When she talked about singing with people who weren't involved in the industry, they usually brushed her off and changed the subject.
Yuki didn't.
~•~
It was a little after seven o'clock when Mira decided to sit down in the hall and try to look at the songs in the album. During her time in the paddock, she felt like she got an idea, so maybe she would write something now.
Despite the fact that the only meal she had eaten during the day was a tiny portion of salad, she completely ignored the rumbling in her stomach. She had experienced worse, and cramps hadn't come yet, so she knew she wasn't in the worst shape yet.
With her notebook, a notepad where she wrote down song ideas, and a small portable piano, she sat down on the chairs in the corner of the hall. There, where no one would disturb her, because that's the last thing she wanted right now.
With headphones in her ears, she clicked on everything possible just to find the right melody. She had the melody in her head and now she just needed to get it into the computer - it wasn't so easy because it wasn't an explicitly simple melody. In the end, however, she managed to put at least the first minute and a half into the program - and it only took half an hour.
The times when she managed to write a song in fifteen minutes were long gone. Now she was glad when she came up with a melody within an hour. She didn't have absolute pitch, so it was a bit more complicated. Plus, when she mumbled something and finally came up with an idea, she never knew in which notes she wanted it. She knew the range she could sing, but it wasn't as simple as everyone thought.
She vaguely noticed someone sitting in the chair next to her. She rolled her eyes because the hall was empty, so she didn't understand why that person had to sit right next to her when they could see she was working on something.
She was about to say something when she noticed who the person was. Automatically, a smile appeared on her face when her eyes met his.
"Shouldn't you be at the bar like everyone else?" Mira asked him and hung her headphones around her neck - it seemed impolite to have them on her ears when talking to someone. Even though nothing was playing in them.
What Mira knew was that most athletes went to the bar with their girlfriends after they returned from all those media nonsense. Oscar, of course, went with Lily, but he also invited his friend. She refused. She tried to limit alcohol and mainly wanted to work. Some would say that going to the bar would clear her head and maybe she would even come up with something, but she didn't work like that. She needed those songs quickly and didn't need to relax in a bar somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
"I don't really celebrate with them much," the Asian replied, "but when I go once in a while, they talk about it for months." Mira laughed at his last sentence.
She couldn't imagine Yuki starting it on the dance floor after overdoing it with drinks. He looked like a decent guy, if you forget that his mouth is more foul than Samuel Lee Jackson himself.
"Why didn't you go with them? To unwind and forget for a while that you need to come up with an album," he asked her - he didn't take his eyes off her, which seemed strange to Mira.
"Because of this," she pointed with her finger at the screen of her notebook, where the program was running, in which she was creating songs. Yuki finally took his gaze off her and directed it at the screen. His eyes widened in surprise, which made Mira laugh.
She knew this reaction. People often reacted like this when they saw that program. And especially with her because her way of working is a bit different from other producers. She just did it more chaotically and didn't have it very organized. There was chaos in it, but it was her chaos, and she understood it - that was the most important thing.
"In the paddock, I got an idea for a song, so I decided to skip the bar because I needed to work on that idea quickly," she explained to him, "maybe I'm not as fast as I used to be, but I think I could finish it today."
"Can I listen to it?" he asked with a sparkle in his eyes. It was the first time Yuki had seen something like this, so he wanted to get as much out of it as possible. It's not every day you have the honor to sit next to a singer and watch her work.
After saying that, he speared a forkful of pasta he brought. At that moment, Mira noticed his food; until then, she didn't know the boy had brought food. It smelled wonderful and looked wonderful, but Mira couldn't. She knew very well that she couldn't.
"Do you want a bite?" he asked her, pointing to the plate, which still had a pile of pasta, smoking.
"No thanks, I've already eaten," she lied with a smile.
"Okay, but if you want some, just say so. I cooked it, and I can make the best pasta. You've never eaten better," he told her. Now Mira was even more annoyed that she wasn't going to have any. The best pasta she had ever eaten? She definitely wanted to taste that.
She couldn't. She knew very well that she couldn't. In the afternoon, her manager wrote to her that in the photos from the paddock taken by fans, she looked a bit swollen, so she should take care of herself to avoid it happening again. That was also the reason why she had to limit herself.
"Thank you for the offer, but I won't take it today," she told him. Yuki seemed a little hurt that the singer refused to taste something he cooked himself. She wasn't surprised. Every chef wants people to taste his food because feedback was very important when it came to food - you don't want to repeat the same mistake.
"You still haven't answered this," Yuki nodded towards the notebook.
"I haven't started recording vocals yet, but you can listen to what I have so far," she took off her headphones and handed them to Yuki, who grinned like a little child when you give them a lollipop, and put on the headphones.
"I'll appreciate any feedback, even though you don't understand much. Sometimes it's better when you don't understand because you have a completely different perspective than us producers," she told him and pressed the spacebar, starting the song.
Yuki set aside the plate of pasta as he wanted to fully concentrate on what was playing in his headphones. He nodded his head to the rhythm and smiled from ear to ear - Mira hoped it was a good sign.
"That melody reminds me of something," he said when he took off the headphones and handed them back to Mira.
"Jaws?" she asked him.
"Yeah," he exclaimed, "the melody is similar to the famous music from Jaws."
"That's intentional," Mira smiled, "I tried to make the melody similar because the song you just listened to will have this text," the girl opened her notes with annotations and scrolled to the page where she had the lyrics and the title of the song currently in her notebook.
"Shark," Yuki read aloud and chuckled at the end, "if you got the idea for it today in the paddock, does it mean I helped you with the song?"
"You could say that," she nodded, "read the lyrics," she told him and leaned in to show him different parts. She almost rested her head on his shoulder just to see into the notebook, but Yuki didn't seem to mind at all.
"The great white shark, with its jaws open wide, Just like the haters, who never step aside," she read aloud instead of Yuki.
"Are you comparing the great white shark to haters?" he asked her, and Mira just nodded.
"Facing these sharks, with all of our might," she continued, "it's actually about standing up to them, but I didn't want to sing directly about haters, so I came up with the idea of comparing them to those sharks we were passionately discussing today."
"I'd love to pick your brain," Yuki couldn't understand how the idea came to the girl, but he didn't even try to challenge it. Mira doesn't understand why he drives an extremely fast car, and he doesn't understand how she can come up with such lyrics just from arguing about which shark is more threatening.
"Now the Mako shark, swift and cunning it seems, It strikes without warning, in your darkest dreams," Mira pointed to the verse after the chorus, "I tried to differentiate between different types of haters there too. The great white shark represents those haters who are always there, and every celebrity has to learn to live with them. As for the mako shark, I liken it to fans who just sometimes show up but leave you with the deepest scar."
"We'll outswim these fears, and prove them all wrong," Yuki read aloud.
"You'll learn to ignore the haters and give less weight to their words," she explained to him, and Yuki just nodded understandingly. It truly was a great lyric.
"For the sharks may be fierce, but our spirit's a spark, To overcome all the doubts, in this ocean so dark," he read aloud the song's final words.
"When you fight, you can overcome anything," she smiled, "even the darkest hours in your life."
"Well, Mira, you've outdone yourself," Yuki sounded like the proudest person on the planet, "just this morning you were complaining about having no ideas, and now you've written something this amazing."
"You're too kind, Yuki," Mira blushed slightly and lightly nudged him with her hand.
"It really is great," he told her, as if trying to convince her that it truly was amazing, "for me, as a complete music layman, it's unbelievable that you came up with this from our conversation about sharks."
"Anyone can do it with practice," she still didn't want to accept the compliments he showered her with, "even you."
"Now you've confirmed that you don't know me well enough yet," Yuki chuckled.
"I mean it," Mira exclaimed, and she started plugging in the second pair of headphones into her notebook to hand them to Yuki, "I'll show you."
And so the music lesson with Mira began. She showed him absolutely everything that came to her mind. She started with how she came up with the melody and let Yuki come up with a piece of melody for another song she started composing and already had the first verse.
"It's terrible, don't use it," Yuki laughed as Mira showed him how to insert the melody he came up with into the program. She started pressing the keys on the small piano to match the notes with the melody - Yuki just told her whether it should be a high or low note.
"It's not the worst, actually," she told him, "it's neither fast nor slow. When I started with that song, I imagined a ballad, but I also like your approach."
"You should do it the way you want, after all, you're the singer and producer," Yuki argued, "I'm just a sportsman."
"I'll see, but I'll save this, because the melody is really good," she smiled and pressed save, "maybe I'll use it for another song."
"Do that, and I won't talk to you anymore," Yuki wagged his finger at her.
"You wouldn't do that because then you couldn't brag that your friend is the famous Mira Hashimoto," Mira stuck her tongue out at him.
"So you do know me a little," Yuki smiled.
"I know not only that you don't like sharks, and that's all I need to know," the girl laughed.
"Not only do I not like them. I'm afraid of them," Yuki laughed.
"I don't blame you; they're terrifying animals, and honestly, I'm a bit afraid of them too, even though they're not my biggest fear," Mira admitted.
"What's your biggest fear?" Asian asked curiously.
"I suffer from claustrophobia so much that I won't even get into a small elevator alone," she said, "and I also have a slight fear of heights."
"You don't like tight spaces?" Asian was surprised.
"When I was little, I got stuck in a tube on a playground, and before they could get me out, I was there for over five hours," she explained, "I was seven. I was sweating, and after two hours, I had trouble breathing."
"That's terrible."
"I don't like to think about it," she sighed, "and honestly, not many people know about it, so consider yourself special for finding out."
"Well, I'm honored," the boy smiled.
"But let's get back to this," she pointed to the notebook, "I haven't shown you yet how to get your voice in there."
"Did you bring a microphone?" Yuki asked her.
"No," Mira laughed, "I'll record it through the headphones. It's just a demo, so it doesn't have to be perfect. It's just to know how the melody will sound, what vocal style I want to use in each part, and those kinds of things."
"And what vocal style do you want to use?" he asked.
"Look, listen, and watch," she told him and clicked a few buttons to activate the microphone on her headphones.
With the spacebar, she started the melody and began recording. In the hall, there were only the two of them and one receptionist who paused her work when her voice echoed through the room.
Yuki watched her with slight surprise, but mainly with amazement in his eyes. His eyes looked like those of a puppy, which slightly unnerved Mira when their gazes met, and she faltered in her voice.
"Does this happen often?" he asked, "that you don't sing the whole song on the first try?"
"Yeah," she chuckled, "usually I'll sing maybe two verses, listen to it, and either continue or redo it."
"I think you won't have to redo it because it sounded really good," he smiled.
"Thank you, but I think I'll redo it because I want to add more rasp and depth to my voice," she said and began to prepare everything.
Yuki watched her every move. He was fascinated by how confidently the girl knew what she needed to do and what kind of singing she wanted. At that moment, he knew how people around him must feel when they're in the paddock for the first time - they must be looking at Yuki with a style of 'what the hell is he doing?', 'how does he know what he wants?', or 'does he understand this?'
For Yuki, the whole program was confusing, and he admired the girl for even knowing what to do first.
Mira might have known what she was doing. After all, she had been doing it for several years. But at that moment, it was completely different. It took her longer than usual - as if she had forgotten everything when Yuki was watching her.
Inside, however, she was thrilled. When she talked about singing with people who weren't involved in the industry, they usually brushed her off and changed the subject. Yuki didn't. The whole time he sat there, he talked to her about singing, about her work, and was interested in how such a song is created. She was excited that someone was interested - and maybe she preferred that someone to be Yuki.
~•~