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Ishida Ayumi was a perfectionist. Being perfect meant that there was no one better than you and that was something the highly competitive girl prized. She felt this need to be number one even when it came to sending her fellow 10th generation member a birthday message. Well, it would be the very first one she sent Kuduu so she felt justified to be taking it so seriously. Sitting there with her cellphone in her lap with an alarm reminder set for 11:57PM, 3 minutes before midnight just in case, she was a study in seriousness. There would be no dozing off, no letting it slip her mind because she decided to watch some TV to pass the time (like Doraemon), no, there would be none of that.
She would be first. People always remembered their first, right? She had Kuduu’s birthday message all written out and was just waiting to press ‘SEND’.
Okay, so she did become just a little distracted by the TV—Doraemon was a surprisingly deep show, and waiting was hard because staring at the digital time display of her phone only seemed to make time pass by slower. Still, a jolt of cold panic ran through her when she realised she had unconsciously silenced her phone while watching television and she fumbled for her cellphone. The message was still sent on time. At exactly 00:00AM, she would note with pride. It seemed like fate had been on her side...
Or that was what she had thought until the next day... when they arrived for some final preparations before the day’s concert. Ayumi had arrived at location, wanting immediately to bask in the gloriousness that it was to be a winner. Hah, Maachan had probably fallen asleep and only sent her message this morning. To her shock that husky laugh of Kuduu’s was what she’d gotten, along with being informed that well, actually, Kanon had been the first one to wish Haruka a happy birthday. Harunan then chimed in that she’d sent hers only 7 minutes past midnight. At least Ayumi had beaten her, it was a small consolation.
To add insult to injury, Maachan had pounced on Kuduu at that point, wishing her an exuberant happy birthday while stating that a text couldn’t possibly convey such feelings. What was that supposed to mean! Was she trying to sound cool or something?
Before Ayumi could explode as she was prone to do around poor Maachan, the door opened to reveal the 9kies. As the time of the concert drew close, Sayumi and Reina also arrived along with Sakura in tow so Ayumi was not able to garner any time to talk to Kuduu alone. To the side in a paper shopping bag was the present she’d bought, still wrapped. While other members had handed Kuduu her present or already promised to do so later, she was somehow embarrassed to present her gift in front of the others.
After the conclusion of the concert, Ayumi somehow managed to get the Kuduu alone in one of the hall waiting rooms where she finally presented her gift. It was a woolen hat with bear ears and two beads for eyes. Ayumi guiltily admitted to herself and only in her heart of hearts, that this was a little bit of a gift for herself too... she really wanted to see Duu in this hat and she hadn’t wanted to share the first glimpse with the other members.
When the gift was revealed and there was a split second wherein Ayumi panicked and questioned her choice in a flurry of ‘what if she doesn’t like it’, ‘what if she hates it’ and ‘what if it’s too girly or too cute, ahhhhh’s. Panic over nothing, it turned out, as Kuduu immediately pulled it on and looked for the nearest reflective surface to see how it looked. After having peered at herself in a handily placed makeup mirror, she turned to Ayumi with a grin. “Kawaii desho?”
That smug face should have been annoying but combined with the genuine pleased look and fuzzy hat that also seemed to be looking at her quite imploringly, it was hard to feel much more than mild irritation that was overcome by vindication of her own choice. She knew that hat would be perfect.
However, unable to be honest, Ayumi rolled her eyes and scoffed, “Yeah yeah. You have a lot of hats right?” The younger girl really did have a lot of hats. She had more than enough of them to wear a different one every day of the week with some to spare.
“Nn, but since this one is from Daishi, I’ll make sure to wear it a lot.”
How was it that Kuduu could say things so off-handedly like that but still make Ayumi’s heartbeat quicken? The honest truth was that she liked the younger girl. Liked liked. It was embarrassing and it had been an internal struggle to accept it herself. Kuduu was 3 years younger than her, still a middle schooler. She and Maachan continued to have petty kid fights all the time and ran around the hallways and dressing rooms acting like little maniacs.
But Ayumi knew too that Kuduu could be very mature when the occasion called for it and was more well-spoken than many beyond her age. She was also tall and could look incredibly cool... ah, it was really embarrassing after all!
“Daishi, are you alright?” Kuduu had stepped away from the mirror to make her way over while Ayumi had been distracted and her voice broke her out of her reverie and Ayumi knew she was blushing and ducked her head a bit, hoping to hide it at least some.
“Ah yes, I’m fine.” She peeked at Duu from beneath her lashes. “...Ph-photo! I should take one for the blog.” Taking the photos would give her something to focus on and Kuduu smiled gamely into the pointed camera lens.
After getting a few snapshots she was satisfied with and saving them to choose from later, Ayumi paused in consideration before speaking.
“Let’s take one together.” She scooted over to Kuduu and stretched out to hold her phone at arm’s length. If there was one skill that was essential to be an idol it was being able to self-take pictures and it was a skill that Ayumi excelled at. As she was about to snap the picture, she felt an arm wrap itself around her shoulder.
The artificial camera shutter sound indicated that the photo had been snapped.
“Nahaha... Daishi’s face is really red in this.” The younger girl pointed out in the preview that appeared.
“A-and whose fault is that?”
Kuduu only laughed some more in that husky voice of hers and Ayumi moved to pull away in her usual huff when the arm that was resting lightly on her shoulder moved to pull her into a gentle hug.
“Thanks for the gift, Ayumin.”