A couple days later, Shizuka and Guren were at the cafe, working. It was the afternoon, and the mute had already given the new hire a proper tour around her new work place just the day before. Thankfully, Guren was a quick learner, and easily grasped everything her senpai was telling her. Well... writing to her, rather. Once the tour was over, Shizuka was curious as to what she can offer to be instantly hired by the owner. The mute had her reasons, but what of Guren? When asked what she could do, Guren responded she can do some cleaning and cooking, and thus, led to this the very next day.
The current chef grabbed a plate on the counter and scooped up some rice and the curry she was making into it.
"Here you go. Call it my family's special curry," she said, handing the plate to Shizuka.
The mute took in the dish's scent. It may be because she hadn't eaten lunch yet, but she felt her appetite grow from the smell alone. She took a spoon in hand and scooped up the rice and curry. One bite, and Shizuka was already in love with it.
Aside the fluffy and solid rice, the vegetables were sweet and soft enough for her to appreciate the spicy taste of the curry. The chicken meat she used was firm and juicy, and soaked in the curry broth free from the fat, and filled with curry goodness.
"How is it, senpai?" Guren asked.
Shizuka had cooked various curries before, but none as good as this. As such, she gave her kouhai a thumbs up.
"Nice!" Guren lightly cheered. "Guess I'm helping out with cafe work then. I can't make any of the more fancy stuff on the menu, but I can help with the rest. Especially curry."
Shizuka nodded at the reassuring words. While she didn't mind doing all the cooking, it was nice to have a helping hand in that department. Especially during lunch and dinner rush.
Guren looked around the area. "The bands are at a family cafe to talk about plans for the event, right?"
Though confused, Shizuka nodded in response.
"Kind of feels quiet after that party the other day, especially for a live house. Not only that, if the mini live was a success, I would've thought we'd have someone coming in to practice their skill, but still nothing. We get customers during lunch and dinner rush, sure, but... outside of that..."
When Guren had put it that way, Shizuka looked around as well. As she looked she found herself agreeing with the new hire about how empty CiRCLE was at the moment, but thought nothing of it. Although lunch rush was nearing, they were still a live house. It would be nice if someone comes over to practice their music.
"Well, they say beggars can't be choosers," Guren then said. "What do you do to pass time when it gets like this?"
At that question, Shizuka took a pause. Truthfully speaking, all she had done when it gets this quiet was... well, nothing. But she knew it wasn't an answer Guren would want to hear. Unlike her, she'll most likely be bound to get bored just standing around and waiting for a customer to arrive.
"You don't have anything to pass time, do you?" Guren guessed, noticing the troubled expression and pause, as well as causing Shizuka to flinch slightly. "Well then, what do you want to do to pass time? Play Shiitori?"
The mute shook her head at that.
"I see... I can try to attract customers, but the manager won't let me, will she?"
"What do you mean?" Shizuka wrote.
"I often help out at my uncle's shop. His place is kind of hard to find, but we still get some customers. We get even more when I play my keyboard there, enough for it to be a full house."
This caught the girl's attention. "You play keyboard?"
"Yeah. In fact, I played piano ever since I was a little girl. I would demonstrate my skill, but I doubt now's a good time."
Shizuka would have to agree. Even if it was slow, they were working at the moment. This wasn't the time to play any instruments.
"What about you, senpai? Do you play an instrument?" Guren then asked.
Shizuka made a gesture for 'little' as her response.
"Really? What instrument? Maybe we can start our own band?" Guren playfully suggested.
That suggestion made Shizuka think back to her time in middle school, when she was offered to join someone's band. Specifically her foster siblings' bands. She demonstrated her guitar skills to them and joined... but she wasn't a real member. If anything, she was nothing but a fill-in and a slave to them and their bands. Even after they found a guitarist to replace her, they didn't officially let her leave, and instead forced her to continue doing all the musical work for them. It made her all the more thankful each time she was sent to different foster home, as it meant never having to deal with those people again. She loved playing music, but after what happened, joining a band is...
"Sorry. I only meant it as a joke," Guren said, noticing the darkened expression on the mute's face. "Guessing something happened that made you not want to join a band, much less pick up an instrument. I won't pry for details. I'm not a bastard."
Shizuka lightly nodded to her in gratitude.
"But you know..." Guren continued. "Playing music doesn't have to be for fun. Even on your worse days, if you have your instrument and love music, you can still play. Even if you're by your lonesome, even if the world is against you, you still have music by your side."
The way the girl said it sounded quite deep and saddening, as though Guren knew what it was like to be against the world. But that couldn't be possible, could it? Then again, going by the story Lisa and Moca told the other day, is it possible?
"Isn't that... Popping-something?" Guren then asked.
Shizuka turned to the direction her kouhai was looking and saw PoPiPa walking their way, each with a dejected expression on their faces.
"Hey, Shizu-chan... Guren-san..." Kasumi greeted, in a tone that is not like her.
"What happened?" the mute wrote.
"Well-" Before Saya can explain, Marina walked out the live house.
"Shizuka-chan, Guren-chan, can you-?" She stopped what she was going to ask, upon seeing the band there with her two workers. "Huh? Kasumi-chan. What's wrong? I thought you girls were meeting with the other bands," she asked.
"We did have that meeting, but then it ended up in an argument..." Saya answered, to the manager and staffs surprise.
"What?! You girls ended up arguing?!"
"We kind of didn't see eye to eye on a few things."
"I guess it's not surprising. You're all in this for different reasons, after all. It's good you have things you strongly believe in, but..."
"The Girls Band Party isn't going to happen at this rate! Waaah! Arisa~!" Kasumi cried, leaning against her blonde twin-tailed friend.
"S-Settle down!" Arisa told her. "In any case, we don't have a choice but to try and find a solution to the problem at hand!"
"That's true. Even if we mediate with you, it probably won't resolve the fundamental problem here..." Marina agreed. She turned to Shizuka and Guren. "I don't suppose either of you have any bright ideas?"
"Well... you five agreed to do this event for a reason, right? Maybe find something you all have in common?" Guren suggested.
"Between five bands?" Rimi wondered.
"But isn't the fact that we don't have anything in common part of the reason this all happened in the first place?" Saya reminded.
"The thing we have in common is that we want to play music," Tae pointed out. "Even if our reasons are different, that one thing is the same."
"We might have other things in common, too! If only we knew more about the others..." Kasumi said.
"That makes sense, but... how are we going to find that out?" Arisa questioned.
"Hmm... that's a tough one..." Marina uttered.
"Ahh... Is this one of those 'we just have to come up with something' moments? What about you, Shizuka-chan? Got anything?" Arisa asked.
Sadly, the mute shook her head 'no'.
"Nothing?!" Shizuka flinched at the sudden shout, in which Tae took liberty to pet the girl on the head.
"Arisa, you're scaring Shizuka again," the lead guitarist said.
"You're kind of tough when things get difficult, huh~" Kasumi teased.
Arisa wanted to strongly retort to that, but didn't want to scare Shizuka again.
"I don't know how to go about it, but I'm sure you'll be able to get through this if you work together! We'll support you however we can, of course," Marina told them.
"Okay!" Kasumi thanked.
Guren, though, had a thoughtful look on her face. "Hey, what school do you guys go to anyway?" she then asked.
"Hm? We go to Hanasakigawa High School," Rimi answered.
"And the others?"
"Some of them also go to Hanasakigawa. And if I recall, the rest go to Haneoka," Arisa answered then.
"I see... And is there another group meeting coming up?"
"Not a meeting, but there will be a group practice session the day after tomorrow," Saya said.
"Oh! Can it be that... Heroine Guren has come up with a way to resolve the problem?!" Tae assumed.
"Glad as I am you used the right version of 'hero', when did that name stuck?" Guren questioned with a light sweat drop. "Anyway, it's not that. I'm just thinking you could talk to those band members during your free time at school. It's not like you all have to see each other whenever you have a group activity coming up together, after all."
"She has a point there," Rimi agreed. "We'll try to talk to some of the other girls tomorrow at school. Hopefully we can come to an understanding together."
"But what about those from Haneoka?" Arisa asked. "Last I remember, Afterglow's members are all from Haneoka."
"I can try talking to Tomoe tomorrow, or if I see her when I go home today," Saya said.
"All right! Then it's settled~!" Kasumi cheered. "I hope things will go well tomorrow~"
"Why do I feel like you raised some kind of flag there...?" Guren questioned.
******
The next day, in Haneoka, one girl was filled with worries about a certain thing.
'This is really troubling...' Maya thought, as she sat in her seat and glanced at Yukina, who sat a couple of seats away from her.
Ever since the failed meeting yesterday, things had been awkward, to say the least, around other band members. When Chisato had Pastel*Palettes excused for a meeting that they never had, Aya tried her best to convince the others to go back and find Roselia and Afterglow members and start the meeting over. Hina was all for going, especially if it meant being with her sister, Eve was all for helping out, and Maya agreed with her vocalist friend that they needed to go back and properly plan out the event together, come to some sort of agreement, but unfortunately Chisato didn't see it that way. If anything, the blonde stated that even if they did regroup with the others, they wouldn't come to any agreement, not with how different each band's perspectives are, in which no one could argue about.
Sitting in class with one of the other band members just seats away from her really made Maya unsure about how to proceed. She knew for certain she shouldn't just pretend Yukina wasn't there, just as the vocalist seemed to be doing to her, but she wasn't sure how to approach the seemingly-unapproachable girl.
As for the vocalist of Roselia herself, she was aware her suddenly leaving the meeting left quite the negative impact on some of the other band members. However, her devotion to her own band and ideals, her pride as a vocalist, were too strong for her to even admit she was partially in the wrong.
The teacher then walked in, prompting the other students to sit and face the front.
"Before we start homeroom, from today forward, we have a new student joining us. You may come in," she said.
The door opened, and to the surprise of the two band girls, someone familiar walked in.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Sakura Guren. It's nice to meet you all," Guren greeted.
"Let's see... You'll be sitting in that empty seat there. The one between Minato-san and Yamato-san," the teacher told her.
"Right." At that response, Guren took her seat between the two girls, both staring at her in surprise.
"Now then, let's begin homeroom. Who is today's class monitor?"