She began to sing, and the venue fell silent.
Then, a roar erupted from the audience. High-pitched screams from the girls and low, excited cheers from the boys. None of them had expected such a gorgeous singing voice to come from Kaoru.
Sousuke was grinning from ear to ear. He had a look on his face that seemed to say, “See?”
I felt my tension melt away as the song progressed. I was relieved that my drumming was going just as I’d practiced, and the thrill of having so many people watch our performance made my hands feel strangely light. It felt like my body was floating.
We’d been practicing for this day for so long.
When Kaoru finished singing the chorus, the audience erupted into loud applause, even though the song was still going. Everyone raised their hands and waved them enthusiastically from side to side.
We were right at the center of the festival, filling the audience with explosive energy.
I’d been so busy practicing that I hadn’t realized—making music was exhilarating!
“Ha-ha!” Before I knew it, I was laughing as I played the drums.
The first time we’d practiced this song, it had felt like it would go on forever. But on stage, it flew by in an instant.
We made a few small mistakes here and there, but overall, we got through the whole thing without missing a beat, and I was incredibly relieved.
When we were done, the student emcee rushed onto the stage and handed the mic to Sousuke.
“Thanks for letting me play that song for you with my best friends! You recognized it, right? It was ‘When Morning Fades!’”
Sousuke spoke confidently, and the audience applauded again.
“You know, when I told the girls in my class I play the guitar, they all said, ‘Yeah, right!’ I haven’t forgotten. What do you think now, huh?”
Some girls from our class shouted, “Sorry!” and the audience burst into laughter.
“Anyway, I decided on a whim to form this band, and these great people graciously came along for the ride. Yuzuru Asada, on the drums, did an especially great job. He’s a total beginner who started over summer vacation. Isn’t he amazing?!” Sousuke continued riling up the crowd, and I heard applause and cries of “Asadaaa!”
I blushed and bowed repeatedly.
“And how about our classmate, Kaoru Odajima? Her voice is amazing, right? She should be a pro!”
I heard an excited cheer from the boys. I couldn’t help but smile. Kaoru had always been popular, even if people weren’t loud about it. Now, she was bound to have even more fans.
“And we have Ai Mizuno on the keyboard! She’s great, isn’t she? And she’s cute, too!”
As Sousuke continued to introduce the band members, I thought to myself, He’s really good at this.
Ai giggled and various people in the audience shouted, “So cute!”
“And Yushima from the music club helped us out! He’s cool as a cucumber, even though this is his second performance in a row!”
Yushima stood motionlessly in place, but the audience cheered anyway. I could never tell what Yushima was thinking, even at times like this. I supposed that was a talent in and of itself. For what it was worth, I could at least tell he wasn’t upset.
“Well, now that I’ve introduced the band, it’s time for our second song. This will be the last one, so I hope you enjoy it!” Sousuke shouted, then handed the mic back over to the emcee.
But not a moment later, he snatched it back and said, “Oh, I almost forgot! The second song is ‘Running Around Riot!’” he said with a clumsy grin, and the audience cheered again.
My tension was completely gone, and I felt even lighter than before as I raised my drum sticks above my head.
“One, two, three, four!”
Since I wasn’t starting with a drum fill, this time I hit the sticks a full four times.
The guitar started with an arpeggio, followed by the bass joining in. Then came the keyboard, forming a complex rhythm.
Someone cried out, “Wow!” from the audience.
I played a fill, then settled into the beat. When we first began practicing, I struggled with this part. Trying to keep up with the guitar and bass always made me stumble. But thanks to Misuzu’s advice—“A drummer needs to be assertive! The others can just follow your rhythm!” —I finally started to get the hang of it. Now that I’d managed to nail it during the actual performance, I was filled with relief.
The second song was faster and more intense than the first, and the audience excitedly clapped along.
Kaoru’s voice was all warmed up now, and she sang confidently and powerfully.
It was fun—pure fun.
I could feel the excitement of the crowd rubbing off on us, and our performance began to heat up. We achieved a kind of synergy, and I stopped being afraid to make mistakes. Strangely, once I embraced that feeling, I started playing perfectly.
Occasionally, I looked up and made eye contact with the others.
Sousuke smiled, Ai squinted happily, Yushima remained expressionless but met my gaze for a few seconds. Only Kaoru couldn’t turn around to look at me, since the mic stand was fixed, but I could feel that she was focused on the whole band, too. Maybe that was because I could hear her voice entwining with the rest of our instruments to form a cohesive sound.
I realized we were sharing the same emotions without exchanging a single word, and I finally felt like I understood what Sousuke had been saying.
This was a form of conversation, too. We’d been practicing all this time to speak the same language, to share this warmth.
The song reached its climax.
I couldn’t believe it was almost over. We’d practiced and practiced, and our moment of glory was so fleeting.
Yet, I wasn’t sad. When I thought about how much blood, sweat, and tears we’d put in just for this one brief moment, every second of it felt like a treasure.
The moment was coming to an end, but if it didn’t end, then our hard work would have been for nothing.
My emotions were running high, and I had to hold back tears. My hands trembled as I hit the snare’s edge. Kah! It was a different sound than usual, but I didn’t let it shake me. I knew it wouldn’t stop our rhythm.
Kaoru sang the final line of the song, and then the outro began.
Before I knew it, the outro was over, and the last note faded away.
“Yaaaaaaaaahhh!” The crowd cheered. They clapped and whistled. It was incredibly loud.
The sound, at first chaotic, gradually took on a rhythmic quality. Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! They were calling for an encore.
Sousuke turned toward the rest of us and nodded. We nodded back and left the stage. I saw Misuzu waiting for us in the wings. She rushed over and hugged me tightly.
“Whoa!”
“Great job! You were amazing!” she said. “You should totally join the music club!”
“Th-thank you! …I think?”
Misuzu kept jumping up and down as she hugged me.
“You must have practiced so much! You sounded so confident. It was incredible, Yuzuru!”
“Well, I had a great teacher.”
“Ha-ha. What a charmer.” She looked around at the others and clapped. “A fantastic performance, everyone! Really well done!”
Ai and Kaoru bowed bashfully. Yushima, as always, was expressionless.
The performance was over, but the excitement still lingered. And I couldn’t help but notice that Misuzu was carrying something on her back.
“Um, Misuzu? Is that…?” I started, and she gasped and began to panic.
“Oh, right! There’s no time to waste!” She flailed around a bit, then put on a serious expression. “I have a job to do.”
“Huh?”
“I need to hurry, or I’ll miss Sousuke’s performance! You guys head into the audience, too!”
Misuzu quickly opened the stage door and headed back out into the gym.
“Thanks for the applause, everyone!” Sousuke shouted. “That’s all for the band, but I have another song to perform solo!” He’d begun his speech.
“Let’s hurry.”
We all rushed out into the gym.
We found spaces to sit and looked up at the stage. Sousuke was right in the middle.
“A certain someone taught me the joy of music,” he said. He was smiling, but his tone was serious.
The spotlight shone down on him. It looked like he was sparkling.
Hang in there, I silently cheered.
“I was just a kid, but I’ve never forgotten the sound of her music. I still haven’t forgotten, even now! I keep pestering her, because I want to hear her play again, and I’ve caused her a lot of heartache.”
The gym fell silent. Everyone was captivated by his speech.
“But when I thought about it carefully, I realized that she’d never spoken to me in words. She’d spoken to me with her music. That was what captivated me and made me fall in love with music itself. So…” He lifted his face and smiled confidently. “I want to speak with my music, too—the music I got from her. This is the music in my heart, and I’m going to play it with everything I have. Please listen!” He pumped his fist into the air, and everyone applauded.
I could tell the audience was filled with expectations. Of course they were. It was only natural to get your hopes up after hearing such a poetic speech.
Sousuke took a single deep breath. Then, his fingers flew over the guitar strings.
“Whoa.” I couldn’t help but gasp.
The audience stirred.
He was playing an arpeggio, much faster than anything from the previous two songs. It was intense and powerful, but somewhat unsteady. Then, he transitioned into strumming. He’d moved on to a basic rhythm, but the chord changes were extremely rapid. It was a really technical piece. And it was clear even to an amateur like me that his skill couldn’t keep up with it. But he never looked strained. His expression remained confident the whole time.
The audience started clapping along, warmly rooting him on.
A strange feeling was welling up inside me. What was it?
Up until now, we’d just been having fun playing music. We’d all shared that feeling. But Sousuke’s current performance was something else—sincere, earnest.
Sometimes, I could tell when he made mistakes. There were moments when his sound was off, when the rhythm faltered. But I didn’t think he sucked. It wasn’t because I was an amateur or anything like that. It was because I could feel earnest emotion coming from his music. Even though his performance was halting, I could feel his determination.
“Keep going, Sousuke…,” I muttered. Keep going. Keep screaming. Let it all out until you’re satisfied.
I didn’t know exactly what emotions Sousuke was trying to express. He was speaking in words I couldn’t understand. Would they reach her? Would his words reach the person he was speaking to?
I hoped they would.
I listened to Sousuke’s performance and prayed for his success.