For the first week, I was crippled to Hanabi's lounge. I tried to focus my energy on trying to be mentally ready for Kohaku, but how can someone get prepared for something like that? It's really impossible. 

I had finished both seasons of 'Hana Yori Dango' by the middle of week two, and when I was all alone with no one around me I would start Christmas shopping on the internet. I couldn't really find anything for anyone that suited me, so I finally decided that I had had enough of those crutches and I put on my shoes. With very minimal pain in my foot, I walked out of J-Storm on my own and pulled my hat harder down on my head. 

I first went to a Japanese Wal-Mart to see if I could find something. I found a Kat-tun CD and an Arashi CD for Nuria because I knew she didn't have anything. Since I started working, me and Mom opened me up a bank account with my own credit card. Half my salary went into a savings account, and the other half was mine to spend. I had a lot to spend, but I was so used to not living on  very much money that even spending over fifty dollars on something sent a rock to my stomach. 

As I was looking for some clothing for Sora, a face suddenly popped out of the rack scaring the living daylights out of me. "AH!" I screamed jumping back.

Ikuta Toma just laughed at me as he climbed out. "What are you doing here?" he asked. "Shouldn't you be resting your ankle?"

I frowned. "Sumi masen, but I hated just sitting there not doing anything. I had to get out."

"Still," Toma said. "You really shouldn't be here anyway. There are a lot of people here that could notice you in an instant. It's not like you can be one of the crowd. Unless you dye your hair, it'll be pretty much impossible."

"What about you?" I asked. "You could get noticed a lot quicker than me."

"Not true!" 

"It is true!" I argued. "Besides, just because you're my sempai doesn't mean you get to boss me around."

Toma put a hand on his heart. "AH! I'm hurt! No one respects me anymore! How disappointing that I met a non-fan of mine! I thought every teenage girl loved me."

I smiled a little bit. "They do," I told him. "And I am a fan, honestly. But you have to understand that a person is not meant to just sit around doing nothing for eighteen hours a day, although I know lots of people on the internet that do. I'm just wanting my ankle to heal so I can start dancing again."

He nodded. "I understand that, but you still need to be careful and not overdo it."

I nodded back. "Hai."

--

When I got back to the lounge, Kotone caught me as I walked in. "WHERE WERE YOU?!" she nearly yelled. "And what the hell are you doing off your crutches?!"

"Sorry kaa-san," I said sarcastically. "But I had to get out and get some air for a while. Besides, my ankle doesn't hurt anymore."

"But the doctor said--"

"I know what the doctor said!" I nearly snapped. "I'm not meant to just sit around doing nothing. I had to do something, so I went Christmas shopping."

Kotone nodded as I sat back down on the couch and took off my shoes. She came up behind me. "What did you get me?"

I laughed and looked at her. "Don't look! If you look then I won't give anything to you!"

"So cruel~" Kotone laughed back as she left. "Alright, fine. But be careful and don't overdo it."

"I won't!"

--

On Saturday, I gladly took the wrap off my foot and walked into work on my own without any help. Today I'm gonna start dancing again, I told myself. Kohaku's in two weeks. I have to get ready.

But I couldn't even do that. Hanabi literally locked me out of the studio when I went to go practice. I could see them inside, but the door was locked. Nuria and Sora literally just smiled and waved at me tauntingly. It was not nice at all!

I didn't know the dance, I didn't know what I was wearing, I didn't even know what music Aiko decided on! It was like they were trying to prevent me from doing anything. 

Later that day, though, I told Kotone as we were getting ready to record our Johnny's Christmas Message to the fans. "You guys aren't very nice," I told her. 

"I know," she said. "But if it's the only way we can prevent you from overworking your ankle, then so be it."

"You'll thank us later," Sora replied as she sat down in one of the three seats in the first row. "Sit Koharu."

I did as I was told and Aiko sat on Sora's other side. "Still," I complained. "You guys are mean."

Aiko smiled. "So?"

Our recording went really well. All we basically said was 'Merry Christmas', 'Thank you', and something along the lines of 'Please look forward for our first album and tour!'. I couldn't believe it was already Christmastime. That meant that Aiba's birthday was coming up, and I had to think of something for Sora's late birthday. Because we were so busy with Hanabi work that day, we didn't have time to really celebrate it like we did Kotone's. Her birthday was two days after Kotone, and I had meant to do something for her, but I didn't have time.

When it was Christmas Eve, the first thing I did was go out and buy a cake for Sora and a Christmas cake for everyone. When I got there, everyone but Sora was gone. "Sora-chan--" I started.

"If you're going to say Merry Christmas again I'm going to ignore you," Sora warned. "Nuria-chan's already told me fifteen million times."

"Iie," I said handing her the cake. "I was gonna say happy late-birthday."

Sora looked at the box before she took it. "My birthday was over a month ago."

"I know. I meant to do something, but we had so much to do. And you were a lot more quiet about it."

Sora opened the box and smiled. "Raspberries on top." She looked at me. "How did you know I loved raspberries?"

I shrugged. "I know you."

Sora bowed her head. "Kamsahabnida."

And, as a bonus, I was allowed back into the studio that day. "Thank the lord!" I cried walking in. "I missed this place!"

"OI!"

Everyone turned around and froze when we saw Arashi walking in behind us. "Koharu-san, how's your ankle?" Nino asked.

I nodded. "A lot better."

"Good. Now, Aibaka here has a birthday wish he wants you to fulfill."

"Oi!" Aiba laughed pushing him away. "You're such a brat!" Aiba came up to me and smiled. "Koharu-chan, for my birthday, my wish is for you to dance and do a backflip again."

I stared at him. Dancing I could definately do, but as for doing a backflip, I had no idea if I could do that anymore. "I don't know," I told him. "I'm worried about the backflip."

"If you do it I'll give you a song for Kohaku," Nino said looking at Aiko. "Since you couldn't figure it out."

I looked over at her. "You couldn't come up with a mix?"

"Do you realize how difficult it is to make a mix?!" Aiko exclaimed. "I couldn't make it fit at all!"

I looked back at Nino. We needed his help. I had to do this. "Okay," I said. 

Kotone came up to me. "You're crazy. You think you can backflip so soon?"

"I don't have a choice."

The music started, and I cursed myself when 'Lucky Man' came on. We had practiced this song so many times during our Junior practice. This song had at least two places to do backflips in, and for the first part of the song while the other four members were doing their backflips, I stayed behind to try and get used to dancing again. The worst part was that I knew that all of Arashi was watching me, and I suddenly became paranoid. It was like the first day at JE all over again. 

Then, I just took a deep breath and during Ohno's second 'doko ni demo aru sa~', after he was done, I just relaxed and threw myself back. I landed perfectly on my feet and went back to the dance. I couldn't help but laugh with happiness, and everyone else applauded me after the song was done. "Thank you so much!" I bowed to them. "Hontouni arigatou gozaimasu!"

Jun smiled. "And you doubted yourself, didn't you?" 

I nodded. I did, but I didn't need to.

"Now," Nino announced. "Your song." Everyone gathered around him anxiously. "Don't think for a minute that I wrote it for you. I just wrote it and it came to mind and you just happened to need it. If I give it to you, you have to promise me to do it justice!"

"We promise," Sora said for all of us. 

--

We got our song, we practiced the lyrics, and Nino promised to help us the next night to get it recorded if we promised to learn the lyrics as fast as we could. Then all of them would help with our dance choreography. Our Christmas would have us working, but we had to get ready for Kohaku. We only had a week left.

"Happy birthday Aiba-chan!" we all sang as we left to go home.

I took a deep breath. "Well, at least I can dance!"

Kotone put an arm around me. "Finally!"

"I'm nervous now!" Nuria exclaimed jumping up and down. "I'm excited and nervous at the same time! Oh my gosh, I can't believe we're actually going to Kohaku!"

"If you keep doing that, you're gonna make us all nervous!" Aiko accused.

I looked over at Sora, and she seemed lost in her own little world. I took her hand and held it, which made her flinch and look at me. "Guess what," I told her. "We're going to Kohaku to perform against AKB."

Sora laughed. "What a great debut, huh?"

I smiled. "Merry Christmas Hanabi!"

===================================================================================================================

this is what I come up with when I lack motivation and ideas. but now today I finally find enough energy to finish it!!!!

chapter 15 is up!! tell me what you think!! if you like it, if you hate it, all that fun awesome stuff!!!!

can you guess what song Nino gave Hanabi without looking at the Hanabi blogspot? ^.^ extra points to those you guess correctly!!!

and I'm sorry I made you guys look up and submit those songs for no reason... I thought I'd be able to make something cool... and I failed...

GOMEN!!!