New Sound

Chapter 41: Behind Many Names

Early December, more than a week after Raising Highschoolers Concert

Shin Eazer's PoV

"I... I-I'll explain everything. Can we meet up?"

"S-sure, but where?"

"Wait a minute." Nilingon ko si Yuki sa sala. "I need to go somewhere. Please tell mom that I'll be back tonight, when she gets downstairs." Nagmadali na akong kunin 'yung mga mahahalagang bagay na kailangan ko, bago umalis. There are only a few occassions when I am free to talk to Iro like this, and thankfully, today is one of those days. I am on a vacation, so I wouldn't be called for a flight today. Good timing.

Yuki seemed a bit surprised by the urgency that I've been showing, and can't decide if he should agree or not. "Don't worry, mom knows your dad. 'Just keep her company for me, okay?" I said hoping it would help to make him agree. "Just tell your full name to her, and she would understand." Mom indeed knows Ran, us Gassho, personally, so I think seeing Ran's son here would be a pleasant surprise to her, rather than a strange occurrence.

Thankfully, Yuki finally nodded. "O-okay."

Pagkasabi n'ya no'n ay agad na akong lumabas ng bahay. "We'll go to a recording studio. I'll send you the address." Agad kong sabi kay Iro sa kabilang linya habang tumatakbo ako papunta sa kotse.

›››

I finally meet up with Shiroi, or whom we used to call Iro in the past. It was a week now after my encounter with him on the road while on the way to RH's concert venue. We talked briefly just two days after RH concert, but unfortunately, I had to go soon, to attend to a flight, so I wasn't able to tell him much. I could only left him with some of our old photos back in high school, probably enough, to tell him that he was once a musician that belongs to the same band as me.

I first talk to the owner of the studio and paid for the rent, then I go to the front door. He's already waiting at the door of the studio when I arrive.  "Iro—" I immediately stopped what I am saying when I realized, I called him to the name, he still can't recall, so I immediately corrected myself. "Sorry, I mean, Shibata." 

I noticed that Iro is still carrying the photo albums I gave him the last time we met, which make me feel a little bit nostalgic, so I unconsciously smiled. "Call me by the name you are most comfortable with. It's fine." That was an answer that I didn't anticipated, so I reluctantly nodded. He appears to be in great confusion at the moment. I'm sure after he saw those photos, he even have more questions in his head, than before.

"Let's go inside," Inaya ko na s'ya sa loob ng studio, and then I bravely say that name again. "Iro." I cling my arms on his shoulders as I guide him inside, just like how he used to do to me before. For a moment there, I secretly wished that, that small action would bring back some of his memories. But when I looked up to see his expression, it says otherwise.

I asked him to take his seat on a stool near the guitar rack.

"Shin, I don't understand. Do we really need to talk at this kind of place?" Iro asked looking around.

"Yes. Don't you feel any sense of familiarity at this kind of room?"

He began to inspect some of the guitars in his side. For a second, I thought he would try to play it, but he just sighed and put it back. "I don't even remember how."

Lumapit ako sakanya at ipinasuot sakanya ang headphones na naka-connect sa phone ko. I still had one of his solo albums saved in it. Sana makatulong kapag narinig n'ya ang ilan sa mga tracks no'n.