His plan had worked, at least for now, as they finished up the song. Hakuta couldn’t say it was a song he had ever heard of, but the people like it and he enjoyed that he got to sing with Ino. It was not a moment he ever thought he’d share with the girl, Especially considering they were both in swimsuits. But it was a positive one nonetheless.
“Thank you.” She spoke on the microphone once the song ended. The crowd gave them good applause as the pair gave a bow. “We hope you enjoyed.”
“Right.” He followed her up. “I hope you liked our little show.” Hakuta took a deep breath as he looked around. There was another problem to bring his mood down in an instant. “I still don’t see any sign of that idol.” He spoke to her.
“I don’t know if we can keep this going.” She replied. While the people enjoyed their performance. They were both fully aware they were not the reason people wanted to wait around. There was still the promise of a real popular idol and so far it hadn’t been delivered. “They’re going to find out sooner or later.”
They both got worried, but fortunately their concerns didn’t need to last long. Suddenly they began to hear the sounds of a song beginning. For a moment, it seemed as though another song from the game machine had already been selected, but a quickly glance at the projector screen proved nothing had changed.
Instead, when they looked over at the boy and where the projector itself was. It appeared he gave them a thumbs up as he set up the other machine the projector was originally supposed to be for. This was the moment where everything turned around as the spotlights turned from the pair and towards somewhere around the outskirts of the party.
A girl’s voice began to sing in perfect harmony the first lyrics of a beautiful song. The audience erupted in cheers when they realized who it was as they turned their attention to the idol who was adorn in a lovely outfit. In the light, her blue hair glowed like the ocean lit under the full moon’s shine.
“Wow, she really made it.” Ino said as their 15 minutes of fame were now over. They had gone from being the center of attention to barely even being a part of the crowd. “I can’t believe that girl-” She was about to speak more with him, but Hakuta cut her off when he grabbed her arm. He took her quickly to behind the stage and they hide themselves away be rushing down some steps.
“Phew, she’s probably about to hit the stage. So we shouldn’t get in her way.” He finally broke his silence once they were free. The boy disabled his microphone and made sure she did the same. Not that anyone would be able to hear them through them as not only was the crowd too loud, but also because the game had been turned off. So their mics were useless.
“Good thinking.” She complimented him as her heart still rushed from the adrenaline on having to sing on stage with him. Even though she was used to attention, it was an entirely different thing when she wasn’t in control of the situation, in control of her ability on what she could say.
“Sorry I ended up dragging you into that.” He commented as they peered out to the stage. There they saw the idol take her rightful place as everyone else took out light sticks and other celebratory items people brought along for concerts. “Yep, they really came for her.” He said, making a remark on how none of these things were present when they were on stage.
“I’m the one who said I was joining you.” She responded. “You didn’t force me to do anything. I can make my own choices.”
“Still, you wouldn’t have had to make that choice if I wasn’t acting so rash.” He couldn’t help but feel bad that it could’ve ended rather poorly for her. She was the one who had much more to lose compared to him. “She wasn’t even that late, we could’ve just waited for 10 minutes and everything would’ve been fine.”
“Everything’s still fine now.” She turned him around and closed away the curtain so no wandering eyes could spot them no matter how hard they tried. “I want to make sure you know that I couldn’t be happier that I was able to do that with you.”
“Really?” He replied in shock. Hakuta never viewed himself as someone people would want to share a special moment with. “Well, it was a lot of fun being able to do that with you.”
“In fact, I want to give you a present.” Said Ino. “Close your eyes and I’ll give it to you.”
“A present?” He looked to her left and right bewildered. Considering her outfit, there was no way she could be hiding a gift for him. Not to mention that how could she have already gotten him something after what they had just done. “Okay, I will.” Hakuta shut his eyes, seeing the shades of light from the show going behind them as they illuminated past his eye lids. “But I don’t know what you-”
He was cut off from his sentence when he felt the soft touch of her lips onto his cheeks. Even though it was a small peck, he could feel her meekness shine through onto his skin, making him speechless. After a short moment, he no longer felt her touch. Then afterward, slowly opened his eyes, his face feeling the burn of the hot summer sun even though it had long since set.
“I hope you don’t take my thank the wrong way.” When he saw her face again, he could see the rosy blush of embarrassment on the girl. “It’s not just for the concert, it’s for everything you’ve done for me today. I really can’t thank you enough. You did that even after I was being a jerk.”
“That’s nothing.” He tried to downplay it, but it was impossible to hide away the growing smile on his face. “It was kind of mean, but I’ve been through worse.” If he were upset with her actions, then he might as well not have any friends at all considering who he put close to him. “And I’m happy that at least you’re cool with me again.”
“To be honest, I was always feeling so torn about it.” She replied. “I’ve always wanted to be a friend of yours, but I just reserved myself the whole time. Then when you started hanging out with those girls, I thought there was no way it would work.”
“Hey, I’m a pretty multifaceted guy.” He laughed, though it was hard to hear his laughter, let alone his voice, from how loud the stage and crowd were next to them. “I like to think I can like plenty of different things.” Hakuta certainly never would’ve imagined being friends with a bunch of gyarus, but apparently them and a gamer like him was a much better match than anyone could’ve imagined.
The boy peered through the curtain slightly once more while thinking of those girls. He was able to see his group of friends getting practical front row seats to this show. They all appeared to be dancing along to the music as the show played on.
The one person out of all them where his eyes wandered to first was Shiuka. She was having fun with everyone else, but from his point of view, when she believed no one was watching her. He got the idea her eyes continued to wander about as if looking for someone. It was subtle, but enough to give that she only enjoyed this about 99 percent of the way. That was one only one missing part to make everything perfect. “We should rejoin the others.” He said without thinking.
“Wait.” He began walking to get around the stage so that they would be able to get to the crowd with out getting in the way of the performance. This was where Ino grabbed his arm to stop him. “I was hoping that maybe… We could just watch from back here. Just the two of us.”
“You want to stay here?” He was surprised to hear her make the suggestion, but then realized that his group of friends were not hers. She would be a little left out once they came back to the other, more likely to hang around the student council president. Therefore they would separate once back to their respective groups. “We can stay for one more song.”
He understood her feelings and agreed to stick around for a little while longer. Quietly, they stood backstage watching from their angle to the idol’s song and dance.
“You know, it’s hard to believe she went to our school last year.” Said Ino, as they watched. “We could’ve met with a real celebrity if we were just a year older.”
“Heh, I think I already get to meet enough popular people as it is.” He laughed, referring to her social standing. Even though she didn’t get his joke.
After a little short while where they were alone for precious few minutes, the song had ended. As agreed upon, that was the end of their time alone together backstage as the pair made their way back into the crowd. Here Hakuta was finally able to rejoin his friend to cap off a long, yet wonderful, day at the beach.
“There you are.” Shiuka was the one first to greet him upon his arrival. “I was wonder where you snuck off to after that song of yours.” She smiled brightly as soon as he stood at the empty spot left just for him besides her.
“Couldn’t just get in the way of a great concert.” He said as he looked at the stage. “I’m sure glad you guys dragged me to the beach. Today’s just been great.”
“And I think it ended totally awesome.” She grabbed his hand and rose it above their heads to encourage him to cheer along with everyone else. While it was far from what he would’ve wanted to do, Hakuta couldn’t help but scream along with the rest of the crowd. They ended their night off with a bang.
Hmm... I feel like that idol seems familiar...
Anyways, have a nice break!
Enjoy your break, many of us will wait it out.
Really my only worry is that I kind of want to write something else. But I don't want to leave people hanging here too long since this is moderately successful.
I think I will write something new and see how that goes both in terms of how I feel about it and audience reception and we'll see what happens.