I called everyone together.

After I sent her off and went back to my room, one thought wouldn't leave me alone.

"If Hinata didn't know... what about the others?"

I'm not particularly anxious by nature. I just can't settle when something's on my mind without checking first.

So I opened each member's account, one by one. Post frequency, settings status, hashtag patterns, how they were using Insights.

Things became clear.

Aine's image quality was still on the default setting. Her hashtags also needed some attention, I thought.
Hinata almost never checked her Insights.
Shizuku had nearly all her notifications turned off.
Ruka — was fine. Actually knew what she was doing.

The next morning, I called all four of them together.

"Sorry for the sudden summons. There's something I need to go over."

Aine's face immediately went to "wait, did I do something??" — which I felt a little bad about. That wasn't what this was.

I went through each point I'd noticed, one at a time. Everyone's reaction was some version of "...oh." Not so much "I didn't know" as "I never really thought about it."

I wasn't there to criticize. I just wanted them to know.

Somehow it turned into something like a small workshop. Ruka naturally slid into helping explain things partway through, which I was grateful for.

Watching everyone, I found myself thinking:

"Trusting someone" and "not checking on them" are two different things.

It's not "I trust them, so it'll be fine." It's "I trust them, so I want to make sure."

Maybe that's just how I am.

Whether it goes well — that, we'll find out.

— Rei