Us From Now On
Chapter 8.
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.
Disclaimer is on page one. Also, the songs included in this chapter do not belong to me.
"Distance never separates two hearts that really care."
For Mio, the hardest part about making music or to be specific, making new songs was not the composing of the melody. To be very honest, everyone in her band has the awesome ability of coming up with good melodies from the simplest things, like how Mugi come up with an entire melody for 'Honey Sweet Tea Time' from random notes played on the keyboard and Yui coming up with the melody for 'Gohan wa Okazu' just by strumming Gitaah during one particularly boring practice session.
No, for melody making, it's safe to say that they're all good.
The hardest part for her was writing the lyrics.
It was to everyone's knowledge that Mio writes overly sweet and fluffy lyrics. True, her sense of 'beautiful writing' was kind of a wack, but it's not that she's bad with writing as a whole. It's just that she always have difficulties in finding words that matches her thoughts when she's listening to the melodies. A part of her wanted things to rhyme, the other wants to put in things that sounded meaningful…and when she's overly inspired she tended to put everything together and ended up with what everyone (mostly Ritsu and Sawa-chan) thinks as the world's sappy-est lyrics.
She's hurt of course by those comments, but that didn't get her down. She still tries her best to come up with lyrics whenever they have new songs because she wants to get better at it. The bassist wants to be able to write good enough lyrics that will support the beautiful melodies her friends come up with.
She's not there yet at the moment, but she's trying.
Sometimes, random bursts of inspiration triggered by real life events helped a lot when writing lyrics, and one of the proofs of this statement was right here, currently playing in her ears.
As always, insomnia hits whenever Mio's feeling slightly stressful. Today was just one of those days thanks to the crazy stunt she pulled earlier, what with her jumping to cross the street when the light was red and all that. She couldn't stop feeling guilty for worrying her friends about it, with Azusa the most out of all, and felt bad about ruining the rest of the day with her overall mood. Promising herself to think before she acts starting tomorrow, Mio decided to spend the night awake.
No, she's not brooding no.
Not tonight.
Tonight, she's dedicating herself to music.
Tomorrow was finally the start of Hell Fest, their very aim for coming to Tokyo in the first place. She had done some looking around when they were out earlier (and thankfully grabbed a couple of leaflets before that crazy stunt) and after browsing through said interesting leaflets, she'd noticed couple of familiar band names in the Hell Fest band list. All of them are indie bands, but some had released several mini albums and had their songs played on the radio. Mio was happy to realize that she knew some of these bands' songs, though not that many, and was actually looking forward to tomorrow's concert.
This was just like the Summer Fest years ago, which was their first time attending open-air live concert.
Back then Mio was so hyped the night before that she couldn't sleep due to excitement and ended up listening to music the whole night. She practically ran on pure adrenaline rush the next day and dragged Ritsu practically everywhere throughout the day.
A small smile appeared on her lips at the memory.
She remembered how Ritsu was exasperated at her antiques, but still went along with her excitement throughout the entire day. The brunette was good at that, taking care of her when one of her weird moods strikes. She may act like a jerk sometimes, but Mio knew too well that the drummer can be very understanding. That day in the Summer Fest was the proof. Only a good friend would let herself be dragged around during a hot summer day to watch for barely three minutes worth of concert before having to run around again.
And though Ritsu was not here with her this time to share this excitement with; Mio wouldn't let herself to feel down. Not when there was music to look forward to. Music was their passion, and the bassist hope that her childhood friend won't abandon that no matter where she was.
And so, with a smile on her face, Mio scrolled through the lists of albums in her ipod and clicked on the folder titled 'HTT'. More scrolling before she found the song she was looking for, and with a happy hum she covered her ears with her earphones to once again drown herself in music.
On a day just like any other,
you suddenly stood up and said,
"Let's go stargazing tonight!"
"I guess even you get a good idea sometimes,"
everyone said as they laughed.
On a road not even lit;
We frolicked about as we walked like fools
To avoid being crushed
by the loneliness and uneasiness we carried.
As we gazed up from this pitch-black world,
the stars looked like they were falling from the night sky.
This song she's listening to wasn't just any song. It was their song, HTT's song. This was the first song they come up with after the recovery from the brief slump caused by Ritsu's departure. Yes, their muse took a hit during the months following the event, and whenever they tried to make music, everything sounds half hearted. But thanks to a long bout of persevering, and sheer stubbornness on Azusa's part, they had managed to come up with some good songs that they feel very proud of. And this particular song was one of them.
Since when, I wonder,
have I been chasing after you?
Please, please
don't be startled and listen
to these feelings of mine.
"That's Deneb, Altair, and Vega,"
you say as you point at the Summer Triangle.
I remember as I look at the sky.
I finally found Orihime-sama,
but where is Hikoboshi-sama?
She's going to be all alone.
It was a song that mainly plays on Mugi's amazing piano skills as the strength. Truth be told, this song was a big gamble on their part. With them losing their drummer, the band had to compromise with the built-in drum beats found in the blonde's keyboard to fill in the drum parts.
Of course, synthesized drum beats would never be as good as real ones, and to make up for that they had composed this particular piece that relied fully on the base for the beats. The Ojou-sama's remarkable talents in the piano were emphasized in this song, and Mio felt a surge of pride towards her friend whenever she listens to it. Sure, Mio was the one who came up with the overall melody, but without the Ojou-sama, this song wouldn't pack as much punch as it does now.
Of course, the melody wasn't the only thing that makes the song.
There's the lyric to pay attention to.
The truth is, I've always
known somewhere inside, my feelings for you.
But just finding them
won't make them reach you.
Don't. Don't cry
is what I told myself.
I pretend to be strong but am cowardly
I pretended not to care.
And yet,
the stabbing pain in my heart increases,
Ah, I see, so that's what it means
to fall in love.
This particular song's lyric's credits would fall entirely to Azusa. The youngest member of their band had turned up during practice one day, with a handful of ripped notebook pages and heavy eye bags. She had told her senpais how she'd tried her best to come up with the lyric draft for this particular melody, before turning to Mio and apologized. The bassist was confused at first, but then she understood when she read the lyric draft.
The draft her junior had written was about a girl with an unrequited love who was never able to convey her feelings to the person she loved. And to be very honest, it hid pretty close to home for Mio, who at the moment was nursing a broken heart (or so Mugi had said) after Ritsu. Azusa did confess about using that particular event as an inspiration and though she knew that it wasn't the nicest thing to do, she couldn't help it. The pigtailed girl had wanted to convey all the emotions brought forth by the melody Mio came up with and turn it into the song. Thus was why she apologized. Although she had come up with a great lyric, she had used her senpai's suffering for it.
Mio only smiled at that and gave her junior a hug.
True, it made hear heart ache when she read the lyric, but she was not mad at Azusa for it. She was actually glad, that something positive came from all the negativity that they've been feeling. And so to unanimous votes, the four of them agreed on the choice of lyric (with several touch-ups) and titled this song 'Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari'.
That summer day
those twinkling stars
I still remember even now.
Your face when you laughed,
your face when you were angry,
I loved it so much.
Isn't it funny?
Even though I always understood,
you never knew
my personal secret.
The night rolls on
In a distant memory, you
point with your finger
in an innocent voice.
Mio couldn't hold in the smile that threatened to split her face in half when she listened to Yui's voice belting out one of the high notes in this song. She remembered how their lead guitarist was having trouble during practice with this particular note because her voice usually cracks when she tried to sing it. They were thinking of changing the entire arrangement to suit Yui's voice, but the brunette flat out refused and stubbornly said that she'd get through this hurdle one way or the other. The other HTT members nearly wet themselves silly when Yui ended up calling Sawa-chan over to Osaka for some vocal training. That was a wacky weekend when they had their old homeroom teacher over for sure, but it was worth it. Thanks to her, Yui managed to tackle the high note and smoothly handle the other difficult parts of the song.
They all had big hope for this song and it was to everyone's surprise when this song became a hit when they played it during one of their campus events. People had come up to them asking if the song was available for purchase afterwards, and this triggered in their decision to upload their songs online. HTT has quite a few songs from their High School era and after a brief discussion, they all agreed on uploading each and every one of their songs for people to listen to.
It was an achievement for them as a band, and though they can't play most of their drum-heavy songs live anymore, they tried hard to make up for it with the rest of their songs. Mio was proud of her friends, and she's looking forward to the future where they could, hopefully, released mini albums and then albums and eventually hold a concert in Budoukan and fulfill their dream. It was still a long way to go, but the bassist knew that they'd get there eventually.
Mood greatly lifted thanks to all these positive thoughts, Mio set her ipod on repeat to loop all the songs in the HTT folder and spent the night awake in blissful abandon.
"…Those are amazing eye bags you have there, Mio-chan."
"She's like an office lady who had to pull an all-nighter to make it through a deadline."
"You mean a mangaka. Nothing beats the legendary eyebags of a mangaka."
"Ah…haha…ha… yeah…sure…" The raven haired bassist could only scratch her cheek awkwardly and looked out of the window.
Just like the Summer Fest, Mio had skipped on sleeping entirely the night before and when the morning came she was all tired and groggy because of the all-nighter. Honestly, the girl would never learn. She's like a kid who's too excited to go to sleep on the day before the field trip.
"What were you doing, senpai?" Azusa's voice was tinged with worry came from the back seat "Did you have trouble sleeping again?"
Mio, to her slight surprise, found herself smiling at this.
"No, actually, I didn't." She turned around to face the younger girl, who blinked at the bright expression on her face.
"I stayed up all night listening to our songs," she explained excitedly, holding up her iPod that was plugged into the car socket to charge after a night of use "I was excited about going to the Hell Fest today, I guess, and ended up listening to some music to cope. And then I lost track of time…" and the next thing she knew the sun was up and the new day had begun.
Azusa's mouth formed a perfect O when she replied "Oh." and found herself smiling in relief back in return.
Mio's cheerful mood was not lost on the others, who looked at each other elatedly. They had thought that Mio would be stuck brooding for the entire day again today, and was glad that she didn't. They had come to Tokyo to have fun, and they want the bassist most of all to enjoy their trip. It would do her good, they had thought.
And they were right.
The sunny expression on Mio's face was contagious, and before long the van broke into comfortable conversations filled with jokes and laughter.
They were on their way to the venue where Hell Fest will be taking place later. It was only around 10 am in the morning now, and the festival would not start until sundown, but Shingo had promised to take them out around the area while they wait for the festival to start. The girls were looking forward to visit Akihabara (not so much on Azusa and Mio's parts, but they can't go against the onslaught of unstoppable forces that were Mugi and Yui) and according to their tour guide, Akihabara was pretty close to where they were headed.
Unlike yesterday, where they headed towards the busy parts of Tokyo, this time they were heading to the outskirts area where old worn-out buildings dominate the place instead of multi-storied buildings Tokyo was famous for. It brought a different feel compared to the Tokyo they have seen so far and Mio found herself liking it. Half of her were expecting long lines of people waiting for Hell Fest to start, like how she had seen people doing during the Summer Fest, and was actually confused when nothing like that came to sight.
"You know," she started as the van turned away from the main road "with today being the first day of Hell Fest, I'd expect more people lining up around here." Not that she knew where it was going to be held, but you know, expectations run rampant when you're excited for something.
Shingo glanced at her as the girls in the back seat make noises of agreement "Ah, well, that's because it's still morning? Indie festivals like this usually get busy when it's close to opening time, since that's when the merch tables open. And besides, people usually flock around this part of town once its lights out, so there's that too."
A hum was his reply, since his guests were first timers to this kind of thing. Mugi was too busy taking pictures with her digital camera to even reply.
"Oooh!" Yui squealed out immediately afterwards "is that it? look, look!" she excitedly pointed out at a particular building. The building looked worn out, like most buildings around it, and was constructed with what looked like beautiful red bricks that reminded Mio of those cool night-club places in the west. The overall look the place has didn't feel like anything special, if not for the sign.
It has the biggest neon sign the bassist had laid her eyes on, and she would bet some of her money that it'll glow obnoxiously bright when night falls. Obviously, since it's still lights out, the sign was barely noticeable in midst of its surroundings, and yet the place still managed to get their attention.
Maybe it was because of the huge Hell-Fest posters plastered along the walls leading up to that building or maybe it was because of the flock of people outside of the entrance, who looked like they were setting up signs bearing band names and their set lists for the night. The fact that these people were wearing official looking Festival t-shirt helped too and it seemed this particular fact took Yui's attention.
"They were wearing Hell Fest t-shirts!" their lead guitarist pointed out as the van drove past the building's entrance "…uh, aren't we supposed to get off back there?" she turned to Shingo in confusion as they drove further away from said place.
"We're going to enter from the exclusive people entrance," Shingo replied with a grin that was unseen to the others "and we gotta park the van somewhere too, there's no parking over that area." Tokyo was a pain in the ass when it comes to parking spaces. They just had to walk practically everywhere here.
Mugi's eyes were still stuck on that red brick building even as the van drove away from it.
"That name…Serendipity wasn't it?" an English word, one she found familiar and yet couldn't quite remember the direct translation to it. Mio's ears perked up at that, remembering the word from one of the many English passages she'd read during class.
"If I remember correctly…it means 'happy accident'…right?"
Their driver nodded excitedly from his seat "Uh-huh."
"Or 'fortunate mistake'" Azusa added as she glanced back at said building that quickly disappeared from their sight "…what a positive-sounding name." she'd never guessed that it would be the very venue where a fierce-sounding event like Hell Fest would be taking place if she hadn't seen all the signs and posters outside of it.
"Ehhhh, you know quite a lot, Azunyan." Yui looked at her junior with wide eyed wonder "I didn't even know how to pronounce it, heheh!" she actually sounds happy about it and said junior could only sweat dropped at that.
"Please don't sound so proud about it." maybe she should help her senpai with her English lesson one of these days… Because who knows, if Yui-senpai become proficient enough in English (or at least can pronounce some things right) they can put more English words in their songs and be more creative with the lyrics! That would add more flavor into their songs and with more songs means more listeners and more listeners might open up a path for them towards stardom!
It was a good thing that Yui can't read minds, because the things Azusa was plotting in her head to get Yui to improve her English at this moment would've made her cry in despair.
"We're here~!" the van pulled over into a semi-empty public lot and lurched into a stop before everyone stepped outside. The public lot was hidden in between buildings, but from what Mio could see, it looked like they were just right behind the row where Serendipity's building was located. Still required some walking though, but this wasn't bad.
The Houkago Teatime girls followed their tour guide excitedly as he led them towards a set of heavy doors in the red-brick building, which had the 'Employees Only' plate on them, affectively explaining the 'exclusive people' entrance he was talking about before. Said doors led to what look like the kitchen area (where Shingo stopped for a bit and introduced the girls to the few people that were inside, most of them wearing the Hell Fest t-shirts) before they stepped into the main part of the building.
"Wow."
"It's a bar?!"
The inside of the worn out building of Serendipity completely contrasted the outside. The inside of the building was a bar, neatly decorated in a western style with music-related memorabilia decorating the place. There's actually an authentic-looking jukebox somewhere in the far corner and the girls could only stare around with their mouths slightly open.
The Hell Fest was going to be held here? In this posh-looking bar?
But where would the bands play? The tables and chairs were still arranged as if the place was not open to the public yet even though the bartenders were already working by the bar, wiping glasses and whatnots. With all the people working to set up the place, they'd expected the venue to look halfway ready to use by now.
The four girls turned to Shingo with confused looks to which the guy only grinned in return.
"Nu-uh, not yet." And with that he beckoned the girls to follow him towards a dingy looking hallway and walked right to the end where they reach a doorway leading to a stairs downstairs.
Ah. Now this makes sense.
"The one thing about Serendipity that sets it apart from the other bars," their tour guide explains as they descended the stairs towards the slightly colder basement "is the fact that they have an underground venue in the basement that is also their big selling point towards the musically inclined audience."
They reached the landing in no time and had to enter through another set of heavy-looking doors before they reach their destination.
The entire basement area of Serendipity had been turned into an underground music venue. The floor of the rectangle-shaped warehousy room was cemented, to contrast the upstairs area that has pretty tile flooring, and it was elevated at the far end where a large durable-looking stage was placed. A sturdy set of steel bars were placed right in front of the stage, giving a sense of separation between the floor and the stage area, though for what Mio has no idea. There were also a staggering number of amps and microphone stands placed near the stage for a concert held indoor. It must be because of the number of bands playing in the festival; they want and need different things. And placed on the right side of the stage was a humongous projection screen that was tacked to the wall, to which the lone projector in the room was pointed at. It's showing nothing but a slideshow of logos of the bands playing in tonight's concert at the moment, flashing faintly in the midst of the dimly lit room.
Mouth opening slightly, Mio's eyes then strayed around the other side of the room where she saw the many people working on the lightings, the sound systems and lingered briefly at the furthest side of the huge basement area where an open bar was placed. It was different compared to the one they have upstairs. Whereas above they have the regular chairs and tables nearby, the one in the basement had no seating whatsoever. There were several bar tables nearby however, indicating that people would spend their time standing up instead of sitting around in this place. There were also a noticeable lack of glass bottles downstairs as well, and that was probably to avoid damaged properties when things get too rowdy down there.
Even though the girls had visited an underground live house before (and even played in it) this place feels completely different to what they've come to know. There's a reason why a dang festival was held in here in the first place, and there was no doubt that they have to sign up for months before getting a slot to play in here.
The bassist gets goose bumps just by looking around, and the festival hasn't even started!
She might even faint when the event starts later on…better warn the others for it.
"Welcome," a new voice came from behind them "to Serendipity."
It didn't hit Mio until several seconds later that she had heard this voice and met this person once before.
"Ah!" the two of them gasped as their eyes met, both showing equal level of surprise.
Right outside in the semi-full parking lot, two figures were seen lugging a bunch of musical equipments off a worn out van. One of the figures, dressed in light clothes regardless of the cool weather, was having troubles with the amplifier she was lifting. Or at least, was trying to lift.
"Hot damn, these are heavy." The ponytailed-girl muttered in annoyance. She ended up dragging the damn thing off the floor of the van, gave a great big tug, and cringed when the heavy case fell with a sickening thud onto the uneven ground. Her companion groaned at that.
"Izumi, don't do that, you spent a lot on that thing!" she remembered very well the very amount of money her companion had to spend on the new amps she just manhandled. The girl whined about price so often that everyone knew how much they cost her. If (when?) these new amps break, they'd never survive the drama that will follow.
The ponytailed girl who was called Izumi just pouted back at her friend.
"I can't help it! I'm not as strong as you are, Rikkun." she eyed her brunette companion's arms with narrowed eyes "…you know, maybe I should take up drumming. They're doing wonders for your arms." She can feel the flabs on her biceps jiggle whenever she moved hers. UGH. It's mortifying.
Her companion laughed at that as she moved to lug off the last of their equipment and slammed the van's door close.
"You're not gonna last a day. You're complaining just from the weight of the amps, I can already see the sheer intensity of your bitching if you decided to take up drumming." Banging around on the drums might look easy to some people, but to be frank, it's a lot of hard work. You need stamina and strength to be able to keep up consistent beats, and the entire band relies heavily on you.
Izumi let out a sigh at that, knowing full well of the truth.
"You're right. What was I thinking." A dramatic sigh "well, there's no choice. You'll have to be my packing mule for the day, Tainaka Ritsu. For the sake of these expensive musical equipments."
Ritsu only laughed out loud in reply.
"Fat chance of that happening. Now get your fat-ass over here and help me lug these things."
"Hey! I don't appreciate the jab at my jigglies!"
The drummer just shook her head as she worked.
She didn't yet know what the world has waiting for her inside Serendipity.
The last time the raven haired bassist met this woman, she was in a state of numbing shock. Her brain didn't work that well, and she felt her mouth was running on its own accord. Mio couldn't remember the exact words she'd spoken to the woman, but it was either apologizing or thanking her. Never would she imagine that she'd meet said woman again just one day after their meeting, more over in this kind of specific setting.
"Ara." The older woman who was also Mio's savior yesterday blinked at the bassist in surprise "it's you."
Mio herself can only nod slowly as the people around them looked at the two in confusion. A look of recognition dawned on Azusa after a while however, signaled by the gasp she lets out, but Mugi and Yui were out of it. And so was Shingo.
"You guys knew each other?" the lone male of the group addressed the two women, who nodded at the same time. They both smiled when they realized it, and the older one turned to reply to him.
"We met yesterday," she skipped a lot of details, maybe because she knew that Mio'd be uncomfortable if they discuss the circumstances surrounding their first meeting "but that's about it. I never knew that they would be the guest you were talking about."
The guy just shrugged.
"Anyway, welcome to Serendipity" the lady smiled widely at her guests "I sure do hope that Shingo's been a good tour guide so far. He's a good kid, but his lack of knowledge about Tokyo can be a waste of time sometimes." She gave the lone man of the group a flat stare, who just sighed and rolled his eyes in return.
"And let me just apologize for the stupid thing he did a couple of weeks back," Mio was reminded when Shingo made that quip about HTT replacing their drummer. She immediately felt guilty about it. "I hope the invitation to Hell Fest will suffice? Just let me know if you guys need anything, okay? I'm in charge, so everything's on the house."
The girls blinked.
"You're in charge of Hell Fest?" Mugi quipped, not exactly expecting a woman dressed in stylish designer clothes to be the one managing over this indie band festival! "I thought it was that guy upstairs!" they met a scary businessman-looking person upstairs, and she'd thought that guy was the one in charge with how important he looked.
And judging from the look on her friends' face, they were thinking of the same thing.
The kind lady only blinked, before something quickly dawned on her. Frowning, she immediately turned to Shingo, who cringed in response. Damn, he forgot to introduce them!
"Sorry, I forgot," a sheepish smile and waved over at the girls "meet Houkago Teatime, they're the band I told you about over the phone the other week." Shingo told the lady in a casual tone "this is their first time in Tokyo."
Mio immediately took this chance to introduced herself "Ah—my name is Akiyama Mio," a short bow of gratitude was added "thank you for yesterday!" and at once her friends followed suit.
"Hirasawa Yui!" Yui gave the lady a friendly wave.
Mugi gave a polite short bow that was expected of an Ojou-sama "Kotomugi Tsumugi."
"And um, Nakano Azusa." Azusa, being one of the three people who were in on the secret, gave the lady a respectful nod of the head in recognition, which was acknowledged by her with a knowing smile.
"And then…meet one of Hell Fest's top brass executives and also Serendipity's sole owner," Shingo took the pause after the girls' intro to continue, this time waving over at the lady standing beside him "she loves The Beatles, afraid of bugs and her dream is to go to England and take a nap on Abbey Road." He paused for a second as though thinking of what else to add "…and she's also my crazy big sister, Kannagi Satoko."
Beat.
"EHHHHHH?"
Well, now Mio knew why Shingo could get his hands on 5 tickets and backstage passes so quickly.
Satoko smiled at the reaction and give the girls a peace sign after smacking Shingo on the head "Nice to meet you guys. I've heard from my little brother about your band, but I've never heard any of your songs. Have you guys released a CD before?"
"Nope," Yui shook her head "we've never released a CD but we have our songs uploaded online. We have quite a number under our name, don't we Mugi-chan?" she turned to the blonde who nodded at that.
"U-un. We've uploaded them to Itunes and SoundCloud so far."
Letting out a small hum, Satoko nodded in approval. Using the internet to promote songs was a pretty good decision. But she was pretty confused with their method. "Why not try and record a CD?" she asked as she led her guests over the basement's bar, intending to order them some drinks "If you guys have plenty of songs under your name, mini albums would be a better way to get a stable fanbase."
Mio helped pass around the soda-filled plastic cups around the group as she thought of her answer. They did talk about releasing a CD someday, like how their friends' band Love Crisis did when they were in high school, but there were a lot of things to think about. First of all was the lack of spare time to get together and make music, thanks to college that took most of their time. There was also the lack of funding to produce the CD itself. Mass producing a CD on their own won't be cheap, and getting Mugi's family to help them financially was out of the question. The band owed the Kotobuki family a lot, and they wouldn't want to trouble them anymore than they have to.
But most of all…it was because they're missing the vital part of their band.
"We thought about that before, making CDs I mean." the raven haired bassist of HTT finally answered "but we decided that we're not there yet." She played with her half-full plastic cup idly as she mulled over her words "we're….currently missing one of our members. And we'd like the band to be in a complete state before we do anything drastic…I guess."
Azusa watched her senpai silently for a moment before deciding to add her two cents to the conversation. Might as well right? Since they've come this far, a little promoting here wouldn't hurt their chances.
"We've been playing for the college audience so far and we think we did pretty well. You can give our songs a listen if you like?" her words were bold, for someone from a no-name college band. But Azusa didn't want to take back her offer. She felt that HTT had did a great job so far, and even though she's happy playing at their current level, she wanted more. She knew that they could get better than they are now and she knew her senpai would agree with her on this. There's nothing to lose even if her offer get rejected anyway, so it's all good.
And from the looks of it, the manager of Serendipity seems to agree with her.
"Sure, I'll be happy to. Do you guys have sample songs along with you?"
At this Shingo choked on his drink in excitement while the rest of the girls made some kind of weird happy noises.
"M-M-M-Mio-chan!"
Mio almost ripped her bag apart trying to grab her iPod, and her heart sank when she remembered that she left it in Shingo's van to charge "I don't have my iPod with me!"
Yui cringed at that before she dumped the content of her bag on the floor trying to look for her music player. She swore she brought it with her! Satoko can only watch the girls panic with a slightly amused look on her face while her own brother was busy browsing through the song list on his phone. He's trying to see if he has some of HTT's songs on his phone, he did listen to some of them during the band's studio sessions.
"He-here!"
Mugi turned out as the hero of the hour when she handed Satoko a mini USB stick. Mio recognized the USB as the particular one Mugi use to hold their copy of unfinished songs, the ones that're currently under production and usually raw and unpolished. To be very honest, Mio'd prefer to let Satoko listen to the better songs that they have, but under this circumstances they'd have to make do with this.
The short-haired manager of Serendipity simply thanked Mugi for the USB before walking away.
"Eh?" Azusa looked blankly after the woman, who was walking towards the sound control area "Where's she going with the USB?" they watched with baited breath as Satoko talked to a headphone-wearing guy and make some hand gestures before handing him the USB stick.
Yui was watching with a slightly open mouth, frowning at the sight "what's she's doing?" The headphone-wearing guy plugged the USB into the laptop that he was working in and immediately the projection screen stopped showing the band list logos and changed into showing the list of folders contained in Mugi's USB.
Mio couldn't believe it. Was Satoko serious?
"Damn." Shingo's cup tumbled and spilled its content on the ground, but the guy couldn't care any less about it. When he said to his sister that she should listen to the HTT's songs, he didn't mean for her to listen to them like this!
Mugi let out a shaky gasp out of nerves "…they're plugging it into the main sound system!" for the first time in a while, the blonde felt her legs turn into complete jelly. Having strangers listen to your songs was scary enough, but to have an entire building worth of musically-inclined strangers listen to your unpolished songs was another kind of scary.
It was terrifying.
She immediately turned to her bassist friend who was, as expected, turning pale in record time. The Ojou-sama scooted closer to Mio just in case she's going to fall over, because it looked like she's on the verge of doing so.
They all watch anxiously as the screen showed how the headphone-wearing guy went through the folder titled 'HTT Songs' and double clicked on the MP3 file on the top of the list. It took a while, but when the music finally came out of the speakers set around the room, Mugi immediately grabbed a hold of the bassist's shaking arm for safety reasons.
A short piano melody by Mugi started the song for a few seconds before it was followed by a tricky bass line courtesy of Mio. From there Azusa took the lead in guitar until Yui joined in, along with their bassist's alto voice. Said bassist wobbled on her spot dangerously when she heard her own voice over the speakers. It didn't even occur to her in her state of shock that people around them actually stopped what they were doing to listen to the song.
What kind of tomorrow do I want, I wonder
without even knowing anything I just wished for it, didn't I
I feared my true self and ran away
Straying off into that endless dream
I don't need a wish my hands can't reach
the courage to softly hold your hand... is what I want
The star shines on the darkness and night of the changing world
I am able to fly to the sky it leads me to
All the constellations that were believed in and drawn came true
Just like the promise we exchanged on that day
I Believe
This credit for this song's melody would have to go to Azusa and Yui. The two of them developed a nice guitar phrase during practice, a particularly up beat one that they felt was too good to be left just as a phrase alone. It took a while for them to turn the short phrase into an entire song, and honestly, without Mugi's help, Mio doubt that they'd be able to do it. Mugi, who had proper musical training from her childhood, was a vital figure for song arrangements. They were going to work more on this song if she wasn't mistaken, but then they got side tracked with the Tokyo trip and it's been put on hold ever since. Maybe that was why Mugi had the USB stick along with her today, she was going to bring this up with the band sometimes during the trip.
The bassist's eyes strayed around the room to watch the reaction of everyone who was listening to the song. There were some who were nodding along to the beat, and a few others have an expression of shock on their faces. There were also people who just shrugged and went back to work, ignoring the song, and this type of reaction was a hard one to receive for the already anxious members of the HTT.
Satoko herself was listening seriously, with her arms folded and brows furrowed thoughtfully ever since the song first started. The girls were worried about her reaction the most, because they were pretty insistent about getting her to listen to their songs, and it'd be embarrassing if she'd think that they're bad.
Finally, four minutes had passed and with it come the end of the song. They watched silently as the headphone-wearing guy say something to Satoko, who nodded back at him with a smile on her face. The girls turned to look at each other at this, wondering if this was a good sign and if it's okay to start cheering now. No one in the room was screaming out in anguish after listening to the song, so Mio think that they did a pretty good job.
"So?" Shingo asked his sister immediately when the woman rejoined them at the bar "what do you think?" he's actually pretty nervous himself. Along with many others, it was also his first time listening to this song. From the overall condition of it, it seems like the song was still in an unfinished state, but it was pretty good in his opinion. He just hoped his sister thinks the same way, that woman's pretty picky with her music.
The Serendipity owner handed the USB stick back to a nervous Mugi before answering.
"Well…" a long thoughtful hum as everyone waited with beating hearts "I think that was great for an unfinished song. The guitar duet around the middle was wonderful, but I think the tempo sounded a bit too hurried." At this Yui scratched the back of her head sheepishly while apologizing to Azusa. "The use of piano for this kind of upbeat song is a pretty wonderful idea as well. It's not too overwhelming, but consistent enough to let us hear the funky bass line." Mugi and Mio looked at each other with proud smiles on their faces.
Satoko couldn't help but be infected by the girls' mood herself, seeing the looks on their faces reminded her of the pure happiness musicians gets when their songs were received well by the masses.
"Overall, I think you guys did an awesome job! Houkago Teatime is certainly welcome for open nights. You guys would get a good chunk of audience with that kind of song. Since this place is big enough to contain 500ish people, I think you guys can get about more than half of that if you have a good set list."
Azusa couldn't really believe her ears at this "Oh my god." An open night at an established place like this would open up a big path for them in the music world!
"YAY! We're gonna do a live, Azu-nyan! A live in front of hundreds of people!"
"We did it! We did it, Mio-chan….Mio-chan?"
Everyone's eyes turned to the drummer who'd kept quiet for a while. She stood there frozen with the same proud smile on her face, not even batting an eyelash at Satoko's comment. Yui even waved a hand in front of her face, and only then did it dawn on the rest of the HTT.
"Ah. Mio-chan fainted."
She couldn't believe her ears.
She thought she was imagining things when she heard her voice over the speakers. But no, she wasn't delusional, and she certainly did not mistake someone else's voice for her voice. She knew that voice well enough to know that there's only one person in the world who has that raspy alto voice, and sing that passionately. She knew that familiar piano melody and the messy guitar playing she heard in the song used to be something she complained frequently about during high school.
Ignoring her companion, who was in a conversation with one of the staff, she immediately rushed out of the equipment room. There's only one place in this entire building that has main control the sound system during a festival like this.
"Hey," she walked over the sound control area and greeted the headphone-wearing guy who was busy listening to something in his laptop "dude-guy, were you the one playing the music just now?"
The guy took off his headphone and nodded, surprised by the sudden question "uh, yeah, I did."
"Whose song was that? Who gave it to you? "
The guy looked overwhelmed by her intense questionings "uh, I dunno. The manager gave a USB to me, telling me to play a song from the list."
Light brown brows furrowed "the manager? Satoko did?"
"Yeah. She got the USB from this bunch of girls that came here earlier." That guy then moved his laptop over to show this newcomer the screen. He had the SoundCloud website open "that song was pretty good wasn't it? I actually got hooked and ended up listening to their other songs. They have a pretty wacky name for a band with such good taste in music."
She swore her heart stopped for a damn second when she heard that last comment.
"Do you…remember the band's name?"
"Uh…yea, sure. It was something about tea. Uh….Houkago Teatime, I think." A glance at the computer screen, and he nodded "Yep. Houkago Teatime."
Drumsticks fell onto the ground with a loud clatter when their owner's grips went slack.
"...Are you serious?"
Ritsu never knew that the world could be this small.
A/N: It's been years hasn't it? What do you guys think of the chapter? HTT has an open offer to play live, and you get Ritsu's appearance at the same time. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, though the grammar might be a bit messy since it's unbeta'ed. Let me know what you guys think of the chapter the usual way. I think it's safe to say that the awaited HTT reunion will happen in the next chapter.
For the songs, the one Mio was listening to in the beginning of the chapter was 'Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari' by Supercell and the one played in the venue was 'Starlog' by Choucho. I chose those two songs coz they have awesome piano in them, and have this HTT feel-ish to them.