Track 16

It had been a month since everyone at BRR had returned from their week long vacation to visit their families, which also meant a month for Hikari and Crow's secret relationship. Before Hikari and Crow had returned, Yaiba was sitting in Angelica's with Aion and Kamiko and happened to overhear a conversation the two lions were having while they waited.

"Last I heard, she was on her way back... but that was hours ago! Where is she?" Kamiko had said.

"You must learn some patience, my darkness. She will return shortly. Did she say where she would be coming from?" Aion asked her.

Kamiko began pouting, and answered, "No... All she said was she was staying on a farm somewhere with some boy... Hiki actually ran off and got a boyfriend... can you believe that?" To this, Yaiba's ears perked up. A farm? Didn't Kamiko know someone in their band was raised on a farm? But before he could let her know, the door had opened and Hikari had returned.

Since then, he was one of the only ones to know of their relationship. Angelica was also quick to catch on, as the two spent most mornings in the cafe together for breakfast. Both Crow and Hikari trusted the two of them, so they were comfortable spending time together in the cafe with only them around. The two sat rather close in one of the booths, looking over the lyrics Crow had begun writing for a song she had composed, titled 'Red Addiction.'

"I think it's coming out really well so far," Hikari said to Crow, hugging his arm as she read over his lyrics.

"Ha! Of course it is, my Angel. I'm a genius, you know!" he responded, looking to her with a confident smirk on his face.

To this, she let go of his arm and shoved him lightly. "Oh, give me a break! You've still got a long way to go before it's finished. And besides…"

As much as Yaiba was curious as to how the new song for ShinganCrimsonZ that the two were working on, he had started growing accustomed to tuning the couple out. There were times that the two would get a little too affectionate while they were together. He understood why, however. It wasn't like they got to spend much time together without revealing to anyone else that they were together, so it was like they were trying to get everything out of their system before having to separate themselves again.

As he looked down to his phone, he spotted a notification telling him of a new video from a musician he was fond of on RicoRico, a video streaming service. Listening to the video may help tune out Crow and Hikari's endless flirting. He tapped the notification to bring up the new video and the sound of a bassist covering the latest Shinimonogurui song began playing from the device.

"Fine, Hoglet, fine! I guess… I have to admit… that you're-" The bass music quickly caught Hikari's attention and stopped her mid-sentence, just as Crow had convinced her to agree he was a genius. He visibly pouted as she stopped speaking then looked to her in confusion after noticing her reaction. "Hey! What are you watching over there? Who's that?" Hikari called out from across the cafe.

The fox's face grew bright red as he quickly closed out of the video and stuffed his phone into his pocket. Hikari got up from their booth and moved over to sit next to him at the bar, a sly smirk on her face upon seeing his reaction. "Someone's embarrassed!" she commented while poking his arm. "Come on, I just want to see the video!"

Yaiba pulled his phone out of his pocket again and allowed the video to resume, showing a myumon standing where her face wasn't in frame. All that could be seen was her bass as she played the song. She was really talented! The video seemed to have a lot of views and comments, too… Was she pretty well known?

Crow stood up and walked over to the two with his hands on his hips, a little curious himself. He stood on the opposite side of Yaiba from Hikari and watched the end of the song with them, before looking over to Hikari. Something told him he knew exactly why she was so interested. Her band didn't have a bassist and over the last few days she had been talking to him about finding the perfect person to recruit.

"That was amazing!" Hikari cheered. "How haven't I heard of her before? You wouldn't happen to know her personally do you?" Her tail swayed back and forth excitedly, hoping he did. It sure would make things a lot easier to get ahold of her if so!

The fox quickly pushed his glasses up with one finger as the redness in his face returned once again. "N-No, of course not. No one even knows what she looks like, hence I wouldn't be able to recognize her if I saw her outside of these videos."

"Dude, your face is so red… What the hell?" Crow couldn't help but notice Yaiba's reaction to Hikari asking about the other musician. He nudged him with his elbow. "You a big fan, or something?

"E-Eh… Hence, I-"

"Crooow, come on! Now's not the time to tease him over his crush!" Hikari said with a bit of a giggle, noticing his reactions as well. As much as she wanted to pick on him after all the comments he made about her and Crow, the most important thing was finding out if they could recruit this bassist. It didn't mean she couldn't have a little fun, however. "We need to find out how to contact her! I wonder if she's part of a band… Could you imagine if someone like her joined Monochrome? Then she would be here all the time~" she teased, while nudging him from the opposite side of Crow.

"A-Alright! I get it!" Yaiba shouted, earning amused chuckles from the couple. "RicoRico has a messaging system that allows viewers to contact channel owners, hence you could start with that. Though it's doubtful you will get a response. Judging by the fact that she won't even show her face in her videos, she's probably very shy. Hence, you shouldn't get your hopes too hi-"

"She responded immediately! I can't believe it!" Hikari cried out, interrupting Yaiba. He couldn't help but be shocked. Hikari had already messaged her? And got a response that quickly?

Hikari held out her phone to show the boys her message, which read:

I'm not part of any band, but I'm interested in your offer! Let's meet this weekend~ (≧∇≦)/

"She's going to meet me at the cafe I work at this Friday to discuss things since it's just down the street from her apartment!"

Hikari made sure to get up early that Friday morning, wanting to be sure to dress somewhat professionally for this meeting. It was important! A bass player was exactly what they needed for her songs to feel complete.

She had attempted to wake Kamiko and ask her to join her, but the lioness was out cold. 'Oh, well," she thought. 'I'll let her sleep… I'm sure I can handle this on my own.' After grabbing her song notebook, she began her walk to the cafe.

Just as she was about to enter the first crosswalk, a familiar voice called from behind her. "Heading to work later than usual today?"

Hikari turned to see Rom walking up to the same crosswalk, his briefcase in hand. And just when she thought it was going to be a good day, too… "Actually, I'm off today, but if you must know, I'm headed to the cafe to meet with a potential new bandmate." She crossed her arms and turned away from him. "Not that it's any of your business."

He chuckled softly and rolled his eyes. "Oh, of course it's not. Bands signed to the same label aren't supposed to show support for each other or anything," he responded sarcastically. He then placed a hand on top of her head and ruffled her hair, just to mess with her a little. "Little Hikari is getting herself a full band! Good for you!" Even if he was too busy teasing her to actually come out and say it, he really was proud. She and Kamiko had come a long way after getting signed to Banded Rocking Records.

She growled and fixed her hair, her face a bright red. "Would you stop? You act like I'm some child… I'm not that much younger than you, you know!" She started walking again, hoping he would just leave her alone and go to his own job. Unfortunate for her, she forgot he took the same route to get to work that she always took, considering she always left for work much earlier than him.

"Whatever you say," he said with a smirk as he continued to walk alongside her. Back when they first met, the two hardly got along, but over the last few weeks, Rom had really started warming up to Hikari. He found her reactions to him to be quite amusing, and even cute at times.

She let out an annoyed sigh and kept her eyes ahead of her the rest of the way to the cafe. Once they made it there, she was about to walk in without saying another word to him, when he placed his hand on her shoulder, his expression a little more serious than earlier. "Good luck in there, for real though. I look forward to seeing your band grow!"

Hikari wasn't exactly sure how to respond to such a genuine compliment coming from him after the conversation they had during their walk. A small smile formed on her face as she gave him a quick nod. He really wasn't such a bad guy… just a little annoying sometimes.

Once Rom left to get the rest of the way to his own job, Hikari opened the door to the cafe and stepped inside. Sitting at the table they had agreed to meet at was a female tanuki myumon who wore a black hoodie with the hood pulled up over her head. Could that be her?

"Uh," she started as she approached the table. "Reika, right? I'm Hikari, the one who contacted you!"

The tanuki shifted her eyes to the side, and folded her hands on the table. "Ah, yeah that's me. Nice to meet you."

Hikari tilted her head slightly at how shy the girl seemed. Based on their text conversations, she had assumed the girl was a lot more peppy and cheerful. With a shrug, she sat down across from her. "It's nice to meet you, too! I'll be honest, but I was really glad you responded so fast! We've been looking for a bassist for a while now and my friends and I were really impressed with your work!"

Reika perked up a little, her cheeks a little red as she pushed her glasses up her nose. "All I play are covers of popular songs… It's not anything special, really," she muttered, not thinking it was something Hikari should find impressive.

What really surprised her, however, was the snow leopard giggling in response to what she had said. "Honestly, that was one of the things that drew me to you! My best friend and I started out as a cover band, but then we were scouted by the record company that signed the band who wrote the song that was the most popular cover we performed!" She also decided to leave out the part about her currently dating the lead of that band, but they could discuss those details later. Especially since another member of that band clearly had an adorable little crush on this mysterious girl. "Have you ever heard of Monochrome Blush?"

"Amazing…" she responded, genuinely impressed, even if her tone didn't sound that way. She usually tended to cover songs of bands she was particularly fond of, such as Shinimonogurui. She couldn't imagine getting signed to the same label as a band like that just by playing their songs. But here was someone who did just that…

Her large poofy tail swayed slightly out of curiosity. Monochrome Blush? The name sounded awfully familiar. Maybe she had come across one of their performances on RicoRico one night while surfing the internet. "Ahh, it's kind of ringing a bell."

A smile creeped its way onto Hikari's face. Even if Reika didn't completely know of her band, it was still nice to know that the name was a little recognized. "That's our band! And we would really love to have you be part of it! We aren't a cover band any longer and I've been writing music for us to perform!" she said as she sat her music notebook on the table. It was pink with lighter pink leopard spots on the cover. It seemed very fitting for her.

Reika picked up the notebook from the table and flipped through the pages, looking over the melodies and lyrics she had written. They were really good! When she made it to the last one, she commented, "The first couple songs sounded a little sad and dramatic, but this one is all romantic and sweet. This for a boy or something?" The way she said it seemed so straightforward, yet amused at the same time.

Hikari quickly snatched the notebook back and gave an embarrassed laugh. "What? N-Not at all! You must've read it wrong or… something," she responded as she closed the book and threw it in her bag.

"It had hearts on it…"

Hikari cleared her throat and changed the subject. "Anyway, like I said, we would love to have you. So what do you say?" Her embarrassment from the moment before had faded quickly and she held out her hand for the bassist to shake.

Reika hesitated for a moment as she thought it over. It would be great to join another band, especially one that got their start doing something so similar to what she does. Slowly she gazed up to the leopard's smiling face, appreciating her kindness. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, a tiny smile forming on her own face as she reached forward, her sleeve just a little too long, and shook Hikari's hand. She was in!