Standing still in the middle of the room, I wondered, "Surprise?"
Aya crossed her arms and nodded. "Do you want to hear it or not?"
"Just spit it out already."
"Three venue managers have called us so far."
"Venue managers? For what?" I frowned.
"What do you mean for what, you idiot? They called to ask us to perform at their venues."
My mind went blank. "Huh?"
She sighed and raised her voice, "They want Blostars to perform—"
"I understood that!" I yelled. "Did three venues really reach out to us to perform at their venues?"
"Why would I
Since we wanted to make the announcement exactly at noon, the entirety of the GIMA staff arrived an hour early—save for the accountant. As always, we met in the dance studio because it was the most spacious room. Although we had sent a draft of the announcement to the advertising company—which owned many spots on the busiest streets of the country—to be reviewed, Jun was still working on the art thirty minutes before it went live. They were small details, of course; it would've been illegal to change the entire concept. Meanwhile, Aya reviewed all of the text that was going to appear in both the advertisements and the social media posts, including a short FAQ. I kept an eye on everything that was going on. Seeing the information scattered through our social media made me realize we needed a place where we could p
With the album's release date out in public, we had to work even harder to get everything done on time. Aya became very busy with replying to messages on our social media accounts and business inquiries. Jun still had song cover art to make, as well as an animation. Miki had to work with him to design a stage for the tour while working on the songs, and Tomokazu also had to work with Jun to create new merchandise. Meanwhile, I did the necessary paperwork to register the copyright we needed while replying to business inquiries and finding more venues to perform at. Aside from not revealing that the collaboration was with Aeryx, we also didn't reveal that there was going to be a tour. There were very few shows scheduled, so I needed more time to find my way around them since it was my first time doing something like this. But that wasn't all. Although it wasn't
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