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Romin had been the one to ask for them, but now she was staring at these tickets like she didn't have any idea what to do about them.
It shouldn't be weird to ask her friends to come to her concert. They're friends. She should invite them. They invited each other to everything. Because that's what friends do!
RoaRomin tickets weren't easy to come by – they would always sell out within minutes! They'd probably not be able to get them if not for Romin giving them to them. And that'd just be the worst!
Yet, no matter how many times she drafted the message to them, her fingers couldn't hit ‘send’. What the heck? It's not normal for her to be this shy around them. They're friends! Friends.
She wanted them there. She had gotten front row seats for them – Yuga wouldn't be able to see over the crowd otherwise. There wasn't anything worse than getting stuck standing behind people so much taller than you,though he'd still cheer as much as he could, surely.
Gakuto would probably be a bit awkward at first, but he could get into the spirit of things pretty quickly, she imagined. He was the type that would come thoroughly well-prepared - dual-wielding penlights and studying the songs and chants, leading the calls.
That… would definitely be a sight, that's for sure.
Luke would be the loudest in the audience. Probably louder than Roa's usual fangirls. Even if he was all the way in the back, she'd hear him.
…she quickly wiped the grin growing off her face. There was no reason for her to get excited about that.
They didn't have much break time with the concert so close. Romin didn't have time to be slacking off daydreaming about stupid things.
She stuffed her face full of snacks and rejoined practice.
–
"I'll definitely invite them next week!" she told herself every week.
Several weeks had passed, tickets lay unclaimed.
With the concert approaching this weekend, there was no longer a "next week”.
…unless a freak storm or earthquake happened and would make them postpone it? No! She shouldn't be relying on the forces of nature and just… get over it! It's not hard to just ask!
Romin needed to take care of this now. No matter how much she wished she could stall further.
It was after school when she decided to approach them.
"Hey, this new restaurant opened up, we totally gotta go!" Luke shoved a flier in their faces, before she could utter a word.
"I hear their curry is absolutely legendary. Like, to die for!" He exclaimed. "They're having a big opening promotion over the weekend so we have to go!"
"This weekend, huh… I have to deal with student council business," Gakuto explained. "With graduation approaching, things are rather busy for us. We don't have too much free time now."
"You don't need to graduate and ditch us!" Luke whined. "Curry's more important! If you're in school with us again, then we could eat a whole bunch of curry together, like, all the time after school!"
"I-I am not getting held back for curry…!"
"Hey, Yuga, you're on my side, right?"
"Ah, well… I'm a bit with Gakuto too. I… probably can't go either."
Luke pouted.
"I mean, like, I was only interested in the curry, but they prolly have ramen too… if you just didn't want curry."
"No, uh… we had… a problem at home," Yuga stated with concern. "Uh, ladybug problem."
Seemingly having the wisdom to not to aggravate this wound, Luke did not press further and turned to Romin.
"Ah, well, Romin, you're on my side, right?! You gotta be!"
She was lucky that her stomach didn't grumble this entire conversation. It really did sound way too good…! She was also well informed about the restaurant.
Curry that warms your soul, ramen that makes your mouth water on the spot, the greatest tonkatsu in the world, the most delightful tempura…
N-no! Romin won't fall into temptation. She can't look interested! She has to be strong.
"Well, actually, I have something–"
"--aw man, not you too!"
"--I also have something important I need to deal with. It's…" she trailed off.
Wouldn't this be a good opportunity to tell them? Or, no, no way. Gakuto and Yuga are busy. And if it was just Luke, then…
No! He wants to go out to eat! Luke watching her instead wouldn't make either of them happy at all!
"...Band practice… stuff," Romin finally finished.
Well… they would be practicing before they start performing, so… it wasn't really a lie.
"...w-well, I'll just go alone then!" Luke complained, not noticing her pause. "You guys'll just be missing out."
Despite the occasional "subtle" attempts of trying to convince the rest of them to change their minds, the conversation continued until it was time for Yuga and Gakuto to leave.
Romin later ended up giving the tickets to some of her other classmates.
She can… eat there another time. They all can come to another concert of theirs. It's not like it's going to be the last one.
It's fine.
—
When they entered the stage, the crowd erupted.
Despite the darkness over the audience, she could see that the venue was full of faces that had become quite more familiar with each live show, and other faces she had never seen before – new fans? Or, maybe faces that had been buried at the back of the crowd all this time?
Despite the ever changing crowd, the sounds of their cheers remained the same no matter what.
"We can hear you all the way in the back!" Roa announced over the barrage of heartfelt noise.
"Roa~!!"
"Romin!!"
"I love you, Roa~~!!"
Yeah, the same cheers as ever. She wondered if her classmates were part of them. Their eyes had lit up when she offered them the tickets.
She was glad they didn't go to waste. Romin would have to ask them their thoughts about it later.
It was good she was able to make some people happy.
Romin strummed her guitar preparing for their first song.
"Go, Romin!!"
Her fingers suddenly stopped at the especially loud voice.
She looked around – oh, there, at the very back. Familiar blue hair, jumping to get a view over the crowd.
…what was he doing here?!
Romin almost lost her grip on her guitar.
This feeling must be from the adrenaline of performing. Or surprise. Nothing else.
She played her guitar; the strings would drown out her heart racing.
—
After the concert, after almost all of the attendees cleared out, Luke invited himself backstage, despite the staff blocking his way. Romin, expecting something like this, was already near the entrance to save him and let him in.
Without missing a beat, Luke started making a fuss.
"You didn't tell me you were having such an ultra-huge concert today!"
"W-well, you didn't say you were coming either!"
"Well yeah, 'cus you didn't tell me about your ultra-huge concert for me to tell you that I was coming to your ultra-huge concert!"
Romin sighed.
"How did you even get in? Tickets have been sold out for quite a while," Romin said. "You didn't scalp them, did you??"
"I simply have powers beyond mortals' comprehension."
"What."
"All of the electronics at admission randomly died all of a sudden." Luke explained. "I was last in line and they couldn't scan a ticket or anything so they sorta just assumed I was s'posed to be here so they let me in."
That's basically about what she should have expected. They'll need to… remedy that for future gigs.
"Lucky for me that I got lost lookin' for that restaurant and just followed the large crowd and all of the big ads for the concert. Otherwise I'd have missed that super awesome performance of yours!"
Her heart needs to be still. It's just a compliment.
"It… really wasn't all that different from normal."
"Really? No, it definitely felt a whole lot cooler than usual," Luke stated. "You're totally looking to be the King of Guitaring."
"The… king of guitaring?"
"Yeah! Must be fate or something that this king can witness the birth of a new king!" Luke said excitedly. "It's one of the few things that'd beat that really delicious curry."
"...so, you didn't go there yet, right?"
"No, I just came straight here. So my stomach's super rumbly," Luke said. "Like, really rumbly."
She couldn't lie and say that her stomach wasn't also growling during the entire second half of the setlist.
…Well…
I-it'd just be a waste for them not to go, right? It wasn't like it was far… and Luke did come just for the food. And… it did sound really tasty.
…so she should just ask. It's not difficult just asking! They're both hungry and they're friends so it's just natural to want to eat together!
They're just friends and nothing else.
"Um, you know… well," Romin started. "I was also kinda… really interested in trying their curry. It sounds… good."
"Aha! I knew you were on my side!" Luke exclaimed. "They're missing out, you know. Sucks that the promotion is ending so soon, it'd be awesome for us all to go."
Romin really did want to go.
But if Yuga and Gakuto weren't going, then…
"Well, you know, uh… i-it's probably fine if it's just us."
…if Luke doesn't bring up Roa and the others, that is. She doesn't necessarily need to hang out with them after the concert. They can find their own food!
The restaurant was probably full of people, so… the less is… better. Luke and Romin could more easily get a seat compared to all five of them.
That's it.
"Oh, I get it! Like a d–"
"--dinner, yes! It's dinner. I mean, look at the time!" Romin pointed at the watch around his wrist. "It's like, waaay past dinner time."
"Well… yeah. You didn't have to cut me off."
"Well, what are we waiting for? We should get going before it closes. I bet it's packed."
"Y-yeah! Let's get going!"
She messaged Roa some excuse of why she left before them.
Whatever they had planned for after the concert, this was probably a whole lot better.