“Italicized” - Signed

“Regular” - Spoken

Italicized - Yō typing

- someone else typing

…

Yō’s POV:

It was starting to get dark outside when the results finally came in. We had placed seventh. That was… really good. Everyone was really excited about that. We had a lot of potential now. If other places saw that ranking, they might be more inclined to invite us to perform there. We might still have a chance to save our school.

The event managers came around to congratulate the top 10 groups. It was so surreal getting praised for it. We were finally getting somewhere. I'm really happy.

We all left the building shortly after. It was chilly outside. I guess winter is setting in. We didn’t really want to go back to the hotel yet. It was boring there. We decided to go and walk around the town for a while.

Eventually, we found our way down a backroad. Everyone was starting to shiver. It was getting colder as the sun went down. We stopped in front of a small cafe. Well, I’m guessing they’re discussing going inside to see what’s there. It would be nice to get out of the cold. Especially now that Chika has decided to cling to me as if I can warm her up very well.

Eventually they started heading inside. Looks like that is the final decision. Chika and I were the last to enter. It seems like a pretty homely place. I wonder if it gets much business? It seems kind of out of the way for a lot of people.

Someone came out of a back room. Oh… it’s Sarah. She works here? Now that I think about it, it looks like this also can be a house. So, she lives here and works here. Interesting. I hope she doesn’t mind us being here.

It doesn't seem like she does. We were all sat down at two tables. She let us order food too. At least she seems normal. I was kind of assuming she'd not want us around. After what occurred on stage, wouldn't she be a bit hesitant to be around others that saw the event?

But, then again we wouldn't be rude or anything. I'm sure there are some groups out there that would be, but we would never be one of them. Things happen that we can't control. I mean, it's not like we didn't go through something similar. Chika probably understands them the best now, after her accident on the stage.

I don't see Leah anywhere. I wonder where she got to? Maybe she's not ready to see us yet? I don't really know. That's the best I can guess for her. She has been pretty shy around us. It doesn't really surprise me she might not want to see us right now.

Maybe she feels embarrassed about what happened? It's pretty hard to recover from something like that when it's pretty close to the preliminaries for Love Live. They probably don't have enough time to make up for that mistake. It kinda sucks that it's so competitive sometimes.

After getting the food, Sarah stayed to talk with us. Chika was nice enough to translate what everyone was talking about for me. This is hard to even work with for communicating. I don't want to have to turn around every time someone wants to talk from the table next to us.

Sarah explained to us what had happened at the live show. After they had been given their changing room, some stuff went down. It seems Leah is scared of the fact Sarah will be graduating and they got into a slight argument. That caused them to not be in sync with each other on stage.

I can understand her worry. Leah would be alone. Sarah can't be a school idol once she graduates high school. It must be hard for her to accept that.

Thinking about that… what will we do when our third years graduate? Will we stop Aqours or will we go on without them? I don't like thinking about that. I don't like knowing things will change faster than any of us would like.

We will soon have to deal with that. Time has been going by really fast as of recent. Before long that day will be upon us and we'll have to discuss what happens next. Thankfully we don't need to deal with that until after Love Live. We still have a little bit of time left.

We hung out for a while longer, before heading out. The bus home would come early tomorrow. We better get some rest. Everyone was looking tired now.

We soon got back to the hotel. We all said goodnight and went to our rooms. It had been a long day. My body ached from everything. I'm glad we can finally rest up. It had been a really long day of doing stuff.

Chika climbed into the bed with me. She smiled at me. I kissed her cheek. Chika returned the kiss.

"Goodnight." I signed.

"Night. I love you." Chika replied.

"I love you too." I smiled and moved closer to her.

Getting to end the day with snuggling with Chika was a nice addition. Though, I wonder if Riko feels awkward being in the room with us? I don't think she should. It's not like we've made out in here. Then again, she had already walked in on us doing that. Maybe seeing us be lovey reminded her of that incident? Who knows. I should stop and go to bed.

…

When morning came, we all got ready to go to the bus stop. We were in the hotel lobby. There was a discussion going on between some of them. I had no idea what they were talking about. They were being secretive about it.

Eventually they stopped and we made our way out of the building. Though, when we went to head to the bus stop, the first years went the other way. I looked at Chika, hoping she had the answer.

"They wanted to stay here for a while. They didn't say why." Chika explained.

That's interesting. I wonder what they're up to?