Work Text:
7:34 PM
Ijichi Nijika sighed as she stared blankly at the time displayed on her phone. She had seen her home screen thousands of times before, but this was probably the longest she ever stared at it without opening it. Nijika stared at the dozens of cartoon ducks that covered her wallpaper. She didn’t remember when she started liking ducks but it’s been a part of her life ever since. Whether it be a plush sitting on her bed, a sticker in her notebook or a keychain hanging off her school bag, the silly duck had been integrated into almost every part of her daily life. Nijika couldn’t even tell if it was because of how ducks looked or her bias for the colour yellow being the reason for her obsession, it probably didn’t matter anyway.
Her extended perception of time was broken when she saw the clock turn to the next minute.
“AHHHHHHHHHHH, I’M GOING INSAAAAAAAAANE!!!!!” Nijika yelled as she buried her face in her pillow. She normally wouldn’t have been so loud in the apartment, but knowing that she was home alone, she couldn’t help but do it at least once.
Her sister, Seika, wasn’t home for the week. She had taken a trip to Yokohama to meet up with her old bandmates, something about “reminiscing better days”. Because of that, Seika decided to close Starry to everyone while she was gone, Nijika included. “Go enjoy summer with your friends, you need it more than I do.” she said before leaving.
She conveniently forgot that the thing I enjoyed most with my friends was practicing…..
With Starry closed, Nijika and the rest of Kessoku Band couldn’t do any band practice in the in-house studio. It was evident no one was used to the break in routine considering the LOINE group chat they had created for band-related communications had been dormant for the past two days since Nijika informed everyone of Starry’s temporary closure. The only person Nijika had been in contact with recently was her close friend and bassist, Yamada Ryo, who came over to her house (uninvited) to hang out. Nijika didn’t mind the company. Despite her antics and her absurd lack of financial responsibility, Nijika still deeply trusted Ryo. What she did mind, however, was Ryo’s insistence on leaving her belongings in her room, half the stuff scattered in Nijika’s room being hers, whether it be random assortments of junk she bought on a whim, bass guitars or her clothes. When asked why she kept leaving stuff in her room, Ryo simply answered “I come here often enough.”
I just might consider moving all her stuff into the storage room.
Nijika lifted her head out from her pillow and opened her phone again. Only two minutes had passed since she last checked. She loudly sighed once more as she sank deeper into her pillow.
This is going to be a long night……
8:22 PM
As Nijika stepped out of the bathroom after a depressingly long, contemplative shower, she noticed something shining buried within a pile of clothes in the corner. Sticking out from the pocket of one of several pants left behind by Ryo was a single 500 Yen coin. While she would consider returning the money to Ryo, Nijika remembered that she had borrowed money from her last week to buy some pudding from a convenience store. Despite the price of the pudding being only 200 Yen, Nijika decided she was just going to pocket the remainder, considering it as interest.
Maybe I should check the rest of her clothes for free money.
8:41 PM
Nijika opened the fridge and took out a cold bottle of lemonade she had bought earlier, chugging it down in a few gulps. The summer heat as of late had been getting worse even during the night. She couldn’t help but be grateful that she was born in the era of fans and air conditioners.
8:53 PM
Feeling restless from her lack of band practice, Nijika picked up her drumsticks and began practicing her drumming. Even though her actual drum set was downstairs at Starry, that didn’t stop her from using more easily accessible things to practice. Using several stacked books for her drums and a paper puncher she found as a padel, her improvised setup was the best she was going to get without leaving the comfort of her room.
Even if I could I don’t think big sis would like hearing my loud drums late into the night.
Nijika connected her wireless earphones to her phone, pressed play on the drumming playlist she had saved and readied her drumsticks. Her imagination transported her up on Starry’s stage with the rest of Kessoku Band.
10:07 PM
Nijika collapsed onto her bed, surprised at how much time had passed since she started. Checking her phone, Nijika had not realised she had gone through almost her entire playlist during the practice session, explaining her exhaustion.
Damn, now my arms are sore.
Satisfied with her practice for the night, Nijika relaxed as she lay in bed with her phone in hand. She first opened Isstagram to check on Kessoku Band’s “Minister of Social Media '' Kita Ikuyo and what she was up to. Nijika knew that Kita practically shared her entire life through social media posts, so this was the best way to check on her. Clicking on her latest photo showed Kita happily taking a selfie in what Nijika assumed was her room alongside her guitar. The picture was accompanied by a caption.
So much practice to be done even when I’m not with my band! I am always doing my best to improve no matter what! ^^
“I can feel her aura radiating just from this post alone.” Nijika mumbled as she tabbed out and checked out Oh!Tube next. Scrolling through dozens of videos with egregious thumbnails, Nijika was just about to turn off her phone and turn in for the night when her eyes caught sight of a familiar figure just as her thumb scrolled past it. Her mind processed the image she had seen for but a split second, realising that the thumbnail showed a figure in a pink tracksuit holding a guitar.
No… it couldn’t be….
Nijika quickly scrolled back up, hoping what she had just seen wasn’t an illusion conjured from her tired mind. Sure enough, she found the video once more, her suspicions proving true as she read the video title.
New Cover for a Game I’ve Been Playing!
guitarhero
30k views . 2 hours ago
“Bocchi-chan..?” Nijika wondered aloud as she stared blankly at the video. Normally, a new video from guitarhero wouldn’t have garnered such a reaction from her, she had been a fan of the channel for quite some time already. However, it was only recently she found out the identity of the illusive guitarist.
Kessoku Band’s lead guitarist, Gotoh “Bocchi” Hitori.
In hindsight, Nijika felt like the clues were so obvious she didn’t know why she never figured it out sooner. It wasn’t even like Bocchi was trying to hide it, Nijika just had a bad perception. Shaking the thought out of her head, Nijika played the video and was greeted by a familiar figure strumming away on her guitar. Nijika didn’t know what game music Bocchi was covering, but that didn’t stop her from feeling entranced. Nijika could feel the impact of every note played as Bocchi, her face just out of frame in the video to not reveal her identity, quietly but confidently played. When the video ended, Nijika couldn’t help but let off a huge smile.
You really are amazing……
It was at that moment that Nijika, on a whim, scrolled through her contact list, found Bocchi's name and pressed the 'Call' button. She didn’t know what compelled her to suddenly give Bocchi a call this late at night, but it didn’t take long before she heard a familiar soft voice on the other end. “N-N-Nijika-chan? Why did you call me? Is something wrong? Did something terrible happen?!”
“Oh no no! It’s nothing like that!” Nijika replied, only now realising how weird she looked calling someone this late at night. “I just saw you uploaded a new video that’s all.”
“Ah… right.” Bocchi responded softly as if just remembering that Nijika knew about her online persona. “I haven’t exactly uploaded in a while because of all our band stuff…..”
“Yeah, I get that. Not much time to spend on other things when we have to focus on practice. Not like we could practice now anyway…”
A brief awkward silence followed as both Nijika and Bocchi didn’t know what to say next. Nijika could occasionally hear Bocchi’s soft breathing on the other end of the phone, probably nervous and unsure of how to continue the conversation. After what felt like an eternity, Nijika finally figured out a new topic to discuss. “Say Bocchi-chan, what made you decide to play the guitar?”
The question clearly took Bocchi by surprise as Nijika could hear weird noises coming from Bocchi over the phone, she had probably not anticipated someone asking such a personal question. “S-so that I can one day play on Zepp Haneda, be rich and famous, and quit high school the first chance I get!!” She replied, nervously chuckling.
“Your REAL reason please.” Nijika answered back in a teasing tone. She had known Bocchi long enough to understand how she communicated and ticked. A calm but assertive approach is how Nijika got her to open up more. Bocchi briefly remained silent on the other end before finally answering.
“I… want to make people smile.”
Nijika sat up from her bed. “Smile?”
“I… started learning guitar three years ago after seeing a band on TV. One of the members said they were the quiet type back in high school with no friends…” Bocchi’s voice trailed off, while Nijika remained silent. “I thought to myself then ‘If someone like him can become famous then so can I!’ , I did genuinely want to play in front of many people and be adored though….
“But, when I was performing with Hiroi-san to sell tickets for our first live, I saw the smiles of so many people, all happy just to see me play, even though I was nervous and felt like passing out. It was then I thought ‘If I did more performances like this, I can get to see more smiles’ , maybe that wouldn’t be so bad after all…”
Bocchi let off a soft sigh, “You probably think this is all just dumb and childish don’t you?”
Nijika shook her head, “I don’t, I think it’s an amazing reason. I’m happy you were willing to tell me all about this.”
“It… just came naturally…”
The two remained silent once more. Despite the physical barrier of distance separating them, Bocchi and Nijika felt closer than ever, the former feeling a sense of ease being able to open up to someone besides her family. Nijika, on the other hand, would’ve been happy getting to know more about guitarhero, the idol whose musical talents she deeply respected. Now though, she was glad to learn more about Hitori, the girl she was beginning to feel a sense of intimacy with.
“Say, Bocchi-chan.” Nijika broke the silence. “Do you want to hang out tomorrow?”
“Eh? Ah, sure, my schedule is free.” Bocchi replied. “I’m sure Kita-chan and Ryo-san would love to-”
“No, just the two of us, together.”
“Oh, um… that’s fine too. W-where do you want to go?”
“Haven’t thought of that yet. Let’s just meet at Starry tomorrow morning, we can figure it out then.”
“Okay… I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Yep, goodnight Bocchi-chan!”
“Goodnight….”
As Nijika ended the call, she fell back into her bed and stared blankly at her ceiling. A wide grin slowly formed on her face. Bocchi had said she wanted to make people smile with her music, she had already done that for Nijika more times than she could count. Whether she knew that or not didn’t matter. Nijika wanted to give Bocchi the love and attention she deserved, it’s the least she could do for being a beacon of inspiration in her life.
“You really are one heck of a hero to me.”