Busking (7)
Sensitive, and dull.
Depending on the environment they grow up in, people readily develop something like an animal's senses. Rena's upbringing being what it was, she watched the room constantly, and her nose for atmosphere ran sharp. An inborn instinct for survival.
What is it?
Rena glanced around the art room. Morning there was ordinary. Tae-il spent his mornings with the animal-raising club, so instead of the drums she had only stolen scraps of time to paint. The year-end exhibition, held under the Arisugawa family's patronage, was not far off now. It was an event that drew a great many artists who received that patronage, Rena among them. The mood of the thing was needlessly severe, and someone like her—useful as a billboard for publicity—would have a hard time dropping out even if she wanted to.
If I bail, I'll only end up causing trouble for Iris anyway.
The scenario Rena feared most was her own existence turning around and becoming a burden on Iris. The Arisugawa family saw straight through that psychology, and it was precisely why they felt free to give her any slack at all. So long as they held Iris as a hostage, foul-tempered or impulsive as Rena might be, she was as convenient a puppet as they could ask for.
Rena accepted it. Whenever she wasn't practicing the drums, she worked hard at the canvas and prepared for the exhibition. Up to that point, it was the same as always.
The sense that something had changed came around lunchtime.
"Rena, isn't it boring just hitting the drums by yourself? Want to practice with me?"
Sakuya, deep in performance practice lately, came over out of nowhere and proposed they work together. Rena tilted her head, but she agreed.
"I don't mind... What about your practice?"
"Tae-il told me to go find my tone."
"Tone?"
"My own sound. We're the same band. I wanted to hear it against your drums and compare."
Sakuya had always been free with her hands, but today she clung harder than usual. Whenever a gap opened she kneaded Rena's shoulders, or pulled her into a hug and stroked her hair. She lavished praise on the hands roughened by painting, calling them pretty, and offered to do her nails. The compliments came so thick, and so unlike her, that Rena was thrown.
"Oh? That just now was better than I expected, wasn't it?"
"I wouldn't know..."
"No? How did our playing sound to you?"
"Same as always. We've practiced so much I could probably sing the whole thing back."
"Really?"
"Ask me to and I still won't."
"Sulking."
"Don't say 'sulking' out loud. It's creepy."
"Ahaha! Rena-chan's so cute that anything she does is fine, isn't it?"
"Hey! I said it's creepy!"
"Tae-il would think so too, right? Isn't that right, Tae-il?"
Sakuya immediately called in the one person Rena couldn't budge, her relief pitcher. Tae-il, who had been monitoring live videos of the bands busking in Yoyogi, looked up at the call. Their eyes met, and he smiled softly and agreed.
"Rena is cute. She's our mascot."
"Ngh...!"
"Heh. Our leader says so."
"Quit messing around and practice!"
"Ahaha!"
At the time Rena was too flustered to notice that something was off. Now that school was over, she knew for certain. The air in the art room had changed, and her sharp nose had caught it.
What on earth?
Perched on the drum throne and tucked into Tae-il's arms, Rena fiddled with the tip of a stick. A wrongness hung in the room. Her blue gaze turned toward Ayane, who was fixing her playing posture under Iris's instruction.
"So! The most important thing is confident shoulders!"
"C-confident shoulders...!"
"Open your shoulders and your chest lifts too. It looks so much better!"
"My chest...?"
"Yeah! Honestly, Sakuya and I have a bit of a hard time the lower we go on the high frets. Our chests get in the way of seeing the board..."
Mid-explanation, Iris glanced at Ayane's modest chest and grinned.
"Ayane's just right, as you can see, so you'll be fine!"
"I want to kill you."
"Ahaha!"
Taking it for a joke, Iris laughed lightly and patted Ayane's back. The face of the girl who had just been toyed with was murderous beyond words. Put a knife in that hand and there would be an incident on the spot. When Ayane's fists began to tremble, sharp-eyed Sakuya quietly lent a hand from the side.
"Iris isn't wrong, though. I find it more comfortable playing with the neck raised like this, because of my chest. Want to try?"
"Gyaaaah!"
Ayane exploded. With a sigh edged in exasperation, Rena turned her eyes back to the drums.
"Shall we start?"
Warmth overlapped her cold hand. Tae-il, who had been holding her, gently closed his hand around Rena's small one.
"A fill is like humming."
"Humming?"
"Even a hum in the same beat and rhythm takes on a completely different nuance depending on how I sing it, right?"
By way of example, Tae-il hummed a little tune.
"Hm-hm-hmm. Hm-hm-hm-hmm. Hmm-hm-hmm-hmm."
Improvised on the spot, it came out a little awkward. He seemed to know it. The longer he hummed, the redder his face burned.
"Ahem! Anyway. Taking a feeling with a completely different nuance and expressing it through the drum kit's own colorful combinations—that's a fill."
"I get the gist. This only works if you've memorized every drum beat, right?"
"Correct."
Tae-il nodded and moved her hands.
"Remember the beat numbers?"
"Of course."
"And on a drum chart, the notes and which drum you hit?"
"I had them memorized cold the first day, looking at the sheet."
"Then here we go."
The moment she took his hands, Rena let the strength drain naturally from her own.
"I'll start with something easy."
"It is easy, right?"
"Haha."
He laughed the answer away and, so she could get a feel for it, worked his characteristic beats in at a leisurely tempo.
"When you voice it in your head, go ta-ta-ta-ta. When you don't, it's good to mark it with an ng, or some other sound, so you can tell them apart."
Even once the beats felt familiar, try to mix them quickly and in every variety without practice and your hands were bound to tangle. On an instrument as busy as the drums, the most important thing was closing the gap between thought and hand. Tae-il moved her hands, never pushing past what she could handle.
Ah. Again.
A memory from long ago came back, from when she and Tae-il had been on bad terms. A floating sensation, as if her body were suspended in midair, and with it that peculiar disconnect, as if the body were not her own. It ought to have felt unpleasant. Strangely, Rena did not feel bad at all. Rather, even with her body outside her control, there was a snug comfort that warmed her chest.
She closed her eyes. She could hear it: Tae-il's voice, awkwardly humming the beat, and matching it, the drum's distant resonance and its scream, cunningly mixed together under the name of a fill.
It's changing.
At first the sound had been built mostly on snare, toms, and bass rather than crash or ride, and now it flipped the way a mix gets swapped. The hi-hat blended in where it belonged, and the ride's bright, ringing shimmer grew louder. The sound changed fast, but the beat itself stayed the same. Every time the bass drum sounded, Rena's body jolted along with Tae-il's thigh.
The sound shifted naturally, yet there was a pattern in it. A pattern you could miss without concentrating, and it wouldn't even be strange—and it recorded itself, layer by layer, in Rena's ear. Then it played back.
Like this.
As if she were painting, Rena spread the wings of her imagination across the drumming he had just played. All at once her hands moved. She reproduced the rhythm he had played, the same, but faster, with her own hands.
"Nice."
Taking in the praise that slipped quietly from him, she kept moving.
Amazing...
Once she knew where a sound came from, her hands went there on their own. All she had to mind was the beat. Wondering if this was what it meant for the body to remember, she finished the short phrase and slowly lifted her head into the quiet. Her eyes met Tae-il's. He was grinning.
"Your memory really is something. How was it?"
"Haaa."
Rena closed her eyes again and leaned comfortably against him. The throne was narrow, and under the pretext of making room for her his lower back was screaming, but he read the mood and didn't let it show.
"I want to draw the logo."
"Out of nowhere?"
"You're drawing the logo? Then I want to draw it with you!"
Tae-il was flustered. Sakuya, who had been fiddling with her guitar on the grounds that she couldn't miss a chance to get pointers from Rena, slipped in quick. At the word logo, Iris stopped teasing Ayane and paid attention too.
"The logo? The one you posted on LINE yesterday?"
"It needs more work."
Upload the rough as it was and she would die of embarrassment. Rena stretched.
"Hehe. I've got an idea too. Can I see it?"
"Suit yourself."
As Iris sidled over, Rena tidied her sticks and hopped down out of Tae-il's arms. Then she quietly sneered at Iris, who was trying to nuzzle up against her.
"The final say on the logo is entirely mine, though."
Iris was aghast.
"What!? Then you won't take my opinion at all, Rena-chan! Foul! This is a foul!"
"Take it up with Shin."
"Shin Tae-il! Use your authority as leader! That's an order!"
"Ah, ahaha..."
His view was blocked.
"Huh?"
Ayane hopped up and settled lightly into the seat Rena had left, as if snatching it.
"A-Ayane?"
"What?"
"Nothing..."
Ayane was taller than Rena. Naturally, if she wanted to lean on him, his back had to suffer a little more. Abused to its limit, his lower back let out a creak that was almost a scream, and Tae-il howled on the inside. Oblivious to his pain, Ayane wiggled her fingers and grumbled.
"Shin-chan, is this why you went out last night?"
"Ah. You noticed?"
"I'd be an idiot if I didn't. Even the shorty seems to have picked up on something."
"As expected, I can't fool Ayane. Ahaha..."
"Hmph."
Ayane puffed her cheeks and pushed up against his chin with the crown of her head. His hands flailed in the air.
"A-Ayane!? S-stop! I'm going to fall over backward!"
"Dummy. Just hold on tight."
She caught both of his helpless arms and wrapped them around her waist. His body tilted a little, but the balance held, just barely.
"There. Better?"
Ayane turned to look back at him, smiling wickedly.
"Haha. Hahaha..."
Tae-il offered a dry smile. Just then Rena, surrounded by Sakuya and Iris and subjected to an untimely bout of chest-smothering, called out.
"Hey, Shin! Are we making a promo poster too?"
"W-we should!"
Frame it as part of promoting the Cultural Festival and the school would probably accept it without a word.
"What's the concept going to be?"
"Concept?"
"The poster concept."
She was asking where the subject of the poster would sit: the school's Cultural Festival, or Tales Tale. Tae-il thought for a moment.
Riding the festival's coattails is a little underhanded. Even so, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for us.
Never let an opportunity slip. If nothing else, that was the one line of Arthur's that Tae-il actually agreed with. This was no time to worry about saving face.
So...
His gaze went to Ayane, held in his arms the way Rena had been. His hands had only been going through the motions of circling her waist, without a shred of effort, when strength suddenly flooded into them.
"Shin-chan?"
Tae-il straightened his back and drew his upper body forward. The exercise he had been doing lately under Sakuya's guidance had broadened his shoulders a little, and Ayane was pulled tight into his arms.
We did decide to become the villains...
A plan as ridiculous as they came, but even the original rival's debut was truly not far off. In any field, a distinctive character was a weapon.
And that's not all.
Unlike in the original, BARD's Izumi would not die in some unhappy accident.
Because I won't let her die.
Big O Pumpkin, who had never once left the indie scene in their lives, would make a proper major debut as well. A turbulent era was surely coming. The golden generation once called Izumi's legacy in the original no longer existed. If anything, the difficulty had gone up. Tales Tale had to survive, no matter what, on that incomparably rough sea.
A short draw of breath. Then a long exhale, as if emptying his lungs completely.
"Everyone!"
"Say it."
"Let's be a little shameless...!"
Shameless. Tension written all over his face, Tae-il pressed his lips tight and let his eyes shine. For a moment a short silence fell over the art room. When sound returned, groans and looks of utter exasperation rained down from every corner.
"Sigh. Anyone watching would think there was ever a time you weren't shameless."
Iris shook her head.
"Ahaha. Right? It's not like he's a manga protagonist. There really aren't many people in the world as shameless as Tae-il."
Sakuya laughed and picked it up.
"Okay."
Rena raised a 2B pencil high.
"The stars of the poster are us?"
"I'm counting on you."
She nodded and sketched a rough in a lined notebook to lock in the composition. First, one person seated dead center. Anyone could tell it was Tae-il. Seeing it, Sakuya made a proposal.
"How about a harem-king poster, the kind that pulls all the attention, with the four of us clinging to Tae-il!?"
"Oh, I like it."
"H-hey, wait, everyone...?"
Even so, the school would be using it too. Wasn't a poster that blatant a bit much? Tae-il tried to stop them, but Ayane, who had been a little sulky, got in the way.
"Ayane votes yes! But Shin-chan's right side is mine!"
"Ayane!?"
"Then I'll take the left."
"I'll be in front of Shin..."
In an instant three positions were claimed from every side, and this time it was Iris, left out alone, who panicked.
"Huh? Then where do I go? Behind Shin Tae-il?"
"Use your chest as a head cushion."
"That might be a little...?"
"Right! Like Iris said, that's kind of...!"
Tae-il seized the opening and backed her up. Rena glared at Iris.
"Hey, Iris. Who's the one drawing the poster here?"
"L-Lady Rena, ma'am..."
"Right?"
The world of drawing is cold. There was no way a hopeless wreck like Iris could dare stand against a prodigy like Rena. And into that, oblivious, Sakuya pointed at herself and cut in.
"I can draw too, you know?"
Better than one would think, even. Rena sighed.
"Haa. That's why I gave you the seat next to Shin. Got a complaint?"
"Ahaha!"
Sakuya laughed and nodded.
"True. The seat beside him, I ought to be satisfied with."
"Sakuya!"
"Oh, Tae-il. Want me to hold you like this even now?"
"We're good!"
He barked and tried to stand, but Ayane stopped him. Tied helplessly to the drum throne, he snarled. Rena, who had been quietly watching, burst out laughing.
"Pfft!"
This was fun. Time spent with them was starting to feel unbearably precious. With Iris it was a problem that came even before precious. Rena knew it by instinct. Not a single one of them could be allowed to disappear from here. They would feel the same.
Drums are fun, but music still isn't really my thing.
Even so, if she was with them, even music she didn't care for seemed like something she could enjoy in her own way. She wiped away a tear that had slipped out while she laughed. The moment she lifted her head, Iris latched on as if she had been waiting.
"Rena-chan, I'm begging you!"
No sooner had Rena felt that heavy weight than Iris pleaded.
"At least make it a little more alluring than a chest cushion, okay? You understand everything I say, Rena-chan!"
"Ahahaha!"
At how much more serious Iris looked than she had expected, Rena laughed out loud.
"What should I do...?"
She clicked her tongue. She had thought watching Iris flounder would be uncomfortable. It wasn't. Tormenting someone was, beyond anything she had imagined, fun.
"It's not like there's no way...?"
"Really?"
Iris brightened.
"Is it all right if only your face and arms show?"
"It's all right!"
"A vocalist can't do that!"
"Whose side are you even on!? Shin Tae-il, you jerk!"
"What am I supposed to do!? The vocalist's the star!"
"Then just don't be the star!"
"You think it works like that!? If you're not the star, who is!?"
"You do it! Harem king!"
"Hey!"
"Ahaha!"
Rena, who had cracked up at their childish fight, laughed without restraint. Even Jiang Taigong would have granted her this much: laughter, once spilled, cannot be gathered back up any more than water poured from a cup. Even so, Rena let the laughter overflowing inside her spill out, and spill again, as if to say so what.