WORD COUNT: 0.8k // SUMMARY: Sinister ends their promotions for Deconsecrated for the time being. // ERA: Deconsecrated
“Fucking finally,“ Max gasped, collapsing into her chair, and took a quick gulp of water. “This is the last of it, right?“
Konoe opened his mouth, and that was when Natsuko decided that it was time to leave. She didn’t leave immediately, of course; there was still makeup to remove, and a few cute little clips to be spliced into a video that would be going up on their YouTube channel. Once Susie and Max had hogged the camera, though, Natsuko brushed herself down, muttered that she’d be going to the bathroom, and escaped out into the breezy auditorium.
This particular music show maintained a holding area for rookie idols, with more established idols monopolizing individual waiting rooms. The partitions weren’t very thick at all, but they looked very solid. The whole place was buzzing with activity, and a lost-looking idol wandering around would be picked up almost immediately.
Which was exactly what happened.
Natsuko turned around, slapping an appropriately confused expression onto her face, and nodded. “I’m looking for the bathroom.“
“Oh, I’m going there too. Here, I’ll show you there.“
Her new friend was very reserved, but Natsuko had experience with such people, and it wasn’t long before she managed to convince Sooyeon to open up a little, having taken advantage of the fact that they both spoke English to worm her way a little deeper into the other girl’s confidence.
“You’re from Sinister, right?“
“Yeah,“ Natsuko said, brushing a stray piece of glitter off her cheeks, and grabbed a paper towel for herself. “Say, your performance is over, right? Do you want to come over and say hi?“
“Oh, I don’t know. My schedule…”
“Come on,“ Natsuko wheedled. “It’ll just be a few minutes.“
Sooyeon hesitated, but Natsuko could be very convincing when the situation called for it, and once they were trooping in the direction of their partition, Natsuko fished her phone out of her pocket and gave Konoe a quick heads-up. She shouldn’t have bothered, though, because they were soon waylaid by one of Sooyeon’s colleagues.
“Sooyeon!“ someone called, and Natsuko turned to see a boy approaching the both of them. “Hi!“
Sooyeon paused. “Oh, Bolin! I loved your performance.“
“Oh, of course you did,“ the other boy crowed, injecting a dash of playfulness into his tone to soften the blow, and followed up that enlightening little comment with a compliment. “Your performance was nice, too.“ He turned to Natsuko. “And you’re - you’re from, uh, Sinners, aren’t you?“
“Sinister,“ Natsuko amended, smiling tightly.
“This is Bolin,“ Sooyeon interjected. “He’s from Pastel.“
“Oh, Pastel,“ Natsuko gasped, nodding sagely. “Nice to meet you.“
Bolin squinted. “Yeah, you too.“
“I’m just going to say hi to the rest of Sinister,” Sooyeon said. “No need to report on me or anything, yeah?“
Bolin placed a hand over his heart and adopted an exaggeratedly betrayed expression. “I’m shocked that you’d have such a low opinion of me, Sooyeon.” A pause. “I’ll see you two around, okay?“
Natsuko watched as he disappeared into the crowd. It probably wouldn’t have been appropriate for him to come along, anyway, she thought, and guided Sooyeon through the maze of partitions until they were stepping into the one occupied by Sinister. They’d done a good job of keeping things in check (not that they hadn’t been behaving themselves before, of course); Iseul wasn’t dangling from the ceiling, Chiemi wasn’t toying with her knife, and - most importantly of all - Max didn’t look like she was up to anything at all.
Which is why, when Sooyeon shook Max’s hand and jerked, Natsuko cursed in the blessed privacy of her mind and rolled her eyes. “Static electricity,“ she explained, as a shit-eating grin spread across Max’s face. “She’s prone to this sort of thing.“
“Sorry,“ Max said, not sounding sorry at all.
Woolen socks, Natsuko mouthed, as Sooyeon made polite conversation with Olivia. Woolen socks for a month!
Max stuck out her tongue.
That was what it took to keep her in check. Natsuko knew how to deal with people like Max, after all; if they were forced to discipline themselves for any amount of time, things would come to a head eventually, and then there would be hell to pay. If Max could blow off steam from time to time - push against but not utterly demolish the boundaries that they had set - then there wouldn’t be any major incidents. It was still a delicate situation, to be sure, but it wasn’t like Natsuko had been able to come up with a better solution.
She’ll prove her usefulness soon, anyway.
As she brought Sooyeon to the door and pressed a packet of crackers into her hands over her polite protests, Natsuko smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, Sooyeon.“
The door shut, and Natsuko exhaled.
Not a bad start, I suppose.
Promise and Pastel are from @vulkan-ent. Check them out!
