It had taken almost the entire day for Minami's panic attack to finally calm down. By the time it subsided, it had left her absolutely drained and exhausted.
She'd fallen asleep a few hours earlier than she normally would've. Luckily, the exhaustion from the attack had lulled her into a deep sleep.
A slight tingly sensation still remained and trickled throughout her entire body.
Her eyes fluttered as she fought to get them open. The rest of her body felt like a lead brick that was pushing her down onto her bed.
She sat up slowly, fighting against the annoying gravity trying to weigh her down, and rubbed her eyes.
"Ugh…Good thing I don't have to go to the office today.." She stared at her plushie pile as if she was speaking to them, letting them know she'd remain home.
A giant yawn escaped her lips, causing her to reach her arms into the sky and stretch.
"Tch!" It was difficult to move her limbs around and the stretching only helped spread the tingling sensation faster.
She furrowed her eyebrows and shut her eyes as she took a deep breath.
'BZZ! BZZ!'
Minami opened one eye as she squinted against the bright light that emitted from her phone screen.
'Great, what wonderful timing….I don't even get a little bit of time to relax first?' She wondered as she rubbed a layer of dried drool from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.
She took another deep breath. Hopefully it was just Makoto sending her information on how to handle the situation, or maybe Akina was letting her know she was finally ready to talk, or perhaps it was Naoto who came to apologize for his recent behavior? None of those were too out of the realm of possibility right?
'Please don't be bad….please don't be bad….' She prayed as she lifted the phone and squinted at the screen.
It was a notification from a user named 'WING' who had sent her a private message.
'Is it going to be a hate message or something…..'
Minami cautiously opened up the message, biting her lip the process.
[WING] I hope this message will find you. I am your supporter. I'm wondering if you've seen this yet? Can nothing be done?
Below his message was a link to the official Smile Days social media account.
Minami's arm dropped to her side as she suddenly felt disconnected from her body.
'Their official account? Can nothing be done? Doesn't that mean it's something bad? Why isn't Makoto doing anything?'
Yanking her arm back up with all her might, she clicked on the link.
'I might as well get it over with already.'
There it was, right at the top of the page, the pinned post by Smile Days' official account.
"I'm really devastated that this has happened. We really don't mind any of our fans covering our songs, but please give us credit as the original artist next time. It was a good cover, I like hearing our fans sing for us, but….please remember the credit….I'm sorry to have to be like this and post such a thing. Thank you everyone for listening… ;; - Smile Days' Miki <3"
Minami stared in shock as she read and re-read the post.
"What the heck?!" She screamed out and grabbed her hair, pulling gently.
Why was she acting like she was the victim here? Why didn't they just say what was going on?
Minami began typing up a comment.
[Minami] This is such a lie! I recently signed with Sun Media and the song was given to me as my debut single. They even filmed my birthday party with Smile Days, I have pictures! Miki is ly-
Makoto's words echoed in her head, 'Don't respond to any comments, don't post anything, don't like anything. I want you to stay off the internet for now.'
She sighed and deleted what she'd written.
Instead of following the rest of his advice and getting off the internet, she, against her better judgement, began scrolling through the comments.
Smile Days wasn't very famous yet, and so had much few followers than Minami did. However, that didn't dull the pain from what Minami experienced next.
Every. Single. Comment. Was attacking her….
"No because fuck her! She's making the fandom look bad!"
"She's bullying you guys because she has a larger following and that's really sick!"
"Obviously, she thinks she's better than Smile Days because she has more followers, otherwise why steal their song?"
"Who the hell steals a song from a smaller group….you guys are struggling enough as it is….she should be uplifting you, not trying to tear you down! Especially with her amount of followers…I support you Smile Days! Wishing you will get through this soon! <3"
Minami gasped, "What?! That's not true…I don't think that at all!" She yelled at the screen as she continued scrolling.
"She's ugly and can't sing anyways lol."
"Yeah, who cares? She's ugly!"
"Talentless bitch!! She's just jealous because she can't get into a company herself. She's just a cover artist who gets known off of other people's hard work. It's pathetic."
Her eyes began to tear up.
"If she wants her own song so bad, then she should go and fucking make one."
"It's because she knows she can never debut with that ugly face of hers lol…"
More words echoed in her mind. 'You're not that pretty and you can't sing or dance well.' This time, it was Juri's voice from all those years ago.
Suddenly, the image of herself that she caught in the mirror flashed in her mind. That 15 year old sobbing mess with the puffy face and red eyes, snot dripping down from her nose and messed up hair from holding it back as she threw up in the toilet.
She was 18 now, but she was feeling like that same little girl all over again.
Flinging the phone aside, she brought her hands up to her face, covering the horrid look as tears rushed out of her eyes. Her heart ached, it was like the dam of emotions she'd built up little by little had finally broken.
Sure, she was still the same cry baby as she had always been, but this time was different.
She turned towards the side, facing the wall, and laid down, bringing her knees up to her chest as she curled up into the fetal position. Tightly clutching onto her blanket, she pulled it up and over her head, hiding herself from the world.
The worst thing was that there was no one there for her. Juri and Saki had been long gone, Akina was icing her out for some reason, Naoto-….well….she COULD call Naoto….but was it the right time?
He'd probably be excited that this was happening, after all if she wasn't pursuing this dream of hers then they wouldn't be having the problems they were having.
Maybe he would be comforting though….
The old Naoto would've been comforting and said something like 'Well screw them! They don't know what they're talking about!'
What would the recent Naoto say? Maybe he'd smile….no….he'd probably hug her and say something like, 'It will be okay!' as he smiled to himself. He'd probably mean their relationship would be okay now that this obstacle was out of the way.
Minami sighed. Maybe that was too harsh of a way to think. Maybe that was making him out to be a bad guy.
Well…she didn't have anyone else.
She pulled up her phone and called him.
"Minami?" He sounded surprised. It probably was shocking to suddenly get a voice call from her since she usually just texted him…especially during this rough patch in their relationship.
"C-ca…..N!" She coved her hand over her mouth as she tried to stifle her crying. Maybe it was better to text instead, how was she going to get this out?
"Minami?! What's wrong?!" His voice was filled with concern.
She gulped hard, "C-can you c-c-comme…."
"I'll be there in a second! Hold on!" He hung up immediately and not before long, was at her door banging to be let in.
Minami hadn't changed out of her PJs yet, and her hair was still a mess, but she didn't care all that much when she opened the door.
Naoto pushed through, slamming the door behind him as he pulled her into a tight hug.
She opened her mouth wide as she bawled loudly.
He rubbed her back as she clutched tightly onto the back of his shirt.
"What happened? What's wrong? Are you okay?" He spoke calmly as he continued rubbing her back in a comforting manner.
She shook her head. Part of her was afraid to tell him, she couldn't stand if the theory she'd thought up of earlier came true.
'BZZ! BZZ!'
Hesitating for a moment, she pulled up her phone to see a message from Makoto.
[Boss Makoto] You need to come into the office ASAP!