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Chapter 16
At school with (dyed) purple hair.
…
"Man! This is unbelievable!" Kagami sighed as he stuffed his hair underneath the cap. He didn't want to leave a single strand out.
"Kagami-kun, why are you doing that?" Kuroko asked, zipping up his gakuran. "There's no need for you to hide your hair. Students won't even think you're an idol much less Taiga of Catal Rhythm."
"What makes you think that?"
"Your animalistic personality." Kuroko deadpanned.
Takao nodded. "That's right, Tai-chan." He was busy putting on his socks. "If our own teammates didn't think it was possible, what makes you think that a complete stranger would?" he then added, "Well, Ryo-chan is the exception. He's got to hide that hair carefully."
The three boys burst with laughter. They were currently getting dressed for school, while Kise and Kasamatsu were in the kitchen. Since the former three had school in Tokyo, Kasamatsu was in charge of cooking breakfast and their bento (he makes sure that Kuroko is eating healthy these days) while Kise cleans up.
However, in the evening, Kagami cooks while Takao mixes their drink; Kuroko…finds something to do if dinner doesn't entail boiled eggs.
"Care to share the joke?" Kise asked as he walked in. "I want a good laugh too before I head to my doom."
"We were just laughing at your soon-to-be demise." Kuroko said in his usual monotone. Of course, this had everyone cracking up with laughter. "Good luck, Kise-kun."
"I'm going to need it." He groaned out. At this moment, Kasamatsu entered the room to find the boys chatting and laughing.
"Senpai! Could we stop by a shrine before we head to school!?"
"Why?" the captain asked.
"Because I need divine protection!"
Kasamatsu rolled his eyes and took up the beanie off Kise's bed. He then proceeded to hide his hair underneath it and after some seconds, Kise's dark-purple hair was nowhere to be seen.
"All you have to do is say that you can't show your hair in public because it's for a photoshoot that you'll be doing later in the week." He said. "But I don't know how you'll hide your eyebrows." He mumbled. Still, unlike their hairs, only Kise, Kuroko and Kagami's eyebrows were dyed black to match the hair somewhat.
"Thank you Senpai!" Kise wailed and lunged for the captain. However, with a quick side-step, the boy crashed face-first into the wall.
"Now, aren't you three leaving? You have a train to catch, don't you?"
With that, the three Tokyo-bound boys dashed through the door and with a shout from Kasamatsu telling them their bento were on the table, they grabbed them and headed through the door. Thirty minutes later, Kise and Kasamatsu were fully dressed and ready since they now live even closer to Kaijou than before.
They strolled out of the apartment complex in a fair pace, heading to the bus stop. And although there were many people about, no one suspected them which they were grateful for. Since the apartment complex was owned by Aihara, most people (if not all) knew that all their idols lived there until they want to move out. But due to the other floors being inhabited by normal people as well, Catal Rhythm were safe from suspicion.
Ten minutes later, the bus arrived, and the two boarded. It was a fairly peaceful ride to school, most of the commuters travelled by train so the buses tend to be quite scant. Kise enjoyed this, as previously, he'd have to be (trying) hiding from fan girls and so forth. Now, he can relax.
"Maybe I shouldn't have come to school until after Wednesday." Kise groaned, slumping in his seat as they neared Kaijou's stop.
Kasamatsu chuckled as he knew the reason for Kise to make that statement. Yesterday evening after they've returned from home, Kenji came with a surprise. Apparently, Ren had started his work quite early, and got them on a variety show. Upon hearing the news, Kagami nearly fainted. He did not want to do embarrassing things on national TV. It was also the reason why Kenji hadn't brought them to the hair dresser to get rid of the dye.
"You'll be fine. As long as you pretend that the beanie is your original blond hair, then you have nothing to worry about."
"But I'm self-conscious!"
"Then don't be. A couple hours won't kill you."
"Senpai!" he wailed.
"To fool your enemies, you must first fool yourself." He intentionally misquoted in hopes of helping Kise. When their stop came, Kise was a bundle of nerves. Kasamatsu found it ironic, Kise was able to perform two songs with difficult choreography in front of a crowd of 30,000 with ease, yet, mixing with his schoolmates is leaving him shaken.
"Remember Kise, to fool your enemies…"
"I must first fool myself." He finished. He then paused. "Senpai, that makes no sense."
"I tried." Kasamatsu shrugged.
The two boys walked inside the schoolyard, and so far, the reaction was typical for the most part. For those who hadn't seen Kise's face, couldn't tell who he was from behind, or from a sharp angle; but for those who could, they'd look at him with confusion. Kasamatsu could see that those students probably saw the black eyebrows, but weren't really paying attention due to the beanie he wore.
A couple walked up to him asked about it, and well, he told them the lie with suave. If Kasamatsu hadn't been a member of Catal Rhythm, he would have thought that it was the truth.
"I didn't know you could lie so smoothly," he joked.
"When you're in this industry, it's a weapon that'll need constant sharpening."
"I'll take note." Kasamatsu headed off to his classroom, while Kise went to his.
On that note, the moment Kise sat in his seat, he was swamped with questions, especially about two things, his beanie and the hair he posted online. Once more, Kise replied with utmost confidence,
"My hair is done for a shoot and I can't reveal it just yet. And the picture I posted…" he trailed off. "…I was playing around with photoshop. I wondered what I'd look with purple hair like my friend Murasakibaracchi. I also did a green one, a red one, and a blue one."
"Really!? Can we see it?!" the girls shrieked.
"I don't have it on my phone." Kise deadpanned. Afterwards, the girls dispersed but the classroom was enveloped in chatter yet again. And the hot topic just happened to be the Aihara Music Festival. At the inception, the (then) President strategically chose the date, being that there was no other event happening at the time. Which meant, people are going to be talking about it, and it alone.
Kise heard many shrieks following Starburst's name, D:FI actually had most of the guys loving their début song ―Trespass due to its hard hip-hop beat. Kise himself had watched the video and had admitted that it was some strong stuff. As for them, people were busting their brains trying to figure out who was who. They didn't care for anyone except "Yuki" and "Sunn" who attended Kaijou.
Of course, the speculation that he was Sunn never ceased, and Kise could only smile at their deductive abilities.
"You guys should really become detectives in the future. If you keep this up, Japan will definitely be a better place." He murmured to himself.
He continued his eavesdropping, occasionally stifling down his laughter whenever they spoke about "Yuki". In Baby, Kasamatsu was mostly at the front during the chorus, as Hikaru had stated that he needed to come out of his shell. Girls continued to gush about how "awesome" and "smexy" he looked while dancing and how "tantalizing" his voice was.
Kise was dying on the inside. His Senpai was leaving the female populace weak and he wasn't even trying. Somehow he was glad, probably Kasamatsu will end up having more fans than him. After all, Kise has too much already.
They then started on Takao and Kagami's cases, commenting that their rap parts were good, Kuroko's dancing was "out of this world". When they reached "Sunn", all they could argue about was whether or not he was Kise-kun.
Kise laughed at them, and prayed that they dropped it. They won't know until they reveal their identities, so it's a fruitless venture. But apart from that, Kise heard some really good comments, ranging from their music video "Hello" and their other songs such as "Baby", "Replay" and "Juliette".
"I wonder how Senpai is faring?" he said to himself.
xx
Kasamatsu entered his classroom like usual, but before he could even sit, his classmates were asking about the hat. With a grim smile, he replied,
"Gum."
And from that one word, the questions stopped, as everyone knew what happens when gum gets stuck in one's hair. He took his seat and relaxed, but the moment he did so, his ears caught wind of a conversation.
"I swear, I think I'm falling for Catal Rhythm!" one girl shrieked. "I went to Ai-Fest, and honestly, their dancing was amazing!"
"More like insane! Baby had me gaping!" another joined in.
"But I liked their intro though." Said a third. "I love Sunn-kun and Taka-kun! They are hilarious!"
"I know right?!" Girl B said. "What had me laughing the entire time was when Sunn-kun was talking about Sora-kun, and how he dropped into the basin of politeness! Like, what the hell!?" she cracked up with laughter.
"I liked when Yuki-san countered Taka-kun saying that if he wanted to keep all his teeth, he should shut up!" Girl C said. "He even had his foot ready to kick him!"
"I love them all." Girl A smiled. "I don't know, but in comparison to D:FI and Starburst, I feel like they're more real, you know? Like they're relatable or something."
Kasamatsu's eyebrow rose. He was tempted to go over and ask, but then they'll know that he was listening. Well, they weren't exactly whispering either. Still, he kept quiet and continued his eavesdropping. Girls can be quite funny sometimes.
xx
Over by Shutoku, Takao was facing something similar to Kasamatsu. The moment he entered through the school gates, he was questioned about the head-wear. With fake tears streaming down his eyes and dramatic acting (he made a note to thank Ichinose-sensei), he lied that he had contracted head lice when he went to the hairdresser. While sympathizing with the boy, his classmates and schoolmates made sure to keep their distance. Even though Takao wore a beanie, they were still fearful that they'd catch it too.
And like that, Takao escaped even before the harassment started. He knew what his friends were like, before they asked questions, they would have yanked his beanie right off.
By the time he entered the classroom, the news of his head lice had already reached, causing Takao to whistle in astonishment. They weren't playing. He sat peacefully in his seat, once again listening to the conversations of the students. The last time he found it quite funny, and this time, he planned to record, given that they spoke loud enough.
"I swear, D:FI's Trespass is something else." One boy said as he walked through the door. "That 'Knock-Knock' though..."
"I know right?" Another joined in. "I went to Ai-Fest, so hearing it live was a mind-blower! Kyouya killed it."
Takao had to remind himself that Hirose uses his christian name for his stage name. When he first heard it, he found it hard to believe that Hirose's name was Kyouya. He didn't seem like a 'Kyouya' at the time. But he had to agree with the boys, Hirose was a damn good rapper.
"But enough about guys, Triple Threat were totally hot! I was so jealous when those guys got to take selfies with them!" Boy C said. "Dammit!"
"I think the ones who stole the show were Catal Rhythm. I think they're a bunch of lovable dorks." A girl joined in their conversation. "I like them."
The three boys deadpanned, "We don't. They're males."
"But you like Perfect 5th and Diverse though." another girl joined. She smiled evilly as she said so, sitting on top of Girl A's desk.
"That's because they're Perfect 5th and Diverse!" they countered.
"But anyway, I wonder why Catal Rhythm doesn't have any reality shows or anything? I wanna see what their faces look like, and how they behave around each other and everything!"
"Apparently, you haven't seen the cool masks on their faces." Boy A snorted. "There's obviously a reason for them, right?"
"Can't we ask Hattori-san? Isn't she a Latin dancer there? I bet she knows everyone who's débuting."
"That's right. She could probably tell us who Taka is."
Takao chuckled to himself at this. Even if they ask Aika, she won't tell them ―not because she can't, it's because she doesn't want to. Still, he was glad that no one suspected him, not even in the slightest. Given his jovial personality, and the fact that his schoolmates knows that he sings song covers, he thought that people may get suspicious.
"Well, as long as they don't figure it out, it's not my business."
xx
In Seirin, no one questioned Kagami about his dark-purple hair. They just thought that he was going through a phase or something, in terms of Kuroko, no one noticed him. It made sense, when he had his (natural) light-blue hair no one did, so the same thing would happen with his dark-purple hair.
At one point, the students who did manage to run into him, assumed that the dark-purple was his natural hair colour given how it looked on him. With a smile, he quickly evaded them like a ghost, and that day, there were rumors flying about a purple haired ghost.
Not that Kuroko minded.
In their classroom (and by extension the school) they've been hearing discussions about the Ai-Fest, and the other groups. A lot people were gushing about Perfect 5th and Triple Threat of course, but when it came onto the débutants, there were a lot of mixed reactions.
Kagami and Kuroko witnessed an argument between fans of Starburst and D:FI, and there were some music lovers who fell for Catal Rhythm and ended up debating about whether or not Catal Rhythm was better than the other début groups.
Sparks flew and swords clashed, but at the end of it all, everyone wanted to find out who "Taiga" and "Sora" were. At the mention, the students' eyes locked onto Kagami, whose given name was Taiga. Feeling eyes on him, the boy asked in a rather annoyed tone,
"What?"
Upon seeing that reaction, they all said, "Nah, there's no way it could be him. It's just a coincidence."
But, they have no idea how glad Kagami was that they came to that conclusion.
xxxx
After basketball practice, Catal Rhythm headed to the Aihara Complex to learn song composition from Akamine. It wasn't as terrible as they'd expected, since they had learned some aspects when Akamine was teaching them music. He taught them the basics and the three methods of writing songs: chord progression ―which entailed using "stocks" in music. An example of a stock would be in the key of C major ―A minor, D minor and G7. With these, the boys could either use these stock progressions as they are or modify them to create a different effect. For example, they could add other chords to the C major, thus making it A7-D7-G7-C major.
But, they hated this method. Somehow, they felt restricted, so Akamine introduced the second method to them: Melody. With this method, all they had to was start by creating a melody, melodic theme or a group of melodies. Once they have been created, the boys could add appropriate chords that can support the melodies. This method wasn't as bad as the chord progression, but it still wasn't their cup of tea. They liked creating the melody, but the chords were the issue.
Seeing his boys' distress, Akamine introduced the third method: free-playing. As its name suggests, it involves free playing of an instrument. The musician may simply play different chords and melodies at random, then build on the discovered lines. Immediately, they perked up at this, Kasamatsu grinning, glad that this was in his domain.
With that change in their attitude, Akamine then said, "You want to try out the free playing method?"
"Hai!" They chirped, Kagami grunted his response. Although, there was some hint of eagerness in his face.
"Okay, follow me."
Akamine and the boys moved out of the room and into a music room. A black piano was nestled in the furthest of the room, by the window. Akamine sat, poised and ready to play.
"Whenever I play, you'll sing anything that comes to mind." he said.
"Anything?" the boys asked.
"Are you sure about that?" Kagami asked, scratching his cheek. "I mean, won't this end up being a bit jumbled?"
Akamine smiled. "It's only the beginning. It doesn't matter if the ideas are jumbled and all over the place." He then played a chord and said, "So, sing boys!"
And as such, their free playing session started, and after a couple of chords, Akamine was stifling down his laughter and fighting to play the piano properly. Although he told them to sing anything that comes to mind, it really was a mess. Kagami could only think about basketball, Takao's lines consisted of various things that he didn't even question, Kise was as random as they got ―from flowers and ice cream to intense basketball matches and teeth gritting, Kasamatsu was normal and tried to stick to one main idea, Kuroko used lines out of the novels he's read.
Thus, Catal Rhythm's first ever song was a complete disaster.
xxxx
After their song composition, they headed over to where Kenji was. The office was quiet and peaceful, albeit a little chatter here and there. All the men present seemed extremely busy and hadn't even realized when Catal Rhythm walked in. Upon greeting their "dream team", they immediately headed over to Ren's cubicle. Kenji had messaged them prior that Ren was the one who wanted to see them.
"How are you doing?" he asked with a grin.
"Fine," they responded.
"Although I'm a bit worried. They won't let us do anything embarrassing, right?" Kagami voiced out. He's seen a couple variety shows with Takao and Kise, and those were really embarrassing.
Ren laughed. "Well, whether or not it's embarrassing is up to you." He then handed them each a sheet of paper. He grinned at them. "Those are the questions that you'll be asked. Good luck!"
When the five boys saw what was on the paper, their eyebrows rose in confusion. The segment with the questions were at the last part of the show. The opening segment had them doing something called "Profile Verification" which as the name sounds, had to prove what was written on their profiles. Well, they had nothing to hide (except their faces).
Another segment was the "Random Dance Challenge" where they had to dance to different songs with the appropriate choreography. That didn't seem too hard, since when they were learning dancing from Hikaru, he drilled them with routines from the different idol groups, not only from Aihara. But the third part, was where things got...embarrassing.
They had to make the female co-host laugh.
As a bunch of basketball players, they never made anyone laugh wholeheartedly, well not intentionally. Takao and Kise were the only ones who seemed to be able to make this happen, but when the others saw them looking a bit pale, they figured: if they couldn't do it, neither can they.
"You're joking right?" Kagami asked, his hands were shaking. "You're totally joking. Make the female co-host laugh? How are we going to do that?"
Ren shrugged, "Beats me. Think outside the box, boys!"
Catal Rhythm let out a depressed groan. Waving everyone else goodbye, they headed home, only stumbled into something...scary. At the front of the Apartment Complex was a crowd of females, most (if not all) were in uniforms. Figuring out that they were fans, Catal Rhythm didn't care why they were present. They couldn't have gotten so many fans in such a short space of time. Plus, no one knew their faces or anything about them.
Reaching up to the crowd, Kasamatsu and Kuroko politely said, "Excuse me, you're blocking the entrance."
"So what?!" they snapped at them.
Both boys jumped back in fright at that attack. Kise gripped the fabric at his chest, trying to calm his racing heart. But Kagami would not have it. Walking up to them, he roared,
"What was that for?! We live here and we need to get in! What are you doing here anyway!?"
The girls turned around and screeched, "We don't care!" obviously ignoring his question.
Kasamatsu grabbed Kagami in his collar and pulled him back gently from the seething girls. With his phone out, he showed Kagami his screen before dialling the number. Kagami made a chuckle, Kise and Takao asking,
"What did he show you?"
"119."
Within ten minutes after the captain ended the phone call, the police showed up and cleared away the raging fans. It was then that Catal Rhythm realized that they were fans of Perfect 5th, D:FI and Starburst. Taking the elevator up to their house, the five boys all slumped into the sofa.
"Shit, I never knew girls could behave like wild beasts." Kagami said. "Are they possessed by an angry spirit or something?"
"You'll never know." Kise said. "Although I have my set of crazy fans, I've never seen them snap at anyone like that. They could have, but just not to my knowledge."
"This was the same thing that Kenji-san was talking about. That's why they had to use keys for the underground parking." Takao said. "Imagine that crowd getting into the building." he shivered in fright.
"I'm going to invest in some stun-guns." Kuroko deadpanned. "The girls were pretty scary."
The others nodded in agreement. Then, a silence befell them, as not only do they want to change that topic, they were tired.
"You know, I've been wondering," Takao started up. He looked to Kise. "How are you still alive?"
"Takao!" Kagami shouted as though the boy shouldn't have asked. He seemed a bit upset as well. "Why?!" He then looked across to Kuroko and back to the hawk-eyed boy.
"Why what?" he asked. He couldn't see the reason behind the redhead's behaviour.
"What are you talking about?" Kise asked, pushing Kagami away. He was sitting next to him. But before he could get an answer, he heard Kuroko say,
"Come on Kagami-kun, pay up."
Kagami muttered something inaudible before forking out the banknotes to Kuroko. Before anyone could ask, Kuroko quickly said,
"Kagami-kun and I had a bet about Kise-kun." he started as he counted the notes in his hand. "Whether or not Kise-kun will survive the day without looking like a mauled animal, and if his identity was still intact."
Kise screeched, "You bet on that?! How could you Kurokocchi!?" The others were cracking up with laughter. "It's not funny!"
"Such is life, Kise-kun." The light-blue haired teen deadpanned. "Get over it. Plus, I won."
He stuffed the notes into his pocket before sitting back down. Kagami looked bitter and wounded at this and almost as though he wanted to tear up. Mumbling something about Kuroko being a swindler, Kagami got up and headed towards the kitchen to start dinner.
Kise was still pretending to bawl his eyes out at the fact that his Kurokocchi had actually made a bet on whether or not he'd end up mauled.
Thank you for reading! Don't forget to leave a review! Also, the segments mentioned are taken from a real variety show called "Weekly Idol".