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It all began on a quiet day in Yuigaoka's School Idol Club. Chisato and Keke were still on classroom duty, and Ren was handling things in the student council. Thus, the only members currently in the clubroom were Kanon and Sumire.
It was rare for the two of them to be alone. Not that they weren't friends–while it might have gotten off on a rocky start, Kanon could confidently call Sumire a close friend. It's just that the two mainly interact with the other members.
Kanon twiddled her thumbs as she sat on one side of the table. Occasionally, she would turn her gaze towards Sumire, watching the blonde doing… something on her phone. Sometimes, her neutral expression would transform into a prideful smirk. Sometimes, it would become a furious scorn.
Clearing her throat, Kanon decided to break the awkward silence between them. "So… what are you doing?" Not the best way to start a conversation, but it was something!
Raising her gaze from her phone screen, Sumire gave Kanon a look. "Ego searching," Sumire replied bluntly.
"Oh." Kanon had heard of the word from Keke, but she wasn't sure what that really entailed. "What's that?"
Wordlessly, Sumire pushed her phone towards Kanon. Looking at the screen, Kanon quickly pieced together that Sumire was on Twitter. The top search bar showed that Sumire had been searching for tweets with her own name..
“You’re looking up things about yourself?”
“Bingo.” Sumire nods. “People on social media are completely off the cuff. They’re honest, sometimes to the point of being brutally so. You’d be surprised at the things they say about us when they think we won’t read it.”
“That sounds kinda unhealthy.” Kanon still remembers the drama that happened when they appointed Sumire to be the center for ‘Nonfiction.’ All of the nasty comments she received about how she wasn’t fit to be the center…
Sumire shrugged. “I’m used to it. Plus, it’s the best way of finding which areas you still need to improve on. Lots of people even say really nice things about us–either you develop a massive ego, or you develop impostor syndrome. Or both.”
“That definitely sounds unhealthy.” Unfortunately, Kanon didn’t have the chance to admonish Sumire’s habits before Keke and Chisato barged into the room, with Ren hot on their trails. And with that, the club fell back into their usual dynamics.
–---
In the privacy of her own home, Kanon laid awake in bed, her dark room illuminated only by the moon casting its light through the window and the blinding screen of her phone.
She really shouldn’t. Through her first year as a school idol, Kanon had improved so much, whether that be writing lyrics, dancing, or interacting with fans. Most important of them all, she had learned how to sing in front of a crowd once more, finally ridding herself of a problem that had haunted her since grade school.
All it would take was a single comment striking at her heart–calling her singing terrible or saying that she should stop being an idol–for all of that development to go down the drain.
Or… would it? Kanon mulled over her thoughts. It was true that her self-esteem wasn’t the best, but Kanon was stronger now than ever before. She believed in herself. Her friends believed in her. Would she really care about what a few random users on Twitter had to say about her singing?
She stared at her phone, still displaying an empty search bar. She tapped on it, bringing up the keyboard. Slowly, she inputted her name, before finally clicking ‘enter.’ The blue loading circle appeared over the navy-colored background, and all Kanon could do was watch it spin and spin, still torn between curiosity and knowing that she shouldn’t do this to herself.
Finally, it finished loading, the first few tweets appearing on the screen. Steeling her nerves, Kanon began to read the first one…
‘happyluckysmileyay: My favorite member of HHW is Kanon-chan! Her drumming is so cute!’
Oops, that’s the wrong Kanon. Kanon should have made her search a bit more specific than that. Going back to the search bar, Kanon quickly added a few more search terms to ensure the tweets about Kanon she saw were about her and not any other musical teenagers.
With that done, Kanon entered the search and let a new set of tweets load. Still a bit nervous, Kanon began her first ego search.
…
It was beyond horrible. Kanon never regretted anything more in her entire life. She wanted nothing more than to call up Sumire in the middle of the night and yell at her for planting the thought of ego searching into Kanon’s innocent mind.
There were just so many tweets.
So many… embarrassing tweets.
Yes, to her surprise, the hateful, mean tweets did nothing to Kanon. In hindsight, it really shouldn’t be; these random people on the internet only knew about her for the short time she has been in the limelight. All of their insults, their demeaning comments, and their denouncement of her abilities and achievements were skin deep. She could come up with more self-loathing things about herself daily. These people weren’t even close to fazing her.
No, it wasn't those comments that made Kanon decry this as the worst thing she ever did. It was everything else.
‘ILoveRice: I went to Liella’s live yesterday and Kanon-chan was so cute!!! I can’t wait to see her live again!’
‘kanonsheadphones: I love Liella’s new song, especially Kanon’s part! I keep replaying it over and over again, her singing is so good!’
‘Ichibankanonoshi: Best Kanon solos: >2. You can’t rank them, all of them are good for different reasons. >1. Aozora o Matteru’
‘lovelivesuperfan: Liella is so good, I can’t believe they didn’t win this year’s Tokyo regional. Next year I’m going to commit voter fraud for Kanon. (for legal reasons this is a joke don’t arrest me LL officials)’
Tweet after tweet of mortifyingly embarrassing comments filled the page, and Kanon was struck with a feeling of horror as her finger kept sliding over the page, loading even more of those tweets. Kanon was bewildered–how on earth could people write this? She couldn’t imagine talking like this about Chisato, a friend she had known for over a decade, and yet these people were waxing poetic about her. A few times, she even wondered whether there was another group named Liella somewhere that also had another member named Shibuya Kanon, because there’s no way all of these nice things were meant for her.
Kanon’s eyes began to glaze over as she finished reading a dizzying amount of tweets. She had no idea Liella had so many fans that enjoyed their content. Sure, Keke and Sumire would get excited about their follower count, but that was different. Their follower count was just a number that Kanon struggled to really picture. These? These were comments written by actual people, all of whom felt strongly enough about Liella–whether positively or negatively–that they wanted to spend a few moments of their time to write about it. She could understand their emotions pouring through every word they type, the excitement they were eager to share with fellow fans, and the feelings that- wait was that Yae?
Stopping her mindless scrolling, Kanon went back up a few tweets and yep, that was Yae from her class. The profile picture showed her with Nanami and Kokono, and her display name was just her regular name. Going through her profile a bit, she seemed to have garnered a following for doing reports about Liella’s concerts and new songs. In fact, her reports might be even more detailed than the reports they posted on their own Twitter account.
Kanon smiled. Seeing things like this reminded her that Liella weren’t doing things alone. They had friends ready to support them at a moment’s notice. She would remind herself to thank everyone the next chance she got. For now, a quick ‘Follow’ would have to suffice. Kanon also did the same for Nanami and Kokono, whose Twitter handles were in Yae’s profile bio for some reason.
Kokono’s account was similar to Yae. News posts and reports, peppered in with some personal tweets. Nanami’s account was the most different of the three. While her profile picture still showed the three of them, it was a more comedic picture that looked like it was taken from a photo booth. As Kanon scrolled down to her tweets, one written in nothing but capital letters caught her eye.
‘nanamiracle: PIZZA-SENSEI’S YUUNAMAO ONESHOT WAS SO GOOD SMH WHY DOES NO ONE ELSE WRITE FICS OF THEM??’
Uhh… what?
Kanon felt like she was experiencing a brain fart. While she understood every word in that Tweet, the meaning of it as a whole was lost on her. Seeking enlightenment, Kanon dared to venture into the replies of the tweet, hoping other users could clarify matters.
There was a thread of replies showing a conversation between Nanami and another user. Unfortunately, reading it led to more confusion.
‘sunnypa party: i just read it too q_q why do i keep falling in love with rarepairs’
‘nanamiracle: Seriously! They’re the most popular group that openly allows fan content and shipping, but no one is writing the fics?’
What was shipping? Kanon assumed Nanami wasn’t talking about cargo, so it must be something else. Unfortunately, the thread ran dry at that point, so Kanon moved to another reply.
‘IdolDJ: u’s got a lot more fics after they won LL, so let’s hope SunnyPa wins and more people get inspired to write fics about them!’
Nanami didn’t reply to this one–to Kanon’s relief, she would be heartbroken if she chose Sunny Passion over them to win Love Live–but there was a reply by someone else.
‘DiamondIsUnbreakable: Can it be, that you're talking about μ's? How dare you mistaken their name?! Hm? In the school idol world, μ's are legendary. They're the holy ground, holy scripture, the origin of life equivalent to the universe. And you mistaken their name?! Absolutely ridiculous.’
‘IdolDJ: 🤓 ’
‘ DiamondIsUnbreakable: 123.53.12.7.3’
…
Kanon pressed the back button on her phone, backing away from the war occurring under her friend’s Tweet. Whatever was going on there, she didn’t want to be part of it.
Returning to the search results from before, a newfound curiosity threatened to swallow Kanon whole. She needed to know more about what ‘shipping’ was and how it could rile up people so much.
Opening the search bar, Kanon deleted the previous search and replaced it with ‘love live shipping.’ Pressing on the enter key, a whole new world opened up for Kanon.
Art. Writings. Animated music video. Song edits. All feature multiple girls being romantic with one another. In one tweet, Kanon saw a music video akin to ones posted on the official Love Live website, except instead of focusing on a group’s performance it had a much greater emphasis on the skinship of two of their idols. Another, she saw a short snippet of a story about two idols confessing their love to each other.
Was this shipping? Did all idol fans know of this? Was Keke involved in shipping?!
Kanon’s thoughts–and scrolling–were stopped dead in its tracks as she stumbled on a single Tweet that would forever alter the trajectory of her idol career.
‘incorrectaqours: the four riders of love live shipping apocalypse: rinpana, guurinpa, yupomu, chisakanon’
It took a few seconds for Kanon to process it, but when it did it all happened at full speed.
‘Chisakanon?’ Kanon thought to herself, ‘that couldn’t be…’
In too deep to back out, Kanon inputted ‘chisakanon’ into the search bar. She could barely sit still as a fresh set of Tweets loaded.
‘happyluckysmileyay: ChisaKanon’s photoshoot was so cute! I’m so glad HHW and PasuPare decided to collab with each other’
Oops, that’s the wrong ChisaKanon. Kanon should have made her search a bit more specific than that. Going back to the search bar, Kanon quickly added a few more search terms to ensure the tweets about ChisaKanon she saw were about her and Chisato and not any other musical teenagers.
With that done, Kanon entered the search and-
Wait, she’s getting an intense feeling of dejavu, like she’s been in this position before. Were there seriously other musical teenagers named Kanon and Chisato that people shipped together other than them?
Keeping a bookmark on those two for later research, Kanon entered the search and let a new set of tweets load.
Upon seeing the first one, an inhumane screech left her throat.
“ONEE-CHAN!” From the other side of the wall, Aria let out a furious roar. “IT’S MIDNIGHT! SHUT THE FUCK UP!”
“S-sorry!” Kanon replied, hoping to calm down the raging beast that she accidentally awakened. Once she was sure Aria wasn’t going to barge into her room and throw her out of the window for disturbing her sleep, Kanon glanced back at her phone and resisted the urge to scream again.
Really, she thought it was a reasonable response to what she was seeing. Because at the top of the search list by an account named ‘CuteYuriBot,’ there was a Tweet with the caption “ChisaKanon kiss.” Attached to the Tweet was a 4-panel comic of Kanon and Chisato. The first showed Kanon leaning in, hand in Chisato’s hair. The second showed an embarrassed Chisato, hand on Kanon’s mouth. The third showed them once again embracing, looking into each other’s eyes. And the fourth showed them with a heart between them… k-... kiss…
Kanon buried her head into a pillow and screamed, kicking her legs into the air. No way, no way no way no way! People thought these things about her and Chisato? Was the audience thinking these things whenever they performed together?
What had begun as a curiosity had turned into a full-blown obsession. Even if it was midnight and her eyelids were beginning to grow heavy, Kanon had to find out more about ChisaKanon. She began delving deeper, seeing fanart that made her face warm and cheeks red, as well as pictures from their actual lives and interviews (that confirmed her previous suspicions). She saw music videos, combining their official music videos with expertly drawn art. What caused her to stop the vigorous scrolling was a link embedded into a Tweet.
‘chisakanonfan: i wrote some chisakanon fluff, it’s not the best but i hope everyone enjoys it <3’
Kanon wasn’t sure what fluff meant, but did it really matter? Kanon was already having the weirdest night of her life, might as well add one more thing to the mix. Tapping on the blue link, she was transported to her web browser app as a new website loaded.
“Archive of Our Own?” Kanon read the text at the top left of the page accompanied by a snazzy red logo. That must be the website’s name. Near the top of the page, there was a square full of information that Kanon couldn’t decipher. Skipping over it for now, Kanon found a story nestled into the page. Paragraphs upon paragraphs describe a heartwarming scene, where Kanon and Chisato were enjoying a day off of practice with a fun, romantic date. It was so sweet that it threatened to give Kanon diabetes.
But even if Kanon would claim she didn’t enjoy reading it should someone ask her, she still finished the whole story. Scrolling to the bottom, a slight pang of disappointment hit her when she realized that was all the story had to offer; it didn’t even have a satisfying ending.
Instead of a continuation that would have soothed the aching in Kanon’s heart, all she found were comments by other users.
‘EllesGambit: This is so cute! I really enjoyed reading it ^-^’
‘bloomwithme: AMAZING! Between the Kanon-chan who struggled to be honest to her Chii-chan, and the Chisato-chan who didn’t think herself worthy of her Kanon-chan’s love, this story made my heart throb with excitement!!’
‘LovelyMoon: What a wonderful story! I believe this might be the best ChisaKanon fanfic on this site.’
On this site? There were more of these stories, all aggregated on this website?
Scrolling back up, Kanon took a closer look at the box of information she had glossed over. In the middle of the text, she noticed an interesting field.
Relationship: Arashi Chisato/Shibuya Kanon.
The dots underlining their names showed that Kanon could press it, and presumably be whisked off to discover more of these stories.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Kanon did just that, loading another webpage. At the top, the website proudly announced ’15 Works in Arashi Chisato/Shibuya Kanon.’
That was a lot more than Kanon expected. Scanning through the trove of stories laid out before her, Kanon realized it wasn’t just them, but everyone in their group. Sumire, Keke, Ren, all five of them written as main or supporting characters in people’s stories.
It was overwhelming. But Kanon couldn’t look away.
After a few seconds of scrolling, Kanon reached the bottom of the page. The first story in the category, posted just a few days after their live with Sunny Passion.
Now, it was getting late, but Kanon’s curiosity was piqued. It threatened to consume her every waking thought if left unsated. “I’ll just read this one,” Kanon mumbled, pressing on the link. Just one story, and then she would go to bed.
–---
Just one story . Or so it began.
But the story she read ended on a cliffhanger, and of course, she had to read the next one in the series. That led to her discovering the author’s other stories, at which point she had to read those, too. In the end, she read everything left in the tag, and she finished her binge reading session as the moon set from the night sky. Her mother was shocked when Kanon requested coffee with her breakfast, but not even their family brew could help such a severe case of sleep deprivation.
Now in school, Kanon attempted to regain the hours of sleep she lost. Her head laid on her arms, using them as a makeshift pillow. Unfortunately for her, all she could regain were 30 minutes before the first bell of the day rang, rudely awakening her from her nap.
“Kanon-chan, are you okay?” Yae, who sat in the seat in front of her, asked concernedly. “No offense but you kinda look like… uhm, death. Metaphorically, of course.”
Standing next to her were her ever-present companions, Kokono and Nanami. Kanon growled at the latter. “You’re the reason I’m like this!”
“Huh?! What did I do?!”
“Ahahaha, Kanon-chan must still be sleep-talking.” Without warning, Chisato barged into the conversation and gave Kanon a light slap on the back. Later, she’d find herself grateful that Chisato did that; she would have to explain her nighttime adventures on Twitter otherwise.
At least Nanami didn’t seem too offended. Like her three friends, she just seemed concerned by Kanon’s state. “Make sure to get some rest,” Nanami advised. “Like maybe during lunch break.”
Kokono nodded in agreement. “And… well, I’m not gonna advocate sleeping in class, but we won’t tell if you do. And you can borrow our notes if you need it.”
The teacher arrived soon after, ending the conversation as Yae turned around and the other two returned to their seats. From the corner of her gaze, she saw Chisato giving her a concerned look before walking away.
Chisato.
From the moment she woke up, Chisato was constantly on Kanon’s mind.
Even now, Kanon’s mind went back to the countless drawings and writings she saw the day before. All of the times she saw the two of them being physically affectionate, on dates and experiencing so many first kisses.
One thing in particular stuck out in her mind after seeing all of the fanworks. Surprisingly, she wasn’t that bothered that people were so passionate about their love lifes. It was a bit disorienting when people made incorrect assumptions about their past, but she’d remind herself that something ‘incorrect’ to her was probably the author’s best effort at an educated guess. Many of the things she saw were quite well-made, and more important than that, all of them were made with an overwhelming passion that Kanon could feel oozing out of the work’s pores. None of that was the reason her mind was in turmoil, keeping her up to the late hours of the night and occupying her thoughts to this very second.
The one thing she had a problem with, beyond anything else, was how everyone wrote Chisato.
She didn’t even notice it at first, but in hindsight it was obvious. From the first picture where Chisato got flustered by Kanon’s advances, to stories where Chisato simply followed what Kanon wanted to do, everyone wrote Chisato as a passive observer in the relationship, taking everything in stride and going along with the flow.
It annoyed Kanon.
She understood where they got it from. In their live streams, Chisato wasn’t really the one who took up a lot of attention. It would normally be Keke and Sumire’s antics, Ren’s innocence, or Kanon’s status as the leader that took center stage. To their fans, Chisato seemed like someone more comfortable behind everyone else–quietly supporting them with her excellent choreography and workout routine–than taking the spotlight for herself.
She understood it, she really did. But it ground her gears regardless.
Even though she should be looking at the teacher right now, Kanon found her gaze drifting off to Chisato. She watched closely as Chisato stared intensely at the whiteboard, left hand on the textbook while her right took notes at a blistering pace.
The Chisato she knew–the Chisato she fell in love with–was nothing like those people imagined. Chisato was determined, with fixed goals in her mind that she worked tirelessly towards. Even Kanon in the past became a victim to Chisato’s determination, like when Chisato pushed Kanon to sing by herself at their old school. The Chisato these people are imagining wouldn’t dare do something that bold.
As she kept staring at her childhood friend, only a single thought ran through Kanon’s mind.
I could write a better story than anyone else.
A more accurate story, inspired by their actual past.
A more passionate story, fueled by Kanon’s feelings for Chisato.
A more beautiful story, featuring a more beautiful Chisato.
Opening her notebook, Kanon began taking notes; not about anything the teacher was saying, but about the story running in her mind.
----
Sitting in front of her laptop after school, Kanon stared at the opened word document. A blank page of white stared back at her.
To her right, her notebook was open, filled with small ideas and scribblings that she thought would make for a good story. All she had to do was to put them all together.
Kanon took to the keyboard and began typing away.
“Kanon-chan, I love you, you know?”
“Eh? Chii-chan, what are you saying?” Kanon replied, blushing. In response, Chisato simply giggled and moved closer.
“I meant what I said! Don’t you feel the same?” Chisato asked cutely. How could Kanon possibly say no to her childhood friend? After all, her true feelings were the same.
“Chii-chan… I love you too…”
“Kanon-chan…” Wordlessly, Chisato began to move closer to Kanon’s lips, going in for a ki-
…
Kanon buried her rapidly reddening face in her hands.
Somehow, when she considered writing her own story, she didn’t realize just how mortifying it would be. Now that she’s actually typing the words? She wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and let the earth swallow her whole.
‘How do people write these things with a straight face?!’ Kanon thought to herself, staring between her fingers at the words on the document. She quickly deleted everything she had just written, returning to a blank page.
Maybe a romantic story from the get-go was a little tough for Kanon. Maybe she’d try to ease herself in with something more tamer. Maybe something like a fic about the daily lives of Liella? That sounded good.
Oh, and Kanon could even work in the romance plot from that! Have the members share longing gazes with each other, followed by a few days of a romance arc. That sounded perfect!
Reinvigorated, Kanon returned to the document and began typing away at her new story.
----
When she first published her story to the website, Kanon was worried that it would seem too boring. She remembered reading a quote by a famous filmmaker about how ‘drama is life with the dull bits cut out.’ By its very nature, a story that focused on daily life would have a lot of those aforementioned dull bits, and she wondered if people would stick around long enough to get to the good bits.
To Kanon’s surprise, the story was a hit.
Raving comments on every chapter Kanon posted. Piles of kudos were sent Kanon’s way. She felt like a micro-celebrity.
Even the romance chapters, which Kanon had bashfully admitted to her readers she had no experience writing, were generally well-received. Some–writers themselves–had even given Kanon some pointers on how to improve, to which she was very grateful.
Kanon let out a sigh as she posted her newest chapter, popping the joints of her finger. It was a bit exhausting, writing bit-by-bit between her busy life as a school idol, but it was surprisingly rewarding. The sound her keyboard made as her fingers push down on the keys was soothing, and once she was in the zone, it was almost meditative.
The newest chapter successfully uploaded, Kanon took a minute to read through her own work. At first, it was to check for any errors that slipped through the editing process (for some reason, she wouldn’t find any errors during editing and multiple errors the second the hit the publish button). Now, she just did it because she enjoyed it.
This chapter in particular was one Kanon was proud of. While it wasn’t anything profound or expertly written, it was still fun for Kanon to write. Kanon read through her favorite part of the chapter.
The clubroom was empty, except for the pair of childhood friends. Kanon was focused on her notebook of lyrics, while Chisato sat next to her. A comfortable silence fell over the two. They had been friends for so long, neither had a problem simply sharing the same space. They needed no words to communicate.
Suddenly, a yawn from the white-haired girl broke the silence. This was followed by a yelp from Kanon as she felt a weight on her shoulder.
“C-Chii-chan?” Glancing to her side, her suspicions were confirmed. She saw Chisato resting her head on Kanon’s shoulder, nuzzling into the crook of Kanon’s neck.
“I’m a bit sleepy,” Chisato whispered. Kanon loved the sound of Chisato’s soft voice, right under her ear. “Do you mind if I use you as a pillow for a bit? Just wake me up when you want to go home.”
Kanon gulped, but nodded her head, even though Chisato wouldn’t see it. “G-got it, don’t worry! Feel free to rest up.” Chisato was always working so hard, she deserved a treat. And if Kanon could give it to her? Kanon would be happy to provide.
…
Okay, so maybe Kanon was a bit biased. Maybe this was the favorite chapter she wrote because it prominently featured her and Chisato, but no one else had to know that.
Plus, confessing her feelings to Chisato was hard. Throwing out her feelings into writing was easy, and it made her feel more comfortable about them. That one day, she could confess her feelings.
Not today, though. Kanon closed her laptop and quickly went to sleep. Liella has practice tomorrow, and it wouldn’t be good if she wasn’t well-rested.
----
The practice went well. Even with no big events in the near future, Chisato was no less of an eager coach, and the five of them still gave it their all. Exhausted, the five of them returned to the clubroom, where they began to leave one by one. Ren was first, with some student council paperwork still needing to be done. Sumire was next, needing to help with dinner, and Keke followed along, because she would much rather have Sumire’s family’s home-cooked dinner than instant ramen for the third time this week.
Finally, all that remained were the pair of childhood friends. Kanon was still working on the lyrics for their next song, searching for inspiration on the internet, while Chisato was looking over their old performances to figure out where they could improve on their choreography.
It was completely silent, but neither of them minded. They didn’t need music or anything of the sort to make it feel comfortable. They’ve been together for so long that just sharing space was comfortable.
The silence was suddenly broken as Chisato let out a yawn, and that yawn was followed by a yelp from Kanon as she felt something on her shoulder.
Slowly turning her head to not bother the other person, Kanon’s suspicions were confirmed–Chisato was laying her head on Kanon’s shoulder, using it as a pillow. “C-Chii-chan?!”
“Kanon-chan~” Chisato’s voice trailed playfully in a way that gave Kanon pleasant goosebumps, “you don’t mind if I laid my head here for a bit, do you?”
No, not at all. Kanon absolutely did not mind. This was something straight out of her dreams.
Trying to keep her voice level, Kanon answered, “I don’t mind! Go right ahead.”
“Thanks~” With that, Kanon tried to focus again on writing lyrics, but she really couldn’t. In fact, her mind was already thinking of writing something else. But she couldn’t do that when Chisato was here.
“Ka~non-cha~n,” Chisato calls out Kanon’s name. Again, it made Kanon happy, but it also made it incredibly difficult to focus.
And it seemed like Chisato caught on to that.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” Chisato teased. Bullseye.
“N-no…” Kanon quickly lied, “what gave you that ide-”
Chisato slid her phone over so Kanon could see.
…
That’s it.
Her life was over. She would have to move to a different prefecture, change her name, and dye her hair. She would apologize to her family and friends for leaving them, but she couldn’t possibly stay here.
Because right there on Chisato’s phone was the story Kanon had written.
“What’s… that?” Kanon played dumb.
“Kanon-chan,” Chisato said, her tone firm but still playful. “When you’re writing fics, don’t write about things that only we know. Things like how we first met, or the clothes I wear when I go to your house, or what games we play during sleepovers.”
That’s it. The cat was out of the bag.
“I’m so sorry,” Kanon choked out. She was ready for Chisato to slap her hard. She was ready for Chisato to unfriend her.
She was not ready for Chisato to stare right into her eyes with a smile. “I don’t mind.”
“...what?”
“I don’t mind,” Chisato repeated, “on one condition.” Kanon nodded slowly, showing she was listening. “Make sure not to write any of our actual hangouts, okay? I want those kinds of moments to just be between us, you know?”
“O-okay…”
“Great! Now then, I gotta get going–gotta man the stall soon.” Satisfied, Chisato stood up and got her bag, while Kanon was still frozen in her seat. Just before Chisato left, however, she turned to Kanon. “And one more thing.”
When Kanon felt a peck on her cheek, that was what finally got her out of her unresponsive state. Mouth agape, she stared at the slightly flushed Chisato.
“I like you too, you know?” Chisato confessed. “So, uhh, date this weekend?”
“Y-yeah, I’d love that.”
“Sweet! I’ll text you the details later!” Turning around to leave, Kanon could see Chisato doing a small fist pump as she left the room.
Finally alone, Kanon touched her cheek, the warmth of Chisato’s kiss still lingering. She pinched her other cheek–it hurts, not a dream.
What in the world did Kanon just get into? And if Chisato knew about fanfics, how many more of their friends did? Did Keke, Sumire, and Ren all read her ChisaKanon fanfics?
Kanon was mortified.
She considered stopping writing, but now that Chisato knew about her hobbies, it feels wrong to stop. Like she’d be disappointing her number one fan.
…maybe it’d be more accurate to call her existence a nightmare instead of a dream.