Two chapters in one day! WOOT
I'm kind of going fast, aren't I?
This chapter should be a bit more interesting for all you TakaGaki fans
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Chapter 5 “Risa-chan, you’re hurting my hand.”
“Gome.”
The two friends were, once again, inside the Down-Front Agency building’s elevator, heading up to room 905. Promotion’s for High-Queen’s most recent single, “
Subete wa Ai no Chikara” was nearing its end. Eri was told to attend the first meeting for High-Queen’s next single. Nothing was planned as of yet, so High-Queen and their staff would get things planned as much as they could today. This time, Eri was fairly calm as she had exchanged phone numbers with various other staff members, and already felt comfortable with them. However, this was not the case for Risa.
For the past week, Risa had been losing sleep, appetite, and self-control. She would spend the night staring at her alarm clock until the morning sun rose. She would take a bite out of her favorite food, then spit it out, saying it tasted like dirt. She would space out in the middle of the day, even while walking, and would run into walls. Eri had spent the entire week trying to prevent Risa from hurting herself.
“Risa-chan, calm yourself,” Eri pleaded. “I know you’re nervous, but you’re songs are great! I’m sure Takahashi-san liked them.”
“What makes you so sure?” Risa asked. “My entire work… my entire career… depends on today…”
“Risa-chan… my hand,” Eri groaned.
“Well, now you know my pain from back then,” Risa snapped back. Eri just rolled her eyes.
Finally, the elevator door slid open and the two girls walked down the long hallway. When they reached the meeting room, Eri grabbed the door handle without hesitation, stopped, then sighed.
“Risa-chan. I understand your pain now. So can you please let go?”
“Gome.”
Suddenly, the door opened to reveal Tsunku, the producer. He smiled.
“I thought I heard someone outside,” he said. “Come in, Kamei-san. Your friend will have to wait outside again, I’m afraid.”
“That’s fine,” Risa quickly replied. But her words and action didn’t match. She immediately leaned into the room and scanned for High-Queen’s leader. But there was nobody in particular that stood out. Risa nervously eyed Eri, and her best friend caught on immediately.
“I don’t see Takahashi-san or Tanaka-san,” Eri questioned. “They haven’t arrived yet?”
“No, they haven’t,” Tsunku replied, scratching his head. “Tanaka is sometimes late but Takahashi usually drags her here on time… We’ll wait a little longer. Maybe there’s traffic.”
“I see. Risa, you should wait out—” As Eri turned to face her friend, she immediately met Risa’s desperate puppy-dog face. She rolled her eyes, then whispered, “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.” Without another word, Eri walked into the room and closed the door behind her.
Risa’s face dropped. She slid down into a crouch position and buried her head in her arms. She felt devastated. Could Ai not have shown up because her songs were just
that bad? Immediately after she thought this, Risa felt stupid. That couldn’t be,
the Takahashi Ai wouldn’t miss a meeting to avoid meeting an amateur song writer like herself.
Suddenly, Risa felt a warm hand on her shoulders. Startled, she flipped her head up to face a beautiful brown-haired girl crouched in front of her. She was wearing a white blouse and jean shorts with matching white sandals. Her long wavy hair was up in a ponytail and she was holding up her sunglasses by her forehead. Her eyes were wide and filled with concern. Tucked under her arms was a blue notebook.
“Are you okay?” Ai asked in an alarmed whisper. “I just saw you slip down and I thought maybe you weren’t feeling well… Do you need to go to the hospital?”
“Uh... Um… I…” Risa stuttered. This was it! High-Queen’s leader was right in front of Risa with her future. “Did you look at the songs?” she blurted out in a rather loud voice. Ai quickly covered Risa’s mouth with one hand and put the other pointer finger by her lips.
“Shh! I’ve been waiting for you so I can talk to you in private. Follow me!” With that, Ai slipped her sunglasses back on, grabbed Risa’s hands, and pulled her up. Then, keeping her grasp on the younger girl’s hand, the idol swiftly slipped into the elevator and punched the button for the top level of the building. When the elevator door closed, Ai took off her sunglasses and planted them on her head. She smiled at the still-confused Risa.
“Mission ‘ditch the meeting’, success!” Ai laughed. Then she handed Risa the blue notebook that was tucked under her arms. “Here. You can have this back.”
Risa wordlessly took back the notebook into her hands. She was still staring at Ai with wide eyes. She was so confused. Why isn’t Takahashi Ai at the meeting? Why are they going up to the top floor? What did Takahashi Ai think of her songs?
“Um… Takahashi-san, why are we—”
“Shh! Someone’s getting on the elevator!” With that, Ai quickly shoved on her sunglasses and skittered to the corner where Risa had planted herself.
The elevator door opened and a crowd of people, one of them the janitor with a big cart of tools and such, crammed into the elevator. To prevent Risa from being squashed, Ai reached her arms out to hold on to the railing, cornering Risa. Their bodies were close enough to seem as if they were hugging. Risa blushed and looked down.
“Takahashi-san, um, I can’t breath—”
“Shh,” Ai whispered into Risa’s ear. “Don’t say my name. Just stay still… uh…”
“Niigaki Risa.”
“Right. Niigaki-san.” Ai chuckled softly and Risa felt her breath tickle her ear.
The elevator bell’s ding indicated the exit of the crowd of people, including the janitor, and only then, Ai backed away from Risa and planted her sunglasses on her head again.
“Close one, huh?” Ai said, smiling. “This is kind of exciting. I’ve never been missed a meeting before. It’d be bad if someone saw me ditching, you see.”
“So why are you ditching?”
“So I can talk to you, Niigaki-san, about your songs.” At that moment, the elevator door opened again to reveal the top floor. Ai took Risa’s hand again and stepped out of the elevator. Risa could feel the sun on her face and the cool air blowing through her hair. Ai skittered around the elevator and sat down on the ground. “It’s nice up here, isn’t it?”
“Yeah… it is,” Risa answered. She was a little bit calmer now. At least Takahashi Ai didn’t seem to be upset about anything. Maybe it was a good sign.
“Um, Niigaki-san? My hand kind of hurts…”
“Huh? Oh, sorry!” Risa realized that she was pinning Ai’s hand down, and immediately let go. Ai giggled at the flustered song writer.
“So, about
that,” Ai said, pointing at the notebook on Risa’s lap, “I really liked them. I’ve heard a lot of unproduced songs but yours… said something more.”
“I’m… not sure what you mean.”
“I can’t really describe it. Your songs were… honest. It really came out and touched me. There seemed to be more to the songs than what meets the eye. Is there… some sort of story behind the songs?”
“Stories…” Risa leaned back and looked up into the sky. “There are stories, I guess. Some more personal than others, but I would say the songs contain emotion. I want the listener to feel what I feel and see what I see.”
“That’s pretty incredible. There were two songs I was most curious about.”
“And they are?”
“First page, ‘
Shouganai Yume Oibito’. Helpless Dream Chaser… the lyrics seemed pretty… sad.” Ai looked at her companion to study her face. Risa smiled a little but it was a sad smile, a painful smile.
“Remember how I said some stories are more personal than others? This is one of them.”
“Oh… that’s okay. I was very curious but if you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to.” Ai smiled warmly.
“Thank you. Then the second song?”
“This one,” Ai replied, flipping open the notebook on Risa’s lap and pointing at the page, “‘
Everyday Everywhere’. The lyrics are quite sad again. It’s about a farewell, isn’t it? Tell me about it.”
“Ah. This is kind of a personal one too…”
“Niigaki-san, please give me some sort of answer,” Ai said firmly, making eye contact with Risa.
“It’s about a dear friend of mine,” Risa said, hesitantly. She sighed. “Things happened… and I lost her. To this day, I still don’t fully understand why we parted.”
“I can relate to that,” Ai said, quietly. Risa looked at Ai as she turned to look back at her. They both saw the same thing in each other’s eyes: sorrow, pain, regret.
“Is it okay… if I suggest this song as High-Queen’s next single?” Ai asked.
“I swore not to give my songs to singers who can’t properly bring out what I felt while writing this,” Risa said. “But I believe you can, Takahashi-san. So yes, please bring out my song to the world.”
Ai smiled as she got up and offered her hand to Risa. Risa grinned and let Ai help her stand up.
“We should be getting back now,” Ai said. “This time, you have to come into the meeting room and stay, okay?” Risa nodded in response.
The two girls started to walk back into the elevator. On the way down, Ai abruptly turned around, placed her hands under Risa’s chin, and lifted her face up, much to Risa’s surprise.
“You look thinner than last week,” Ai accused, “and a lot more tired. Are you sure you’re not sick?”
“Oh… um… I guess I haven’t been eating well recently.”
“Why not?” Ai questioned. “You shouldn’t do that. I’m an idol but I still eat as much as want and then just exercise. After this meeting I’m taking you out to eat.”
“No, Takahashi-san, I’m really fine—”
“I’m taking you out to eat,” Ai said resolutely, “and that’s final. Okay?”
Risa sighed and smiled. She knew part of her was kind of happy that Takahashi Ai offered up this meal. After all, it meant that she would be able to stay a little bit longer with her.
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A bit more exciting I'd say, right?
Up next: TanaKame time!
hope you enjoyed~
Topic: Kokoro no Uta ~Mainly TakaGaki, TanaKame~ [COMPLETE - EXTRA: Ch. 101 - (12/1)] (Read 219371 times)