It was finally the day of the mini-live. On the early morning of this excited day, Shizuka was helping Marina with some final preparations for the stage. As she worked, she couldn't help but think back to the other night, when she saw the girl's arrest at the convenience store. No matter how she thought of it, she couldn't believe she almost helped a criminal. Shizuka was thankful that person didn't accept her assistance, but at the same time, she was also confused. Wouldn't it be better if she had kept her as a hostage in the case of police showing up in the first place? She couldn't quite wrap her mind around it.
"Shizuka, you've been wiping those equipments for the past hour. Is something wrong?" Marina asked.
The mute was snapped out of her daze and noticed that she truly had been cleaning some guitar amps for quite a long while. The girl flinched upon this realization and bowed to her manager in apology.
"Oh! It's okay, really!" Marina assured. "But... Are you okay? You look like you were thinking about something."
Shizuka didn't want to worry the woman and only gave her the 'okay' gesture.
"Are you sure? You know you can tell me anything," she said, not at all convinced with the response.
Shizuka knew her guardian meant well, but still decided to not trouble her with such trivial problem. Especially not for today. That said, she gave another nod.
Marina was still unconvinced, but decided to trust her ward. "Okay... In any case, the girls should be arriving soon for rehearsals. Can I leave things here to you?"
Upon seeing Shizuka nod in confirmation, Marina took her leave.
******
Time later, the bands had arrived, and rehearsals were being done for the five groups. As they rehearsed, Shizuka was helping them with the sound and light effects that they would want for their performance, all which was well received. Not only that, the mute slowly found herself getting more and more into their music as they rehearsed. At some point, she even caught herself humming along to their songs.
With rehearsals over, the girls were in the dressing room, changing into their performance outfits for the upcoming live. As they got themselves ready, Shizuka did some final checkup on everything needed.
"Did rehearsals go smoothly?" came Marina's voice, the manager who stood by the doors.
Shizuka turned to her guardian and gave her a thumbs up.
"And you checked and made sure everything is ready?" Another thumbs up was given. "Okay. Then I think nows's a good time to open the doors. The girls are getting ready?" This time, the mute answered with a nod. "Okay then! Let's do it~!"
******
About thirty minutes later, the stage hall was filled with people, all looking forward to the mini live. Shizuka looked at the time on her watch, and saw it was about time for the show to begin, as she turned down the lights. Once the room has darkened, the chatter amongst the audience slowly died down.
Seconds later, music was heard being played, and Shizuka brought the lights back onstage, revealing Afterglow there. The moment their appearance was made known, the crowd cheered for them.
As she worked on support, Shizuka looked to the performing band. She didn't know why, maybe it was the crowd, but watching them play their music now made her heart beat more than it did before. The mute could just feel it pounding in her chest; not painful, nor uncomfortable, but still strong enough for the girl to feel the beat. Her hands may be moving and giving all the needed support, but her eyes were fixated on the show. More so, she felt her lips curling upwards in a smile. Not the fake, business smile she was used to putting on, but a genuine smile.
'Wait... Am I really smiling?' she wondered, placing a hand on her face. She quickly snapped herself out of it and brought her attention back to her job.
Soon enough, the song had ended, as was Afterglow's performance.
"Thank you for coming," Ran thanked the cheering audience. "We're Afterglow. And there's still more to come."
Shizuka took that as her cue to kill the lights, as the band took their leave. She then waited a few seconds before turning on the spotlight for the vocalist section, where Aya stood.
Like with Afterglow, unlike the rehearsals, unlike that little practice performance they did when they first met her, Shizuka felt more alive watching PasuPare perform on stage. Why that was, she did not know, but she did not dislike the feeling.
******
Soon enough, the mini-live was over, and ended in a big success.
"That was amazing! Every band was really cool out there~ I felt just as excited as the people in the audience." Marina said to Shizuka, as they cleaned up the now-empty hall.
"Me, too," the mute happily wrote to her manager.
"I think everyone's just about finished cleaning up. Could you ask them all to gather at the lobby?"
At Marina's request, her ward nodded and headed straight to the dressing room.
******
After she called the bands over, they all gathered around at the front desk, where Marina was tapping away at a laptop.
"Great job, everyone! Your shows were awesome!" she complimented. "Check this out! You're already getting great reviews on the website~!" She turned the laptop over to them, showcasing the comments in question.
"Wow! Look at how many comments there are!" Aya exclaimed.
"You're right! 'Hagumi-chan was so cute on the bass'?" Hagumi read. Her face flushed slightly upon reading the compliment, as she joyfully said, "Ehehe~ I'm so happy~!"
"You guys all worked so hard today, so we've organized some snacks and juice for everyone! Let's have a little celebration!" Marina said, as Shizuka brought over trays of goodies for the girls.
"Ooh, nice idea! That sounds fun~!" Lisa said. She then turned to the pair of more serious members of her band and said, "Yukina, Sayo. No saying 'we can't afford to be wasting time like this' today, okay?"
The two girls glanced away at their bassist's words. "... Fine," Sayo said.
"Okay, does everyone have a glass?" Marina asked. Once each girl had a glass of juice in hand, she then continued, "Without further ado, here's to everyone's first successful show..."
"Cheers!" they all cheered.
"The shows today were so amazing, right?! It made my heart pound!" Kasumi commented.
"Everything makes your heart pound," Arisa stated.
"It made my heart pound, too. In a different way of being nervous," Aya agreed with PoPiPa's vocalist. "Something from today made me feel like we'll be able to do better shows in the future."
"I agree! It felt like we were looking at the universe from the stage!" Kokoro exclaimed.
"The universe?" Ran questioned the comparison, as Aya let out a small laugh.
"I knew there was something similar about Kokoro-chan and Hina-chan. A-Anyway, let's make the next event we do a success, too!" the pinkette said.
"Naturally/Agreed," Yukina and Ran said in unison.
Seeing the vocalists interact so well and be hyped for the real event made Marina happy. "This worked out well. I think we made the right choice in having this smaller show. I think it's really motivated everyone! With how things are, I'm starting to think it might be okay to give the girls more say in how we go about doing the event. What do you think?" she asked Shizuka.
The mute put down her juice and wrote on her notepad. "They are the reason why the event is going to happen. They should have some say into how it goes."
"Right? I knew you'd agree. Of course, we'll handle a lot of the small stuff, but why don't we trust their potential? So, how about we get some more food to raise their spirits?" Shizuka nodded at the idea and was about to head to the cafe to make something, when the woman grabbed her shoulder to stop her. "I'll order some pizza. You stay here and have fun with everyone."
Before the mute can have any sort of say in the decision, Marina went to the office to make the order, leaving her ward behind.
As soon as Marina was gone, Shizuka stood in place. She slowly looked to the other band and saw them happily chatting about. Well, some were happily chatting. The others seemed to be holding a normal conversation. If the mute can be honest, watching them all converse like so made her feel a little jealous.
'I wonder... if friends have these sort of conversations,' she wondered. The moment she thought that, she shook her head. 'Don't go thinking that, Shizuka. No matter how much you wish for it, or how friendly they are, there's no way...'
"Shizu-chan, are you okay?" came Kasumi's voice, snapping the girl out of her thoughts.
Shizuka looked up from her juice and saw all the bands staring at her.
"What's wrong? You seem down," Aya said.
"Is your tummy hurting?" Kokoro asked.
The mute quickly put on a smile and shook her head.
"I'm sure it's more that she feels left out from our conversations," Saya accurately assumed.
"Really? There's no need to be shy! Come talk with us," Hagumi said.
"Hagumi... This little kitten cannot speak," Kaoru reminded. "Although, I would understand if the little kitten is so shy as to speak with us~ Fear not, Shizuka-chan. We may have been stars of that mini-live, but it is only because of your flawless assistance."
"I don't think that's the reason..." Chisato sighed.
"She is right about one thing, though," Yukina spoke. "It's because of you that our performances went splendidly well. That being said, there's no need for you to distance yourself from us. Especially not when we still have that event to plan for."
"Yukina... I never thought you'd ever say that," Lisa said, quite touched at her vocalist's words.
"I'm only stating facts."
"Still, you don't have to distance yourself from us," Tomoe told Shizuka.
"Yeah. You've been helping us all the time during the past week," Himari agreed.
"Aside from working in the cafe, you also did maintenance for the equipments here, and worked hard to make this mini-live a success . That's so bushido!" Eve complimented.
This... Shizuka didn't know what to say to this. She had never received any sort of compliment from anyone, unless if it's for her obedience or cooking. Sure, Marina complimented her for plenty of other things, but this was something new to her. She didn't know what to say or even think.
As it turned out, she didn't need to, as the doors opened, and someone walked in. "Excuse me. Is this live house CiRCLE?" came a voice. One very familiar to Shizuka.
All heads turned to the doors and saw...
'Wh-... Why is she here?!'