Berryz Kobo x ℃-ute Cross Talk: Okai Chisato x Hagiwara Mai

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Hello! Project Kids in 2012, a book entitled Rival - 12 shoujo no 10-nen monogatari - (The 10-year legend of the 12 girls) was released. The book contains 2-page discussions between pairs of girls, covering all 66 possible combinations of them. As I'm currently in the process of reading this book, I'd like to share some highlights from the interviews.

Okai Chisato X Hagiwara Mai

Between the 12 of you, the two of you are the youngest, and it seems that the 2 of you used to quarrel over the smallest things.

Okai: We really did (laughs). What's more, thinking back on those quarrels, weren't they so stupid!? They were result of such trifling things. What I remember most is our quarrel over seasoning when we were in the Hello! Project Kids. Small kids like to have seasoning on their eggs, right? When there was only one pack of seasoning remaining, the two of us ran over to get it simultaneously......right?

Hagiwara: I got it that time. And then you said 'Gimme a little!' But it was so little in amount that the first thing we did was quarrel over it.

Okai: I said 'Because I'll use up whatever's remaining!', and sure enough., Mai-chan left some behind. We had a really big quarrel over that (laughs). 

Hagiwara: I really hated you because of our fight, so I seriously wanted to finish it up (laughs). We really did fight over the most trivial things. 

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Do you remember the last time you fought?

Hagiwara: We fought over some message, right!?

Okai: Ah, yeah!! I've forgotten the details, but Mai-chan sent a message concerning Chisato, cautioning me. But because Mai-chan had also been cautioned on the same thing, it suddenly flamed me up, I sent a message 'Why do you have to be so angry? Like you've got any right to be mad at me!?'

Hagiwara: We were going back by subway. And Chisato was heading in the same direction, so we were on the same train, but we were sending grumbling messages from different carriages (laughs).

Okai: That was during 'Sengoku Jieitai', right? Whoa, that's recent (laughs).

Hagiwara: Last year, right!? It actually is pretty recent (laughs).

Okai: But compared to the past, it was light.

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Hagiwara: Also, we've gone for karaoke together. But Mai fell asleep while we were karaoke-ing......

Okai: Yeah! Someone's singing, and you fall asleep~ It really hit a nerve, so I raised the volume of the music really loud, which woke you up in surprise (laughs).

Hagiwara: My heart was going to explode. It doesn't make me happy to be woken up that way!

Okai: I was bursting out in laughter. I was mad, but already you'd been forgiven (laughs).

Hagiwara: I was really sleepy. Just in case, I'd informed you that I was a bit sleepy. I wouldn't be able to drift off to sleep if we weren't close friends, right? I thought it would be fine because it was you, Chisato.

Okai: Well, it's fine for a bit, but you were sleeping the whole time (laughs). Also, when we go for karaoke, we scramble for songs. We like to sing the same songs, so who's first gets to choose.

In the end, for the 2 of you, it's like the more you fight, the closer you get (laughs). Were the two of you chums from when you were the H!P Kids?

Hagiwara: We we always together, right?

Okai: In my case, Airi and Risako were mature, despite being in the same school year as me, and I was still like a kid, so it was because, within our group, Mai-chan was the type that matched with me (laughs).

Hagiwara: Ahahahaha, that is true! I can't deny that (laughs). The first time I saw Chisato, I thought 'This girl is scary!' Her hair was blonde, and I thought that she'd immediately call people stupid. Well, while I say that she was scary, I had a huge, serious fight with that girl after that (laughs), but I only thought of her as being scary for a moment, and we were together before I knew it. I wonder why? What was the thing that started it?

Okai: I wonder too. Ah, It might have been Momo-chan! For some reason, I was often together with Momo-chan at the time. Momo-chan likes small kids, so it felt like she looked after us. We were stuck under Momo-chan at some point, right.

Well then, I'd like to ask the both of you, how do you feel your relationship will be like in 10 years?

Okai: Whatever happens, I think I'll be together with Mai.

Hagiwara: Hmm? You said the same thing to Nacky the other day, didn't you?

Okai: Is that so? (laughs) But that's how it feels with Mai-chan and Nacky......While we're on the subject, I think that it's fundamentally the same for me with all of the ℃-ute members, so I'm sure that I'll probably say the same things when it comes to Maimi-chan and Airi as well (laughs). But I really think it's true for Mai-chan. It gets exciting with the 2 of us around, and everything becomes interesting, We'd always keep laughing.

Hagiwara: Yup. It feels like we'll be together whatever happens. Even if lots of things happen, we won't be separated.

Okai: It doesn't mean that I want us to be together forever, but we'll unconsciously be together.

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Click here for more interview excerpts from this book.