Shion made a sidestop to the music shop on her way to practice, carrying the money she needed to pay off her violin. Nana had told them practices would resume that day and Yasu had texted them all to say he had news from a music company they had sent their demo to. Even Shion was eager to get to practice so she could hear the news.

Shin and Nobu were the only ones there when she entered, and Nobu was having trouble playing his guitar. He looked relieved to see her walk in.

"Shion!" he shot a glare at Shin. "I'm so glad you're here. This guy is doing my head in."

"He's all flustered because of what he said to Hachi last night." Shin told her, looking amused. "But I think he did well. Maybe Hachi understood your feelings. She must've been really embarrassed that you only made her understand things half-way, right?"

"What do I win by tormenting her like that?!" Nobu said, flopping down on the floor next to Shin, who was trying to use matches to light his cigarette without success. Shion put her violin case down and joined them. The three sat there, the only sound being the scrape of matches and the small crack as Shin broke another one.

"By the way," Nobu said, looking to Shion. "You and Naoki hit it off yesterday, huh?

Shion fiddled with a loose seam on her jeans. "Yeah… I guess. We went to the pool in the hotel."

"How did you swim?" Nobu asked. "You didn't have anything to wear, did you?"

Her cheeks became warm. "I… was probably drunk," she said slowly. "And… so… I stripped and went in my underwear."

His eyes widened. "What? You were drinking? I thought you didn't like the taste? Naoki saw you in your underwear?"

"You're making a big deal out of it, Nobu." Shin said beside them. "There's no difference between a bikini and underwear anyway."

Nobu looked at his knees. "I guess." he muttered.

Shion sighed. "He… asked if we could spend more time together. I didn't have the heart to say no but I think he might have gotten the wrong idea." She looked at her two friends pleadingly. "What am I supposed to do? He didn't explicitly say he was interested in me but I'd feel bad if he was and then it seemed like I was leading him on!"

"Did he… do anything that made you think he was interested in you?" Nobu wanted to know.

"He… kissed my forehead before we left the pool." she said. As she said it, she could have sworn she saw Nobu's face warp for a split second.

"He's definitely interested in you." Shin said.

"But you should be careful!" Nobu said. "Yasu told me that Naoki used to be a huge playboy."

"But it's not like Shion's interested in him or anything." Shin pointed out. "Right, Shion?"

"Right." she said. "I don't get those feelings… but…"

"But…?" Her two friends regarded her with interest.

"It must be nice…" she said, suddenly transfixed on retying the laces on her boots. "It must be nice being committed to a person… knowing that you'd always have each other. Not in a romantic way!" she added when she realised they were still staring at her. "Just… to have someone you can be emotionally intimate with - or physically intimate if you need it. It's like what Shin said last night - sometimes you just get lonely and the only means of having a meaningful connection with someone is to buy that person for a night."

"You aren't thinking of hiring me next, are you?" Shin teased. She shook her head.

"Of course not! But I understand the appeal, I think." It's the same way I feel about Nobu. She understood that she was jealous of Hachi now, because Nobu was focused on offering his commitment to her. But she and Nobu had hugged, held hands, even slept close together. She enjoyed his platonic affection immensely and had come to rely on it a great deal. She just wished she could tell him that without it sounding like a love confession.

Snap.

Shin sighed in frustration. "Does anyone have a lighter?"

Shion and Nobu both shook their heads. Neither of them smoked.

"You lost your lighter?" Shion said. Shin nodded.

"Where could you have lost it?" Nobu said. "It's really strange that you lost something you wear around your neck."

"What do I do?" Shin said, getting to his feet. "I really liked that lighter. It was pretty rare so I can't just get another one."

Nobu stood up. "It's punishment," he said. "You must've done something to make a demon king mad."

Before Shin could reply, the door opened and Yasu entered.

"Yasu!" Nobu's eyes lit up at the sight of him.

"Where's Nana?" Yasu asked.

"But tell me - how did it go?" Nobu said, ignoring the question.

"I'll tell you about it when Nana gets back." Yasu told him.

"Oi, quit kidding around." Nobu whined.

Shin joined them. "What are you two talking about?"

Yasu faced him. "By the way, Shin - I couldn't contact you last night. I was pretty worried." he sighed. "Oh well, I'm glad to see you're alive."

"You were with a girl." Nobu realised. "When will you finally stop?"

"It's my job!" Shin argued.

They were interrupted by Nana bursting through the door. "Yasu!" she gasped, not letting herself waste anymore time by stopping to catch her breath. "How did it go with the music company?"

"What are you talking about?" Shin whined. Clearly he hadn't gotten the message Yasu had sent everyone. Shion got to her feet and rejoined the group, watching Yasu as intently as everyone else.

"Gaia Music has expressed interest in us." Yasu told them. "They'll be sending someone to watch our next concert. If they like what we do, then we can start talking about a serious contract."

Shion couldn't believe her ears. Then, this meant if they did well at their next concert - they could end up with a record company behind them?!
Nana flung her arms around Yasu. "We're in! We're definitely in! All of our performances have been a hit so far. The next one will be no different."

Nobu pulled Shin and Shion in for a group hug, beaming. "We've almost done it. This is awesome!"

Morale was high for the rest of the practice. When they were finished, Shion left with Nana - they were going to have dinner with Hachi that night before Nana told their flatmate she would be staying with Ren for the two week rest TRAPNEST had after their tour.

"She might end up inviting Takumi round." Nana said. "Are you comfortable with that, Shion-chan?"

Not really. After the scene Nobu and Takumi had caused last night, Takumi only continued to make her feel uncomfortable. She said nothing, and nodded.

"That's fine." It had been a while since she'd bunkered down in her room, which was going to be her plan if Takumi did visit them. She knew it was bad to fall back on old habits, but she didn't want to impose on Nobu by crashing at his house for two weeks.

Shion couldn't help but feel that while BLAST had been the best thing to happen to her, TRAPNEST would be their undoing, not just as a band, but as friends.

•─────⋅雨⋅─────•

They were in the middle of eating dinner when there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it~" Hachi said, leaping up. When she opened the door she took a step back, surprised. "Nobu?" she said, and both Shion and Nana stopped eating to look up. "What are you doing here?"

Shion could just make out Nobu's sheepish face. "I, ah… I need to talk to you… in private." he said. "Can we talk outside?"

Hachi looked back at her flatmates and then smiled. "Yeah, of course. Let's go."

When the two of them had left, Shion shuffled closer to the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of her two friends outside.

"Something wrong, Shion-chan?" Nana said, watching her curiously.

"I just… what do you think about it all? Nobu and Hachi, I mean."

Nana smiled. "Nobu's a good guy. I think he'll look after Hachi just fine. I'd rather she be with him than Takumi, at any rate, but I suppose the decision is Hachiko's in the end." Shion must have been looking downcast because Nana persisted with her original question. "What do you think about it, Shion?"

Shion sighed. "I don't know. I keep telling myself that I've got no right to feel jealous if I'm not in love with Nobu, but just because I'm not in love with him doesn't mean I don't love him. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah." Nana said, and they shared a look of understanding. "I completely understand. Have you talked to Nobu about it?"

"No…" Shion mumbled. "It would sound so half-assed."

"I don't know about that." Nana said. "Nobu's greatest quality is his unwavering love for his friends. Rather than think you were weird, he'd probably appreciate that you'd be thinking so carefully about your relationship with him. He isn't the type of person to judge you for wanting to be a little selfish."

"Maybe." Shion said. "But I still can't tell him. I don't want to get in between him and Hachi by adding my own confusing feelings into their mess."

"You're allowed to express your feelings, Shion-chan." Nana said kindly. "Nobu's out there confessing his feelings, not because he thinks she'll accept them, but because he wants Hachi to know she can always rely on him to be something who cares about her. If you want to be that person for Nobu, then you need to find the courage to tell him."

She was right, but Shion didn't have that courage - not when she was still certain she'd be intruding when Nobu and Hachi's future relationship was still uncertain.

"I need to think about it." she said at last. "I need to figure out what to say - how to say it."

At that moment Vivaldi's Spring began to play from within Shion's hoodie. Someone was calling her?

"Moshimoshi?"

"Shion-chan! Do you miss me yet? You didn't call me today so I thought you might have lost my number!"

"Naoki?" she couldn't believe it. "How did you get my number?"

"I asked Ren to ask Yasu for me." he sounded pleased with himself. "And now I can ask if you want to meet up tomorrow. The band has two weeks break so I want to make the most of it - can I pick you up around noon? I want to take you on a proper date."

A date. She immediately felt awkward. "Oh, um…"

"Great! Tomorrow then~ I can't wait!" He hung up, and she put the phone down, stunned.

"Trouble?" Nana wanted to know.

Shion couldn't look at her. "He's another person I need to be straight with."

•─────⋅雨⋅─────•

Nana had already gone when Shion left. She'd seen Naoki pull up and didn't want to cause a fuss with Hachi if he decided to pick her up at the door. Sure enough, he'd just gotten out of the car when she came out of the building.

"Shion-chan!" he smiled brightly at her. "You came down before I even had a chance to tell you I was here. Were you looking forward to today that much?"

"Oh! Uh… well…" She only became more flustered when he opened the car door of his BMW for her. Considering he was a member of one of the most popular bands in the country at the moment, he sure drove an ostentatious car. She hoped that wherever they went, they didn't encounter any TRAPNEST fans. The last thing she wanted was some jealous fangirls gunning for her because they thought she was involved with Naoki.

When she was seated, he closed the door and joined her in the driver's seat, drumming his hands on the steering wheel as he regarded her with what could only be described as puppy-like enthusiasm.

"Guess where we're going?" he said.

She shrugged, looking apologetic. "I have no idea."

"Come on~! Just guess."

"I have no idea." Shion said.

Naoki pouted. "We're going to a concert!"

Her heart sank. After all the loud music during the end-of-tour party, she was hoping she wouldn't need to re-enter that environment until BLAST's next live show. Naoki read her like a book and laughed.

"It's not a rock concert - you like classical music, right?"

She gawked at him. How did he know that? Only the members of BLAST knew that she had originally planned on playing classically.

"I listened to you play the La Priorité, remember?" he said. "But I also got Ren to ask your bandmates for me last night. Nobu was the one who suggested the concert." he handed her a flyer and she took it.

NDR Symphony Orchestra playing Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E-Flat Major & Concerto in D Major ft. Midori.

"Midori?!" She couldn't keep the excitement out of her voice. "As in the Midori."

"The one and only!" Naoki grinned. "Uh… who is Midori?"

"She's a violin legend!" Shion declared, louder than she had intended. "She was a child prodigy - she began playing when she was three years old with lessons from her mother, who was also a professional violinist. She's the best of the best!"

"I haven't even started driving and you're this excited." Naoki laughed. She felt blood rise to her cheeks and she ripped her eyes away from him to look at her knees. She was supposed to be letting this guy know she wasn't interested in him, and here she was acting like it was the most thoughtful first date ever.

Well it is, she thought to herself. He's clearly put a lot of effort into today. I can tell him after the concert. She hoped that was the right thing to do, and not just the thing she wanted to do so she could watch Midori at the orchestra.

She was worried that the drive to the concert hall would be awkward as she didn't have alcohol to loosen her up and make her more sociable, but Naoki was surprisingly easy to talk to. He asked her how BLAST was doing and she told him about the offer Gaia Music had made them.

"That's awesome!" he said. "Before you know it, you'll be doing your own tour across the country like TRAPNEST did. We'll be proper rivals!"

"I hope so." Shion said.

She asked him how he had come to play the drums for TRAPNEST.

"It was Takumi." he told her. "He made me join the Light Music Club in middle school and I picked up the drums. I thought it would make me popular with the girls and I liked the whole punk rock aesthetic." He flashed her a grin. "This is the only time it's really paid off though. If I wasn't in the band, I never would have met you!"

Her heart sank and she shifted in her seat, the guilt piling up. She did her best to return the smile, hoping it didn't show her discomfort. She let him chat for the rest of the drive and the time passed as she listened to him enthuse about the tour he had just finished and the parts of Japan he'd gotten to explore. The more he talked, the more she could see how genuine and kind he really was, and the worse she felt about leading him on.

The concert hall was almost full by the time they found their seats. It wouldn't be long before it started. Shion let her arm sit on the armrest and before she knew it Naoki had entwined their fingers, offering her a shy smile. It made her body tremble and he noticed immediately.

"You're so cute, Shion-chan." He gently rubbed circles on the back of her hand with his thumb. She didn't think that Japanese people could be so forward and yet the people she had met within TRAPNEST and BLAST had been exactly that. She was able to forget about her discomfort when the music started. There she was in the flesh - Midori. She played magnificently, and Shion was left in awe. Everything about the professional was flawless, from her posture to the way her fingers danced across the fingerboard. She wondered if her mother had been like that when she was a professional, and the thought haunted her.

The classical music soothed her mind and she felt herself dazing off. In the letter her mother had written to her, she had mentioned she wanted Shion to follow a path that made her happy - no matter whether that applied to her lifestyle, or career path. She thought that path had been with BLAST, but ever since she had begun playing classical music again at La Priorité, she had fallen in love again with her favourite classical composers. Even now, sitting in the concert hall watching one of her idols play in front of her - it was surreal, and reignited her ambition to one day be on that stage. She didn't like the uncertainty that swayed her heart whenever she listened to classical music.

"Shion-chan?" she blinked, and she realised the music had stopped. The orchestra had already left the stage. Was it over already? She followed Naoki out of the building, still feeling dazed. He opened the passenger door for her again and she slipped inside the car. He was watching her expectantly when he also got in. "How was it? As good as you hoped?"

She smiled. "It was amazing. I loved it - truly. Thank you for taking me."

He looked relieved. "I'm glad. I was so nervous that you weren't going to like it, or maybe it wasn't the right sort of classical music. I'm no expert and I have no idea how any of it works but it seemed like a good idea so-"

"It was great." she cut him off, recognising his nervousness and wanting to put him out of his misery. She hadn't expected to enjoy today, but it had become one of the highlights of her time in Tokyo - the top moment being her sleepover with Nobu.

"We could find somewhere to eat." Naoki suggested. "Or we could go somewhere else if you had a place in mind. Or I could take you home. It's up to you." The trip to the orchestra had made her nostalgic, and she felt it was time to make a trip that she should have made a long time ago. Naoki agreed to her idea, and began the drive.

•─────⋅雨⋅─────•

After her mother had died, Shion and her father would visit her grave together once a month and pray together. Those visits became less frequent when her stepmother came into the picture, and by the time they had remarried, her stepmother had convinced her father not to go at all. Shion began to visit the grave in secret after school had finished and that was how it had continued until she finished high school. She hadn't visited her mother's grave now since her birthday - a few days before she moved into her apartment.

She knelt before the grave and bent her head.

"Hey, Okaa-san." she said. Beside her, Naoki also knelt down and bowed his head. He helped her clean the grave which had grown a new layer of moss since the last time she'd visited, and was covered in dead leaves, leftover from autumn. They hadn't brought any incense or candles with them to burn, but they borrowed a small tub from the cemetery to pour water over the headstone. The pair of them bent their heads in prayer again, and Shion began to speak.

"A lot has happened since I last came to see you, Okaa-san." she said. "I moved in with my flatmates - they're both called Nana, isn't that funny? But they're both very sweet and they looked after me when I moved in. And then I met the other members of BLAST - Shin, and Yasu, and… Nobu. You don't need to worry about me having no friends anymore, Okaa-san, because now I've made the best friends I could, and now I'm even in a band." she wanted to tell her mother more about Nobu, but she figured it would be a bad idea with Naoki beside her. "And this is Naoki. He plays for TRAPNEST, which is another band. He took me to see Midori playing live this afternoon, isn't that cool? I'm sure we would have gone together to see her if you were still here."

An image of a parallel universe flooded into her mind; a universe where she and her mother watched the orchestra together, discussing each movement with enthusiasm. She wished that it was a reality. She wished for it so much, and her heart twisted in her chest. The hole her family had left was still there, and her issues with Nobu were making it much harder to ignore.

"Shion-chan?" Two warm hands cupped her face, and Naoki wiped away her tears with the pads of his thumbs. There was aggression in the action, or intent to go further than comfort her like this. He'd acted like a gentleman for the entire day, and all she could think about was how she was taking advantage of his feelings, much like she had with the stalker who had paid her for a kiss.

"I'm sorry, Naoki." she said, pulling away. "You made today so special, and I'm about to do something really horrible."

"I doubt that." he said, trying to reassure her with another smile. "I've enjoyed this day too much for it to be messed up by anything."

She took a deep breath. "If you don't mind me asking… uh…" she felt awkward, but she knew she needed to push through. This was important. "What are your intentions… with, um… me?"

"To date you." Naoki said, not missing a beat. His forwardness still made blood rise to her cheeks.

"Right." she mumbled. "Well… um, I don't know how to say this exactly… but, well…"

"Are you dating Nobu after all?" Naoki's face fell.

"No! Not at all. It's the opposite, actually. It's just the thing is… I don't experience romantic attraction."

She'd said it. But Naoki's reaction was much like Hachi's.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't fall in love." she said. "Those just… aren't feelings I experience."

"Maybe you just haven't met the right person yet." he suggested. She shook her head.

"I don't think so. It's hard to explain, but I can feel it's more than just not finding the right person." she bowed her head in apology. "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you sooner - it just felt weird to assume you were interested in me and then we had today and I didn't want to spoil it… I guess I did that anyway."

"You haven't!" Naoki said quickly. He looked like he was thinking a lot. "If you think you don't experience romantic feelings, does that mean you've never had a boyfriend?"

She nodded.

"Then maybe for you it's something you need to try. Maybe you won't feel attracted to someone unless you date them first and spend more time with them?" It didn't sound right, but Naoki was trying so hard to change her mind, she reverted back to her previous strategy of agreeing with him.

"Maybe." she said.

"Then go out with me!" he said. "If it makes you uncomfortable I won't push you, and you can tell me if I'm being too forward or if things are getting too serious - I'll listen and adapt and we can make something work. I just…" he took a deep breath. "I think I'm really falling for you Shion. Ever since I saw you play your violin. You were so focused on it, and your brow creased when you got to more challenging parts."

The last sentence made her cheeks warm. Nobu was the only other person who had ever pointed that part out.

"If I get my heart broken, then so be it." Naoki said. "But please give me a chance to make you fall in love with me. Please!"

Her heart throbbed unpleasantly. She was caught between her mind which knew it would only make him suffer a bigger pain in the future if she agreed, and her heart, which was craving intimate human connections again.

Don't do it, her sensible voice told her. You'll regret it if you do. You know you won't be able to fall in love with him.

But what if we managed to find a relationship dynamic that worked for us? Her other voice said. Maybe we could find a middle ground that made us both happy. Like the intimate platonic relationship we wanted with Nobu.

You can still try to make that relationship with Nobu happen! The sensible voice was beginning to get desperate. You just need to ask him to come over tonight and explain it to him.

I don't want to intrude on his feelings for Hachi.

You won't! His feelings for Hachi are a totally different thing.

"Shion-chan?" Naoki's voice brought her back to earth and she was grateful to get out of her head. "Was that too much? I'm sor-"

"No!" Shion took a deep breath. "If… if you promise we can take it slow, and that you'll take into consideration my feelings - or lack thereof - then… then I'll date you."

Her stomach sank as she spoke, and she knew she'd made the wrong decision, but it was too late to back out now. She'd do her best to make it work - her heart needed this. It needed someone who would look after her, and cherish her. But was that person Naoki?

She had no idea.

•─────⋅雨⋅─────•