Chapter Fourteen: Nishina Rie

I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed, almost like a new man. I wondered about this unusual feeling until I looked in the mirror and remembered… Oh, yeah…girlfriend.

I felt happy and sad at the same time; happy because I felt so close to someone, but sad at the same time because that closeness hurt someone else who was also very close to me.

I sighed at the conflict and finished brushing my teeth; I couldn't let it control my day, after all.

"Hey, Earth to Okazaki."

"Hm?"

"Stop floating up there with Rie-chan and get down here where I can talk to you."

"Oh, sorry." I wiped the silly grin off my face with a hand. "That better?"

"Good enough, I guess," she grumbled. "Any ideas on when you'll be able to get me that song?"

I blew air noisily between my lips. "Well, I should be able to go to the library during lunch, and…crap."

"That's what the bathroom's for, idiot."

I ignored her jab as I realized that in order to research more songs, I'd have to go the library…where Kotomi spent most of her time. Crap. And she was the one who had helped me find the first song. Double crap. "I'll…do my best and get that to you as soon as possible," I promised. "Let me get the new recruits taken care of, and then I'll be able to focus on your stuff completely."

She nodded thoughtfully. "That sounds good. Thanks."

I snorted. "Save it for when I put the music in your hands, okay?"

She snorted as well. "All right, Okazaki. And, uh…glad to see you're feeling better."

"Thanks."

We enjoyed small talk the rest of the way to school.

"I see you took my advice," Sunohara said as I passed by his desk. How he managed to get to school on time…I didn't really care.

I chuckled as I plopped into my seat, leaning my bag against the desk. "Yeah, but I'd planned on doing it anyway, but…nice to know you care!"

"Gross," he gagged. "Anyway, what are you doing for lunch today?"

"Grabbing anything from the cafeteria and going to the Chorus Club room," I said. "And, if I'm really awake, I'll remember to pay for it."

"You're in a good mood today," he grunted. "Why're you so happy?"

"I choose to be," I said, then laid a hand on his shoulder. "And you, too, have the power to choose happiness."

"Knock it off," he said, shrugging off my hand. "You're creeping me out. Seriously; what are you doing for lunch?"

"I already told you; getting lunch from the cafeteria and heading to the club room."

"The club room…" he muttered. "Ah, that's right! You've started a harem in the Singing Club-OW!"

"No harems," I said, drawing my fist back. "Not my thing."

"Jeez, you didn't have to hit me!" he complained, rubbing his arm.

"Yeah, I did. You gonna come with me this time?"

He started to get his 'yummy' face on, but seemed to catch himself. "M-Maybe…I don't know."

"You know Nishina's got a couple new girls in the club, right? And a bunch of new recruits. It's a target-rich environment."

"New girls? Seriously?" His 'yummy' face reappeared, this time in earnest. "Maybe it's time I showed what a real singer can do."

"Sounds good," I said, putting on my best smirk. "When you find him, bring him with you."

"I was talking about myself!" he yelled, drawing the attention of our classmates. "Do I have to spell everything out for you?"

"Sing? You?" I could barely contain my laughter. "I've listened to you sing along with your mixtape; you sound like someone stepped on a cat's tail."

His face reddened for a moment, then somehow cleared. "Heh. You'll be eating those words by the time I'm done."

"More like eating your lunch," I snorted, "but whatever. All right; teach me, sensei."

We stopped outside the door to the clubroom, and I couldn't help but notice that the blonde idiot kept me between him and the door. "Are you hiding behind me?"

"N-No!" he stammered confidently. "Of course not!"

"Right," I snickered. "And I'm sure it has nothing to do with the black eye you had a few days ago."

"Shut up," he growled as he stepped around me to slide the door open. We then both had to duck to avoid a book flying towards us.

"I told you to never come back again!" a familiar voice snarled from inside.

"Sugisaka, calm down!" I yelled, uncovering my head as I entered the classroom.

"Oh, Okazaki; sorry, I didn't know you were there," she said, lowering another book from a throwing position.

"That's good to know," I sighed. Then I smiled as my world centered around one particular girl. "Hey, Nishina."

"H-Hello, T-Tomoya," she greeted as she got up from her seat. "Thank you for coming. "

"Wouldn't miss it for anything," I said, my smile broadening.

A sudden clearing of a throat snapped us out of our trance. "If, uh…you two could wrap up your staring contest, the rest of us would like to eat."

Nishina blinked several times before looking over at Hattori. "O-Of course, Rei-chan; I'm sorry for keeping you waiting. C-Come on, Tomoya; let's eat."

"S-Sure," I replied, not sure how long we'd been staring at each other, and uncomfortable with not knowing.

"Is he going to be a problem this time?" Sugisaka said with disgust as she pointed at Sunohara.

"Hey!" he protested.

"Don't worry," I said. "If he causes any trouble, I'll be sure to punch him."

"Hey!" he protested.

"Just sit down," I ordered, kicking a desk toward him. "And don't start drooling."

"What are you talking about?" Nishina giggled.

"It's a long story," I told her. "Well, maybe not that long, but it's not a story worth hearing."

"If you say so," she said, still giggling.

"I'd like to hear it," Sugisaka said. "I like dirt, especially on creeps like him."

"Hey!" Sunohara protested.

"M-Maybe we should eat," Harada suggested, rescuing me from the topic.

As we ate, I thought about what I needed to do with the recruits. "Hey, Nishina; you said we needed to test their ranges, right?"

"Huh?"

Oh, right; she hadn't been in my internal dialogue. "I was just thinking about the new club members. How do you test someone's singing range?"

She thought about it for a moment. "I think they usually have them sing notes as high as they can go, and as low as they can go. They use a piano to help compare."

"Hm." That made sense. "So, how will we know which part they can sing?"

"First, it'd help if you knew the different parts," Hattori said. "For 'Look in My Eyes' I sang the baritone part."

"Baritone?" I'd heard that term, but… "I thought that was just for guys, though."

"It's the lowest female voice range," Nishina explained. "From lowest to highest it usually goes Baritone, then Alto 2, then Alto 1, then Soprano."

Something wasn't adding up…literally. "But that's four ranges, and there are five of you."

Sugisaka smiled knowingly. "Rie-chan sang the melody, so she doesn't count. As long as you can sing all the notes, the lead singer doesn't really have to fall within the usual ranges."

"I think I get it." I wasn't sure that I got it, but I figured I had a basic understanding; something to start with, at least. "So we'll have to have to figure their ranges and group them based on that."

"That's the right idea," Hattori said. "You learn pretty quickly, don't you?"

"Not really," I admitted. "To be honest, I don't get everything you've explained to me."

"But you're trying," Nishina said. "And…you look cool while doing it."

"This is all really interesting," Sunohara said, stretching his arms over his head. "Well, not really. If you want to see some real singing, maybe I'll stop by and give you a sample."

"Sounds good," Sugisaka said with a smirk. "When you find someone who can do that, bring him with you."

"Hey!" he protested.

"I like the way you said that," I said to Sugisaka. "It's a lot better than what I said earlier."

"I try," she said with a flip of her short hair.

"You two get along so well," Nishina giggled. "That makes me happy; I don't know what I'd do if my friend hated my b-b-b-"

"Boyfriend?" Hattori said with an impish smile.

"Y-Yeah," my girlfriend said with a blush.

"You'd have to dump him, of course," Sugisaka told. "We girls got to stick together, right?"

"Is that why you wanted me to find a song for you?" I asked teasingly.

"Up yours," Sugisaka humphed with a half-hearted dirty look.

"It's just that…" My girl didn't seem to know how to finish her thought. "It's just that you're strong where I'm not. I just hope that I can be strong for you."

"Don't worry about that," I said, laying a hand on her head. "You have enough to worry about already."

"Y-Yeah," she replied, looking uncertain.

I caught a glimpse of Sunohara out of the corner of my eye, watching us with an upset look. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Okazaki." His voice was unusually calm, like the calm before a storm. "Do I understand correctly that you and the Chorus Club president are dating?"

My eyebrow jumped at his sudden usage of proper grammar. "Yeah, that's right. Why?"

We watched as his breathing got faster and faster, to the point where I could swear that steam was coming out of his nostrils.

"S-Senpai…?" Uematsu asked worriedly.

He suddenly shot to his feet with a burst of steam. "Okazaki, you BASTARD!" he bellowed, nearly blowing me out of my seat. Before any of us could react, he bolted to the door and was through it and out, his footsteps echoing down the hall.

The rest of us stared blankly at the door until Uematsu spoke up again. "W-Was it something I said?"

Sunohara didn't come with me to the clubroom after school, choosing instead to head for the dorm after giving me a dirty look. I smiled to myself as I slid the door open to the usual empty room; I hadn't been able to figure out how the girls could beat me there at lunch but always arrived after me at club time. I chalked it up as one of life's great mysteries as I lay my head down on the desk; I wasn't really tired, but old habits die hard.

A few minutes later some of the new recruits arrived so I directed them to the back of the room. "We'll get started when the club president gets here."

"Wait; you aren't the president?" a first-year boy asked.

I shook my head. "No, Nishina Rie's the prez; I'm just an assistant."

"Wow," he said, and he seemed in awe of me for some reason. "With the way you took charge the other day, I was sure you were."

"Sorry to disappoint you," I said dryly, then gestured to the back of the room again. "Head on back and wait; she should be here soon."

I started to worry, though, as more and more recruits started to show up, but no sign of Nishina. I really wasn't up to running the show myself, not to mention that I didn't know enough about singing to be able to evaluate the recruits.

Finally, Nishina showed up along with her 'group'. "I'm so sorry I'm late!" she cried. "My teacher kept me after to talk to me about one of my assignments."

"Don't worry about it," I told her. "I told them you'd be here, and here you are, so let's get started." I gave her a lopsided smile. "It's really good to see you, by the way."

I thought her face would burst into flame. "I-It's g-good to see you, t-too."

After a brief brainstorming session, we pushed a couple of desks side-by-side for Nishina and I to sit in.

"Wait…why am I on the decision-making team?" I asked. "You all know that I don't know anything when it comes to music."

"Because," Sugisaka explained as she pushed me into the desk next to Nishina.

"I'm too scared to talk to them," my girlfriend admitted, "so I'll need you to talk on my behalf."

I sighed and realized that I was starting to sound like Sunohara's dorm mother. "If you say so…"

We got the first candidate before us – a second-year female – and asked her our trial questions:

"What's your name?"

"Takahashi Aiko."

"Why do you want to join the club?"

"To sing."

I made a face. "Okay, dumb question. What I mean is: What kind of music do you want to sing?"

"I want to sing like she does," Takahashi answered, pointing at Nishina. "She looked like she was having so much fun, and I want to be part of something like that!"

I looked over at my girl to find her staring wide-eyed at our recruit. "You…You really mean that?"

"OHMYGOSH!" Takahashi squealed, drawing my attention. "She talked to me!"

"Yes…she did," I said, trying to calm things down. "Do…you know what range you are?"

"S-Soprano, senpai," she replied, fanning herself with her hand.

I looked to Nishina again. "Will that work?"

She blinked several times, appearing to give the question some thought. "I think so. If it turns out to be a problem, then we'll test her with a piano."

"Okay, Takahashi," I said, turning my attention back to the recruit. "We have you as a soprano. You said you wanted to sing music like Nishina? Did you bring anyone you want to sing with?"

By the end of our first day of evaluations we ended up with one girls' group of five, a first-year guy who wanted to sing by himself, and a few other guys that Hattori and Sugisaka had to remove from the room. Overall it was productive, if exhausting.

"That was fun," Uematsu said as we ate our ice cream after club. "It was nice seeing them all excited about singing. I hope they do well."

"Well, if they have any problems, at least they have you five experts to talk to," I said half-jokingly. "Right, Nishina?"

She didn't answer, but studied my face instead.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked. "I was just kidding about them talking to you…well, kinda; you are the experts, after all."

"Tomoya...?"

"Yeah?"

She leaned forward in her seat, holding her cone to the side so it wouldn't get on either of us as she fixed her gaze on me. "Why do you call me 'Nishina'?"

I thought for a moment. "That's…your name, isn't it?"

"'Nishina' is my last name, yes," she replied. "But you've asked me to call you 'Tomoya'; how come you don't call me 'Rie'?"

I hadn't thought of it and admitted as such. "I guess I'm just so used to calling you by your last name that I never thought of it….Rie."

Her reaction was…surprising; she covered her face and shuddered as she squealed.

"A-Are you okay?" I panicked, not sure which name to use. "Did I do something wrong?!"

"N-No!" she squeaked, managing to pull her hands from her reddened face. "I-I'm sorry; it took me by surprise."

"If it bothers you that much, I won't call you by your first name again," I prom-

"NO!" she cried, grabbing my free hand as she gazed intently into my eyes. "I want you to call me 'Rie'; I like how it sounds when you say it."

I found myself intimidated by her intensity. "S-Sure…"

"Jeez, you two," Sugisaka humphed. "Get a room or something!"

"Jealous, Amane?" Hattori teased.

"Shut up."

The exchange snapped me out of my trance, and it looked like it had the same effect on Rie, as she blinked several times while shaking her head as though to clear it. "S-Sorry, Ama-nee-chan, Rei-chan." She ducked her head as she rapped her knuckles against it with the cutest embarrassed smile.

"Don't worry about it," Sugisaka replied. "I was just kidding, anyway; I'm glad you're…happy." She finished her thought with a glance at me.

"Thank you," Rie said shyly.

"M-Maybe we should plan our club activities for tomorrow?" Harada suggested.

With that, we started to plan how we would evaluate the rest of the recruits, as well as how we would set things up for the newly formed groups to get music and start practicing.

As I watched Rie talk with the others, though, I started to make plans of my own…