Finally, the day arrived that their cover of 'The Dawn' was released.
Tensions had subsided after they had a talk about the gaming incident.
Juri claimed that she just assumed that Minami would be busy with group preparations since she was the group leader and didn't want to put pressure on her to stop organizing things.
Minami didn't buy it, but she didn't feel like she could make a fuss about it since everyone else seemed to accept it as fact.
She typed in the account address as soon as she got the text message that the cover was live. Her heart raced and her eyes lit up, clicking on the video; her hands clasped tightly in her lap once it started to play.
"Hmm?" The voice playing was not hers, nor was it Juri or Saki's.
She sat up straighter and leaned into the screen, her fingers clutching onto the edge of her red plaid skirt.
There in the description box was the order of appearances and the first name was none other than Airi.
She quickly opened up the line distributions. The opening line was meant to be hers.
In the document, there it was, the opening line was credited to be Airi's.
She scrolled through the document, all of her solo lines had disappeared except for one. She waited eagerly to hear her solo, but when it came she was grossly surprised.
It sounded so…..wrong. The pitch was off, the key was off, she sounded flat and her voice sounded like it had been through a fryer. Tears welled in her eyes. What was going on?
She checked the comments.
"Oof….that Minami girl…..you should remove her."
"Yuck! Who sang that line?"
"Why does whoever sang that line sound like they were singing a completely different song lol"
She opened up her recording program and put the recording she submitted into it. She listened to it over and over again.
It sounded found, just as it did when she checked it before handing them in. Why did they sound so different in her program in comparison to the final product? Why did they sound so bad?
She called Saki.
"Minamina! Did you see the cover?! It's so good! We did so good!" Saki was so cheerful that Minami instantly felt guilty for the fuss she was about to cause.
"I did…um. Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. Why was Airi in the song?" She spoke quietly and softly, her tone calm, an attempt to keep the situation civil and not escalated it to a full on argument.
"Oh, I don't know! Anyways, listen to how good we sound! It's so awesome!" Saki was quick to change the subject.
"Saki….my solo sounds really bad…"
"Why are you being negative! It sounds fine!" Saki's tone fluctuated in a weird way that Minami couldn't fully understand.
"Do I really sound like that?"
"No!! Juri pitch corrected you when she was audio mixing it! So you sound so much better!"
Minami wanted to gag. Tears flowed down her face.
This was supposed to be a happy time, she was supposed to be excited about her new group and the potential of building an audience and creating a fanbase but it had only been misery instead.
"O-okay….I'm going to call Juri. I'll talk to you later?"
"Sure, sure! I'll be here!"
She dialed Juri's number and was about to hit 'CALL' but her finger hesitated. She gulped hard and shut her eyes tight as she forced herself to send the call through.
"Yeah?" Juri answered, her tone curt.
"Hey Juri? I wanted to ask you abo-"
"She wanted to be in it." She immediately cut Minami off, "We already talked about this didn't we? If it's not going to be fun, then let's just not do it and I'll delete everything. Airi is my friend and I want her to be in it. We can all have fun and enjoy this or you can keep whining like a little brat and complaining and making it miserable for everyone. You tell me."
"I…." Minami hesitated as she choked down tears, "I don't want Airi in the group. I already told you that when we discussed it last time, didn't I? We can have fun, but you're not making it fun for me. Airi doesn't need to be included. I don't know her and she was added without my consent. This is my group, not yours!"
"Okay, well, Saki and I can leave and make a group with Airi and you can have your group to yourself. Does that sound good for you? I don't understand what your problem is. Groups add members all the time."
Juri's tone was rather matter of fact now, but there was definitely a hint of threatening manner underneath there somewhere.
"I don't know why we can't just have a group with us three. This isn't what we agreed on. I feel like I'm being replaced." Hot tears rolled down her cheeks and onto her thighs.
She couldn't keep them back anymore. She took in deep, shaky breaths while trying to calm herself down.
The last thing she wanted right now was to break down over the phone, especially when Juri was treating her like such a child already.
"No, you're not. We want you in the group, obviously, but you're making it really hard on us Minami." Juri huffed in frustration.
"I'm not trying to make it hard," she wiped her tears, "but do you see how this looks to me? You're going behind my back to do things and you even gave her my solos without telling me. How is that supposed to come across to me?"
"You have this conspiracy in your head that we're leaving you out and like we don't want you in the group and that's just not true and I don't know what to tell you about that."
"You are though! You ARE leaving me out! You didn't tell me she was going to be in the group and you didn't tell me that you were giving her all of my solo lines!" Minami's voice gradually raised as she continued speaking until she was full on screaming into the phone, "SO HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT I'M MAKING IT UP?"
"Because honestly, I knew you'd react like THIS. So I'm not gonna deal with this situation. Get over it or we can just not do the group, but I'd prefer to continue with it so figure your stuff out and get back to me."
With that, Juri hung up the phone and Minami broke down into full on sobs, covering her mouth in an attempt to muffle the sound.
She felt like she was being crazy.
It felt like it was so obvious they were leaving her out, but yet, how come she was the one in the wrong here? It didn't feel right, but if she didn't debut with them, she had no one else.
She needed them, she wasn't confident enough to go solo, and Juri was the audio mixer extraordinaire. She didn't have that skill, she wouldn't be able to upload covers without her. It was time to change her thinking.
What if she ended up debuting in a girl group where she didn't get along with the members? Would she quit? Would she cause fights all the time like she's doing now, or would she just suck it up?
So, she'll have to do just that and continue on. She wiped her tears with the sleeve of her black turtleneck and opened her chat with Juri.
[Minami] "Juri, I'm sorry. Let's just continue with the group."
[Juri] "Okay. I'll tell Airi she can't join us anymore."
Minami smiled and happily held her phone to her chest, wiping the remaining tears as she sighed in relief.
'See? It's possible to reach and understanding. That wasn't so bad. In the end, we were able to work it out. We can do this Minami! We just have to persevere! Our dream is not far away!' she crossed her arms and patted her shoulders in an attempt to comfort and encourage herself.
She pulled her waist length hair into a high ponytail and hopped over to her computer.
'Let's do this, Minami! This is not the end, only the beginning!'
She opened up the document to the next song they would be covering and pulled the mp3 open in her audio program.
She grabbed her microphone and pulled it towards her mouth and began to practice the next song, recording over and over again until her throat felt numb.