Momohime: I had a cheerful and energetic character. Pretty much all my friends were easy-going, so we would all get hyped up together (lol). Even in BEYOOOOONDS I just mess around with the other members without thinking much about our ages. I don't think I'm really that much different whether I'm with the group or in my class.
Q: Did you have any friends at school you spent a lot of time with?
M: I had a group of about 7 people I hung out with in my first year. We would talk a lot about how we were always hanging out in the same group (lol). There would be times where we'd all go out to karaoke, but I had to leave before everyone else to go to lessons. Even then, my friends would still invite me along, even if I could only stay until partway through. I was happy that they treated me like a normal student instead of making a big deal out of it.Q: You seem like you have a pretty sociable personality, so you give off the impression of someone who's able to make friends easily.
M: This is just coming from me, but you might be right (lol). Ever since I was little I'd look forward to going to school and getting to see my friends. I live my life thinking, "I love my friends!" (lol). Even when I transferred schools in my 2nd year of middle school, I was able to fit into my new school right away.Q: Did you drift away from your group of friends when you transferred?
M: I did, but I still keep in touch with some of them. They've even come out to BEYOOOOONDS events. They're all giving me their support.
Q: Do you have any youthful memories from your time in middle school?
M: The first thing that comes to mind is the sports festival. I really like school events where everyone teams up, since I'm the type to get pretty fired up (lol). I've done the Soran Bushi dance at the sports festival two years in a row, that was pretty fun. Also, I didn't get to experience this much myself, but I wish I had been able to stay after school and get together and chat with a few people. I think that's about as youthful as it gets.
Q: Did you do any club activities?
M: I was in the taiko club in my first year. I've been playing the taiko drum in club since elementary school, and I think that it helped me develop a sense of rhythm.
Q: Did you ever see the kind of bittersweet love you see in shoujo manga?
M: There was this fad where boys would confess to girls while everyone was around them in the classroom. The boy would be like, "Um... Do you want to..." and everyone would go shout, "Ohhhh~~" It wasn't on a dare or something, they were seriously asking the other person out.
Q: Huh?! Why'd they need an audience?
M: I think it's because there's so many popular videos on SNS and stuff of people confessing in front of huge crowds. If they become a couple, everyone rushes over and congratulates them.
Q: That sounds like something that would be popular now, huh. But wouldn't it be a huge shock if they get rejected?
M: Oh yeah (lol). It must be hard for the girl to say no with everyone there watching. It actually happened to one of my friends, and while it was happening I was thinking about how anxious she must have felt. By the way, I haven't been confessed to a single time. That hurts in its own way, though (lol).
Q: If it were up to you, what kind of situation at school would you have wanted to be confessed to in?
M: I'd be embarassed if it was in front of everyone, so I'd want them to just tell me how they feel somewhere quiet like behind one of the buildings or on the rooftop. With a letter or a text you can't see the other person's face, and you can just delete or throw it away, so I think that would be sad. If it were me, I think I'd want to talk face to face.
M: I wanted to draw a picture in chalk on a blackboard. At my graduation, I wish we could've all written something on the blackboard and taken a group picture in front of it. Oh, and there were a bunch of classrooms I never went into, like the chemistry lab or the audiovisual room. I want to see what it's like inside them.
Q: What about the broadcasting room?
M: Well, about that, I was a member of the broadcasting committee (lol). At lunch time we would read out the menu, and we'd take requests from the whole school and play music. But when I'd talk, another committee member would go out of their way to try and make me laugh, so I got yelled at and told to do a proper job. Also, thinking about things I can't do anymore, I always wanted to try drinking the instant coffee the teachers had in the staff room (lol).
Q: Is there anything you're looking forward to, or something you want to try doing now that you're a high school student?
M: I have a lot of hobbies, like rap, sign language, and playing an instrument called the talkbox, but I didn't have a lot of time for them while I was busy with middle school. Now that I'm a high schooler, I want to spend more time on my hobbies. Also, I want to try studying Thai.
Q: Thai?!
M: I made friends with a Thai singer when I went there on a vacation with my family in elementary school. We exchanged our addresses with each other, and right now we talk back and forth in English, but I want to try and talk more in Thai. There's so many other things I want to do too, so I want to make my time in high school fulfilling!
Haga Akane
