Kana rushed downstairs the moment she noticed the time on her phone. Not because she was late, but because she was early. Way, way earlier than she normally should have woken up. Who knew that a short, peaceful sleep was better for your health than a long sleep plagued by thoughts of who to backstab next?

  Down the stairs she went, hoping to catch Jina in the act of making breakfast. It would allow for a good bout of complaining. Once she got down, she did catch Jina, but not making breakfast. The goth girl was already at the door and getting ready to leave for the agency. Panting, Kana wished her a good morning and asked her what was for breakfast.

  “Huh? Just check it?”

  “No, that’s not…” She yawned, “Also, I’m sorry about yesterday. About everything. The plan failed, and then the whole thing with Ruby Passion, and then Emi showed up. Next time will be a million times better. I’ve already got a good idea of how I want to handle Sanada.”

  “It’s no problem.” Jina shrugged and then gave her a sly smile, “I mean, I’m sure you had a very good night, so no wonder you are happy. Are you not tired? I’ll tell Yamazaki-san that you’ll be a bit late today! I’ll tell him ‘Kana-chan was so, so busy with her gir-’. Ah, wait. She’s not your girlfriend. But I won’t tell him that part, I promise.”

  Kana picked up the closest thing she could grab, which was her hairband, and threw it at Jina. Perfectly aimed, thanks to the months she had spent behind a grenade launcher’s iron sight, it hit her in the forehead and elicited a very satisfying yelp. Clattering to the ground, it left Jina rubbing her skin in annoyance.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you? Always so violent. First thing in the morning, too…”

  “You’re so ugly first thing in the morning, too. Do you hear me complaining about that all the time?”

  Jina opened the door with a frown and then looked back, sticking her tongue out like Kana usually did, “When are you ever awake to complain about that in the morning, sloth? I might have to change your name to Miss Sunset, given you rarely see it rise.”

  Kana did not feel like rebutting that. In fact, she was pleasantly surprised at how good the comeback was. She could not get angry when someone had been genuinely clever with the use of their brain. She headed to the kitchen and noticed two plates of Eggs Benedict. One day, Kana would beat Ruby Passion and rule the entire industry. But until that day, and perhaps even after that, Jina would not run out of breakfast recipes containing eggs.

  She decided not to heat it up just yet, since she could have it with Emi instead, and tried to focus on the lyrics. After a quick bath, of course. Kana could not pay attention to things if she wasn’t clean first thing in the morning. So, once she was done, she came down and decided to get on the brand-new rubber swan to start brainstorming.

  She still wasn’t sure what kind of lyrics she wanted, but she knew that she did not want anything too obvious or overdone. She wanted to be honest and transparent. Floating in the water, she looked around the apartment and out of the window. She was thrown off by how much more difficult it was to philosophize about random things when you were actively trying to. To look at something and then use it as fuel to write something creative.

  It was tiring, boring, unrewarding work. At the end of the day, most people would only care about the beats and ignore whatever was being said. That was how Ruby Passion had gotten to the top, after all. Blatant ripoff after ripoff of old musical progressions, only to put the most boring and meaningless lyrics over them. As long as it caught attention and buried itself in the audience’s mind, meaning be damned.

  “That’s my swan.”

  “No, it isn’t. It’s in my house.”

  “Then half of it is Jina-san’s!”

  Kana shifted her weight to only be on the left side of the inflatable. If half of it belonged to Jina, then she could keep it. But then, it shifted. Her gravity shifted, her view shifted, and then she was in the water. Wet paper floating all around her, she spread her arms and accepted her fate as Emi laughed at her own genius. The one person in the world who could make her mindlessly do something like this, and she used the power to make fun of her.

  Kana wouldn’t have it any other way.

  She picked up the paper and sat down on the steps to dry off before she got in. Cleaning up last night’s mess had been a pain once they realized they couldn’t just let the wooden floor rot. Right here, on the marble steps, she could rest all that she wanted. Emi sat down beside her and put her legs in the water.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Writing lyrics.” Kana found the one piece of dried paper and threw the rest aside. She only needed this one. This one would be the one.

  “Aw, sorry. I wouldn’t have fooled you like that if I knew you were working.”

  Kana looked at her with a complete lack of both expression and enthusiasm before going back to work.

  “Alright, fine. I would have totally doubled down on it in that case.”

  Doubled down on it. Of course, she would. It was the one thing she did well. Tilt the odds in her favor, always. Even now, Emi had somehow managed to bargain her way into being as free as she could and accepted her position. It was something Kana had always admired about the girl. Something she had learnt from her, even.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Tilting the odds…” She looked at the inflatable, which was now lying on its side, “Oh…”

  “Did you…understand something?” Emi also looked at the swan, but with confusion instead of enlightenment.

  “Tilting the odds in your favor. Tilting the inflatable. Using someone else’s ego against them, and then making them ruin their own lives.” Kana began thinking aloud. As horrible as she was at this, she was slowly starting to understand the appeal of reaching a conclusion like this. Until she finally found the word that she had been searching for. A word that she had been thinking of already, “Jenga.”

  “Jenga? You did get to some kind of epiphany, then. Got those lyrics?”

  “No. That’s not my job.” She shook her head, then smiled, “But I do know what to tell the person whose job that is. Oh my god, Emi, I love you.”

  “Oh, ok. A bit too soon for that, I think. Maybe some time later.”

  Kana looked at her and made a face before standing up and rushing to the kitchen. Putting both of the plates into the microwave, she looked at Emi, who was also now standing up and waiting. Running out, she ruffled the blonde hair.

  “I’ll go dry myself and dress up. Just get the plates and set them on the table? I need to get to the agency as soon as possible.”

  “You’re leaving me here? All alone?”

  Kana started running up the stairs, “Well…float on the swan, or something. Go sneak into Jina’s room and get some dirt on how we can ruin her life. Practice your dance. Do whatever you want, you know?”

  “Right.” Emi groaned and sat on the couch with a puffed mouth, “What’s in Jina’s room, though?”

  _____________

  “Kana-chan!” Sanada was the first one to welcome her the moment she stepped into the training room, “Good morning.”

  Kana ran to her and pulled her into a quick hug, “Sanada-san! Are you alright? I’m so, so, so sorry! I was really tired yesterday and had no idea what to do, and I was so sleepy that I just went and slept in the car!”

  “And embarrassed us in front of everyone else. You’re late today, too. What do you even do with your life except sleep?” Kelsey took out her sniper rifle and aimed it down the range for target practice.

  Kana stuck her tongue out behind her back, making sure nobody except Sanada saw it. It made the lead vocalist laugh, and Kelsey looked back. By then, Kana had gone back to her normal face and started whispering about random things like music and films with Sanada. Kelsey, of course, got aggravated. But RiRi pulled her back and asked her to focus on her practice.

  “Kelsey~!” Kana decided to try once more, “Can you tell me something if I ask you real quick?”

  “Ugh, what?”

  “Why are you practicing when you are already Level 40? I mean, Pink Beats has never gotten to Rank 4, so why are you here?”

  Kelsey gritted her teeth and looked back with raised eyebrows, “Do you think it is entertaining to annoy me, you little shit? I’m here because using a sniper is a million times more difficult than pulling a grenade launcher out and blasting everyone to oblivion without a thought.”

  “Ahh,” Kana sighed and shook her head, “Kelsey-chan is mad again because I am smarter than her, and just picked the easier answer, hehe. I got the grenade launcher because it is dumb and fun. Why would I unnecessarily pick something as difficult as a sniper and waste my time?”

  “Kelsey!”

  RiRi stopped the Pink Beats member from getting out of her booth and jumping towards Kana. In return, Kana ran to Sanada and hid behind her. The lead vocalist held her by the ear and pulled her forward either way. Kelsey, just as Kana had expected, did not think very highly of this either.

  “Yeah, Sanada. Good job. Now, maybe instead of nicely teaching her good and bad, give her a couple of slaps across her face. That’s clearly the only language she can understand.”

  “She’s just a kid, Kelsey. Cut her some slack. But you, too, Kana! You might be a kid, but you’re an annoying kid, got that? Try to be more respectful to the people around you, and even Kelsey will like you. If you keep making fun of her like that, then you will only make more enemies.”

  “Yes.” Kana looked at the floor in disappointment and took a few steps back before heading to the other corner of the range, where Jina was bashing some dummies in the head with her hammer.

  It was boring and repetitive work, but every time she interacted with Pink Beats, she got closer to what she wanted. The position was almost perfect right now. Kelsey was tired of Kana and blamed Sanada for it. This furthered the rift they probably already had because of the ankle situation.

  Normally, you would want to be featured in the music video more, which made sense since it was the prime form of the song. But these days, streaming music was way more popular than watching music videos. At the end of the day, Sanada would have way more fans because her voice was featured more. This was something that Pink Beats would never claim out loud, but had definitely left a deep rift in their relationship.

  On the other hand, Sanada probably felt responsible for this to a certain extent. She was all alone, and the other two were secretly getting tired of her. That rift meant she would do anything for personal validation. That was what Kana gave her. That was what Kelsey was now trying to take away. It was perfectly placed. The stage had been set. Now, they just needed to get the lyrics done, and it would have been a perfect game.

  “Jenga!” Kana explained her idea to Jina as soon as she got out of the training range.

  “Jenga?”

  “Setting up a fall, slowly. Placing the pieces one by one to make one person fail when they make the wrong choice. That is what we’ll write about. A provocative, loud, gremlin-like song about the psychology of making someone fall.”

  “And…you think nobody will catch on to you? Nobody in Pink Beats will listen to it and realize what you are doing?”

  Kana put on her puppy eyes and blinked a couple of times, “What do you mean, Jina-chan? What do you think I meant when I said fall? I meant fall in love, of course. We are writing a song about placing the perfect pieces to make the boy I love fall in love with me. If someone reads too deep into it, then that is their problem, isn’t it?”

  Jina groaned, and then a smile appeared on her face, “You mean the girl you love, isn’t it?”

  Kana gave her a chop on the head and then got out of the door, “Let’s get writing, then.”

  Test Me by CHANMINA on loop. That is, of course, the third opening to Oshi no Ko, and has been stuck in my head ever since it was released. Go give it a listen it if you haven't yet!