Umi, Jun, Tomokazu, and Aki seemed more shocked than I had expected them to be—even Astra, Sanae, Risa, and Satō, who weren't part of the conversation. However, Aki's wide eyes promptly turned into a frown. She wouldn't even blink as she stared at me with her arms crossed. Only then did I realize the grave mistake I had made by not telling her beforehand, but I wasn't going to back up.
"As you heard," I continued. "I've been planning to buy the building for a while now, but there was no money nor the need to do so. Now, there's both. Profit keeps going up, and the imminent hiring of a market analyzer will use up the little space that remains in the art and sewing office."
The four stared at me intently, while Aki's glare cut my breath short. I had to clear my throat before continuing to speak.
"Obviously, I've al
The words pierced my ears, leaving a deafening whistle behind. Even though the cup of tea stayed against my lips, I had stopped drinking it. He stared at me as I lowered the cup to place it on the table. "I'm very sorry to hear that," I said. "I… I didn't know about it." "Why would you?" His sentences were never easy to reply to. And to top it off, I wasn't used to having a conversation about such a topic. "What happened?" I asked. "Heart attack." "I see…. You must have so many memories here. I guess you don't have a reason to sell your home anymore." "Are you joking? I want to leav
The five of us started carrying the boxes upstairs, except for Jun, whose room was right next to the entrance. Since the building had the same layout, it used to be Sanae's and Risa's dance studio in HQ before the remodeling. Aki's and I's room—the master bedroom—was the current dance studio in HQ, which used to be Sanae's and Risa's room. Umi's was the gym, and Tomokazu's was the recording studio. We kept bumping each other as we carried the boxes. Luckily, there were no major accidents. Eventually, only two boxes remained. I took one, while Aki took the other. I put it down on the floor of our room. Even though there were dozens of boxes in it, there still was a lot of space. "It's quite big, huh?" I said to Aki when she entered the room. "It might be big, but our apartments had a kitchen, a bathroom, and a laundry room each. Now, we have to share one kitchen, one laundry room, and two bathrooms between five people." She pushed the box she was holding onto my chest, pushing me
The match ended on a high note after several minutes, despite there not being many goals. Sadly, as much as I wanted to spend more time playing, I had to return to HQ. It would've been better to have prepared Ceruty's contract sooner, so as not to make her wait any longer, but it was Sunday and I didn't want to be a hypocrite by working out of working hours after pestering everyone not to do so. There also was someone more important who I couldn't make wait any longer. I stepped into the building and headed upstairs. Just like Jun's and Tomokazu's rooms, Aki's and I's was open. I entered quietly not to disturb Aki, who was kneeling on the floor, still unpacking more boxes. There were already a couple of small tables assembled since they were needed to place more stuff on so we could unpack quicker. As soon as I c
Ms. Yoshida's innocent smile scared me more than calmed me down as we stood deep in the hallway, far from everyone. I didn't know if it was me, but I could swear she had been silent for far too long. Finally, she opened her mouth to talk, and I expected to hear the worst threat I could imagine. "We'd love for Blostars to perform again at our last show." I remained silent as my brain tried to process what she had just said, yet the only sound I was able to articulate was, "Huh?" "I'd understand if you don't want to," she still smiled. "It was quite rude on our part to abruptly cancel the rest of your tour with us like that I just hope you understand that we did it to avoid controversies. To be honest, it kind of backfired. We expected fans to be angry, but not that ma
"It sounds good enough, but are you sure this is the quality you want for an album?" Aeryx asked Miki. The girls, Ms. Yoshida, Aya, and I stared at Miki, whose jaw dropped but no words came out. Even though she didn't mean to, Aeryx's menacing glare was the most threatening gaze that had been laid upon me, so I understood Miki's fear. To my surprise, he was able to recover before I had to intervene. "What do you mean by that?" asked Miki. "Exactly that," answered Aeryx. "The sound is good, but I'm suggesting you should buy better equipment now that your popularity is growing exponentially. It's alright if you can't afford it, though." I looked at Aya, expecting some kind of magical solution, but she merely looked back at me. Obviously, it was something I had to decid
Midnight was only a couple of hours away, which was our target release time for the album, but a few songs and animation videos weren't finished yet- I stayed at HQ with Jun and Miki and, even though they didn't need to, Aya, Tomokazu, and the girls also chose to stay with us. I walked up and down the stairs, back and forth between the art office and the recording studio. There were several moments I thought we weren't going to make it on time, but Jun and Miki kept reassuring me we were. With only twenty minutes to spare, Jun glued the last song to its animation and scheduled it, along with the rest of the album. The nine of us headed to the dance studio, where we sat down on the floor in a circle, anxiously waiting for the clock to hit midnight. The closer the minu
We arrived with only half an hour left before the girls would be performing with Aeryx, giving them barely enough time to get changed into their new costumes and get their makeup done. They hadn't taken part in the sound check, and the song wasn't even on the setlist. The only opportunity they had to practice with Aeryx was when she came to re-record the song at HQ, and they did so for less than two hours. The girls stared down at the ceramic floor of the tunnel in silence. Not even Aeryx's voice rumbling through the walls would wake them up. I placed my hand on Umi's shoulder since she was the closest, but I couldn't tell if she was shaking, if the bass made her shake, or if it was me. There were many reasons to be nervous. None of us had come to Saitama Super Arena before and we didn't get the chance to see its hall, since we had arrived through a door at t
Another day began at HQ when Butcher received Aki and me at the entrance. Even though five of us lived under the same roof now, it wasn't necessary for us to leave and arrive together. Before Aki could kiss me, I kissed her on the cheek first. She seemed surprised the first time I did it, but she quickly grew used to it. A broad smile spread from cheek to cheek on her face as she walked upstairs, and so did my lips while I headed to the office. Aya, Tomokazu, and I greeted each other as I walked through the room to sit at my desk. Just like the last several days, I had to work on making sure the tour would not fall apart before it could even begin, and keep it like that for almost three months. Nothing could've prepared me for the number of details and people I needed to be aware of. Even with Aya's and Tomokazu'