Kashiwagi has graciously invited us to the studio the following Sunday. It was the perfect time since most of the professional musicians liked to record during the week. The five of us found our way downtown from our homes and assembled outside the building. It was a tall and thin place squished between two larger warehouses, away from anywhere that would require regular silence.

Kashiwagi was awaiting our arrival by the door, “It’s so good to finally meet all of you. And thank you for agreeing to come along.”

“No problem,” Johnny smirked, “I told you that Miyako would come through.”

“What are you, my producer?”

Kashiwagi laughed and waved us inside, “I’ll show you to the studio. The technician is excited to meet you especially.”

“Me? Why would she be excited to meet me?”

I didn’t receive an answer from Kashiwagi. You climbed up the stairs and entered the first door on the left. There was a small lobby area with enough seats for five or six people, and two more doors that presumably led into the business end of the studio. Kashiwagi was quick to excuse the size of the place, “You can fit a lot into a very small space these days. We have a fully professional, industry standard recording studio in here.”

He opened the first door. Inside was a set of chairs and a huge multi-tiered panel covered with knobs and buttons and sliders. A punkish woman was swinging on her seat, she gave Kashiwagi a thumbs up as he walked inside, “These are the troublemakers huh?” she smirked. She had bleached blonde hair with dark roots and pierced ears. She stood and shook my hand, before going around the team and giving them the same treatment.

“You’ve got that look in your eyes.”

“That look?”

“The look of someone who doesn’t take any crap from anyone, I like it. I’m a big fan – I saw that video of you showing that guy who was boss.”

I blushed, “Ugh.”

“Don’t be so ashamed of it! You did a good thing for all the women out there. Those playboys will think twice before pulling anything like that again.”

Kashiwagi interrupted, “This is Mina. She’s the head technician here at the studio. As you can see, she was very excited to work with you.”

“Damn right. I’m the only one here today, so go easy on me. I’m not a young woman like you,” she smirked.

Matoi leant against the back wall, “What’s the operating procedure here?”

Mina pointed through the window into the other room. There were several instruments set up and plugged into various placed in the walls. “We’ve got a bunch of good instruments already set up for you. Usually we give the bands time to hash some things out, but Kashiwagi tells me that you already have some material ready to play.”

“Miyako’s taking the lead on this one,” Kei nodded, “Well, she’s the creative brain behind the songs we have ready.”

“And you’re happy with them?”

The rest of the guys nodded. There was a lot of back and forth in the club room over what we should use. I took their words seriously. I was at the head, but this was still a team operation. I didn’t want to force them to make anything they didn’t want to. We pulled apart the lyrics and chords several dozen times and drilled them to a fine point.

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It was embarrassing to say the least.

But a bit of temporary embarrassment was nothing if the end result was us being able to offer Shinsuke something. Me and Johnny were on the same page, but the rest of the band didn’t know why I’d accepted this offer yet. The last problem that faced us, aside from trying to sell the EP to anybody who had the cash, was getting around the school’s rules about clubs not being allowed to make money.

There wasn’t one.

If my stupid plan were to work, I needed to attach my face to the project so my star power could rub off on it. And if I did that the staff would inevitably find out and bust us. The penalty was the disbandment of the club. But with graduation on the horizon, and final exams around the corner. We had a slim window of opportunity to take advantage of us being together.

One last hurrah for the club that had kept me company since I started…

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the club and the guys in it had shaped a large part of my high school life. I wanted to do something that we could all remember each other by, because I was under no illusions that we’d come apart at the end. The modern world made it hard to keep up with each other. I wanted to do something for Shinsuke.

Mina clapped her hands together, “Alright. I’ll be able to give you directions from in here. So just go through and get yourselves set up.”

The band filed through the doors and into the recording area. This was professional gear, Kashiwagi hadn’t sold us short that was for sure. I stood in front of the microphone like an awkward weed and gathered my courage. Mina’s voice came through the speakers in each corner of the room. “Okay. If you’re happy with your instruments, let’s get started.”

I collapsed onto my bed. The session had gone smoothly, and we’d gotten most of the way to making the first track in the EP. We had four in mind. Mina had told us that the later songs would go smoother as we got more experience. I heard someone clearing their throat. Reina was stood in the doorway looking sheepish.

“What’s up?”

“Would you like to study with me? I have taken over the dining room.”

“Sure.” I gathered my books. The truth was that I was slacking somewhat with my studies. I was never bad at them, but Reina was the best. She was nearly at the top of the board for every exam. I sat down next to Reina and put my head down.

“Are you worried about your exams?” she asked me.

“Not really. I like to keep my head when they’re coming up. It doesn’t help me to start panicking about them.”

“That is a good attitude, if you temper it with study. Do not become so relaxed that you feel you can take them on without effort.”

“I’ve been studying! We’ve decided to put club on hold until they’re done. We’ve been meeting on Sunday anyway.”

“What for?”

“A farewell project. This is the last year we’ll be together after all.”

Reina chewed on the end of her pencil, “How do you feel about things?”

“Things?”

“Over the past few months, since you…”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you feel like you need to prove something to me, or yourself?”

Reina knew she was treading on dangerous territory by asking me this again. My previous reaction when we tried to have this talk was evidence enough. I felt bad about it, but I still wanted Reina to understand my perspective.

“There’s a lot of things that I’m not used to yet. But if you’re asking me to quantify why things feel wrong to me, that’s a rabbit hole that I can’t put into words. Not even for you.”

“I don’t pretend to know how you’re feeling Miyako. But I don’t think it’s incorrect to assert that you were suffering from something and may still be even now.”

“I miss my Grandmother.” Reina tensed up. I spoke under my breath to make sure that nobody but her could hear me, “Okay? I feel like I left her behind. She did all that work raising me, and looking after me, and then it got taken away from her after she died.”

Reina tapped against the table and looked down, her neatly trimmed bangs framing her face. “She’d have wanted you to be happy though. Wouldn’t she?”

I nodded, “That’s right. But the point stands. She’s gone. I can’t tell anybody except you how much she meant to me.” The conversation had been snuffed out. I didn’t feel a need to prove myself right against Reina. I appreciated her concern for my wellbeing. We whittled away the evening hours trying to cram our brains with everything we needed to know, and I hoped that it’d push some of that worry out with it.