Makoto thankfully approved the takes that Minami had sent over and got to work editing them. Time was of the essence, and they wanted to get the cover up as soon as possible. Who knew how long the song was going to be popular and they needed to rid off the song's success.
The cover was uploaded to Minami's Hivideo account by Makoto.
Title: DELIGHT cover by MINA [orig. 5year]
Description:
"Today I'm singing a song by my favorite group, 5year! I've been obsessed with this song recently. One day I'd like to be an idol who can stand on stage with 5year. Let's support them together and make all of our dreams come true, okay?"
The description had been debated, Minami wanted to write a lot more, but Makoto didn't approve of the length. It had been written and rewritten for what felt like an entire day before they'd finally settled.
It didn't take long for the cover to rake in views. There were thousands within the hour and loads of comments. It took Minami a long time to read them all.
"I LOVE this! You did such a good job!"
"Ms. Idol, I'm going to support you forever!"
"You did better than others who have covered this song."
"I'm also a fan of 5year! I'm going to support you just like them!"
Her eyes welled up with tears. Happy ones this time. She couldn't have imagined the amount of love she was receiving from this cover. Years ago at the Carrot Star concert, she was so embarrassed in front of everyone, and when Juri and Saki abandoned her and made her feel so less than, she had lost so much of her passion.
Even though in that time she had worked tirelessly to improve her singing and dancing skills, had worked on her appearance, and dedicated herself to her debut… somewhere along the line, she had given up. She wasn't sure when or where it happened, but it did and she was just now realizing how much of that passion she'd last in the past two years.
Her smile reached ear to ear as she read the comments. It brought her back to those days when she first started out on Hivideo, recording covers and posting them, and the excitement at what people would say and what people would think. It wasn't just the passion that had been restored, but the pure joy of it all. It had been so long since she felt so elated, even the photoshoot hadn't given her this much feeling.
Bzz! Bzz!
She looked at the top of her phone screen. "Ri mentioned you in a post."
Her heart stopped, or at least it felt like it did. She opened up her MyDiary account and saw that Ri, from 5year, had reposted her cover.
"Good work! I hope to stand on stage with you one day too!"
Her body fell forward and she started to bawl. She covered her face to hide her tears from Akina and Naoto whom she had been hanging out with when she got the text message that her cover had gone live.
"Are you okay?!" Akina exclaimed, jumping up from her seat.
"Whoa! What's wrong?! What happened?!" Naoto immediately jumped to her side, grasping her arms and rubbing her back.
She gasped for air in between her sobs and eventually just turned the phone to face Akina, since she couldn't get the words out herself.
Akina took the phone from Minami's hands and stared at the screen.
It took a moment for her brain to register, but when it did she screeched in a high pitch tone – almost inaudible to the human ear.
"WHAT?! RI SAID SHE WANTS TO STAND ON STAGE WITH YOU?!" Akina began jumping up and down, her red hair bouncing along with her, "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! I'M SO JEALOUS OF YOU RIGHT NOW!"
"Ri?! That's amazing! She's still your favorite member right?" Naoto continued rubbing her back and smiled wide.
Minami's hand shook against her face, her forward wrinkled as tears flowed down her face, nodding to confirm.
"Look at you! What a successful fan! Congratulations on achieving such an accomplishment. I think we should celebrate! What do you two say to dinner?"
Minami shut her eyes tight, trying to squeeze the last remaining tears out and nodded. She gasped for air slowly, trying to steady her breathing and halt her crying so they could go to dinner without her eyes being red and puffy.
"I'm in too! I've got your bag Minami!" Akina grabbed both of their purses and helped Naoto safely escort Minami, whose vision was blurred from her tears, out the door.
It took a few minutes to calm Minami down, but they eventually managed to make it to the restaurant with minimum eye puffiness.
"You know, it really is such a compliment Minami. Not just because Ri is your favorite member, but she's so talented! She's just like you! Not only that, but she's insanely talented! I have no idea how you're okay right now, I would still be crying if I were you."
Minami had really connected with Ri. Ri had wanted to be an idol since she was little and struggled a lot on her journey to debut. They were from the same hometown, Minami's favorite color was Ri's image color, they ended up sharing a lot of the same likes and dislikes (according to 5year's official profile page), and they shared the same hobbies.
Ri even wrote lyrics, and her advice of, "Sometimes, there are things I can't experience, so I will take from movies or tv shows, or maybe even something a friend or family member told me. I will put myself in that situation and write from there," was what Minami had begun to use, and she had seen a major improvement in her lyrics.
Bzz! Bzz!
"Oh! I bet you that's Ri, since you're practically best friends now that she's noticed you." Akina joked, poking gently at Minami's arm.
Minami smiled and rolled her eyes, "I wish." She stared at her phone and her heart dropped. It was from Saki.
[Saki] "Hey….It's been a long time but I saw your cover. I want to tell you that it's really good and you should be so proud of yourself. Honestly, I really regret not debuting with you. I want to debut too! Let's do it! We can do it! Let's debut together, my beautiful Kissiks leader. I love you so much!"
She wanted to puke. The back of her hand flew up to her mouth as she suppressed a gag, her chin wrinkled and her eyes started to tear up again. She wasn't sure why. Was it anger? Sadness? Confusion? Reminiscence? All of the above? She couldn't tell, it was all so complicated.
"What happened?" Akina and Naoto asked in unison. They glanced at each other with a surprised look which lasted momentarily as they quickly shifted their focus back to Minami.
"It's Saki….She just sent me a text that she regrets not debuting with me and she wants me to debut with her now." Her jaw locked and she gritted her teeth as she spoke. A lump formed in her throat. She had missed Saki so much, and there were so many things she wanted to share with her, but she couldn't forgive her after what she did. She had never even apologized, never reached out in all this time, so why all of a sudden?
"…..What a snake. She just wants you now that Ri's acknowledged you and you've uploaded a really successful and amazing cover." Akina crossed her arms and scoffed, "I hate her."
"Screw her! She's so annoying. After everything she did, now she's crawling back to you. How pathetic. God, I just want to- I want to! AGH! I don't even know what I want to do, I just want to throw her into space or something." Naoto clenched his fists and took a big gulp of his water, averting his gaze from Akina and Naoto.
Then, Minami realized it. Her fists were also clenched and a heat had risen up inside her. She understood now, it was anger. Anger that Saki had betrayed her, and was never truly her friend, not then and not now. It had all been a façade to use her in some sort of way and she was trying to do it again.
"I don't want anything to do with her! I want her out of my life for good!" Minami pulled up her phone and started typing away.
"Maybe don't do it now though…" Akina sighed, "Let's enjoy our dinner, what if you end up in a feud?"
"I'm just going to text this one thing and then I'll put my phone away. Promise!"
"Yeah, Akina, let her just do it. Otherwise, she's going to be bothered the whole night. It's better for her to just get it out of the way."
Akina smiled at him and reached her hand under the table, gently stroking the top of his. He returned her smile and wrapped his fingers around hers.
[Minami] "Please refrain from sending me messages in the future. I don't want anything to do with you anymore. Thanks."