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It was the end of yet another practice day. Lately, Vivid Bad Squad’s daily life has been just a cycle of going to school, being driven by An’s father to various top live houses outside the town to compete till they couldn’t sing anymore, holding a reflection meeting, then returning to their homes and heading straight to bed. It was a tough routine, but Akito considered it necessary to get stronger.
We’re not even close to surpassing Rad Weekend at our current level still.
He gulped down an entire bottle of water. It was their last performance of the day so the four of them gathered backstage. Today’s teams were so overwhelmingly strong they barely secured third place. It wasn’t bad at all, but Akito still wasn’t satisfied.
I did it again… I got stiff, he sighed and threw the now empty bottle into the closest trash can. He’s been training with Ken, An’s father, the leader of RADder and his idol, for a few weeks now in order to stop tensing up while singing, as it was making it very difficult to get stronger. But he had nothing to show for it.
If I managed to loosen up, we would have gotten first place, he smiled bitterly and sat on the couch. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t do it. After all, that’s how he managed to get this far.
His train of thought was interrupted by Ken entering the room.
“Good work today”. He smiled at the four teenagers.
Next to Akito sat Toya, who was fast asleep. On the couch in front of them were An and Kohane, who were still catching their breath. When she saw her father, An sprang out of her seat and ran to him as if she didn’t look like she was dying mere moments ago.
“Haah, I’m beat!”, she said while stretching. “Dad, can I head to the car early? My whole body feels so sore.”
Ken smiled warmly and nodded yes, her instantly running off. The retired musician then noticed Akito’s sour mood and approached him.
“Say, Akito. How about you join An to the car for now? We won’t hold our special training today.”
Akito was dumbfounded. “W-what about learning how to…”
“You don’t look that much better than An. And I’m sure you stayed up late practicing more when I told you to rest.”
Akito gulped and guiltily looked away.
“So go rest in the car. I’ll go buy drinks and something to eat with the other two. Alright?”
“Understood…”
Dejected, Akito stood up and started walking towards the exit. Now he didn’t even get the chance to try to relax while singing the way Ken wants him to. He was fine, dammit. But the yawn that escaped his lips said otherwise. Well, they did sing with more power than usual today. Maybe it was fine to just take it easy for once. Napping in the car sounded quite good right now.
And that’s what An seemed to be doing when he arrived at the parking lot. Her body was slouched and her head was leaning against the window. It looked quite uncomfortable. He opened the door gently, not wanting to wake her up. But she raised her head anyway. Rubbing her eyes and turning towards the sound’s direction, she looked at him.
“Aki…to? Didn’t you have special practice with my dad now? Or did I sleep for that long?”
Sighing, he entered the car and sat next to her.
“We aren’t training today. He claimed I was pushing myself too hard and sent me to rest with you here.”
“But you were,” An pouted. “Your face is pale and you look like you haven’t slept for three days straight.”
“What are you, my mom?”, he sighed again. “I do feel more tired than usual but I’m not making any progress at this rate. If I managed to loosen up like Ken-san has been trying to teach me, we would have won first place…”
She shot him a sympathetic smile. “It wasn’t just you who wasn’t strong enough. Me, Toya and Kohane too. If we were all stronger as a team, maybe we would have won. We still have a long way to go, though. But aren’t you being a bit too serious about loosening up~?”
“Hmph. Too serious? This affects the rest of our team. If anything, I’m not being serious enough.”
An burst out laughing. While Akito was scolding her, she said while wiping her tears: “Akito can be so funny at times. Loosening up means relaxing and enjoying the moment, you know~?”
He scoffed again. “Of course I know that, I’m not dumb. But loosening up while also putting my all into singing and conveying my feelings, I don’t know if I can do that…”
She showed an understanding smile. “Well, we could start with the ‘loosening up’ part. When was the last time you relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed something?”
“…”
It was her turn to sigh.
“Right, I should have known that. All we’ve been doing lately has been singing against teams way more powerful than us, going to school and holding meetings. Not to mention our extra responsibilities. And when all this was over, we would just sleep like a log. No time for anything else…”
Akito was lost in thought.
“I do know a way, though.”
“You do?”
“I do! Hmph. You just have to trust me. So do you trust me, Akito?”
He had a bad feeling about this. But he decided to believe in her.
With that said, she shifted her body closer to Akito, until their shoulders touched. Startled, he moved backwards, putting some distance between them. What does this have to do with anything they talked about? Pouting, An moved closer again. Before he could back away once more, she grabbed him by his shoulders and brought their lips together.
Time stopped. His surroundings have frozen in place. All he could think about was his loud heartbeat, how soft her lips felt against his and her scent, deodorant with a faint hint of sweat. Her night sky colored hair tickled his cheeks and he resisted the temptation to touch it and lean in.
Shiraishi An was kissing him. But why? Thinking about it made his head spin.
An pulled away as quickly as she closed the distance between them, with a triumphant smile. When he registered the absence of the newly found warmth, Akito blushed furiously.
“W-what was that for?”. He jumped a little backwards, covering his face with the back of his hand.
An giggled. His reaction was cuter than expected.
“Helping you loosen up, isn’t that what we were talking about earlier~?”
“…You do know I meant singing, right?”
"Of course I do! But before you can relax and enjoy yourself while singing, you need to remember how that even feels like! Besides, I always wanted to do something like this,” she giggled, a faint blush covering her cheeks.
“Make out with a guy in your dad’s car, knowing he could catch you any moment?”
“Not just any guy, hmph. Akito~”
“Haaah?”
This girl caught him off guard a lot today.
“I’ve never met someone who’s as passionate about surpassing Rad Weekend as you. Or with a resolve as strong. Your singing is so powerful it’s hard not to get drawn in immediately. Not to mention that you’re quite handsome, I even caught myself staring sometimes~ Good looks combined with confidence is pretty attractive, you know~?”
He looked away, unable to face her anymore. This was just too much.
“Isn’t this something couples do, though…?”
“Eh don’t tell me you haven’t thought about this before~”
“…”
She was right. He has always considered her quite pretty. Her long starry sky colored hair flowed nicely down her shoulders, her amber eyes were always so bright, reflecting her ever present smile. Akito’s eyes wandered towards her plum lips and he recalled how soft they felt against his mere moments ago.
It was a pretty tempting offer. But he wasn’t sure if they could afford to do this. If they used this time to practice more instead, being caught wasn’t a problem. But that wouldn’t really help him loosen up either.
As if reading his thoughts, An said:
“You know, we would get scolded if Dad caught us singing too. We were sent here to rest after all.”
“I… forgot…about that…”
An burst out laughing again.
She scooted closer to Akito and this time he didn’t back away.
“Where did Dad go anyway?”
“He took Toya and Kohane to get food and drinks for all of us. But they’re probably holding the reflection meeting too with how long it’s taking.”
“Without us? How mean,” she pouted. “I wasn’t tired enough to not be able to talk about how cool we were today.”
“Yeah, what a shame,” he said absentmindedly, pondering on how to make a move. Was cupping her cheek and leaning in too straightforward? Should he hold her hand instead? Or was waiting for her to make the first move better?
“Just do what feels right,” An reassured him.
So he chose to cup her face and lean in. Like earlier, he felt as if their surroundings have frozen in place, as if they were stealing this moment from the flowing of time itself. He was hesitant at first but the more An reciprocated, the more comfortable he started to feel. His hand fell to her side and she wrapped her arms around his neck. It was quite nice, being close like this. Her hair was as soft as Kohane used to describe (more like gushing over it) whenever An changed her shampoo and invited her partner to touch it. Sometimes he wished he could touch it too, but An would have teased him for 3 days straight if he dared to ask.
The more time passed, the more passionate and hungrier became his kisses, An fearing he might swallow her whole. She basically pushed him off her when completely out of air, glaring at him while struggling to catch her breath. She looked like a cute angry kitten and Akito tried not to laugh. Smiling sheepishly, he gave her a not so sincere apology, which only irritated An more.
He felt something tickling the skin around his collar bone and shivered. Looking down, An was sucking not so gently on the crook of his neck. She licked the spot and smiled mischievously.
“Payback for not giving me enough time to breath earlier.”
“Tch, what if the others see it…”
He glared at her and started massaging the now sore spot.
“Then make sure they don’t~”.
What a troublesome girl.
“You know, it would be nice if you showed your feelings like this when singing too.”
“My feelings?”. Now that she was being serious, he was listening to her intently.
“Yeah, like, I’d like to be able to tell if you’ve fought with someone on the way to the venue, or if you ate your favorite cheesecake before practice or, uhm, or if you thought the classical literature teacher’s mustache looked funny… Stuff like that.”
Seeing his confused face, An sighed and tried again: “What I’m trying to say is those feelings are important. Let them empower you. Your joy, your worries, your frustration, even your sadness… Let the audience hear it all.”
“Let my feelings empower me…,” he mumbled, deep in thought. “Got it. I’ll try that the next time I train with Ken-san.”
He smiled softly at her and she beamed.
“By the way, you sure looked like you enjoyed yourself earlier~”
“Shut up,” he looked away, covering his reddened cheeks with the back of his hand, while An laughed.
Teasing Akito is so fun, his reactions are so cute~
Just then, a cheery voice could be heard from the distance: “An-chan, Shinonome-kun!”
The two in question separated as quickly as they could, scrambling to fix their hair and clothes. Akito zipped his jacket, put on his hood and pulled the strings a little, all while cursing An under his breath.
Kohane was running to the car with Toya and Ken behind her, stopping when she arrived in front of them. After a short moment of catching her breath, she said:
“Sorry we took so long, there were a lot of people in line.”
“Don’t worry about it, it didn’t feel like that much time has passed,” An tried her best to look nonchalant, waving her hand.
“Akito, why are you wearing your hood inside the car?”, Toya said, tilting his head in confusion.
“I’m just a bit cold, that’s all.”
“Hmm, spring nights can get pretty chilly indeed.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty cold too actually,” Kohane shivered.
“Then I’ll start the car and turn on the heat. And after we finish eating, I’ll drive you all home. Sounds good?”, Ken proposed.
The four of them agreed. Toya entered the car first, followed by Kohane. Ken sat on the driver’s seat and turned on the car as agreed upon.
The secret couple exchanged triumphant glances. No one suspected anything. Careful not to reveal the incriminating mark, Akito pulled down his hood, but left his jacket unzipped. It wasn’t that comfortable, but he could live with it. Can’t risk being caught now.
“Mmm, so good!”, An beamed with her mouth full of taiyaki.
“Hehe, I’m glad you like it, An-chan. We were going to get some bentos at first, but the smell was so good I suggested we step by. But we kept you waiting for a while, didn’t we? I hope you and Shinonome-kun didn’t get too bored…”
“Don’t worry about it,” the mentioned guy said while taking a bite of his third taiyaki. “It’s not like An and I hate spending time with each other.”
I sure enjoyed our little time together, the blue-haired girl smirked to herself, hiding her reddening face behind the fish-shaped pastry.
“Akito, can you pass me some water?”
“Sure, here you go, Ken-san.”
He grabbed a bottle of water then pointed it towards his idol and trainer. But he forgot that he unzipped his jacket a little a few minutes ago, since it got hot in the car.
Turning around, the older man noticed something near his right shoulder. An stiffened.
“Hmm? What’s that on your neck, Akito?”
“Eh? There’s something on my neck?” He quickly zipped his jacket back to cover the incriminating mark, but the damage had been done.
“I saw a red spot right around here,” Ken pointed towards his collar while giving Akito an amused smile.
Knowing he’d been caught, Akito tried to come up with an alibi anyway.
“I bumped into something on my way to the car.”
“On your neck?”
“Uhhh yeah. It was a tree branch.”
“Then why is it a small circular spot and not a bigger bruise?”
An could barely keep her calm. I told him to make sure they don’t see it. Especially my father!
“Oh, did I say I bumped into something? I-I meant to say a c-cat bit me, ahaha…”
That’s even worse! An used all of her self-restraint in order to keep herself from screaming, while Akito kept his composed mask around Ken, cold sweat forming on his forehead. Oh, they were so screwed.
“A cat?” Ken repeated, even more amused.
“Y-yes, a b-black one.”
“Black? Not a blue-haired one?”
“There are no blue-haired cats, sir.” He really couldn’t get out of this one, could he?
“Are you sure? Because I see one right next to you. Right, An?”
The now caught couple looked at each other in resignation before sighing in defeat. Ken merely laughed.
“Don’t act so dejected, it’s normal for your age to start getting…curious.”
Having realized what was going on at last, Kohane gasped, hiding her flushed face behind her fingers. “A-An-chan and Shi-Shinonome-kun…”
“But I’d never imagined you would use the time I gave you to rest to do something like this.”
“I-I’m sorry, Ken-san…”
“You don’t need to apologize,” the older man cut him short. “If anyone has to apologize, it’s this cat right here,” he gave An a knowing look, the awkward girl averting her father’s gaze.
“Well, it’s getting late so I think we should get going,” Ken decided to cut their embarrassment short. He turned back to the front of the car, drank water and started driving.
They finished eating the remaining taiyaki in silence. Akito couldn’t face An anymore. He was sure she was very disappointed in him. His excuses were extremely lame. Being hit by a tree branch or bitten by a cat? He cringed just thinking about it. Well, it was her fault he had something to hide in the first place, but he still failed. And it was quite frustrating.
He sighed in utter defeat. What’s done is done.
His train of thought was interrupted by Toya nudging him slightly.
“Eh, what is it?” He really didn’t want to talk but he couldn’t just ignore his partner. But his next words made him wish he did.
“Why did Ken-san call Shiraishi a cat?”
He blinked once. Twice. But Toya still looked as serious as ever. Did he really have to explain this out loud? Was being caught by the father of the girl he’s been kissing not humiliating enough?
“There’s no cat,” he sighed. “An gave me a hickey and I just told Ken-san a lame excuse.”
Blood started rushing to his face. Hopefully that’s all he had to say.
But Toya didn’t make it easy.
“A hickey? Why did Shiraishi give you a hickey?”
Did he really ask that? Feeling his blood start boiling, he finally yelled:
“Because we were making out, dammit!”
“O-oh…”
What an annoying end to the day. The girls, who’ve been listening to their little exchange, couldn’t help but start laughing, Kohane giggling, while An was already wiping her tears. That only annoyed the already mad Akito more. So he finally faced An and asked in a demanding tone:
“Oi, what’s so funny?”
“I’m…I’m sorry…ahaha…But I didn’t expect Toya…to put you on the spot…like that…ahaha…”
He sighed and let himself slump to her side. An leaned her head on his shoulder and started humming. That calmed him down a little, so he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. Their partners were watching but he was too tired to care anymore. They must have been already jumping to conclusions anyway.
Toya and Kohane exchanged confused glances, sharing the same thought. Are those two dating now or…?
Behind the steering wheel, Ken smiled. He was glad An found teammates she could be this comfortable around. Even if it meant experimenting from time to time. She was still a teenage girl after all. He stifled a laugh recalling Akito’s deer caught in the headlights face. But he trusted him. He wouldn’t hurt his daughter, judging by the way he’s been looking at her lately. Call it father’s intuition, but he was sure Akito was head over heels for her already, the boy just hasn’t realized it yet. An doesn’t seem to mind it either. Maybe they’ll start dating after surpassing Rad Weekend.
And he is going to make sure they will.
For Nagi’s sake.