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Chapter 28

The Interview

…

Their lives returned to normal, mainly focusing on basketball this time around since Inter-High will be in full swing soon. Their basketball practices had gotten even more hectic, but luckily, their idol work wasn't packed with performances but mostly interviews and variety shows.

During this time, Ryouhei had not only delivered Kise's paints and other materials, but he had also bought his son a cajón drum. This type of drum was box-shaped and played by slapping the front or rear faces with the hands, fingers or other implements such as brushes. Every drummer has one of these cajón, even Makio which is why Kise knew how to play it. However, the blond's drum set would be delivered to the "Euphoria" (where their other instruments are) at a later date because Kise felt like having drum art on his Bass Drum.

So, after Kise had his photoshoot, the following Saturday Catal Rhythm had to go to their interview for Idol Monthly magazine. For the first time, they were extremely calm, given that it wouldn't be in front of any cameras or on any radio show…just them with the journalist. Plus, since they saw what questions they were going to be asked, it made them even calmer.

At the moment, however, they were on their way to the restaurant, Takao and Kise as usual were in a great mood, singing various songs from various artistes, Kuroko was reading a novel but hummed every now and then, and Kagami kept his eyes through the window and seemed disinterested in what the two idiots were singing about. Kasamatsu wore headphones and was listening to the guitar chords he'd strum up the other day. He added lyrics here and there, Kenji watching him especially with a smile on his face.

"So, here we are." Kenji said as he pulled the van to the side of the road.

"Is this it?" Kagami asked in confusion. The building which they were before seemed pretty ordinary, or rather could be passed off as someone's house.

"Yes, the restaurant is upstairs." Kenji said as he motioned for them to get out. He wouldn't be accompanying them to the interview because, well, it was their interview and they didn't need him there. They were big boys capable of handling themselves properly.

The five walked into the alley until they saw a stylish glass door with the name of the restaurant carved in it. Pushing it open, they were greeted by what seemed to be a waiter, and after giving their names and who they were to see, they climbed a flight of stairs only to enter into square wood-panelled room.

A lone man was sitting around the large table with five other empty seats, immediately; Catal Rhythm deduced that he was the interviewer. He was an aged man, looking no younger than probably thirty-five and was dressed semi-formally. He donned a white t-shirt underneath a dark coloured blazer; his black hair was done in a sweep to the left.

The waiter then left, closing the door behind him.

"Ah, welcome, welcome!" the interviewer greeted and ushered the boys over to the table. "I'm Aiba Koichi, pleased to meet you."

The five boys bowed as well, after which Kasamatsu introduced them individually. Since the public didn't know what they looked like, naturally, Aiba wouldn't know either. However, what got them roaring with laughter was when Aiba didn't see Kuroko (like everyone else) and was scared shitless when the light-blue haired teen answered in his trademark:

"I was here the entire time."

The interviewer gasped and clutched the fabric at his chest, trying his best to calm his raging heart.

"Jesus Christ…" Aiba breathed out. "…are you a ghost or something?"

Kuroko gave a small smile. "No I'm not. I just have a weak presence."

"Huh?" Aiba leaned forwards with a brow raised in confusion. "How is that possible? You're the main dancer, aren't you? How can you have a weak presence?"

"It isn't like that on stage though." Kise replied. "If the rest of us aren't careful, we could easily get overshadowed by him."

"Is that so?"

"Very much so."

Aiba seemed to have recovered by now as his heavy breathing and frightened look was long-gone. He sat upright and made eye-contact with the five boys (well four, given how Kuroko was still eluding his gazes).

"I must say, you're quite different from how I imagined you." Aiba started.

"How so?" Kagami asked, curious.

"I don't know how to explain it, but, for some reason, you all look so ordinary. I've interviewed many idols before and they all have this…look. But for you, I feel like I could randomly stumble upon you when I enter a packed subway or something."

The five laughed.

"Well we are ordinary boys." Kasamatsu replied. "It's just that we happen to be idols as well."

It was now Aiba's time to laugh.

"So, let's get into the matter, shall we?" Aiba started before they started to get fidgety and restless. Catal Rhythm nodded. "Although you've just recently débuted, there are many people out there saying that you're "different". Tell me, do you have any special characteristics that make you "different" from the other groups?"

"I think what makes us "different" is the fact that we express ourselves openly. I guess." Kuroko said.

"And that we don't change who are in front of a camera." Kagami mumbled.

"Your stage names are quite unique, as should be, but tell me, what inspired them? Were you the ones who named yourselves like how you named your group?"

"Yes!" Takao chirped. "My name "Taka" means "Hawk". I chose that name because of my eyes. They can see a thousand miles away." He grinned.

"For me, because my Papacchi calls me "his precious ball of sunshine" I chose the name "Sunn"." Kise answered.

"My hair and eyes are naturally light blue, so it reminds people of the sky hence "Sora"." Kuroko responded.

"My stage name is derived from my given name." Kasamatsu answered.

"Same." Kagami said.

"Oh, I see. Interesting. I never knew that you had the privilege to name yourselves as well."

"We got lucky." The five gave out.

Aiba then continued with the questions, "As a rookie group, what was it like being and performing at MusicStock?"

"It was fun!" Kise chirped. "At the outset, we were really psyched up that we were going to be there, and when we were performing, the audience was so amazing and so receiving."

"Yeah, at first, I thought they weren't going to respond to us, just stare at us or something." Kagami added.

"I know right?!" Takao added. "I had even thought that we were going to get booed."

"I see. Interesting." Aiba nodded. "So, on that note, what made you enter the crowd? There're many fancam videos going viral with it, and the concert was aired live so the entire country saw what you did."

"To be honest, that wasn't planned." Takao took this question. "Prior to the concert, all the groups had rehearsals even up until the day of the concert. But, like, ten minutes before we went on the stage, the Stage director told us that another group ―"

"N.O.T.E." Kise added.

"—had changed their choreography so we had to do something like fading out to the sides or…" he trailed off here, "…in essence, we'd look dumb and tacky if we did that. So Yu-chan suggested what we did."

"Oh." Aiba's interest was piqued. As an experienced journalist, Aiba did his research, so he knew that "Taka" and "Sunn" have always referred to "Yuki" as "Yu-chan" and "Senpai". He turned to Kasamatsu and asked, "So how did you think of such a thing? That was beyond "thinking outside of the box". Plus, it was dangerous given how crazy pop idol fans are."

"I've been to a lot of rock concerts, so it's something I've always seen the frontmen do."

"Oh!" Aiba's eyes widened with excitement at Kasamatsu's statement. "So you're a rock and roll fan?"

"Basically."

"Oh, going to MetRock? FujiRock? Summer Sonic? Or any rock festivals this year?"

Kasamatsu smiled. "Summer Sonic. We'll be busy on the day of FujiRock, not yet sure about MetRock."

"Ah, I heard all three had some insane line-ups this year."

"Yes," Kasamatsu drawled in joy. "Especially Summer Sonic."

"I see. I see." Aiba nodded. "But getting back on track, watching your newest music video, I realized that your choreography was really tricky. As a matter of fact, all your choreographies are difficult. How long does it take for you to get it all right?"

"Well, it takes some weeks, I can't really tell the exact amount." Kuroko answered. "But because of our work ethic —"

"And your demonic father." The others mumbled.

"—we get the job done quickly."

Of course, Aiba heard the "demonic father" part and raised an eyebrow at it. He was curious, so he asked, "What demonic father?"

"Soracchi's father is our main choreographer and dance instructor." Kise said. "But he's like a perfectionist so he tends to kill us off to get our routines right."

"Wow. How do you feel about that?"

"It's a good thing. Although he's the demon that Kenji-san summoned from hell, without him, I doubt we'd be as good as we are now in dancing."

The others nodded in agreement. Aiba wanted to bust with laughter, given their rather…descriptive words, but he kept it all in.

"We all know that in the early years of their careers, groups live together in a dorm. Tell me, what's your experience like?"

"Annoying because of this thing." Kagami said, jabbing a thumb in Kise's direction.

"Thing?! You animal, who're you calling a thing!?"

Aiba drew back at the sudden outburst.

"You of course! The moment you see a speck of dust, you're freaking out! And pestering us to use all sorts of products is annoying! Have you realized that there is a lack of space in our bathroom cupboard because of the shampoos and moisturizers and shit! Huh?!"

"It's in your best interest, you fool!"

"As you can see, living with those two is quite taxing. They fight and quarrel everyday over the simplest of things." Kasamatsu sighed. "But, it's fun. And I'm used to it as well."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm used to the fights because I have two younger brothers."

"Oh." Aiba looked to Takao and Kuroko and asked, "What about you two? How are taking this "living with four other strangers" experience?"

"Like Yu-chan, I think it's fun! And I have a younger sister so I know what it's like to live with another person close to your age."

"I like it." Kuroko said with a small smile. "Watching Taiga-kun and Sunn-kun argue like a cat and dog is most amusing."

Aiba couldn't help but laugh. These boys were killing him. "Is it that Sunn-kun and Taiga-kun don't get along?"

There was a pause.

"We do get along, but it's just…" Kagami started. "Sometimes, Sunn gets a little bit too much. Like I said before, he freaks out when he sees dust. He's like a clean freak and a nagging mother who'll pester me —us to clean our room and the house. But he's pretty cool, minus his drama queen like behaviour."

"I'm not a drama queen." Kise huffed. "But Taigacchi is an amazing cook! His cooking is of the housewife level. And nothing can beat a housewife's cooking, ne?"

"You little sh—!" Kagami stopped himself from completing the word. "I don't even know if you're praising me or calling me a housewife." He snarled.

A smile appeared on Aiba's lips. He loved how honest these boys were, although he was wondering how their company could allow them to talk with such freedom. But he liked it, as the other groups he's interviewed were stiff and their answers were so structured, sometimes he feels like he's talking to robots.

So Aiba headed into the second part of the interview. He looked at Kasamatsu and started; "Now it's for the individual questions. Are you ready?"

"Hai." Kasamatsu and the others nodded.

"Great!" Aiba hummed. "So Yuki-kun, what's it like being the leader of Catal Rhythm?"

"Ah, it's not as pressuring as I thought it would be. Probably because we've just started and things aren't so hectic as yet, but compared to what other leaders have said, it's not that bad."

"Alright. You're known as the gentleman of the group…" cue the dreadful glare from Kasamatsu to Kise, "…so what would be your ideal type of girl?"

"I like a girl who's serious. One that knows what she wants and works hard to get it."

"Ah, I see. If you were jealous of one member, who would it be and why?"

"Sunn. Because he gets the routines with one look."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he's a super-fast learner."

"Oh." Aiba nodded, but then he turned to Kagami for his questions. "So, Taiga-kun, what's being the rapper like?"

"It's pretty fun." The tiger responded. "I never saw myself as a singer much, plus, I prefer to rap instead because it's easier than and not as technical as singing is."

"Ah…but in your genre, rappers tend to get the least lines. Don't you ever have any greed in taking on more parts?"

"No." Kagami said while shaking his head. "We've all been given roles and since we do it right, I don't need to feel that way. My rap parts are only able to be done by me so I do them to the best of my abilities because I sure as hell can't do what Sunn does."

"I see, I noticed that you've always had a necklace with that ring in it. Is it symbolic or…?"

"It was given to me by my Aniki when I was in America. So it's like a memento from him. So yes, it is symbolic of the bond that we share."

"That's nice. What is your ideal type of girl?"

"An elegant girl. And one who can cook." Kagami responded. "If she can't cook, I can't enter a relationship with her."

"Really? Why's that?"

"My dream date is cooking a good meal with a pretty girl of my dreams. If she can't do that, I can't experience my dream, now can I?"

"Well said."

Aiba nodded. "So, Sunn-kun —"

"Hai!" Kise chirped, quite eager.

"Being the main vocalist means that you have the most challenging parts in every song that your group does. Do you ever feel a bit overwhelmed by this?"

"Yes!" Kise answered with a laugh. "I like doing what I'm doing, but Nobu-san is pretty strict when it comes onto singing, so there was this one time when we were recording Lucifer, and Nobu-san said to me, "you're singing better today, let's do it all over". So we started from the very beginning, and after a while, I completely snapped and dragged Senpai with me to the bathroom and bawled my eyes out. Then he knocked on the door asking, "are you okay?" and I replied, "No!", quite strongly too. For the first time, I felt so frustrated. We kept doing it over and over because Nobu-san wanted it to be perfect." He then mumbled, "Our dream team is filled with nothing but crazy perfectionists."

The others roared with laughter.

"It's true. He whined relentlessly to me: "I can't sing anymore! My throat hurts, my back hurts, everything hurts. I'm tired Senpai. You take my lines instead"." Kasamatsu imitated the blond surprisingly well. "When he was done, my shirt was soaked with tears and snot."

"We recorded Lucifer over what? Three days, was it?" Kuroko joined in. "Sunn-kun was really…not at his best then."

"For real, it was the first time that I saw him snap like that." Kagami added. "I thought he was just being his usual drama queen self."

"Well, it was not his fault. We have vocal training, foreign language, song composition, dance practice on top of our normal school lives. Ryou-chan was beat. We all were."

"Woah," Aiba said, totally shocked at this revelation. Typically, an idol wouldn't have answered in such a manner. Through Aiba's past experiences, he had expected an answer such as "No, because I love what I do" or something positive. But this, this was showing that behind the smiles and awesome choreography, idols are humans too that do get frustrated and tired.

Getting back on track, he asked, "In other groups, it's their main vocalists who writes the lyrics to their songs, is it the same in your case?" Aiba asked.

"Nope!" Kise answered quickly forming an "X" with both his hands. "I've written a song once for song composition class, and honestly, I'm not going back down that road ever again."

"Oh. So who writes your songs?"

"A&R."

"Although Kasa—I mean Yuki has some wicked song writing skills." Kagami said. "He's frightening."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Guys!" Kasamatsu shouted in an attempt for them to stop but went ignored.

"So why doesn't he write your songs then?"

"The songs I write aren't for our type of music. Choreography can't be added to them and for five persons to sing them…" he trailed off, "…it just wouldn't fit."

"I see." He nodded and refocused back to Kise. "Last question, what is your ideal type of girl?"

"One that won't tie me down." Kise answered. "I want a girl who's independent and has her own thing going on because I'm a busy guy. One that won't nag me every time we spend together about lonely she is or something."

"Oh. I see." Aiba said with slight shock. He hadn't anticipated that response. He then turned onto Kuroko, but he couldn't find him. Seeing the distress, Kagami grabbed Kuroko's hair and pulled him closer, ignoring the "That hurts Kagami-kun" coming from the boy.

"Ah, Sora-kun, just how elusive are you?" he joked. "So, like the others, I want to know how it is like being the main dancer of the group."

"Fun."

"That's it?"

"Hai."

"Ah, okay, so do you get the dance moves quickest out of everyone?"

"No. Sunn-kun. I'm usually the second one to do so."

"Okay," Aiba was quite shocked at his short responses. "You seem to be a man of few words. Do you not talk much?"

"I am." Kuroko said. "I'm more of the observing type."

"Oh I see."

"What would be your ideal type of girl?"

"One that's gentle."

With a nod, he looked to Takao, "So it's your turn."

"Yup!"

"You can easily be seen as the playful troublemaker of the group. Is that how you are in real life?"

Takao laughed. "Which is it guys?" he asked his bandmates.

"He is." Kasamatsu said with a glare. "Both him and Sunn. I'm still peeved about that radio guesting we did."

"Aww come on, Senpai, it was the truth."

"That the entire world didn't need to know yet!"

"Hmm? What's this?" Takao said as he leaned on the table.

Seeing that things may lead to something else, Aiba quickly stepped in and said, "Sirs, please remember that the interview hasn't finished."

"Oh sorry." The boys said.

"So, Taka-kun, you said that your eyes can see a thousand miles away, how true is that?"

"Well, I can't see a thousand miles. But it's just that on a court—ow!" he was kicked underneath the table by an inconspicuous Kasamatsu. The look he received indicated that he should be wary of what he was saying.

"I have really good eyesight." The hawk-eyed boy said as his final answer.

Aiba was concerned about this, as it was obvious that "Taka" was answering the question completely different, but whatever happened, made him change his answer.

"Right, so like the others, what is your ideal type of girl?"

"One that's positive. I'd hate a girl if she's all pessimistic and mean."

"I see." Aiba said as he leaned back and exhaled. "Thank you for your time, gentlemen, this interview was…different. I liked that."

"You're welcome!" the five chirped.

"And thank you for having us." Kise added.

After, to their joy, Aiba really did treat them to something from the restaurant, Kasamatsu having Kise and Kagami under a leash so as to not burn the man's pocket. If he ever knew how much they eat, he'd die from a heart attack.

xxxx

When they were ready to leave, they headed back to Kenji who had been waiting in the van. Seeing how their faces were beaming and oozing with joy, Kenji realized that the interview went well. But, he still felt like asking, "So how did it go?"

"It was fun! Awesome!" Takao and Kise chirped.

"Yeah, it was alright." Kasamatsu said. "It felt more like a conversation than an interview." He added with a mumble, "Thank God."

But then, reality dawned on them. When the issue of the magazine with their interview is published, Kenji and their dream team will read it. Kenji will see what they said about him summoning Hikaru from hell to kill them off. Kenji will definitely kill them.

"I think we should start planning our escape route." Takao said underneath his breath but loud enough for everyone else (minus Kenji) to hear.

"Agreed."

"What was that boys?"

"The weather is nice!"

After close to an hour of driving, Kenji entered the parking lot for the "Euphoria", confused and clueless as to why his boys would want to be dropped off here. They wouldn't tell him, and only replied that it was a secret they'll tell him later on. They entered through the back door of the establishment, not wanting anyone to see them going through the front.

Although no one knew what they looked like at the moment, in the future they surely will. And in this industry, something from the past always comes back to bite one in the ass.

Quickly they navigated the room in which they practiced with their instruments, and stumbled upon Makio randomly playing beats on his drums. He too was shocked to see them there, as they hadn't informed him prior that they were coming.

"Hey Ma-chan!" Takao chirped as he sauntered over to his Rhythm guitar.

With a gentle smile, Makio started, "Okay, so before we get anything done," he looked to Kuroko, "Your dad dropped that off earlier today." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder and pointed to an area in the room. There, was a small black bench, and nestled on the seat was a pair of headphones and what seemed to be sustain pedals. Before it, was a keyboard stand and on top of it was a long metallic road case.

"Hey…is that Tetsu-chan's keyboard?" Takao asked as he gawked at the thing. "The case looks like Yu-chan's guitar cases."

Kasamatsu laughed. "It is. It's made by the same company."

"Oh man! It's got wheels too!" Kise chirped as he examined the case. "That means we can carry it around!"

"Yes, Kise. It's a flight/road case."

"Alright, now that we've established that Kuroko got his keyboard…" Makio said with folded arms to get their attention. "…tell me, what the hell are you five doing here?"

"To practice!"

"Practice what? Have a song you want to try out?"

"No…"

Makio then looked to Kasamatsu. He's heard the boy play the guitar before and he was beyond impressed. Add to that, Takao told him that Kasamatsu was the one teaching both him and Kagami how to play their respective instruments.

"Alright, I have a song in mind." The drummer grinned deviously at them. "Wanna hear it?"

"Of course!" everyone but Kasamatsu chirped. The latter folded his arms and nodded approvingly with a calm look on his face. He was pretty confident in his skills, being that no matter what Makio threw at them, he knew he'd be able to destroy it.

"Okay, so here's it." Makio said as he took out his phone and played the song, the boys listening attentively.

xxxx

Aiba returned to his workplace, but as soon as he entered the office and sat at his desk, his fellow (and curious) co-workers attacked him.

"So how was it?" one asked. His desk was right next to Aiba's. As a matter of fact, the desks were all in a linear set-up, resembling a long table with chairs on either side. There was only one desk at the top which was for their boss, the Managing Editor.

"It was really refreshing. The boys were pretty fun too."

"Hoh? Do tell." A high pitched voice said from behind Aiba. She was the Managing Editor —Serizawa-san, who had just walked in through the door.

Aiba laughed. "It's best if you heard." He pulled out his recorder from his bag and played it for the entire team to hear. When it was done, everyone had looks of shock and amusement on their faces.

"It's going to be tough to write the appropriate parts. These boys are just…"

"What do you mean?" Serizawa asked. "This is gold. We're going to publish all of it."

"Eh?!" everyone in the office said in unison.

Serizawa grinned deviously. "Think about it. Japan's idol industry is pretty cheesy, and fake so to speak. Fans are only exposed to the "good" side of their idols. They never know the hardships their idols face, all they see are pretty faces with smiles while behaving cute." She sighed. "But these boys, Catal Rhythm, are different. I think we can use them to wake up the entire nation to see the other side of idols."

"Aihara might sue us." One worker said with a sigh.

"Please, I doubt he'd do it. Given what happened on Juuzou's radio show, there's no way he'd attack us for this."

"Plus, I made sure to send the list of questions that I planned to ask. They should have reviewed their answers." Aiba nodded. "So I was pretty shocked to hear some of these responses."

"All the better." Serizawa smiled as she made her way to her desk. "So men and women, we've got work to do!"

"Still, I wonder what their real names are. And they were so close in revealing it too." Another worker said.

"There's no way we can figure that out." Joined another. "I mean "Taiga" is the only who we can say that's probably his given name in real life. But for "Yuki", the possibilities are endless —Hiroyuki, Hideyuki, Katsuyuki, Takayuki, Yoriyuki, Masayuki…"

"There's even Yukio, Yukito, Yukinori…" Aiba said with a sigh. "…there's so many names out there with "yuki" it's frightening."

"Even "Taka". He could be anything. Takahiro, Hirotaka, Masataka…the list is endless like Yuki."

"Trying to figure out their names isn't our business. Focus on your work." Serizawa said sternly. "We can brainstorm that later with more information."

"Yes Ma'am!"

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