Us From Now On
Chapter 3.
Summary: Why is it that we realize the importance of someone after they are gone? For it is hypocrisy and the human nature that blinds us to what matters the most.
AN: A day in the limelight for YuiAzu. By the way, I cried after watching episode 20. I'm not the only one, right?
Disclaimer is on page one. Beware of choppy grammars.
-"Deep in my heart, I'm suffering, knowing that I've lost you. On the outside, I'm living, pretending that I've forgotten you."
"Well well, you're a new face around here."
"Looking at the location where this dump is situated, you probably have a lot of 'em coming in, eh?"
"Good point. So…does that cheeky mouth need a drink?"
"I'm…underage, but I couldn't care less. I'll have a round of your cheapest."
"…Heartbroken eh?"
"No…I'm in love."
"JANG JANG JANG! JA-JA-JA-JANG!"
"Yui-senpai! Please stop with the nonsense yelling!"
"Eh…? But I finally find a good melody for a new song~"
"You did?" Azusa looks up at the sky, in case it was falling. Nope, it wasn't. "Are you sure?"
"Yep! Here, it's like this." A strumming of a guitar.
"Ah! That's good…"
"Isn't it? Ehehehehe…"
"So it's like this?" Muttan finally strums the melody, joining in as a duet.
"Eh? No, it's like this see? It went JANG-JA-JA-JANG right here…"
"No, I think it was JANG-JANG-JA-JANG…?"
"What…in the whole round world, are you talking about?" a deep voice called out between the confusing conversation. Yui and Azusa looked up at a long haired guy who was looking at them with a confused expression.
"Ah, Shin-chan! We were playing around with a new melody," Yui said cheerfully at the newcomer, whom she was quite familiar with.
The guy sweat dropped as he remembered the pieces of their 'conversation' "ah…so, the JA-JANG stuff were…notes?"
Azusa felt her face burns "I'm sorry. We'll try to be quiter." The guy laughed at her expression and left the two, still chuckling all the while. Azusa turns to her carefree senpai with the usual dose of a pout and a mild glare.
"Mou, you don't have to be so loud you know?"
Yui only looked at the twin tailed girl with an innocent expression that melts even the thickest ice "but that's fine, right? We know Shin-chan after all…"
"Even so…"
Kannagi Shingo was the name of the long haired guy, who was also the clerk of the Recording Studio Yui and Azusa were at right now. After they moved out to the college dorms, what's left of the HTT swore that they'd keep on playing music as a band. Now that they don't really have a club room anymore, and Mugi's villa was not available, they'd resorted on to practicing at a music studio.
The Mishima Studio was the studio HTT frequents and with time, they made a new friend in the clerk (whom Yui called Shin-chan) who always had the misfortune of working his shifts while HTT was visiting. Now that they were at a different place, Azusa couldn't help but wonder why they still found some poor clerk that was always bullied by the innocent brutality of the Houkago Teatime members.
The rhythmic guitarist could only stare at her senpai who was jamming to a completely different melody she randomly strum on her beloved Gitaah. The topic of 'having-found-a-melody-for-a-new-song' was instantly forgotten.
Where are Mio-senpai and Mugi-senpai?
(_ _)
"Achoo!"
Mio turned at the cute sneezing sound and found her blonde friend rubbed her nose delicately. Mugi was the only person who could be graceful even when sneezing.
"Are you okay?"the raven haired girl said as the two of them descended the long stairs of the Kansai Women University Library. They were just done doing research for a project and was heading towards the studio for another band session.
The blonde Ojou-sama nodded her head, sniffing "I think it's the dust. Saa, let's not keep Azusa-chan and Yui-chan waiting!"
(_ _)
"Working on a new song again today, Azusa-chan?"Shingo called out from behind his counter where he was currently counting today's earning. HTT had been practicing more frequently lately after their bassist, Mio, written a new song which lyrics were thankfully provided by Azusa. Shingo had the privilege to hear the raw demo as the band's apology for always making a mess during his shifts.
Azusa nods from her seat in one of the empty couches inside the studio's front desk, her fingers played around with her turquoise pick "Yes. Now that Mio-senpai was back from visiting her parents, we figured we could get the song done by today."
"Without a drummer?"
"Eh? Um…"so far, HTT have been using Mugi's keyboard drum set to fill in the hole left by their drummer. It's not perfect, as the blonde herself had stated that she doesn't know much about drum beats, and Mio had to share her small knowledge of drumming from watching Ritsu. Shingo knows about this fact, and had never bothered to ask about it. Until now.
Azusa didn't know how to answer him without going into a full-length explanation of yes, they want a drummer, but they didn't want to replace their old drummer either. She turns to Yui for help, but the latter was currently busy snuggling her Gibson Les Paul.
Hearing no answer from the twin tailed girl, Shingo shifted the topic smoothly "you know, if you're looking for a drummer, there're a couple of them available. You can see their names and phone numbers there on the information board," he nodded towards a particular wide space on the wall where posters and flyers and all sorts of papers were stuck on.
It was the studio's information board and it also serves for advertisements board for musicians looking to join a band, someone selling their second-hand instruments or about an upcoming concerts and performances and stuff. The flyers on them were always changed and the ones with the expiring dates would always be taken down in time for a new one to take the place. It was always an interesting experience to browse around the endless names of musicians, indie bands of different genres that existed around Japan.
Hearing someone outside the band saying about replacing Ritsu-senpai gave Azusa's heart a pang, but she knows that the clerk doesn't mean it that way since he doesn't know why HTT doesn't have a drummer in the first place.
"Ah-yes, thanks Shingo-san."Shingo were 3 years older than Azusa and 2 years older than her band mates. Yui just had this knack of calling everyone with '-chan' added on their names regardless of their ages.
The kouhai left her seat unnoticed (Yui was now humming a song about mochi ice cream) and went to the information board. It doesn't hurt to look, right? Mugi did say that they need to look for a drummer after all…
As her eyes went through the papers stuck on the info board, Shingo put in a CD on the studio's stereo. Angry rock music blasted out in maximum volume from the speakers stuck on the four corners of the small room, jerking the three people inside it out of their thoughts.
"I'm sorry!"Shingo wailed as he turned down the volume quickly before any eardrums were destroyed. Yui was on the floor, cushioning Giitah that fell out of her grasp and Azusa was covering her ears with both hands, tail twitching in surprise.
Um…tail?
"Are you guys alright? I'm so sorry about that…the last guy must've forgotten to turn down the volume…"
"Ow…my ears…"
"I'm okay!"Yui jumped up with both fists in the air and wearing a victorious look "whose angry song was that, Shin-chan?"
"It's 'Kami-iro Nagareboshi' by 'Intoccabile" the clerk answered as he dove below the counter to retrieve fallen stuff thanks to the rock music explosion.
"A foreign band singing a Japanese song?"Azusa stood up from her previous spot on the ground, still rubbing her ears. She saw what looks like Shingo's forehead shook from behind the counter.
"No, they're a Japanese Band. Indie though."
"Eh, Japanese band with a name Into-in-kabi-?" Yui's marks on spoken English were often in the red; this failed attempt at Italian should have been obvious. Her kouhai gave a tired sigh as Shingo chuckled, back from his adventure from beyond the counter.
"It's In-to-ka-bi-re. They're all Japanese people, though their guitarist grew up in Italy and that's probably why they used an Italian word for the band name," the clerk explained as he waved an empty CD case which disc was being played right now.
Yui took the CD case and stared at the cover in silence. Not able to read the words written in foreign alphabets, she passed it on to Azusa without another word "what does the name mean, Shin-chan?"
The clerk sweat dropped "eh…um...I…I don't know?"
The only brunette in the room gave a cute frown and cocked her head "hmm…and I thought you're a fan…"
"I'm sorry," Shingo was apologizing for his lack of knowledge in Italian.
"Don't worry, I don't understand Italian either! And English too!"
"Don't sound so proud, please," Azusa said from Yui's right, slightly worried for her senpai's future. With a sigh, she returned onto reading the song list on the CD case. The song names were in katakana and a few were in simple English which were easy enough to understand.
Although the pigtailed guitarist doesn't really understand alternative rock, she knew quite much to say that this band's ability was far above HTT's "they're really good…"she said softly which Shingo heard.
The guy grinned smugly "I know, I've been following them since their first single. This one here is their second one. There's a poster of their next concert on the board there, if you're interested." He was talking about the largest poster on the board where the band's name were amongst the few written in non Japanese letters.
"Hell Fest?" Yui asks as she followed Shingo's eyesight and read the large-font katakana printed in bold red on jet black background.
"It's an upcoming indie concert in Tokyo. Intoccabile is going to play there as well."
The girls ooh-ed in awe. Azusa wondered if HTT could play on a concert someday while Yui was wondering if HTT could get their name printed in large bold letters on large papers stuck on all over town.
With a deep thoughtful frown, Azusa was positive that they needed a drummer.
A clear chime sounded as the studio door opened "Hello?" two figures with blonde and raven heads appeared, looking curiously at the three people gawking at the info board.
"What are you guys doing?" Mio wondered as her band guitarists stared back at her, one with her mouth opened. Mugi only let out a giggle as she went over the counter to take the room key Shingo was holding out. The room they usually used was the biggest one, since the small one made Yui felt like suffocating.
"Mio-chan! Mugi-chan! We were talking about a band! They're really cool!" Yui informed her two friends excitedly, arms akimbo now that Giitah was safely slung over one shoulder "Shin-chan is playing their CD right now!"
Mio and Mugi immediately registered the rock song playing on the background and nodded. The bassist felt like she'd heard the song before.
Shingo was feeling a bit proud that his favorite band received good reviews by these girls who played their instruments like a couple of mad geniuses, especially Yui, whom the girls said had the perfect pitch.
"I was telling Azusa-chan about them earlier," a fist hits a palm as Shingo remembered something and turned on Mugi and Mio "I heard you're looking for a drummer? I have the name list ready, right here," he pats his jeans pocket smugly, apparently satisfied with this brilliant move "I've personally sorted out the drummers that suited your band genre, so, you can trust me on their abilities!".
The once noisy room quieted down in an instance. The clerk blinked at this unexpected comeback. He was expecting showers of thanks and gratitudes.
"Eh?"
The girls were exchanging weird looks at each other, and the tension made Shingo really uncomfortable. Did he do something wrong?
"Um…"
"Please, mind your own business, Shingo-san," Mio's cold tone whipped through the air as she went straight down the hall where their room was situated without another word, raven black hair whipped around her form angrily. She walked away without a glance back to her equally yet mildly shocked friends. Snapping out of her shock, Mugi could only give Shingo an apologetic look before she hurried forward to follow the bassist.
"Gomen, Shin-chan," Yui said before she and Azusa followed on, bearing the same troubled expressions as their blonde keyboardist after returning the CD case to its owner.
Shingo felt really bad.
That was his fault right? He must've said something wrong.
The studio clerk heaved a sigh and rumpled his shoulder length hair.
His straying eyes ended up on the Hell Fest poster showing the 4 members of 'Intoccabile'.
Kannagi Shingo had a great idea.
Not much (none!) angst now, since I wanted to shed some light on something that would be important in the future. This fic also shows the side of a drummer-less Houkago Teatime. No, I havent forgotten that it was supposed to be angst/romance. You have to remember that K-On! is also about bands/music right? That's the sub-plot :-D. I'm going to make this up in the next chapter, promise. So dont bail out on me, now! O.o
I changed the band's name 5 damn times. I'm so bad at naming stuff on the spot. By the way, I'm looking for a beta, is anyone interested? Grammars just don't agree with me.
1) Kami-iro Nagareboshi = Paper-colored Shooting Stars (don't ask where the title comes from).
2) Intoccabile = Italian for 'Untouchable'
P.S.
HUT RI ke 65. Semoga engkau mencapai kedewasaan dalam ekonomi dan berpolitik.