From here-- that's where it all begins. At least, that's what people keep saying to them along with words of congratulations, hugs and slaps on the back and high-fives. "Everything is from here on, from here on is what counts"-- everyone is saying it; senpai, management, staff ranging from makeup artists and choreographers they work with daily to drama ADs extremely peripheral to the majority of them. Hell, Juri's brother had tweeted it the night of the announcement, and it had amassed 122 thousand likes, but yet to Kouchi, it's so bafflingly vague. Does that mean that everything that they've done as juniors doesn't matter, or conversely, does it mean that they've done all the hard work and things are supposed to be easy now? Are people implying that things will get better, or more difficult, or some third option Kouchi hasn't figured out yet? Does it mean that they couldn't possibly fathom just how their lives are going to change now that they're finally getting a CD debut?
And certainly, Kouchi knows, things will change. After all, this is it, this is the goal that they've been striving towards for the past 7 years. It's insane to think that there were significant periods where he thought it was impossible, where he thought they'd never make it to this point, the six of them, but somehow, here they are. And he's not a young naïve kid like he'd been when they'd first been brought together, when they'd first clung together because they were all each other had; he knows that debut isn't going to be some magical wave of a wand that makes their careers successful and stable and easy. He knows from senpai, from debuted friends, from all the members of debuted groups he's lucky to have around him to give him advice and insights. Of course things will change, will get harder in some ways and easier in others, things will certainly grow and morph in ways that he can't even wrap his mind around at this point. In that way, he supposes, he can sort-of understand the sentiment, but at the same time, he has to disagree.
Because everything isn't from here on. Everything includes that first meeting, where they'd all thought they were the victims of some sort of prank rather than believe that they were actually cast in a drama, everything includes all the tears in that rough first year, at the last filming of Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou and during the last encore for their Summary shows and on the shinkansen back from their last round of stage greetings for the Bakaleya movie. Everything includes the 2013 Crea shows that were snatched back from them at the last moment and the photoshoots for magazines where they were purposefully separated from one another even when their schedules aligned, and everything includes the sleepless nights and anxiety-ridden days each time another one of these little things added to the deep-seated fear of what they all suddenly felt was their hopes and dreams being inevitably torn apart. Everything includes all the nights Kouchi had answered the phone at 2 am to Hokuto in tears over B.I. Shadow again, all the times he'd felt the lurch in his stomach as he remembered just in time to dance around references to Koki when chatting about old KAT-TUN songs, all the days he'd opened their group LINE chat wanting to reach out, wanting to know that it wasn't just him who felt so lost and alone in the endless void of being a Junior but didn't have the words to express it.
And everything includes the shrieks and whoops of joy they'd all been unable to suppress when they'd been given not only their own Crea shows but their own name, finally an official Junior unit, finally their own group name. Everything includes the blood and sweat and tears that they'd poured into rehearsals to show the management that they weren't going down without a fight, that there was no excuse not to let them keep going and going until they reached the top. Everything includes the nerves they'd all collectively tried hide before the first concerts they'd had in venues like Yokohama Arena not as a part of a large Junior show but all of their very own, and everything includes the amazing feeling of exhilaration at the roar of 15,000 fans screaming just for them, only for the six of them. Everything includes the anxiety as they'd waited for the sudden meeting they'd been called to by Johnny himself the day before he'd been hospitalized, and everything most definitely includes the dreamlike state they'd walked out of the room in being told that finally, after everything, they were going to debut, together, the six of them.
They have a long road ahead of them, Kouchi knows, and a lot to come. But they've already overcome so much, and, Kouchi thinks, they're only here now because they'd held themselves together no matter what the world-- or the agency-- threw at them. And so maybe there's a lot to look forward to from now on, but, Kouchi thinks, he wouldn't trade everything up until now either, not for the world.