That was a curious encounter, damn, if only we had collided with each other in a less public place I would have buried her in questions, is she an actor? I've never meet any so I wouldn't know but only them could do such a change of behavior...
Fascinating... Buuut whatever, no point in thinking about someone I won't meet ever again.
The young man looks at his watch for a moment before rushing towards his destination, he is late.
After running for a while he finally arrives at the place, a fast food restaurant, but not like the other ones around, this one is just starting, and it doesn't belong to any of the titans of the industry. So many red flags, but for him they are yellow.
He enters the building and starts to look around, surprised by the design of the place, much more cozy than the other places he's been at, the distribution of the tables and the size are definitely similar, but instead of lively and plastic colors, the place was adorned with browns and blacks, giving the sensation of being in a cabin.
"Hello there!" A male voice calls out from behind the counter. A young man, older than his roommates but still younger than him, with short brown hair and glasses.
"Hello, are you the owner?"
"Nope, they would be my parents, I suppose you are a potential employee?"
"That's right, are your parents here or...?"
"Oh! No, they are not here, they are on vacation"
The young man at the door widens his eyes in response to the info, the guy behind the counter notices it.
"I know right?! The place has just been open for a couple of weeks and they go on vacation leaving me alone! Crazy " he says with a joking tone. "But don't worry, I'm prepared"
"Oh, okay"
"This way please, take a seat" he says pointing at a table
The young man follows his instructions and sits, prepared for the incoming questions. And as soon as the two of them are close, he immediately notices his interviewer scanning his appearance, which makes him a little uneasy.
"So, first of all, do you have any experience in this line of work?"
"I do, I worked for a couple of years in fast food establishments"
The interviewer isn't writing anything, he just smirks a little.
"Do you live far from here? You know, in case of an emergency and stuff?"
"Not that far, I don't need to take public transport"
"Hmm, do you have a vehicle of your own?"
"No, I don't"
"Any experience with one?"
"I only drive motorcycles"
Another smirk
The young man is surprised, he's been reading this guy since he entered the restaurant and he doesn't seem to be interested just in the looks like all the other places, he is very sincere with his expressions, and by the smirks he can tell the interview is going well... Could this be it?...
"Alright, final question"
The young man is confused, that's it? Why so few questions?
"How many places rejected you?"
The young man's eyes go wide as he hears the last question.
"I may be young but I know my fair share of this work, and I have some... Personal experience in the matter. You don't have to answer if you don't want to"
The young man relaxes as he hears those words, they are sincere, even if it's embarrassing to answer, he wants to.
"About 17"
The interviewer let's out a sigh
"I'm sorry for that, I'm embarrassed to be in the same line of work as those guys" the interviewer says as he stands up and lends his hand to the young man. " But i know better, I won't let go a promising employee"
The young man can't help but smile, without any doubt he shakes his hand. A heavy weight is lifted for him, this can only get better from here, he is more hopefull than ever...
"Oh! And by the way, you can call me Zenji"
...
-A couple of weeks later. A Saturday-
Some of the crew are enjoying a nice breakfast while chatting about their stuff.
"So it's becoming successful quite fast huh?" Frank asks the young man eating In front of him.
"Yeah, looks like the bet of making it all cozy and stuff is paying off"
"And how are you doing?"
"Pretty good, we mostly receive clients in the restaurant but when we don't I handle the delivery"
"And how are the streets?"
"Normal I guess, I'm used to driving on heavy crowded streets and I was expecting a lot of trouble getting around places I don't know but Zenji has helped me a lot with that, he even showed me some shortcuts I can use, I don't even have to take the first route I used to the restaurant anymore, I save like 10 minutes now"
Frank smiles a little
"It's nice seeing you a bit more lively"
The young man doesn't respond to that
"But anyways! Are you ready and hyped for the concert?!" Frank says with excitement
"The what?" The young man says while munching
Frank seems almost offended by his answer
"Come on man! We've been waiting for it all this month! Don't tell me you forgot!"
The young man is a little confused by that at first but a quick look into his memory of the last month quickly makes him remember
"Oooh yeah! I'm sorry bro I completely forgot about that"
Frank makes a disappointed expression
"When?"
"Tomorrow night"
"Alright, and what about the concert stuff?"
"We'll buy all of that on the way there"
"Perfect, don't forget I'm not paying a thing alright?" says the young man as he gets up and walks away with a smirk
"Yeah yeah..."
...
"Oh so you remember that huh!!??" Yells Frank at the air
-Later that day-
As much as he enjoys the company of his fellow roommates, sometimes he needs to take a break from that tiny space, often on weekends. So he ends up in a nearby park that has one of the most precious treasures of the streets: benches with shade.
"Nice" Says the young man to himself as he sits down and takes out his phone
He opens his chat with Frank and scrolls up until he reaches a photo of the pamphlet he showed to him weeks ago.
B Komachi huh? I'm kinda eager to go now that things are going better... It could even be fun if the music is nice.
As he scans the pamphlet, once more his sight is stolen by the picture of the main idol of the group. But this time his memory finally clicks.
Hmm?... Wait a minute...
The moment he recognizes the girl he immediately sits straight and gets his phone as close to his face as he can.
"There's no way..." He says to himself
After a while he sits back normally and looks to the sky.
"Frank is not going to believe this" he says as he chuckles
He takes out of his backpack some chips and his earphones, but before he can put them on a strange sound catches his attention.
"Caw caw! Caw!"
"Huh?"
The young man looks for the source of the sound and quickly finds out that a crow is standing on the bench with him and seems to be staring at him.
He takes a glare at his chips and then to the sky looking for more crows. It seems this little guy is the only one around.
"If you don't call your friends I will give you a chip" he says in a low voice.
The crow just keeps staring. More specifically, at his right arm.
"I'll take that as a yes I guess" he says as he opens his bag of chips. Then he slowly approaches his hand towards the crow. Surprisingly the black bird doesn't seem to be afraid at all, it just takes the chip off his hand and starts eating it.
The young man takes this chance and tries to pet the crow, but as soon as he touches its head the crow gets annoyed and flies away with the chip.
Damn... Well it was worth the try
The rest of the day goes by with nothing out of the ordinary, he eventually returns to the apartment with some groceries and goes to sleep. He didn't notice the little shadow that was following him most of the day.
-The next day. Evening-
Everyone is preparing for the concert, some of the guys are taking good care of their appearance while others are just changing shirts.
"So, what's the plan?" Asks the young man
"Hmmm... Since you don't have experience with idols you can get a good spot for us, we'll buy the stuff we need and reach you as soon as we can" Frank responds
"Alright, as close as we can get I guess?"
"Hahaha! I doubt you can get us a front row but yeah, as close as you can please"
"Let's go"
...
When the young man finally arrives at the place he gets surprised, even though they left the apartment really early there's a good group of people already here... And as Frank predicted most of them have already taken the front rows. The best he can do is right by the middle of the place, it's not small but he can already see that this is going to become a lake of people soon.
I hope they arrive quickly...
After 20 minutes or so the crew finally arrives, they struggle a little to find their friend among the increasing amount of people but soon enough they reunite with him. A couple of them just bought the mandatory glow stick but Frank and Jay bought the entire 'im a fan of this idol' pack. Shirt, cap, glow sticks and probably a couple of key chains and pins.
"Here you go bro"
Frank hands a couple of glow sticks of the same color to the young man.
"Huh? And the rest? Even I know you should get different ones for the other idols of the group" He says
"These ones are the only ones you need bro!" Frank says while he shows off his 4 glow sticks, all of the same color, the color of Ai.
"That's not very nice man"
"Don't worry! Everyone around came here just for Ai as well!" Says Frank with a excited tone.
The young man scans his surroundings and before long he confirms it, almost everyone here indeed has only glow sticks with the color of the leader of the group. There are some of different colors, but their amount is just a joke compared to Ai's.
Instinctively a sole thought forms in the young man's mind
Wouldn't they be... Angry?
A loud cheer from the public let's him know that the concert is starting.
The cheers get louder and louder as each of the members gets on the stage, until the star arrives and the crowd goes crazy. The young man concentrates, he came here to have a good time and enjoy the hopefully good music after all.
"Everyone! Thank you so much for coming here today!!"
The familiar voice makes the young man quickly turn his full attention to the stage, and he instantly sees her, although in a more colorful outfit.
There's no doubt now, she really is the one I bumped with... I understand now why she is the center of attention, her presence is just impossible to ignore.
After the group does its usual greeting for the public they start with the concert, the music goes up, lights go down and the singing begins.
--Now Playing: Sign wa B--
The moment they begin the whole atmosphere changes to a more vivid one, the beat is good but the music in general is outstanding.
Wow... This is... Better than I expected... More than that, this song is amazing and it's only the first one. Whoever wrote it has talent.
While he is enjoying the music he obviously is watching Ai, and while he has ears for music he doesn't seem attracted to the choreography, he just thinks it's a nice add on.
Eventually he notices something odd, while she is singing and dancing her eyes seem out of focus, making weird movements, left, up, right, up, left, up... What Is she even doing?
Is she...?
By the time he realizes, it's too late, her eyes stop... And they stopped directly on him.
A cold shiver runs through his body and suddenly, for a brief moment, there is no one else around, all the people and even the other members of the group are replaced with a void, only Ai and him are there.
...
Why...? She is still singing, she is still dancing... But why her eyes?...
As the seconds go by she keeps her sight on him alone. He is still confused, even if she remembers him why is she staring at him?
A couple of seconds later her eyes narrow a little.
Is she...? Expecting something of me...?
He soon realizes something and looks around to witness his friends having the time of their lives, jumping and waving their glow sticks around.
Is that why?
The young man didn't even raise his glow sticks, he didn't deem it fair for the other group members... But isn't it unfair for her as well if he has glow sticks of her color in his hands and he isn't waving them? Isn't that like yelling at her face that he doesn't like her performance? If only she didn't spot him...
Damn it...
He quickly looks at the other girls, they are completely focused on their own things.
I mean... They're not even paying attention right? It's okay if I just do it... Right? They won't even notice.
Her eyes narrow a bit more.
...
I'm sorry... This is the best I can do.
Without time to think of the best possible outcome, he drops one of the glow sticks to the ground and starts to wave the other one as high as he can.
The moment Ai sees it her eyes go wide and a smile forms on her face as she continues singing.
The young man feels some relief to see Ai like that, he can even tell she is singing with more feeling and she is finally focused on her performance, he lets out a sigh, he is no longer against a wall.
...
Eventually the song reaches its final chorus, and one final time Ai looks at the young man while singing.
"Your idol sign it's B!!! ~Chuu!~"
He is completely shocked, his eyes widen as he involuntarily puts his free hand on his chest. Is this why idols are so popular? He should feel special, not every day you get stared at by the most promising idol of the era, he should feel happy... But he only feels doubt.
After that they performed a couple of songs:
STAR T RAIN and HEART's KISS.
Both were good, but obviously the best one without a doubt was the first one, so catchy. No wonder that's their signature song.
The young man enjoyed the majority of the concert, yet it felt quite short, other concerts usually last a long while and they have a lot more songs. It's probably because the group is just getting popular or maybe that's just how idol concerts work.
The group eventually said their goodbyes and left the stage, the crew immediately started talking.
"That was amazing!" Frank yells very excited
"You said it!" Replies Jay with the same enthusiasm.
The other guys are praising the performance, but not as energetic as the couple of super fans among them.
"Yeah, it was pretty good" the young man says "now let's get going, some of us have work tomorrow"
Almost everyone nods and begins walking towards the exit, except for two of them.
"About that, we have something else to do before we go back" Says Frank with Jay at his side.
Everyone stops and turn around to face them.
"There's a meet and greet happening and we have to be there" Says Jay.
"You bought meet and greet tickets?!" The young man says in disbelief. Everyone behind him has the same expression.
"Yeah but don't worry! We have been saving up for this for a while, plus it wasn't that expensive" Says Frank
"*Sigh* Alright, but you know the rules" Says the young man with a glimpse of authority for being the oldest one.
"Yeah yeah we know, we'll see you in the apartment later"
"Okay, enjoy yourselves I guess"
The group and the couple walked in opposite directions towards their respective destinations.
Eventually the crew arrived at the apartment and immediately everyone got ready for a nice sleep before another week.
...
The young man, already laying on a bed, is staring at the ceiling, thinking about what happened at the concert.
What a crazy night... What was that about? Why did she?...
...
I guess there's no point in thinking about it, I'm too tired to even try to. Besides I'm pretty sure this is the first and last time I ever go to a concert of B Komachi, if what Frank said is true they will grow so popular it will be impossible for any of us to afford another ticket.
Surprisingly the concert was very nice, I may even download some of their songs, their composer is very talented, I won't be surprised if they reach the top of the industry someday.
He slowly closes his eyes as he falls asleep.
I may not become a super fan like Frank or Jay but... I will keep on hearing their future songs for sure...
B... Komachi...
--
Author's Notes
Sorry for the long wait, I've been quite distracted by a certain popular dlc of the moment (if you know you know) Plus the few moments I get to write, plus the fact that I intend for the chapters to have a little more length... Yeah, I'm pretty slow, sorry again.
Since i cant use the slot of a whole chapter for this i will put it here: As you already noticed, im not that good writing in English. So, if you notice any errors that can be deemed as 'essential to correct for the sake of understanding' please let me know so future readers can have a good time.
And I'm also here to put a warning, since I don't think the tags might be enough, or just for a heads up I guess.
The story from this point will get pretty dark, with themes that not everyone might want to read.
Buuuut Oshi no Ko it's dark by itself so I guess you knew what you were getting into from the start haha. But I will put it anyways, just in case.
[Readers discretion is advised]
Next chapter: Masks