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En couldn't remember whose idea this had been, but he wasn't sure it was a good idea – in fact, he was pretty positive that it would turn out to be exactly the opposite.
However, he had asked Atsushi and, to his great relief, it looked like it hadn't been him suggesting it, for once. En had this habit of forgetting his own ideas once he had put them on the table, maybe because he got bored with them too easily. But he was pretty sure he would never have summoned both the members of the Defense Club and the Council to spend a Sunday night together, and at the karaoke in addition. Way too bothersome to invite seven people at the same time.
Atsushi seemed at ease as they walked towards the karaoke together with Kinshiro - he was pretty happy, to tell the truth.
He had gone to pick En up at his place earlier that evening only to discover that his friend wasn't ready yet (of course). Had it only been the two of them, Atsushi would have settled to wait for En until he was ready, but this time it was different: he had promised to pick Kinshiro up, too. Therefore, he had made clear to En that he’d better be ready by the time Atsushi came back with the President, or he would have to face the consequences.
He hadn't specified what consequences he meant, but it had worked pretty well.
When he and Kinshiro had returned to the Yufuin household, En was already wearing trousers and a shirt. He had taken his sweet time in tying his shoes on, to Kinshiro's maximum displeasure, but Atsushi was still proud of him.
As they approached the new karaoke place, idly chatting about school and the quality of meals in the cafeteria, Atsushi chuckled, enjoying the feeling of having both his best friends at his sides (while trying not to think about the fact that they had to keep him in the middle to avoid less funny consequences).
When they arrived, the others were already there. Despite his best efforts, En had still caused them to be late. Kinshiro didn't seem excited to be the last to arrive, but no-one made a big deal out of it.
As the boys greeted each other, all of them looked relatively at ease, although it didn't seem like there had been much talking going on before Atsushi, Kinshiro and En arrived.
This wasn't a surprise: despite the recent developments and the fact that Caerula Adamas no longer existed, they boys had yet to become what you would define as friends. Kinshiro and Atsushi were an exception, of course, but the others didn't actually know each other that well - except Akoya and Ryuu, maybe, but the two pink haired boys were not over their rivalry yet and they still enjoyed some good catfights from time to time.
The group still wasn't complete, however; the moment they realized who was missing, they also understood why the others were so silent: Yumoto had yet to arrive, and Wombat with him. The two joined the rest a few moments later with a sparkle of energy and a huge smile radiating from the blond boy's face.
"Hello hello! Everyone is already here!"
This is when En remembered that the karaoke thing had been Yumoto's idea. The place was new and the owners had left a few flyers in the Kurotama baths to advertise it. Of course, Yumoto had immediately volunteered to bring all his friends there as soon as possible, and so there they were, awkwardly waiting to enter the place.
Eventually, En was the first one to open the door and step inside. He wasn't particularly eager to start that karaoke party, but he was too tired to wait standing outside.
They were showed into the biggest room and left standing inside, with a couple of microphones left awkwardly untouched on the table among them, still not sure where to begin.
They were a heterogeneous group, and it was made all the more obvious by how mismatched their clothes were. At school, despite the different uniforms, they blended together better, but their everyday clothing showed the differences in style and economic possibilities, too.
The one who looked most out of place was possibly Akoya, who glanced around (possibly thinking that the place wasn't up to his standard) while nervously tormenting a lock of his hair.
Arima, elegant in his dark trousers and perfectly ironed shirt, stood silently with his arms crossed on his chest. It wouldn't be appropriate for him to serve tea to Kinshiro in this place, and yet it looked like he would feel more at ease if he could do so.
Kinshiro simply followed Atsushi around until the bespectacled boy sat down next to En, who had already landed on one of the two couches in the room - En looked always at ease when he could sit down somewhere comfortable, and staying beside him gave a certain sense of reassurance.
Io and Ryuu had placed themselves on the other sofa, both busy checking their phone and tablet, which also lent them a sense of routine and stability - in short, the members of the Boueibu seemed way more at ease than the Council's.
In the meanwhile, Yumoto and Wombat were working around the TV and the remote controller, trying to understand how it worked.
"Hey, there is no song list." En stated blankly, looking at the empty table next to his couch (while obviously not making any effort to look for it more properly).
At the announcement, Akoya complained, Yumoto sparkled saying they had to invent their own music and it would be funnier that way, while Atsushi chuckled nervously in a corner.
Eventually, it was Wombat who calmed things down.
"We do have songs to sing, though." he proclaimed, as he exhibited a plastic sheet which seemed to contain some song titles.
"Let me see here." Ryuu grabbed the list before anyone else could and inspected it.
"...I have never heard any of these." he said, disappointed and a bit weirded out as well.
Ryuu led an intense social life, which also meant he was pretty up to date with all new songs and singers. Girls liked this kind of stuff, so he always ended up talking about albums and idols. He also knew a great lot of glories from the past, since his grandmother listened to a lot of old vinyls.
"Hey, wait. What does this even mean?" The pink haired boy pointed his finger on the sheet.
The titles didn't tell him anything, true, but he knew way too well the names listed as the artists: they were their own names, each of them written next to one of the songs.
"Does this mean each of us has a song assigned...?" Io popped up beside Ryuu to take a look as well.
Wombat nodded, apparently very satisfied.
"Yes, indeed. You have to know that the show you were featured in had a soundtrack as well, and this is it. I managed to lay my hands on-" ("Paws! Adorable paws!", resonated Yumoto's voice from the room, which Wombat ignored) "-on the tracks and here I am. I thought it would be fun for you to sing them."
"...wait, the show is over, isn't it. There is no need for us to sing that stuff." En pointed out, vaguely alarmed.
"We have done enough for that show." Atsushi nodded, slightly frowning.
"Besides, I don't know this song. Although the title looks interesting... Baby bay sweet baby..." Ryuu smiled as he read it out loud.
"...that sounds like something you would sing, Ryuu." Io sighed, but cheered up when he read the title associated with his own name.
Ryuu handed the sheet over to the others so they could read it too.
"Who wrote these songs anyway?" Atsushi seemed still pretty doubtful.
"The writers of the show, of course!"
"Well, I don't see how some weird alien animal with a questionable taste in TV shows can write lyrics good enough for me to sing them." Akoya commented, passing the sheet on to Arima.
Wombat shook his head.
"The writers knew a thing or two about all of you, guys, trust me. Why don't you give it a try?" Wombat insisted.
"How do we sing them if we have never heard them?" Kinshiro asked, frowning.
"Thanks to the technology on my planet, I have installed a software in those microphones. Once you take one in your hand, you will automatically know the lyrics and the music by heart!" He seemed pretty excited and confident, as he always was when it came to his super sophisticated technology. The Boueibu members looked at each other, knowing better than to question Wombat about it - no clear answers would ever come, and they still weren't sure they could trust that alien technology.
The five suddenly had the impression they had gone back to the day when they first met their pink friend (which seemed both a few months and a lifetime ago) and were forced to wear the bracelets – which still wouldn't come off, by the way. No, they definitely did not trust that technology.
“I have a bad feeling about this...” En muttered, but before he could express why, Yumoto was already slave of the microphone.
Wombat was just as excited as he fumbled on the remote controller to start the playlist with the first song.
There was a short moment of suspense among the audience, but in the very instant in which the music began playing, Yumoto immediately sang along with it – and indeed everyone in the room was surprised. Yumoto himself looked puzzled, since he really had never heard that song before and yet, the small boy didn't seem to have any problem following the lyrics flowing on the screen, nor the rhythm of the song.
“...this is creepy, and yet we should be accustomed to this alien technology, now.” Ryuu muttered, but kept following Yumoto's vocal exhibition in awe.
The song itself suited their kouhai pretty well. There Yumoto was, jumping and stomping at the rhythm of the music, grabbing Wombat out of the blue when the chorus insisted on the mokumoku part – ah, Wombat had been too taken in following the show to hide before it was too late, so the pink alien ended up dancing the rest of the song held by the arms of the boy.
The end was greeted by a heartfelt applause. Despite the weird situation and the fact that none of them appreciated being dragged into something related to that weird CIDE show once again, Yumoto's passion and cheerfulness were just so contagious that even Kinshiro's eyes, cloudy since he had realized that he was going to be dragged into something he had meant to forget about forever, seemed now slightly relieved.
Yumoto held the microphone high over his head like a trophy.
“This was super fun! I had no idea what to do until I took the microphone and then, whoo, I just knew the words and the melody! I loved this, Wombat, let's have more! More!” He scanned the list to see who was going to be the next victim, then came running towards En, who had only a couple of seconds to display a terrified look before being grabbed by the wrist and pulled on his feet by his kouhai.
“En-chan-senpai, it's your turn~”
Sometimes, there simply was no way to say no to Yumoto.
“I guess it can't be helped...” En sounded as if he was condemned to death when Yumoto put the microphone in his hands.
From his seat on the back, Atsushi prepared to welcome his friend back in the next few seconds. Yumoto was one thing, but En wasn't going to give them a similar show, even with all the alien technology in the galaxy... and then his eyes widened in surprise.
En voice broke the silence in perfect unison with the underlying accompaniment. Yumoto's song had been fast and cheerful, while En's was pressing. The words were a terrible tongue-twister, and yet the boy didn't lose his pace. The speed of the drums in the background seemed to have grown on him, too, and he was holding his microphone as seriously as he could get... while chanting about how troublesome everything was and about how tired he felt.
Atsushi laughed, delighted – the writers did know them well, after all, he thought as he followed En who was showing off, air guitaring on an electric guitar solo.
Beside him, Kinshiro wore a blank expression, while Yumoto's eyes seemed to give off sparkles as he went “ooooh” while watching his senpai sing.
Mostly unnoticed, a flash lighted up the room.
"I totally had to take evidence of this." Ryuu explained to Io as he put his phone back in his pocket. It was the first time he saw En doing something so active (well, a part from fighting monsters, that is), and he needed something to prove he wasn't hallucinating.
Eventually, the second song and the air guitaring came to their end and En combed his hair back, his face looking as if he had just endured the most terrible effort.
It took a couple of seconds more for the crowd to applaud, this time, as they all still seemed a bit shocked. Seeing En leaving the microphone halfway during the song would have made more sense, and yet...
En threw himself on the couch and laid there with eyes closed for a good couple of seconds, until he remembered he was still holding the microphone.
“Oi, Atsushi, it's your turn apparently.” he poked his friend with the microphone.
Atsushi smiled apologetically and held up his hands.
“I'd rather pass for now...”
En's made a perplexed face, but said nothing. He had read the title of Atsushi's song and remembered one certain thing he hadn't meant to say, but which he had told him anyway. He was sensitive enough to not press his friend into something he wasn't ready for.
Yumoto turned to his senpai with disappointed eyes.
“Ah, but it's a pity... You're afraid of singing?”
Atsushi shook his head.
“No, I just don't really feel like singing now.”
Yumoto tilted his head on the side.
"Do you have a sore throat? Maybe we can ask for hot tea and honey! Gora-an-chan always says it's the best remedy!"
Atsushi wove his hand. "I'm fine, Yumoto, I'll feel up to it later on, maybe."
Yumoto nodded, while still looking puzzled. He now knew better than just force Atsushi to do things, if he declined.
Leaving Atsushi for later, it was now Io's turn.
The boy didn't seem particularly eager to take his place in front of the screen with the lyrics, but as soon as they music started playing, he seemed to get in the role just as his two friends had.
His song had a classy sound, it sounded like money and wealth and parties where everyone was wearing a fortune in the shape of a suit and cheering with glasses filled with wines worth way more than their weight in gold.
This said, the audience lost track of the lyrics after the first words, the only thing preventing them from yawning being Io's warm singing. Who would have ever imagined that the boy always and only thinking about money had such a deep and firm voice? Still, he could be the only one singing with such passion about investment rates and... Well, those things, however they were called.
There was at least one person who had been following the words of the song, though, and this was Ryuu.
When Io went back to his seat, his pink haired friend stared at him with a slight blush on his cheeks.
"... Io, when you mentioned a friend in danger your song... Was it... Me?"
Io seemed caught by surprised.
"Oh, Ryuu..."
As Io stared back at his friend, his cheeks turned into a light pink color. For a moment, the two were surrounded by a weird aura and the rest of the crowd felt somehow as they were intruding a private moment.
Following the exchange, Yumoto, Atsushi and En couldn't help recalling another scene from their training camp back in the previous summer. The expressions on the faces of their two friends were the same, except that this time it was Io who was the one in a position of embarrassment.
Atsushi, whose ideas about the two of them had been clear since the very start, couldn't help but chuckle silently.
Next on the list was Ryuu. He seemed pretty excited to take his place in front of the screen, microphone in hand. Before Wombat could press the play button, he turned back to gaze at Io with a smile, which turned into a glare of challenge towards Akoya. The boy reacted by throwing his hair behind is back and raising his chin. He was more than ready to accept the challenge.
Ryuu's song was... Well, something you would expect to hear the boy sing, definitely. He sang it with momentum, probably unaware of the slight embarrassment he was causing in some of his companions.
"...flowers and honey bees... I mean, for real?" Atsushi blushed as he lowered his eyes. He knew he had a thing for seeing double meanings everywhere, but he was pretty sure that it was meant to be this way in his friend's song.
Akoya was listening with an expression of superiority.
"Pretty guy? And his hair, would it qualify as pretty too? Those strawberry pink messy spikes? He looks like he plugged in his fingers instead of his phone... Whoever wrote the lyrics for this song must have been blind." He muttered as the song progressed. To him, his classmate sounded unreasonably arrogant.
Ryuu's song was clearly aimed at girls, but after the first verses he turned to his friends. He didn't mind being the center of attention - he knew he had to look amazing in that very moment, microphone in hand and singing a song that was written especially for him, the music perfectly fitting the pitch of his voice. He felt like a pop star, a real idol!
Thinking this, he ended his performance dedicating the last two strophes to Io - oh, he too had a special friend for whom he'd always find the time, didn't he.
Io smiled under blushing cheeks - he was used to Ryuu's behavior (he was always boasting about how popular with girls he was, after all), but this song had gone a bit too far for him.
"It's kind of sad to see all this effort wasted in such a distasteful song." Akoya commented gently, as he took the microphone, deciding that it was his turn now.
Ryuu shrugged. "You wish you could sing this, don't you!" He hissed.
Akoya didn't, though, and indeed his song was radically different. To him, singing came as natural as being always perfect was. Nobody was surprised by the content of his piece, although it felt even colder than the one of Io's song.
They all had known Akoya for long enough now, however the members of the Defence Club were still amazed by the fact that he could sing such insensitive and almost cruel things while looking like a fluffy haired angel, with a radiant smile that only occasionally turned from adorable to mischievous.
The other members of the Council didn't seem surprised at all and clapped their hands generously at their colleague's excellent performance - perfection was to be expected from a member of the Council, of course.
If Kinshiro had kept a straight face during Akoya's turn, when Arima's came, he couldn't help but blush and avert his eyes from the boy.
Arima's voice was firm and deep, as he smiled genuinely while singing what definitely sounded like a declaration of eternal devotion to his President. If Akoya had sung for himself only, Ibushi's lyrics were nothing but abnegation.
Atsushi smiled, turning to Kinshiro. He had always wondered whether his childhood friend felt at ease with the two other members of the Council. They definitely were the right company for him in terms of social status, but they hadn't been able to bring back the smiling and carefree Kin-chan Atsushi once knew, so he had wondered more than once whether the tree only hung together for the sake if their role and nothing more.
"Ibu-chan really cares about you." He stated, happy to see that Arima definitely was loyal to Kinshiro.
The President blushed and turned away.
"I... This is his choice." He replied. Arima had always showed obedience, as expected from his position, and although Kinshiro had never expected anything less from him, hearing such heartfelt words from his mouth made him embarrassed quite a bit.
Kinshiro's discomfort was only destined to grow, however, since he was next on the list. After the first words, he had well understood what his song was about - not world conquer, no strict rules enforced, but what had happened between Atsushi and him. Had he been able to, he would have dropped the microphone and left the room, but his fingers were glued around that black thing and all he could do was singing.
He closed his eyes shut, but even if he could not read the words on the screen, his lips and tongue seemed to know precisely what to do to make him sing.
To think that he had been fond of those alien technologies once... what a fool he had been! He thought, as he endured the awkwardness and the growing knot of pain at the top of his stomach.
When the music ended, though, he felt kind of empty. He hadn't had the chance or time to approach directly that subject with Atsushi yet. After the events at the school festival, they had grown closer again, but he had never really told Atsushi how he had felt during those long years of being apart from his best friend.
He knew he wanted to let his own feelings out and show all the pain he had endured to Atsushi, and yet he hadn't done so, justifying his procrastination by thinking that his friend must surely know, somehow, what had been going through his head for the whole time.
Now that he had been forced to spit it all out, it felt strangely relieving, he thought as he realized that otherwise he would have never talked to Atsushi with the same honesty, because this was how he was.
When he opened his eyes again, however, the first gaze he met was Atsushi's, and Kinshiro immediately repented: Atsushi's eyes were filled with pain and guilt, a more than obvious reaction to Kinshiro's song.
The President felt a sudden wave of guilt and sat down next to his friend without a word.
The rest of the crew was silent; everyone was aware of what those words meant, but none could really say anything, not even Yumoto, who was usually the one who was never at a loss, when it came to words.
Wombat, who seemed to be sweating nervously (although he didn't sweat in the proper sense of the word), clapped his paws to get the audience attention.
"So, uhm, we still have a few songs... Yumoto, do you want to sing the next one with me?"
Of course Yumoto did, and they exhibited in a weird duo where Wombat took Gora's role.
Despite the lively piece, the sense of impending doom looming over the couch where En, Atsushi and Kinshiro sat hadn't faded away.
En, who had been reading through the track list to avoid the negative aura surrounding the other two, pulled Atsushi's sleeve to catch his attention.
"Hey, here it says that we have to sing this together, wanna try?"
Atsushi hesitated.
"Well, I..."
Surprisingly enough, En stood up and grabbed his friend by his wrist, pulling him on his feet and giving him a reassuring smile.
"It can't be too bad, and if you are out of tune, you can blame it on me."
Atsushi stood silent for a moment, then smiled back. It was hard to blame such a thing in En, given that he had a pretty beautiful voice, but he was trying to make him feel comfortable and Atsushi could only appreciate that. Besides, he had been the only one to skip his turn and he couldn't keep avoiding it forever.
The song starring them was substantially different from all the ones heard so far. It was more melodic and quiet, and Atsushi, whose fingers had stiffened around the microphone in fear that his voice would come out just as stiff and cracky, felt better when En started to sing in unison with him.
Atsushi's voice flew out delicate and soft as he sang his first solo part, soon backed up by En's warmer tone.
Singing together with his friend came as natural as anything else they did, and soon after Atsushi found himself smiling while holding the microphone.
The song acquired momentum, and eventually En embraced Atsushi's shoulders to swing him slightly from side to side as the music reached its end, leaving En with the main melodic line as Atsushi sung around it in a perfectly harmonic chord.
After that, they smiled at each other, apparently satisfied by their performance. However, Atsushi didn't go back to the couch with En. He turned to Wombat, asking him to put on the track who was supposed to be his solo song.
"I'm sorry I skipped my turn, now that I'm here I can as well make up for it."
Atsushi's song was nothing like his duo with En. If he regretted having come out in front of everyone for the second time, however, it didn't show. His voice gained in character as he was slowly taken in the flow of the drums and bass, and he sung it all out loud, all those feelings and words that the lyrics themselves revealed he could not bring himself to let out.
Most of the audience seemed surprised by the boy's sudden show of spirit, except En, whose expression belonged to the "that's my Atsushi, he's got some good singing skills" kind.
Next to him, Kinshiro's eyes wandered from his own hands to At-chan, looking clearly guilty - he was so caught in his own thoughts that he almost forgot to clap his hands at the end of the song.
The last track in the list belonged to Io and Ryuu, who interpreted it with a great display of coordination.
Ryuu had his usual pop-star attitude and Io went after him. Although he had showed much more composure when it had been his solo turn, Ryuu's energy seemed to be contagious even to someone as reserved as he was. They worked well as a duo of singers, but Atsushi, who would probably have enjoyed their show a lot more than the rest of the audience, didn't seem to be paying too much attention. He appeared as lost in his thoughts as Kinshiro had a few minutes earlier.
After the last duo, the track list imposed by Wombat was over. The pink alien seemed satisfied with the result of his experiment, and the same was true for Yumoto, who immediately asked to sing his solo piece again.
The night didn't seem to be over for Ryuu and Akoya either: Ryuu had found the actual song list of the karaoke and now it seemed like the two pink haired guys were going to remain there for a singing duel. Poor Io was chosen to be the judge, and Arima decided to stay as well, just in case things went out of hand.
Eventually, the ones who left the bar were only En (for whom it was more than due time to bury himself under the blankets), Atsushi and Kinshiro, who were unusually quiet.
As they walked in silence along the empty road, En's yawns were basically the only noise a part from their own steps. The blond boy glanced at the two, wondering whether he should say something or not. It wasn't his business in a strict sense, and it was quite bothersome to address the matter at such a late time (he didn't know if he could stand a few more minutes of being away from his bed), but he also knew that, if they didn't solve that problem tonight, they were going to drag it for the next days as well, and that would have been even more problematic. Besides, he liked better his Atsushi when he was happy and smiling.
"Oi, you two. It was rather creepy, wasn't it?"
"You mean the songs?" Atsushi inquired.
En nodded. "To think that some plush-shaped alien knew so much about us to write a song for each of the show characters... Did they spy on us? It's horrible."
"It's not that hard to write a song like yours, though, En-chan." Atsushi pointed out. "You don't care to hide what's your life philosophy, after all."
En frowned. "Well, I still don't like what they did. Hey, can you imagine them spying on us in our sleep?!"
"They would have had plenty of time for studying you then, Yufuin." Kinshiro commented coldly.
En grimaced. He had meant to make the two of them talk, but not to focus their attention on him.
"I was thinking more about your song, Atsushi, and yours too, Mr. President. It seems the show writers knew way more about your feelings than you did, eh?'
En couldn't help smirking in the last bit of sentence, and Kinshiro glared at him with resentment. The moment after, they both realized Atsushi had stopped walking.
The two looked at him questioningly to understand what was wrong, but Atsushi had lowered his head. It took him a couple of moments before he could lift it again to speak.
"I really am sorry, Kin-chan." He sounded somehow dramatic. "I knew I had done something wrong, but I never imagined..."
"You've said you're sorry more than enough." Kinshiro replied, touched. "It's me who never realized that you've suffered all along. It wasn't your fault, really, it was me who was blind..."
"But if I only had the courage to ask you what went wrong, I am sure this all would have been resolved..."
"I didn't even give you the time to talk to me, did I? It really wasn't your fault."
"I should have insisted, but I was not brave enough!"
"Uhm, guys, this is where I leave you to go home, okay? See you tomorrow...?" En raised a hand to catch their attention, but the two seemed still excessively worried about explaining one to another exactly where they had gone wrong and in which way they had hurt the other to actually care about him. They would be fine, though, and this time for real, he hoped.
What a thing, though, to be able to talk with such energy and that time of the night...! En thought, as he walked back home on his own.
In the end, that karaoke thing hadn't turned out to be as bad an idea as he had previously feared. However, he still liked the Kurotama baths better as a place to hang out with all eight of them, since singing required too much effort...
Nevertheless, as he laid on his bed without caring about getting undressed first, he was still doing a little air guitaring with his fingers. Damn those alien composers, but his song was catchy, he thought the moment before falling asleep.