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“It sounds fun having our practice at a different place today,” Kohane commented as she and the rest of the Vivid Bad Squad made their way to the karaoke place An had booked for their practice that day. It would be a change of scenery from their usual places of Vivid Street or their Sekai. It was something they all wanted to experience, mostly because it was a nice day outside, meaning they could walk to the karaoke bar without worrying about rain or heatstroke.
“I believe it’ll give us an opportunity to work on things we don’t usually work on, such as perfecting our pitches,” Toya added, seeming deep in thought the entire time.
“Hah, as if you don’t already have perfect pitch.” Akito chuckled, wrapping an arm around his partner.
“Well, we’re about to test that perfect pitch with our own.” An teased, giving Akito a smirk.
“Hmph, you really think you can beat me and Toya?”
“I don’t think; I know we can beat you guys.”
“Oh really? We’ll have to see about that.”
“Uhm, h-how about…” Kohane interrupted, feeling nervous due to the two picking a fight with one another, “I heard the place we’re going to also has a bubble tea bar. Maybe we can go get some before we head up to the room we booked?”
“Good suggestion, Azusawa,” Toya complimented, hiding his similar feelings about An and Akito’s competitiveness, “The coldness of the milk tea would be good for our throats when we’re singing.”
“Oh, do you like bubble tea, Aoyagi-kun?”
“I’ve never had it, but I’m willing to try it. Are there any particular flavours you would recommend?”
“I usually get the peach flavour, but I feel like you would like the coffee flavour more. I don’t know if it’s less sweet than the others, but I feel like the coffee would add some bitterness to it. You can also ask for no added sugar if you want it to be less sweet.”
“Well, since I already know that I like the taste of coffee, I feel like it would be a good starting point for me.” Toya turned to his partner, who was still butting heads with An in the background. “What do you usually order, Akito?”
“Huh? Me?” Akito snapped back into a sort of ‘nice guy persona’ upon hearing his partner asking him a question, “I usually get milk tea when it comes to boba. I usually get it with a hundred per cent sugar, half ice and mango popping boba. I also sometimes get azuki beans if they have them.”
“That’s a very specific order.”
“Not as specific as some of the things Kohane gets at cafes.”
“Hehe, well, at least my boba order is a little bit easier.” Kohane giggled.
Just as they were about to continue the conversation, Kohane realised they were at the karaoke bar already. It really felt like they had only been walking for a few minutes, despite the GPS app saying it would take them twenty-five minutes.
The karaoke bar was mostly white, on both the interior and exterior of the building, with lavender accents sprinkled throughout the place. The front entrance led them directly to the bubble tea bar, which had all the available toppings on full display for the customers looking to buy. Behind the boba bar counter was a staircase, most likely leading to the karaoke rooms.
“Hello, welcome!” The employee at the counter greeted the squad as they entered.
“Hi, reservation for Shiraishi,” An returned the greeting with a smile, “Also, we’d like to order some boba before we head up to our room.”
“Mmm, getting boba before practice was such a good idea, Kohane!” An took a big sip of her bubble tea while complimenting her partner. She and Kohane had decided to match their drinks, with Kohane getting a peach-flavoured milk tea with peach popping pearls while An got a butterfly pea tea flavoured tea with blueberry popping pearls.
“Indeed, and thank you for the advice about which flavour I should get.” Toya nodded, putting his coffee-flavoured milk tea with tapioca pearls off to the side.
“Hehe, no problem, Aoyagi-kun. Anyway, An-chan, are we going first?” Kohane asked, putting her bubble tea on the coffee table in front of them.
“I’m up for it, if Akito and Toya don’t mind, that is.” An smirked at the BAD DOGS, neither of whom made a move to steal the microphones from the Vivids.
“Go ahead. Ladies first, as they say.” Akito chuckled, swirling his drink around, letting the sound of the ice clinking around fill the otherwise silent room.
“Right, let’s pick a song, Kohane,” An immediately dove into the song selection, holding her microphone in one hand and scrolling through the songs with the other, “Oh, have you heard of Ado before?”
“She’s a pretty popular artist, right? I’ve seen her online a few times before.” Kohane looked at the screen, seeing if she recognised whatever song An was looking at.
“They have a couple of her songs on here. How about we sing one? How about…Odo?”
“Sure!”
“Oh god, not that song,” Akito murmured under his breath, catching An’s attention as he did so.
“What? What’s wrong with this song, Akito?” An raised an eyebrow at the ginger.
“Ugh, not that it’s any of your business, but one time my sister and I got into our dad’s liquor cabinet when he wasn’t home and had a couple of drinks. Long story short, we somehow ended up doing drunk karaoke, and that was one of the only songs I remember from that night.”
“AKITO!” Toya exclaimed, scolding his partner with his tone.
“Hah! So, we definitely have to do it then, just for you and Ena-san.” An laughed at the absurdness of Akito’s story.
“No, the fuck you do not.” He mumbled, getting more embarrassed by the second. However, it was too late for any of his words to stop An as she tapped the screen to select the song, then selected that there were two singers and waited for the microphones to connect as well as the screen to load the song and the lyrics for them to sing.
“Okay, so I’ll take the blue lyrics, you’ll take the pink lyrics, and we'll sing the purple ones together, right?” She asked, looking at her partner for reassurance.
“Got it!” Kohane smiled, watching as their first song of the afternoon slowly loaded onto the large screen in front of them.
As soon as the song fully loaded, An started off with the first line, before Kohane joined in with the second line. Despite it being the first song, it was obvious that the two were already giving it their all, meaning the BAD DOGS would have to do their very best to keep up with them. No time for warm-ups, they were getting straight into it today.
“Boo! You suck, Shiraishi!” Akito haggled from the sofa, laughing as he did so. An gave him the middle finger in return.
“Akito, don’t be so mean to them.” Toya sighed, taking another sip of his drink.
“What? I was just joking around. Besides, they gotta get used to the haggling if we’re gonna take over the world.”
Despite Akito’s claims that he was joking around, Toya gave him an upset look that made him stop immediately. He wouldn’t admit it, but the look on Toya’s face did make him feel a little guilty. Well, he could make it up to the girls later.
“We’ve set a high bar for you guys already. Do you think you can catch up?” An chuckled as she handed her microphone over to Akito.
“Catching up with you is too easy. We’ll beat you two in no time.” Akito gave her a cocky grin as he passed her and headed over to the screen to select their song.
“Hmm…how about this one? I think I’ve listened to it before, and it’s quite nice.” Toya pointed to a random song that was listed as “Fragile”.
“Hm?” Akito listened to the preview that played from the speaker as Toya hovered over the song in question, “Eh, sounds good. Let’s sing it!”
With that confirmation from his partner, Toya pressed the button to start the song and waited just like An and Kohane had before them. Before long, Akito had started singing the song alongside him. However, before long, Toya realised that he had chosen probably one of the most bittersweetly romantic songs in the entire world. If he wasn’t singing right now, he’d be laughing at how absurd it all was, but for now, he felt like it made sense, especially for him and Akito.
“GAAAAY!” An laughed from the couch, pointing at Akito and Toya, who had just finished their song at that point.
“Shut up!” Akito blushed, realising the somewhat romantic nature of their song.
“Aw, didn’t you say we had to get used to the haggling if we wanted to take over the world?”
“I told you to shut up already!”
“Akito,” Toya interrupted, “While Shiraishi and Azusawa get set up for their next song, how about we grab some snacks from downstairs? I’m getting a little hungry.”
“Hm? Alright then. You two want anything in particular?”
“Oh, I heard this place has nice sesame balls if you wouldn’t mind getting some of those.” Kohane smiled.
“Right, what about you, An?”
“I’m cool with whatever.” An didn’t even take her eyes off the screen when talking to him, causing Akito to grumble a bit as he and Toya left the room to go get their snacks.
Akito practically threw his microphone onto the coffee table as he flopped his sweaty body onto the nearest chair. He had completely lost track of how long they had been singing for, but he just had to assume it had been hours. He had already taken his jacket off, and taking anything else off would leave him shirtless, which wasn’t exactly allowed in this place. He took his last swig of his bubble tea, wishing he had just a little bit more.
“Well, since we’re all pretty beat, how about we do one more song as a group, then call it a day?” An suggested, feeling just as exhausted as everyone else.
“I don’t mind…just let me catch my breath first,” Toya responded, panting between words as he struggled to catch his breath after so many consecutive songs.
“Heh, looks like we tired you guys out.”
“Go fuck yourself, Shiraishi!” Akito used whatever energy he could to give An the middle finger before returning to his melted-like state.
“Uhm, how about this song?” Kohane selected a random song in order to stop An and Akito’s arguing.
“Traffic Jam, huh?” Toya peered over the girl’s shoulder, “Sounds like it could be a good song for us to sing.”
“Let’s go for it then!” An jumped onto Kohane, causing her to press the button subconsciously while looking for something to hold onto.
Within seconds, the group had taken their places and prepared to sing. Kohane did have to quickly tweak the settings to change it from two people singing to four people so that they wouldn’t have to make their own line distribution and therefore end up with a scenario where nobody knows whether or not they’re supposed to be singing.
Once the four-minute song was over, the group began gathering up their things so they could leave.
“Hah, what do ya know?” An showed the rest of the group the time on her phone, “We booked this room for an hour and we’re leaving just on time.”
“WE WERE ONLY AT IT FOR AN HOUR?!” Akito exclaimed, honestly shocked at how little time had passed since they started singing. He could’ve sworn it was at least two hours.
“That means the day is still young. Maybe we should grab some lunch together to celebrate the successful practice.” Toya gathered up the majority of the group’s garbage into a small plastic bag so he could throw it all away instead of letting the staff handle it.
“Sounds good to me. There’s this really good conveyor belt sushi place just down the road from here.” An suggested, remembering the restaurant from the last time she was in the area.
“Sushi doesn’t sound too bad. Let’s go!” Akito grinned, seemingly perked up by the mention of food.