smell of vomit.
Nina sighed and offered Momoka the yoghurt again. She supposed she should have realized that one's idols are not always what they're cracked up to be.
That being said, if someone as amazing as Momoka could be dysfunctional, perhaps someone as dysfunctional as Nina could go on to become something amazing too.