I wasn't going to write a sequel, but then I remembered I'd dropped Yuki&Sayo subplot, and watched Ewigkweit's Shin Ai, and the rest is history. Despite what it might look like, this sequel is a different kind of story from its predecessor.
Takes place a few months after A Season For Fireflies. For those who don't want to read it: Lisa broke her arm and later decided to quit Roselia for 40K words of ~reasons that Sayo doesn't quite understand yet.
Title is taken liberally from Shin Ai.
I. The old blue gone into clouds
… let's get it over with, success or failure, it'll be something to laugh at in ten years…
"Hina!"
The door finally opened just as Sayo's fist struck for the tenth time. Hina somehow twirled out of the way, giggling like they were playing together all along. Sayo alternated between apologizing and telling Hina to be careful, and also to turn down the deafening music. It was a rare Saturday morning that wasn't booked by Roselia, and Sayo was trying to study, and PasuPare's brand of bubblegum pop was not conducive to it.
"What on earth are you listening to that has to be so loud?" Sayo said after Hina had turned the volume to a level that allowed conversation.
Hina pulled Sayo into her room. As usual it was a mess; immediately Sayo stepped on the sharp edge of a textbook, the other foot on a stack of paper. She picked it up — it was a printout of a… "handbook" was printed in English on the corner. A promotional material from an American college?
Grinning mischievously, Hina said, "I thought you'd want to listen to it, too! Oh, but you might've heard it from Lisa-chi herself."
"Heard what?"
Hina answered, "PasuPare's newest single! We were finally releasing Afterglow's song after sitting on it for a year. But we needed a bibbity B-side, so Chisato-chan bullied Lisa-chi into writing one. That way we could sell it as 'songs by teenage girls for teenage girls'. Didn't she tell you?"
"Who?" Sayo said irritably, though she knew Hina didn't mean Shirasagi. A migraine commonly associated with talking to Hina started pounding on her temple. "And why should I have heard about it? Never mind, play it from the beginning."
"Y.O.L.O!?"
"Yes, yes, we only live once, now let me listen to the B-side."
Hina fiddled with the boombox she must have hauled up from the living room. Another thing to tell her off, later. For now Sayo stood on the least booby-trapped part of Hina's room and listened.
The song was an exercise in frustration. Time and again it would take her down a familiar path only to swerve into an unexpected direction, and not a satisfying one. The worst part was that Sayo could imagine Roselia playing it, Roselia on their deathbed selling out to the idol scene.
As the music faded, Hina hit the pause button and turned to Sayo, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "So, so, so?"
"Was it all from Imai-san, both the lyrics and the composition?"
"Nah, the score literally says 'Hina improv' here and there, and our studio usually touch things up. Dunno the exact details, though. Chisato-chan might know more. Lisa-chi didn't tell you anything?"
Not at all, neither this new, semi-professional gig, nor the thank you gift for Hello, Happy World; not a single word despite Sayo's explicit interest in anything Imai would create.
As Sayo simmered in brooding silence, Hina answered her own question. "Is it because she quit Roselia? Yanno, Yukina-chan's still not talking to her, even though they're in the same class. Oooh, you're making a weird face, did I say something wrong?"
Sayo shook her head, as if in an attempt to shake away the clouds in her mind. So what if Imai's new composition wasn't to her liking — it had been meant for PasuPare, not Roselia. But there was a relief there, too, that Imai hadn't abandoned music entirely. Had in fact treaded new grounds on her own, and quickly, much quicker than Sayo had expected her to. If the single came out today, the song's commission must have been not farther than a month after Imai's resignation. Sayo could only hope Shirasagi Chisato had ensured Imai would be paid yhandsomely.
"I'm trying to study, so keep it down."
"Aw, but it's still summer break."
"Even so, it wouldn't hurt to start preparing for university entrance exams." Sayo frowne at Hina for a different reason. "Are you… Hina, are you sure you're not going to enroll in any degrees at all?" Her announcement that high school would be the end of her academic life had earned her more parental wrath in a night than both their entire lives combined.
Hina tapped her chin. "Weelll. They all look interesting, but I also don't really have anything I want to study, either."
"Not even astronomy or astrophysics?" Sayo said, pushing the old bitterness down. Hina would excel at either; she'd excel at anything. From bachelorate straight to a doctorate in less than ten years. If she wanted to, for more than a day. Maybe that was the only edge Sayo had ever had over her.
Very simply, Hina said, "N-ope, academia's gonna take the fun out of it, yanno? Besides PasuPare is getting swinging, and Chisato-chan said we mightn't want to lose the momentum. She thinks we can go national in a few years. Chisato-chan, being zippidy-do! Wouldn't miss it for the world!"
Confronted with a new Hina phrase, Sayo opted to switch the subject. What about studying abroad? She waved the handbook. Impossibly, Hina brightened up even more. "Oh, that! So Rinko-chan said she was going to London for a piano diploma and then Maya-chan knew someone in the studio who's studied abroad and we got talking and anyway you can have it. You should go for it, Onee-chan!"
"… Apply to this school. But why?" She was reminded of Minato's disdain of formalk education — of institutions in general when it came to music. Sayo could hear her imperious voice, resounding with doubt, 'What does America have that Japan doesn't? What does the West know about visual kei?'
Hina had sparks in her eyes. Her gaze was far away, as though seeing a future only she could see. "A lot of things! The world is so much bigger than Japan! All those funny foreigners and their boppin' culture making up their music. Maybe you'll actually get to see your favourite bands live! Or, oooh, how's this, my sister the globe-boppin' guitarist!"
"That's even more incomprehensible than usual," Sayo muttered, acerbic only out of habit. But she glanced at her sister; like looking in the mirror, the same searchlight gaze shone back at her. Bright green eyes, wide open to catch the slightest change in their ever fluctuating boundaries. Sayo wasn't sure what to make of this one. As a test, she said, "I have Roselia."
Hina nodded solemnly. "That's why you should go international. Meet even more kinds of people and music. Bring them to Roselia, or Roselia to them if you have to. Lately it feels like you're getting shrinky."
"…Shrinky." The repetition wasn't quite enlightening as to Hina's meaning, but it struck a chord all the same. The same feeling as when she had listened to Imai's new song. Was she… finally able to speak Hina's language at last?
"Yeah, like a vacuum-wrapped futon!" Hina said, as confusing as ever. All was right with the world.
"…Right. Put the boombox back where it belongs before Mother comes home." Sayo turned to make her exit. The conversation was over, but she hesitated by the door. "Hina, could I borrow the CD — "
"Oh, I ripped the track and sent it to your LINE… just now!" Hina snickered as Sayo's phone buzzed, audible through the walls. "Have fun at Lisa-chi's! Hey, maybe I should crash at Rinko-chan's place. That NFO game must be really boppin' if you gotta have a sleepover to study."
—
"Hold on, Hina told you to, essentially, go to the other side of the world? And she didn't say anything like, 'take me with you, Onee-chan!'" Imai's imitation of Hina was several octaves higher.
"No, and she doesn't sound that grating normally," Sayo said as she concentrated on scrubbing the mixing bowl.
The very same afternoon, she was holed up in Imai's house as scheduled, once again making cookies together. Baking cookies uwas straightforward: proceed with the tried and true procedures, and results would follow. The criteria for evaluation was clear, and the feedback obvious and immediate. Human relationships… were not as simple. Sayo hadn't needed help making cookies in some time, but she'd learnt that time needed to be made. So she was in Imai's kitchen making cookies for Roselia, and before she knew it she was complaining about Hina.
"Huh. What do you know, even Hina's maturing a bit. So… what's bothering you?" Presently Imai looked up from where she was wiping the counter.
After some thought, Sayo answered, slightly frustrated, "I'd thought talking to you would reveal what it was."
"Ahaha, I'm flattered, I think. Okay, I'll throw until something sticks. Could it be your wish came true but it turns out you only thought you wanted it?"
Sayo shook her head. She didn't have a problem with Hina not following her, actually she felt lighter. "No? Then could it be that you're feeling like Hina doesn't need you anymore? Like yeah, she's growing up, but you also have less purpose as her sister?"
Is that why you left Roselia? Sayo kept the question firmly under lid. Imai's answer changed with each confrontation, until their final session together where Sayo felt they finally got somewhere close to the truth. Closer, but still very much not the whole truth. Sayo wanted to know as much as she didn't want to know, but in the end she decided Imai would talk about it when she was ready. And, she chided herself, it wasn't as if Imai was under any obligation to tell her.
Imai had made her choice; Sayo had made hers. Imai had believed Roselia would thrive without her, Sayo had vowed to never betray her trust. Though she had always meant to take Roselia as high as she could, there was now an additional weight to her resolve. In her mind these two conditions were entwined: Sayo as Roselia's guitarist would reach the pinnacle, and Imai would find a place where she could shine brighter than ever.
Yet when Imai went ahead and did just that, Sayo couldn't summon happiness for her. Rather the opposite, and for reasons unknown, which was more than a little vexing.
Watching Sayo brood, Imai came to the wrong conclusion. "Hey, don't think too much of it. I'm sure Hina still loves you and wants nothing but the best for you. Maybe she thinks that means letting go, or even pushing you away."
"Could she have learned that from you, Imai-san? Is that why you left Roselia?" Sayo hadn't meant to say it, but now that she had, she couldn't but gaze straight ahead, demanding an answer.
Gray eyes wavered guilty as charged; or livid at a truce broken. A blink and it was gone, replaced with a smile. "What are you talking about, Sayo? And you get mad at me when I change the subject suddenly," she said pleasantly, as though giving Sayo a chance to recover from her lapse.
The kitchen timer went off then. Shifting her eyes away, Sayo was struck by the afternoon summer sun. As she moved to close the curtains, Imai pulled out the results of today's session.
"Looks great! Can I have one?"
"Please do, it's your parents' kitchen."
"Hey, what's with the pedantry?"
"I'm concerned the portion I set aside wouldn't reach them."
"Wow. Wooow. Such slander!"
Imai laughed, accepted a tribute cookie and broke it into two. Of the two dozens, Imai set two aside for Sayo, and, as requested by the latter, six for her parents. Grumbling, "They're supposed to be watching their blood sugar level at their age, you know."
"So you see, I was right to doubt your integrity," Sayo shot back. She felt inexplicable relief when Imai very maturely stuck her tongue out. Such was Sayo and Imai's quarrelsome mood, easily vanquished by sweets and dry humor.
The rest of the cookies were put in groups of three to cool off before being packed. Sayo hadn't mentioned whom the cookies were for, but she would be more surprised if Imai hadn't guessed. Sayo had only ever baked cookies for Roselia. This, too, she had learned from Imai.
Still, Imai caught her off guard when she said, "Aren't Roselia's songs like cookies, when you think about it?"
Mistaking Sayo's silence as a sign of interest, Imai continued. So, she said, rubbing her palms together. Clearly it was a pet theory she'd had marinating in the back of her head for a while. It went like this: insofar that the process for writing songs could be likened to making sweets – because, after all, Sayo was talking to Imai Lisa – Afterglow was pancake, PoPiPa was pound cake, and HaroHapi was pudding. That cookie wasn't likened to PasuPare seemed to Sayo an almost offensive gaffe. Roselia, cookie cutter, never.
Imai's angle, as usual, was different. There was wistfulness in her voice. The members of Roselia were the different ingredients of cookies, each an expert of her respective instrument. "And then you mix them together, and you have the cookie cutter giving the batter a shape. That's Yukina… her vocals, I mean. Her, what, musicality, aesthetics, sense, you know what I mean. Roselia is whatever Minato defines it to be, at the end of the day. Finally, it only becomes a cookie if you put the cookie batter in the oven, and we only see Roselia as it's meant to be on the stage."
"It could also be taken to mean that Roselia's songs are formulaic." It irritated Sayo to hear Imai talking about Roselia as though she still had a right to it. And at the same time she was inordinately pleased, so much so that she contemplated the crude analogy.
Take Imai's new song, for example. The lighthearted, even girlish diction that failed to cover the anxiety in the lyrics, the instrumentation seemingly extracted from Roselia's discography and re-cast in PasuPare's mold. Sayo thought that was why the song had disturbed her so: a veritable proof that Roselia's sound was becoming stale, easily imitated and translated into another brand. Sayo wondered what Minato would make of her theory. Though at the same time she didn't want to be present when Minato discovered Imai was writing for other bands.
Imai scratched her cheek, taking Sayo's brusque answer in stride as always. "I thought you'd say that. Don't tell Yukina?"
"We don't talk about you at all," she said, slightly annoyed Imai thought she was the gossiping type. She almost missed the shutter falling on Imai's expression. Hastily, Sayo added, "We don't talk much about other people to begin with."
Imai snorted. "Well, why would you? It's a waste of time, gossiping. Come on, I want to get some homework done before making dinner."
They decamped to Imai's room with a tray of tea and cookies. The corkboard above the desk had acquired more notes since Sayo's last visit. At a glance there was a monthly calendar in addition to the weekly one, and a menagerie of university brochures. Everything else seemed the same. The pang as she passed the empty guitar stand, the blue dog plush blocking the way to the veranda… Sayo's eyes being drawn to one after another in quick successions.
"You really do like dogs," Imai commented. At some point while ascending the stairs she seemed to have regained her cheer.
"I-it's just that you're not in the habit of leaving things on the floor." And on a closer look, the doll looked more ragged than its comrades on the bed.
"There's a cat like it in Yukina's room. We got them together from a festival game a long time ago. So you know her room's right across? Like, within a kid's throwing distance. Whenever we wanted to talk we'd throw these, you know, calling cat and dog. Then our parents found out and made us stop."
Imai walked over and picked the doll up as she spoke, smiling to herself as though Sayo wasn't present, and it was only her and her memories. Sayo averted her gaze, listlessly prepared her own books and stationery.
As she sat down before the low table Imai called her name. The dog plush landed on her lap. "Don't worry, that was a long time ago and I've washed the little guy since then."
Sayo rolled her eyes. Once again they fell on the empty guitar stand by the drawer, and the guitar case next to it. Her previous visit, Imai had noticed her staring and used the lost fine motor dexterity of her left hand as an excuse. This time… this time PasuPare's newest song still echoed in her mind. She held the doll close so as not to hinder her progress.
Finally Imai sat down and they could begin to work. For a while there was only silence and the problem sets before her. Hina hadn't guessed quite right: NFO was sometimes a considerable distraction, when Sayo allowed it to be. But today Sayo had sought refugee in the silence unique to Imai's place. Here, though she had her guitar with her, she wouldn't be distracted by Roselia. And when it was just the two of them, Imai proved to be a diligent student despite her extravagant appearance.
Soon it was time for break. Imai's parents were away on business trip. Sayo suspected in the past it would have been Minato standing in her place, helping Imai make dinner. In another, better time where the stars were aligned and Roselia was the best it could be. It wasn't a thought she liked to entertain for too long.
So Sayo obediently and quietly executed whatever tasks Imai set before her. "I guess this is good training for when you'll live abroad."
"Thank you," Sayo said sincerely, but Imai just gave her an odd look.
"Actually, what do you really think about it?"
Sayo didn't answer immediately, busy with peeling the potatoes as she was. "I haven't had the opportunity to research it. But I can't say I'm opposed to at least applying." It would be yet another test, a chance to evaluate herself.
"That's the spirit. Oh, and if you're done, if you could also start boiling water with that pot over there. And, uh, it might not be my place to say this…"
Sayo smirked. "When has that ever stopped you?"
"Wow, rude. Don't wait until you're, like, at the airport to let Yukina know, okay? Although if you asked her she'd say, 'What does America know about visual-kei?'"
It was a spot-on impression. Sayo couldn't help letting out a short laugh. "I will apprise Minato-san of anything that would affect Roselia. But at the moment there is no point in telling anyone when all I have is conjecture. And should it come to that point, I would rather tell them myself."
Imai mimed pulling a zipper on her mouth. Sayo was slightly skeptical, but there was nothing she could do about it. Anyway it wasn't a shameful secret, or a proper secret at all. She just preferred to let people know firsthand.
After dinner, as a guest Sayo had the first turn with the bathroom. The last item for the day was movie night, Imai's original pretext for the sleepover. Supposedly, though the drama itself was a little overwrought, even hackneyed, the soundtrack should be of interest to Sayo. While waiting for Imai to return, Sayo happened to check her phone. There was a message from Minato.
Minato Yukina: Are you still at Lisa's place? I saw you came in earlier.
Hikawa Sayo: Yes, I am staying overnight. How can I help you?
Minato Yukina: Come over to my house. There's something I'd like to talk about that concerns Roselia.
Minato had never invited Sayo to her house. Usually they would meet at the family restaurant or CiRCLE, before or after band sessions, for discussions the other members were not privy to. Sayo chanced a peek at the room beyond the veranda. Minato was sitting on her desk. When she noticed Sayo staring, she jerked her head imperiously. Well, Sayo? What could be more important than Roselia?
"What're you looking at? You seem tense, so it can't be a friendly neighborhood fluffy animal."
Startled, Sayo drew the curtain close. Imai had returned, half-wet hair still coiled with a towel. Staring at her unadorned face, seeming much younger without make up, made Sayo feel even more foolish. There was nothing to feel guilty about. Was there? "Minato-san wanted to see me."
"Ah," said Imai. Her smile came a split second late. "Well then, don't keep her waiting."
"But…" But she had meant to take a break from Roselia today. But already Imai was affecting a nonchalant air…. But whatever the case might be Sayo's gaze and attention was drawn to the neighboring house. "But I've made an appointment with you first," she finished reluctantly.
"We can always watch the movie later, or I could lend it to you."
"As Minato-san wishes, so it must be?" goaded Sayo, pulse pounding behind her ear. She squashed the sliver of guilt. Like this, thin brows furrowed, Imai was bound to answer honestly.
"Don't be silly, I just thought you wanted to go. It doesn't look like you'd be able to focus on anything else until you've talked to Yukina." Imai turned her palm up, a reconciliatory gesture, maybe. "Of course, you don't have to do anything you don't want to."
Well, it was honest enough, Sayo decided. "It shouldn't take too long," she promised.
"Just let me know if you do end up sleeping there, so I can lock up." Imai nodded, reaching for a book. A class-assigned classic novel whose completion she had celebrated. A mere prop, Sayo knew. If she'd gone through the trouble of concealing her emotions, the least Sayo could do was pretend she didn't see how badly.
—
Moments later, changed into her day clothes, Sayo approached the Minato's front entrance. The door swung open before she could ring the bell. Minato beckoned her inside and quietly Sayo did. Neither spoke until they were inside a certain room — a studio.
"It's soundproofed, so we can play music without disturbing my parents," Minato explained as she turned on the lights.
Minato gestured at Sayo to take the only other seat in the room, facing each other. On the desk between them were music sheets. Before she could take a closer look, Minato briskly said, "I hope you weren't in the middle of something important."
"No." It should have gone without saying. Neither Sayo nor Minato were pushovers, they would simply decline if the time wasn't right. And as Sayo thought about it, if it had to be said Minato should have asked earlier instead of now, with the air of ticking a checklist. The thought brought an image of Imai imposing a checklist of minimal social manners on her childhood friend. Ah, could it be that Minato was trying to — clumsily and reluctantly — inquire about Imai?
While Sayo was deciding whether she was overthinking it, Minato had already moved on. She rapped the desk for attention. On the desk was a mix of re-arrangement of their old songs and new songs. Notably, they were all only partially completed. "I'm assembling our next setlist," Minato said. "I think we should introduce at least one new song, but as you can see, I couldn't make any progress on my own."
Sayo unconsciously sat up. "Would you like me to take a look?"
"Of course. All these are at your disposal." Minato waved at the entire room. Sayo counted three guitars, a keyboard, and various percussive instruments strewn in a corner, not including the various amps and pieces of classical instruments, and even a car tire frame. Dimly, Sayo remembered a reference Imai had made to this room. Minato's father's sanctuary, where Minato Yukina the vocalist grew up permeated with her father's music like a lotus plant. Now that he had abandoned music, it had become Minato's sanctuary when she had run up against a gargantuan writer's block. Supposedly, Minato still didn't feel she was worthy of the studio. Sayo didn't exactly take Imai's words literally, but somehow she had expected something less mundane, and introduced with much less spontaneity.
Sayo mentally shook her head. Clearing all background noise. "If you say so, Minato-san."
Certain things became apparent in the wake of Imai's resignation. One, that without nostalgia dulling her ears Minato's standards were impossibly high; and she would not compromise. This Sayo agreed with. And the second was, as a result of said indomitable vision, Roselia's music must have a bassline even as they remained without a dedicated bass player. Shirokane's left hand couldn't be sacrificed as a substitute, nor could they make do with Sayo varying her guitar. They could, however, compensate with a simpler bassline that Minato could play while singing.
Sayo still didn't have a problem with this arrangement. She had never had cause to doubt Minato's prowess. More than the semantics in the lyrics, more than the interplay between harmony and rhythm, more than the striking image of their live performance, Minato always sought beyond these superficial elements. In a moment of weakness she had once plead ignorance of its exact form, let alone its name. To Sayo, who could barely see past the framework provided by music theory, it was enough that Minato caught glimpses of the elusive pinnacle. Sometimes she thought that rather than the band, she was really Minato's guitarist, pushing her forward, and in turn drawing the others closer to their goal. That was fine. But sometimes…
"I think this is fine as it is." Loath as she was to break the precious silence of productivity, Minato had asked for her opinion. Pointing to a section encircled with a lot of question marks, Sayo said, "Although if you'd allow me to borrow a guitar to confirm my reading."
Minato shook her head. "Never mind that part, that note was more for myself."
But sometimes Sayo wanted to see the mirage Minato was chasing, and hear its siren call. The cliche of two heads being better than one ought to apply to Roselia as well. Else there was no point in forming a band in the first place, in partnering up with Sayo.
Sometimes Sayo wondered if Minato saw their relationship the same way. "Then could it be that you have other concerns?"
Minato tilted her head, answering slowly. "I suppose you could call it that. About the hiatus."
"I have no objection to it." After all they had all exhausted their objections and arguments and finally, unanimously agreed to suspend Roselia's activities for an indefinite period, depending on the turnout of their post-graduation lives.
Impatiently, Minato crossed her arms. "No, not that. But in the event that the hiatus is inevitable, I am considering applying to several schools." She rattled off a number of famous music schools in the greater Tokyo area. Some of them Sayo recognised from Shirokane's list of schools under consideration, and her own.
"You've changed your mind on formal education, I see," Sayo said lightly.
Minato was, apparently, serious. "As I said, this is the sort of thing hiatuses are meant for. The lessons might be useful yet, but more importantly, we are sure to find a potential bassist for Roselia."
It was an unassailable logic. Students of a post-secondary music school should by rights be dedicated to their instrument.
…Nevertheless, Sayo wasn't sure what Minato wanted from her. She tried, "I, too, am planning to apply to the same. Ah, and Shirokane-san as well, with similar goals in mind."
The answer seemed to appease Minato. She nodded, and went back to scowling at the sheet before her. Minato was more inscrutable when she tried to be sociable. So it was with some measure of relief that Sayo followed her example and contemplated the problem of their setlist.
Minato liked to think she was above academia, and accordingly her grades hovered around the passing threshold. Now that she intended to enter university, she would have to work harder to make up for the imbalance. She would have to devote less time to Roselia. This was non-negotiable; Sayo would see to it, for Minato's own sake. Band rehearsals and individual practice sessions couldn't be sacrificed. Then, songwriting? As she hit on the thought, Sayo realised this must be the through line for Imai's foray into writing songs.
(And surely not the only one, for she continued writing while estranged from Minato.)
In any case, it wasn't a path Sayo could see herself undertaking, especially with the extra preparations she had to do for the American school. Writing songs wasn't the only thing Imai had undertaken for Roselia's sake, that Sayo could also imitate.
"Minato-san, what does the west know about visual kei?"
Minato looked up, eyes narrowed as though suspecting her own hearing, or Sayo's sanity. Perhaps because it was Minato and Sayo, two people too serious for anyone else but each other, she answered the question on face value. "I believe something resembling it rises above the morass occasionally, but I would look west for other kinds of music. What brought this on, Sayo?"
"I'm sorry, that was a little too sudden. I was merely thinking of covering songs in order to comprise our next few setlists."
"Covers," Minato said, tasting the word on her tongue.
Sayo's pitch didn't stop there. "I do not propose this to lower our standards, or because I think we desperately need to attract more audience. In a way it is a compromise between quality and our increasing responsibilities outside of Roselia. But I believe through the process we may more closely examine others' skills and techniques, and in re-arranging we may discover our own sound. Accordingly, I propose also that each member arrange their own parts separately, with your vocals as the base, and assemble the completed cover during rehearsals."
In other words, they would be making cookies, Roselia-style. Imai would split herself laughing if she knew. Minato considered her proposal for a long minute. "It's not an unattractive idea. Very well, let us give it a try at least once."
The rest of the night was spent on deciding on the song, and then recording Minato's singing, and the rest of it on the songs they were originally supposed to be working on. Not once did Sayo remember to check her phone. The next thing Sayo remembered was waking up slumped on the desk. It was almost afternoon, and Minato's mother was entering the studio, waking Minato with habitual exasperation. After excusing herself to Minato's mother, and her amused father, Sayo returned to Imai's house to retrieve her stuff. Proverbial tail tucked between legs, apologizing earnestly to a peevish Imai, she almost missed the red bass lounging on its stand, freed of its case.