Everyone is setting up for the festival. Booths are setup for selling shirts and recruiting for overseas colleges. The sound of so many people talking fills the courtyard.
Himari tugs on my sleeve, "Ran! What do you think of that!"
I say, "The art club did a pretty good job on the background. You can see where they stopped caring in the cloud's shading."
Oh Kasumi and Arisa run towards us. Something tells me it's not just to say hi.
"Tomoe! Have you seen," Arisa' eyes shift and she whispers, "Maya?"
"Why would you want, Maya?"
Arisa slowly blinks twice and shuffles back a little, "What makes you think I want her! Who said I wanted her I don't want her!"
"You did, you just asked about her."
Kasumi closes her eyes half way, "He he he, she did, didn't she?"
"Pastel Palettes are setting up way at the other end. Hey can't you just text her or send her a snap?"
She closes her eyes scratching the back of her head. "I tried. Something's wrong with my amp and Maya knows everything about that kind of stuff."
I tippy toe and move around to find a crowd gap. Oh there's Maya. I tell Kasumi, "There she is." I point her to an equipment booth.
Oof Kasumi almost knocked me over with her big hug, "Thank you so much Ran!"
I pat her shoulder. "No problem."
Kasumi's eyes gleam and she excitedly skips towards Maya and Arisa drags her feet following her.
"Well she seemed happy."
"Hey come to think of it where's the rest of our band?"
I look at my phone, "Moca sent a Snap with crumbs on her face."
"That's our Moca." Wha she grabbed my phone she sent one to you too!
"Umm?"
"You were about to get that screencap achievement of shame."
I tell her, "Good thinking. Looks like Himari's walking towards that booth with a guy who looks like Jungkook."
Tomoe says, "I swear if anyone else says they look like girls like it's a bad thing I'm going to scream."
Oh Tomoe. "Well you are pretty scary when you do that."
He has kind of messy bangs and medium chestnut brown hair and a light blue and white denim jacket with fraying near the collar. You know it was probably bought like that. His high cheekbones are pretty nicely defined. His fresh sugar lip balm makes his lips pop.
Oooooo looks like Himari has a crush.
Himari flirts with him saying, "Hi! I like shirts too. I love your webstore's background."
"Thanks."
Himari rests her face on her hands, her elbows resting on the guy's counter. "I have such a big fanclub I have to beat them off with a stick."
We walk up to Himari, "Let's go Himari before your army of stans keeps us from finding Moca. We need to tune our instruments."
"You're in a band! That's so cool!"
"Hmm, you could say that." She puts her finger on her chin like she's thinking.
I say under my breath, "Oh, you can say that."
"Is your friend with the red streak in her hair making fun of you."
Uh oh, busted.
"Oh that's Ran. We've been friends since childhood."
As we're walking away Himari waves, "Bye!"
Himari goes through her bag and aww that's so sweet of her! "Ran, Tomoe, I got you two something. Isn't it just adorable!" You know something it actually is. But we have an image to keep up.
"Aww thanks. Himari, you know how we have this tough cool girl image? Umm, how about I buy you a nice shirt? There are plenty of booths."
Tomoe puts her hand on Himari's shoulder, "Himari, hon, what Ran's trying to say is you're dressed too cute."
Exactly Tomoe though I know Himari seems like she'd take it the wrong way.
"I found this really nice shirt you'd just love Himari. Come with me, you too Tomoe let's go."
Oh a Van's booth! Ugh, how can I of all people not know this would even be here? There's Misaki I have to say hi.
"Hey Misaki!"
"Hey Ran. What's good with you?"
"I'm shopping with Himari." I whisper, "You're not looking forward to wearing Michelle are you."
"You know me so well. I still can't believe Kokoro Hagumi and even Kaoru of all people somehow haven't figured out that I'm Michelle."
Aaah! I feel something knock me down, I stop my fall with the bottom of my hands but I feel really dizzy and getting up didn't help with it.
"Oh I'm so sorry Ran are you okay? I had to run around so many people!"
"Hi Misaki! Have you seen Michelle?"
"She asked me to tell you to wait for her backstage."
"Thanks!"
Himari runs off, stopping when people walk in front of her and goes around people just standing there. She moves so fast yet fluid, maybe I should sign up for soccer too.
Himari's eyes widen with excitement, "Woah I need those!"
They're a pair of white and lavender checkerboard slipons.
I buy her a black diamond supply shirt with a lavender square.
"Oh Ran this is so nice thank you!"
I feel so loved today. Now we can all look like cool rocker girls. And Tomoe gets her a Teddy Fresh strapback hat.
Himari tells me, "So I tapped on a Versace ad and found the cutest carnation pink cropped denim jacket with a shiny yellow collar on Versace's website and you wouldn't believe how much it was! It was…"
She whispers the price in me and Tomoe's ear, "$2,400."
Tomoe takes a step back blinking a couple of times because she's so shook. "What! I don't care what anyone says that's way too much."
She shows me on her phone, "Oh and it would match your aesthetic so perfectly too."
Tomoe looks too and stares at the embroidered leather skinny pants. "Three…$3,300!" Poor Tomoe looks like she's going to cry. "I so need those."
The wind whistles gently through the trees, the sun kisses our faces whenever people's shadows aren't draping over us.
Ako's running towards us and I joke with Tomoe, "Isn't it funny how considering how many people are here we keep running into people we know?"
"Hey sis! Guess what our aunt's here!"
Awkwardness dropped from above like a ton of bricks. This is gonna be fun.
Tomoe raises her eyebrows half smiling, "Is this a joke?"
"No I'm serious. She texted me how she really wants to see us play and wanted to be here to cheer us on."
Tomoe rolls her eyes, "That one? Mom's only sister? The one who called us freaks? Ako, this is bad, bad bad bad."
"But she seems so happy to visit. All she wants is for you me mom and dad to have a fun time at the mall."
Tomoe sighs and tells her, "So you really believe that? People our age are dating, partying, getting ready for college, and I don't know, concerts like this? And what do you want to do Ako? The same thing we've done since we were like 6 and you were 4."
Ako puts her hands on her hips puffing her cheeks. Why does she have to be so mad at us? "We're family and she really cares about you."
"If you really believe that then I feel sorry for you. Besides do you really want to be seen with them? We'll get made fun of, we have images to manage."
"But all those yummy foods and drinks! The sodas, ice creams, coffees."
Tomoe makes a really annoyed expression. "And mom somehow gets into random conversations talking about how terrible we are while our aunt holds up really frilly girly clothes saying, really loudly how we'd just love this! And don't even get me started on her trying to wipe our mouths. And she doesn't want us playing remember?"
Ako sighs slumping her shoulders. "You're right we're stuck. I just want her to accept us so much I forgot."
Ako's voice brightens as she cheers up, "I know! How about I get prickly pear shaved ice with lime and you get a peanut butter and banana chocolate cone!"
Tomoe says in that big sister teasing way, "You know Ako, it's times like these I seriously believe you were adopted."
Tomoe taps her chin thinking. "Hmm, you want to be cool like me or Yukina right? Well I can help you find your band. Come on let's go."
I'm pretty worried. "What if we run into Sayo or Yukina?"
"Oh, they won't be high key mean to us in front of Ako."
"I just hope we can all be friends again when they get over their ridiculous competitiveness."
Tomoe crosses her arms raising her chin in a mocking way, "You never know when an agent might book us. We must always play perfect."
"I mean as musicians we can appreciate how important it is knowing how to play them but it's feeling stuff about stuff that makes it good."
Is Moca sleeping standing up again? "Are you kidding? Moca! Moca wake up this isn't funny! You worry me everytime you randomly fall asleep somewhere. Moca how many times do we have to go through with this, sleeping standing up, especially in public, is dangerous! Or at best embarrassing. Like what if the wrong person took a selfie with you? We're in a band together, so that would reflect bad on the rest of us. We have practice come on!"
She's holding back a laugh. Oh I'm so sure scaring your friends is just so funny.
She's slowly blinking. "Moca's hungry."
Tomoe grabs her hand, "Come on Moca, let's go to a food truck."
We order tacos and woah they have sriracha? As much as I love Cholula sauce sriracha goes with literally everything. I order a tofu corn tortilla taco with sriracha, lime, and avocado. Tomoe orders a spicy grilled chicken taco with Thai dragon pepper sprinkled on it on a corn tortilla. Moca orders a burger with sriracha and ketchup topped with jalapenos and well done fries.
Hey wait a minute we forgot about Tsugu, "Excuse me I'd also like to order a sweet potato taco, it's for our friend Tsugu she plays keyboard."
"No problem we have all your orders."
Concern fills Tomoe's voice, "Ran, we haven't seen Tsugu. I texted her but she hasn't answered me back."
"Moca's not worried."
"Well Moca should be. We spent so much time together coming up with my lyrics and the beats and rhythms. No Tsugu, no pulse, no beat! This, is bad!"
"Ran worries too much."
"Well Moca I have to worry this much because you don't worry at all! Where do you think you're going?" She's slowly walking off again.
"If Ran doesn't want me to get ready."
"Oh, we're supposed to walk this way, sorry Moca."
We show security our IDs and they let us backstage.
If only we knew where Tsugu was.
Huh she's here? Oops. Silly me didn't even notice she texted me.
Tomoe puts her hand on my shoulder, "It's my fault too. I'll handle this."
"Hey Tsugu we got your text!"
She practices keyboard but girls from our class helped out with the lighting and gorgeous background for our show.
"Oh, hi Ran." She sounds pretty down. Not in a I got dumped way but in a I found a top I really really like but nothing was in my size kind of way. Like that happens a lot but I mean like if it was really that good. I feel so bad for leaving her on open but I just didn't know.
"We brought you food. Sorry we went without you."
"Thanks Ran." Her voice is still flat is she okay?
"Did Tsugu find something at a booth but it didn't fit?"
"No, Tsugu was busy, by herself."
How did we even get separated like we did? Why is Tsugu talking in the third person? Oh right, Moca started it. I hope Ako got back okay.
Tomoe tells us, "I just got a text from Ako, she made it."
Tsugu tells us, a lady told me our show's canceled. But Marina didn't tell us so we're still setting up."
Tomoe crosses her arms slowly nodding. "I know exactly what's wrong."
We leave the backstage area and see, Tomoe's aunt. Boy does she not look happy.
"What have I told you?"
"Don't you know anything? Look at all the friends I have, all the followers on Insta I have, this right here, is who I am. Mom learned to accept me for who I am."
"Tomoe! Watch your tone I am your aunt. And nonsense dear you're a girl. I still can't get over how my sister just lets you drum for some band. You embarrass our family with your…music! Why can't you play a proper instrument like the violin?"
I snort trying to hold back a laugh.
Tomoe does a fake laugh. "Ha! You don't know me at all, do you aunt."
Her aunt scans us all with her judgey eyes, "You guys are seriously not going to keep dressing like that are you? Why can't you look more like her?"
I can already feel all of our blood pressures starting to rise. I'm already stewing in anger because of her.
She points her chin at Tsugu.
"Because not all of us are Tsugu."
I admire just how much chill Moca has. She says, "Because not all of us are Tsugurific."
I walk forward a little, "Listen, I know you're upset with Tomoe for being in our band but we've been friends since we were kids."
"You're still kids."
"Kay, but my dad hated how I wanted to play in a band. He was like but what about flower arrangement and I told him dad, I love you but it's just not for me. His lip quivered and he stormed out of the room to his room. He wouldn't speak to me for two whole days. It made me feel awful and rejected, like I didn't even matter and I hated it. But he saw us play and he learned to accept me, to accept us. We are Afterglow."
Tomoe tells her aunt, "That's right. We promised our fans a show. We worked together on a song about how much it sucks being a teen, and it's mostly because people do what you do."
Her aunt throws her hair back. "Fine. Your mother father and Ako and I are going to have a wonderful time at the mall together. Enjoy your time with, well them."
"I'm leaving."
"Good."
She leaves and we go backstage again.
Tomoe rolls her eyes, "Does she even know us at all? We got some time let's practice."
It's the moment we've been practicing for. It's almost sunset and I can already tell Instagram's going to be flooded with a lot of sunset pics. Well it is perfect Instagram lighting. It's such a fiery sunset with bright red clouds and vibrant orange near the horizon.
I tap on my mic and tell the audience, "Hey. This is our new song, so, enjoy!"
"A black hole looms in my soul. Am I not doomed to suffer forever in this world? Am I my friend? Am I my enemy? Does it like even matter? They wanna controls us, they wanna keep us down, they tell us to be ourselves, then they tell you no not your real self but our idea of you. Am I not doomed to suffer forever in this world? Pain and suffering, grades, what's the point of it all?"
I lower my pitch to match the mood of Himari's bass and sing faster to match Tomoe's tempo. "School is a prison, disappointment and pain are life. You say state your purpose I say I don't have to justify myself. There is an inextinguishable fire in my soul, it will burn my cage. We are different, yet the same, our humanity connecting us together."
The courtyard erupts in clapping and cheering, and their phones look like little lights.
Tomoe says. "That was quite a show. How did we do?"
I smile at her saying, "Same as always."
Tomoe's aunt walks up to us. "Tomoe, dear, sorry for being so harsh on you. But you know what they say about nails that stick out."
"Yeah, hammers hitting anyone tends to piss them off. But sorry for how I reacted we had to get ready for a show, we have to study for tests and have homework and you never know when you'll miss out or fall behind."
I ask, "Hey, want to watch Roselia with us? Ako likes you, even though you were mean to her."
"Oh, that girl is in her own little world. But she is such a sweet kid."
We stand next to Kaoru and she tells us, "Ahh, such fleeting beauty, this marvelous sunset."
Himari tells her, "It doesn't have to be fleeting take a pic!"
Kaoru puts her hand over her chest, "Tis but a copy. I already uploaded a few to Instagram. There is nothing like seeing it with your own eyes."
Moca asks, "Did Kokoro find you? Kokoro was looking for you."
"We played a marvelous show. Like Shakespeare said, though this be madness, there is method in it. I feel, this describes Hello Happy World perfectly. Such happy faces in the crowd, so beautiful, so fleeting."
Roselia's revealed after the curtain comes up. Their background looks like outer space and there's a gorgeous navy blue and magenta space cloud and lots of tiny little stars.
Yukina's voice is so smooth and precise, hitting her notes flawlessly. Sayo's so precise on the guitar it's actually kind of scary. Ako looks like she's having the time of her life and her drumming gives their song so much heart and life while Rinko's synthwork makes everything dreamy. Chimey and sparkly high notes add so much but don't give you a splitting headache. Lisa's bass also has heart to it, and Yukina follows it perfectly.
Everyone cheers and we meet with Ako and Kaoru goes back to hanging with Hello Happy World.
Sayo walks up to us, her head hanging down like she feels bad. "Sorry for being mean to you guys this past week."
Yukina adds, "Yes. We took it out on you because we're trying to be the best. Only excellence may define Roselia."
Ako has an excited expression and tells us, "We're going to the mall to celebrate! Sis, would it be okay if we meet you?"
Tomoe says, "Aww, but what about family time? You promised our aunt you'd go with her."
Ako tugs on her collar and looks up like she's counting clouds. "I did, didn't I?"
Me and Tomoe stalk Roselia and can see Tomoe's aunt wiping Ako's mouth. Ako blushes bright coral and covers her face.
"Aunt, umm, I can wipe my own mouth."
Lisa laughs and tries wiping Sayo's mouth but she moves her face away.
Rinko puts her hand over her mouth, obviously laughing.
I text dad asking if I can sleep over Tomoe's and he says I can and let him know I'm okay.
Me the rest of Afterglow and Ako sit in Tomoe's room.
"You were so cool sis! Oh, you were so right about our aunt. All of Roselia like you should have seen it! And Lisa copied her too."
"Hey, you wanted family time."
"I know Ran, but I just want to be so cool but don't want anyone thinking I'm a baby."
I smile. "Hey, tomorrows a whole new day."
Tomoe's grinning in that way. "I'm ready for school tomorrow."
Hrmmm. "I'll try not to sleep in class."
Moca has that playful smile. "Moca wants to try out a few games."
"Oh of all the times you're not falling asleep it just happens to be now?"
Himari's eyes brighten. "Today we slayed! Hey, Hey, Oh!"
We look at each other giggling and Himari blinks a couple of times. "What?"
We start laughing louder. "What?"
Himari says with a whine, "No fair we never do my chant!"
