Practice

Riku knew he wasn't a perfect idol. He wasn't terrible at his job, but he still knew there were things he wasn't so good at.

The same thing applied to acting. He wasn't the worst actor in the world, but he was still miles away from being as good as Yamato.

And that was why he had started to practice his acting more for a few weeks. And he had wanted to show someone his improvements.

However, he wanted someone who would be sincere with him. He had a feeling that he would get a little too much sugar coating from the other members of Idolish7. And there was only one other person who he could think of to help him.

Tenn wasn't afraid of being honest with him. He could be very brutally honest, sure, but Riku still thought he would be a lot more forward than the others.

He had brought Tenn to his room so he could show him how his practicing had been going. He acted out a pretty short confession scene from a romance movie, gesturing to Tenn as if he had been playing the character he was confessing to.

Most of his attention was on trying to act as best as he could, but he did still notice a few things about Tenn's reactions. He seemed… Nervous. One of his hands had trembled for a moment before he had hidden them in his pockets, so Riku didn't have much time to see them. But he had caught a hint of pink on Tenn's cheeks… Riku was scared he might have been uncomfortable, so he tried not to get too close to him.

Once he had finished, he just looked at Tenn, waiting for his judgement.

Tenn eventually sighed. "You're better than before, but you definitely still need to work on some things."

"So you liked it? Even if just a little?"

Tenn looked away from him, the pink on his cheeks much more obvious now. "A little bit."

Riku smiled at him, his own cheeks warming up with the joy. It was a small compliment, but it was still Tenn complimenting him.

"I think your main problem is that you're too far from me for what is supposed to be a confession scene." Tenn explained. "I did agree to being the other person, so you don't need to be afraid of coming closer or even touching me. You're not the only one in the scene, so you need to move accordingly."

"Ah, I do most of my practicing alone…"

"Well, that explains it. Give me that script, I'll show you how it's done."

Riku handed him the script, and Tenn took a minute to read it. He then tossed it on the bed, and looked back at Riku tenderly. "I was waiting for you."

Even though he was just speaking, Riku still noticed how much different their skill levels were. Tenn didn't have any problems getting in character straight away.

"I've wanted to tell you this for a while. I tried to keep it hidden, but I just can't hold it in anymore. I…" He stepped closer. "I love you."

Tenn just looked at him for a while, and then Riku realised he was probably waiting for him to say something. Right, there were two characters, after all. Not thinking of giving Tenn his own lines was probably one of his mistakes as well. Fortunately, he did remember the girl's lines from the script. "N-no you don't. Liar!"

"I'm not lying!" Tenn got much closer to him now, grabbing him by the chin and forcing Riku to look straight at him. “Look into my eyes, what do you see?”

Riku's face burned. They were very close. Tenn's nose was almost brushing on his, and his heart had started beating faster. But he did manage to keep his attention on Tenn's eyes. (God, his eyes were beautiful.) He scrambled his head to try and remember the lines he hadn't practiced. "What am I supposed to see?"

"It's the eyes of a man who loves you, you idiot." Tenn leaned his forehead on Riku's. "I love you more than anything else in this world. I would do anything to make you happy, anything to make sure you also love me. So please, believe me…" His lips began getting closer to Riku's. Almost close enough for them to touch. And Riku realised part of him actually wanted to get closer…

Until Tenn suddenly let go of him entirely and stepped away, his cheeks still pink. "See? That's how it's done."

Riku was silent for a moment as he processed what had happened. But then he smiled, his eyes sparkling as he talked. "You're amazing, Tenn-nii! I almost forgot you were acting!"

Tenn had a weird expression on his face for a second. He was serious, but… Something about his eyes felt so melancholic. "Did you actually remember you were supposed to learn from this?"

"Oh, you're right." He pulled out his phone to write down some notes. "Thank you so much, Tenn-nii!"

"You're welcome. I… I should get going now." He turned away, starting to leave the room.

"Already? Can't you stay just a little more?"

Tenn stopped in his tracks for a second. And when he replied, he didn't even look at Riku. "Sorry, I can't."

"I see… Take care, Tenn-nii!"

And with that, Tenn finally left. As much as Riku wanted to spend more time with him, there was nothing they could do if he was busy.

And then he remembered how, for a moment, he had actually wanted to kiss Tenn. Riku thought he was just that good of an actor. Good enough for him to have been caught up in the scene.

But… He still wondered what kissing him would have felt like…