Shion went to practice at her usual time, ready to have an hour of solo practice before everyone else arrived. She was going over the more complicated parts of some of the newer songs Nobu had helped her write when Shin showed up ten minutes early. She recalled how he'd said the pay from his job was good - maybe he knew about other jobs that paid well that were more suited for her. It wouldn't hurt to ask - she knew Shin wouldn't tell anyone.
"A job" he said. "Well, one of my clients works as a hostess. Apparently the club is pretty new and the manager wants it to be a classy establishment so she's looking for classical instrumentalists to play on rotation every night."
"A hostess club?" That definitely wasn't her scene, but at least it was a job - and one where she could play classical music. She tried not to think about the details too much. "Does it pay well?"
"Who knows?" Shin said. "If you're interested I can take you there after practice. I'm heading that way anyway."
She thanked him and resumed her practice while he took a seat. Later when everyone else had arrived, Nana made an announcement, much to Shin and Yasu's dismay. There would be a smoking ban put into place so she could focus on improving her vocals.
"It's to improve my breathing abilities." she said.
"Hearing Reira sing live impressed you that much?" Yasu said.
"She's got nothing to do with it!" Nana shot back. "I'll beat you up, idiot!"
Nobu approached Shion after they'd finished. "I can walk back with you three." She smiled apologetically.
"Sorry, Nobu. I've got things to do with Shin tonight."
He was surprised. "With Shin?" he raised his eyebrow at the boy in question. "You haven't got her involved in anything dodgy, have you?"
"Dodgy? Like what?" Shin said innocently. "We're just going to hang out at a place I found downtown."
"Then I'll tag along." Nobu said.
"No!" Shion said quickly. "Uh, weren't you going to walk with Nana and Hachi?"
"Nobu's walking us home?" Hachi said, her hand on the door. "We'd better hurry Nobu! Nana's waiting outside."
"But…! I… what about… okay." he spared one more glance at the pair of them. "Make sure you walk her home Shin. It's not safe for a girl to be by herself this time of night."
"Hai, hai." Shin swung his bass guitar case over his shoulder. "We're leaving now."
•─────⋅雨⋅─────•
The manager (Mama-san) of La Priorité studied Shion with sharp eyes.
"It is true that I want classical musicians. I'll have to ask that you show me your capabilities." She eyed Shion's violin case that was on the floor next to her chair. "Perhaps you'd like to show me now."
Shion jumped up. "Uh, yes! Of course!" Her hands fumbled to get the case open and she got herself ready. Classical… she had to play something classical. She hadn't practised anything classical since she joined BLAST. Hopefully the practices she'd done by herself before that would pay off. She opted for the song she had worked on the most - Vivaldi's Winter. Throughout her performance she could feel the eyes of the manager on her. A few times this caused Shion to mess up her bow strokes and she was forced to add in extra slurs so she was back to where she needed to be. Hopefully it went unnoticed.
It was quiet after she finished, and she didn't dare look at the manager.
"You're a talented little bird." Mama-san said finally. "One of the more talented ones I've seen so far. You're aware that this job requires you to play for 2 hours every night? You'll need to organise yourself for that. I don't mind what you play as long as it's classical - that's a lot of freedom."
Shion nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I'll start on it the moment I get home tonight." She hesitated to ask how much she would be paid, but Mama-san seemed to guess what was on her mind.
"You'll want to know your monthly salary I suppose. You'll be pleased to know that you'll be receiving the same as most of my girls. 200,000 yen a month. Does that work out for you?'
"Ab- Absolutely!" It was better than she'd hoped for! She'd be able to pay off the violin by the end of July. Although, she might have to work out a payment plan with the music shop so she could actually use it at live shows before then.
"You'll start next Saturday then. You'll need at least a week to prepare. You'll take over at 9pm sharp, but I suggest you show up early so we can get you ready.
"Get me ready?"
Mama-san sighed. "Your uniform, my dear. You can't possibly entertain my guests wearing… whatever that is. My girls will make you presentable - you just need to focus on your job."
"Yes, ma'am!"
•─────⋅雨⋅─────•
Shin was waiting for her outside.
"How did it go?" he asked.
"I… got the job. And they're paying me a small fortune to play every night for a couple of hours." she told him. "I can't believe my luck. Thank you so much for helping me, Shin."
"You're playing every night?" he said. "Are you sure you can handle that, on top of band practice?"
"The band finishes at 8. And I start at the club at 9. As long as I'm prompt in getting here, it shouldn't be a problem."
"You must want to buy something pretty expensive if you're going to all this trouble." he said. "What is it? Clothes? Jewellery? Men?" Shion smacked his arm for that last one.
"It's for a violin. An electric one. I think it'll suit the band better, but they're not exactly cheap."
"Electric violin? Like the one on the front of that magazine Nobu got you? Hey, did you know he spent ages trying to find a music magazine with something about violins in it?"
"Really? I had no idea."
Shin grinned. "He's got a soft spot for you. It's fun to tease him about it." She poked her tongue out at him and changed the subject, her cheeks warm.
"You said you had something to do around here. Did everything go okay?"
Shin nodded. "Just a client who likes this part of town. She's one of those rich girls who's old money. I think coming to a hotel here makes her more excited when we do it."
"Shin!" But he just laughed.
"I told you. It's fun to tease you. You're older than me but you're so innocent - even more innocent than Hachi."
She crossed her arms, feeling a little put out, but enjoying the friendship behind his words. "You know… I might be really useless at coming up with advice, but if you ever need to talk to someone, I'll always be here. You and Nobu said it before - we're family."
For a moment she thought she saw his expression soften, before he masked it by laughing and giving her a wink. "That's cute, Shion. Thanks."
•─────⋅雨⋅─────•
It was almost 10pm by the time Shin had walked her to the apartment building. She'd invited him inside for a drink before he left again, but he shook his head. "I've got a client waiting for me." Bidding him farewell, she climbed the seven flights of stairs on her own and quietly let herself into the flat. It was unlikely that Nana and Hachi had already gone to bed, but making noise made her cringe. It seemed an ironic fear for a musician to have. They were sitting at the table when she entered, and Hachi sprung to life - running to greet her.
"Shion-chan! How did it go~?" There was something weird about her expression.
"How did what go?" she asked, confused.
"Your date~~~~ with Shin-chan!" Hachi sang.
"It wasn't a date!" Shion said. "We were just… we were just hanging out!" She was a terrible liar and she knew the moment she spoke that Hachi wasn't listening. "I don't feel romantic attraction!" She heard Nana sigh in the background.
"I've already tried to explain it to her, Shion. But Hachi is… Hachi."
Hachi pouted. "But it's such a sad thing to believe~ If you don't have someone to love then won't you feel lonely? Romance completes you~"
"It also ruins you." Shion said, her voice colder than she had meant for it to be. "I don't need it to be happy. Even if I did want it, I don't fall in love so I'd just be hurting the person I was with."
"What about Nobu?" Hachi said. "You stayed at his place the other day, didn't you? I bet if you went out with him you'd begin to fall in love!"
It was like talking to a brick wall. Shion should have guessed this was how Hachi would react. Already in the months they had known each other, it had become evident that romance was a large part of who Hachi was. If she couldn't see it from Shion's perspective then they would just have to agree to disagree.
"Nobu's my best friend." she said. "I don't need to date him to feel happy when I'm with him."
"But what if Nobu gets a girlfriend?" Hachi said. "It's bound to happen! Guitarists are really popular. Won't you be lonely when he's spending all his time with his girlfriend, and not with you?"
She had a point. Shion had begun to wonder about that. Nobu didn't seem the type who'd ditch his friends for his girlfriend every chance he got, but it was true that they were so busy with band practice at the moment that if Nobu did start dating someone, the time he would spend together with Shion would decrease dramatically. Well, it hasn't happened yet, she told herself. So I shouldn't get too hung up on it.
Nana tried to help her out. "Where did you go with Shin?"
"Oh… I told him I wanted to get another job - to help me be better around people! Yeah, that's right so, um… I got a job as a waitress at this restaurant… somewhere. I needed him to help me get there."
If they knew she was lying, they didn't show it. She didn't want them to know where she was actually working because they'd worry about her. They'd definitely tell Nobu, and he'd tell her not to do it - especially after the incident where she'd been harassed by guys outside the convenience store. What they didn't know wouldn't hurt them.
She excused herself to her room and sat on her bedroom floor, sifting through her sheet music. She had a week to decide what pieces to play and actually begin practising them again. Luckily, she'd committed a lot of it to memory already - enough for her to have halved her workload. She picked her favourites from Bach, Beethoven, Hadyn, Paganini, and of course, Vivaldi. I'll have to work hard during practice this week but it should all work out. Tomorrow after work, she would return to the music shop and negotiate a payment plan with the manager. If it went well, she might even be able to take her new electric violin to band practice tomorrow.
•─────⋅雨⋅─────•
Shion had to stop herself from grinning like an idiot as she left the music shop - carrying two violin cases instead of one. The manager of the music shop had been ecstatic to see her again so soon, and helpfully set up a plan for her to pay off the violin in smaller installments. She promised that starting next week she would come and play outside his shop for an hour. Her schedule really was starting to look quite full now, but one look at her new electric violin and she knew it would be worth it.
She was itching to use it the moment she arrived at the practice studio, but she needed to use the time she had alone to go over her classical music arrangement. The first ten minutes were painful, as her excitement for her new violin seemed to dull her interest in playing her old one. Once she got into it however, things began to flow smoothly. She was kept busy thinking about intonation, tempo, vibrato, double stops, octaves - the list of techniques she needed to use went on and on. It made playing BLAST music look simple in comparison.
"Playing classical music today, Shion?" Rather than stop in the middle of the phrase like she usually did when someone walked in, Shion smiled but continued to play to the end of the part she was working on. When she finished, Nana gave her a small round of applause.
"You look more serious than normal." The older woman commented.
"I'm just… in the zone." Shion said, putting her violin away in its case. Nana watched her with interest.
"Are you going somewhere?"
Shion stared at her in confusion and then realised what it must have looked like. "Oh! No, I just… take a look at what I bought!" She unzipped the case of her electric violin, and her hands caressed its glossy, black surface. The manager had shown her how to set it up with an amp, and written down instructions just in case she forgot. She borrowed one of the spare amps while Nana watched.
"Is that a violin? Sugei! It looks so different."
"I thought it would be easier to play in a band setting than my acoustic." Shion said. "I read about them in the magazine Nobu got for me." She decided to use her old bow - she would spend ten minutes putting rosin on the new one when she got home. Right now, she just wanted to play.
There was a metallic ring to the notes she played. They sounded crisp - cool. She'd bought a pedal that gave her multiple choices for sound effects such as distortion. She played through the chorus of rose and immediately she could hear the difference. Not to mention, she didn't feel so out of place like she had when she'd played her acoustic violin. Now she had an instrument that looked the part.
"That's amazing, Shion! It sounds even better then it did before."
"Huh? Shion's got a new violin?" Nobu entered the room, with Shin and Yasu in tow. "Hey, it's one of those electric ones - like the ones in that magazine!"
Shion beamed at him. "You gave me the idea. Thank you!"
Nobu rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, no problem."
"You need to let them hear you play with it, Shion." Nana said. "Do what you just did for me." She nodded and repeated the chorus of rose. The rest of her bandmates had a similar reaction to Nana.
"You did well finding such an instrument, Shion-chan." Yasu said.
"It was all because of Nobu!" she said. "Truly."
The young man had gone quite red, but looked pleased. At that moment, Hachi burst in - gasping for air as she delivered her news.
"I've got a text from Ren!" she announced, holding her phone out to Nana. Ren wanted to drop by their apartment a few hours before the mahjong tournament they were going to have at Nobu's place.
"Of course you can come, my dear. That's what I replied for you with." Hachi said, squealing happily.
"Don't answer for me!" Nana shot back, going pink.
"Since Ren is dropping by your place, doesn't that mean we can have the mahjong tournament there too?" Nobu said. "My apartment will be too small for all of us."
"I agree!" Hachi said, throwing her hands up in the air.
Nana sighed in defeat. "Alright. But we don't have a mahjong table."
"You could place the cloth on the table." Nobu said.
"The table by the window?" Shin asked. "But if we're sitting side by side then we won't be able to play."
"All we have to do is move it and sit around." Yasu said.
Hachi laughed and clapped her hands together. "I can't wait!"
•─────⋅雨⋅─────•
Shion was practising her pieces for the hostess club when Ren arrived. One of the things she had been blown away by was that her electric violin could be plugged into a small amp that connected to her headphones - allowing her to play quietly in her room without disturbing her neighbours. She knew Nana and Hachi wouldn't mind the extra noise; it sounded like a muffled hum. It was amazing really, what one violin could do to help her. She was so absorbed in her practice that she almost didn't hear the knock at her door.
"Shion?" It was Nobu. "Can I come in?"
She put her violin down and opened the door for him. He slipped inside and shut the door behind him. "Hey." she said. "I didn't hear you arrive. Is Ren-san…?"
Nobu nodded. "Ren's here… but he brought someone else from TRAPNEST. Takumi. I thought maybe you were too nervous to come out. I wanted to make sure you were okay."
Behind him she could hear Nana, Shin, and two other unfamiliar voices. So Ren and Takumi really were here. Strangely enough, she didn't feel that nervous about meeting Ren. Maybe because she was surrounded by her friends, and she knew Ren was important to them all. Takumi, on the other hand - she still recalled the scowl on his face on the concert brochure.
"He's scary-looking." She'd told Hachi. Hopefully he was actually nice. At least Nobu would be there with her. She smiled gratefully at Nobu. "Thanks Nobu. Can we… go out together?"
"Of course!" He offered her his hand and she took it shyly. The two of them joined the rest of the group. Nana, Shin, and Ren were sitting around the table, which had been moved for mahjong. Shion could feel Shin and Ren staring at their entwined hands until Nobu scooted along the bench so that Shion could sit next to him. Ren was sitting in the chair next to her. It looked like they were all in the middle of a game already. Shion was on high alert, scanning the room for the person she was most worried about. She found Takumi leaning against the kitchen counter watching them over the top of the magazine he was reading. It was unnerving, but she did her best to ignore it.
"Ah! Shion-chan!" Nana beamed at her and shot a look at Ren. He smiled at her.
"You must be the talented violinist Nana's been telling me about. It's nice to meet you, Shion-chan."
She bowed her head. "It's nice to meet you, Ren-san. I've heard a lot about you from Nana too."
Nana gaped at her, blushing. Nobu roared in laughter. "That was smooth, Shion."
The doorbell rang just then. "Maybe that's Hachi." Nobu said, perking up.
"Probably." Shin said.
""Her name is Nana! Not Hachi." Nana told them. Nobu and Shion exchanged looks. Wasn't she… the one who came up with Hachi as a nickname anyway? It was evident Nobu was thinking the same thing and she had to stifle a giggle.
"You can get it." Ren nodded at Takumi and the man put his magazine down and walked to the door.
"Hello, Nana." he said. There was a thud as Hachi dropped her purse in shock, and Shion could just about make out Hachi's quivering form - her hands covering her mouth in disbelief. Takumi turned back to them, chuckling. "I made her cry~! What will I do?" Beside her, Shion felt Nobu stiffen.
The evening had only just begun.
•─────⋅雨⋅─────•
