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It should have been something Riko expected, nowadays, these sudden visits. Yet, living hardly ten feet across from Chika Takami couldn't have meant anything was expected.
"Hmm, hmm, hmm." The keys of the piano pleasantly followed Riko's every command as she hummed out a tune, pausing every few seconds to write down notes or lyrics in a spiral-bound notebook. "Hmm, hmm-"
"Riko-chan!" Riko hardly had time to think before she looked out the window and saw Chika leap gracefully from her balcony to Riko's. "And she sticks the landing!"
"Chika-chan!" Riko stood up from her piano, sending sheet music and notebooks tumbling to the floor. "You can't keep doing that! What if you get hurt? You could fall or hit your head on the balcony, you know."
"Aw, I know." Chika dusted herself off as she strutted into Riko's room, not looking as if she had a care in the world. "How's the song coming along?" Riko scooted over to make room on her piano bench, trying to ignore the warmth that seemed to radiate from Chika, the proximity.
"I think it's alright so far - I haven't quite figured out the chorus, yet, but I'm making progress."
"Can I hear it?" Chika's little braid bobbed up and down as she talked, and Riko never would've admitted to anyone but herself and the deepest confines of her diary, but it was the most adorable thing she'd ever seen.
"I don't see why not." Riko closed her eyes and began to play the song again, lyrics she hadn't quite thought through rolling off her tongue. She could feel Chika rocking back and forth next to her. The light of the room was nearly blinding when she opened her eyes again, but Chika was positively beaming.
"That was amazing, Riko-chan! Geez, you're always underselling yourself on this sort of thing."
"It's not done yet-"
"That doesn't matter! If the rest of it's even half as good as that, it'll be the best song the world's ever seen!"
"I don't even have most of the lyrics-"
"Hey, hey, it's good." Chika leaned in even closer - Riko briefly wondered if she knew about the concept of personal space - and gave a determined nod. "It's a good song, okay?"
"I'll try to take your word for it."
"Anyway, that's not why I called you here." Chika flopped over onto Riko's bed, letting out a contented sigh when it sprang beneath her.
"This is my house."
"I wanted to show you something really special." Riko scribbled down another lyric in her notebook, the words barely legible. "I mean, if you don't wanna go out, that's fine too! I can just hang out here, or I could even leave! I don't mind either way." Riko took a deep breath, fingers flexing over the piano keys, before she turned around.
"I don't see why not," she said. "Let's do it."
***
The sunset at the beach was the most cliched thing Riko could think of, something that had been spoken of in a thousand different words in a thousand different ways in a thousand different books, but she couldn't deny that the real thing was quite beautiful.
"I didn't even know it was this late," she muttered, more to herself than to Chika, who swung her arms by her side as she walked. "I started working on the song after . . . lunch?"
"Wow." Chika stopped her walking for a moment. "You're pretty dedicated, Riko-chan."
"So are you."
"What? I'm not! I just really like school idols." Chika scuffed her shoes on the pavement, looking down. "I dunno if I'm even a good leader, sometimes."
"Of course you are." Riko put her hand on Chika's shoulder, and she inhaled sharply when she made contact. "You can't say that I'm underselling myself when you act the same ten minutes later."
"Hmm, I guess you're right." Chika started to walk again, shaking her head as if to clear away any stray thoughts. "Anyway! We're almost here."
"Where is here, exactly?" Riko looked around, but all she could see was a few houses to her left and the beach to her right.
"Right here!" Chika took her hand suddenly, nearly crushing her bony fingers as she dragged her along and hopped over a little fence into the sand.
"It wouldn't kill you to give a little bit of warning, you know," Riko huffed, delicately stepping over the fence. Chika shrugged.
"Hey, if I warned you, it wouldn't be a surprise."
"I didn't know this was supposed to be a surprise."
"Well, it is now!" Chika took Riko by the hand again and dashed madly down the beach, sending flurries of sand to fly behind her while Riko struggled to keep up. She had kicked off her shoes by the time the two girls had reached the ocean, and Riko followed suit.
"Is there something here?" she asked. Chika crouched down so that the water lapped around her ankles.
"Not really a lot more than anywhere else on this beach," she said, poking at a shell. "Look up, though." Riko did, and what she saw nearly stole away her breath. There, sprawling out as far as the eye could see, was a brilliantly glowing ocean, sparkling with the light of the setting sun.
"How often do you look at this?" she breathed.
"I dunno, once every few weeks? It loses a bit of that surprise factor after you've lived here all your life."
"Hmm." Riko paused. "Was this it? The thing you needed to show me?"
"Sort of." Chika waved her hands animatedly as she talked, a bright sparkle in her eye that made Riko feel as though she were floating on the waves that crested far into the ocean in front of her. "See, I realized that even though you've lived here for a while now, I still haven't gotten around to showing you Uchiura's Greatest Hits!"
"Uchiura's . . . what?"
"The tourist-y stuff they put on pamphlets is really only half of it. There's a lot more here." Chika stood up, dusting the sand off her knees and heading for the fence again with her shoes held in one hand and Riko held in the other. "I mean, if you wanna go back to your house, that's good too! I'm totally fine with that, too! Completely!" Riko let out a chuckle.
"I'd love to see them, Chika-chan."
***
"I wonder if this place is still open," Chika mused, staring at a dimly-lit building that looked to be a restaurant of some kind. "It's pretty late, but I guess there's only one way to find out!" Taking a deep breath, she shoved open the door and yelled out. "Hey! Is anyone in here?!"
"We don't close for another hour," an older voice croaked from inside. "You could've just opened the door." Chika muddled over this for a moment before she let out a sigh.
"Nah," she said. "It's better this way." Riko stood to the side, playing with the hem of her skirt as she nervously followed Chika into the restaurant.
"Have you been here a lot?" Judging from how the staff waved cheerily at Chika - some even ruffling her hair like she was their own kid - Riko guessed that the answer was yes.
"Ever since I was a baby! I don't get a whole lot of time to myself these days, with school idol business and stuff, but I still love it here." Chika dreamily sighed as she talked, slipping into one of the well-worn, homey booths. "It's nice, huh?"
"It is." Riko felt quite warm, suddenly, as if the little restaurant was a bubble, protecting her from the rest of the world. I suppose that would make Chika-chan some kind of knight. The thought made her chuckle.
"Riko-chan?" Chika looked up from tracing a groove in the table. "What's so funny?" Riko blinked.
"Oh, erm, it's nothing. It's just . . . thank you. For taking me here, I mean."
"No problem!" Chika grinned brightly, and Riko felt a warm stirring in her chest. The sun had long since gone down outside, casting Uchiura in a purple-gray glow, but Riko might as well have been in the sky on the brightest day of the year. "Living in Tokyo sounds like it was amazing, but nothing really beats this place."
"Yeah." Riko allowed herself a small smile. "It is."
***
The food, while it wasn't really anything special, was nice enough. Small talk was passed across the table with ease, the weather and practice schedules and the future of Aqours all cheerfully spoken.
"We should show the others your new song soon," Chika said, still rocking back and forth in her seat.
"Really, it's not that good-"
"Dummy!" Chika slammed her hands on the table, and Riko covered her ears at the clattering plates. "It's great!"
"I still need to work on it." Glancing at the clock, her breath coming in quick little gasps, Riko stood up. "A-actually, I should get back home. It's late." Chika didn't move as she nimbly dodged other customers, dashing away as fast as her spindly legs could carry her.
"Riko-chan!" she called, but Riko was already out the door.
***
"What was I thinking?" Riko huffed, hands clenching into white-knuckled fists, palms sweating, leaning against a brick wall for support. "Oh, Chika-chan, of course I'll go out for something so spontaneous! I'll have fun! I won't let anything get to me!" She looked around again, at the nighttime town, the sleepiness of it all. "Like that was ever going to happen."
"Riko-chan!" Chika yelled again, gasping for breath. "What'd I do wrong?"
"What?"
"I must've done something wrong, right?" Riko didn't know if it was the fatigue or her own feelings that made Chika's voice shake, and she didn't know if she wanted to find out. "Riko-chan, you can tell me. I don't mind! Really, I don't mind!"
"It's not your fault, Chika-chan. I'm just . . . I'm just not sure if this song is everything you think it is. I'm not the composer from that group you admire so much - what was her name, Miki? Something like that. I'm not her."
"I know that, Riko-chan."
"I still just don't understand why."
"Huh?" Riko was still turned away, but she could hear the confusion in Chika's voice.
"I don't understand why you're always so nice, Chika-chan. I've seen you! I know that you don't have enough optimism to spare, but you're still trying to make everyone happy. Why?"
"I care about you, Riko-chan. That's why. I care about all of you - everyone in Aqours, you're all so, so precious to me, why wouldn't I cheer everyone on? Really, I think I'm more like a cheerleader or something than a . . . well, like a leader. I've only really got the cheer part down, hehe." Riko turned around to see Chika with her arms curled tightly around herself, face downturned, breaths still heavy.
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say." Chika recoiled, stung. "You're a better leader than the rest of us could even dream about being. Sure, maybe it isn't natural for you. None of this is coming naturally to any of us. Still, you managed to drag me out of my house on a Saturday night to go out on the town. I haven't done that in ages. Maybe you're a bit intense sometimes, but you bring out the best in Aqours . . . in me." Chika blinked quickly, holding back tears.
"You're so good with words, Riko-chan," she whimpered, wiping any forming tears from her eyes. "C'mon, let's go home."
***
Home, as it turned out, meant Riko's bedroom.
"Have you ever thought about buying a beanbag chair?" Chika sighed, lying down off the edge of the bed. "I heard they're super cozy."
"I like this." Riko patted her piano bench fondly, still playing with her other hand. "It's simple. Familiar."
"Oh, I get that!" Chika rolled over so that she was looking up at Riko. "Still, a beanbag would be nice."
"I'll be sure to think about it," Riko chuckled. "How does this sound?" She played the song, glancing to Chika every few seconds. Her expression was unreadable.
"It sounds good," she breathed, finally. "It's a lot better now. You don't sound as . . . tight? Does that make any sense?"
"It does."
"Oh, and I really liked the way you went from the bridge to the chorus - it reminded me of that way clouds part after a storm, y'know? When the sun's shining over the beach, that's what it's like." Chika scrunched up her face in concentration for a moment. "Maybe I could ask You-chan to make weather-themed costumes for it."
"That'd be perfect."
"You're really good, Riko-chan." A moment of quiet passed between them, the only sounds the distant whirring of an air conditioner and the gentle roaring of the ocean. "I guess I could show you all the pretty sights in the world, but you'd still be prettier." Riko turned around. "I mean, your songs! Your songs would be prettier! Not that I don't think you're pretty, 'cause you really are, but-"
"I think I understand." Riko wondered if Chika could tell that she could feel her innards burning up, her mind struggling to come up with a response, anything to say at all but that. Sliding off of the piano bench, stretching her legs, she sat down on the bed next to Chika. "Thank you, Chika-chan."
"Eh? For what?" Riko inched her hand closer, and Chika held it tightly.
"For everything, really."
The moon shone over the two girls, pulling the ocean's tides just enough to give them background noise to the song they'd been creating, in a way, ever since they met.