Disclaimer: I own nothing but a crazy mind. Don't sue me – I have no money.
Falling
Hiro remembered it with sickening clarity. The crowd was shouting for encore after their perfect performance. He was on his way to the backstage area when the reverberating sound of the microphone caught everyone's attention. The crowd gasped in shock. First he couldn't see his partner, and an eyelash later he had a perfect view of the pink haired singer – a view he would never forget.
His best friend was crumpled on the floor, trying frantically to stop the bleeding, but he failed miserably. And Hiro couldn't do anything to help him. He couldn't move.
The crowd started to panic. Medics flooded the stage. The few security men present did their best but hell broke out in that hall.
He had preformed with him hundreds of times. They got hurt by flying objects, aggressive fans during show acts, but, Shuichi never looked so vulnerable. It felt so wrong. He was crying, screaming at the medics to let him go and that he wanted to sing another song, but the medics couldn't care less. Everyone could see it. He was injured – badly.
That was a month ago. Rumours flew about what Shuichi did to get attacked like this on stage. Two weeks later the media was told that a psycho was caught during another bands preforming. That unknown psycho says he hated J-Pop. The truth was caught by the security cams. Aizawa was to blame; his band didn't get another contract extension, causing him to break. Because he assumed that Shuichi took his place at N-G Productions, he came to take revenge.
Commentary said that it was an unfortunate accident but Hiro knew it was all rigged in advance by Seguchi. If anyone had had a chance to see the tapes before Seguchi had his hands on it the world would knew.
And now they were out of commission. The doctors had to strap him to the bed in order to keep him in hospital. There were only five stitches – but Shuichi reopened them numerous times. If the wound needed another set of stitches they will send him to some psychiatric specialist. Whatever is going to happen, he won't be able to enter stage or studio for at least another two months.
Rehearsals came to a screeching stop. Hiro and Suguru could practice but they were not able to write new songs or rearrange compositions without Shuichi. Suguro was new in their band, but, even he felt weird having hours and hours of free time. But Hiro was not adjusting in a way one could worry. Just looking at him would be enough to make you break into tears. He was always reminding himself of what he couldn't do.
Hiro didn't have many friends – the one he had was in hospital. He was obsessed by the idea that it was his fault. And suddenly, having so much time to kill, he started to believe this lie.
K made him attending classes at college again. It should be a new, challenging experience for him. Hiro had never thought about college, even though he had the brain for it, he only lived for music. Sitting at an unfamiliar desk, watching an old teacher drone on about assignments he had already done in high school, in the middle of strangers who seemed to know each other, he felt highly out of place. No one seemed to go out of their way to talk to him. Why should they? He was a parasite – the gossip topic no 1.
Lunch was the best opportunity to meet people but Hiro spent it completely alone. He didn't even try to make friends, instead he took his lunch upstairs in the corridors, brooding.
He missed Shuichi.
He had even started formulating plans about escaping the college campus – in other words K – to sneak into the hospital to see his friend. But he would never succeed.
Next class was Gym. He had to choose the dance class since he didn't feel like doing any kind of the bulky sports they offered this semester... until he showed up to class.
"What the..."
TBC...
That's it - for the opening. What do you think?