Chapter Text
Record Store Tokyo 09:58AM
It was another crowded morning in the capital city of Japan. The sun had only just risen, but already everywhere you could hear the sounds of honking cars and the tapping of shoes on the asphalt as people made their way to work.
In the middle of the chaos, in the inner city, two employees of record store ‘the Golden Tape’ emptied another box of CDs and cassettes.
One of them pulled a new box closer and slid the sealing tape open with a stanley knife. He folded the box lids open and grabbed a CD. He inspected the cover and huffed. ‘’Who the hell listens to this Ricky Mathis’ junk anyway?’’
‘’I don’t know,’’ his colleague admitted. ‘’But his fans sure seem to like him.’’ He pulled a new box next to him and cut the tape with his knife. ‘’We can’t keep his lame pretty boy single on the shelf. It’s sold out in no-time.’’ He shot a look at his watch and stood up.
‘’Hey, Shota, it’s almost 10 AM, I’ll open up the shop. Could you empty that final box before the first customers come?’’
‘’Sure, Kei.’’ Shota grabbed five CD’s at the same time and pushed them on the shelf between the other CD’s.
Kei walked toward the door and turned a big white switch upward. And with a creaking noise, the metal protection in front of the door rolled up. He then clicked on a green button and the sensors above the slide doors were activated.
He turned around to help Shota with the final box, when the sounds of stomping feet came closer. He looked over his shoulder and saw a black cloud of people charging for the shop. His eyes widened and he jumped behind the counter to get out of the way of the fans.
Shota, however, wasn’t so lucky. Before he got time to react, he got swarmed with people and the CD’s were ripped from his hands. He scrambled back toward the counter where he then got helped to his feet.
‘’Hey, man, are you okay?’’ Kei asked.
‘’Yeah, I’m fine, Kei.’’ Shota brushed the dust off his jeans and quickly logged in to his register to help the first customer. ‘’Although, I think my butt might be blue tomorrow…’’ He looked through the fans-mass that stood before the rack and shared a look with Kei. ‘’I still keep wondering, how is that boy so popular?’’
Kei shrugged as he watched a few girls fight over the last CD. ‘’I have no clue, Shota, no absolutely fucking clue.’’
Tokyo High School 12:00AM
The school bell sounded clearly through the classroom, marking the end of the lesson and the beginning of the twenty minute break. It was a nice warm summer day in Tokyo and most of the students were already making their way toward the school garden.
Oikawa put her book back in her backpack and stood up from her seat. She swung the backpack over one shoulder and made her way toward the hallway where she then waited for her two friends: Atsumu and Akaashi.
The three had been best friends since they met the first day at the High School. They hadn’t been separated since then, doing every group project together, sharing the same fashion interest, playing at the same Volleyball Club and so on.
‘’So, Akaashi, any chance I could borrow your cashmere belly sweater tomorrow?’’ Oikawa asked when Akaashi exited the class, Atsumu at her heels. The blonde pushed a piece of paper in her bag and put the pen she held behind her ear. She took one last look over her shoulder before she followed her friends toward the cafeteria for lunch.
‘’Sure,’’ Akaashi said and smiled. ‘’That’s what best friends are for!’’
Atsumu crossed her arms and looked at Oikawa with her death stare. ‘’Hey! What about me?’’
Oikawa chuckled a bit. ‘’Come now, don’t be crazy, Atsu!’’ she said. ‘’We can’t possibly wear Akaashi’s sweater at the same time! It will totally stretch out.’’ She stopped in the hallway and leaned with her back against a pole.
‘’No, Oikawa, I meant, aren’t I your best friend, too?’’
The brown-haired girl was silent for a few seconds before she pulled the other in a hug. ‘’Aw… of course you are, silly. That’s why I’m going to borrow your leopard-print sandals tomorrow!’’ She was about to pull back when her eyes landed on something. Well, rather someone. She gasped at the sight.
A boy sat on the edge of the fountain, his half-long blond hair hung just above his shoulders and when he brushed a lock behind his ear, Oikawa could drown in those ocean blue eyes that were fixated on the guitar that rested in his lap. His fingers brushed the snares and Oikawa felt the hair in her neck rise up at the soft tunes.
Atsumu frowned with confusion at Oikawa’s sudden freezing. She took a step back and tried to make eye-contact with her friend. ‘’Oikawa? What is it? What’s wrong?’’
‘’Yeah.’’ Akaashi waved her hand in front of Oikawa’s face, trying to get her attention, but with no success. ‘’What’s with all the drool?’’
‘’I think… I’m in love…’’ Oikawa whispered and dropped her backpack. ‘’I must find out who he is.’’ She shot off like a rocket and pushed several girls aside who were sitting around the new guy, all ears for the music.
Oikawa sat down beside the guy and rested her arm on his shoulder. ‘’Hey, I’m Oikawa.’’
He stopped playing and curiously looked at her, an eyebrow raised.
Oikawa could barely hold herself together as she saw the sparks in his eyes. He was definitely interested in her. Of course he was, every guy on the school would commit murder to fancy a date with her.
From the sidelines Akaashi and Atsumu watched their friend.
‘’Is it me, or does Oikawa fall in love more often than Ayumi maxes out her credit card?’’ Akaashi asked.
‘’No, I think it’s true,’’ Atsumu agreed. She gave Akaashi a tiny prod with her elbow and pointed at Ayumi who came barging over to Oikawa, an angry glance in her eyes. ‘’That’s not going to end well.’’
Oikawa only had eye for the new guy, whose name she figured out was Daiki. She fiddled with her fingers and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. ‘’What do you say we go out after school?’’ the girl suggested and tilted her head a bit. ‘’I’ll even let you buy me a nonfat latte.’’
Daiki chuckled. ‘’You will? OK.’’ He was about to ask where to meet up when he roughly pushed aside by Ayumi. The black-haired girl towered above Oikawa.
‘’Sorry, Oikawa, but Daiki’s already got plans after school. He’s going to the mall with yours truly.’’ Ayumi shot a sideway glance to Daiki who scrambled to his feet. The guy’s cheeks were red with embarrassment.
‘’That’s right. The mall.’’
Chuckling a bit Oikawa tried to brush it off. She shrugged and looked up at Ayumi. ‘’Oh, no big deal,’’ she said and stood up. ‘’I was only trying to do him a favor because he’s new around here.’’ She turned her back to her enemy and marched off to her friends who stood waiting a few feet away.
When Oikawa found herself far enough for Ayumi to see, her eyes watered up and the corner’s of her mouth shot downward into a sad frown.
‘’Oikawa!’’ Atsumu and Akaashi ran after their friend. Together the three sat down at a nearby bench and waited for the lesson to start again.
Oikawa stared at the ground with sadness in her eyes. She had her chin rested in her hand palm and almost didn’t seem to notice that her friends sat on either side of her. She let out a long sigh.
Atsumu rested her hand briefly on Oikawa’s thigh for comfort. ‘’Don’t worry, Oikawa, I’ll buy you a nonfat latte after school,’’ she promised.
‘’Besides, wouldn’t you rather hang out with us than some dimwit musician?’’ Akaashi added with a smile.
‘’Yeah, I guess so,’’ Oikawa mumbled. She straightened her back and closed her eyes, her hands close to her heart. ‘’Only I just can’t help liking Daiki! Call me crazy, but I just have a thing for musicians.’’ She balled her fists and stared at Ayumi with fury. ‘’I’ve got to find a way to get his attention off of Ayumi and onto me!’’
Atsumu and Akaashi shared a glance and both shook their head with defeat. They were about to talk Oikawa out of it, when suddenly the ground seemed to disappear from under their feet.
The bench fell into some sort of tunnel, the bench working as some sort of cart on a roller coaster. The three were holding on tight as they sped through the tunnel.
‘’Is it me, or do our missions only come during an extremely personal crisis?!’’ Oikawa yelled. Her knuckles were turning white from the tight grip she held on. Her eyes widened when she saw that the tunnel had come to an end. She braced herself to be smashed against the wall, but what did happen was that the wall gave to and the three were launched into a room.
Akaashi and Atsumu landed softly on a couch, but Oikawa shot over it and fell with a hard thud on the floor.
‘’So nice of you girls to drop in,’’ Osamu said with a hint of amusement in his voice. His black suit was spotless and his hair was nicely combed.
‘’Nice for some of us!’’ Oikawa flashed back. She stood up and sat back down on the couch.
Atsumu brushed her bangs back in place with her fingers before she angrily looked at her twin brother. ‘’Osamu, you have to stop with these entrances!’’ She gave up on styling her hair back. ‘’Ugh, you just do it for the fun! Sometimes Osamu I wonder how we are related.’’
‘’Yeah, well, whatever are you going to do about it?’’ Osamu said with a shrug. He turned the lights off in the room and from the ceiling came a beamer. He pressed on a button and a picture of a guy appeared on the whiteboard, he had red-brown hair and green eyes.
Atsumu squinted her eyes as she read the name. ‘’Ricky Mathis? I’ve never of him.’’
‘’That’s because he’s an overnight musical sensation,’’ Osamu explained to the three. ‘’In fact, as of today, he’s only released one single—the optimistically titled, ‘Rock Legend’. Which makes it even more unsettling that there have been reports of similar occurrences all around the globe.’’
The photo of Ricky Mathis was changed for a photo of several people. They had foam on their lips and their eyes were wide spread. They seemed like animals.
‘’Something is up, but we’re not sure what.’’ Osamu put the lights back on and the beamer disappeared in the ceiling again.
‘’So where do we fit in?’’ Akaashi asked.
‘’Your mission is to go undercover as the opening act on his world tour and find out exactly what it is about Ricky Mathis that makes his fans so,’’ Osamu was silent for a few seconds to search for the right word, ‘’fanatical.’’
Oikawa’s face cleared up and she sat up straight, stars in her eyes. ‘’You mean, we get to be in a real band?’’ she said with excitement.
‘’A real pretend one,’’ Osamu corrected.
Oikawa didn’t seem to hear him and jumped to her feet. ‘’This is perfect!’’ she squealed. ‘’When Daiki finds out, he’ll toss Ayumi like a day old muffin and come running straight to me! He’ll see me as his musical equal. I’ll be irresistible.’’ She placed a finger on her chin and a deep frown appeared on her face. ‘’Now all we need is a name.’’
Osamu cleared his throat. ‘’Actually, ladies, we’ve already taken care of your name.’’