It sure has been a while since I last uploaded anything on this site. Shining Sunlight was updated at the start of March, which means it has been five months already… and while I am not ready to say that I have the time and energy to go back to writing and uploading fanfiction again, it still felt… almost wrong to not upload something today. That being said, because it has been a while I can't say with confidence that this oneshot will live up to the quality before the break.
Anyways, a quick happy birthday to Tsurumaki Kokoro (as well as a myriad of other characters from other franchises). That being said, as always, you are not going to be the center of this oneshot… there are various reasons for this, but let's go with "I haven't written fanfiction in ages so going back to writing I want to write characters I at least know and are comfortable writing".
A special thank you goes to ReiTheMegaMawile for making and providing the cover image of this oneshot!
Disclaimer: I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party nor do I, in any way, shape, or form, intend to pretend that I do.
It was a swelteringly hot late-summer afternoon and Ran was more than ready for the last lesson of the day to end. She had already sneakily loosened her tie in the hopes that this would let her breathe easier, but this action did little to help cool her down. Ran's only solace was knowing that she wasn't the only one suffering in the classroom; practically every student forced to be in the classroom were showing signs of being affected by the heat to various degrees.
As the teacher kept droning on about a math problem Ran was too tired to pay attention to, Ran sneaked a glance around her to see how her friends were faring. Himari had excused herself to the toilet two minutes ago so Ran couldn't see what her pink-haired friend was up to. Tomoe had fished a notebook from her bag and was using it to fan air at her face in a feeble attempt to try and cool off.
Even Tsugumi, the most hardworking girl in their group, had seemingly given up on trying to focus on the lesson. The brunette was slowly sipping lukewarm water from her water bottle. When Ran had checked on Tsugumi what felt had been only ten minutes ago the bottle had just been refilled, but it was almost half empty now.
That only left Moca, but Ran didn't need to look at the guitarist to know that Moca was sleeping behind a propped-up textbook to hide from the teacher. Moca had been in this state for almost the entirety of the lesson already.
Ran tore her gaze away from the sleeping Moca to stare at the clock hanging near the door. Only a few more painful minutes until the end of the lesson and, more importantly, the end of the school day.
But as is often the case when painstakingly waiting for something to happen and watching the seconds tick by, it started to feel like time was beginning to slow down for Ran. The clock's hand began moving slower and slower almost as if to tease Ran that her freedom would never come.
Fortunately for Ran, however, time didn't stop; the clock eventually reached the fateful three-thirty mark and, right on time, the sound of a bell could be heard throughout the entire building. The savior that relieved everybody of the suffering and torment of sitting in a hot classroom listening to a lesson they weren't interested in.
It wasn't long after this bell had rung that everybody started pouring out of the classroom. Ran was a bit on the slower side and had only now finished packing her bag. But getting herself ready to leave the classroom was an easy task. Now she had to somehow wake Moca, a task much easier said than done.
"Moca, the class ended; we're going home now," the exasperated voice of Ran reached Moca's ears, but they weren't processed by the guitarist. Ran tried to call Moca's name twice more before letting out a sigh. This wasn't working and Ran was well aware of this fact, so she had to take a slightly different approach.
She saw her friends approach her with what Ran knew had to be a similar intent, but if Ran wanted to execute her plan correctly she couldn't rely on them. But it wasn't just wanting to prove that she could do it alone; no, if Ran were to have any chance at succeeding she needed to do this. And she needed to do this alone.
"Tomoe, Tsugumi, you two can go on ahead with Himari when she returns from the toilet," Ran spoke quietly, directing her words to the girls who were walking towards her and Moca. When Ran turned to face them she noticed that Tsugumi had opened her mouth to respond, so Ran had to voice her thoughts quickly, "I am going to do that. It won't work if Moca sees that you are still around."
Tsugumi slowly closed her mouth without making a sound and Tomoe nodded silently in understanding upon hearing Ran's words. The two of them wished Ran luck before they turned around and gathered their belongings. Ran was right: they had to leave the classroom quickly for Ran to successfully execute her plan.
It only took Tomoe and Tsugumi a minute to leave the classroom. With their departure, Ran now found herself alone with Moca so she turned to her friend and took a deep breath.
Ran closed her eyes for a second to not only gather the words she needed but also to mentally apologize to her childhood friend for what she was about to do. With a renewed sense of energy, Ran placed her hand on Moca's shoulder and lightly yet firmly shook the sleeping girl, "If you don't hurry then Himari will buy all the pastries at the bakery."
The results were immediate. So immediate, even, that Ran had to jump back so she wouldn't be hit by Moca jolting to sit upright.
"What?!" Moca nearly shouted while looking around her to find the person responsible for interrupting and ruining her beauty sleep. Had the situation not been so dire, Ran might have laughed or at least cracked a smile seeing the state that Moca was in. Her best friend had clearly seen better days after having used her classroom desk as a pillow. Moca's hair was disheveled and messy, a thin trail of saliva could be seen moving from the corner of her mouth down to her chin, and her eyes were hazy and unfocused.
"Good morning to you, too, Moca. Or should I say 'good afternoon'; school already ended," Ran added the last bit while motioning at all the empty seats in the classroom. And, to make sure that she could get through to Moca in her half-asleep state, Ran also nodded in the direction of the clock.
A sheepish-looking Moca understood what Ran was meaning to say and took a moment to stretch. The resulting cracking noise of her back caused a slight wince from Ran, but neither girl chose to respond to this reaction.
Now that Moca was properly awake she picked up her bag, haphazardly threw her books in it, and slung the strap over her shoulder. Seemingly satisfied, Moca turned back to face Ran once again and ask the question Ran knew she had to answer.
"As I said, they already left," Ran answered, turning around and walking to the door to open it. Having expected her friend to be right behind her, Ran was surprised to see that Moca had yet to follow her. Ran looked over her shoulder and addressed Moca with a small genuine smile, "You coming with me? Himari, Tomoe, and Tsugumi must be waiting for us."
It didn't take long for Ran and Moca to catch up to their friends as they ran into them near the school's front gate. One of them did so in ways more than one and was still feeling the consequences of it as the group of five walked through the streets half an hour later.
"I said I was sorry, please forgive me, Ran," Himari whined loudly for the twentieth time since they left the school grounds. Both Himari and Ran had a dirty spot on their skirts, a testament to what had happened, and Himari had been trying to apologize for her mistake. Unfortunately for Himari, Ran was either ignoring the bassist or simply chose to not forgive her yet. Himari could never tell which it was when Ran fell silent and unresponsive.
"A-Anyways, it looks like we're here," Tomoe pointed out in the hopes that she could put the focus of the group on something else. It worked, for the most part, giving both Himari and Ran an excuse to turn their attention to something else. While she was successful in that regard, Tomoe flinched when she turned to her other two friends and saw the look on Moca's face.
As quickly as this appeared on Moca's face it also vanished, and Tomoe was left wondering if she had actually seen something or if she had imagined it all along. With how sweltering hot the day had been so far she couldn't be sure of either option. It could very well have been both…
The group of five friends had found themselves in front of the familiar live house CiRCLE. Himari was all too happy to rush through the doors and be greeted by the cold lobby inside. Tomoe rushed in after her, a satisfied and relieved grin plastered on her face the moment she felt the air conditioner.
Ran, Moca, and Tsugumi turned to each other to see who would be the first amongst them to join Himari and Tomoe inside. It was ultimately Ran who shrugged her shoulders and stepped forward. This left Moca alone with Tsugumi outside.
"Tsugu, can you go ahead and make sure that we have a place to practice? And to prevent Ran and Hii-chan from jumping at each other or making a scene?" Moca asked slowly, having waited long enough for them to be alone before speaking. Tsugumi understood what Moca wanted and nodded in confirmation before asking Moca what she would be doing, "Moca-chan… will be catching up with everyone else soon, don't worry."
While not completely convinced by Moca's words, Tsugumi also couldn't find a proper reason to bring it up again. So Tsugumi did what she did best and that was believe in her closest friends; if Moca said that she would be with them soon then who was Tsugumi to doubt her?
Tsugumi said a quick 'don't stay out in the hot weather too long, Moca-chan' before entering CiRCLE and leaving Moca behind. Moca would be blankly staring at the glass door for a handful of seconds before her brain fully processed Tsugumi's words.
'That's right… I shouldn't worry them and stay out here for too long,' Moca thought, shaking her head vigorously to rid herself of any unnecessary thoughts. She even went the extra mile by lightly slapping both of her cheeks to try and focus. It worked.
Moca looked around her and tried to find the thing she knew wasn't too far away from CiRCLE. All she had to do was get to it and regroup with her friends before any of them got suspicious.
Said friends of Moca were now sitting at an empty table in the corner of the lobby. After Tsugumi had explained to Himari, Ran, and Tomoe that Moca was still outside and wouldn't be with them for a bit, the four of them unanimously decided to wait for Moca. Tsugumi, with the help of Himari who knew much more about registering a practice room, had already gone to the front desk and signed up for a two-hour long session.
Tomoe had gotten up from her seat once it became clear that Moca wasn't rejoining them anytime soon. She would return to her friends with a tray full of cold drinks which Himari, Ran, and Tsugumi all gratefully accepted.
With comfortable chairs to relax their legs from all the walking they did and cold refreshments courtesy of Tomoe, the four friends relaxed and began talking about their plans for their next live performance. This performance was scheduled for the following month, which gave the illusion that it was an eternity away. The members of Afterglow knew better than to fall for that trap and that was exactly the reason they practiced multiple days a week.
As seconds ticked over into minutes and Moca still hadn't shown up yet, the group started to worry. And with them running out of topics to talk about, they were running out of possible distractions to keep them from worrying about Moca.
"What do you think Moca-chan is doing right now?" Tsugumi was the one to voice the question all of them were plagued with. It wasn't like Moca to stay out in hot weather, quite the opposite; if there was one of them who hated being in the heat more than anyone else it was Moca. When Tsugumi didn't get any response or even a reaction of any kind she asked the group again, "Should we get up and try to find Moca-chan?"
"You don't have to do that, Tsugu," a familiar voice reached the group, prompting all five girls to look up and find the owner of that voice. Sure enough, a slightly out-of-breath Moca was standing by their table. After wiping the sweat off her forehead with the back of her left hand, Moca offered her friends a small smile, "Sorry to keep everyone waiting. Is everybody ready for today's practice session?"
"Moca, where did you go off to?" Tomoe asked, the redhead was the first amongst them to regain her voice upon Moca's return. As Tomoe confronted Moca, Himari and Tsugumi were busy cleaning up the table that they had been sitting at. Ran, meanwhile, had picked up her bag and chose to watch Moca and Tomoe from a distance.
Moca refused to answer Tomoe's question, even after Tomoe slung an arm over Moca's shoulder and began pestering the shorter girl for a response. Eventually, by the time Himari and Tsugumi were ready to move to the practice room, Moca relented… kind of.
"I can't tell you the reason until we're away from Marina-san's watchful eyes," Moca finally decided to throw a bone at Tomoe in a whispered voice, although this was enough for Tomoe; it was a well-known fact that two blocks from CiRCLE there was a convenience store. As the words left Moca's mouth, the guitarists peeked under Tomoe's arm to see if Marina was watching them. She wasn't, much to Moca's relief, so Moca disentangled herself from Tomoe, dusted herself off, and asked her earlier question once more, "Are we ready?"
"I think we are," Ran nodded as Himari and Tsugumi appeared by her side. Tsugumi confirmed that they were indeed ready to move to the practice room, much to the joy of her friends. Focusing her attention back on Moca, Ran added, "After that long last lesson of the day I'm looking forward to practice again."
"Just like 'the same as always'?" four voices chorused together happily, surprising Ran at both her friends' synchronized unison and accuracy. Ran, whose cheeks were now noticeably darker than they had been ten seconds ago, murmured something that the others couldn't quite hear. But they didn't need to; they had known Ran for long enough to understand the guitarist's feelings and all had a short laugh together.
This moment of happiness wouldn't last, however. One of them had to ruin the moment and remind her friends that they had a practice session to attend to. And who better to do this than the leader of the band?
"All right! It feels like it's been forever ago since we managed to practice together like this!" Himari exclaimed, receiving noises of agreement from Tsugumi and even Ran. Wishing to ride on this momentum of excitement, Himari pumped her right fist in the air, "All right, everyone, do it with me! Ei, Ei, Ohh!"
Silence.
Himari was the only one to have done her signature cheer as Moca, Ran, Tomoe, and Tsugumi were all staring at the bassist with a blank look on their faces. One by one, Himari's friends would turn around and slowly walk off in the direction of the practice rooms.
A distraught and lonesome Himari was now the only person remaining. Suppressing the urge to bawl her eyes out, Himari sulked after her friends. But not before yelling three words at the top of her lungs.
"Oh, come on!"
And that is all! Yeah, it would have been nice if I could have some extra time to write more for this chapter and get more words registered here, but as it stood… that just wasn't realistic in the current situation, so this is what I ended up with. I was also considering writing for a different franchise as I have checked out other franchises over the years, but that didn't seem like a good idea, either. Maybe when I've gotten back to writing more regularly and can be more confident in my writing again.
Anyways, I hope you still enjoyed today's oneshot, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time whenever that might be! Take care!