Luka was the star of the show.
Always. Every time there was a stage hosted, every time a voice rang out on that platform, it was Luka. Always Luka; she was bound to be there, bound to be present at least in one corner of shady part of the stage.
It wasn’t just because of her looks. It was also because of her voice, which blessed the ears of so many it reached in the auditorium. The school council had collectively decided that Luka was to always voice any show or song that was to be held onstage, no matter what.
Christmas carols. Rock trebles. Jazz synths.
Whatever it was, Luka would always sing. The other students didn’t quite notice how much of a toll it took on the lone student, to take so much on her shoulders just because she looked appeasing to the eye & so was her voice.
Only, one student did.
Meiko.
She noticed everything about Luka. Every tiny falter onstage, every small stumble. She didn’t criticise it. She only accepted it, as Luka was just as human as she was, after all.
Meiko wasn’t anything special. Being a brunette with eyes of the same hue, she wasn’t anything pretty to look at, really. Her voice wasn’t anything sought after, either. She couldn’t ever hope to reach the high octaves that Luka could manage with menial effort.
However, this only meant that Meiko had all the time on her hands to study her fellow colleagues. Aside from her schoolwork, she also worked on her classmates, studying their precise weaknesses & strengths, just because it was fun. She wasn’t really friends with anyone due to this, despite her claims of this being her research for her future psychology master’s. They all just called her an “overanalysing creep”.
But not Luka.
Luka was more of the quiet sort. Whenever she wasn’t on a stage, she was always so quiet & reserved, & even sometimes snappy. Though, Meiko understood why Luka seemed so irritable offstage; the students always clamoured Luka & gave her no break at all, especially when Luka was trying to study.
Meiko couldn’t do much more other than sit back & watch, head rested on her hand, as Luka was swarmed by students day by day. She soon realised that she wouldn’t ever like that sort of publicity, & due to that, fell to the conclusion that Luka didn’t, either.
Of course she didn’t. Every time Luka was up on that stage, she looked like she was hiding agony beneath her stage-set smile. Every jump & movement hid hours of continuous & strenuous training, which should’ve been used to study instead. Meiko felt bad.
Very bad.
Still, it wasn’t like she could do anything about it. Luka was on Mount Fuji in comparison to Meiko in levels of popularity. However, she could only hope, & cling to hope.
One late afternoon, Meiko was in her dorm. She shared one with a few other students, Rin & her brother, yet they were currently out running some errands, getting some ramen or something. Meiko was on her own, so, with the dorm door open, she switched on to a Luka song on the college-provided radio, & began to dance along to the music in the solidity of her empty dorm room.
The door was still open.
Maybe, just maybe—the very troubled soul that Meiko had been hoping to console would stumble upon this show?