***Just realized a heinous typo in here. Promptly fixed and reposted. Enjoy the story.***
Fujisaki shifted impatiently, his foot tapping out a steady rhythm under his chair. This particular song had been stuck in his head for several days, and was proving very distracting at work. Especially considering the nature of his job.
"Ow! Damn!" Hiro muttered as the string he was plucking on his guitar snapped violently. He winced as he examined the red marks on his fingers.
"Hiro! Hirohirohiro! Are you okay?" asked Shuichi (way too exuberantly, as usual), sprinting over to the cupboard where Hiro was now rummaging for a spare string. Fujisaki sighed as Shuichi began to yammer on about something or other, tuning the idiot out. Damn him…and damn that jerk for encouraging him…
Just then the chorus of the song on endless loop in his head began, and Fujisaki groaned with frustration. Glancing over at the two in the corner, he saw that they were embroiled in deep conversation. Clearly they wouldn't notice an earthquake. Fujisaki glared at his keyboard and decided that getting the damn song out of his head made up for the possibility of being caught.
Placing his hands on the keyboard, he allowed the opening chords to boil in his head and flow out through his hands, and began to play the song he'd long since learned by heart. [E flat, D diminished G! C minor, B flat minor 7, E flat!] This is happiness…As he began the pickup to the first verse, Fujisaki felt the tension leave him, and smiled for the first time all day.
Bewilderment abruptly replaced the dreamy newfound numbness and serenity as he began the first verse. Fujisaki had a good amount of pride in his considerable skill on the keyboard, but he was reasonably sure that his mind wasn't actually hooked up to the amp. Which didn't account for the undeniably male voice accompanying him.
"Nazonazo, mitai ni, chikyuu ni wo, tokiakashitara, minna…" Shuichi stared at Fujisaki. "Why did you stop playing?"
Fujisaki couldn't speak. He was frozen in a fog of embarrassment and annoyance.
Hiro walked over with his new string, smirking at the look on Fujisaki's face. "Didn't peg you for the Haruhi type, Mr. Pragmatic." Fujisaki went crimson. "Don't worry, everyone has their own little guilty vices."
"I don't have any—"
"Then explain knowing how to play 'Hare Hare Yukai,'" piped up Shuichi. "Closet otaku! Closet otaku!"
"I am NOT an otaku!" howled Fujisaki.
"You're one to talk, you moron," said Hiro, smacking Shuichi lightly on the head. "You know all the words to the song."
Shuichi grinned. "You can thank my sister the Haruhiist for that! She even knows the dance. It's kind of creepy, actually."
Hiro came closer and peered at the position Fujisaki's hands were still in on the keyboard. "Hey, that's an interesting chord structure. Play some more, I wanna see how the A flat carries the B flat through the E flat part."
Fujisaki sighed. "Fine." He placed his hands on the keys and began the intro, taking his time. No way would those idiots force him to butcher a good song by starting in the middle.
"Nazonazo, mitai ni…" Fujisaki was annoyed, although not particularly surprised, when Shuichi started to sing along. He kept playing though, admitting quietly to himself that his bandmate's rendition of the song wasn't half bad.
Keeping a close watch on the movements of Fujisaki's left hand, Hiro began messing around with chords. His experimentation soon resolved into a reverberating series of chords that gave the song a rock solid foundation.
"Yume…yume…suki desho…"[…E flat! E, B! E FLAT!] Fujisaki slowly withdrew his hands from the keyboard, the ending notes still ringing in his ears. He took a deep breath and exhaled. Now that this little experience was over, maybe they'd forget about Haruhi and what happened at 17:00 on channel 15 would stay at 17:00 on channel 15.
His ruminations were interrupted by slow applause as the door opened. K entered, with Sakano scurrying close behind. "Good job, an anime cover. We'll get the otaku market for sure."
Was K saying what Fujisaki thought he was saying? "But…but Mr. K…"
K casually took a step toward Fujisaki, withdrawing a rifle and resting it gently against Fujisaki's forehead in one smooth movement. "Yes, Fujisaki?"
"N…nothing…"
"Good." K grinned at Bad Luck. "Start practicing immediately! Bad Luck's cover of 'Hare Hare Yukai will be the bonus track on the next album!"
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Otaku: A derogatory-in-Japan, wannabe-cool-elsewhere term for someone obsessed with something to an unhealthy degree.
Hare Hare Yukai: The famous and memetic opening to The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, a super-popular cult anime, that comes with an equally famous and memetic dance. Very prone to getting stuck in heads. If you're positively dying to know what the paltry lyrics I've included mean, there are tons of websites that do that sort of thing.
Haruhiist: A person obsessed with said anime.
Incidentally, if you feel like it, check out the version of Hare Hare Yukai sung by Itsuki Koizumi's voice actor. That's a little how I imagine Shuichi's version sounding like. Obviously Bad Luck was more faithful to the original version of the song sung by Aya Hirano et al., due to Fujisaki's being a purist, Hiro's only knowing what he can glimpse on Fujisaki's keyboard, and Shuichi's sole exposure to the song being when he heard it as the ending theme and when Maiko played it to practice the dance. So maybe Koizumi's version isn't exactly right, but I think it has the right sort of feeling to it.
It seems right to me, for some reason, that Fujisaki's a closet otaku. I like to think that my appreciation for music rubbed off on him a little. I put the chords (which are all from animechordsdotcom) in bold to sort of emphasize them. I revere chords. They don't get much appreciation in the grand scheme of things, but they are probably the most important part of the song. I like the idea of Fujisaki having a proper appreciation for them. Does that make any sense? Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! Reviews, as always, very much appreciated.