Chapter Text
The backstage was dim apart from the blue light coming from the main venue, behind the closed curtain, the members of BEASTS! were already bickering as always.
"Hey, what if we add another groove to that one part?"
"That would've been useful a week ago when we were still practicing, Bhavesh," Shamil scoffed while tuning his guitar. The massive guy groaned. "You're all so boring! C'mon, there's nothing more fun than some improvisation."
Ellenoire—who's currently doing her last minute make up, decided to respond. "I think that's a wonderful idea, I'm sure it's all going to end well," she said with a carefree smile.
"Until he mess up the competition and gives us embarrassment," Mei commented, which earned her a confused stare from Bhavesh. "Why do you care? I thought your whole thing is that you don't?"
"I was talking about you all."
Shamil decided to look up from his electric guitar to see a handful of people heading towards the stage just as the previous band retreated to the backstage area. People he never saw before, and he has a great memory. Another rookie?
He smirked. "Alright, alright, no harm in having some fun. Do as you please, Big guy!"
"Alright! That's what I'm talking about!"
"Just make sure you don't mess up. I can't be seen with a sloppy drummer in my team, really damaging to my reputation, you know."
"You have no reputation worth salvaging," from the corner of the room, the brooding bassist decided to finally use his vocal chords.
"Shshshsh!! Silas, shut up."
"Very well."
"Wow, look at you. Surprisingly easy to control today. Maybe tonight really is my lucky night!"
He can almost sense Silas' eye twitching, though he couldn't really confirm it himself—as much as he'd like to. Curse that hidden face. "Who knows, maybe you'd even show me your complete face again tonight, been a while."
"No."
"Geez, way to be a buzzkill," he rolled his eyes.
He turned back onto the curtain, taking a peek at the rookies. They look so happy to be here that it's actually a bit insane to think about. It's hard to say that they seem prepared. Well, Shamil always look down on everyone anyway, and he's usually correct.
Nobody has ever reached his standard. BEASTS! were always the band that managed to command the whole crowd. No one in thay venue came to see other bands, they were always searching for the familiar group of five with the chaotic mess of a song. It doesn't matter how hard the next band prepares because they're always undoubtedly ahead of them. Always getting compared to the band put on a pedestal, 'the drum is not as fun as Bhavesh', 'No voice is as ethereal as Elle's!', whatever makes them on top.
To put it simply, it has been far too comfortable in his throne that it had actually went in his head. Practically growing bigger with every praise.
"Surely they won't care if we have a little mishap," he said with a wide, confident grin in his slim face. "They'll eat it up. They always do."
"You say that, and you're still as competitive as always."
He fixed his collar one more time and closed his eyes. "Well, what am i supposed to do as a star if not giving the audience what they want?"
And he's sure tonight will be the same.
Tink…!
His eyes opened back up to the sound of a piano key, followed by another one, then another, and then the other instruments followed suit. A blend of melodies that complements each other in a gentle, yet passionate way instead of delivering a chaotic and magnificent one.
And then an unimaginable thing happened when the chorus hits.
A series of cheers from the hundreds if not thousands of audiences in the crowd, more than they could achieve on a good night, and some random nobodies managed to achieve it in their debut.
"What the hell?!" he whispered sharply to himself, and yet he couldn't cover his ears or turn a blind eye on the unity of the musical instruments.
The guitar was undoubtedly more stabile, more planned. The bass stands out more and in turn it supports the main melody more, too. The drums were structured in every rhythm. The vocals really sold the whole performance, full of confidence and emotion, and the melody of the keyboard was screeching in his ears, every intentionally weird tempo or beat was harassing his cells. It was almost like an insult how disgustingly, revoltingly, nauseatingly beautiful the keys were.
"Wow, I've never heard this voice before, a new band?" Elle asked, pulling her head back from her handheld mirror.
"I didn't catch their name," Mei barely turned around to the source of the symphony. "But they truly can control a crowd."
"We need to focus tonight," Shamil muttered, gripping his guitar pick slightly tighter than usual. His shoulders are tense, they were never tense in any performance, not even their debut.
A few moments passed, none of them made any sound as to truly pay attention to the music played on stage. "It won't hurt to peek, oh I'm so excited to see those talented faces~" Elle finally gave in. She walked to the side of the stage and gently yet subtly peeked to the area.
"Hey, I wanna see those newbies too! Move!" Bhavesh followed her and nearly shoved her aside to get a comfortable spot himself. "What purpose does looking at other groups serve to you?" Mei mumbled, yet she followed as well.
Soon enough all of the members of BEASTS! were cooped out comically, one head on top of another, looking straight at the commanding presences. On stage, there were around four people—two girls and two boys.
On the electric guitar was a short, golden blonde-haired girl that seems to be awfully confident in every move she makes, it kinda reminds them of Shamil when he gets lost in his solo.
On the bass was a toned guy with dark skin and black hair and white streakswho seems really focused on his playing too. He's got that serious look on his face that seeped into his strummings. He looks like he was born to play the bass, or the bass was made to be played by him.
"Everyone, clap your hands!" shouted the drummer, which the crowd obeyed. A girl that looked obviously passionate in her every move, The kind of person who's energy will bleed out to everyone in the room—and seems like Elle's included.
"Oh my~ look at her face," she puts a hand over her mouth in admiration. "I wonder if she ever gets tired from having so much energy…"
"Alright, we've looked enough, now why dont we get on going with our warm up? We're up next, geniuses," Shamil pulled his head away from the stack, and then the instrumental break was done and he hesitated in his spot. As the vocal performance kicks back into full force, he turned back. 'Just once look and then I'll stop,' he thought.
Thump!
His eyes landed on the source, and it felt like his heart skipped a massive beat, like a huge gust of wind just attacked him. The keyboardist and vocalist, managing two roles is not a rare thing to happen in a band, but that boy is truly something else.
The stage light did an obvious justice to his appearance, making his short, blond hair looks almost golden. The light bounces off his tan skin, making his smile stand out brightly as he sang. His fingers glided delicately across every piano key as if playing it doesn't require effort at all. Most importantly, he looks like he's the happiest man in the room. Not only that, his voice contains much more emotion than what he poured onto his guitar playing. More…passion.
It was like seeing the sun. The real sun.
────୨ৎ────
"Thank you for listening to us, everyone!" the finale was marked by a huge round of applause from the crowd, cheering followed loud enough that his eardrums could probably rupture from it—if it hasn't already after being in close proximities with a handful of loud instruments. But it felt nice, it felt like his chest cavities were being filled up with warmth.
As his friends and him waved to the crowd one more time, they headed backstage.
"That went surprisingly well," he said, pushing up his glasses. Just seconds after that, he received a pat in the back from Holly that managed to push his glasses back to the tip of his nose. "Surprisingly well? That was amazing, Vanille!"
"I didn't think we would gather that much crowd, though. Huh, i guess we ought to give ourselves some more credits! I'll treat us to dinner!" Gilda crosses her arm with a confident smirk.
"I appreciate it as always, Gilda. Good work," Dae-Cheol replied.
"Psh, it's not a big deal," the reply seems to be feeding into her pride. "I've always expected it to go well."
"Of course. You did amazing on your guitar tonight," Vanille smiled. Gilda smirked, "Of course, of course, I've been practicing an awful lot, you know? Even outside of our meet up!"
Dae-Cheol glanced at the blond boy, his eyebrows furrowing for a split second before returning to their original state. He turned to the shorter boy. "You did well, too, Vanille. On the keyboard…and the vocals. I'm sure it wasn't easy, especially after she… you know."
The boy kept his eyes closed like always, but his smile faltered for a fraction of a second—taken aback by his tone of voice. "Thank you, my friend. You too," his smile returned. The taller man crosses his arms and let out a deep breath, but he soon followed Vanille.
"Let's go! To the diner it is!"
Thud!
"Ah! I'm really sorry—" he exclaimed as he landed on the floor. The guy he bumped into, on the other hand, seemed fine. He looked up to see his heterochromic eyes staring at him with an expression he can't quite read.
"Vanille, are you okay?" Dae-Cheol immediately gave him a hand, which the blond accepted.
"Yeah, thank you… uhm- again, im so sorry," he turned his face back to the boy.
"Yeah, whatever. Just watch where you're going next time. You're going to ruin my outfit."
"…okay, then. Good luck with your performance!" he smiled again. Does this guy ever get tired of smiling? It actually filled Shamil's guts with disgust.
"Shoo now," he flicks the air rapidly and left with his bandmates to enter the stage, not before probably intentionally bumping his shoulder to his, leaving Vanille furrowing his eyebrows.
"Wow, rude," Gilda commented. "If I were you, I'd make a scene right here right now."
Holly laughed. "That's most likely impossible for Vanille to do."
Vanille turned back to look at her. "He looks cool! I wonder what kind of song he'd play…"
"Ehhhh, I'd guess some variations of metal. C'mon now, Vanille! Let's go celebrate L;ghts!!'s debut for real!" Gilda took Vanille's hand and happily dragged him alongside her.
Shamil stepped onto the stage, to his usual spot. His posture was straighter than usual, his shoulders squared and his lips pressed tight. He took a harsh breath and didn't bother going with a greeting, instead resorting to immediately shredding his guitar strings at lightning fast speed.
"What the—?!" a taken-aback Bhavesh immediately began his drumming.
"I guess we're doing it now," Mei mumbled.
The crowd erupted into a loud cheer, barely more than the previous performance. Barely enough. He didn't look up from his electric guitar, completely dividing himself from the environment into a realm full of chords and refrains.
Sweat began to show up on his temple thanks to the stage light above him, which cast a shadow on his face due to him looking down. But he can barely feel the heat as he kept on doubling down on his rhythm. His hand rotating faster between chords as he entered his guitar solo sequence, his dyed blue hair bouncing to his movement followed by his fans cheering him on and screaming.
When he finally looked up, his slit pupils scanned the crowd obsessively, looking for that boy. That sun. And there he was, even with his bangs covering a good chunk of his vision, he can still see him. Standing just near the entrance, watching his performance with his lips parted. His eyes were closed, he's starting to think he couldn't see his performance after all. He wondered what color those irises are.
A strained grin broke its way onto his face.
'See? I'm always better. I'm always the star here,' he thought to himself. 'You're nothing! You're just some rock in my shoes.'
His hand moved increasingly harsh across his strings, strumming with increased violence in an attempt to make his sounds louder, to regain some semblance of control. And perhaps to put his rival in his place.
'Now open those eyes and really see it for yourself.'
Shamil Lovelace was always the center of the stage, and no one is allowed to be in the same spot as him. He's the main character, everyone else are only allowed to be his audience.