Midnight was only a couple of hours away, which was our target release time for the album, but a few songs and animation videos weren't finished yet-
I stayed at HQ with Jun and Miki and, even though they didn't need to, Aya, Tomokazu, and the girls also chose to stay with us.
I walked up and down the stairs, back and forth between the art office and the recording studio. There were several moments I thought we weren't going to make it on time, but Jun and Miki kept reassuring me we were.
With only twenty minutes to spare, Jun glued the last song to its animation and scheduled it, along with the rest of the album.
The nine of us headed to the dance studio, where we sat down on the floor in a circle, anxiously waiting for the clock to hit midnight. The closer the minutes got, the less we talked. Barely any sound echoed in the room throughout the last minute.
Finally, the songs and videos were published, along with the social media posts Aya had prepared. However, the silence continued to encompass the room as we watched the number of streams increase.
A couple of minutes later, posts and messages began to flood our social media accounts. The vast majority praised both the animations and the songs, while the minority commented on the behind-the-scenes content as they watched it. No trace of haters was to be seen… yet.
Out of nowhere, Astra burst, "Yay!" and hugged Umi, who sat next to her. She seemed to dislike it at first, yet she didn't try to break free.
The tension calmed down thanks to Astra, and everyone started to talk again, but the silence returned when Sanae jumped at Tomokazu to hug him. We all stared at them until Sanae realized the room had fallen silent. She moved back, cleared her throat, and turned around to continue talking with the girls, ignoring the awkward silence.
The chatter resumed, while I squinted my eyes at Tomokazu, who merely smiled back at me.
We kept looking at the numbers and messages. The haters didn't take long to appear, but they were nothing compared to the positivity. Useful critics also began to appear, so we made sure to pin them for further analysis another day.
This kept going until three in the morning, which wasn't good since we needed to wake up rather early for the fan meeting later that day.
A van for seven people parked in front of HQ at the exact hour I had rented it for. Only the girls, Butcher, and I hopped in since Aya and Tomokazu had left early for the mall.
Although it was unlikely, I expected the driver to be one of the drivers we had met when we rented the vans from the same company before. Obviously, she wasn't.
The girls chatted throughout the entire drive, while I merely sat in the passenger's seat, listening in silence. I didn't remember the last time I had felt such peace before a big event. It wasn't something bad, yet it felt strange not to have anything to do.
My sanity benefited the most as Aya and Tomokazu took charge of the entire meeting. Not only did they organize the whole event, but they also looked for people to tend the merchandise stalls and made sure that everything was assembled on time.
Meanwhile, my only jobs were to keep everyone on the same channel and take care of the girls' needs during the meeting.
Our jaws dropped when we drove past one of the mall's entrances and saw people lining up outside the building. We didn't believe it was for our meeting at first, but when we saw that a lot of the people were wearing Blostars merchandise, it made it clear that they were here for the meeting.
My chest tightened and butterfly wings fluttered in my stomach; I could only imagine how the girls felt at that moment.
They barely talked as we drove around the mall to the same shipping arrival gate we had entered for our first fan meeting. The van parked between many other trucks, and the same woman from that time was already waiting next to the van.
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She approached us once we got off. "Welcome back, Blostars," she smiled.
"Thank you for receiving us again," I replied. "And thank you for your help."
Even though she didn't know, she helped me a lot with my anxiety attacks. Her words were the initial reason I saw them as anxiety attacks, which led to me telling Aki and finding a therapist. The least I could do was thank her.
Although I couldn't be sure, her short pause and her smile becoming wider were good signs she had understood.
"You're welcome. Please don't let me take more of your time and follow me."
She guided us through the narrow hallway we had walked before. The ventilation and heavy machinery noise slowly fading out were a strange trigger for a moment of déjà vu.
The girls remained silent behind me until we stopped in front of a door.
"This door leads into the mall's square, but I guess you already knew that," the woman smirked. "Remember that you can use the room over there" —she added as she pointed at a door—"to relax away from the crowds, as long as you're okay with a little bit of noise."
I replied, "We are. Thank you for the reminder."
She smiled. "Please don't hesitate to call me if you have any questions or if there are problems." Then she walked back into the hallway.
Meanwhile, the girls hadn't said a single word since we arrived.
"Are you alright?" I asked them.
"Ah, yes," Astra laughed nervously.
Risa added, "We're just mentally preparing to greet that many fans."
"Fair enough," I said. Then through the Talkie app, I asked Aya, "Aya, is it good for the girls to come out now?"
She promptly answered, "Yes, sir."
"Got it," I replied. "Let's get going, then. Butcher, make sure the coast is clear for the girls to come out."
"Right away, young man."
Cheers burst as soon as he walked through the door, but they quickly died down. Only a few seconds later, Butcher spoke through Talkie, "The coast is clear."
"Good."
I pushed the door open for the girls and they walked out in line, but even amidst the deafening cheers and screams, Aki stopped in front of me and leaned her cheek toward my face. Shaking my head with a smile, I leaned forward to kiss her cheek, just for our lips to meet. We both laughed before I pushed her through the door.
The deafening cheers continued as I guided the girls to the platform while they waved back at the fans. Once they stood on the platform, they greeted the fans through microphones and thanked them for their support.
As much as we wanted to announce our tour and that we were going to perform live with Aeryx, we had to hold back. I asked the security guard to unfasten the ribbon fence for the fans to come through and let the meeting begin.
Everything went as planned. The fans wouldn't stop praising the album and asking many questions, the most repeated one being if we were going to do a tour, as if they knew we were going to. Fortunately, the girls were clever enough to make some hints without giving it away.
Something that Tomokazu had come up with only a few days before the meeting, was to hand out signed flyers with special artwork made by Jun.
There were five different designs, one for each of the girls, and all of them contained an access token for the album's deluxe edition, which included the behind-the-scenes content we had recorded and different versions of multiple songs.
Sadly, five hundred flyers weren't enough, so we asked the people that didn't get one to give us their contact information so we could send them something later.
Not only did almost every person buy merchandise after meeting the girls, but a bunch of people that didn't make it into the line also bought stuff, or at least approached to take a look.
Haru stopped by as the meeting was about to end since she had been busy that morning and the first half of the afternoon. She was surprised, to say the least, and she admitted that seeing how big the event was with her own eyes further reassured her to work on the project as soon as her contract with the university expired.
Our streams increased exponentially over the following week. We somehow reached ten million streams in total, getting us into the top twenty of the country and the top one hundred in the entire world for the week.
Although we expected the song Auras to blow up thanks to Aeryx being in it, another song was the one to go viral: Sunbeam Supernova, the song about Astra's past. It made sense since its story was the most unbelievable and the animation video was the most captivating, but we still didn't expect it to get that many streams.
The merchandise sales and overall earnings also increased exponentially, making it safe for everyone to get a long-deserved raise.
In the blink of an eye, I was standing next to the girls in a tunnel. They were about to perform Auras along with Aeryx in front of eight thousand people.