The crowd at live house CiRCLE cheered wildly as Lisa and her bandmates ended their third and final song of the day. Yukina bowed to the audience, then made eye contact with the others. Having finished their task, they soon leave the stage. Lisa and Ako waved and smiled brightly to their band's very first fans, while the other three walked straight to the backstage.
The wave of congratulations continued as Roselia returned to the dressing room. A couple of bands that performed in the same live session complimented their performance. Lisa was kind of anxious because she made a couple of mistakes back there, but receiving positive feedback made her feel much more confident.
Roselia members gathered at a table in the center of the room. Yukina stated that their evaluation session for today's gig was going to be held tomorrow when they would do another rehearsal. Aiming high, Roselia practiced real hard for a band that consisted of school girls.
"Oh, right! Lisa-nee's going to a concert, huh?" said Ako. "That's a shame..." The middle school student's shoulders declined. "I want us to go celebrate our debut somewhere..."
"No need for celebrations." Yukina shook her head. "It's not like we're doing this for fun."
Lisa whispered to the petite drummer, "Dontcha worry, Ako. I'm going to persuade Yukina to eat out after tomorrow's rehearsal."
The chemistry of Roselia was still far from perfect. Awkward might be a proper word to describe their relationship, especially if talking about Yukina and Sayo who were serious all the time and spared no time for what they deemed as unconstructive activities. Lisa considered all of her bandmates as friends, but it seemed those two saw the others as mere colleagues... which was kind of sad, if she could be honest.
"By the way..." Lisa approached the guitarist. "Sayo, are you coming?"
"I'd rather practice the guitar." Sayo stored her navy blue guitar into its case. "I made a mistake during the outro of 'Six Trillion Years and Overnight Story'."
"Eh, that Vocaloid cover? You can always practice later~" Lisa gave a light tap to her bandmate's shoulder. "Come on! It's not every day your little sister has a second debut."
Sayo stared at Lisa's hand. She seemed rather uncomfortable with skinship, so Lisa let go of the older Hikawa twin's shoulder.
"...I couldn't care less about that." Sayo carried the guitar case to her back. "It's her own fault for taking part in that farce."
"M-maybe so, but still..."
Sayo clicked her tongue. "Did Hina ask you to pester me?"
"Huh? No!" Lisa shook her head. "Please don't be mad at Hina..." the brunette said weakly. "She didn't ask me to do anything, really."
"Don't be a busybody, then."
Sayo soon left the dressing room. Lisa and the other Roselia members could only look at one another in silence before Ako raised a question about the Hikawa sisters' relationship. Lisa didn't know what exactly happened to them, so she couldn't say much. Yukina then cut their talk, saying that prying into others' business would just create unnecessary conflict.
»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«
CiRCLE was a live house that doubled as a music studio. The place was quite a hit for indie music goers in the Shinjuku area. Although there wasn't much activity at the public area now because people were still watching the remaining bands that held a gig this afternoon.
Lisa went straight to the lobby as she left the dressing room. The corridors were empty, but from the small glass panel on the door, she could see that most of the studio was rented.
The highschooler checked her phone. There were a couple of messages from Kaoru and Hina in their chatroom. Kaoru was spreading poetic quotes here and there, while Hina spammed the chat with photos of food that she ate a while ago. She typed some replies, complete with stickers.
[Lisa Imai] Hina, did you really eat all that?
[Boppin' Potato] Yup!
[Boppin' Potato] My pants feel tight, somehow~
[Lisa Imai] I'm jelly you don't gain weight despite your appetite
[Lisa Imai] You and Moca should become foodie buddies!
[Lisa Imai] BTW, I've wrapped things up~
[Lisa Imai] Kaoru, you're really at the live house right now?
Kaoru had a sudden appointment this morning. Her dear horse happened to give birth earlier than expected and she wasn't sure whether she could return in time.
[Kaoru Seta] Aah, look! What an exquisite fruit tart they got here!
[Lisa Imai] Circle's cafe, then~
[Boppin' Potato] Oopsie, gotta go rehearse now!
Lisa spotted someone that she knew, Marina Tsukishima, by the reception area. The manager of CiRCLE helped Lisa a lot in prepping for today's gig, so she would like to say her regards as well as apologize that Roselia couldn't stay for long. As one of the performers, Lisa wanted to stay until the entirety of the concert had finished, but she needed to go watch Hina's performance at a different venue.
The open-air cafe located in front of the live house was filled with more than a dozen people, occupying seven tables. Kaoru was one of them; currently eating a fruit tart as she had mentioned before in the chatroom. Realizing Lisa's approaching, the purple-haired girl put her fork down and reached for something that was sitting on a vacant seat beside hers.
"My princess!" Kaoru held a flower bouquet and kneeled before Lisa. "Please accept this congratulatory bouquet from yours truly."
"W-what?" said Lisa flusteredly, but took the bouquet anyway. "Thanks, Kaoru!" She smiled. "But hey, I thought you were joking when you said about preparing a bouquet!"
It was the first time someone gave her one. The girl sniffed the flower; it smelled good and relaxing.
Kaoru winked as she got up. "It is the principle of a Seta family member to keep her word." She touched her chest dramatically and added, "I believe, a much-anticipated musical ensemble between longtime friends is certainly an occasion to be commemorated with a bouquet of flowers."
"You're not wrong about that." Lisa giggled. "I secretly wanted to play music with her again, yeah..."
Kaoru smiled apologetically and said, "Besides, consider it my way to express my regret for only being able to witness your last song of the day."
"Don't sweat it, Kaoru," Lisa replied. "How's the baby horse?"
"White and her foal are in perfect health, of course," said Kaoru. "Aah, births are such a fleeting moment to watch." She waved her hand and spoke in a solemn tone. "I must express my sincerest gratitude to my mother for going through the hardship of labor sixteen years ago."
"Ahaha, yeah..." Lisa giggled. "And where's this ranch, though?"
"Oh, just beside Lake Toya."
"Huh? The Lake Toya in Hokkaido?"
"Precisely." Kaoru took a medium-sized yellow box from a paper bag. "Here's a souvenir for you."
Lisa received the box that reads "wakasaimo", a confectionery that was one of Hokkaido's specialties.
"In these six hours, you took a round trip flight to Hokkaido?" Lisa asked in bewilderment. "And you even had the time to have brunch there?"
"Oh, does she want to tag along, perchance?"
"Huh? Who?" asked Lisa, forgotten about Hokkaido. She turned her head and saw Yukina walking toward them.
"Aah, if it isn't Yukina!" Kaoru winked at the songstress. "Your fleeting voice truly captivated my heart. It made me even more eager to invite you to the theater club's musicals!"
Yukina frowned. "Still not giving up, huh," she said flatly.
"And I see you're still playing hard to get." Kaoru chuckled. She waved her arms and began monologuing, "Aah, my endeavor today meets yet another failure... But it matters not, for there'll be tomorrow and the days after."
Yukina shrugged and turned to Lisa instead. She stretched her right hand and said, "Give me the bass and bouquet."
"Oh, you want to compose a new song with my bass?" Lisa asked. "Why the bouquet, though? Is the song about flowers?"
Yukina shook her head. "I'll take that home for you later. Must be a chore to carry those around a concert venue."
"Oh, so that's the case..." Lisa giggled. "It's okay, really! I can just bring them all."
Yukina didn't flinch. She just stared at Lisa in silence. It didn't take long until Lisa gave up and passed her belongings. The neighbor of hers soon returned to CiRCLE. Lisa wondered if her friend intended to book a studio for solo practice before returning home.
Lisa and Kaoru then sat at the cafe table. There was still some spare time, so Lisa ordered some desserts as well. Besides, Kaoru was always a slow eater because she savored every bite and liked to add commentaries here and there. Even a simple school lunch box could feel like an extravagant New Year banquet due to her usage of difficult words and poetic lines.
"Hey, why don't you start a food review channel, Kaoru? I bet people—" Lisa jokingly said, but her sentence was cut short as she saw yet another familiar figure. "Sayo, you're not—"
The said person was passing by the cafe. And as if she knew what Lisa was about to say, the older twin of Hina immediately gave a firm statement: "Don't make me repeat myself, Imai-san."
Sayo soon left the scene; making both Lisa and Kaoru baffled.
"What happened with the Yamato Nadeshiko?" Kaoru asked. "Are you two involved in some sort of conflict, perchance?"
"What? N-no! We're good!" answered Lisa. "But what's with the 'Yamato Nadeshiko' thing, anyway?" The girl laughed.
"Mm, how should I put it..." Kaoru brushed her violet hair. "Her figure at the school gate; the long sleek hair of hers blown by the spring breeze, along with falling sakura petals..." She spoke dramatically while waving her arms. "Aah, it was the epitome of Japanese beauty!"
"Your way to describe something is always unique, ahaha..."
Lisa's laugh quickly died out. Her mind was still occupied with the Hikawa twins' conflict. Kaoru was quick to sense Lisa's state of mind and asked what worried the brunette. The bassist of Roselia recounted what happened a moment before she met Kaoru at the lobby of CiRCLE. Kaoru never cut Lisa's narrative and listened attentively.
"To sum it up, Hina loves her sister, yet it's one-sided."
"Pretty much." Lisa sighed. "I want to help them, somehow, but neither of them ever talk about what happened between them." She rubbed her head. "Guess I'm a busybody just like Sayo said, ahaha..."
"You did the right thing, Lisa. I believe it's a friend's job to be involved when her companion is having hardships." Kaoru wore a reassuring smile. "Better to be a busybody rather than just do nothing when people you care about hurt, is it not?"
"Yeah..." Lisa stirred her acai bowl absentmindedly. "It's sad to see sisters don't get along like that." She took a spoonful of the mixed fruit smoothie. "I don't want to come up with this conclusion, but from the looks of it... I guess Sayo kinda resents Hina."
Kaoru rubbed her chin. "From what I gather, I believe Sayo cares about Hina in her own way," she said. "She won't bother to pick up Hina at the school gate if she hates her."
"Sayo visited our school? When?"
"The first Monday after Pastel✽Palettes' debut."
"Wow, Sayo's surprisingly sweet!"
Lisa learned another side of Sayo today. To think that the ever-stoic person like Sayo Hikawa would do that... Maybe Hikawa sisters' relationship wasn't as bad as she thought.
"I guess Sayo was worried about Hina's wellbeing at school." Lisa breathed a sigh of relief. "Unpleasant rumors about Hina spread like wildfire because of her band's mishaps..."
Lisa glanced at her phone. They were so absorbed in discussing Hina and Sayo that they forgot about the time. The 2-A students quickly finished their remaining food, then paid the bill.
"Let's resume our talk in the car."
"Car? I thought we're going there by train."
The concert venue was quite far from CiRCLE. Lisa didn't even dare to imagine the taxi fare. It was the end of the month, so she should manage her allowance and part-time salary well.
"Train? Did you mean the subway?" Kaoru's eyes sparkled in wonder like a child, in an exact same way as she did at the penny candy shop a while back. "Yes, let's take the train! I've always wanted to feel the sensation of commuting alongside other folks!"
"You talk as if you've never taken a commuter train..." Lisa giggled.
Kaoru brushed her hair. "Well, it is a fact that yours truly never got to ride one."
"Wait, so you're serious?"
Tokyo citizens and the underground railways were like best buddies. They always used the intricate subway network to commute from one district to the other. What caused Lisa's classmate to be such a stranger with everyone's beloved transportation mode? Maybe Kaoru was exaggerating stuff like usual...
And while Lisa was pondering, Kaoru talked with someone through the phone, but she didn't catch what her friend was talking about because her mind wandered about.
As they left the area, Lisa saw a white Mercedes-Benz at the entrance. Its front door opened, revealing a middle-aged man in a suit. His hair was sleek and he grew a splendid-looking mustache.
"Here's the bouquets, Kaoru-sama," said the man as he gave a paper bag to Kaoru. "Are you certain of taking the subway?" His face looked troubled.
"Why, of course." Kaoru smiled. "I believe grandfather would understand that it's about the time for me to broaden my horizon."
"I understand." The man nodded at Kaoru. "Safe travels, Kaoru-sama." He smiled at Lisa and added, "Pleased to meet you, Imai-sama. I trust you to take care of our young lady."
The man bowed to Kaoru and Lisa, then re-entered the luxury sedan. And off he went, leaving little to no sound...
"I didn't know you own a luxury car and even hire a chauffeur to drive it, ahaha..."
"Oh, it's not mine," Kaoru clarified. "They belong to my grandfather."
"Wow..." Lisa couldn't hide her surprise. "What does your grandpa do?"
"What does he do? Hmm..." Kaoru rubbed her chin for a while before she said, "Oh, you and I own the same phone brand, right? My grandfather's company made those."
"...Your grandpa's company?"
"Yes, although one of my uncles is the one who manages things now."
Lisa gawked and unconsciously said, "Shut. Up."
»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«
Author's Notes
Long time no see (again)! First of all, I'm sorry for the old readers who might receive false updates last week. It was because I divided a couple of old chapters into two parts (so I need to slip two or three 'new-but-old' chapters in the process).
PasuPare's re-debut event will consist of three or four chapters, AND are connected with my other series "Twin Star Concerto". Thus, the updates for these two series will be simultaneous in one day. Be sure to check TSC as well!