July 22nd was just a normal day. That's what she told herself to get out of bed and drag herself over to her closet. It wasn't fair that there was school that day. Her birthday should be a national holiday. At least that's what she thought. She had to remind herself of the truth, though: the school only knew it was her birthday through her records. They didn't care what day it was. Nobody outside her immediate family did.
That thought almost defeated her. Some days it did. Not the thought that nobody cared about her birthday specifically, but that nobody cared about her in general. She'd pretend she was sick, and would get to spend the day with her adoring siblings while her mom went to work. At least her brother and sisters cared about her. They treated her like a bigshot idol, which she admittedly hadn't dissuaded. And she may have been the reason for those thoughts in the first place. It made her feel good, though. They didn't need to know that her idol dreams were destroyed the moment her fellow idolmates had walked out the door of the clubroom and never returned. Second year was really kicking her butt.
Standing in her closet, she strongly considered getting right back into bed and sleeping the morning away. It was her birthday, after all. If no one else was going to care about it, at least she could treat herself to not going to school. It'd be a present to herself. She knew that she probably couldn't miss any more school, though. The illness excuses were probably wearing thin on the principal. Sighing, she stripped off her nightwear and changed into her school uniform.
She sat at the kitchen table and forced herself to eat breakfast, though she wasn't all that hungry. There wasn't much for her to eat anyway. She needed to go grocery shopping, though the family finances always were a constraint. At least not feeling very hungry worked in her favor when it came to lacking money. She made herself eat a banana, then slung her bag over her shoulder and left the house. Nobody was up yet to wish her a happy birthday. She could handle it, though. At this point, she was used to going an entire school day without anyone bringing it up.
School wasn't even interesting that day. Nobody talked to her, and the lessons weren't able to pierce the veil of her dour mood. Not that her classes were interesting in the first place, but today they dragged on an especially long time. At one point she even dropped her head against her desk and had to stifle a groan. This was the worst. It was so frustrating. If she had to be sad, why couldn't she be sad at home? At least she could use her phone without having to hide it under her desk.
Lunchtime came and Nico sat outside on a bench underneath the shade of a tree. Alone, as usual. Other people would walk by, but none of them bothered to look her way. Not that she cared. She didn't need their pity. Everything was going just fine, thank you very much.
In her lunch, she had tucked away something special just for herself: a cupcake she'd splurged on at a dessert shop a couple days ago. She'd put it in a tupperware container, though some of the frosting had come off on the inside of the lid. Opening it up, she grabbed a candle she'd stowed away in her bag and put it in the middle of the cupcake. Holding it in her hands, it looked like the saddest one girl party imaginable.
"Happy birthday to me." She sighed and imitated blowing out the candle. Of course, she wouldn't be allowed to bring matches to school, so she'd have to make due with her imagination. Staring at the cupcake, sitting there all by herself, she almost didn't feel like eating it at all. Keyword: almost. It was too good of a sweet to lose all of her appetite over. She plucked the candle out and idly sucked the frosting off of it. It only sort of tasted like wax.
"Does that taste good?" Nico nearly swallowed the candle, spitting it out onto the grass as she turned to look at whoever was speaking to her. A teasing but gentle smile greeted her. "Oh, don't choke on it, Nico."
"Nozomi! What are you doing here?" She didn't really know Nozomi all that well. They had classes together, but that was the only place where they really spoke. Even then, it wasn't like they chatted frequently. Nozomi was the one who initiated most of the conversations, with Nico sometimes feeling like she was being forced into speaking. Maybe Nozomi was just trying to be friendly, but it could come across as a little overbearing. Honestly, she felt that Nozomi tried too hard to befriend other people, with her card tricks and all. They were both social outcasts in their own ways, but she didn't feel like she needed to do a song and dance for other people to get them to like her. That wasn't her style. She didn't care one bit. Not at all...
"Well, I wanted to come wish you a happy birthday!" She smiled shyly, waiting to see if Nico would invite her to sit with her. Nico just stared at her at first, the cupcake in her hand temporarily forgotten. She didn't expect that anyone would bother to know when her birthday was, not even Nozomi. Even if Nozomi had tried to be friendly with her before, she wouldn't have expected this. Why did she know it? Narrowing her eyes, she stared at Nozomi's face, trying to determine what she was trying to gain. After what had happened with her other so-called friends, she didn't trust anyone to want anything with some sort of strings attached.
"Well, uh... Thanks, I guess." She kept staring, though she started to feel sorry for Nozomi just standing there and squirming a bit. "You wanna sit down or something? Jeez..." Nozomi smiled in relief, sitting down next to Nico and placing her bag on her lap.
"I got you something. Um, it isn't much, but I hope you like it!" She pulled out a CD from her bag and presented it to Nico, smiling hopefully. "I know you like idols a lot, so I burned you this CD of some idol music." Quirking an eyebrow, Nico glanced down at the CD. It was a blank white disk in a plain jewel case. Scrawled on the CD in sharpie were the words '#1 Idol in the Universe!' She had no idea what idol Nozomi had downloaded for this, but either she thought very highly of their music, or this singer thought very highly of themselves.
"Thanks." She took the CD with her free hand, continuing to stare at it. She'd never gotten a present before from someone she wasn't related to. It didn't even seem like a 'give in order to get' kind of present, since it seemed like a cheap gift. Not that she was denigrating it or anything. Hell, she knew more than most about having to make due when it came to purchases. Her mind may have been a bit scrambled from the sudden friendliness. She'd never really understood why Nozomi wanted to talk to her, especially not this year. Nobody else did.
Laying the CD in her lap, she finished unwrapping her cupcake and started to eat it, occasionally glancing over at Nozomi. She was watching her eat, and though she tried to hide it, Nico could tell that she was disappointed. Maybe she expected more than just a curt 'thanks' for a response, or that they'd actually have a conversation instead of Nico just eating in front of it. It made her feel a bit guilty. Just a bit, though.
"Uh, so..." Ugh, this was stupid. She wasn't good at small talk. When she had something to say, she just came out and said it. Big and bombastic was her style, not elevator talk. "Really, thanks. I, uh, I appreciate the gift. Really. But how did you know it was my birthday? I don't remember mentioning it to you." One could say 'Well, if you want people to know your birthday, you have to tell them,' but Nico was tired of telling people and getting lip service in return. It didn't mean anything.
"Oh, uh... Well..." Nozomi laughed sheepishly, tugging on her right sleeve. "I... may have asked Elicchi to look up your file for me." Ah. Well, that made sense. If there was anything that made less sense than Nozomi being friendly with her, it was Nozomi being friends with Eli. That was actually school-wide gossip for a time, though it had died down somewhat in recent weeks. Not completely, though. It still seemed wild to believe Nozomi, weird as she was, would be friends with arguably the hottest - yet coldest - girl in the whole school. Nobody before had seemed to be able to break through that wall of ice she had around her, even with an industrial strength icepick. It was a weird union, but apparently they were good enough friends to look through private school files together.
"Looking up students' files, eh? Didn't know the student council did such things. Or maybe the others don't know. Bet that'd hurt the Mad Russian's chance at getting to be president, wouldn't it?" She noticed the flash of fear go through Nozomi's eyes, her demeanor changing instantly. Why did she feel bad when she was just needling her? "Come on, I'm joking. I'm not gonna snitch on you, jeez. It's not that big a deal anyway. Don't turn on the waterworks or anything."
"I wasn't going to cry!" Nozomi folded her arms and pouted. "I didn't want you to know I was getting you something, so I had to surprise you." She was back to smiling, like she'd flipped back on her happy switch. That was fast. "You'll listen to it when you get home, right? I think you'll really like it."
"Yeah, sure. I can do that." She would. Probably. She could at least listen to the first track and just pretend she listened to the whole thing. At least to avoid hurting Nozomi's feelings. Hell, maybe she could listen to the whole thing. It wouldn't kill her, probably. Besides, it couldn't be more than eighty minutes. She had that to spare. It wasn't like she was going out to live it up for her birthday. "Who's this 'number one' idol anyway?"
"Oh, you'll know who they are when you listen. It's an up-and-comer, but I think they're going to become very big in the idol world! I'm sure an idol savant like you will know even currently underground idols." Well, she wasn't wrong. Nico did pride herself on knowing the ins and out of the idol world, along with all of the singers and groups that were within it. She was trying not to think about it, though. After the dissolution of her idol group, she'd tried to ween herself off of her dreams. Sure, she'd put on a good face for her siblings, but she knew the truth: she wasn't going to make it. She couldn't really get mad at Nozomi, though. It wasn't like her file had any info on her dreams being crushed. At least, she didn't think it did.
"Yeah, you're right. I am the foremost idol expert at this school, after all." It came off her tongue so easily, even if it stung a bit. Doing her best to shrug it off, she finished off her cupcake and left the trash by her side. All this talking was going to keep her from getting some food in her stomach before the bell rang. Before she could open up her bento box, Nozomi swiped a finger right by her lips. "What do you think you're doing?"
"You had frosting on your face." Nozomi smiled and stuck her finger in her mouth, licking off the frosting. "Ooh, that's good. Store-bought, though." How could she even tell that? Better question: why was she wiping frosting off of her face? Nico heated up at the sudden close contact, which she tried to hide by focusing on her food. But focusing on her food made her notice something else: the lack of food Nozomi was holding.
"Where's your food, anyway? You not gonna eat or something?"
"I already ate." Nico side-eyed her suspiciously. She said it without missing a beat, but for some reason Nico didn't believe her. There was just something that made her feel like Nozomi was hiding her lack of food for whatever reason. Rolling her eyes, she shifted her bento box so that it was on her right leg, closer to Nozomi.
"Have a bit, alright? And don't argue. The birthday girl is always right." Nozomi stared at her, surprised. Then she smiled and took some food without any resistance. They engaged in some small talk while they ate lunch together, most of it involving Nozomi trying to dispel Nico's preconceived notations about Eli. For once, time seemed to fly by, and the bell rang before either of them were ready for it to.
"I'll see you at lunch tomorrow, Nico!" Nozomi stood up, then stopped herself, realizing that she'd spoken based on an assumption. "I mean, if... you want to eat lunch together." She smiled shyly, but Nico was able to see through it again. Why would she want to sit with her when she assumedly spent her lunch time sitting with Eli?. Maybe it was just pity, or Nozomi again trying too hard to make friends. ... Ahh, what the heck? It's not like she hated eating with Nozomi or anything.
"Yeah yeah, I never said I didn't. You're gonna have to come to my bench, though. I ain't movin' for no one." That seemed to perk Nozomi up instantly. She smiled widely and nodded eagerly. Then the two of them walked back into the school, chatting idly as they returned to class.
Nozomi was the only person at school to wish her a happy birthday, but it was one more than she expected. It was better at home, where her siblings rushed her with cheers of 'Happy birthday!'. They had made her a card, something that she cherished every year. There wasn't many presents, but it wasn't something she expected. She just appreciated that she had her family there to celebrate her day with.
It was when she was alone in her room that she remembered the CD Nozomi gave her. Pulling it out of her bag, she figured she might as well listen to it while doing the negligible amount of homework she had to do that night. Not that they should even give out homework on what should a national holiday, but she'd just have to take that up with the student council.
She put the CD into her computer, pulling out her homework while it loaded. To her surprise, there were only three songs on the disk, and there was no information on any of them. That was strange. What exactly was Nozomi up to? Well, at least she could figure out who the hell this 'number one' idol was, anyway. She double clicked the first song and waited for it to play.
Stranger still, there wasn't even any music to accompany the song. All that was there was someone singing. It was... familiar, though. Nozomi had been right: she knew who this idol was. It was on the tip of her tongue... As she tried to think about who it was, she started to sing along with the song. It only took several lines for her to realize what she was doing, her eyes widening with the realization that she did know who the singer was. It was herself.
Her homework laid on her desk unfinished as she sat and stared at her screen, flabbergasted. That was clearly her singing, but she'd never recorded herself doing that. At least, not when this had to have been recorded. She recognized the lyrics from a song she'd written for her idol group the previous year, which meant it had to be either from last year or... or maybe when she'd been singing to herself in the clubroom. Still, it hadn't been recorded!
So that meant that... Nozomi recorded it? Had she been stalking her for all this time? That was a high grade on the creep factor for recording her without her knowledge. But... it was also kinda sweet, if something could be both creepy and sweet. For however long it had been, Nozomi had been listening to her singing. She must've been silently supporting her in the background for all this time. With what she knew about Nozomi, it wasn't really much of a surprise. She definitely had some weird things she did when it came to being friendly, but it did seem to all be with good intentions.
Leaning back in her chair, she listened to herself singing - not in a self-centered way this time - and thought about what Nozomi had written on the disk. "Number one idol, huh?" She laughed softly, smiling at the thought. Well, at least one person that wasn't related to her thought she was a good idol. Maybe there was hope. If there was one person in the shadows enjoying what she did, then perhaps there were others. They were just too shy to come forward and tell her. So... she would need to get them to open up herself.
"Oh Nozomi, I'm really gonna have to teach you about properly socializing," she said to herself, ignoring her own lack of friends in the school. "I'll have to thank her for the gift tomorrow, though. This... This will not be the end! Super idol Nico Nico Nii shall rise again!"