The prep room backstage was cold, dusty, and dark; the lights overhead and around the mirrors were all switched off. No more acts were booked for the night, and without the usual din bleeding in from the stage out front, it was so completely silent you could hear the two of them breathe.

Tomori sat cross-legged on the floor, leaning back into Raana. Raana herself was propped up against the south wall, her arms casually wrapped around Tomori’s waist.

“T-thanks, Raana-chan,” Tomori whispered.

“Mm.”

“Um, f-for playing with me on stage again, and… for this, too.”

“…Mhm.”

“I… I needed… to calm myself down somehow. A-after being out there.”

Raana shifted slightly. “Mm,” she said.

Tomori closed her eyes. Her nerves were frayed; she could barely think straight. She was trying, as hard as she could, to control the rhythm of her breathing. In her head, she counted to three after every inhale, and after every exhale.

“You’re… surprisingly… um, soft, Raana-chan.”

“Thanks.”

Murmurs from the cleanup staff echoed past the hallway.

“I… I know I’m broken,” Tomori said, her eyes still shut. Her voice quivered. “I know. I know I’ll never… really understand how they feel. But I still… I still want to try. I want to… be in a band with them. I want to spend the rest of my life with them.”

A tear welled up at the corner of Tomori’s eye. Before it could roll down her cheek, though, it sank back inside her.

“Is that… is that wrong, Raana-chan?”

Raana said nothing; but her arms pressed down just a little harder into Tomori.

“R-Raana-chan…?”

“What’s it matter?”

“E-eh? What do you…”

“If it’s right or wrong. What’s it matter?”

Outside, the sound of footsteps crept closer to the door. The two of them tensed up, then relaxed once they faded into the distance.

“I-I… I don’t know. I just…”

Tomori finally opened her eyes. “I don’t feel like I deserve it. Any of it.”

“B-but I still can’t help… wanting it.” She looked up at the ceiling. “I… I think I’m… really selfish.”

Raana smiled. “True.”

“A-ah…”

“I like it.”

“You… you do?”

“Yeah,” Raana said. She raised her left and and brushed a stray hair from Tomori’s eyes. “People who only want what they’re allowed to have are… boring.”

“I-I wonder about that…”

More footsteps rang out outside. A door across the hallway creaked open and shut, and the murmuring resumed.

“What’s next?”

“I… I want to bring Taki-chan back, before anything else,” Tomori answered. “When… I got here tonight, as I was making my way to the stage… our eyes met. I… I was trying to avoid it, but I couldn’t.” She took a deep breath.

“It hurt to see her. And… somehow, I could tell s-she was hurting, too. I… I miss her.”

“I can do that,” Raana said.

“R-really?”

“Mhm. Easy.”

“Raana-chan… I… I don’t know what… to say.”

“…That’s okay,” Raana answered. “Just repaying the favor.”

“F-favor? What favor…?”

Raana closed her eyes and smiled.

“Don’t worry about it.”