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“Shiraishi, over here” a voice called. She turns her direction to the left, towards an entrance of a local convenience store, where Toya stood - shirt slightly damp, hair slightly drenched.
“Ah, Toya! Sorry for the wait. Here, an umbrella” An grinned as she handed over the parasol. Slightly frilly to an average teenage boy’s taste- it’s a fancy UV umbrella afterall. But Touya seems to like it just fine.
Just as the boy stepped foot out of the train station it began to pour. Each drop of rain splattered down, splashing tiny bits onto his cargoes causing it to darken. If it were any other day, he would be much more prepared - Akito would usually be the one who has to run in the rain without an umbrella and get told off by Meiko-san afterwards.
Maybe staying up late to edit a track was a bad idea afterall.
Planning to just make it quick, he had originally made a run for Weekend Garage, but the rain just kept getting stronger and stronger, and running for 15 minutes in the rain probably wasn’t the best idea before a winter morning practice. So eventually he made the choice to stop by this store and decided to text the others about his predicament.
All of them replied immediately, and with a few messages, not without a bit of banter of course, An is standing here, handing him Kohane’s pastel yellow parasol while holding her own transparent umbrella in her right hand.
“Thank you, Shiraishi, I really do owe you.” Toya said in his usual serious demeanour, which garnered An’s ‘I want to burst out laughing but Toya is being genuine’ choked giggles.
“Toya you’re being too serious!” She snorts, “moreover it's Kohane’s umbrella, not mine, I’m just the delivery boy!” An plays with her hair a bit, trying to fix her bangs in the reflection from the glass. It looked fine but she was visibly annoyed at something.
Toya struggles slightly, till the parasol finally makes a “flack” sound and reveals the sunflower pattern inside.
“You ready?”
.
.
.
.
They were walking in comfortable silence, until An breaks it first.
“Kohane’s umbrella is cute isn’t it? It totally fits her, right?”
“Ah, yes. But it also reminds me of you, I believe.” Maybe that’s why Azusawa got it, he thinks to himself.
A few moments pass again. A few shops that An would mention how she wants to later check out as a group, cafés that Toya says he wanted to visit and try with the two sweet tooths of the group, earning a laugh from An. It’s like this between them sometimes , comfortably quiet, reminding each other that they were here without ever saying so.
“Toya, do you like the rain?”
“Eh?”
“Hmm… how do I put it,” An pursed her lips, an action he had noticed she always does when she’s thinking. “You just seem like someone who likes the rain, y’know? It fits your vibe.”
“Is that so?” The taller muttered, thinking a bit to himself. “Well to be honest I can’t say I love it.”
He remembers.
The night when Toya had his first big fight with his father. When his father ridiculed him for his “foolish” music- that he was wasting his time chasing after his “foolish” dream.
When anger crawled up his skin. The feeling of his oldest brother’s skin piercing stares from behind but never stepping in to help, his mother’s hand on his arm as she told Toya to stop angering his father. The cold in his chest felt as if he was the only one in the empty world, and only the sound of rain hitting the transparent glass windows could be heard. All these feelings, so real then, and even now.
He remembers running in the dark streets of residential Shibuya, rain pouring down on a freezing autumn night, trickling down his neck and dampening his thin clothing.
He remembers showing up at Tenma's house completely drenched. And his childhood friend, while in shock, would always calmly let him in. Where despite the warmness of the house, Toya felt like a burden that would ice the only safety he had left.
“… I have some bad memories with the rain, I think” the split haired boy continued, he can’t remember when he started looking down, but he could see Shiraishi’s concerned look in the corner of his eyes, “so, I don’t think I can like it alot.”
An looks up, watching the beads race down her transparent umbrella. “I kinda get it, I guess.” The rain didn’t stop, and the grey in the sky seemed to make everything even in Vivid Street duller.
The boy turned his attention to his friend, who had an almost bitter smile. “How so?”
“Well, when Nagi-san supposedly left for America, it rained all night” the starry haired girl said with a strained laugh, “obviously now I know she didn’t just leave- but at the time it still hurt. It really hurt”
“Shiraishi…” Maybe he shouldn’t have brought up the past, “you don’t have to-“
“I was like- ‘Wait what! Nagi-san left, and didn’t even tell me?’ But at the same time it was ‘ I’m so happy for her! It’s her dream to go big in the West!’ And it just felt really conflicting.” Her voice sounded smaller than usual, a bit more reserved, a bit more quiet, “and y’know as a kid it’s really difficult to process something like that right? So I like - cried a lot in my room myself that night, haha.”
She brought her hand up to her hair, combing it through as if to comfort herself. Toya let her speak.
She remembers when she kissed her mom goodnight, closed the door and dropped to the floor sobbing, feeling abandoned and all alone. The constant conflict almost ripped her small heart apart. A part of her hated Nagi-san at the time, she had abandoned her! Left without even a message! Was An supposed to be okay with that?
But she was just so happy for her, it was her life long dream! Nagi-san had always wanted to go big in the States! This was her chance! Her biggest opportunity! Not that it was ever the truth.
“And it rained lots the day after I first sang with Kohane at the live house, when everything fell apart.” She looks at Toya, whose face was painted with a slightly pitiful expression but more than that, his seriousness that said ‘I’m listening’. She continues, “Kohane is my first singing partner, and back then I thought - if I couldn’t even protect her, what could I possibly do? Everything felt like it was slipping away, and the depressing rain just made me spiral more, I guess.”
She remembers when she lied on the cold wooden floor of her room, when each minute felt like eternity and Kohane had not replied for that eternity. She remembers that evening when because the rain was so heavy that day, Weekend Garage was more crowded than ever but she couldn’t bring herself to help out at all.
“So do you dislike the rain?” Toya’s voice rang. It sounded a bit meek, but she could feel the warmth from his calm tone.
“Nope, not at all.”
“Huh?”
“Because I also have loads of good memories in the rain,” she smiles.
When Nagi-san found her in the at the time still half built Kamiyama High. Her body was damp with cold rain, but when she hugged An, it was the warmest she had ever felt. She felt the warmth of her beloved town, in the rain when everything was freezing to the touch, they ignited something in her soul. The care they have for her, the worry, the relief, the love.
When her dad stayed home for the first time in a while, and wiping away the terrifying sound of thunder, was his singing, resonating with hers, as they made rice omelettes, without tomatoes of course, as An had wished for.
When the four of them danced and sang in the rain at Vivid Street, because everyone was too dragged into the music to care for the coldness coming down. As An intertwined her hands with Kohane’s and they sang like never before. Akito’s flame was burning more than ever and Toya’s voice was more powerful than ever. Kohane shined so brightly in her eyes, guiding An to her haven - and all of a sudden the rain never mattered.
When her partner whispered the words she always wanted to hear under their shared umbrella, and An saw her ears turn red. When the rain grew heavier as she slowly leaned in. The softness against her skin that created a sensation like sparklers.
“Don’t you have good memories in the rain?”
The boy gives it a thought. Somewhere deep in his mind, glowing memories under grey skies.
When he ran down the street with Tsukasa-senpai and Saki-san. All of them trying to shelter the plushie that they had just gotten from the arcade. When the overwhelming storm in him calmed for the first time in a while because he was here with them, people who cared.
When he listened to street music for the first time on a rainy day at Vivid Street. And something that was so suffocating transformed into a shelter that wrapped around him, as he remembered just how much he had loved music, something that he had needed to be reminded of for as long as he could remember. The sensation of his wet hair sticking onto his flushed cheeks as a bit of his heart bursts.
When under a bus stop, barely covering him and Akito from the harsh weather, they shared a hot chocolate. It was too sweet for Toya, too bitter for Akito. But for some reason, even when it poured down pitifully and everything was a mess, a laugh slipped out his lips and the chocolate was the best he’s ever had.
“…I think I do as well.”
His teammate runs forward a bit. She turns around, An’s face staring back at him, kindly.
“Maybe when it rains, I’ll think about all the sad stuff,” her voice was so warm. “Maybe, all the painful emotions that I want to just stuff into the bottom of my heart and slap an ofuda on and seal away will resurface.”
He never noticed the rain had stopped, or that the sky had brightened. Sometimes when he’s so immersed, the world around him seems to drown out, and nothing else matters.
“But today, I wanna think about the good stuff!” An drops her umbrella to the ground. It startled some people around her, not that it seemed to bother her, “maybe tomorrow, it’ll be a bad day again, the rain will come down and everything will go wrong.” She reaches for Toya’s free palm, her cold skin interlinked with his and she pulls him forward. As he stepped forward, Azusawa’s parasol slipped out of his left hand.
“As long as it rains, all these things will never go away.” Her voice reaching in his ears was melodic, in a softness that melted his heart.
Memories flashed before them, the joy, the pain. Those that cause their head to throb and those that tug onto their hearts. Ones that feel like peace and ones that feel like dread, all together.
“I want to embrace all of it.” It was quiet, shushed by the bustling streets around them. Toya looked at the face before him, softly reflecting back.
“That’s why, I love the rain.”
Silence slipped its way back in, unintentionally. And they kept walking through the vibrant street painted in vivid colours. They see Weekend Garage at its usual corner, bathing in sunlight. Just before An pushed the door the bells jingles-
“I think I might like the rain a bit better now. Thank you, Shiraishi.”
She stares back, and for a bit he wonders if he had said something wrong. Until she flashed him a grin.
“Let’s go meet the others!”