Hey
My classmate went to Awajima.
Hey
Wanna go to Awajima's cultural festival together?
Why
And by Awajima, I mean the Awajima Revue School.
Why
Er
It's fine if you aren't interested
Did I say I'm not?
We were friends.
I mean
That's kinda what it sounded like
We were, though we aren't anymore.
That's kinda what it sounded like
No, it didn't
But we used to be.
K
A Hundred Scenes of AWAJIMA
Are you angry?
What a pain.
Kei.
Did Eri-chan say she's going?
Yeah...
I'm not angry
I dunno yet.
Awajima Cultural Festival
She must be worried because Kei-kun's the popular type.
I'm not so sure.
Anyway, to think you have a relative at Awajima too, Ryouko-san...
Sara-chan's a darling, cheerful girl.
Saracchi, how've you been?
I hope it hasn't been so long that you've forgotten me.
It's me, Maasa Okamoto. I was in a bed by yours at the hospital.
I didn't think we'd be well enough to hang out after we got discharged,
which is why I didn't reach out right away.
So thanks for telling me you made it into Awajima Revue School despite that!
I'm really, really happy for you.
I was so happy that...
I teared up writing this, so I had to stop and take a nap. lol
I wonder if I'll get to see you in the spotlight someday.
Let's Meet Again
I'm going to make sure I get all better by then.
So I hope you work hard too.
But if things ever get too tough and you feel like quitting...
Scratch that!
No negativity!
You're always welcome back home if you can't take it anymore
Plus I sound like a mom.
How do I cheer her on without it coming across empty?
This is hard.
You used to be really close with Fujisawa, Eri.
That's why I thought I'd invite you.
I've always been a bit interested in Awajima.
But it's fine if you don't want to.
I'm not angry or anything.
I know.
I hate you.
It's just that I said some awful things to Eri.
There's no way you're getting into Awajima.
I wish I could say sorry.
Yanagihara-senpai's playing piano.
She's your roommate, right?
Yup.
She's really nice.
You're so lucky that you and Shizuka-san get along with the upperclassmen.
Things always feel so tense for us.
Is yours intimidating?
She's not exactly intimidating.
It's more like she takes really good care of us.
Umemoto
Fujisawa
She's very good to us.
Nice to meet you.
I'm Mizuki Umemoto.
I'm prep student Eri Fujisawa!
I look forward to rooming with you!
I'm sure you've already been told, but the bathroom is to the right.
Right!
If you need to make a call, please go to the conversation room or to the lobby.
Right!
You're free to put up a curtain around your bed if you'd like.
Right!
As you can see, this is how I've set up my area.
You can find them on clearance at the shopping district...
Thank you for the advice!
You can get permission to leave campus from the office.
And, um...
You can ask me if you ever need anything.
Right!
You wanna know how to get closer to your underclassmen?
No idea!
Just don't be mean to them, and you're good!
I'm not being mean, but...
Everyone's making friends with their roommates.
How do I do that?
Think back to our upperclassmen.
We had the best worst examples to learn from!
I'm anxious because I don't want to end up being like them.
You're overthinking it, Ume-chan.
Just keep being the kind person you are, and the prep students will appreciate it.
You got this! Be strong!
Now get back to practice!
Okay.
I heard Satsuki Yaotome-sama
showed up at the cultural festival last year as an alum guest.
Who do you think it'll be this year?
This year might be the year...
that it's Akira Takanashi-sama.
SQUEAL AHHHHH
Are you a Takanashi too?
Hang on.
We're working behind the scenes.
How exactly are we going to introduce ourselves to her?
Don't say that.
We're just having fun fantasizing right now.
Let's say Akira-sama comes once we're upperclassmen, then!
The alum guest to show up that year was
a lady named Wakana Tabata-san.
She joined the Awajima Revue Troupe after she graduated
and became an actress working under the name Ao Hazuki.
Upon quitting the troupe, she ended her acting career and became a writer,
publishing under her real name.
That's what it says in her profile.
Somewhere for hopefuls to become actresses...
Somewhere at the doorstep of dreams...
Those whose dreams come true...
Those for whom they won't...
The potential need to change career paths...
Countless forks in the road...
What awaits us?
At Awajima?
And beyond?
Will we ever become something?
Ibuki-sensei.
Oh, my.
Katsurako Ibuki-sama
You're here rather early.
Sorry about that.
I called a taxi quite early just in case, but the roads were totally clear.
It happens, doesn't it?
I'm going home next week.
Thank goodness.
I heard you'd collapsed. I didn't know what to do.
I did cause a bit of a fuss, but I'm glad it happened at school.
Elderly and living alone, I'd have been a goner if it happened at home.
Please don't say that!
I'm sorry for raining on your hero's welcome.
M-My hero's welcome? I'm no hero!
You were invited to speak at the festival. That's amazing.
No, I really wasn't sure I'm cut out for it.
Sure you are.
Seisai
Wakana Tabata
I was reading your book just now.
Th-Thank you.
It was great.
And I could tell when you were writing about me.
Sorry I never got your permission.
Oh, it's fine.
It's not like it was a tell-all book or anything.
Although a tell-all would have been fine too.
It was a serial about my time at Awajima.
So an autobiographical, then.
Nothing that respectable.
I'm glad everyone's doing well, having found their own paths.
I appreciate the encouragement.
It's the truth.
Looking back at my time as an upperclassman,
it's my relationship with my underclassmen that stands out the most.
My roommate was a prep student named Akiho Kashiwabara.
I'm sure you all know her.
She's Satsuki Yaotome-san.
That got your attention, huh?
Akiho Kashiwabara & Wakana Tabata
Tabata-senpai!
Good morning!
She's so cool!
I want to be like her.
Right?!
You're the center of attention, Waka-chan.
Stop teasing, Momo-chan.
That was a dream.
I knew it.
I realized partway through.
They call that lucid dreaming, don't they?
I knew it, but I kept dreaming because it felt nice.
Morning.
Today's the day, huh?
I know. I'm so nervous.
The new prep students will be entering the dorms today.
I ask that you upperclassmen be mindful of your behavior
so as to become good examples for the new students.
Yes, ma'am!
Oh, here. This girl.
She's the daughter of Hayato Kashiwabara and Mirei Kanda.
Hayato Kashiwabara and Mirei Kanda's first daughter enters Awajima Revue School, First Step to the "Stage of Her Dreams"
Not that it's particularly unusual to have a celebrity's daughter at this school.
It's hard not to have high expectations with these two, though.
I'll always be seen as riding my parents' coattails.
Especially when I end up in the news.
Whether that's temporary or lifelong depends on how well I perform.
What's the matter all of a sudden?
Things are only going to get harder.
Sorry. It's all because we're celebrities.
No, it's fine.
I was prepared for this.
People are going to expect more from me than they should.
I need to achieve something, or they're going to be disappointed.
These are all challenges I must overcome.
I know I'm being self-absorbed.
But it was my parents who accepted and enjoyed
my melodramatic monologue.
The TV dramas and movies my father starred in...
The long-running shows my mother started in her twenties...
I never doubted that I would follow the same path.
Double Affair
TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES OF DOUBLE AFFAIR
We're here at the Kashiwabaras' luxury home.
As you can see, both of my parents are extremely attractive.
They've been a long-standing power couple.
DOUBLE AFFAIR Hayato Kashiwabara (48) & Mirei Kanda (47)
My name is Akiho Kashiwabara.
Prep A
I look forward to being friends.
Never mind riding my parents' coattails...
They ended up dragging me down.
People only see our family for the scandal now.
Well, whatever.
I'm more than ready to start from behind.
Better than being put up on a pedestal, I guess.
Your room numbers and roommates' names are written on the handout.
I'm so nervous!
I'm Michishige.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
Oh, wow!
She's so...
I don't know. She's got some kind of aura.
Nice to meet you. I'm Akiho Kashiwabara.
I look forward to being friends.
I guess the dream I had this morning
wasn't a lucid dream but a precognitive one.
Except I'm not the one who's dazzling...
It's her.
Kashiwabara Tabata
I'm sure you're aware by now...
Sorry?
Of the news about my parents.
Oh, right.
I apologize for all the trouble.
Please, it certainly hasn't affected me at all.
Besides, I'm more interested in the news about you than the controversy.
About what you're like and all.
We've been talking about you behind your back.
I feel bad about that.
She's a bit odd.
She's so humble and doesn't really act like an upperclassman.
She's not trying to schmooze or anything either.
Why did you decide to come to Awajima, Kashiwabara-san?
Er, what? Sorry.
Oh, were you listening to music? My bad.
No, my apologies.
I was just curious why you applied to Awajima.
I'll go first. My aunt's an Awajima fan, and she suggested it.
Ah.
Why, huh?
For me, it was inevitable in a way.
Especially given my environment.
I've never even thought about doing anything else.
But I think I chose a different medium from my parents without realizing.
My father's always worked on the screen.
My mother worked in theater too, but nothing like the Awajima Revue.
I think I didn't want to follow the path that my parents laid out for me.
Wow, you've really got it together.
Sorry if I sound cocky.
"Why Awajima?"
"Have your parents had a big influence on you?"
"What do you hope to do in the future?"
I'm sure I'll be asked these questions countless times.
It's not hard to predict.
Watch out for the occasional mean interviewer.
Here we go.
I got this.
Maybe my parents were in a loveless marriage.
They're both such good actors.
They had everyone fooled.
"I don't think I could have had better role models than my parents."
I'll make that my answer in an interview someday.
Are your parents close, Senpai?
I wonder.
I don't think they're too bad, at least.
My parents used to get along.
Oh, that's right.
What's the deal with married couples, anyway?
Yeah...
That's a good question.
I'm sorry, Senpai.
I think it's made-up.
Not just marriage, but family as a whole.
My father was handsome,
but he was also a bit goofy and easy to read, which made him easy to like.
My mother was pretty but also quite friendly.
Other women held her in high regard.
And I grew up shrewdly between the two of them.
But that's such a childish answer.
So when the day comes that I'm interviewed...
"I know it's trite, but I think my parents are my mirror image."
That's going to be my answer.
I know I'm just putting on a strong face.
In truth...
In truth, we weren't particularly tight-knit.
My mother spent most of her year doing theater work.
My father had another home closer to the studio.
They had a good public front, but they were pretty lousy actors at home.
I pretended not to notice in order to protect myself.
There were plenty of times when our family act almost had me fooled.
That maybe this quality time was real.
That I got my talent from myself.
Someday, when I write my memoirs,
I'd like to write, "It was all very lonely."
You present yourself so well, Senpai.
D-Do I?
Yes.
I could learn a lot from you.
Th-That makes me so happy!
Is it anything to cry over?
My roommate when I was a prep student always did everything elegantly.
Her posture. Her attitude. All of it.
She was photogenic just standing there.
Meanwhile, I was kind of... chaotic and clumsy.
I can see that.
They really had to correct me on that in prep school.
But I guess old habits aren't so easily forgotten.
It's hard to fix sloppy behavior.
So I thought I should at least be in touch with beautiful things.
I figured Senpai would eventually rub off on me.
So I feel like you're praising her through me.
It's nice.
The first time I saw you,
I realized you were somehow different from the rest.
I...
If it were me,
to be honest, I wouldn't like having my parents praised through me.
I'm sorry.
I must be an idiot.
I can't believe I took that out on her.
Kashiwabara-san, are you awake?
Yes.
Sorry about what I said earlier today.
No...
That was utterly rude of me.
This is throwing me off.
I need to be better put together.
I have a long way to go.
I should apologize to her properly tomorrow morning.
Tabata-senpai might be a sort of antidote for me.
Congratulations Satsuki Yaotome-sama, Wakana Tabata-sama
Sorry for asking you to wait all this time.
No, it's fine.
You must be tired. Sorry it took so long.
Here.
I brought my new book with me.
Thank you very much!
I've been reading since you were publishing online.
Wow, thank you. That's embarrassing.
I ended up revising and fleshing out a lot.
You might enjoy reading this too.
I will.
Oh, shoot.
Kashiwabara-san wanted me to give you this gift.
Oh, my.
Thank you all so much.
Your generation is so tight-knit. You don't have pecking orders.
Do you think so?
Every generation has its challenges.
Prep students and other prep students.
Upperclassmen and other upperclassmen.
Even those relationships can be difficult,
let alone prep students and their upperclassmen.
I'll be there the day after or the day after that. Yup.
Bye for now.
Good work today, Tabata-san.
You'll watch the show, right?
Of course.
Taisho era, huh?
Huh.
H-Huh?! Sawanoi-kun?!
Then is that Eri-chan next to him?!
Why are they at Awajima?!
Huh?
Fujisawa?
L-Long time.
Long time.
My princess!
Tadeshina! Tadeshina!
The kanji for Tadeshina is pretty too.
Tadeshina
Could be a potential stage name.
Did you two make up?
I don't know.
She showed up out of nowhere today and apologized.
I'm not sure I can just go back to normal.
Sometimes the one who apologizes ends up being the only one who feels better.
Yeah.
Still, she rode several trains
to get all the way to Awajima.
I couldn't manage to force a nice smile, though.
Same as Eri-chan's face that day...
I just looked indifferent.
Time passed.
And just as I was about to become an upperclassman, I got a package.
Eri Fujisawa
Sorry for sending this to you out of the blue.
I drew you.
I hope you play the princess someday too.
I think we'll get to meet again someday.