Chapter Text
Tsukasa slid his chair back from his desk and stood up with a small sigh. At last, the long, monotonous school day had ended and he could finally be free to spend time with his friends! All he wanted right now was to go to the wonder stage and simply have fun with his troupe- he hadn't felt great the whole day, for reasons he couldn't quite put his finger on.
Before he could collect his thoughts, he heard a sudden sound spoken into his right ear.
"Hello, Tsukasa-kun! "
"GAH-"
Stumbling back with a screech, he turned to see the tall figure and cat-like grin of Rui smirking back at him slyly.
"RUI!! YOU ALMOST GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK! "
"Fufu~ I only greeted you Tsukasa-kun.. What's all this commotion about?"
"Ugh- WHY DID YOU SAY IT RIGHT IN MY EAR THOUGH"
Rui chuckled, his eyes glistening with the same mischievous glint they got whenever he was up to no good.
"Just wanted to make sure you heard me!"
"Grh..I'm not deaf Rui!"
With a couple of sideways glances from their fellow classmates, the pair made their way out of the classroom with their usual banter and off towards the wonder stage.
Tsukasa was enjoying the normalcy of it all, it distracted him from the strange feeling which had prevailed in his mind for the last couple of days.
Despite nothing much changing in his life that he was aware of, Tsukasa had felt oddly anxious and fatigued while going about his day. It was frustrating. More than anything else, Tsukasa wanted to work on his next show and have fun with his friends. Was he overworking himself? Was it just the stress of the upcoming exams?
Why did he feel so..?
Tsukasa blinked and observed his surroundings. They had made it to the wonder stage! He smiled softly. Maybe he would feel better with this distraction.
‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙
"WOWOWOW!! You guys, that rehearsal was so WONDERHOY!☆ Everyone was so sparkly the whole time!!"
Emu shook Nene's shoulders back and forth with some kind of ungodly strength the others didn't know she possessed, followed by Nene's fruitless attempts to rid her of the smiling girl.
"Ack- Emu, get off!" She batted Emu away with flailing hand. "I guess that was a pretty good run through though". Nene smiled, not quite as extravagantly as Emu but still with a soft pride for herself and her troupe.
"Fufu! I must agree, that did go a lot better than our last run through. Nene, your singing really has improved, and Emu you seemed to be able to remember all your lines this time! What did you think Tsukasa-kun? I thought you worked really.. "
Turning to look at the boy, he seemed to be lost in thought. A blank expression was spread across his face, permeated only by his slightly furrowed brow as he seemingly studied his shoes intently.
".. Tsukasa-kun? "
Jerking his head up, Tsukasa's eyes flew from person to person bewilderedly before settling on Rui.
"Huh? Oh- um, yeah I thought it went amazing aswell! As a future star, I can say that you were all incredible, and of course I myself shone as brightly as physically possible throughout!"
With a lopsided grin, he struck another one of his signature poses and let out a booming laugh.
"Here he goes again.." Nene muttered with a deep roll of her eyes, causing Emu to giggle.
Rui studied the blonde with a slightly concerned look before shaking his head and putting on a crooked smile.
"Well it's good to see that our star thought it went well. You worked very hard today, Tsukasa-kun". His eyes twinkled.
Tsukasa smiled, and followed the rest of his troupe as they all packed up their things and began to head back home for the evening.
In reality, his statement was only half true. While he did feel that his friends' performances were incredible as always, he couldn't quite say the same for himself. Did Rui not notice the way he stuttered over some of his lines, even sometimes requiring a prompt from the director? Tsukasa thought he was the observant type..
Slinging his bag over his shoulder, Tsukasa bid his dramatic farewells to the rest of his troupe, earning a chuckle from Rui and an exasperated sigh from Nene, dragging Emu's waving form away by her jacket.
Maybe Rui just wanted to make him feel better about himself? Perhaps he noticed the abnormal silence on the journey to the wonder stage or Tsukasa spacing out, enraptured by his own thoughts.
Tsukasa sighed. He knew he could do better, so why didn't Rui just say something if he thought he could improve his performance? Tsukasa knew he wasn't a bad actor, he knew that! But recently his head had felt oddly fuzzy when he was on stage, and he seemed to be more enveloped in the strange twisting pit in his stomach than what really mattered in the real world.
The star rubbed his eyes with a groan, pushing his bangs out of his eyes. Today was so exhausting. For some reason his mind was still searching over his performance, picking out all the times he stuttered or forgot a step in a dance routine.
Maybe he should work on his performance instead of going straight to bed..
As he arrived at the his home, he took his shoes off at the door and began to head upstairs to his bedroom.
"Oh! Hey onii-chan! Did you have rehearsal today? "
Looking up, Tsukasa caught sight of Saki sticking her head round from the sofa with a smile. She seemed to be watching some kind of film, there was a mug of hot chocolate on the coffee table and some people appeared to be on FaceTime with her.
Tsukasa returned the grin. "Oh, Saki! Yes, I was with wondershow, we're working on our latest performance. How are you? "
"I'm good, do you wanna join me? I'm watching this anime with the girls!"
"Hey Tsukasa!", garbled voices emitting from the phone.
Tsukasa looked up at the TV. It seemed to be showing a slice of life story with a pink haired teen and his friends, though he didn't seem too happy with their company. 𝘖𝘥𝘥, Tsukasa thought with a smile.
"Err, I appreciate the offer but I really need to be working on this scene from today. Enjoy it with your friends!"
Saki pulled her face into an exaggerated frown. "Aww... Come on, onii-chan! How could you abandon me like this!! "
The two siblings chucked and fake argued for a couple more minutes before Tsukasa ascended to him room, flinging his bag onto his desk chair and flopping onto his bed.
The boy let out another groan as he stared up onto the glow in the dark stars on his otherwise bare ceiling. He still felt like shit. Why? He didn't quite know. Perhaps it was his lackluster performance in today's practice, although that may only be part of the problem. This twisting empty feeling had been churning in is stomach for the past few days.
He was getting tired of it.
"Gragh.. How do I make this stop, dammit", Tsukasa muttered to himself before turning over and burying his head in his pillow.
He just didn't know.