Chapter Five

Kou Taiki's head bobbed to the music on his and his roommates' favorite J-Pop channel, sitting on the couch with one leg tucked under him and a pop culture magazine lying open on his bent knee. How he sorely missed singing like the three of them used to. Hard to believe it had already been about a year since they wrapped up their very last tour. Maybe their big mission in Japan was finished, but at times like this, Taiki didn't want to believe that he was the music was finished with him, or vice-versa.

He looked around at Yaten and Seiya, and sighed to himself as he noticed how unchanging things had been, otherwise from ending their singing. They still felt like the Three Lights, the same handsome young gentlemen with the same last name, matching tapered ponytails, and the same eagerness to find love, and the same eagerness to spread their message to females.

Still, because of just one little detail, it didn't feel right to put smiles on the faces of a female audience anymore. Okay, fine, a huge detail, with much thanks to Yaten's exaggerated overemphasis.

That was why he was taking up Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender studies, to explore his fascination with the experimentation among the human genders. It was a creative way to seek knowledge and use up his spare time, but even when cracking open a book or surfing the Internet for information, he couldn't study without cranking up the radio to a great J-Pop song, specifically songs by similar male groups.

"It's like 11:00 at night, Taiki. Why are you still watching that?" Seiya asked, holding a curling fold of his ebony bangs in his hand, his back hunched over as he read a newspaper on the table across from his friend.

"I think they have good vocals!" he explained, swaying a little and smiling when an attractive male pop star lip-synched, gestured, or winked very close to the camera.

"Hnurg… they sound gay," Yaten snapped, though he was actually half-asleep with his head and arms slung over the arm of the couch. His lovely green eyes were closing and his long silvery-white ponytail was disheveled and feathered all around his shoulders, and he still had a full glass of whiskey in his hand, which could have tipped over and spilled his drink on the carpet at any moment.

"Look at how cute he is," Seiya teased, his chest shaking as he chuckled to himself silently. "Should I carry him to bed and tuck him in?"

"Screw…off…" the smaller man yawned, causing Taiki and Seiya to laugh a little more. "I'll go to bed when I'm damn ready."

Taiki curled his finger around an almond-brown lock of hair in his ponytail, putting the energy in his heart into lip-synching along to the crooning and sighing adolescent boys in the music video, and padding his bare foot into the carpet to the beat.

"Oh, damn… I was hoping they were signed with our old record company."

"Are you kidding? They'll want nothing else after they've had the Three Lights. We were the very best, and they wouldn't even let those little snot-nosed kids tour with us," Seiya said firmly, shooting glances back at the TV every few seconds.

Taiki beamed in satisfaction. Maybe it was only really that easy for Yaten to put the past behind like they agreed, but he knew that Seiya at least couldn't put away his former glory as the Three Lights' lead vocalist. Although you'd think that Seiya wouldn't have this much trouble at least finding a girlfriend, he was amazing at capturing the hearts of female listeners. It wasn't that Taiki was planning on asking if they could start up the band all over again, but he had to at least talk about these memories with someone.

"Hey…" Seiya uttered, squinting at something he was reading and turning around in his chair with the paper folded in his hands. "You guys… what do you think of going to Okinawa?"

"Tired of Osaka already? We just got here," moaned Yaten, cracking an eye open and wrinkling up his chin and his lips while resting them on his hand.

"My thoughts exactly," added Taiki. "Our apartment is small, but I thought we agreed on staying in Osaka, and I'm in no mood to move again."

"No, no, no." Seiya shook his hand. "I'm reading an article about Haruka Tenoh winning her sixteenth race in a row. It says that she didn't stay long enough to give a full interview, but told the press that she was going to hang up her helmet for awhile and settle down in Okinawa with her significant other."

"And so all her little lesbian fans are heartbroken," Yaten scoffed. "So, what? You want to go down there and take her away from Michiru?"

"Not really. I want an excuse for a vacation, that's all. Seriously—wonder what'll happen if we come knocking at her door."

"She'll punch your lights out," Taiki reported sadly. "She never did really like you that much."

"Ahh, but Michiru kinda did…"

"Don't get your hopes up."

"Well, fine. We don't have to go if you don't want to—"

"Thanks, how considerate," Yaten interrupted before trying to go back to snoozing.

"But Yaten! We can afford to go anywhere we want at any time right now!"

"Then why are we stuck in this crap apartment, huh? A mansion would have been nice."

"You said yourself that we don't need excess publicity!"

"Then how about a mansion in… Denmark? You know, some place where they don't know us?"

"Quit being dumb."

"You're being dumb!"

"Shut up already," Taiki said, thumbing through the pages of his magazine. "It was just an idea anyway. Am I right, Seiya?"

"…I wanted to go…"

"So go then!" Yaten spat.

"You will be pretty disappointed once Haruka shuts the door in your face," Taiki reminded him. "After all, there's no dire emergency that we need her and the other Senshi to help us out with."

"You guys, that's not the only reason why I want to go. Check this out." Seiya crossed over and slapped the folded newspaper on the coffee table in front of their couch. Yaten and Taiki bent over to take a look between the creases and stains from Seiya's energy drinks and looked puzzled. Seiya pointed at a small box in the corner.

"It's a club!" Taiki exclaimed. "And all these old bands are going to be there!"

"What, it's not time for a Three Lights' Twenty-Year Reunion yet, is it? My hair might look white, but still…" babbled Yaten.

"Karaoke contests, and they're playing old songs the entire night. I was thinking maybe we could show up as surprise guests. Think of it – the publicity! We sign autographs, sing a number or two, rake in some extra money… and hang around by the beach resort if we made reservations ahead of time. And I'm Seiya Kou—of course there'll be a vacancy for us."

"I'm too tired for this," Yaten sighed, throwing his hands up and leaving through a small door that led into the hallway. "Tell me everything in the morning, okay?"

"So can I call and ask about plane tickets?" Seiya asked, looking Taiki in the eyes. "You know we need some excitement around here, and we've been in this apartment for a month and a half, longer than it feels. You can bring your laptop and work on your college courses when we get there. What do you say?"

"Actually," Taiki replied, feeling his own dark eyes sparkle, "I've been waiting for a chance like this to come up for a very, very long time."