Stalking

Miku Takasawa

Six Days before Love & Partie Grand Debut

I didn’t plan to follow her. I just… couldn’t help myself. After class, I slipped on the wig I bought from a local cosplay store, a straight brown cut, and hid behind black glasses. 

Chisa’s after-school routine was perfect. She went to the gym, stayed for about an hour, then met Ryu at a café near Meiji Street. They sat by the window, laughing like nothing in the world had ever gone wrong.

I watched from the corner, pretending to scroll through my phone, pretending the bitterness in my mouth was coffee and not bile. She touched his hand once. He didn’t pull away. Despite all of that, Ryu's expression looked quite sad. I could imagine he was still shocked. I'm trying to hold my urge to go to him. It's...pretty harsh...But I need to do this to know the truth. Ryu left Chisa in that cafe after a few minutes.

After they parted, she called someone right away; her tone was cold, her expression sharper than I’d ever seen it. The mask slipped for three seconds. Three seconds was all I needed.

I’m not imagining it anymore. My instinct has never betrayed me before.

She’s hiding something.

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Five Days before Love & Partie Grand Debut

Today I followed her again, but she changed her route. Took a different subway line, stopped at a convenience store near Ebisu, and stayed inside longer than necessary. I almost lost her in the crowd, but then she reappeared with a sweater, hood up, mask on, like a shadow trying to blend with her own fame.

What? Bitch didn’t go to the gym tonight? She went somewhere else. I followed her through Minato Ward to Roppongi District. She went inside a modest building with tinted windows.
I stayed outside, pretending to look at my phone, and caught a glimpse of a sign: 

Stellar Entertainment: Practice Studio B.

So this is where idols are born. She stayed inside for two hours. When she came out, her hair was damp, and her eyes looked tired from exhaustion. I guess she rehearses her dance practice inside that building. 

It’s strange. The more I watch her, the more human she looks.
And I hate that. It would have been easier if she were an active evil incarnate.  And it's already past midnight now. I decided to stop following her since she stayed there until midnight.

Four Days before Love & Partie Grand Debut

It’s getting harder to hide. That bitch almost recognized me today near the station. I ducked behind a pillar and waited until she passed. My heart was beating too fast; the disguise barely works anymore. But I can’t stop.

Chisa spent the afternoon at her agency again, then went straight to an apartment. I couldn't really tell if that apartment is hers or not. I know that she's quite wealthy and her father used to bring her ass overseas, as she said to me earlier, but like, why would she choose to live in an apartment? I followed from across the street; that apartment is in the Ginza district. Her apartment lights turned on around seven. Curtains drawn, no movement.

Then, around eight, she opened the balcony door. And for the first time, I saw her without the idol act.  She just stood there in her pajamas, hair messy, looking up at the sky. Was she talking to someone? She smiled faintly, but it wasn’t a performance. It was lonely and....quite sad.

Why does that make me so angry? I don’t want to feel sorry for her. I want to prove she’s guilty.  But now, I wondered—what if she’s not Misa in the first place?
What if I've been wrong all this time?

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Three Days before Love & Partie Grand Debut

After school, I followed her again. She didn’t go to the gym or agency. Instead, she met someone at a fancy restaurant in Shinjuku. Honestly, I can't really think of why these people can speak in such low voices. Like what the fuck? 

I assume that man is her manager. He seemed to have that vibe, and my eavesdropping skills even caught some of his words, such as debut date, other Love & Panties member, and such. But then, I'm intrigued when he said “Damage control.” That’s the thing you say when there’s something gone wrong. My fingers were shaking when I wrote it down.

The manager handed Chisa a shopping bag. At first, I thought it was something suspicious, but the manager seemed pleased and she opened it right away. It was a..... plastic model? Is that one of the things she's into? I...didn't expect she would love robots. Now I'm starting to feel like I'm looking at someone else's diary without saying anything.

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Two days before Love & Partie Grand Debut

I couldn’t sleep for the last two days. The image of that butterfly tattoo still flashes inside my mind, glowing red in the dark. But when I saw her undressed in the locker room, she didn't seem to have anything that resembled a butterfly. Her skin was like a fucking porcelain doll. 

I’m not crazy, right? 

Right???

I just need to prove it once...

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One day before Love & Partie Grand Debut

The studio smelled of hairspray, foundation, and fresh vinyl. The stage lights blinked on and off in rhythm, painting the empty theater in pale lilac, gold, and white. Technicians shouted adjustments from the pit, idols fluttered back and forth with bottled water and smiles.

I shouldn’t have been here. But I had to see it with my own eyes.

The last rehearsal before Chisa’s debut concert. Everyone in Love & Partie was buzzing, hugging, squealing, and wishing luck. And there she was, standing in the center, just right in the spotlight, Chisa Nagahara. Her ponytail bounced as she practiced the routine, her body gliding through the choreography like it had always belonged to her.

I watched from behind the curtain, dressed in a plain hoodie and cap, half-hidden by the black backdrop. My heart thumped so loud it almost drowned out the music.

Every step, every spin, every note she sang reminds me of...her. Ugh. No. I don't want to remember it anymore. I was...lost in the moment. Almost forgot why I came here. Until the lights changed.

The director shouted something about “testing the UV filters for the finale.” The house lights dimmed, and the overhead beams shifted into a pink hue, the kind that makes white glow like ghosts. The whole stage shimmered.

And that’s when I saw it. On her right chest, just above her heart, something glowed — faint at first, then sharper under the ultraviolet flood.
A butterfly.
Crimson, delicate, and undeniable.

Exactly like the one from Blue Moon’s CCTV.  

My breath caught. 

It was her.....I was goddamn right! 

I remembered the thing she said earlier in the locker room last week.

“Some things can only be shown under the right light, Miku-chan.”

And then, it hit me, the lights in the Blue Moon VIP room weren’t normal.
Blacklight. Everything that glowed looked alive.
The butterfly wasn’t there in the first place because of normal light....

It's supposed to be invisible.

It can only be seen under the blacklight. 

Just like her, an idol outside, a bitch inside.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

“You're such a clever little whore, Chisa,” I whispered.

The realization hit me like a jolt of electricity. Every smile, every word she’d said to me in that locker room, it all made sense now.

She knew I would find out soon.

She dropped the hint back then while mocking me in front of my face.

I wanted to laugh. To run onstage and rip her costume open so everyone could see what her naked heart actually looked like. Because now I had real proof. The girl everyone loved, the one who smiled so sweetly at the camera, was the same woman who ruined my relationship with Ryu. And in less than twenty-four hours, she’d step into the spotlight. 

I waited for the lights to dim again, for the noise to die down. But the longer I stayed, the more people filled the studio, choreographers, sound engineers, stylists, all rushing around in a blur of voices and footsteps.

I couldn’t move. Not yet.
If I stepped out too soon, someone would see me.
So I stood behind the curtains, watching her laugh with the others, a towel draped over her shoulders, her face glowing with the kind of light that wasn’t just from the stage.

Minutes stretched into half an hour. Ugh. My legs ached from standing! When will this bitch go home and call it a day? 

When the hall finally began to empty, I thought this was my chance to leave this fucking place.

I pulled my cap low, adjusted my mask, and slipped out from behind the curtain, keeping close to the wall. My sneakers barely made a sound against the floor. Just a few more steps, and I’d be out. But as I turned the corner toward the exit, a pair of shoes stepped into view.

White sneakers. Pink laces.

My body froze. Slowly, my gaze lifted, and there she was.
Chisa. Still in her stage outfit, hair damp from rehearsal. Her crimson eyes met mine. Neither of us moved.

I forced a weak smile and kept walking, pretending not to notice her.
My heart was hammering so hard it made the world blur. I could almost reach the door.

Suddenly, her fingers curled around my wrist, holding me. My eyes instinctively stared at her. I could see those crimson pairs glinting as she spoke:

“Where are you going....Miku-chan?”