Chapter III : The Trouble
Yuya had spent two months joining The Shiseitens on tour. She considered it as a really great experience, judging from all these interesting things that happened along the way.
She had become fast friends with the members of the band, and had known everybody in the management team. Every time they stopped at a new town, she was always there to accompany Akari going shopping in many places of interests, and she also had to ran away from these eager fans and disturbing paparazzi (her face appeared in today's issue of a tabloid, with a headline stating "The Shiseitens' Akari out shopping with a personal assistant". She felt like tearing the tabloid apart, and Tora laughed his ass off).
She had also became a new best friend for Akira, who is always there in her bedroom every night. No, nothing happened, really. He was there just to have a nice chat, or to escape from Akari. Sometimes he just sat on the floor and listened to his iPod, with these papers containing musical notes laid down before him, and his fingers would move as if he was playing the piano ("It's for tomorrow's show. I need to keep practicing").
Yuya reckoned that the most fun experience was when they arrived in Fukuoka, where they had a chance to visit Hotaru's brother, Anri. He had a bakery and they left with boxes of manju cakes, and Yuya found lots of interesting things to write about Hotaru ("He was adopted. At first, he was such a pain in the ass. Very nasty, bad school report –it turned out that he was dyslexic, you know. But then our dad –he had a guitar-making workshop and was once a rock star- decided to introduce him to music. And it wasn't bad, you know. Look at him now. I just wished he would use his brain more, he's actually pretty smart, you know. Anyway, have you tried these strawberry-filled manjus?").
She also had to see many great live concerts performed by the band. Sitting in the VVIP seat, she witnessed how the band gave away their attractive performance, making their audiences (and herself) went wild. They usually performed in an outdoor venue, like a park or a sport stadium, but they were also times when they performed in small live clubs, just like they did when the tour started ("The boys loved the atmosphere," once again Sanada said). Yet Yuya's favorite was when they gave an acoustic performance for a live TV show in one of Kyoto's amazing Japanese gardens. Akari sat under a sakura tree, singing a ballad, and Kyo sat on a big stone, playing his guitar. It was so beautiful that Yuya thought the birds and the sunlight sang with them as well.
On the other live shows, there were also many fun things to see as well. For example, one night Hotaru and Bon gave this nice drum-and-bass jam sessions, while the other night Akira had this solo performance, playing Chopin's song and rocking his head wildly, as a tribute to his orchestra days. Even on one of the shows, Sanada actually came up to the stage and joined the boys, playing the rhythm guitar. Yuya later found out that Sanada used to jam with them before Akira joined in, and later chose to become the manager instead. They also played Ayumi Hamasaki's songs in at least two of their shows, the first one was Seasons (with Akira on the grand piano), and the other one was a more rocky version of A Song for XX. This was interesting, and later on Yuya found out that Akari is a big fan of the pop diva.
Yuya felt that she had a really great time working with this band, yet there is just one thing that she still found unacceptable, and she considered it as the dark side of the project.
It was Kyo.
Most of the time they were just fine, but in some other, they were just like cats and dogs. Once they were staying at this hot springs, and everyone was dipping themselves in these outdoor traditional style swimming pool, enjoying the steamy hot water curing their fatigue. Yuya came in to the water, and Kyo started to made these sarcastic remarks on her ("Geez, you need to have more of Anri's manju cakes. You have no boobs"). Yuya actually tried to drown him, and everyone had to take her away to a different pool (just to think about this incident could make her turn a table upside down, and Tora learned not to joke about it).
Even though so, their fights had never been so serious that it could possibly stop the project from going. Yes, she was indeed very annoyed. But nothing could actually ruin their relationship in a professional level (though on a personal level, it has), and they were times when Kyo was actually sane enough to talk to. Usually it is when they talked about the band, the tour, or when Yuya did interviews for her book. But after that, he is going to grab her again and she could only wished they had more serious, business talks.
Today they are staying in Sapporo, the biggest city in Hokkaido, an island located in northern part of Japan, where the weather remained relatively cold even though spring is almost over. As a preparation for the show, the band members are now sitting around in their hotel room, trying out the costumes for the show (an activity especially conducted for Akari and Hotaru).
Hotaru was standing in the middle of the room, with both of his hands lifted. He was wearing this very unique, bright red, baggy Chinese-style jacket, with his usual short jeans visible underneath. The band's stylist, Shihoudou, was standing in front of him, puffing cigarettes, with this serious thinking look. "Is it big enough? Can you move around freely in it?"
Hotaru moved his hands around, as if he was trying to fly. "It's OK. I like it."
In the other part of the room, everyone was busy doing their own things. Yuya sat on a couch with Bon by her side, doing interviews for the book ("My family had this small restaurant, and I actually had to do odd jobs like delivering noodles to customer. It's kinda hard to sneak in drum practice to my busy noodle-delivering schedule"). While in the other side of the room, Akari was sobbing into tears, with Akira in front of him, looking very unhappy.
"But you chose it yourself!" Akira said, sound very disturbed.
"I know, but it's really scary! You don't know how does it feel to be up there, flying around, with nothing but cables attached to your back!" Akari fired back, his face full of traces of melting mascara (he looked horrible, really).
"Sounds like fun to me," Akira muttered, looking very cynical, folding his arms in front of his body.
For tonight's show, Akari was planned to came down to the stage from the sky, with wire cables attached to his back. It seemed like a really great attraction, but when they tried it on him on today's sound checking routine, he did nothing but to cry and refusing to be lifted. But it did not work, as the checking had to be done anyway.
"I bet you would never do it. You're just bragging about it," Akari said.
"Off course not. Wanna bet?" Akira snapped, an unpleasant smile appeared on his face.
While their fights continued to go on, Hotaru had took off his new robe and changed it into his old, red sweatshirt. "Akari, it's your turn now," Shihoudou said.
"Two cans of Sapporo beer for you not being brave enough to be lifted around," Akari mumbled, leaving the couch and moved closer to Shihoudou, who had this bright pink kimono on her hands already. Akira lifted his shoulders, having this challenging look on his face. "Sure. Don't forget a nice hot bowl of miso ramen to celebrate my victory."
While Akari tried on his dress, Hotaru had moved in to stand in front of Yuya and Bon. "Hi, Hotaru! So how was the Ming emperor robe?" Yuya said, looking as cheerful as usual.
"Good," he replied, his expressions did not change much. "What are you guys doing?"
"Yuya here wanna know what makes me so hot," Bon replied, puffing smokes.
"Yeah, right," Yuya muttered, looking very cynical.
Suddenly Hotaru looked as if he was looking for something. His hands went inside his pockets, searching. In fact, he also tap his own butt, as if expecting for something to jump out. Then he took a deep breath. "I lost my cigarette. I think I'll go buy a new one."
"Great! Buy me a can of Red Bull as well," Bon shouted, as Hotaru walked away to leave the room.
"And some Lay's for me!" Yuya shouted, waving her hands cheerfully.
Hotaru waved his hand as he walked out of the door, without looking back at his friends.
"Where is Hotaru!?"
They were all backstage, with only one hour left to the show, and their audiences had started to line up in front of the building. The situation was lively and tense, but something else had made it felt slightly unpleasant.
Hotaru was nowhere to be found.
He was last seen by Yuya and Bon, leaving the hotel room to buy cigarettes. Hours had passed, the guys had to leave the hotel to go to the venue, but still he did not appeared. They tried to search in every possible places for a sight of him, asked every single person that had seen him leave the hotel room, and even some of the crew members were left behind in the hotel in case he showed up, but still no good news came. This incident really left everyone panicking.
All of the band members now sat in the dressing room, looking anxious and worried. Kyo sat at a quiet corner, busy with his mobile phone, trying to contact Hotaru. Akari actually had tears in his eyes ("Oh, Hotaru, where are you?"), and Bon looked grave as he lit his third cigarette. Akira continued to pace up and down, hands moving around wildly ("I can't believe this!"). And Sanada, as the person in charge, was the most stressful of all.
He had his usually neat hair tied in a low ponytail, sweating in spite of the cold weather, and just cannot let go of his mobile phone.
"Saizo, how's the progress? What!? He hasn't returned to the hotel!? Great, um… try the pool! The coffee shop! Or… I don't know, just go find him!" he shut the phone off, scratching the back of his head, looking very much distressed. "Goodness, I need cigarettes."
In the other corner of the room, Kyo also hang up. "His phone is inactive. I can't reach him."
"Damn," Sanada muttered.
While everyone was busy trying to find Hotaru, Yuya sat still on a couch, exactly beside the sobbing Akari. At first she was rubbing Akari's back, trying to calm him down, but then her hands were placed on her own lap. She looked extremely worried, and her hands' gestures looked as if they were eager to do something, but not knowing what to do.
This is really bad, she thought. Hotaru's missing, and I couldn't do anything but to sit and anticipate… damn. Isn't there anything…
But before Yuya could finish her train of thoughts, Akira's voice suddenly interrupted.
"That's it! I had enough of this!" he actually stomped the floor when he said this. Everyone's attention is now focusing on this sudden reaction.
Sanada folded his arms in front of his body. "Wait… what is this all about?"
Akira moved closer to Sanada. "Look, I just can't stand having to sit around here, in this place, while that brat was probably… somewhere, out there, laughing his ass off for this super-unfunny prank."
"I don't think he would do so. I think this is not a prank…," Akari interrupted, his voice still sound weak. He then burst into tears again after saying, "What if something bad happened to him? Oh, I just can't imagine it."
Akira looked at Sanada in his eyes. "I'm going to go out and search for him myself."
Sanada took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. "Look, don't…"
"Well, you expect me to just wait here and see what will happened!? I just can't do that!"
"Do you think I would risk losing you after we lost Hotaru!!"
Akira went silent.
"Look, you, I… all of us had no idea where he is. And now you decided to go out and search for him, and I'm sure you don't know about this area as much as I do…and we only have less than an hour to the show…," Sanada tried to explain, still looking angry. "Don't go try to kill yourself while there are lotsa smarter thing to do."
Akira looked as if he was trying to say something, but Kyo suddenly put his hand on Akira's shoulder. "Akira. I think he's right."
"Do you think so?"
"Well, I really understand that you're worried about Hotaru and desperately wanting to save him," Kyo gave this annoying smirk as he said it. "But it'd be better if you just stick around."
"I don't wanna save him! I'm just… pissed off," Akira mumbled, but then he turned to Sanada. "Alright then, Sanada, I'll… I think I'll stay."
Sanada shook Akira's shoulder. "Thanks a lot. I really appreciate that."
The little incident ends well. Everyone was relieved, but Yuya just cannot help feeling surprised as she saw how fatherly Kyo looked when he first tried to calm Akira down. But then his trademark annoying smirk came back, and he became that disastrous devil again.
Minutes passed, Sanada successfully calmed himself down and decided to wait for the results of the crew members' work. He sat with the others on the couch, discussing the steps they should take if the worst actually came true. Kyo suggested to go to the police if Hotaru does not show up at all tonight, and Akari came up with this idea of using Sasuke as Hotaru's replacement for tonight's show (Yuya immeadiately recognized the name as this sour-looking young boy who worked as Hotaru's sound technician). Everyone helped Sanada to figured some way out to the issue they are facing, and it really made him feel relieved for a while.
But then the contentment was disturbed by Kosuke, who hastily enter the room.
"Kosuke, my dear! So how was it? Any news?" Sanada immediately stood up, moving towards the stage manager.
Kosuke took a deep breath."There's something that you have to know. Come, I'll tell you outside," answered Kosuke. She then took Sanada's hand and walked to left the room, followed by Kyo.
Yuya, who had been a keen observer of the whole situation, realized straight away that Kosuke's voice was trembling when she talked to Sanada. Yuya then felt this painful stab in her stomach, as if something tried to tell her that a bigger danger is arising.
The door was then shut. The situation grew even more tense.
The awkward silence was broken by Bon. He put out his cigarette, and yelled, "Say! Why don't we go and turn on that TV! Perhaps we could find something more cheerful than this situation." He then stood up and walked towards a small TV set on a wall in a corner of the room.
Bon's action had restored Akari's mood, and he started to become more cheerful. "I know! Let's play that porn movie that you told us about!"
Akira protested immediately. "What!? On a situation like this!?"
"I didn't bring it…," Bon looked seriously disappointed.
The boys made this noisy ramble as Bon started to surf through channels, looking for something to watch. Watching this scene, Yuya made a forced smile. She felt more relieved, but still she cannot help not to turn her head towards the door, thinking of the conversation that happened outside. Kosuke seemed really worried. I hope nothing bad happened…but, hey! Let's just watch TV and have fun with the boys…
She then turned her head towards the direction of the boys. "So! What are we going to watch tonight?"
Unfortunately, nobody answered her. In fact, Akari's cheerful laughs suddenly disappeared, and he began to cover his mouth with trembling hands; Akira looked as if he saw someone being brutally tortured; and Bon began to increase the volume of the TV, his face looked serious.
"Guys? What's wrong?" Yuya asked.
"Yuya, you'd better come and see this," Akira answered, looking as grave as ever.
Inside the TV, a reporter was bringing a breaking news straight from a crime scene. It seems that a house in the suburban area has been robbed, and Yuya could clearly seen bunches of policemen and journalists doing their work on the background; flashes of light started to appear, and investigator started to search for evidence. Even the robbed house was clearly shown; its window shattered, the inside was in a complete mess, and they had put yellow police line around the area. Finally the suspect was being revealed; he was handcuffed and carried by two policemen, walking through bunches of mass that had started to gather around the location. He was a young man, had a skinny figure and was wearing a red sweatshirt. He had his hood on, but it could be clearly seen that he had messy blonde hair underneath, and his expression remain flat as the camera took a closer look.
Yuya lost all the colors in her face as she saw the face of the suspect.
"So, it's on TV already, huh?"
Everyone turned their head as Kyo walked in to the room, with Sanada by his side. They all seemed gloomy, yet somehow they felt more calm, now that they have found out what is going on.
"Kyo!" Akira ran to get closer to them. "What's going on!? It's that true!?" he pointed to the TV as he said this. Kyo did not give any answer.
Sanada clapped his hands. "OK, guys! Please calm down… I'm going to tell you what's going on."
Everyone gathered themselves closer to Sanada. Nobody made a noise, not even a single move.
"So… here it goes. We just had a call from the police, in fact, there's one out there waiting for one of us to go with him to their station," he pointed his thumb to the door as he said it. "Why? 'cause… well… you see… Hotaru is being arrested."
