“Italicized” = Signed

“Regular” = Spoken

Italicized = Yō typing

= Someone else typing

…

Yō’s POV:

We had been working a lot to try and get ready for this competition. Before we knew it, it was upon us. We had just checked into the place. They wanted us to all arrive quite early for some reason. So, now we were just lazing about and waiting.

A certain two people came over to see us. Looks like Saint Snow was chosen for this event as well. They’re lucky that they got on the list already. At least, I’m assuming they weren’t also a backup group.

They were talking to the others. I was just awkwardly watching. This is the hardest part about all these competitions. None of the other groups know sign language. I can’t communicate with anyone else effectively. Using my phone takes a while and it deters most from wanting to talk to me. It sucks.

It seems like they’ll be hanging out with us for a while. They both sat down with us. Sarah was talking with Chika. It looks like Leah’s ended up talking to the first years.

I don’t know what to do. It feels a little awkward. Everyone else was occupied with other people. I was all alone. No one seems to want to talk to me right now. I still wonder if they really like that I’m here with them.

Chika tapped me on the shoulder. I looked at her. What does she want? Chika nodded to Sarah. I’m guessing she wants to talk to me then.

“How are you doing?”

I was frozen in shock. She… she had signed… That meant she’s been learning. But why? Why is she bothering? It’s not like we’d even see each other much. But, it made me feel happy. She was trying to communicate better with me.

“I’m alright. You’ve been learning to sign?” I still couldn’t really believe this was happening. It felt like a dream. No one outside of Aqours has ever signed to me before.

Sarah nodded, “I figured we would meet again so it might be a good idea to learn sign language.”

It’s so strange. I don’t know how to react. I’ve never considered this happening before. I don’t know what to respond with. I want to tell her I’m really happy she’d do that, but I don’t know how to phrase it. I’m worried I’ll mess this up and sign something that she takes the wrong way.

“But why bother? No one else makes any effort to do it.”

Chika pouted at me now, “You should stop thinking about the negatives! Think about the positive stuff.”

“Half the time you guys don’t sign unless you’re talking to me or as a group. Why shouldn’t I think negatively?” I shot back. This probably wasn’t the right time to argue about it, though.

Chika frowned, “Why didn’t you mention it sooner then? We could’ve easily fixed that.”

“Why should I have had to? I expected I’d get included already.” I shot back again, a bit more aggressively than I want to admit.

Sarah interrupted our fight, “Calm down. This isn’t something that needs fighting to solve. Talking it out… calmly… is better.”

She hesitated when signing ‘calmly’. I guess there’s some words she wishes she knew. It’s to be expected. She probably learned it all online. Not like the others didn’t mainly do that either.

I stood up, “I’m going to take a walk.”

I didn’t wait for a reply and walked out of the room. I need to cool off. I… guess I might’ve gotten a little too worked up back there. But, I don’t think you can blame me. It’s really frustrating to have to constantly remind them to include me. Maybe this group would be better without me.

What am I saying. They’ve always tried to be really supportive. They haven’t done anything malicious to me. Everything was done accidentally. At least, I hope it all was. They don’t seem like they don’t want me in the group. I’m just overthinking things again. Seems to be something I’m really good at.

Well, I should probably head back to them. I don’t want them to get worried about me at all. Whenever I make them worried it doesn’t seem to ever end very well. I should avoid it.

So, I made my way back to the room. No one else seemed to have even noticed me leaving. Or maybe they didn’t care that much. Chika was staring at me now. I made my way back over.

“I’m sorry, Yō. I really am. I’ll tell everyone and we’ll make things better, okay?” Chika signed.

She’s blaming herself for this. It wouldn’t be the first time. It’s not her fault. It’s honestly mine for not speaking up sooner. I just silently accepted it and let the feeling fester for too long. I’m at fault completely here.

“It’s okay. It’s my fault for not addressing it sooner.” I replied.

She was about to reply but stopped. Oh, one of the staff came into the room. They’re talking to everyone here. Are we getting assigned our rooms? I’m guessing that’s what it is. Or, maybe they’re just welcoming everyone to the event. I can’t tell.

Once they finished I looked back at Chika. She has to interpret what they just told everyone for me.

“They’re starting to assign rooms. They are calling groups to follow them. We just have to wait until they say our name.” Chika explained to me.

I see. There are quite a few groups here. They have it pretty packed. It’s nice to have more space now that less people are in the room. I wonder how long it’ll be until we get called.

Until then, we talked. Sarah was trying to keep up, but it was obvious it was very much a struggle for her. I was doing my best to go slower and use more basic signs, but there was only so much I could do. It also doesn’t help that I learn more emotional based signs while they’re learning from structure. It makes it a bit hard for them to always understand what I’m telling them.

It took a while, but Saint Snow was called. Sarah left to meet back up with Leah and they left. I hope Aqours gets called soon. I’m kind of ready to get this moving now. We’ve been here for a while doing nothing. I just want to get up and moving again.

Thankfully, the next time a staff member came in, we got to follow them. We were led to a changing room. The bags with our costumes in them were opened up and we started getting dressed. I don’t think any of us are sure how much time in advance they’ll call us for our act.

Riko came over to join me and Chika. We were helping each other get our outfits on. It wouldn’t be impossible to do it all ourselves, but it’s definitely easier having someone else help with a few spots. Especially the back. Straightening the outfits out after putting them on is harder than it looks. Especially when they’re in bags for most of the day.

“Are you nervous?” Riko asked, though it seemed to be directed more toward Chika.

Chika shrugged. I’m pretty sure all of us here are nervous. This is the biggest event we’ve done yet. It’s only natural we would be. This could really make or break us. We need to do well. This could be our only chance to save our school.

“There are a lot of really popular groups here. It’s kind of intimidating.” I signed.

“Yeah… it feels like we don’t really belong next to them yet.” Riko agreed.

“Do you think they like us? I know at the start a lot of groups already didn’t like us for being accessible. And now with Yō I honestly think we might have more enemies than friends here.” Chika told us.

Right… it isn’t only regular fans of idols that didn’t like Aqours. Other groups also hated on them for being different. I wonder if that’s changed at all. I’ve noticed we haven’t gotten as many rude messages that I’ve seen. It seems people are finally leaving us alone. Maybe the other groups actually have respect for us now?

“It did seem like none of the other groups would even look at us.” Riko signed.

Really? I wasn’t paying attention to the other groups. I didn’t really care that much about them. They weren’t seeming to be interested in us? Or did they seem to be purposefully avoiding us? I’m not sure if we’ll get that answer or not.

“Maybe after we perform they’ll see that we’re just as good as they are.” Chika was hopeful.

“It’ll take more than just one performance to change their views.” I pointed out.

People didn’t change very easily. Just one piece of evidence wouldn’t be enough. We’d have to do a lot more. And they’d be more prone to looking down on us at the slightest mess up.

“I guess you have a point.” Chika agreed, “So then we have to get into Love Live and show them just who we are!”

I couldn’t help but smile slightly. Her attitude is kind of relieving at times. Having her always trying to cheer everyone up and look on the positive side was helpful. I honestly don’t know if the group would be the same without that part of her.

“Hopefully.”

…

Half-an-hour later, we were finally on. Our dance went off without any issues. I think we did really well. The audience seemed to really like us. The penlights were definitely plentiful at this concert. I hope that means we did a good job.

We met back at the changing room. There were still quite a few more performances to go. After we changed back into our regular outfits we went to watch the others perform. I still feel like we aren’t as skilled as the other groups here. But, maybe we can make up for it with our energy?

I’m pretty good at facial expressions. These other performers don’t seem to be that enthusiastic. They seem more mature and honestly stuck up. Like they knew they would make it and it wasn’t a big deal. I don’t like people like that.

Saint Snow took the stage. They still have that more mature look, but they do have more excitement to them. I don’t mind them. I actually quite like them.

But, unfortunately this performance didn’t go well for them. Only a little ways in, they messed up. It ended with them tripping over each other. Yikes. That wasn’t good. Though, they don’t seem hurt. That’s at least a good thing.

The lights turned off on the stage. Yeah, you don’t get a second chance at these things. Unfortunately. It would be nice if they were a bit more lenient. Things happen after all.

“I wonder what happened?” Chika signed.

Yeah. They… don’t seem like the type to just mess up like that. And I did kind of pick up on some kind of stress. I don’t know what they were stressing about, but I don’t think it was about the dance.

“Maybe we could go talk to them?” Kanan suggested.

“I don’t see why not.”

“Yeah. Why don’t we go see them?”

It seems like everyone was in agreement. But, when we arrived, they were already gone. All their stuff was gone from the room. Another group walking by informed up they had left already. I wonder what’s up with them. It seems a bit weird for that to upset them so much.

I wonder if we’ll find out.