Chapter Text
You stepped out of the door of your dorm’s building, with the essentials as usual—your guitar, and your backpack with recording equipment and your laptop. It was another bright Saturday morning, and you were on the way to the city’s park to do some field recording, as usual. It was hotter than usual, and your backpack insulated your back as you walked and made you sweat, but you were determined to continue your routine nonetheless. You always wanted to take recordings of playing out in the open because you found that interesting sounds from your environment always followed—animals, wind, people, the sounds of life. After a trek that seemed to take forever under the cruel sun, you finally reached the park and found your favorite bench and set everything down. You deeply regretted not thinking about bringing water with you.
You pulled out your laptop and plugged all your equipment into your computer. You took the guitar out of its case and settled it into your lap after pulling the strap over your back. You stared out, contemplating, hesitating before strumming the first few notes. Out into the quiet space the notes of your guitar sang. Every note you strummed was improvised. Admittedly, it didn’t always sound perfect, but you enjoyed the freedom of not following a script. After a while, your strumming ended.
“Um, excuse me,” someone said, “that was…very good.”
You turned toward the voice and found a tall, blue-haired man standing next to the bench, slightly stooped in an attempt to make eye contact. Despite the sweltering weather, he wore a long muffler—and an awkward smile. You froze, and clutched your guitar a little too tightly.
He wasn’t just anybody. He was none other than the legendary Kaito. Well, in your opinion. In reality, he was just a local singer, but his popularity was growing rapidly. You first saw him perform at your favorite coffee shop, and you had never been so moved by someone’s voice until that night. Ever since, you made it a point to go to every one of his shows at any venue, no matter what. You had always wanted to talk to him after every show, but never had the guts. And now here he was, right in front of you—and he had complimented your music. He complimented my music?!
Kaito’s smile faded into concern as he saw your wide-eyed expression. “O-oh, I’m sorry! Are you ok? I didn’t mean to interrupt—“
You made a very strange sound in an attempt to form words, but then you managed to say “N-no! Th-thank you so much!”
Kaito’s smile returned. “You know, I’m a bit of a fan.”
You turned beet red, but adopted an incredulous expression. “What?”
“I always see you perform whenever I come to this park. Your music makes my day better!”
You stammered. “I…uh…you…uh…I see all of your shows!!” You blurted without thinking.
It was Kaito’s turn to turn beet red. “M-my shows?”
You clasped your hands together. “I follow your account to get news for every show!” You confessed. “You’re my favorite singer!” You screamed at yourself on the inside. “You’re making it weird!” You scolded yourself.
Kaito chuckled in embarrassment and disbelief. “You’re the first fan I’ve ever met. That means a lot to me.”
After an awkward pause, you held out your hand and introduced yourself. Kaito shook your hand and introduced himself as well, but you fully knew well who he was. To your dismay, you realized your hand was drenched in sweat as you shook his. You wanted to bury your head in the dirt like an ostrich.
To your surprise, he reacted to your condition not with disgust but with sympathy. “Oh, you feel hot! I hope you brought some water for yourself.” You weren’t sure if him acknowledging it made you more embarrassed than if he hadn’t said anything at all.
You looked down at your feet in shame at your poor planning. “I forgot.”
“Ah, that can be fixed!” he said. “Let’s go to the ice cream shop so we can both cool down.”
You looked back up at him. You were so surprised that he offered that you didn’t say anything. You were a little slack-jawed, in fact. Kaito frowned. You weren’t sure, but somehow he seemed saddened by your lack of a response. “I mean, you don’t have to. I understand if you want to keep playing. I just thought it might help to get out of the heat—“
“No! I mean, that sounds perfect actually. I’ll come with you.” Kaito’s expression brightened again as you hurriedly packed everything back into their bags. You swung everything over your back and stood up straight, and nodded at Kaito. Despite standing at your full height, he dwarfed you in comparison. “Well, lead the way, Kaito!”
You followed him along out of the park and into town. You could tell he was purposefully trying to shorten his stride to meet your gait, but you still found yourself having to walk swiftly to walk side by side with him. You both made conversation as you walked—you told him you were a student at the university and talked about what you studied. To your surprise, he was also a student, and even more surprisingly not even studying music.
You both continued talking until you reached the ice cream shop. He ordered a blueberry sundae, and, since the menu was completely unfamiliar to you, you ordered what sounded the best at the moment. As you took off your backpack in an attempt to retrieve your wallet, Kaito already pulled out his own and paid for both. You protested, albeit as politely as you could, but Kaito insisted.
“No, no, consider this me paying you for your music—and for listening to mine!” He winked at you, making you even more flustered. Eventually you both got your orders and found a table. Kaito seemed thrilled to have his ice cream in front of him and dug in immediately. As you slowly ate yours, you stole cursory glances across the table. Kaito’s eyes closed in contentment with every bite, and sometimes he would even hum to himself happily, to your amusement. You had always wondered what kind of person Kaito was off-stage, but you never imagined he would be like this. Maybe you had expected him to be just as smooth and confident as his singing, but to your surprise, the more you talked with an observed him, the more he seemed like…
…a total dork. But you didn’t find this disappointing. Despite having so much talent, you could tell he was very kind and down to earth. You found yourself respecting him more than before, dorkiness and all.
He finished his sundae with a contented sigh—you were maybe a quarter of the way through your own ice cream. After a pause, he spoke again: “I, uh, have kind of a weird question.”
This caught your attention. “Hmm?”
“I hope I don’t sound…self-absorbed…but…” he rubbed his arm a little nervously, “My songs…do you have a favorite?”
You broke into a smile. You knew the answer immediately and it seemed to just spill out. Your answer made him smile. “I don’t perform that one often because well…I’m just haven’t been very sure that it’s any good…but if you like it, maybe I’ll perform it more often.” You weren’t sure why, but you found his smile alluring and contagious. His soft expression warmed your heart—wait, what were you thinking? Why did you feel this way?
“I’ve said and asked plenty about myself, though,” he chuckled. “What type of music do you make? Is it like what you play in the park?”
“Uh, well…” you were at a loss. No one asked you to describe your own music before. “It’s…experimental.” You cringed at yourself for not coming up with a better description, but Kaito was intrigued.
“Really? I want to hear it—well, if you’re ok with sharing.”
You hesitated, but then you fished some earbuds out of your pocket and plugged them into your phone. Typically, you were very self-conscious about sharing your art with other people, but you were just dying to impress Kaito. You pulled up one of your tracks on your phone and Kaito put in the earbuds.
You tried not to, but you kept watching his facial expression intently as he listened. Slowly, he began nodding along with your music. His expression was pensive, and this filled you with anxiety. Eventually, after a few agonizing minutes, the track ended, and Kaito slowly took the earbuds out of his ears.
“Do you ever sing over your tracks?”
“I can’t,” you say, although this wasn’t entirely true.
“It’s ok to say no,” he said, “but I want to sing for your music.”
You were shocked. You usually hated collaborating as a musician, but for Kaito to collaborate with you—that was more than your dream come true.
“I never heard anything like it,” he continued. “But I loved it!”
“I’m broke, Kaito,” you said, “I couldn’t pay you properly for this job.”
“Job? What job?” He seemed shocked that you assumed you would have to pay him. “I don’t expect you to pay me at all. I just really want to work with you—if it’s ok.”
You couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across your face. “I’d love to.”
After making it back to campus and before you parted ways, Kaito exchanged phone numbers with you. You gave him your phone for him to type in his phone number, and when he passed it back to you, you giggled when he saw he had typed his contact name with a bunch of blue emojis on either side of “Kaito.” Charming dork.
When you got back to your dorm room, you unpacked everything and sat at your desk with your laptop. You turned on today’s recording and wrote notes on times in the recording that sounded interesting enough to put into a new track. Eventually, the strumming went silent and you looked up from your notes to your laptop, thinking the recording had ended, but you realized you hadn’t stopped the software when you stopped playing.
“Um, excuse me,” Kaito’s voice was distant, but you could hear it. You had recorded your first conversation with him without realizing it. You hated hearing your own recorded voice and your own social awkwardness, but the captured moment made you smile despite that. Suddenly, your phone buzzed. You checked it, and it was a text from Kaito.
“Let’s do this again sometime! 🍦🍨”
“When will you be free so I can start singing for you?”
He seemed serious about making plans to work together. Admittedly, you had thought him asking to collaborate with you was too good to be true and that he would forget he even offered and would never follow through. But maybe he really meant it.
“Thank you for the ice cream Kaito! It was great meeting you and I had a lot of fun talking!”
“Maybe next Saturday?”
There was a pause as he typed.
“That’s perfect! I can’t wait! 😆”
You smiled at his enthusiasm.
“Me too!”