"Mom, Dad, Alisa, I am going out first."
"Be careful on the road." 2x
"Good luck, Onee-chan!" Alisa said with a smile.
After saying goodbye to both of her parents, Eli left her house, but before he left, he heard his father's voice.
"Right, Eli, wait for a moment."
"What's wrong, Dad?" Eli looked at her father curiously.
"Here."
Eli saw two tickets in her father's hand and asked, "What is this?"
"This is a ticket for an amusement park. I have received this by chance, but I can't go since I have been a bit busy for the past few days..." Ayase seemed a bit tired, but his eyes were full of excitement since money kept drizzling into his boss's pocket and at the same time, he knew that he would also receive a bonus too.
"Eh? Why don't you give it to me?" Alisa complained.
"You need to study for the entrance exam, right?" Eli's mother stared at her youngest daughter.
"Ehh!!!" Alisa stared at her mother with a sad expression.
Eli looked at two amusement tickets in her hands and wasn't sure what to do for a while.
"You can go with your friend later," Ayase said and returned to the dining room since he needed to go to the office after this.
Eli wasn't sure, but she suddenly remembered his face which made her blush.
'Should I invite him?'
Eli was wondering whether it meant she would ask him for a date. She felt a bit shy but suddenly remembered that she needed to go out for the morning training and quickly left her house.
Although her father had a car and was also the head of Haru's investment company, she had never tried to act like she was a rich girl.
It might be because Eli knew how hard her father had worked before and also had seen how her father stressed in the past that she didn't want to waste money and it was also her way of life to not indulge in luxury.
What's more, Eli also needed to go to the nearby shrine to exercise every morning.
The name of the shrine was Kanda Shrine. It was located on a small hill near her home. The shrine wasn't well-known and there wasn't any special spot which attracted tourists, so there weren't many people who came to this shrine.
In addition, this shrine was owned by Haru who was the producer of Muse so this shrine was usually used as a place to exercise for all of the members of Muse.
When Eli arrived, everyone was there except for Rin and Hanayo.
Eli looked at Maki who had come earlier but didn't feel that surprise. She knew that Maki's home was quite far away.
However, as a wealthy young lady, Maki had always taken care of her health under the guidance of a private healthcare doctor. She woke up very early every day, and there was also a special car to pick her up, so she naturally came very early.
Eli noticed that both Maki and Nozomi talked to each other, but she didn't think too much and greeted everyone.
"Good morning, everyone."
"Good morning, Eli-chan."
Eli greeted everyone, but then she felt disappointed when she didn't see that hateful guy.
"Is Haru still not here today?"
Usually, Haru also joined them to exercise every morning so their number would be even since there were only nine people on the Muse. However, when he joined, the number of people would become ten and they could exercise in pairs and he was also able to guide them on their morning exercise.
However, what made Eli happy was that she could spend her morning with him which made her heart flutter and she would exercise more vigorously with him beside her.
Haru would usually come every morning so Eli felt a bit weird when she didn't see him today.
"Haru has told me that he has some things that he needs to do at his school earlier," Maki said.
As his girlfriend, Maki was also cornered that she didn't see him at the shrine and when she called him, he told her that he had some matter that he needed to do at school so he couldn't come.
"Huh? Really?" Eli raised her eyebrow and wondered how the relationship between Maki and Haru seemed to become closer, but not only Maki, she could also feel that Nozomi also seemed to be quite close to Haru, especially when Nozomi chased after Haru at that time.
"Well, why don't you call him Eli-chan? I'm sure he's very happy when he hears that you're worried about him," Nozomi said with a smile, trying to tease Eli.
"Wh - What are you talking about? Why should I call him?!" Eli blushed and became tsundere. She knew what she had said contradicted her heart, she loved him very much, but she was wondering why their relationship didn't progress further which made her feel a bit frustrated.
Eli thought about the tickets to amusement parks that had been given to her by her father before and thought about inviting him later.
Nozomi then looked at Maki who also stared at her. She gave Maki a gentle smile, but Maki snorted at her which made her smile brightly.
Suddenly a sudden rush of shouts came from the stone ladder below the shrine.
"Help! Help!"
Hearing the voice of Hanayo, the seven Muses hurriedly went to the stone ladder and they quickly saw both Hanayo and Rin who ran toward their direction.
Looking at Hanayo who kept shouting, they felt a bit helpless, but at the same time, they had gotten used to it.
"Hanayo-chan, why are you calling for help again?" Nico asked angrily since this girl was late for their morning exercise.
"No, I'm sorry. I want to say that there is a big thing which is bad... wait... sorry... aw.."
Hanayo had a frustrated expression and stuttered several times, it might be because of the timid personality that she often screams for help when something big was happening.
"What is the big thing?" Umi asked curiously.
"Here... here..." Hanayo took out the newspaper which she had brought from her house.
Everyone then looked at the newspaper which was being brought by Hanayo and their faces were surprised because of what was written in the newspaper!
"The Rise of Live-Action Movies!"
"Savior of the movie in this country!"
"Kasugano Haruka's script "Flying Colors" that has been turned into a movie has received two billion yen at the box office after a week!"
"Huh? Is the script for "Flying Colors" being made by Haru?" Kotori was surprised.
(Two billion yen might be small for the box office, but don't forget that this is Japan, and the cost of the movie itself is under 100 million yen, so you can guess the rest, right?).
They knew that Haru owned a company, made a game, etc, but then they didn't expect him to write a movie script!
Well, they might forget that he was a billionaire, but that wasn't the problem since they had never been told that he had made a movie!
"Two billion yen..." Nico felt dizzy. She was coming from a normal family and she wouldn't think that she would be able to get such an amount of money in her life, but the guy who had always been low-key, practicing, talking, and joking with them suddenly was able to make a movie that was able to create such a large box office with just a week of time.
"...He - He is amazing..." Umi was lost for words at that moment. In the past, she often saw such news when some Hollywood movies were able to create a box office miracle, and she thought those people who created those movies were amazing, but that was all.
Because those people were unrelated to her and they were too far away.
But now, when these things happened to Haru, Umi, no, all of them felt very familiar Haru had become so distant.
If someone was too good, it would bring pressure to the people around him/her.
"Then it was because of this movie that he didn't come this morning?" Kotori asked softly.
"Think about it carefully, this is quite normal, right? After all, his business is the most important thing, right? We should also understand him," Nico said lightly and felt a bit disappointed.
"What are you talking about? There's no way Haru is such a person! He has never neglected Muse and remembers that he has done a lot of things to support us even if he's busy. He has been helping us because he has treated all of us as friends."
Maki looked at everyone and said, "So don't ever think about something like that again and he has told all of us that he's is our producer, right?"
When they heard Maki's words, they couldn't help but smile since they remembered his words at that time telling them that he would be their producer.
"Honoka, what do you think?" Nozomi looked at the Captain of Muse who hadn't talked for a while.
"I think that Haru is really amazing!" Honoka raised her head, smiled gently, and said, "He owned a cafe, writing a novel and script, and a lot more... he doesn't look like a high school student at all!"
"Since Honoka can also understand, then I suggest that we should give more time to Haru and let him work on his own business," Eli said thoughtfully since she was wondering whether Haru was busy because it was related to her father's business. She knew that sometimes her father didn't go home for a few days and thought that it might be related to that.
Eli loved Haru, and because of that, she didn't want to hinder his career development because of herself.
"Eli, you mean that our idol career is unimportant?" Nico asked unhappily.
"Of course, I didn't mean that..."
"I made a decision!"
Honoka suddenly spoke, and the orange-haired girl smiled brightly and said, "Our previous goal was to stop the school from being closed, but now there is such a powerful Haru beside us, don't you think our goal is too small?"
Nozomi was surprised and said, "Honoka, do you mean..."
Honoka smiled and said, "I want to make all of Tokyo... No! I want all of us to become the best idols in the entire country! I want all the idol shops to be full of our photos, goods, etc! I want our song to be played everywhere! I want everyone who mentions us to think that we're the best idol rather than a group of idols that is lucky enough to enter Haru's eyes! If we can achieve all of that then... I feel that we should be able to help Haru, right?"
Honoka's resolute gaze swept across her parents and said, loudly, "Are you confident to do that?!"
Nico snorted and said, "Why are you asking such an obvious question? You're asking the best idol in the entire galaxy, Yazawa Nicole! Being the best in the country? Isn't that easy?"
Umi nodded and said, "As long as everyone works hard, nothing is impossible!"
Hanayo might be shy, but she didn't hesitate and said, "I, I will do it too!"
Rin smiled and said, "It sounds interesting, nyaa!"
Maki nodded and said, "As long as I'm serious, then it won't be difficult."
Kotori smiled gently and said, "I support Honoka."
Nozomi took her tarot cards and said, "In my cards, I can see such a future of Muse!"
"Haru... if you're here now, you'll be happy, right?"
On Eli's white face, a pure smile appeared when she saw everyone. What they wanted wasn't to grow under his care, but they wanted to grow alongside him, standing by his sides and supporting him, not to be dependent on him, and that's what they're going to do now!
Eli then thought about the amusement park tickets and thought that she needed to brave herself to invite him later.