Sakura could finally plop down on the hotel bed and bury herself in the soft sheets after a long day of schedules in Tokyo. In addition to today’s activities, she had been practicing hard for the new senbatsu single, but was never satisfied with how she was doing. Worried about if she was doing enough to meet the expectations of herself and others, Sakura pushed herself harder and harder until she literally could not dance another measure. She collapsed in front of the long mirror and stared at her reflection.

She had always been someone with too many thoughts.

Do I deserve to be here?

Can someone like me really be center?

These kinds of thoughts ran through her head far too often, especially with the attention she’s been getting from Produce48. Though she could feel the fatigue building from the soreness of her muscles and the bags beneath her eyes, she pretended like it wasn’t there. Like always. Someone who puts on a bright smile, laughs, shines, gives strength to the people around her and to the people that support her. That’s who Sakura believes an idol has to be.

Therefore, when she finally got the chance to lay down, the first thing she thought to do was pull out her phone to update SNS. She was scrolling through her timeline when an article caught her eye.

“SKE48’s Matsui Jurina to Take Hiatus and Focus on Medical Treatment”

Sakura’s finger paused at the words until her brain finally managed to register what she was reading. The two were rivals, as management and fans pushed them to be, but neither had ill intentions towards the other. Instead, it was quite the opposite. Sakura had always admired her senior, though she wasn’t sure how the other party felt about herself. Jurina was gorgeous, confident, and undeniably talented. Everyone knew how hard Jurina had been working for the sake of her group in the past ten years, even to the detriment of her own health.

At first, relief flooded Sakura’s heart when she realized Jurina was finally prioritizing her well-being. She herself witnessed how the Nagoya ace’s exhaustion, coupled with sleep deprivation and starvation, affected her at this year’s Sousenkyo. Relief was then quickly replaced with concern. When was the last time Jurina took a break? She loved her work and her determination never ceased until the extreme. How bad was her condition to have to go on a hiatus of indefinite length? When she finally got the first place she’d always been waiting for too…

Although Sakura couldn’t consider their relationship to be a “friendship,” she wished the best for the other girl from the bottom of her heart. Which was hard not to, as Jurina had been an inspiration to many from the start, including herself.

Sakura rarely had the courage to reach out to someone first, suffering from an irrational fear of being bothersome or clingy. Her insecurities restrained her from acting the way she wanted more times than she could count. Feeling unusually confident today, she tapped on the green Line icon at the bottom right corner and watched her recent conversations load onto the screen. Sakura had to scroll quite a bit until she found the chat she was looking for. The last message from “Jurina-san” was dated back in March on Sakura’s birthday. The latter was surprised, but mostly flattered when her senior thought of sending her a short congratulatory message on her 20th birthday.

Now that she was here, she didn’t really know what to say. Sakura wracked her brain trying to think of what would be best. Feel better? Rest well? She was struggling. Right when she was about to give up and call it quits for the night, a new message popped up above her keyboard.

“Ouchhh,” Sakura whined as her phone slapped her in the face.

She rubbed her forehead while kicking her legs in excitement, fatigue from today’s dance practice completely forgotten. She was so startled to see a message from the sole person in her thoughts. Even though it was just a simple “hey” Sakura couldn’t control the unmanageable beating of her heart and the heat rising in her cheeks.

It wasn’t until she managed to type out “hi” and press send that Sakura noticed she had been holding her breath. It was almost midnight… She couldn’t help but smile at the fact that Jurina was thinking of her right now.

“I kno