The festival seemed to signal the end of summer. The days were no longer as humid, though still warm, and the slow pace of life around us seemed to pick up as the population prepared to return to work and school from various summer vacations. Aki and I had begun to pack our belongings and get ready to take over our new apartment in Tokyo, making plans to decide how we would move certain large items.
I sat at a cafe table on the patio space, flipping through the photos on my phone that I took over the summer. There were so many with Aki, some just at home, some when we went out, and plenty from the festival. "Natsu-chan!" I heard my name called and looked up to see Hina walking quickly toward me. I had been waiting for her to arrive.
She sat down at the table across from me. "Did you order?" I shook my head. "I'll get us the usual. Then you have to hear this."
We were almost matching in our thin strapped summer dresses and platform sandals, trying to get as much wear out of them as we could before the season changed too much. I hadn't taken off the goldfish bracelet Aki had placed on my wrist since the festival. As I waited for her to return to the table with our drinks, my phone chimed with a text from Aki. "Recording the instrumental is going well! Should be ready for vocals tomorrow. Are you ready?" I smiled to myself, picturing him in my mind's eye typing the message in the recording studio.
Hina returned to the table, placing a cup in front of me. "I hear you and Aki are going to record a song together." She said.
"How did you know that?" I took a gracious sip from my cup, excited to receive coffee.
"Fuji told me." She said, playing at looking natural, as if I should expect her to say that. I didn't humour her, knowing she wouldn't be able to keep quiet about it for long. "That's what you have to hear. Fuji and I have kind of been going out."
I sat back in my chair, relaxed in my demeanour, knowing she would tell me more the less interested I seemed. "I had a hunch something was going to happen between you two." I said. "I saw you kiss when we were leaving the yukata rental shop the night of the festival."
"You did?" She was surprised. "I thought we were being sneaky. We exchanged numbers that night after we had been talking a lot, and he asked me out to lunch the day after! And then we kept sending each other messages, and we've been out together again a few more times just for drinks."
"Aki said he approves, so I'm happy for you." I sipped my coffee casually.
"Aki knows too? Did Fuji tell him?"
"Maybe, but I definitely told him that I saw you guys." I said with a laugh. "As long as you're enjoying yourself and he makes you happy, then why try to be sneaky? You don't have to hide it from us. We're happy for you, and we support your decisions."
She smiled wide at me, a look of genuine contentment at my statement. "Actually, there is something I wanted to ask you about." She sipped from her cup hesitantly, and I could tell she was trying to find the right way to ask. "You and Aki have, you know, right?"
I smiled into my coffee cup, nodding. "Many times."
"Was he your first?" I nodded again. "What was it like? I'm kind of nervous thinking about it."
I shook my head in dismissal. "Don't think about it." I said. "Just enjoy your time together, and let things run their course. If it happens, it happens, don't try to force it or plan it. But," I paused to think back. "Our first time was actually pretty great. He didn't know it was my first time, but even so he made me feel loved. I was nervous, but also I felt really at ease with him. That's how I knew it was right, I felt completely comfortable."
Hina was watching me speak with her head tilted, as if she was listening to some dreamy fairy tale. "How did it happen?"
I laughed. "He drove me home after we had coffee together, I think it was only the second time we met, and we could hardly call it dating at that point. He kissed me in the car in front of my apartment and on a whim I asked him to come in. I didn't expect him to actually accept the invitation."
Hina put a hand over her mouth in surprise. "Why didn't you tell me about it?"
I shrugged dismissively, as if it was nothing important. "What was there to tell?"
"You asked him to come in and he just accepted? What if he turned out to be a player?"
I shook my head, trying to think back to exactly what my reasoning was, but I had acted on impulse that night, and that was all I could recall. "He didn't accept right away. We went back and forth, and I could tell he was testing the situation to make sure I was serious. I tried to laugh it off and say goodnight, and then he accepted."
A sudden look of realization came over her face. "No, wait!" She exclaimed. "The day he walked you to school."
I smiled into my cup again, not wanting to show my embarrassment. "Yes, it was the night before." My phone chimed, vibrating a little dance on the table. It was a message from Aki beckoning me to the recording studio. "I have to go, it's time to record!"
I nearly ran all the way to the recording studio, and nearly directly into Aki's waiting arms at the door. Inside, the room I had visited to watch Aki record previously was fitted with a second microphone. He lead me into the booth, closing the door behind us with the sound of a seal sucking the air out. "This is your mic." He said, pointing. "You'll be standing facing me, and I stand here." He walked around the microphones to demonstrate. "Just focus on me, and don't think about what's going on around you. The window is for us to signal to the mixer, it's not for anyone to watch and judge us." He placed the same large headphones over my ears that I had seen him wear. "You're going to hear the music. It's the first time you're going to hear it, so it might be surprising, but nothing changes. Just sing the song the way you practiced."
I nodded to show I understood his instruction, though many other concerns were running their course through my mind. "Are we singing at the same time?"
He nodded, smiling. "We'll be singing together. That's why I want you to stay focused on me, so you can feel my energy. We'll fuel each other." He had a black hooded sweater tied around his hips, and though I thought it was for style in the heat of the summer, he retrieved it and pulled it over his head. "You look really nice, by the way." He said, and leaned in to kiss me quickly as if he didn't want anyone to see. "You ready?"
The second I nodded, Aki pointed through the window to the man sitting at the control panel, and music slowly began to fill my surroundings. It began sweetly with a soft piano and strings, and I closed my eyes for a moment to feel the tune. Aki's voice broke through, practiced and controlled, smoothly and deeply laying the words atop the instrumentals. I opened my eyes to look at him, swaying slightly to the beat as he sang, looking back at me as if he was saying the words to me only. I let myself become lost in the moment between us, and easily my voice joined him. It surprised me, to hear us together in unison, and he smiled through the words as we continued. The rest of the world disappeared, and only he remained in my sight, as he effortlessly delivered the song, like he was singing it only to me. I was starstruck by the experience, almost forgetting Hasegawa Akira, who I loved, and Aki from Guardian were the same person.
We sounded the last note together, drawing it out long, and ending it together perfectly in time. I smiled quickly before I was overcome with emotion, clasped my hands together at my mouth and bowed deeply to Aki. I felt my eyes burn with tears, though I was overjoyed at the experience that had just transpired. I felt the headphones being lifted away, and Aki's familiar hands on the backs of my arms, lifting me from the bow into his embrace. He didn't need to say anything at all, and I felt him practically vibrating against me. I began to cry into his shoulder.
"Natsu, that was perfect." He said into my ear. He held me tightly, letting me cry for a moment. "Thank you for singing with me."
I pushed away from him so I could look at his face, but his hands didn't leave me. "Thank you!" I said. "I wasn't expecting to feel so much. No wonder you love this so much."
"I think you will too. It was a good idea to choose to study music." He looked out the window, and pointed. "By the way, I was recording the whole thing."
I looked where he was pointing, my eyes wide, and saw a tiny camera on a tripod. "Why?"
"I wanted to release it as a video, but I just didn't think you would agree to record it if I asked first. Even if you don't want to release it, I thought it would be important to us."
I laughed, and Aki used the sleeve cuff of his sweater to gently pat my cheeks dry of tears. "That must be why you commented on how I look today." I said.
"I should do that more often." He held my face with both hands around my jawline.
"Okay, I'll watch it and I'll think about it. But don't you want to announce us first? You haven't said anything official yet."
He smiled at me in a way that was sly and calculating. "Well, this would be one way of officially announcing it." He paused to let me react, but I stayed silent. "While we were recording the instrumental, the rest of the band recorded themselves as well, so we can all mix the videos and get something pretty great."
Aki gave me the recording, uploaded to a laptop in the control room, and let me watch it in solitude so I could form my own opinion. He joined the rest of Guardian in another room to listen to the finished track and decide on any minor changes, now that the main vocals were finished. As I watched the video, I felt the same emotions all over again, as if I was back in that spot at the microphone across from Aki, and I decided that it was a beautiful piece of art I wouldn't mind sharing. If I could invoke the same feeling to anyone who watched it, listened to us together, then it would be a job well done. At the end of the video, I watched as I lost control of my heart, bowing deeply to Aki and beginning to cry. Always on the inside of his embrace, I had never seen what being in his arms looked like from the outside, and when he pulled me against him, I could see how perfectly we fit together, and how deeply his care for me went.
I found the rest of Guardian in a lounge style room, playing their music through another laptop, discussing here and there with some chatter. As I entered the room, Aki and Kota perked up, as if they had been anxiously awaiting my arrival.
"Natsuko! The song turned out amazing, I'm so proud of you!" Kota said, lifting his hands into the air to clap for me.
Aki made space in the plush chair between himself and Kota, patting the spot so I could sit with them, and immediately putting an arm around my shoulders. "We all love how it turned out. I'll lay down the background vocals to mix in, and it's done." He said. "What did you think of the video?"
I nodded, and halfway bowed to the group. "It turned out beautifully, and I would be honoured to share it with Guardian." I was startled as the four of them shouted together. They had clearly been anticipating what I would say about the release of the video.
"You heard her, boys, let's mix it and get it out. The announcement of our major record label deal with the release of our first collaborative song." Aki said, proudly. I felt I could burst into tears again at any moment.
"I want to do an announcement video for our social media." A woman I recognized to be Guardian's manager sat in the corner of the room. I had never been properly introduced to her. "So get yourselves dolled up."
Aki took my hand, leading us to stand. "You can fix your makeup with me, if you'd like."