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Take a deep breath. Look at her. Then, smile.
And that's enough to calm her nerves down.
There's absolutely no way she's ever going to tell her that. Nor hint her of that fact.
It's what you might call a ritual. The moment she feels nervous about the show that's about to start at any moment, just looking her way, and her smile, her laugh, relaxes her, like magic was cast upon her.
"Ibuki! What should I do?" Towa bounces on her standing position, looking over to their reliable leader and the other members as well.
Maybe it's just as the internet says, seeing someone more nervous than you helps in calming yourself down. However, it never really worked that way for her in the past. Until now that is. Maybe it really is a magic that's cast on her, and all because of her.
"We're all nervous, Towa", Ibuki answers, matter of factly, "Saki's hands are trembling, so are mine." She grips Saki's hand a little tighter, still trying to control the trembling.
"No, we're not." She pouts, puffing out her cheeks. "Look at Noa! She's the same as always!" She points an accusing finger at the blonde.
Noa is most definitely nervous. If anything, she's just good at not showing it. She turns away, slightly. Avoiding meeting eyes with the teal haired before the performance. She'd rather lock gazes with her during the high of the performance. If it happens then, she can pretend it was a spur of the moment thing and not whatever else.
"She's probably gone through this a lot of times already. She was a stage actor before after all." Ibuki answers for her, which was mostly the truth. And that's enough of the answer that should be thrown their way, no need to add the silly little ritual that only ever works for her, and nobody else.
There's always supposed to be a sure-fire way for each and every one to calm one self down. Of course they have to discover it themselves.
For Noa... It was pure chance and coincidence.
Noa knew, of course. She's quite a nervous wreck before a show, 'quite' might be putting it lightly, but it was really quite bad.
Trembling limbs, tunnel vision, and quick breaths.
Thanks to her costars, those things have never gotten as bad as the first time she was finally casted into a play. It just slowly became jitters, slight trembling of fingers, long deep breaths, and hyperfocusing on one thing, like the stage prop she's broken a couple of times during rehearsal, as she got used to it.
Still, she gets nervous. Plus, it's their first live as a DJ unit. What's there not to be nervous about? A new genre of performance, a different crowd, and most importantly, a new group of people to get along with. Well, the group has warmed up to each other quite well by this point, but it's only been about a month and a half which is quite long and not at the same time if we consider how fast the passage of time felt for them.
Noa's standing in a corner, putting a hand over her chest, trying her best to calm down her breathing, and to deal with the nervous jitters she has to deal with before shows, like she always did in the past. But then -
"OMG OMG OMG!"
A voice louder than expected to be heard in the backstage of an upcoming performance catches Noa's attention. It's a voice she's gotten quite familiar with. She couldn't help but laugh once she turns around and sees her face.
"My heart is pounding in my ear! Please make it stop!" She says with her hands on her ears. She looks at Noa almost tearing up, actually in disbelief at her for laughing at her current woes. "I can't believe you're actually laughing at a time like this, Noa. It's our first show, you know!"
Noa turns her back on Towa, a hand over her mouth, visibly trying her best to stiffle another laughing fit. She doesn't even know why she's laughing.
The next thing she hears is Towa calling for their manager as her voice fades away into another room, probably to tell on her for reacting like that or her harshness like usual. And finally she can get her breathing back to normal.
'She's honestly so cute.'
She blinks.
Wait.
She realizes she doesn't have her nervous jitters anymore. She looks at both her palms, to see if there's even a slight tremble to them, nothing. Her breathing seems normal and she can look at everything clearly, like most times.
But, her heart is pounding. She knows it's not the nervous, anxious kind, because it doesn't feel the same as it always did. Instead, it feels quite, no, really warm.
A smile forms on her lips.
Whatever the cause of this is, she's going to have to take a couple of trials and errors to determine the way her nervousness could settle down like this, this fast.
Naturally, she has to recheck right before showtime.
Saki has her head on Ibuki's back while muttering some words to herself. Ibuki is taking deep breaths as focus returns to her eyes. Towa is a mix of nervous and excited, hyping herself up bouncing on her feet. Noa's just looking at Towa and looks away immediately when the person in question turns her way, a smile making its way on Noa's lips.
Yeah, it's kind of a reflex from the start.
To smile after looking at her.
"What's your trick, Noa? Teach me please..." Towa still tries to probe the answer out of her with her puppy eyes.
"You know, that doesn't work on me, Towa." A lie. "Just take a deep breath and imagine the place that calms you the most. It's what I used to do."
Yet, she can't not answer her. It is their show that their going to have to do, and countless more after this day.
"Okay, I'll try that now." She takes a massive breath in and a slow breath out. Saki and Ibuki does the same.
It's actually quite a sight to see the three of them doing this calming exercise at the same time, leaning forward at the same time, exhaling at the same time, nice, quiet and peaceful. Noa nods to herself, 'yep, they're cute.'
"Girls," their manager moves to the side of the stage entrance, "it's showtime. Have fun out there."
"Of course!"