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“Hey, it’ll be alright, man. He’ll come around,” Okuyasu said with a small frown, watching as his best friend and the lead singer of his band drank straight from the bottle of vodka in his hands. Josuke had just gone through a rough break up with some famous mangaka after dating for quite a long while. The guy had just up and kicked him out of their home one morning, without offering any explanation for his actions.
Despite it all, though, Josuke still missed him now, four months after it all happened. It was to be expected, considering they’d been together for the better part of five years, but it still sucked seeing Josuke like this. “Though, it’d probably be better if he doesn’t. Freakin’ jerkass hurting my bro like this. Rohan doesn’t deserve ya. You’re too good for him, bro.”
Josuke sighed, glancing around the bar they’d been sitting in with a miserable expression on his face. “I jus’ dunno what I did wrong, y’know?” His words were slurring horribly, which was definitely a bad sign considering they were meant to perform in a couple of hours. Maybe Okuyasu should have cut him off earlier. He never imagined Josuke would get this fucked up, though. “He jus’ up an’ left me like that, man. It hurts...”
Okuyasu nodded along as he moved to take the bottle away from his friend. They needed to start somewhere. “I know, dude, I know. But ya can’t stay hung up on this guy like this. You’re gonna waste away to nothin’. You’ll lose everything.” Josuke groaned, burying his face in his arms over the table. “I’m gonna go get you some water and food, yeah? We got a show in an hour or two.”
“Oh… no… that’s not tomorrow?” Josuke groaned louder, sounding just like he was on the verge of tears. He didn’t even bother to look up, though, which told Okuyasu a lot about his current state. “God, man, ‘m sorry… I can’t do nothin’ right anymore.”
The emotional one of the pair wasn’t usually Josuke, so Okuyasu wasn’t entirely sure how he should deal with this all. He’d never been the one to comfort his friend before, but that didn’t mean he’d try his hardest to make Josuke feel better. Okuyasu reached over to pat on his shoulder awkwardly. “I’ll… go getcha some food, just sit here, Josuke. Try not ta fall asleep, yeah?”
At the very least, the venue they were set to play in wasn’t ridiculously packed. If their show tanked, at least not a lot of people would watch them fail. It would have been hard to come back from sucking on a full venue.
Rumors spread like wildfire on the scene, and they were just in the process of making it big. They couldn’t afford to do anything wrong now. Their record deal could be on the line… and then… well, then it’d be over for them.
He had been so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t quite notice the girl staring at him from behind the counter until she waved her hand right in front of his face.
“Hellooo~”
Okuyasu felt his heart stop beating at the sight of her. She was the most gorgeous girl he’d ever laid eyes on. She had shoulder length brown hair with some pinkish hues mixed in there and dazzling blue eyes. He could feel his cheeks heat up at the realization that he’d been staring. “Ah! Sorry! I was-”
“Lost in your thoughts?” She asked with a playful smile on her face, leaning over the counter just slightly. They were close to each other, close enough that Okuyasu could smell her flowery perfume drift towards him. He liked it. A lot.
“Y-Yeah. Sorry. Um. Do you work here?” he asked, mentally slapping himself in the face for his dumb question. Of course she worked here! She was behind the bar.
She didn’t seem at all put off by his question, though, seeing as she actually laughed. It was the sweetest sound in the whole entire universe. Okuyasu felt his cheeks heat up at that, wanting nothing more than to make her laugh again. He needed to hear her sweet laughter again.
“Yup~! I sure do! Reimi at your service.”
“Reimi…” he repeated softly, sure that his whole face was red by now. “That’s a real pretty name.” His eyes widened in realization of the fact that he had spoken that out loud instead of just thinking it. “I-I mean that in a respectful way! I’m not trying t-ta hit on you or anything!”
Reimi’s lips curled down into a pout and she leaned against the counter just a bit more. “Aw, that’s a shame… here I was hoping you would.” Her voice was soft and sweet and it reminded him of all things cute in the world.
Okuyasu stared at her in disbelief, a million thoughts racing through his head in a single second. He was confused, more than he had been before. She had probably been kidding, yeah. That had to be it. There was no way she actually wanted someone like him to flirt with her. She was way out of his league anyway.
She smiled at him again and Okuyasu could feel his heart wanting to burst in his chest at just that. A beautiful smile directed at just him, this must have been his lucky day to get to meet a girl so sweet. “Were you going to order something then…?”
“Okuyasu!” He answered, even though that hadn’t really been what she’d asked. “I mean, that’s my name. Okuyasu.” He mentally slapped himself yet again for how dumb he was acting. He needed to get his act together. Josuke was counting on him. “But yes, I uh… I need my friend to sober up since we’re gonna be playing soon. What do you recommend?”
Reimi tilted her head to the side slightly. “I don’t know about sobering him up entirely, but try one of the meat heavy foods on the menu?” She rummaged through some papers behind the counter and pulled one out, handing it over to him. “Here’s all we have. Oh, I wouldn’t recommend anything with chicken on it. The chicken here’s nasty, but you didn’t hear it from me.” Reimi leaned closer to him again and he was immediately hit by the sweet scent of flowers again. “Also, it’s very nice to meet you, Okuyasu. You’re in the Duwang Gang then, yeah?”
“Oh! Yes. I, um, I play bass there.” Okuyasu scratched the back of his head bashfully. Not many people really cared about his instrument, so he was definitely the lesser known member of the band, with Josuke being the most recognizable. Almost every single fan of their band was after Josuke, as a matter of fact. He was the most handsome, as well as the lead singer, so that was to be expected. Though, that pissed their drummer, Yuya, off constantly as he was used to being the center of attention himself.
“Oh! Sweet. I think bass players are underappreciated. You can’t really hold a band together without one,” Reimi said with a little huff. She turned to see the rest of the customers piling up on the other side of the bar and sighed. “I’m gonna go check on all these people. I’ll be back to take your order in a sec, alright?”
Okuyasu nodded, feeling as if he were floating in the air or something from how in disbelief he was about this whole situation. A pretty girl who appreciated bass players had smiled at him AND wanted to talk to him. “S-Sure, yes.” He picked up the menu and took a deep breath, glancing over at Reimi.
Reimi turned around once more. “Also~ I look forward to hearing you play, Oku. I’ll be paying extra close attention to you!” She smiled and winked at him before walking off.
Okuyasu nearly fainted, feeling his heart want to burst out of his chest at just that. Reimi was… in every sense of the words, exactly his type. She was cute and outgoing, and she seemed very sweet and funny. He really hoped they could become friends, at the very least. He knew he didn’t actually have a chance with her, but getting to spend more time with her would be… very nice.
Browsing over the menu, Okuyasu sighed. There wasn’t really all that much he could bring Josuke. This bar definitely prioritized alcohol rather than food, which was to be expected, really. He could get Josuke some beef nachos and rice, maybe. He hummed, glancing back at the table where his friend sat.
Josuke really looked miserable without Rohan around. Okuyasu wondered what had actually happened between them, things had seemed so good with them. It really made no sense to him that Rohan would break up with him out of the blue. Maybe there was something Josuke wasn’t telling him? Okuyasu doubted it, but there was still the possibility…
“Hey~ Are you ready to order?”
The sweet voice dragged him back to reality again, and Okuyasu quickly looked back at the pretty girl behind the counter. “Oh! Y-Yeah, yeah. I think… I think I’ll get some beef nachos ‘nd a side order of rice. If that doesn’t work then I dunno what will.”
Reimi nodded, taking the menu from him with a small smile playing on her lips. “Do you want me to bring the order back to your table or will you wait here with me, Okuyasu?” she asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
Okuyasu glanced back at Josuke, who had his head hidden in his arms, his pompadour all messed up from his current position. He took a deep breath. As much as he wanted to keep talking to Reimi, he needed to take care of his best friend.
Before he could reply, Reimi spoke up again. “You could tell your friend to come closer too! Then we can keep chatting while you look after him. If you want, I mean!”
That was actually a wonderful idea, wasn’t it? Okuyasu grinned at her and nodded, sliding off his chair in order to walk to Josuke and drag him back towards the bar.
By the time he managed to get Josuke to walk with him towards the bar and sit down on a stool, Reimi was nowhere to be seen. Okuyasu sighed, glancing back at Josuke with a worried frown. “Oi, Josuke. D’ya wanna call off the gig? I’m sure Tanaka’s band wouldn’t mind takin’ over tonight. Tanaka told me himself they were all here too.”
Josuke shook his head, slowly lifting his head to look at Okuyasu. “No, bro… I’ll… We’ll be a’ight. I’ll sober up in time.”
Before Okuyasu could respond, he heard Reimi’s voice speak to him again. “Here’s the food you ordered, Okuyasu.”
Okuyasu watched as she set the plates down in front of him. “I got you an order of fries too, on the house, so you’d have something to snack on too… I hope that’s alright!” She smiled at him and Okuyasu felt his heart melt.
“Th-Thank you, Reimi.” Why would she go out of her way to get him something too? Okuyasu could feel his face heat up as he looked at the fries, then at the rest of the food. It all looked ridiculously good.
-
After making sure that Josuke got enough food in his system, and chatting with Reimi some more, Okuyasu realized it was about time they started setting up for their show. He sighed, shooting Reimi a small smile.
“Hey, ‘m afraid we gotta go get set up now. It’s been great meeting ya, Reimi,” Okuyasu said.
Reimi picked up a clean napkin and jotted something down on it. She grinned at Okuyasu and handed it to him with a wink. “I’ll be watching you play from here, Okuyasu. I hope to hear from you again.”
Okuyasu nearly fainted at that.