Chapter 1 - Sweet Pandemonium
"Ok! That's a wrap!" Nijika Ijichi shouts behind her drums after the final notes of the
'Guitar, Loneliness and Blue Planet' rang out in the almost empty Starry. Aside from Kessoku band practicing their upcoming live-show the only other people in the live-house were Nijika's sister and the manager of the Starry
Seika and
PA-san who were listening the band that had come a long way ever since it was formed half-a-year ago. They had a few live-concerts behind them now, handful of songs, and the four girls in the band had become fast friends after a rocky and hectic start.
Girls were excited to move onto the next song before Seika claps her hands twice to get their attention.
"Alright! Time's up. Start packing your things so that we can start preparing for tonight's live." she says with her usual stern look in her face.
"Fine sis..." Nijika reluctantly replies, and the members start to pack their instruments and clean the stage while chatting how the practice went aside from the gloomy looking pinkette, who was still standing with her trusty Gibson Les Paul in her hands, staring at the floor with an empty gaze, clearly something weighing on her mind.
That something was the rhythm guitarist and singer of their band.
Kita Ikyo. Complete opposite of the gloomy introvert with a social anxiety like her. Someone that she at first deemed somewhat overbearing with her cheery attitude and extroverted nature. Unlike her who rarely talked with anyone the red-haired bubbly gal could strike a conversation with anyone, and become fast friends with them as well. It was the case between them as well. They were the same age, both of them played guitar in the same band, and now she was teaching her to become better at the instrument as well. As the two spent more and more time together the pink-haired girl had realized how genuinely kind and attentive she was. Kita knew how hard it was for her to even hold a simple conversation going, how the stares of people made her uncomfortable, and how intimidating the world outside of her own room was, and still was to her. Instead of being weirded out by this she made sure to take things at her pace, didn't pressure her to anything, and always got her back when pinkette found herself in overwhelming and scary situations. Somewhere along the way she had started to pay more attention to her, stealing glances of her while the two were on playing live or practicing, getting excited to meet her every day at school or practices and enjoying her warm smile she unconditionally bestoved to anyone, and that made her heart skip a beat.
Kita made her feel warm and fluffy inside, a feeling that she had never ever felt before in her life. Just a little while ago she had learned how nice friends were, after all she had failed to make even a single one before she joined the band by the freak accident, but she knew that the feeling that she felt when she was with Kita was something different. After consulting the good-old internet she had reached to her conclusion:
She was in love.
Or at least had a crush on her bandmate.
However despite now knowing what the alien feeling was she was now even more confused. Of course she knew what love and romance entailed... At least based on shoujo-manga and romantic movies... But she still couldn't put it in words or make heads or tails these feelings and sensations in any sort of orderly fashion to make thos mysterious feeling of 'love' open up to her. After bondering over it a few sleepless nights she finally found the solution that might help her, and it was something she had done previously to conevy her feelings to herself, and now to everyone listening their music.
Write a song about it.
A week had passed since she begun her project, and the notebook she used to scribble any ideas and inspirations for lyrics had now a 10-page mess where she lays her feelings bare while some single lines, rhymes and phrases she came up for the lyrics had started to take a form of an extremely early draft of a song. While she had started to sort out her feelings on paper it had created another problem, which was that now the red-haired girl was constantly on her mind, and her focus on practices were all over the place. Gladly with her skills that she had acquired after many years of practice and being quite a famous and mysterious internet guitarist "Guitarhero" made her performance at least passable, and at least Nijika and
Ryo Yamada, the bassist of the band hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. After all she had always been a silent, gloomy and eccentric person, and the whole band had somewhat gotten used to that already.
However the young woman who was now living rent-free in her mind 24/7 had taken a notice of the shy gaze watching her, and the lead-guitarist being even more distant than she usually was. After realizing that the pinkette was still just standing in the stage her guitar still strapped on her shoulder she walks to her, and gently pokes her shoulder, which makes the girl jolt back a bit.
"Are you okay Hitori-chan? You seemed to be in your own world for quite a while there." She asks while smiling gently at the lead guitarist and lyricist of the band
Hitori Gotou, who was usually referred with the nickname Bocchi. Instead of giving the reply Bocchi just stood still, shaking a little and looking at Kita with a blank expression. The gentle poke scared her, and the realization that it was the red-haired girl in question she was thinking the whole time made her brains short-circuit for a little while. After a few awkward seconds of silence she averts her gaze and starts to look on her side at the floor.
"I... I...I'm fine..." she manages to reply as she shakes a little hoping to end the conversation then and there, but her extroverted band-member weren't going to let it be.
"I've actually seen you looking at my playing a lot recently. Am I doing something wrong? You know you can just tell me if that's the case." she says with her kind voice, and now receives an over-exaggerated headshake as a response.
"Not at all! Y... You've improved a lot..." Gotou replies as she tries to quickly think a good excuse so that Kita would just leave the topic at that.
"I've... Just been looking to see if there's any area in particular you need my tutoring in... For the next lesson..." then without even waiting to hear the response of the fellow guitarist she scurries to put her instrument away.
Nijika and Ryo had also heard this little exchange between the two, and joined in before the red-haired girl got the chance to reply as they walked closer to Kita.
"I never would've thought Bocchi would be such a reliable teacher." Nijika comments. And Ryo nods.
"True. She's so reliable and kind." stoic Ryo then hurries over to Hitori who had already put her guitar away and tried to sneak out of the Starry without anyone noticing.
"So could the kind and reliable Bocchi-sama give this poor-old Ryo-chan a few thousand yens?" Ryo pleads with teary puppy-eyes.
"I don't want to have to eat grass again to..." her sentence is cut short by Nijika who head-chops her with her hand.
"You still haven't paid her back last time you asked money." blonde girl with side ponytail reproaches the blue, short-haired one before turning to Hitori.
"You can go now. We'll see tomorrow same time." she informs the pinkette, who then bows quickly and darts out of the door.
"Hitori-chan!" Kita tried to shout after her. She wasn't done talking with her, but the girl was already gone. It seemed that she'd have to wait for tomorrow to talk with her again.
However her sprint only lasted a short while before she had to stop and take a breather. She wasn't known for being good at sports, and her stamina was quite low. Now that she was out she could just go and take her time resting in the nearby park where she was scouted to the band in the first place, have a drink from the vending machine and just go home after she's done with it. While walking towards the park she prayed that nobody would be there.
Apparently god listened her prayers, since the park was empty. She bought herself a canned coffee from the nearby vending machine and went to sit in the swing. She put her guitar-bag leaning against the frame of the swing and started to gently swing as she enjoyed the warm beverage and continued to think how to put her feelings into words, and those words into the paper. Looking at the evening sky of the late summer dyed orange and yellow by the setting sun she racked her head over to try and come up with something. After spending few minutes in silence she finally comes up with something:
"...I want to see a whole world of different color-soaked skies with you.... "
Hitori whispers to herself. And once those words escaped from her mouth she knew that this sappy and corny line needed to be written down before she forgets it, but once she looks at the guitar bag and the pocket where she keeps her notebook her heart sinks.
After putting her picks there she had left the pocket open. Dropping the coffee-can she had drank halfway on the ground she rushes to rumamge through the pocket only to realize that the only thing missing was said notebook.
"Oh god. I need to find it quickly. If someone sees what I have written in it I can't keep on living. I need to move out of Japan... No... I need to migrate to the ends of universe, dig a hole, bury myself there and apologize for ever being born!" she thought to herself as her usual negativity, embarrassment and her own insecurities started to take a hold of her thoughts, but among her dark thoughts she sees a flash of hope.
"What if the notebook is lying somewhere, and no-one has seen what it contains?" this single thought gives her addrenaline boost as she swiftly grapped the guitar and started to rush back towards the live-house panickly looking around her in case she dropped in on the road, however the pink notebook was nowhere to be seen. She was already at the door of the Starry and slams the door open rushing towards the stage they had rehearsed moments prior.
And it was at this moment that she realized the worst-possible scenario had came to be.
Kita stood middle of the stage, familiar pink notebook in her hands, her eyes glued to the open pages, completely red from ear to ear, mouth slightly open from the apparent surprise of seeing Hitori's feelings for her laid bare in front of her dressed in the most sappiest and corniest lines one could even imagine.
Hitori herself collapses onto the floor, finally alerting the red-haired girl, who looked at Bocchi with even more surprised expression.
"H.... H... Hitori-chan!" she squeals out and drops the notebook between the two.
With empty, dead eyes Hitori's eyes dart towards the notebook, the pages laid before her confirming what she already knew. The cat was out of the bag, and all of her secret feelings were revealed to the one these feelings were directed towards to. At that point there was only one thought going through the head of a shaking pink mess in form of a human with flushed cheeks who shaking on the floor.
"... Please... Someone... just end me..."
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