It had already been a few months since Minami had gotten a job with SUN MEDIA. She'd learned what to look for in recording, how to give direction and how to take direction, more technical terms as well as how to compose basic musical melodies.
She'd only worked with the SUN GIRLS members, who were very pleasant and sweet, and had yet to meet the Smile Days members. Today, she was going to be in the recording studio with Makoto, working on Smile Days' official debut single.
She wore a white t-shirt and a pair of jeans and had her hair clipped back. She didn't know how long the session with Smile Days would take, SUN GIRLS tended to finish their recording session fairly quick, but they could end up going for a long time according to Makoto.
Minami walked into the office with her plum colored leather tassel bag clutched to her side and headed towards the recording studio which was in the back corner next to Makoto's desk. She glanced at the wall on her way. It had multiple images of SUN GIRLS and their single jacket photos, along with their brand new individual profile photos. Smile Days also had their digital single jacket photos on the wall along with their individual photos. Minami found herself fantasizing about her own picture up there.
She stopped for a moment and stared, her imagination running away. She could picture it now, her image up there in a cute idol costume, a baby dress with a ruffled pink and blue skirt, a cropped jacket with golden tassels and a giant bow on top of her head that had one side pink and one side blue. The background would be of big fluffy white clouds in a purple sky with some sort of pretty title like "Magic Days" or "Purple Skies" and at the bottom would be her name "ISHIHARA MINAMI".
If only that would have been able to happen for her. She shook her head and headed towards the recording studio, 'Keep it real Minami. It's never going to happen…'
She sat on the wheeled chair next to Makoto and set her bag on the ground next to her. Makoto was there listening back to the instrumental track. They were waiting on the guide singer to come in and record the demo for Smile Days' official debut single, "Smile Days" which had been completed a few days prior. Since the Smile Days' members were unable to read sheet music, the guide singer was required to sing the demo so they could learn it and record it later on.
They waited half an hour. Minami leaned back in her chair and played with a piece of her hair while Makoto tapped his leg against the floor in irritation. "Damnit! Why isn't she here yet? Is she just not coming? How unprofessional!" He lit a cigarette and leaned back in his chair.
"Maybe we should try calling her again?" Minami offered while subtly scooting away in an attempted to escape the cigarette smoke.
"No, she won't answer the damn phone. Ugh this is so annoying. If Smile Days were talented enough, we could just call them in, but they're so useless." He stood up from his chair began pacing around the dimly lit room.
"Should we just do it another day? Since she's not here…?"
"No!" Makoto yelled, "It has to be done NOW! We scheduled it for NOW! These people are professionals so they should ACT professional and show up on time. I'm so sick of these people not being dedicated enough." He took a puff of his cigarette and the two waited in silence for moment.
Makoto glanced over at Minami and thought for a moment, "Why don't you do it?"
"I gue- Wait, what?!" Minami stared at him in shock, "Me?! You want me to do it?!"
Makoto looked around, "Who else would I be talking to? They're not good enough to be able to figure out how to sing it and you're the last option right now. Just get in there."
Minami stood up from her chair and faced him directly, a worried look on her face, "I also can't read sheet music though…."
He hesitated a moment, "I'm going to get the keyboard and play the vocal melody on that, and record it and we'll go through it that way."
"Should you do it like that for Smile Days then?" Minami inquired. She was starting to get anxious. She'd taken vocal lessons ever since the Carrot Star debacle but Juri's words of her being unable to sing kept echoing in her mind.
"You're here to do as I tell you. Smile Days are stupid, they still won't be able to figure it out."
She bit her lip, fearing she may lose her job if she didn't agree, "Okay…"
They spent the next few hours recording the vocal melody on the piano and going over it so Minami knew how the song went.
"I can't sing very well though…" Minami looked down and pursed her lips, twiddling her thumbs as she waited for him to say 'nevermind'.
"I don't care if you sound like a rat being fried on a grill, get in there. Now." Makoto sat back down at the chair in front of the sound board and flicked his fingers toward the door to the recording booth.
Minami nodded and awkwardly walked in, putting the headphones on and awaiting directions.
He instructed her which notes to put inflections on, where to bend them and where to add more energy.
"No, no. You're doing it like, 'My. Smile. DAYYYYYS!' I want it to blend, connect your words together instead of separating them like 'MyyyyySmiiileDAAAAAAAAYS!' Hold the A out in Days too, not the Y. You're making the note distort by holding onto the Y. Hold onto the A note and then add the Y at the very end. And don't put vibrato here, I want the note to stay the same."
Minami nodded, "Okay, start it back at the middle of the chorus please."
"When you do the adlib at the end, 'OH MY SMILE DAYS!' You're not hitting that note right, you're falling flat. Imagine you're throwing the note away like you're going to throw a ball. Put emotion into it too, I don't feel anything when you sing that line. Why is it your smile day?"
She nodded and continued, belting out the adlib, 'OH MY SMILE DAYS!'
It was her first professional recording session and she suddenly found herself reliving that passion she once had. Just like before, the room started to change. The booth suddenly become a stage and the window looking out into the rest of the studio became a wall of fans. She sang with her heart, as if she were singing for a real audience.
"Yes! Perfect! That's it!" After four hours of recording, they were finally done. Minami excitedly exited the booth and sat next to Makoto, who had already put his cigarette out by then.
"You know….have you ever thought about becoming an idol yourself?" He asked casually as he listened back to her recording.
Tears stung the back of her eyes and she gulped down that painful memory of her performance at Carrot Star's concert years ago. "Actually, it's been my dream to debut since I was 12 years old…"
"Then I'm your fairy godmother because this is your song now." He didn't turn to look at her at all and only remained focused on the music he was listening to.
She stared in shock. Did she hear him right? "Mine?"
"Yes, yours. Smile Days is now Ishihara Minami's debut single."
"Won't Smile Days be upset that I'm taking their song?" She nervously tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. She wanted to be excited and she knew even potentially asking this question could blow her opportunity entirely, but she couldn't help it.
"They're not worth anything to me, it's fine."
She fell back into the chair, causing it to roll back a little. She was in complete disbelief. "So….what now? Do we release it?"
He chuckled, "No, not yet. There's….a lot that we have to take care of. You don't just record a song and release it, not when you're with an agency anyways."
She nodded slowly and pursed her lips. She had tried to absorb as much information of the behind the scenes world as she could when she had originally had this dream, but she never was able to find the process of creating a single and releasing it. Makoto pulled out his phone and started typing away.
"So what's next? What do we do now?" She wanted to know everything, she wanted to dive in immediately now that excitement was overtaking her.
"Shh." He didn't turn her way and only continued typing on his phone, "Just know you did a good job right now and you're going to debut. That's all you need at this moment in time."