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"Hey," Ue says when Akihiko shows up to greet the three of us. Haru's been here the longest, but that's mostly because he's the most 'mature' out of the five of us.
Mafu is the only one who hasn't shown up. And to be honest, it scares me a little. I know he'll show up, but I don't know if he'll have lyrics or if he'll be on his A game. All we can do now, is hope.
"Where's Mafuyu?" Akihiko asks the question on everyone's minds.
"Not here yet," Haru replies simply, glancing up briefly from the paper he's looking down on. Ue sighs a little, but I notice when the other two don't. Something's been on his mind the past week.
"It's alright," I murmur. "We'll just see how things go until rehearsal. Nothing to worry about, yet," I say, trying to sound enthusiastic as possible, but in reality, I've barely gotten any sleep. Between throwing up at five in the morning and practicing my guitar, there's not much space one between.
"Huh?" Ue says nervously.
"Yeah," Haru replies, also trying to lighten the very tense mood. "Who knows? He might blow us all away at the very last minute," Haru says hopefully.
"If Mafuyu plans on singing at all, we should hold out," Akihiko adds on.
"We'll be fine as long as it all works out when we're on the stage," Haru says. This time he's mostly talking to Ue. Even a toddler could tell that he's extremely nervous.
"Yeah!" Ue says and nods his head up and down.
"Hello," Mafu says. Well, at least he showed up. That's step one already taken care of. He stares blankly at the rest of us and briefly apologizes for being the last here.
After waiting a couple of minutes we're called to go on stage and rehearse. I'm a lot more nervous than I anticipated, but it is the first time we're all working together as a band in public.
"We're 'the seasons.' Thanks for having us today," Haru says briefly. We're all stationed in different parts on the stage. Mafu
"Okay, let's start with the drums," a different voice says. Akihiko clicks on his drums a while, making a nice tune, but I can't help but notice that Mafu seems a little out of it.
Rehearsal had already started... and Mafu still hadn't sung.
"All right, let's get the introductions out of the way," the guy in charge says and raises his tablet in the air. Our rehearsal was a little rough, but no one sounded too off. "Let's start in the order of appearance. So, we're 'chā shāo boys.' I'm the bassist, Yatake. The road may have been a little rough, but hey, all's well that ends well," the man introduces with a wide grin on his face.
"Nothing's over yet, man!" A member of his band calls out causing a loud laugh to ripple throughout the different bands.
The man laughs himself then goes back to saying his speech. "I'm just hoping we have a blast out there. PLeasure working with you guys today," he finishes and bows.
"Likewise!" The rest of us call out and everyone begins clapping for the man.
"Second up is 'the seasons'," he announces. That's our band. I'll admit, our name is kind of not so unique, but it's better than nothing.
"Thanks for having us," Haru says and we each tilt our heads down a little. We all murmur our own 'thank you's' and 'pleasure's' and everyone claps for our band.
"You got anything you want to say?" The man in charge asks and Haru seems very caught-off-guard by this, not having thought of anything.
"Huh?" He murmurs, his eyebrows slightly raised. "Uh..." He says quietly and Ue glances at him and furrows his eyebrows. "W-We'll do our best out there!" He says anxiously causing a few people to chuckle.
"Okay, next up, 'Bentenz,'" the man says and the next band proceeds to introduce themselves.
Everyone introduces themselves, which takes a lot longer than I expected. A few jokes are thrown here and there, but for the most part it's pretty calm. Mafu still seems slightly out of it.
"So... that takes care of that. We have some newbies in here tonight," the man in charge says, still reading off of his tablet. "So all of us old fogies need to watch out for them." Everyone cheers in agreement and eventually the place begins filling up with people.
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"Uenonyama! Mafuyu!" A familiar voice rings out across the crowd of people. I recognize him as one of Ue's close friends. He has the same color hair as Mafu.
"Akihiko!" Ue's sister calls out across the crowd and Akihiko walks up to talk to her much to Haru's surprise and concern.
"I'm gonna go say hi to Hiiragi and Shizu, do you wanna come?" I ask Mafu who not surprisingly shakes his head from side to side.
I make my way over to the two boys who already seem bored out of their minds. I'm sure they'd rather be preforming than us.
"Hi Shizu," I say excitedly and give him a side hug. "Hi Hiiragi," I say happily and plant a kiss on his cheek. "I haven't seen you two in ages."
"Yep, you have been pretty busy," Hiiragi says and I chuckle nervously.
"Well, I'm glad you two could show up," I say happily and clap my hands together. "Anyways, Hiiragi, I have something to tell you after the show, so could you stay a little while," I ask nervously.
"Sure, I have something to say as while," he coughs awkwardly when Shizu elbows him in the side.
"Alright," I laugh. "I hope y'all like it, we're a bit rough around the edges, but try not to be too hard on us," I say anxiously and wave them goodbye.
The one thing I didn't notice at the time were the anxious looks that Hiiragi was giving to Shizu throughout the whole conversation.
