Ace Of Hearts

Song of The Tiger (2/4)

You were standing outside of your apartment building, arms folded, waiting for Yuuichi to finally come. You had stepped out about 10 minutes prior, with no breakfast at all, but you figured you would survive. You were just about to text Yuu, when a voice from beyond grabbed your attention. You finally see him, not to far into the distance waving his hand in the air. You put your phone away to greet him.

"Hey, (Y/N)! Catch!"

You open your hands to catch whatever the hell Yuuichi was talking about, and before you knew it you were now in possession of a yellow wrapped food item.

"Oh? What's this?" You ask, looking at the thing for context.

"It's a breakfast bar. You told me your bagel burnt, so I, uh, thought it couldn't hurt to give you one." the Shiba said, idly scratching the back of his head.

"Oh, thanks! You're the best!" you said, ecstatically.

"O-Oh, heh, it's no problem." Yuu said, blushing with the power of a thousand flustered souls. "Anyways, let's get going. We only have about and hour to get Jun and get to the concert hall."

"Oh, right. Yeah, let's go." you said, starting to follow Yuuichi up the street.

You start to open your snack, and decide to at least try to make small talk.

"So, how was your morning?" You ask.

"Average. Yours?"

"Basically the same."

Hmmm..what other topics of discussion are there?

"I noticed your wearing a different tank top today."

Instead of his trademark light blue tank top, Yuuichi was now sporting a lighter grey one.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. I bought it about a week ago but never actually wore it until today. Figured I needed to wear something a bit different."

"Oh. It looks good on you." you say.

"T-Thanks." Yuu said. Since you were walking behind him, you could see his tail wagging at your compliment. It was cute.

"You ever thought about changing your style at all? Not that yours is bad or anything." You ask, walking a bit faster so you were beside him.

"I mean...I did, but I couldn't stand it. Y'know, dense fur. It's basically like wearing a giant coat all the time, so I just wear stuff that's airy." Yuu says, pointing at his neck, which basically resembled a scarf.

"Oh yeah, makes sense."

You both walked in silence for another minute, while you finally finished your snack, and had shoved the wrapper into your pocket, as there were no trash cans laying around.

"So, how much longer till we get to Jun's house?"

"Eeehhhhh..." Yuu checks his phone, the time displayed was 10:09 AM. "I'd say maybe six, seven more minutes."

"Ah ok." You said. You debated whether or not to listen to music, but you've done that enough, you could wait.

You kept walking in silence until you started thinking about the Wii Tennis incident.

(It's removed now, but there was a bonus chapter where the reader and Yuuichi were playing Wii tennis, and he lost his grip on the remote and threw it into a wall and dented it)

"Hey, Yuuichi?"

"What's up?"

"You ever get that dent in your wall fixed from the Wii tennis accident?" You ask, slightly giggling.

"No, not yet. But it's a matter of time until my mom notices it."

The conversation carried on into basically random stuff, until around a couple minutes later, when you both reached a road speckled with small brown houses on either side. You both walk to the second one. Yuuichi knocks on the door, and a small voice came from the top of the house.

"Hold on! I'm almost ready!" Jun yelled.

You heard frantic footsteps, then you heard him rustling right in front of the door, then louder footsteps, until he opened the door.

"Ok, let's do this!"

The three of you leave the quaint little street and walk towards the more busier parts of the city. You finally decided to pop in your headphones again, but keeping them down as to still be able to hear what your friends were saying. Instead of going to your playlist like you usually did, you just went to your recommended and hit Shuffle.

(I'm just gonna use Western music since I'm not familiar with Japanese music...or any Asian music in general)

You idly listen to the first song that comes on, slightly bobbing your head. Your still paying attention to whatever Jun and Yuuichi were talking about, just in case they wanted to talk to you as well.

You were about halfway through the song, when a finger gingerly taps your shoulder, almost to the point where you can't feel it. You take out your earbuds and see Jun looking at you.

"What are you listening to?"

You take both of your earbuds out, and turn your phones volume all the way up, to the point where you can hear the song pretty clearly through them.

Jun didn't look too phased. Guess it's not his style. Yuuichi however, was bobbing his head harder than you were, and he was getting, like, really into it.

"What song is that?" He asked.

"Uhmmm...Pearl Magnolia." You say.

"Can you send it to me?"

"Yeah sure."

You hit the share button, and then Yuuichi's contact, and soon after a small beep comes from his phone.

"Thanks."

"No problem. How far are we from the concert hall?" You ask.

"About fifteen seconds."

He points up ahead, and you can see a large, elegant white building.

"Oooh, fancy."

You all walk up the steps to the building and enter the large atrium. While your walking through the main area, you take a moment to look at your surroundings. The large, velvet soaked room smelled vaguely of carpet, not to mention the hundreds of other perfumes and colognes the other patrons had carpet bombed onto their suits and dresses. The large, white pillars looked very intimidating, reaching all the way up the extremely high ceiling. You turn to Yuuichi to ask him a question, just to see him looking tired, while the small tiger is clutching to his right arm, petrified.

"Hey, Jun? Are you okay?" you ask softly, trying not to make him panic anymore than he already was. He mumbled something, but you couldn't understand it.

Yuuichi gestured towards a small sitting area, so you all walked to the area and sat to try to help Jun relax. The cushions on the bench were so soft that you couldn't help but feel that your plebeian denim-clad buttocks shouldn't be here.

You looked at Yuuichi, who gave Jun a sad look, and turned his head to look at you with the same gaze, his reddish-brown eyes, laden with sympathy.

You felt really bad for the poor guy (Jun). He was so confident only a couple of minutes ago, and now it seems that since he's finally here, it's all converted into fear.

You put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's going to be okay, you'll do great." You reassured, but unfortunately, it fell on panic induced deaf ears.

With that...the wait for the others begins.

End of Chapter 8 (2/4)