Yoshi (extras) (06)

(a time around Dec 2006)


“I started a fad in the group.”

“Oh,” Yossi said she looked through the boxes of fighting scenes again.

“Hey! Aren’t you going to ask me?”

Yossi looked sideway at Miki and knew right away from the look that she won’t be given peace until Miki gets what she wants. “All right, so what’s it?” she asked perfunctorily.

“This!” said Miki, pointing to the only earring on her left ear.

Yossi looked straight, did a weird roll of her eyes, and then back at the manga in her hand. “All right, that was funny,” she said, trying to humor Miki at her lame attempt at a joke.

“No~” Miki explained. “I wasn’t trying to be funny. I’m just curious.”

“Uh Uh~” said Yossi, still not looking up. “You mean you are curious where they misplaced the other piece? Just like you?”

“Yeah, that WAS funny,” Miki said without laughing before throwing the bomb. “Now… we have our reasons right, but what about them?” She fixed her eyes at Yossi and watched her leader’s eyebrows rose slowly to an arch, seemingly to have taken a little longer than required to understand…

“Wait a minute, wait a minute.” Yossi shot a look at Miki. “I didn’t really notice that.”

“Of course you didn’t!” Miki leaned closer and lowered her voice. “It used to be Ai-chan only, but now Gakisan is doing the same.

As if on instinct, Yossi turned her head back and scanned the dressing room for signs of Takahashi and Risa, hoping to see for herself if what Miki said was true when she suddenly felt a pull on her ear to turn her back.

“Idiot!” Miki chided. “That’s SO telling them we’re talking about them!”

“Yah yah, so what?” Yossi said defiantly. “Besides you may be right! If they’re doing what we’re doing because they’re thinking what we’re thinking…”

Miki snorted. “No! I think they’re just a bunch of copycats…”

Yossi tried not to laugh while she looked at Miki. “You think being gay is copy-righted?”

“Nah,” Miki said sardonically. “I just think being gay is closet’ed.”

Yossi finally laughed. “Well, at least you’re coming out well…”

She started humming the melody of ‘Melodies’.

“THANKS! Uh~ REALLY THANK YOU,” Miki grunted sarcastically. For a moment she wondered if that was the reason Tsunku had named GAM’s singles ‘THANKS’ and ‘Melodies” respectively. And a thought hit her. “So when are you and Rika gonna do the same?” she challenged.

In an act that left Miki slightly taken aback, Yossi stopped humming and looked sadly at Miki before letting out a sigh.

“You know, she’ll never agree to it. It won’t do our career any good, she said.”

“Oh come on… Nobody is asking her to hold a press conference and announce it to the world. You know, just drop hints here and there.”

Yossi sat upright, her new found energy originating from the fact that there was someone else who shared her views. “Yah!” she exclaimed in voice thick with enthusiasm. “That’s what I told her, about you and Ayaya, ne? You know, like how after the MTV was aired on TV, nobody believed the rumors anymore. Everybody just thinks it is a gimmick.”

Miki laughed smugly. “It’s called ‘reverse psychology’.”

“Like I don’t know…”

“Oh, my dear leader, but I can spare you another one. Force her to comply or you’ll dump her. You go tell her.”

Yossi knew Miki was patronizing her. “Well, well…” she pondered… and her eyes lighted up. “Maybe, just maybe…”


******

Rika shrieked very very loudly. So loud that Erika and Yui, who were doing their make-up, looked up startled. They shared a look and at their leader and back at each other again. Thinking that it must be one of those moments that were coming so frequently from Rika, they shrugged it off and resumed with whatever they were doing.

“Who touched my box?” Rika asked as she looked from right to left. “You?”

With almost impeccable timing, Erika and Yui shook their head together, still paying more attention to their own reflection in the mirror than at the fidgety figure between them.

“Argh~ what am I to do?”

At a loss, Rika started to tap her fingers nervously on the dressing table while horrible thoughts began to invade her mind. As the incessant tapping became louder and faster, proving it too great an annoyance to be ignored in the confined room, Yui finally gave up and asked Rika what had happened. But what Yui didn’t quite expect was to hear what she heard.

“My earrings!” said Rika in a voice that seemed like the end of the world is near. “They are each missing one!”

Yui had to try very hard to control her laughter. However, when she heard Erika cracking up, she could hold out no longer and burst out laughing. It was just too funny. She wondered who would pull such a prank on her leader. Well, it wasn’t really a prank; it was something more stupid, and she felt a sudden interest to know just who the ‘genius’ behind the silly act might be?

And when Erika was done laughing, she said. “Well… You can just wear one—”

“NO WAY!” Rika shrieked.

“Or you can don’t wear—”

“That’s worse than ‘no way’,” said Erika, cutting off the suggestion by Yui.

As exchanges filled the room, with each suggestion getting more ludicrous than the last, Rika decided that she just had to rely on herself to solve the problem…


******

The moment Rika walked into the recording studio spotting mismatching earrings on both ears, the big smile originally on Yossi vanished without a trace. Yossi shook her head in disbelief - to think her dear princess would rather be called a fashion weirdo than to be caught dead with only one eardrop. She just knew she had to do more if she was to convince her girl…