Heart-Pounding Cultural Festival (6)
Music filled the art room.
From outside, unless you put your ear to the door, there was nothing but a muffled hum and a faint vibration. The melody—synth that never lost its color, sweet guitar arpeggios shining through—made it feel as if rain were truly falling for the whole length of the song. Iris's vocal wove into it. She favored feeling over high notes, spilling her voice forward through cords held lightly, almost like falsetto, rather than driving it from the back of her throat.
The piece wasn't difficult to play, either. It didn't hack the rhythm and the meter into ever-smaller pieces the way the last ones had, and the members, already used to Tae-il's arranging, settled into the song almost at once.
They sang of love.
He had deliberately murdered the sound with a cheap microphone, and still Iris's tone was beautiful.
Clap!
Tae-il brought his hands together to mark the end.
"Done! Good work, everyone!"
"Haaaah...!"
As if they had been waiting for it, the playing and the singing stopped, and the exhausted members dropped to the floor one after another. Tae-il, the only one still upright, let out a short laugh, rummaged out a blanket, and spread it on the floor. The others crept up onto it as if they had planned the move together and flopped down flat.
It had become their routine. Whenever a session wore them out, they stretched across the opened blanket like dried fish.
"Should I go get drinks?"
He asked it fondly, looking them over, and Sakuya caught his hand and pulled.
"S-Sakuya...?"
"Forget it. You lie down too."
All the recent exercise had put some stamina on him, but he still wasn't anywhere near Sakuya's level. He let himself be drawn along and lay down beside the others on the blanket.
He had barely settled when—
"Hyup."
Ayane darted into his arms.
"Ayane?"
"The left arm is Ayane's. Hehe."
She grinned, pillowed her head on his arm, and softly closed her eyes. She looked like a puppy. Tae-il smiled, warm, and took her in—and then he saw it. A small spot the makeup hadn't quite hidden.
"Ayane, have you been tired lately?"
"A little...?"
That pleasant voice of hers sat lower than usual.
"Is it the Cultural Festival?"
"Prooobably?"
Even as a member of the public morals committee, Ayane had her own sense of responsibility. Hayate, the committee chair, had cleared not only the Eve Festival stage but the schedule afterward, so Ayane could spend that time with Tae-il. Once the Eve Festival was over, she was free to play as hard as she liked.
Sakurako had worn a face like she'd bitten into shit, then given in anyway—next time she got a boyfriend, she would do the exact same thing, so it was fine. Feeling the seniors' consideration, Ayane had no choice but to work even harder. The upperclassmen and clubs who had tried to cut corners and landed on her bad side were, as a result, having a miserable time of it.
Was it the oblivious, gloomy personality from the original story showing through? Ayane turned out to be surprisingly persistent, and she was very good at tormenting people with a smile, picking at every little thing.
"Everyone's really pushing for the festival..."
"Mm-hm. We have to."
The reasons differed, but the fact was the same: each of them was giving their all for someone. Tae-il smoothed her hair and smiled faintly.
"Let's hang on a little longer."
"Will we rest once the Cultural Festival's over?"
"No?"
"Ehh..."
"We have to run all the way through recording."
Once the recording was finished, he meant to give them a real break. From late spring through early summer they would keep releasing singles—songs that caught the season, or songs that ignored it entirely—and build from there.
"So we're resting starting in winter?"
Sakuya, lying on his other side, asked it lightly.
"Yeah. Everyone's busy then, right? Even if we do anything, it'll probably be individual work."
A band that had only just debuted doing solo activities was almost laughable, but Tales Tale was that unusual. And after autumn, time would be hard to come by anyway. It was a reasonable call: let the members rest for a while.
"Are we... busy?"
At his consideration, Sakuya glanced around at the others and muttered, doubtful. It wasn't a strange question. For people who were supposedly so busy, they had gathered with almost ridiculous ease right up until festival prep. Only Sakuya had missed a few sessions for personal practice.
Iris, who had been resting her voice with her eyes quietly shut, broke into a giggle.
"Now I see exactly what Sakuya thinks of us. Hehe."
"T-that wasn't what I meant. Ahaha..."
"Well, you're not wrong. Shin Tae-il and I don't have anything going on except band work."
Iris had family events, yes, but nothing that would get in the way of the band's schedule.
"Rena-chan's going to be busy, though."
"Rena?"
"Rena-chan has a solo exhibition planned for the end of the year, and there's a party our family is involved in."
"Right. Rena's a professional painter. I always forget."
Sakuya rapped her own head and looked toward Rena, resting quietly at the edge of the blanket.
"How's the prep going, Rena?"
"Fine."
Rena opened her eyes. Unlike Ayane, whose gaze had been tired from the start, hers was startlingly clear.
"It's going so smoothly it's almost suspicious. Kind of unsettling."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
Sakuya had suffered the pain of creation in her own way, through the work she submitted. All she had done was copy other people's techniques and apply them, but rejection after rejection from editors, and the hunt for something newer, was enough to make her head ache. Still, the world had a certain kind of person in it—heretics who could draw exactly what they wanted on the spot, without any great agony over the act of making it.
"That's what being a genius means."
What was obvious to you wasn't obvious to anyone else. Rena was exactly that kind of genius. Sakuya understood; where sports were concerned, people were always calling her a genius too.
Rena looked unimpressed.
"Well... being called a genius over nothing but contemporary art does leave me feeling a little strange."
"Ahaha. The people actually working in the field would be pretty offended if they heard that. I was, back then."
"I suppose..."
Rena turned her head. Four pairs of eyes looked at her warmly, as if they didn't mind how insufferable she had been.
Ah.
Ayane, of course, was looking at Rena as if she couldn't stand the sight of her.
Rena let out a short laugh.
"Well, fine. I'll try to see it in a good light."
Better to have something than nothing, wasn't it?
Like breasts.
"Ack—!?"
Rena patted her own flat chest and, for no reason at all, smacked Iris across hers.
"You sow."
"That's so mean!?"
Attacked without the slightest idea why, Iris looked thoroughly wronged.
"Anyway, like this pig said, I'm busy in the winter."
"And Sakuya's busy in the spring, right?"
"Oh!"
As if the thought had only just struck her, she clapped.
"Right, I was supposed to do the spring Comic-Con!"
"Sakuya..."
"She's gone full muscle-brain."
"Idiot."
"What are we supposed to do if your head goes too..."
Every one of them looked at her in disbelief. Sakuya stuck her tongue out, playful.
"Te-tehe...?"
"Blech."
Ayane answered with a gagging noise.
"Anyway."
Tae-il stepped in and put the moment back in order.
"Like I said, Rena's busy in winter, and Sakuya's busy in spring."
The band did not come first. He had no intention of sacrificing the members' talents and their time entirely to it.
"There's no need to rush."
Contrary to what he had expected, the social media strategy had failed completely—but they weren't finished yet. The real thing came after the Cultural Festival. Footage of the Eve Festival stage would go up on the school's official iTube, and all over the internet besides. Yuuma was, without question, a famous school. Talented people came out of it often enough that the industry paid attention.
And if you add Rena's name and Sakuya's on top of that...
During the busking they had held back from putting the two of them front and center, wary of the school. After the Cultural Festival, there would be nothing left to be wary of. The results would speak for themselves. Yuuma was the kind of place that recognized anything, so long as you produced a clear, visible achievement.
"We move forward slowly. At our own pace."
He said it with deliberate weight. Just as he had trusted them without reservation until now, Tales Tale trusted him.
"Aaah!"
Sakuya shot both arms overhead and sat up.
"Winter's going to be boring. Maybe I'll add more training..."
"What are you talking about, you idiot Sakuya."
Rena scolded that utterly complacent Sakuya in complete earnest.
"Huh? Do I have something in the winter too?"
"You're assisting me."
"Uh..."
Sakuya's brain stalled for a moment. Assisting. Assisting with what? Assisting Rena. If she were assisting Rena, it had to be drawing. Winter, and drawing. There was only one drawing job that winter brought to mind.
"Aaaaaah...!"
Sakuya's slightly husky voice climbed like a soprano.
"Looks like you forgot. Are you actually an idiot?"
"Rena-chan, Sakuya's grades are much higher."
"Y-yeah, so what!"
Comic-Con. A massive doujin event, held only twice a year, was waiting for Sakuya.
While Sakuya and Rena went on about it, Ayane—who had been quietly using his arm as a pillow—tugged at his sleeve.
"Hm? Ayane?"
"Shh."
She glanced around, then leaned in and whispered at his ear.
"Don't tell the others that we're going to Korea over break."
"Uh... is that okay?"
"It's fine. Ayane will handle everything. Okay?"
"...All right."
She looked at him so earnestly that he nodded before the thought of refusing could even form. What could go wrong? While everyone else was busy, the two families would simply stop in Korea on a short group trip and come back. Surely there wouldn't be a problem.
Probably.
It was autumn.
BARD's tour, begun in the summer, had come to an end. The forced march was over; they ought to have felt refreshed. And yet, on the plane from Okinawa back to Tokyo, Izumi's face was as dark as an artist whose tour had failed.
"What's with her?"
Business class. Basara—no, NA.IN—sipped a beer and pointed at Izumi.
"She got turned down."
"For what?"
"You know Yuuma High?"
"Nope."
NA.IN shook his head without a shred of shame.
"Should I?"
"No."
Yahiro gave a wry smile. NA.IN's knowledge skewed, in a very guy sort of way, absurdly far toward guitar and games. When it got bad, he could turn so pure you almost wanted to call him stupid. No—he was stupid. Spread a world map in front of him and tell him to point at Germany, and there was a very high chance he would plant his finger on France.
For the sake of the band's image, whenever a broadcast or an interview came up, the company made a point of keeping his mouth shut about anything but music. A truly wise decision. Yahiro never stopped admiring the company's judgment.
"Well. Hard to go into detail here."
Having dodged the answer, Yahiro glanced around—and met the eyes of a passing flight attendant. She smiled with her eyes, charming, and he answered in kind.
"May I help you?"
"One can of beer, please."
"Of course. Which would you like?"
"Asahi."
"Understood. One moment."
She went off to fetch it.
Most of the people on the plane were staff from this tour, a team you could fairly call one body with BARD. Telling them about Izumi's private life was another matter entirely. Once the attendant was gone and he saw the staff around them fast asleep, Yahiro lowered his voice.
"The school where Izumi wanted to work an event."
"At a school?"
"Well, the high school soccer tournament's coming up."
"Ahh. She does love soccer. I thought it was only European soccer, though. She likes youth soccer too?"
"Who knows."
Yahiro answered vaguely and settled back into his seat as the beer arrived.
"Thank you."
"Hehe. Enjoy your flight."
The attendant had been giving him a look for a little while now, an unsubtle invitation. Yahiro let it slide right past and popped the tab.
"Basara, what are you doing once we're back in Tokyo?"
"I told you not to use my real name, damn it...!"
"So? We've got a month off before the album work, haven't we?"
"Composing."
Maybe the tour had pushed them too hard. Unless a separate request came in, BARD's next album wasn't scheduled until spring. The heat of a concert stage offered a pleasure and an addiction no drug could replace—and, on the flip side, it brought burnout with it. BARD needed rest if they were going to recharge.
Akitora, the drummer, was already mapping out a solitary gourmet pilgrimage to enjoy on his own through the break.
"Composing again? You should get some air."
"What are you on about. For me, composing is rest."
"Sure. I'll duo Apex with you later."
"For real!? No take-backs?"
"Hahaha!"
At the mention of games, NA.IN's eyes went bright in an instant. Yahiro broke into a grin and nodded.
Steady album releases were something an artist had to keep up if they wanted the public to recognize them. But if you wanted to last, and not merely spread and fade, you had to rest when it was time. Akitora would enjoy his food. NA.IN had composing and games. Yahiro let off stress by meeting people.
And what, I wonder, will our dear vocal princess use to blow off steam this time...
He sipped from the can and glanced at Izumi.
"If an official invitation isn't coming... mumble, mumble."
He was going to have to prepare a proper, natural-looking disguise set for the princess who wanted to be Cinderella.
Yahiro smiled to himself, thoroughly pleased.