Chapter 9
It was the day of our concert, we all had a respective activity in our classrooms, I was in charge of setting up the sound systems and sourcing them with the help of the school and the music store in which I had helped source. After setting up the speakers in the classroom and instructing them how to use them after seeing them and being satisfied that no damage would come to them I decided to head to the auditorium to set up the amplifiers and the stage monitors. "Can I get some help here?" I asked few of the students who were helping with stage arrangements
"Get this big cabinet to the left hand side of the stage and this one to the right, I don't need one as I have my pedalboard" I instructed them
With the set up done and 3 hours before our show I decided to go ahead with soundcheck. Everything sounded properly in place, the drums were tuned perfectly, the tones were dialed in beautifully and the stage looked quite amazing. I decided to head up to the clubroom to get ready for the show Sawako-sensei sent all of us a message yesterday:
"Come to the club-room an hour before the show, I have a surprise for you"
I was wondering what the surprise would be the entire time while walking through the hallways. After a few minutes of walking my stomach started rumbling loudly
"Ah crap I forgot to eat breakfast today" I thought to myself "Why didn't I carry anything"
While passing through Yui's class I saw that they had set up a takoyaki stall. I decided to buy some takoyaki before the time we were all supposed to meet
"Hey Yui" I said
"Hey Kawamura-san" she said with her hoarse voice
"Your voice still hasn't recovered" I asked her
"Nope" she said "Anyway you want something?"
"Yea could I get a plate of Takoyaki?" I told her taking out wallet
"That would be 600yen" she said. I placed the money on the counter. I grabbed my Takoyaki and faced Yui
"Oh Sawako-sensei called us to the clubroom in half an hour, don't be late" I told her
After finishing my Takoyaki I went up to the clubroom with Yui and saw that the rest of the guys were already there
"So what is this surprise?" asked Mio fidgeting nervously
"I have no clue but let's sit and wait" I said
After a few moments we heard on a knock on the door and In walked sensei
"Sorry to keep you waiting but your surprise is here" Sawako-sensei said while wheeling in a clothes rack
"What are those?" I asked
"These are your costumes for the show" Sawako-sensei replied with a hint of pride
"Oh, sweet where is mine?" I asked
"This is it" she said while handing me a shirt and jeans with a hoodie wrapped around it
"I'll go get changed" I said while leaving
Sawako-sensei sure did know to take into consideration that I'd be playing most solos so my sleeves needed to be short. While taking a look in the mirror I looked quite good. "Not bad Sensei" I thought to myself. After getting changed I headed back to the club where I could hear some a few minutes I was let in by Ritsu and looked at them
"Damn, all of you look good" I said "Especially you Yui"
"Thanks Akhiko,You look great" said Yui "Like a proper Rockstar"
At that moment I felt my face heat up, everybody except Yui had noticed it and were smirking at me
"Let's head to the stage" said Ritsu
After a short walk to the backstage of the Auditorium we all were enjoying the performance of the Jazz band before us
"Damn, that clean tone" I said
"Now that we are all here, does anyone has anything to say" asked Ritsu
"I'm scared to sing in front of all these people" said Mio
"It will be ok Mio-Chan, nobody will be mad at you" said Yui encouragingly
"Yea if you mess up I'll take over for the time being" I said to assure her
"Next up we have the band from the School's Light Music Club. Please welcome Ho-Kago Tea Time" the host announced
'We are up guys" I said, strapping up my guitar. My guitar had a wireless cable so it was easy to get it set up
I decided to walk onto the stage first and decided to greet the people
After checking our sound levels the curtain was raised
"How are we feeling Sakurakoga high" I said while walking across the stage
I got a few cheers from the crowd
"Come on, is that all you got" I said "How we feeling Sakurakoga high" I said once more loudly
I got a wild cheer in response
"Well as you already know we are the band from the School's Light Music club better known as: Ho-kago-Tea Time" I said "We are a 5 member group" I said 'With that in mind let us introduce our members"
"On the Bass and Main vocals we have Mio Akiyama, she writes the lyrics for our songs" I said. Mio gave a small wave before looking at the ground
"On our secondary guitar we have Yui Hirasawa, she was supposed to be our leading vocals for this show but her voice went hoarse due to intense practice" I said pointing at Yui, she gave a large wave and a cute smile
"On drums is our president Ritsu Tainaka, she is the most energetic one along with Yui" I said as she ripped into a drum fill
"On keyboards we have Tsumugi Kotobuki, she is like the mercenary of the group, she also provides delicious tea and snacks" I said as Mugi played a soft melody
"And finally my name is Kawamura Akihkho, I play the guitar and am providing back-up vocals. With introductions over, Let's get this show on the road" I said while walking back to my mic stand "The first song is Curry Nochi Rice" I said with Ritsu ripping in with that introductory fill. Mio's vocals fit the song beautifully as I was supposed to fill in a few places. The concert had been going beautifully. The final song of the setlist was 'Fuwa Fuwa time' which was probably our best song. At the end during the final part where it was only instrumentation I said
"Thank you for listening to us, we are Ho-Kago-Tea Time and it has been a pleasure performing for you Sakurakoga high"
The moment we ended the Auditorium burst into loud cheers and applause.
While exiting the stage I heard a thump on the floor and collective gasps. When I turned my head to the source of the noise I saw Mio in a rather suggestive pose
"OH SHIT" I thought to myself as Mio was lifted up by Mugi and Ritsu
"Let's head back to the Clubroom" Ritsu said asking me to help her
After heading back to the clubroom we all sat down
"That was AMAZING" said Ritsu, I gave her a High Five in the process
"It was amazing but also traumatizing" said Mio fidgeting
"Hey Yui, wanna explore the festival with me?" I asked her
"Let's go" she said
After looking for something to eat me and Yui sat down at a maid cafe where we ordered a sandwiches for us coffee for me and Hot-chocolate for Yui
"So how were we?" Yui asked
"We were quite good except what happened in the end" I said grimacing
At that moment our food arrived and we dug in, yui was so hungry that she gobbled down the entire sandwich, I didn't mind cause I was quite full. After walking back to the club-room we saw that they all were packing up,
"Hey let's get a photo before we leave" I said
While setting up the camera on the bench we dragged in Nodoka and Sawako-sensei
"CHEESE" we all shouted at that same time
At that moment I had never felt more at peace than ever before. I could tell that this was a good decision to join the club