The next morning, Jules and Ara were waiting for the elevators when they saw Dominic and the others walked out of their room.

“Ah, good mor—” Ara was about to greet when Jules covered her mouth and hoped for the elevator door to open immediately. As it did, Jules pushed them inside right away and spammed the close button. Ara saw the other guys nearly caught up with them, but when they did, the door was only less than a few centimeters open.

“Jules just kidnapped Ara.” She heard someone say from the corridor before the door fully closed and she looked up and caught a sliver of Dominic.

“What’s up with them? Why are they all up so early?” Jules said and looked to Ara who started to stand up from the floor. “I’m sorry about that, are you okay?” He lent a hand and she took it up. She laughed a little at the sudden turn of events.

“Do you really hate them that much?”

“I just want a peaceful morning, is that really too much to ask?” He looked at the floor indicator. “We have to walk fast and hide once we leave the lobby, alright?”

“What?”

“Okay, let’s go.” Jules fast walked down the lobby and Ara almost broke into a jog. They nearly made it out of the building when they heard the doors of another elevator open and when they looked back, it was Dominic and the others. “Run.” Jules said as he broke into a run and Ara followed closely behind him.

“Jules, Ara! Let’s run after them.” Ara heard Dominic tell the others.

Jules and Ara ran through the silent morning streets, closely followed by the rest of the band behind them. Jules held onto her wrist tightly and their backpacks bounced with every step. Soon, they reached the train station and easily entered with their cards. A train was pulling up and Jules willed for them to make it. However, the doors closed before they could make it.

They fell in a lump on the floor and soon, the others caught up with them.

“Are you alright, Ara?” Ram kneeled in front of her and didn’t look troubled by the sudden running at all.

“I’m fine.” Ara was trying very hard to catch her breath but did not want to leave his question unanswered. She looked and saw only Ram, Vince and Reo. Looking behind Ram, she found that Dominic was still stuck behind the train’s gates and was buying a train ticket.

“What was that all about, Jules?” Reo steadied his breaths as his hands rested on his knees.

“Ahh.” Jules sprawled out on the floor in frustration.

“Jules, are you okay?” Ara quickly became concerned. Soon, a patrolling employee asked if they were alright and Jules embarrassedly stood up and apologized for causing inconvenience.

“I’m very sorry about that.”

“Okay, please refrain from doing it again.” The employee left them at that.

“Thank you very much.” Ara told him as he left.

“Jules, what the hell?” Dominic has managed to buy a ticket and has caught up with them.

“You, what are you doing?”

“I was a little suspicious and boy was I right. You’ve been keeping Ara to yourself.”

“Ha?”

“That’s not fair. We also want to go to school with Ara too.” Reo spoke for the group.

“We can all go to school together now, although I hope you’re okay with using a train.” Ara told Reo.

“Of course.” Reo said.

They fell in line and realized that there were quite a few stares their way. Soon, the train arrived and they got in. It was the liveliest train ride Ara ever had. It was so different from the peaceful ones she’s had with Jules, but Ara didn’t think it was bad.

“Oh, so this is the train you used as the location for Jules’ photos last time, huh?” Reo observed.

“Yes, that is right.” Ara answered

“Let’s always go to school together like this, together from now on?” Reo proposed which the others immediately reacted to.

“No way.” Jules immediately disagreed.

“Maybe sometimes is okay.” Vince considered.

“I’m fine as long as Jules’ isn’t with us.” Dominic proposed.

“All of you are too noisy.” Ram complained.

Soon, they got a little too much stares and some coughs that soon the group fell into silence with no conclusion for tomorrow’s plans.

They all arrived safely at school, and the walk proved to be so much nicer than the sudden run from earlier. It was a little noisier, but it was also a lot easier and less tiring.

 

***

 

During the after-school’s practice, Ara came during their break to bring them some refreshments. She set her camera down on a corner table and personally delivered a drink to each member.

“Hey Ara, do you know any classical pieces?” Reo was sat down in front of the keyboard.

“Hm?” She gave him his drink and he thankfully set it to the side for now.

“I’ll play you one, do you want to hear?”

“On the piano?” Ara thought that Reo played the bass. But then again, Jules does play the drums and the bass too.

“Of course. Well?”

“I would love to.” Reo pulled a chair beside his and Ara sat down.

Reo began playing, a piece that started slow and simple, relaxed and high. However, it soon progressed and Ara was surprised at how Reo played the piano so beautifully and exactly. She could see his fingers and it looked as though it flew. Ara always thought that since Reo was younger, he’d have a much smaller hand than hers, but his long and slender fingers seemed to reach keys so distant from each other so easily.

It did not seem like a happy song. It was so different from the usual happy energy Reo had and gave. She wondered if the feelings she sensed was just from the music or from Reo himself.

It was distinct from what she’s heard the band play all this time. She was used to the loud sound of multiple instruments coming together that she could hear them from even the farthest corner of the room. Their music captivated her. But this lone instrument piece Reo played so carefully and softly one had to listen closely also captivated her too.

The room was silent even after Reo finished. The notes still floated on the air like the iridescence of bubbles descending into the light, slowly popping until every single one finally vanished.

“How was it?” Reo asked after a while. He looked nervous.

“That was so beautiful, Reo. I did not know that you could play the piano like that.”

“Reo,” Vince came over and looked apprehensively at him.

“I’m fine, Vince. This time, I wanted to do it.”

“Is there any problem?” Ara sensed Vince’s worry.

“Nope, nothing to be worried about. I wanna hear more, what did you really think?”

“Describe the music?” Ara asked and Reo nodded. “Well, it somehow felt like night when you were playing. Maybe because it was soft and calm, silent like a night alone with just the moon.”

“You got it, Ara.”

“I got what?”

“It’s Clair de Lune, the piece I just played. It means ‘moonlight.’”

“It’s a lovely piece, Reo. I should love to hear you play it again sometime.”

“Next time I’ll let you hear it on a proper piano.”

“Reo,” Vince started again.

“This one is perfectly fine.” Ara’s hand motioned over the keyboard.

“It’s also for you too, Vince. I’m playing for everyone.”

“Play it for yourself, I don’t need to hear it.” Vince’s footsteps sounded a little heavier as he walked away to throw his bottle.

“Is everything alright?” Ara looked away from Vince and turned to Reo. He smiled at her as usual, but it felt heavy.

“Yup, Vince’s probably just worried for no reason again.”

“You ready to get back on bass, Reo?” Dominic walked over to them.

“Of course.” Reo stood up. Ara followed and carried the chair she sat on away. Reo walked back to where he placed his bass and Vince sat at the same seat Reo was just in.

“Can I take some photos of you for today? Then we can caption it as preparing for your live this week.” Ara took her camera.

“Of course, you don’t really need to ask us that every single time, you know.” Dominic told her.

“Thank you.” She said and she reviewed the roll first when she saw that there were some photos that were not hers. It seemed that someone had played around with the camera. They didn’t look bad, and as it was taken by the members themselves, she was sure that Kim would be delighted to use them.

 

***

 

The week passed more quickly than Ara could anticipate. Every day, the boys practiced hard that when Thursday night came, Clarissa personally dropped by to stop them. She had a feeling that the boys might end up trying to practice way beyond reasonable hours and she was right.

It was already nine in the evening but they still haven’t had dinner yet. She sent them to their apartment and they had no choice but to follow. Ara has just started packing up the food she has finished a couple hours back into lunchboxes to bring to the practice room when the door opened and they came in.

“Oh, welcome back.” She greeted them and easily switched what she was doing.

“So this is what having a mother feels like.” Ram slipped.

“You mean a cute wife.” Dominic corrected.

“Nah, a caring older sister.” Reo disagreed.

“She’s not any of those.” Jules disagreed with all of them.

“Then, what is she?” Vince asked.

“No one.”

“That’s harsh, Jules. She’s like family at this point.” Clarissa hugged Ara from behind which surprised her a lot.

“That’s harassment, let her go Clarissa.” Dominic pointed out. Ara looked to them and saw Vince flinched. She blinked and wondered if it was just her imagination.

“No way, you just want to hug her like this, don’t you?” Clarissa countered and Dominic was not able to reply immediately.

“At least, I think she’s like a cook and photographer to us.” Vince said after a while to Jules. Ara had finished bringing back the casserole over to the table.

“Dinner’s ready, everyone.” Clarissa called out although most were already seated on the table anyway. “Hurry up, you two.” She told Vince and Jules who sat in the couch. They obeyed, but ever so slowly that the rest were not thrilled about.

After a while, Clarissa seemed to remember something as they ate.

“Right, about dinner for tomorrow night. Since we’re playing in a place that serves food as well, we won’t have to worry about that.” Clarissa announced.

“By the way, this place is okay for minors right?” Jules asked.

“Um…”

“Clarissa?” Dominic looked at his sister judgingly. “Everyone here except me’s legal, you know.”

“Yes, I know. About that, it’s usually a place for grown-ups but my friend has decided to make it open to everyone for the nights you’re performing in. So, you don’t need to worry about that and they won’t be serving alcohol during that time too.”

“Just say so, earlier.” Ram said. Ram almost never spoke before, so it warmed Ara’s heart to hear him speak his mind a little more recently. Even if it was usually just these one-liners or so every dinnertime.

“It was a nice little way to tease you guys.”

“Or you just forgot for a second.” Jules said.

“I really did not, this time. Also, it is because we have announced about it, so of course they’re expecting a whole lot of younger customers too.”

“I hope their food’s as good as yours, Ara.” Reo turned to Ara who was beside him.

“Oh no, I’m sure their food’s a lot better. I can’t wait to try it too.”

Later that night, Lily talked with Ara for a long time about how excited she was to finally see them play live for the first time.

Unlike you who gets to see them practice whenever you feel like it, I’ll finally only get to see the live version of their songs tomorrow.

Boy, I’m so ready for everyone.

Except Ram.

Ara’s phone popped up with a new message every few seconds or so.

I think you’ll really like it. Everyone works so hard every day too. Even Ram. I’m sure you’ll like Ram on stage too. Ara sent.

 

***

 

On Friday lunch break, it seemed that there were a lot more people who knew about their band than Ara had expected. She heard snippets of conversations every now and then about their first live performance later that night in the cafeteria. She noticed that they were mostly upperclassmen and she realized that it must be due to Dominic and Jules. She wondered if the two girls who asked her about Ram from before would be able to go to later as well.

“I’m pretty sure that’s a girl beside Reo in the picture.”

“You think so?”

She heard a couple of girls talked a few tables away from her table with Lily.

“That’s probably just a personal assistant or something.”

“How lucky.”

“But, why would she be sitting down besides Reo?”

“Seems sus, right?”

“Eh, don’t mind that, instead, think about this clearly. Does this mean Reo can play the piano too?”

“Right? I’ve been wondering the same too.”

“Ahh, I wanna hear him play.”

Indeed, Reo played the piano magnificently.

Soon enough, the school day ended as well, even with an impromptu class visit from their adviser after class. Ara rushed out as soon as he was done when a familiar car lowered its windows as she walked on the sidewalk.

“Ara, get in.” Dominic said and she saw that behind him, everyone else was already inside too.

“Okay.” She said and he opened the door to let her in.

It was truly happening tonight.

 

*****

 

“Ara, I’m here.” Lily said as she raised an arm and walked towards her friend. Ara spotted her and gave her a welcoming smile. She had one hand on her phone and the other held her camera carefully. They walked inside the restaurant together. There was a good number of people around, although it was not as much as what Lily expected.

“There are so many people.” Ara looked around and seemed nervous, even though she wasn’t the one performing.

“Not at all. I was expecting more. It’s understandable though, they’re barely starting after all.”

“Unfortunately, I won’t be able to stay with you in the audience later Lily. Are you sure you don’t want to be with me backstage?” Ara said as they sat on a table.

“Nope, that wouldn’t feel right. I’ll be fine here, and it’s part of the experience to listen from the front you know.” Lily assured her friend. Soon, Ara had to leave and a spotlight shone on stage. A man, the owner of the restaurant walked to the microphone in front and introduced the night’s performing guest. Lily felt excited to see the instruments behind him.

“Good evening everyone, tonight’s guest performers are new blood. Most of them are quite young, so I hope that dear customers, even though they’re the reason we won’t be serving alcoholic drinks for tonight and tomorrow, you’ll give them a warm round of applause.” He said and a couple of chuckles from older patrons and giggles from younger ones echoed in the air. “Ladies and gentlemen, finally doing their first ever live especially with you as their audience, Sunset Bay City.” He led the customers into a round of applause. Lily joined them along.

Dom bounced up on stage right away and waved. He was as dashing as Lily had pictured him to be. The rest took their place and for the first time, Lily saw the other members. On stage, Ram didn’t seem as evil as he is in real life.

“Hello everyone, we’re Sunset Bay City. We have a practiced introduction, but my members will kill me in my sleep if I made them do it.” Dom said and got a few laughs from the audience. Everyone wanted to hear their introduction. He handled the audience like a seasoned performer, as though this was not their first time.

“So I’ll introduce everyone instead, I’m Dom, this serious looking guy on guitar is Ram, but he’s just really passionate so no need to get scared. And then we have an adorable Reo on bass, very young but you won’t know that from his playing. Another serious, silent guy named Vince on keys who’s also young but has practiced a lot just for you guys. And then, finally, stupid Jules on the drums.” Dom introduced.

Lily and the audience laughed as they heard a very angry Jules yell a curse at Dom. Jules didn’t have a microphone on him but everyone heard him clearly.

“Please forgive his rudeness, he ain’t half-bad on the drums I promise.” He strummed a chord. “Okay, so for our next song, this is something that we’ve posted a trial version of some months back. We’re not very good at it yet, but we help write our songs. I hope you’ll like this one.” He said and closed his eyes. Lily saw him tap his feet four times and they started playing.

Everyone, including Lily gave them cheers right away. Lily was surprised by how much better they sounded live. There really are things that a simple video just can’t capture. More importantly, maybe it was because Lily had been judging Ram warily all this time, but he caught her eye more than any other.

He has been singing back-up for vocals but the moment he had his guitar solo in the bridge, Lily was unable to take his eyes off him for the rest of their set. It was more than his playing, he really blew her away with the intensity that radiated from him. Lily’s heart had been beating loudly because of the reverberations that resounded in the place, but even then, Lily could immediately tell that there was another reason for the quickening pace as well.

Despite her parents being well and slive, she had few memories with them in her childhood. Among these rare ones was that afternoon with her father. He was home that day due to a fever and Lily stayed by his bed to look after him.

“Lily, you know what you should never do?” He said when he woke up with a tear running down from his eye into the pillow. He must have woken up from a sad dream. “You’d do well if you never fall in love with a musician.”

“Yes?”

“You see, with musicians, they’re always bound to leave you. After all, they’ll be singing from place to place and meeting many new people. They’re like birds who need to be free and sing after all, and it’d be cruel to try and cage a bird. You’d just turn out to be the villain. On the other end, you’ll just be in pain the whole time if you try to endure it. Promise me, Lily, that you’ll never fall in love with a musician alright?”

“Sure, papa.” Lily easily agreed.

She was only twelve then and falling in love was the last thing on her mind. However, she grew up to like music and fell in love with some new artist every single day. But it was just really admiration more than anything. Like a lot of fangirls, she had favorites and had daydreams of meeting members, although it was never really something serious.

“Aw man, I can’t believe Ram might actually turn out to be my favorite after all.” Lily muttered to herself. It seemed that Ram was a case of something that was cool as a concept but awful to live with in real life, Lily thought. “It’s not like it changes things, I hate the schoolmate Abram but I guess I can accept that he’s just a bit cooler as SBC’s main guitarist Ram.”

That should clear it up, Lily concluded.

 

“OMG Ara, they were all even better than I expected. They’ve all improved so much.” Lily hopped up and down when Ara came back to check on her after the band’s run.

“I’m so glad you enjoyed it.”

“Definitely.” Lily indeed had a huge grin. “You know, I’m extra happy too.” She said a little more calmly.

“Hm? What do you mean, Lily?”

“Well, this is the first time I get to talk to someone right after an event. Usually I’d only just chat you about it but you didn’t really understand me then, right? So I’m happier now since we got to watch something together.”

“I’m very happy I got to meet them too. Although, it’s thanks to you I was able to appreciate them.” Ara told her.

“There you are, Ara, come on we’re having a little dinner party backstage.” A tall woman walked toward them. “Oh, is this a friend? Come, you’re invited now too.”

“Huh?” Lily didn’t know the woman but she was very pretty and seemed to command power.

“Clarissa, this is my friend Lily. Lily, this is Clarissa, the band’s manager and my landlady.”

“It’s roommate, Ara. Anyway, nice to meet you Lily, come with us. That’s right, you’re walking in the right direction indeed.” Clarissa put her arms around both girls’ shoulders and led them backstage. Lily’s heart thumped at the thought of meeting the actual band. She has accepted that the closest she will ever get to one as a fan is through seeing them in performances.

“Ara, I got a plate for you.” The cute one on keys, Reo welcomed them. “Who is she, Ara?” He asked shyly when he noticed Lily.

“This is—”

“Wait, let me get a plate for you too.” Reo interrupted.

“I’ll get it.” Vince, the other younger member said before Reo could run away.

“Thanks.” Reo said and Vince simply waved a hand.

“I’ll just go talk to my friend, the owner. Behave yourselves here, boys.” Clarissa said and left.

“This is my friend, Lily. She’s a big fan of the band.” Ara introduced.

“Nice to meet you, Lily. I’m Reo.”

“Yes, nice to meet you too, Reo.” Lily tried to keep her calm and thought that these were just simply students she was meeting, really nothing more than that.

“Ooh, it’s the friend from before. So your name’s Lily, nice to meet you, I’m Dom.” Dom introduced himself as well. Ara then introduced her to the rest of the members.

“Oh, it’s you.” Ram said as he has just returned and came in with a plate full of food. Indeed, these were just classmates. Suddenly, the illusion of Ram that she had on stage was broken and she was reminded of the true nature of the guy.

“Yes, it’s me. Ara really said that you were great on stage, but you seemed just pretty normal up there to me.” Lily was irked at Ram’s smug attitude. The other guys jumped on him because of Lily’s statement.

“You’re the one that needs to practice after all Ram, not me.” Dominic laughed.

“Here you go.” Vince gave her a plate.

“Thank you.” Lily said and the girls went over to get some food on their own. There was quite a good selection on the table set-up.

“What’s wrong, Ara?” Lily found Ara looking at the food very closely. “Don’t like anything?”

“Ah no, that’s not it. I was just wondering how to cook something like this. Everyone had this on their plate, so maybe they all like it.” Ara inspected a meat based dish with some sauce on the side.

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“Maybe they’d like it for dinner one day.”

“It’s not like you’re cooking for them.”

“Only on dinners.” Ara said which made Lily turn her head so fast, she hurt her neck.

“What? Does that mean you’re living with them in that Ms. Clarissa’s apartment?”

“Oh no, it’s only me and Clarissa in her apartment. They’re next door, though so we end up having dinners together.”

“What? Ara, you didn’t tell me about this when you said you moved in. But why are you cooking for them, is it a part of your contract as well?”

“Nothing like that, Clarissa won’t accept me paying so I thought this might be the only way for me to at least thank her for letting me stay in her place.” Ara smiled. Lily found it unfair, she couldn’t argue when Ara smiled so contentedly like that.

“Come on Ara, aren’t you guys done yet?” Reo called out and they both turned to see that the rest of the guys haven’t started eating yet.

“Yes, we’re coming now.” Ara took Lily’s free hand. “Let’s go?” She said and Lily nodded.

They took their place, and Ara seemed to fit right in. Maybe Lily felt a little jealous, but the sight of obvious familiarity between the members and Ara made Lily happier for her friend.