ｔｈｅ ｄｏｕｂｌｅ ｗｉｓｈ
ｏｆ ａ ｋｎｉｇｈｔ
ａｎｄ ａ ｄｅｖｉｌ
『 your p.o.v 』
Hissing beside me, I reached over and flicked at the back of the black cat's ear for the third time this morning since I came out here to compose. "Kuppuru, I don't care how much those idiots are glaring at me, that does not give you the right to stoop to their level and hiss at them back." I sighed.
Early this morning around six, I found myself lying wide awake in bed and unable to fall back asleep. There's just so much I have to get done in such a short amount of time and it feels like no matter how long I work on these compositions, I'm making no progress at all! I can't risk failing when my friends are depending on me and soon Quartet Night as well so I have to keep pushing myself to work harder for them. That's why I came out here to sit on the docks in the first place.
Near the far left end of the beach a little out from the resort, there's a long dock that extends a solid fifty feet or so out from the sand and overlooks the wide expanse of crystal blue ocean water. With it being nice and warm early in the morning, I thought it would be a good time to come out and get some composing done while also enjoying the view only Okinawa can produce. Though I guess some of the other students had the same idea since a couple of them are out relaxing on the beach, glaring at me as they do so while I try to work in peace.
Kuppuru wandered over not long after I initially sat down and began composing, my legs dangling over the edge of the dock a good five feet or so above the water's surface. He went ahead and planted himself down right beside me, never once moving from where he sits even as he hisses at the other students who glare at me from afar on the beach. Kuppuru is one strange cat... Well, at least he's come out to keep me company while I once again start a new idea for Ren and Masato's duet song.
This song is killing me right now and I don't know why. I was so confident going into this project that writing for Ren and Masato would be a breeze- but wow was I wrong. There's nothing blatantly difficult about writing for them together, but, I think it's because how they feel towards each other right now is such a mess that it's throwing me off as well.
When I write my songs, I write it with the singer's emotions in mind; whatever it is they're wanting to convey, I'll help them by making a composition with the right feel. And then there's Ren and Masato who are in two very different places emotionally as of right now and I don't know how to write a song for them together where they somehow have to connect their hearts and sing together flawlessly.
It's impossible, and yet, I have to make it happen somehow.
Sighing, I picked my laptop up off my lap and placed it down onto the dock behind me, making sure to keep it far from the woods edge so it has little to no chance of falling into the shimmering water down below. I don't know what I would do if I lost this laptop. It's all I have left of her after all so no matter what, I can't let anything happen to it.
"___!"
I glanced over my shoulder at the warm voice. "Haruka! I was wondering if you were ever going to come down here." I said, beckoning her over to come and sit beside me on the dock.
Just as I was stepping out of the elevator earlier this morning, Haruka was about to go up to her room with a large plate stacked high with breakfast items. Tomo-chan snuck into her room again and she wanted to surprise her by bringing her breakfast. She's just too sweet. Though she said she'd come down right after dropping off the food and that was almost an hour ago now. Guess someone got a little distracted if her red tinted and slightly plumped up lips are anything to go by.
"Sorry sorry, Tomo didn't want to let me back out of bed once I brought her breakfast." Haruka rushed out as she hurried to sit down beside me, letting out one long sigh as Kuppuru moved to lie on my lap now that my laptop is sitting directly behind me. "She's clingy in the mornings so I should have guessed I wouldn't be let out of there for a while. Sorry for telling you I'd be right down..."
Kuppuru meowed in response for me as he looked up to her with those sparkling emerald green eyes of his. "I think he's saying it's okay," I said with a small laugh, petting the kind black cat while Haruka scratched just under his chin.
"I still can't believe he managed to get here to Okinawa- where does he even stay?" She asked.
I shrugged. "I don't know. He kind of just wanders around I guess? Kupuuru does what he wants and half the time pops up in my room at the most random of times. I don't get him at all."
"Well, at least we know he's doing alright and not left outside to freeze back at Saotome."
"True."
The pink haired girl beside me placed her hands behind her some and leaned back as she looked out to the glistening ocean that stretches on seemingly forever before us, a few boats seen far out over the horizon as the sun continues to rise higher into the cloud filled sky. "How's your song for Ren and Masato going?" She asked with a small smile dancing across her lips. "My song with Tomo and another idol student isn't going so well so hopefully you're is doing a whole lot better..."
I flicked my eyes to my friend for a moment. "You're struggling with your composition?" I asked.
Nodding, Haruka sighed. "Writing the duet is so hard since the only person I've really only composed for so far has been Tomochika. Now I have to try and write for this other idol student and he sings amazingly, it's just..."
"He's not Tomo-chan." I finished for her with a reassuring smile as I patted her thigh. "I get it. I'm having a lot of trouble with Ren and Masato's song right now so don't worry, I think all of us composers are equally struggling right about now."
"Why did they make this project so hard all of a sudden?" Haruka asked sadly. "It was bad enough having to write the duet in a month when we've never written one before, but now we have to write those two solo songs too and have all three of them finished before we leave Okinawa! That's not going to happen."
"I'm sure you'll figure something out Haruka, you're an amazing composer."
"Says you! You're so much better than me and even you're struggling... There's no hope for any of us if you're finding this to be a challenge."
I couldn't help but to laugh at that. "Don't go making me the benchmark for our assignments. If you put your mind to it, you can create a great composition for Tomo-chan and that other composer I just know it! We both can get through this so don't beat yourself up so much Haruka, you got just as much of a chance to become our graduating class's top composer as I do."
The cute girl sitting beside me smiled as she nodded. "Alright, if you think I can do this then I'll work just as hard as you to create something great!" She said happily.
"That's the spirit." I cheered as I threw an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to my side. "The two of us have to work hard for our idols! Otherwise, we'll never be good enough composers to make our dreams come true."
"I don't think I'll ever be able to write songs as amazing as the one I heard Hayato sing." Haruka murmured dreamily as we watched the waves of the ocean lap over one another. "But as long as I get to compose for Tomo, then, I'm happy. What's your dream ___?"
I thought for a moment as she rested her head on my shoulder, her slender arm wrapping around my back as we sit there together on the dock with the morning sunrise beginning to cast a warm orange tint to everything now. "Well, I want to make my friends dreams come true." I decided on saying. "Otoya and Masato and Natsuki and Syo and Ren and Tokiya each have their own goals in mind when singing and I want to create songs that will help them reach their goals. Same with Rei-chan and his new band. If I can make their wildest dreams come true, then my dreams of seeing them reach the stars will come true too and I couldn't possibly ask for anything more than that."
Haruka pulled back from me some to get a better look at my face, her eyebrows knitted together slightly in confusion. "But don't you have your own dreams? Something you want to do for you?"
My arm slipped off from her shoulders as Kuppuru meowed a bit. "Not really, no."
"Well that's no good. You need to have your own goals ___!" The pink haired girl said with a warm and gentle smile. "I want to work hard to make songs that can inspire other people to reach their own goals. But you can't go only wanting to make your friend's dreams come true or else you're never going to be happy."
That one struck a cord, my eyes widening some. "Never be happy..?" I repeated softly under my breath. "I never thought of it like that." I said honestly.
Haruka's smile softened. "It's alright to want to make our friends succeed at making their dreams come true, but you need to have something you can work towards for you."
Looking out to the ocean once more, I continued petting Kuppuru as I thought a bit. "Then, I want to have a dream like yours. I'll have my goal be that I want to become this industries top composer so that my songs can reach the hearts of everyone who hears them and inspire those people to always dream big so they have something to forever be aiming for."
"You'll reach that goal for sure, ___. You have my full support!"
"Thank you, Haruka."
The two of us grew quiet as we watched the water ripple and dip with every gust of warm ocean wind that blew past. More and more students began making their ways out to the beach what with the time nearing nine in the morning now. I'm not sure how long Haruka and I sat there together on the dock in silence before we decided to finally head on back inside and continue our work, Kuppuru already having wandered off to who knows where long before we left the docks.
Once we made it inside, Haruka was whisked off her feet by Tomo-chan who was just getting off the elevator, the two love birds wandering off to one of the many lounge areas on the first floor of the resort so they could spend a relaxing day together. I waved goodbye to them as they disappeared down a random hallway before I headed up to the fourth floor with my laptop tucked protectively under my arm.
Smiling as I passed by Natsuki and Syo who were fixing to go grab themselves some breakfast down in the dining hall, I went ahead and made my way toward Ren's room that's a few doors down from mine and Masato's. I rose my free hand and lightly knocked on the door, waiting a few moments for a response before the click of the lock unlocking rung out into the quiet hallway and the door opened.
"Ah ___, I was just about to go looking for you." Masato said as he stepped aside to let me into the orangette's room.
"We said we'd meet here around nine and it's still a little before then so I'm not late." I reasoned with a laugh as I made my way over to sit at the little coffee table placed near the center of Ren's room, the orangette currently outside and leaning over the railing of his balcony while drinking a juice box seemingly deep in thought by the looks of it. "Anyways, have you been here long Masa?"
The blue haired idol sat across from me as I opened up my laptop and began pulling up his and Ren's duet song. "Not particularly long. Jinguji and I spoke for a bit before you got here though."
"Oh? Did you go punching him again?"
"Must you tease me? I'm already not proud of you seeing me lose my composure like that..."
I couldn't help but laugh as I reached over the small table and patted Masato's shoulder. "You know I'm just joking. Did you guys have a nice talk though?"
Nodding, his blue hair fell a little in front of his eyes a bit. "I apologized for punching him and we both forgave each other for the cruel things we said that evening despite us both knowing they were true to an extent. Jinguji knows he was acting selfishly and I know that he was right in saying I'm too fearful of my father to stand up to him right now... Hopefully now we can just look back at that as a moment of turbulence in our relationship and continue forward together from this point forward."
"I'm sure you two will look back at that day and laugh about it in a couple of years." I mused. "Besides, someone had to snap Ren out of his own thoughts and if I couldn't do it, then it had to be you so actually I should be thanking you for sucker punching him the way you did."
"You're logic of justifying violence is truly something else."
"I try to be as amusing as possible, just for you." I teased.
Masato chuckled. "I saw you out with Nanami earlier on the docks. Did you two have a nice conversation?"
I shrugged. "We're both struggling with our duets right now and our conversation died down not long after she sat down with me so we didn't really talk all that much in all honesty." I responded softly.
Just then the glass door to the balcony slid open and in came Ren. "Little Lamb, nice of you to join us.~" He cooed as he shot me a flirtatious wink, clearly feeling back to his normal self now.
Rolling my eyes, I offered him a playful grin as he grabbed a spare chair near his bed and pulled that up to sit between Masato and I at this small round coffee table. "How's your lip doing? Fully healed yet?" I asked, focusing my attention on my laptop as I go through a couple more folders and grab another song sample that I've been playing around with for a while now.
"How about I kiss you and you tell me if it's fully healed?" He responded without missing a beat.
"Well someone bounced back quickly," I said with a laugh as I reached over and flicked at this orangette's nose. "Now stop your flirting already and let's discuss your duet. I'm honestly really stuck on what direction you two want to go in with this song so I haven't been able to come up with anything concrete yet."
Masato leaned back in his chair across from my own, crossing one long leg over the other as he looks to me with an expression void of emotion. "Well, what ideas have you been toying around with?"
"Let us listen to what you've made so far and we'll tell you if we like it." Ren then said, no longer in a teasing mood as he offers me a small smile. "We'll help you, Lady."
Doing as he said, I went ahead and played the three song ideas I've been jumping between for the better part of this week and a half that we've been in Okinawa for. Each of the three song ideas are drastically different from each other, one being a pure ballad, another sounding very upbeat and emotion-driven, and the third is an equal in-between of the two extremes. I figured Ren wouldn't want to sing a ballad and I was sure the upbeat one might be a little too upbeat for Masato so I tried to find a happy middle ground with the third trial song.
The orangette sitting beside me nodded. "That third one I think fits us the most, don't you think Hijirikawa?"
"I like it as well." Masato agreed. "I feel as though we could write lyrics for a song like that one and have our individual talents still shine through."
I nodded some. "See, that's what I was thinking too, but then I get stuck on where to go with everything that isn't the main melody. You both are going to have to trade off with lines until the melody comes up where you'll sing in unison which won't be a problem, you guys are perfectly capable of equally distributing lines. It's just, what type of song are we trying to make here together exactly?" I asked, glancing between the two idol students I've grown much closer to since the beginning of this vacation.
Both Masato and Ren stayed quiet at my question as they glanced to each other, both obviously contemplating on what the main concept should be. "Well, we come from rival families." The blue haired boy spoke up first.
Chuckling, Ren's eyes closed as he crossed his arms over his chest, looking truly at ease with himself right about now. "But we both have the same wish of making someone dear to us happy by singing a song she'll love just as much as we love her." He added on.
"With that being said," Masato paused as he offered me a small and charming smile, "Jinguji and I decided that the song should be titled 'Double Wish'."
"'Double Wish'?" I repeated, a smile tugging at the corners of my lips. "I think that's a great name! I can work with that actually. Now onto the topic of your audition songs-"
"We thought of that as well, Little Lamb." Ren cut me off as he looked to me with those sparkling light blue eyes of his, a smirk beginning to form. "We have to have our songs relate to each other, right? Then how about we title my song 'A Devil's Kiss is More Intense than Flames'."
Masato cleared his throat some to garner my attention. "And my song could be titled 'A Knight's Kiss is Gentler than Snow' so that both Jinguji's song and mine are polar opposites on two sides of the same spectrum but are still linked nonetheless."
I glanced between these two idols students before shaking my head and smiling. "You two really talked quite a bit before I got here didn't you?" I asked with a laugh. "I'm glad you two are finally talking again." I then said, looking between these boys with a genuine smile. "And I like the titles of the songs, but, aren't they pretty cheesy?" I then teased.
Ren waved me off with a cocky grin. "Girls love the cheesy love songs- especially if they're coming from someone as sexy as me.~"
Sighing, the blue haired boy sitting across from me looked to the orangette with a pointed glare. "Must you always be so full of yourself."
"It's my charm."
"You're charm is being insufferable rather than being desirable."
Muffling my laugh with the back of my hand, I tried to ignore their little banter as I went ahead and started adding more notes to the beginning of their duet song, completely missing the tender smiles they wore as they looked from each other to me.
Later that evening after I had gotten a substantial amount of work done for not only their duet song but for their audition songs as well, Ren and Masato along with the rest of our friends decided that today would be a great day for all of us to relax on the beach. Needless to say Haruka and Tomo-chan made it their joint-life-goal to once again get me into my bathing suit.
"C'mon ___! You look so cute in it!" Haruka had said.
"And I'm sure the boys will appreciate the view too." Tomo-chan had tacked on mere minutes before forcing me out of my hotel room and into the elevator, leaving absolutely no room for discussion.
Now I sit on a towel near the edge of the beach close to where the water laps at the sandy shore, the evening sun fixing to begin setting any minute now. I watch as Natsuki splashes water at Masato, Otoya attempting to dump a plastic bucket full of water over Tokiya only for the navy haired boy to turn around at the last second and grab the bucket right out of his hands, successfully drenching the red head so quickly he didn't know what hit him. Syo helped Masato in fighting off Natsuki, everyone being sure to not get too riled up so that his glasses won't come off in the water again. And Haruka floats a little ways away from the main group on a round donut floaty, Tomo-chan hanging off the side of it as they talk to one another with bright smiles and literal hearts in their eyes. They really are adorable together.
Standing in front of me, a tall and handsome boy blocked my view of the rest of my friends. "Little Lamb, sitting all alone on the beach is no way to enjoy our rare evening of freedom." Ren said, his voice silky smooth as it always is while he held out a hand for me to take. "Let's get you into the water so you can enjoy yourself for once."
I shook my head as I looked up to meet his gaze. "I can't swim Ren and I'm not in the mood to go drowning." I said sarcastically before nodding in the direction of the water. "I'll watch you have fun from here thank you very much."
Chuckling, Ren didn't give me a chance to protest as he bent down and swiftly picked me right up off the towel bridal style, walking me closer and closer to the ocean with every step he took. "Don't worry Lady, I won't let go of you even for a second." He reassured as I tightly wrapped my arms around his neck in a blind panic.
"R-Ren! Put me down!" I screamed as he started taking us into the water.
"It's not that bad ___!" Otoya chirped happily as he beckoned Ren to bring me over to him. "The water is really warm actually!"
The orangette kept a firm grip on my legs and side as I buried my face into the crook of his neck. "Calm down, Little Lamb. I got you." He whispered just loud enough for me to hear.
I think these guys forget just how tall they really are compared to me because god forbid Ren drops me, I'm going to drown right here and now and that'll be the end of it. Who's going to write their songs for them now? No one, that's who.
Grinning, Syo bounced his way over to Ren and I, Otoya and the rest of the gang not too far behind him. "Do you really not know how to swim?" The short blonde asked, my arms around Ren's neck only tightening further.
"Nope, never learned and don't plan on learning now." I said, glaring at Natsuki as the tall blonde cooed over me looking "cute" in my bathing suit and made a move to pluck me right up out of Ren's arms. "I didn't even want to come in the water but someone didn't get the hint."
The handsome flirt smirked as he leaned down and placed a quick feather-light kiss to my forehead. "I want to make as many memories with you as I can and I can't do that if you're always watching from the sidelines now can I?"
Masato immediately moved forward and gently lifted me out of the orange haired boys hands, holding me close to his chest as I quickly wrap my arms around his neck now as to keep myself from having any potential to fall in the deceivably nice water. "That's enough Jinguji." He said, glaring at the other boy.
"How cruel." Ren chuckled, winking at me once more before splashing some water at Masato and I. "You never let me have any fun, Masa."
Sticking my tongue out at the orangette, I clung a little closer to the blue haired boy as he held me like a bride. "It's official, I like Masato better than you." I declared cheekily.
Syo, Natsuki, Otoya, and Tokiya all stood practically in a line as they watched the stand-off between the two rival's play out in the warm beautiful ocean of Okinawa, Ren and Masato's gazes never wavering as they stare the other down with the setting sun overhead to watch this scene unfold. Holding his hands up in mock defeat, the orangette shrugged. "That just makes the race all the more interesting, Little Lamb. I'll win you over in the end so don't get too comfortable holding her, Hijirikawa, because that won't last for much longer."
Masato's hold on me tightened ever so slightly as he looked to Ren with a smirk, my heart skipping a small beat as I looked to the blue haired boy, never once seeing him so sure of himself before this moment. "We'll see about that, Jinguji."
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Ren and Masa as a combo are so dangerous when it comes to my health ohmygosh i'm dyingggggg
Question of the Chapter: What are you guessing Ren and Masato talked about before the protagonist showed up at Ren's room to discuss their duet together? I mean, they definitely talked about the songs for one, but it lowkey feels like they also talked about her lol I didn't have to write in what they talked about before she popped up so, I mean, I'm just as in the dark as all of you reading this xD
I plan on having the songs the protagonist writes for in this fic from this point forward being actual songs the boys have released :3 I doubt I'll manage to write in all of the songs (i mean, there's a lot of them ngl), but I'll definitely put in a fair amount of them! It'll be fun for me to give these songs more of a backstory for when and why they were written rather than just "hey look, random songs with no names being composed for the entire fic" lul
Okay I really love Ren and Masa but now that we're coming to the end of their main development ark in this first bit of the story, I have to move on to the next set of boys.~ I'm debating between toki + otoyan or syo + natsun lul whichever duo I decide to write for will probably have to do with the plot over the course of the vacation ark which is why I'm not making this a question for you all to answer just yet lul we'll see what happens I guess x3
As always, I love each and every last one of you lovely cuties and thanks so much for taking the time to read this chapter <3
~ ｋａｔ ♡