#harumafu

The reason: Isn't one of Baby Harukas main traits is that she struggled to smile till she met that idol and Baby Mafuyu,while still going through stuff was capable of genuine smiling I believe.

Imagine baby Mafuyu being confused and worried about baby Haruka then later on when she starts to struggle to *genuinely* smile she remembers Haruka then thinks she may understand how it feels now.

Then all the sudden, the same girl has a smile so bright it summons pink sparkles everywhere and makes woman swoon (and is literally called "cutie smile Haruka" in newly edgy idols).

I want to make a comic about this but I probably won't but I'll atleast put my idea out there so I can say I'm the one who thought of it

not headcanons exactly (may change as i write this post) but i think you can draw at least a handful of parallels between them.

1: they both have (or for haruka, had) trouble expressing their emotions in a real way. they kind went the opposite way with this? for mafuyu they got beaten out of her as she grew, and for haruka they got beaten (not really she got inspired and motivated but it works better this way) into her. i imagine that haruka has lots of experience masking like mafuyu, especially with her profession

2: personally i believe haruka and mafuyu are candidates for the autism beam. look into their deep blue eyes and tell me that their bug eyed stares dont mean something. maybe mafuyu offhandedly points to one of haruka's keychains and asks (politely, expecting a short response) what she likes about them? and then haruka asks Are You Sure You Want To Know. mafuyu obliges and then she's stuck there for the next hour occasionally putting in fish facts. they would have a nice or at least amicable time at an aquarium i think

3: prone to blaming themselves when it comes to things. mafuyu with her mother's feelings and not meeting her expectations (though, it is true that her mother also purposefully guilt trips her) and haruka over what happened to mei (mai?) even though it is clearly both. Not Their Faults Ever

4: less of a strong point but their work kind of consumes their lives. haruka has been an idol for so long and from such a young age that its what shes been for at least half of her life. and its what She wants which is important but its also taken a pretty large toll. i think some of the unhealthy habits that come from a job like that are deeply engrained in her. mafuyu's also been pushed to study harder and bend over backwards to please her mom since around 8 or so as well. idk. theyre both rather performative and i think mafuyu Could kill it with the "idol aura" mmj always talks about