I don’t understand…. Chinen Yūri thought to himself quietly while observing the scene right before his eyes.

That Ichinose Miki must be a miracle worker because Chinen Yūri could hardly believe his eyes. There must be something about that girl that lured them all… to do the impossible. At least as far as he knows it’s impossible for Yama-chan.

Believe it or not, Kamiki Ryūnosuke, Nakajima Yūto, Chinen Yūri and Yamada Ryōsuke are sitting together at the classroom setting of Tantei Gakuen Kyū, doing their homework with that mentioned girl without anyone asking them to!

All she needed to do was to take her textbook out from her bag and started reading quietly, and everyone started to take their homework out from their bags as well.

“What a bunch of hardworking student artistes!” A crew exclaimed softly to her colleague beside her.

RIGHT….. Chinen Yūri smirked to himself; the Yamada Ryōsuke he knows will never touch his textbooks willingly if he did not see his idol doing so….

But it is the other two artistes whom confused him most…

He supposed whoever who started that saying that “idols cannot be trusted”, must have been confused by a popular actor instead…. Because as an idol, with idols as friends, he would say that "we are in fact, a friendly happy bunch of REAL people," unlike the actors and actresses he is seeing now.

You can never tell when they are being true or fake….

Especially with these two so-called acting geniuses.

WE KNOW they are friends…. Because we are not BLIND….

Anyone who spends enough time a day with them could have easily seen how they were shooting longing looks at each other…. Errr… correction, it’s more of Yama-chan and Kamiki-kun shooting something crossed between concerned and longing looks at Ichinose-san.

If I haven’t been on scene to watch them film the series, I would have thought that Ichinose-san must be a robot, the way how she could easily manipulate her emotions scares me. It is as though she has an inbuilt switch to shut down her emotions whenever she desires to.

But there were still moments; the human aspect of her did come out for a walk in the park, a hint of warmth when she looked at Kamiki-kun without him knowing. Or perhaps he did know, seeing that slight knowing smile on his lips whenever his back was turned.

And that is what which confused Chinen Yūri most.

“Please don’t judge her,” Kamiki Ryūnosuke once whispered to him when he noticed Chinen Yūri watching Ichinose Miki so intensely, “she is not who you think she is.”

“She is not who you think she is,” Chinen Yūri repeated to himself softly, “Ichinose Miki is not who we think she is?”

‘It is hard to dislike someone who you have been linked to since birth.’

Could she be?

Chinen Yūri raised his textbook slowly, attempting to cover the bottom half of Ichinose Miki’s face which his textbook.

Those eyes… and that black frame spectacle…. Could she be Shida Mirai, the girl who has been escaping everyone’s notice?

Chinen Yūri let down a long breath and peeked at his best friends, Nakajima Yūto and Yamada Ryōsuke who are studying or supposedly so. At least Nakajima Yūto does look like he is doing so, with that confused look in his eyes while reading his history textbook.

“Huh? Nobunaga committed seppuku instead of murdered? But I thought he was murdered? They always said that he was killed in 1582 but never how…” Nakajima Yūto scratched his head in confusion.

“At Honnō-ji, Nobunaga's small entourage was soon overwhelmed and as the Akechi troops closed in on the burning temple where Nobunaga had been residing, he decided to commit seppuku in one of the inner rooms,” Ichinose Miki quoted Beasley’s explanation of the incident exactly word for word without looking up to acknowledge Nakajima Yūto or looking at the book.

Surprised, Nakajima Yūto stared wide-eyed at the only girl in their study group.

Whoa.... That's .... Incredible~ She actually got them right word for word without even looking at the book... I thought according to the rumours, it was mentioned that she could remember all her lines word for word without referring to her script, not textbooks.

“A... arigatou, Ichinose-san.” It was obvious to everyone that he had never thought that she would be the one to answer him.     

Kamiki Ryūnosuke broke the silence by laughing, whether it’s due to Nakajima Yūto look of shock or the look of awe by Chinen Yūri or Yamada Ryōsuke’s unusual serious look, it was never revealed.

Still chuckling, Kamiki Ryūnosuke shook his head lightly and proceeded to tease his oldest friend, “are you sure you do not have Shunkan kioku, like Megu-chan? I think you are scaring Nakajima-san with that act.”

Ichinose Miki looked up and was greeted with 4 pairs of eyes looking straight at her, causing her to have a little panic attack, much like a deer caught in the headlights, replied in a soft uncertain manner, “What? No… I… errr…. Just read that book…. that's how I remembered it.”

She doesn’t seem very Ichinose Miki right now…. Chinen Yūri narrowed his eyes at his observance.

That black frame spectacle, that tone, that look and that ability..…. there is no way that I have imagined it…

Yamada Ryōsuke swallowed heavily; the answer was clear in his mind. As absurd as his line of thoughts sounded to him, his gut feeling told him otherwise.

He has been thinking for the whole day since it was revealed to him that his Mi-chan was not as perfect as he thought…

He smiled when he first saw Ichinose Miki spotting a pair of cute geeky black frame spectacle sitting at the study corner the crew had set up for the young artistes, because his mind thought back to a certain missile girl in that one moment.

Kawaii! Mi-chan is just like Mirai-chan~

Yet he couldn’t help to take a double look at Ichinose Miki again when he experienced a strong sense of déjà vu as he approached the girl with Nakajima Yūto and Chinen Yūri.

The way Ichinose Miki frowned thoughtfully at the text in front of her and proceeded to read the text out softly to herself, is strangely familiar that the gears in his brain are turning wildly, trying to link that scene with a recent memory.

That memory hit him hard when Ichinose Miki closed her eyes to recite the text, word for word a second later.

Mi-chan is just like Mirai-chan~

His mind echoed his previous thought with an intensity which sounded so out of this world that he started to question his own sanity.

There is no way Ichinose Miki can be Shida Mirai. NOT A SNOWBALL CHANCE IN HELL.

Ichinose Miki is the cool, beautiful, confident and a rare acting genius who everyone loves, while Shida Mirai is the quiet, timid, friendless girl who nobody knows of. They could not be as more different than day and night.

Yamada Ryōsuke shifted uncomfortably in his seat. His grip on his textbook was so tight that his knuckles were turning white. There is only one thing he could do to prove his thought.

That one chance which he will either get a confession or lose it all.

Yamada Ryōsuke swallowed hard the second time.

They said that the third time is the charm, isn’t it?

The third surprise will be on her…

Breathing deeply, he ignored the strange looks the boys have been shooting him as he tried to gather his thoughts and courage at the same time.

He loosened his grips on the textbook and put a hand into his bag, searching for his most prized possession.

Got it~

He almost cried out as his fingers brushed against a smooth plastic surface.

That’s it…. Mi-chan…. Or Mirai-chan….

Yama-chan is up to something.

Yama-chan is up to something.

Yamada-san is up to something.

Pushing a familiar pink notebook towards Ichinose Miki, Yamada Ryōsuke summoned all his courage to say that one short sentence which would blow realities apart.

“I think I have something of yours, Shida Mirai-san.”

Kamiki Ryūnosuke paled quickly, losing his colors at a rate which should have frightened everyone, if it wasn’t for the shocking reveal by Yamada Ryōsuke.

“How…” Kamiki Ryūnosuke mumbled in shocked, “nobody knew… but me…”

“Shida-kun?”  Nakajima Yūto took a double look at Ichinose Miki and started to compare the two girls in his mind, “impossible…”

Only Chinen Yūri was strangely quiet as he looked on to observe the girl who was backed into a corner by his best friend’s confrontation.

It was as though Yamada Ryōsuke’s sentence burned her, as she flinched at his claim sharply and stared at him wordlessly.

The reality is closing in on her.

Ichinose Miki has lost her calm confident aura in that one second, replaced quickly by a panicked and fearful Shida Mirai.

The secret is out.

Shida Mirai lowered her eyes to stare at the very ground she was standing on as tears started to gather itself in her eyes.

They will hate me for pretending… 

Shida Mirai balled up her hands, waiting in fear for their shouts of disappointment to surround her. Anyone would have been disappointed to learn that their favorite actress is a nobody who pretended to be somebody prefect.

Unknowing to her as she consumed herself in her own shame, she was shaking violently right before the boys as her strong facade begun to crack.   

Suddenly her previous words made sense as pain struck their hearts.

'Why must people change? Why can’t things be the same as it was when we were younger? Why must I change too?'

Suddenly, it has all become clear to the young actors, Ichinose Miki was the perfect alter ego who everyone has demanded from Shida Mirai, the girl who has been thrown too quickly into the adult world at a young age.

“Miki’s best friend has always been Shida Mirai, never Ichinose Miki. I love that playful childish Mirai-chan who will fight with me over the silliest augments and beat me in arm wrestling each and every time.”

Kamiki Ryūnosuke stepped forward to pat the mentioned girl on the head and spoke in the gentle tone.

“The Mirai-chan who is so shy that she could barely meet anyone’s eyes but determined to be blind as a bat every time by not wearing her spectacle during every event, so that she can meet people even though she could never see them clearly. All because she could not bear to disappoint people with her camera-shyness and fear of attention.”

“The Mirai-chan I know, work harder than anyone I ever know, and I am proud to call her my best friend.”

“Hajimemae. Yamada Ryōsuke desu, I would like to be your friend, Mirai-chan.”

Yamada Ryōsuke walked in front of the girl to introduce himself with a wide smile as he made the long delayed first move which he had wanted to do so when he first met Shida Mirai in the library.

“Chinen Yūri desu, I will be your best study mate Mirai-chan, we can study together in the library anytime. I am just a call away! Finally I can get some studying done if I study with you instead of having tutored those two endlessly.” Chinen Yūri grinned at the girl while pretending to shake his head disappointedly at his two bandmates.

“Nani?!”  Nakajima Yūto glared at his friend, while pushing forward, “ignore those two fools, Mirai-chan. I will protect you from everyone in school. Afterall I am the class representative and the tallest in school!”

“Mirai-chan is mine!”

“I am her protector in school!”

“You two bakas, she would rather be with the smart one.”

Looking at the scene in front of her, Shida Mirai could not help but to think that it’s a daydream. She could not believe that anyone would like to befriend plain timid Shida Mirai at all. But they have made it all so easy to believe them as she watched them goof off and joked with one another.

It was a beginning. But a small smile found its way to her lips as she stood beside her childhood best friend Kamiki Ryūnosuke to watch the three Hey! Say! JUMP boys fighting to befriend her.

“Arigotou min-na.”

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Author's Note:

It has been sometimes... and I have no idea if anyone wants to read it... It's something I hope that people will enjoy.. It isn't much and my writing isn't the best around... Still I hope that you will leave me a note to let me know whether you like this chapter or not...