Nakajima Yuto was looking around Tokyo. He didn’t have anything to do today. He stopped in front of a large tarpaulin.
He sighed. It was a poster of another audition… singing, dancing, theater arts. He shook his head in dismay. He wasn’t at all interested. He had been to so many auditions already and yet he still wasn’t used to being dumped.

He was at this thought when his cell phone rang. He stared at it. The number didn’t register in his phonebook. When it kept on ringing, he answered it.

“Moshi, moshi?”

“Ohayou. Is this Nakajima-san?” the caller asked.

“Hai.” He answered.

“Kindly come to Hikari immediately. Could you?” the caller asked.

“Hah, anou… hai.” He answered.

“We would be waiting for you.” The person said.

“Okei.”

“See you then. Bye.”

That was all and the line was cut.

He stared at his phone. What does Hikari needed from him? With a wondering mind, he looked for the nearest bus station.

Coming to Hikari was the hardest thing since it reminded Yuto of how useless he was. It sent a large pain in his stomach and larger in his heart.

He was about to enter the elevator when he stopped in his tracks. He didn’t know where to go. He looked around for somebody who could help him but there was none.

He approached the information.

“I need to meet somebody from the auditioning team.” Yuto heard a boy exclaimed at the information lady.

He looked at the boy. The boy was younger than him and wearing black all over. He looked like a punk star.

“I was just in a vacation when the audition was held so I miss it. I need another chance, please.” The boy pleaded.

“I’m sorry, sir. Better luck next time.” The lady in the information said.

“But… if you could just let me talk to one of them…”

“That is not in our protocol, sir.” The lady said.

The boy took his guitar and started playing a hard rock song.

Yuto stared at the guy. He felt sick listening to the boy. He might even be a better singer than this one.

The boy already attracted too much attention. The lady in the information looked puzzled. She already didn’t know what to do. She looked around for help.

The security officers of the building came and grabbed the guy. The guy tried to evade them but the security was quick and bulky thus he was dragged away.

“Sorry about that.” The lady apologized.

Yuto shook his head and waved his hand in dismissal. “No problem.” He said.

The lady bowed to him. “How can I help you?” she asked him.

“Anou. Watashiwa Nakajima Yuto desu. Somebody from Hikari called me and told me to come here. I forgot to ask whom I will ask for. Maybe, you could help me.”

The lady flipped in the papers in front of her. “Ah. Please go straight to the office of the president.” She said.

Yuto’s eyes opened wide. “President?” he asked.

“Hai.” She said. “Actually, I guess the others are already there.” She said. “Congratulations.” She said smiling at him.

Yuto looked at her in puzzled expression.

She smiled, and bowed to him.

He bowed back and went directly to where he was supposed to go.

Ryosuke slumped at the comfortable three-seater sofa. He felt like he was floating in the air. He knew that his face was so flushed. He was afraid of that since he was so fair that it was totally noticeable but he couldn’t help it. He just had the greatest night with the most wonderful girl ever. He blushed more as he thought of her. When did she abandon her innocence? It was doing wonders on him though he didn’t know if it would do any good for his work.

Yuri sat beside him. “You look really happy.” The younger one commented.

Ryosuke smiled and nodded.

Yuri looked at him knowingly. Yuri shook his head. “She’s getting into your brains.” He commented.

Ryosuke grinned at his best friend.

Yuri tapped Ryosuke’s cheek. “Erase her in your mind or else everybody would think that you did a lot of little naughty things last night.” Yuri advised.

“She did the little naughty things, not me.”

Yuri’s eyes opened wide. He laughed at his bestfriend. “Are you even a guy? Control yourself, for pete’s sake.”

Ryosuke moved his face near his bestfriend’s. “You’re just jealous because you haven’t scored from Kyoumi yet.” He teased.

Yuri glared at him and covered his mouth. Yuri looked around. The other guy’s inside the room were busy talking to each other while some seemed not to mind their surroundings. “Shut up, will you.”

Ryosuke nodded thus Yuri took his hand off his mouth. “So when are you going to ask her to lose her ity to you?” Ryosuke asked Yuri in a smaller voice.

Yuri glared at Ryosuke. He looked embarrassed at the sentence.

“Oh, come on Chii, you are already seventeen. Might as well do what the adults do.”

“You are polluting my mind.” Yuri commented which gained a hearty laugh from his friend. He looked away. “Besides, we’re not really for real.”

Ryosuke stared at his friend. “Hah?”

Yuri sighed. “Kyoumi just blackmailed me. She thought that we are like… you know… something…”

Ryosuke laughed at the stupidity of what Yuri confessed. “She thought we are dating?”

Yuri nodded in embarrassment.

Ryosuke laughed even more. “And why did you let her blackmail you?” he asked.

“She never listened to my explanation. There are a lot of times that I opened the subject but then she would just evade the topic.”

“But she already know that I am secretly dating Jie, so, what’s her reaction?”

Yuri shrugged. “We didn’t see each other these past few days. We became busy with the production and everything. She has her own schedule and I have mine. And right after the play, I haven’t seen her yet.”

“Ah. I thought you were for real.” Ryosuke commented.

Yuri shook his head. He drew a deep breath. When he thinks of it, he didn’t know what happened to Kyoumi anymore.

“I even got angry because you haven’t told me that you already have a girlfriend.” Ryosuke said. “But then I am thankful because that event brought me, my girl.”

Yuri smiled at his bestfriend.

Hikaru stared at Ryosuke and Yuri under his hat. The two had their own world. He smirked. He really hated that Ryosuke guy. He hated his guts.

He already heard that he was secretly dating Jie. He wanted to smack to guy right into the face and broke that pretty nose of his. He gritted his teeth and rolled his fist.

That was the reason why he agreed coming to this meeting when a producer asked him after the play. This way, he could check on that Ryosuke guy and make sure that he won’t cheat on Jie.

It pained him just thinking that Jie would be broken hearted. He had courted her for a very long time and yet she still chose that pretty guy Ryosuke. “I hate him. I really hate him.” he whispered to himself.

Hikaru looked at the kid who was beside him. The guy looked younger than anybody in the group except Chinen Yuri.

He was fidgeting beside him and blowing air again and again. He seemed really nervous.

“Daijoubou?” Hikaru asked.

The guy looked and smile at him. “Hai. Arigatou.”

Hikaru nodded and looked away.

The boys all looked around when the door opened once again. An older man in his 50s came in and was followed by two lovely girls.

Ryosuke and Yuri bowed to them. The other boys followed.

One of the girls was the kid who was always in the audition.

Ryutaro gasped seeing them. He tried to hide his face with the pillow.

The man cleared his throat. “Welcome to Hikari’s.” he said. He looked around. “Ten all in all.” The man started. “I am Yoshida Touma.” He started. Murmurs were heard from the other boys. Yoshida waved his hand to dismiss the noise.

“I know most of you knew me already as the president of Hikari. Hikari is the name of my late wife. We named this after her.” The president said. “I heard from my daughters that this batch is a good one.” He continued. “You boys are handpicked by my daughters and the audition team. You are very well recommended.”

Yuto stared at the man. He felt that he didn’t belong to this group and there might be a huge mistake.

He raised his hand to be acknowledged.

The president saw him and nodded.

“Anou, there might be a mistake.” He started. “I didn’t pass the audition.” He said truthfully.

The president smiled at him. “So, you are Nakajima Yuto.”

Yuto’s mouth and eyes opened wide in shock. “Hai.”

“There is no mistake. The audition team recommended you. They said that you have the best talent in dancing that they’ve seen for years. They even said that you could be the best in the whole Hikari’s.”

Yuto’s brain froze. The man was flattering him so much that it was even hard to handle.

“You’d be in charged with the dance of the group. As to singing, you have to work extra hard on your lessons which will come after every group rehearsal.”

“Group?” the boys asked in unison.

“Hai.” The president said. “You would debut as the newest all-boys group in Hikari. You will be Stars United.”

The boys looked at each other.

“That is all. Congratulations.” The president said.

“Arigatou.” All of them said.

“We are already polishing your contract. We would be calling you again for the contract signing plus your parents to accompany you. In the meantime, I want you to know each other since you will be working together. I’ll ask my girls to show you your training area so you could get acquainted with each other.”

The girls nodded. “This way please.” Jmee said and showed them to the door.

The girls led them to a series of passages. They passed the training room of other groups. Some were already famous in the industry and some are still struggling for popularity.

Catherine hooked her arm on Ryutaro’s. Ryutaro was taken aback at her sudden movement. She smiled at him but didn’t say a word.

Jmee stopped in front of a room. “This would be your dance training room. The door next to it will be used for your singing and instrument lessons. It was equipped with the instruments you would be needing in case.

Jmee opened the door of their dance training room. “This one is larger than most of the rooms here since you are so far our biggest group.” She commented.

They stepped in. The room was huge. It has a media player on the side. It was adorned by huge mirrors all around. On the far end of the room was a huge table that could accommodate all of them. There were lockers at the back and a bathroom. There was also a walk in dresser beside the bathroom.

“Wow, look Chii, this was better than our training rooms.” Ryosuke commented.

“Uhn.” Yuri nodded in agreement.