Chapter 1:
Since the day I was born, I always had the feeling that life had something expected for me, but, for some reason, I could never quite understand what it would be. Sixteen long years of my longing existence were spent simply in the search for that ideal, in the search of that thing I was destined to find. But what would that be? Would it be a person, maybe the love of my life? Or was it rather a dream that I would discover after I had spent so many years of my drowning existence?
"Wake up Nakamura"- expressed my teacher brusquely- "go to the principal's office right away".
It was not even worth protesting, in this school, as well as in all others, its disguised dictatorial regime would prevent me, in any way, from reversing the situation. So, as I made my way to the principal's office, I kept thinking about it.
Although I don't know the answer to these questions, something I know for sure is that it wasn't just a passing sensation, but something I was sure would happen sooner or later. The only thing I could do at the moment was to wait for it to reveal itself before my eyes. Working my mind about it has proved to be useless all the times I'd tried.
The sky was darkening, the weather was getting colder, and my desire to stay outside was also disappearing. I just wanted to go home and go play some video games or something, drift my mind from the dark reality for a bit. I was prepared to make my way home, and go back to my daily routine, however, while passing by a beautiful café that exists in this "beautiful" city. It's a shame to have such bad memories of this place because, really, Fujisawa is a wonderful city that I didn't deserve to keep in my memory in the spiteful way I do. But we won't ever be able to change the past.
Anyway, as I passed in front of that café, my two best friends were having a coffee and invited me, through hand movements, to join them.
To be honest, my desire at that moment was only to go home but, because I really needed a good conversation(not to mention the fact that those two guys I'll never be able to ignore). Therefore, I decided to join in and talk with them.
"I can't believe you've been kicked out of class again, Nakamura!" Saito exclaimed, who is usually quite worried.
"You really have no salvation, brother, as far as school is concerned, you have already died a few months ago." - said my good friend Fujimoto
"Guys, give me a break. Never in my life will I need these mathematical or grammatical rules for anything. I'm in class just passing by, I have no idea why we are taught such useless things. We all know that I am more of a genius than any of the teachers who teach at that school".
"None of us can disagree with you there, Nakamura," Saito continued, "however, you know very well that without an average you will never be able to get into college, have a job, and everything you need to have a good life."
"That's where you fool yourself Saito. I don't want to be someone else placed in the world of work like a pawn on a chessboard. Someone who is paid miserably compared to the profit that the bosses earn. Someone whose dreams died as a child due to the norms that society tries to impose on me. When we grow up, my goal is to make my dreams come true, everything else is completely irrelevant to me. I will not give up until I achieve this ambition.
"That's not the point Nakamura. We all know that you are intelligent, in fact, few people in the world can understand things the way you do, however, you have to be aware that you cannot only learn what you want. Sometimes you have to submit to what you don't want."
"I agree with you Saito. By the way, I can assure you that the languages I learned were not easy to learn at all and required a lot of effort, however, it was something I liked so the effort was worth it. Never in my life would I submit to an effort for something I don't like."
"I can't understand you," Saito concluded.
"I think like you, however, even so I'm trying to focus on school to get a diploma, in case my dreams go wrong." Said Fujimoto. The conversation continues for a few more minutes and, although the three of us often don't agree 100%, that's why we get along so well. Despite our differences, we always support each other and have the ability not to let our ego in our path, quite the reason we don't hang out with no one else. That's how we have always been since primary school where Fujimoto was the person always prepared to solve our problems, acting as the trio's best friend in matters of support, always putting our needs ahead of his. Saito is the person who always had a girlfriend and could not detach himself from the feminine universe for a long time. And then me, the one who was smarter, but not more relevant than them. Together we were a kind of fusion into the perfect, intelligent, sensitive and loving person. And that's why we always feel so good with one another. Each of the three parts completed each other, and none of us could see ourselves in a lifetime without the advice of others.
The day wasn't over yet and I still wanted to get home to do something. Lately, I was interested in learning French, since Saito with his romantic personality as always was thinking of going to Paris and I, as a good friend that I am, was going to be the fluent French speaker who would introduce him to the girls. However, my life, in this last year of high school, has been somewhat monotonous. Waking up, playing some video games, learning something about a language that is curious about and sleeping. Nothing in my routine deviates much from that, which makes me wonder myself. Will mine dream take long to reveal itself before me? For some reason, I could imagine myself being rich and famous, something that could only be achieved with phenomenal support behind everything (which my friends already provided me), with a beautiful woman who accompanied me along the journey as well and, of course, having a very well-defined goal and, since at this moment I was only missing the last two, I felt that my dream would soon unfold before my eyes.
I decided to sleep on it and decided to take some time to think about it the next day, since we met on the weekend and, without school getting in the way of every one of my free seconds, I would have a little time to enjoy the apparent beauty of this city without the constant worry about teachers, rules, grades, and all this that slowly takes away my smile from its natural beauty.
I woke up after a good night's sleep with my alarm clock, which is the only thing in this house that makes noise apart from my breathing and appliances, since any traces of people, apart from me, had disappeared. My parents travel a lot on business all over Europe, which means that most of the time I have to stay in this giant house alone. It's not something that bothers me, however, it's a bit weird not to hear anything but my voice during all my time at home. I hate having the environment too quiet.
So, after leaving the house all organized, which by house I mean bedroom that, apart from the kitchen and the bathroom, is the only room that actually needs daily cleaning, I left.
It was still ten in the morning and the atmosphere was quite calm. I still didn't know what to do, so I was simply wandering around Fujisawa, looking for a café or something like that to relax my mind a little.
I walked for a while, however, right in the center of the city, I found a café that, for some reason, caught my attention. I can't explain why but everything, from the illustration of the sign that named the café after it, everything seemed like magic in my head. The sign was filled with symbols with guitars, drumsticks, picks, and, even though until that moment I hadn't heard about rock very much, seeing a café called "The Rock Oasis" with all that symbolism really made me curious to enter it.
The environment inside seemed straight out of a dream. It was a café in the basement, with red sofas along with the limpid black tables, which made you feel envious of the interior designer of that place. However, although this immediately caught my attention, it was not the focal point when entering that café that made me realize that it was special.
After sitting down, just before the attendant, a girl of the same age as me, answered me, I couldn't help but notice the music that was playing in that room. It was a very calm song, which started playing the moment I sat down on the bench, creating a certain connection with it immediately. It was, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful songs I had ever heard in my life and, although part of the lyrics could not understand its meaning, the song had reached my heart with a feeling that I had never had in my life.
After wandering in my mind for a while, I noticed that the attendant of the place was already at my table, so I decided to ask:
"Good morning dear, I'm sorry, can you tell me what beautiful song is this that's playing?"
She gave a brief smile of satisfaction and, with all the joy in the world, replied:
"This song is called Wonderwall, written by an English band called Oasis, which was the inspiration my parents used to open this café. Had you never heard it before?"
"No, never. Nowadays this type of music is not listened to much and my father only usually listens to a heavier rock than this, so unfortunately this song was never presented to me."
The girl was quite shocked, however, she seemed to like me and, therefore, told me the following:
"That's really a shame, wait a second here please."
After she asked the other employee to look around the store for a second, she came back to me and said.
"Please follow me, I want to show you something."
I got up from that comfortable bench where I was and she led me to an employee-only area in a secret door of the café, which led to an elevator that led to an even deeper place than the café itself. For a moment I was quite scared, I even thought that I was going to be kidnapped, killed and that my organs would end up on the black market and, when she realized that, the girl scared me by pretending that she was going to take something out of her pocket. For a moment I think my heart skipped a beat.
After she calmed me down and said she was just joking, the elevator door opened and then I found the reason why she had taken me there. It was an extremely well decorated room, with walls with black acoustic isolators and extremely beautiful lighting that, despite being simple, made the place as if it were paradise on earth. He also continues several vinyl records as well as the turntable himself. And right in the middle of the room, there were several musical instruments: drums, guitar, bass, microphone, piano. I think that all the instruments in the world were present in that room, in an extremely organized way, which made me extremely passionate right from the beginning, I thought to myself. "Here's my dream." However, what was I going to play? There were so many instruments. Also, I basically only knew one song at that point, I had to at least know more to make a decision.
The girl could see the sparkle in my eyes when she witnessed all the beauty that room had to provide and then felt more comfortable and began to vent to me:
"You know... You are the first person in our age gap for a long time to come down here and get to appreciate the beauty of this place. Everyone is so caught up in the music that is made today, songs without meaning, without instruments, without life. I'm really happy to see someone who can appreciate all of this." Tears came to his eyes when he said these last words.
"And I'm really glad you were kind enough to show me this. After so much time of searching, I think I finally managed to find a purpose for my life. Do you think you can show me some more songs?"
When she heard this, she wiped the tears from her eyes, said:
"Of course I can. I'll keep showing you songs until it's time to go home."
We spent hours and hours listening to various songs on the turntable that she had there. We don't even stop to eat or drink. She showed classic songs from bands like the Beatles, Nirvana, Bob Dylan and, of course, Oasis. It was only after four hours that I realized that time had in fact passed so fast and it was already two in the afternoon without any of us having even had lunch. The girl's parents called her and, after she spoke to them and explained why she didn't have lunch and apologized, she was forced to go back to the café to have lunch and continue her shift, so she took us back to the café and said goodbye to me:
"I really enjoyed meeting you. I hope you come back here more often"
"I promise you that I will spend every day I can here cutie, even if it's just to listen to an album with you"
The girl blushed a little and turned her back:
"Wait a minute. I forgot to ask you something. What's your name?"
She smiled and, approaching me again, said in a gentle tone:
"Naomi Aisaka, it's a pleasure to meet you. And are you?"
"Akira Nakamura. I hope we can see each other soon again."
"Me too Nakamura, me too"
As I walked home again, I felt a completely strange but pleasant sensation. I had probably made a friend for life, to whom I would be extremely grateful for everything she had done for me. In just four hours, I could feel a mixture of sensations that had completely shaken my heart. I was completely determined to stop by that café every day, even if it was for five minutes, to enjoy that rare atmosphere of happiness that I had only experienced near Saito and Fujimoto and that, however, were feelings of happiness completely motivated by the friendship we had for many years. In this case, only four hours with Aisaka made me feel enormous happiness, not only because she is an extremely friendly and comical person but also because the environment is full of the good music she showed me. However, now, I had only one dilemma before me. I was already fully aware that music was going to be and was already being my passion, however, I was still undecided about the instrument I was going to buy. I would even ask Aisaka, however, in addition to having completely forgotten to ask her for her cell phone number, I was so distracted talking to her that all I could express at the time was admiration. Even her name I asked at the end of the dialogue, and I almost forgot.
I decided to do what I usually did to help myself think. As I had already done walking and I was not going to do it again, since my legs have a limit of what they can do, I decided to tidy up my house completely, including the rooms that I didn't use. For some reason, tidying up was one of the things I always did when I needed to make a decision or simply think a little about something.
All the rooms were completely full of dust, however, I grabbed the vacuum cleaner and cleaning towels and started working on the extra rooms, starting with my parents' room, then the guest room, and finally my father's office.
However, when cleaning the latter, I had an unexpected surprise. After dusting off, I decided to open a closet that was in my father's office that, as completely full, everything inside fell on top of me like a tsunami. After I got up from my near-death crush, I was going to start picking things up to put back in the closet until I realized that as I moved things away from each other, I noticed that the only thing still standing in the closet was an acoustic guitar, almost brand new.
I didn't know what a guitar was doing in my house. Did my father play, and I had no idea? In fact, he doesn't spend much time in Japan, he usually goes to Germany and Portugal a lot on business, however, I find it unusual to have never heard him play once.
The guitar was beautiful, despite being covered in dust for being so much time at the closet, it only took a simple wipe with a damp cloth to reveal its natural beauty. It was from the Yamaha brand, black but mirroring its surroundings, which was never as beautiful as the natural beauty it emanated. Therefore, since fate had sent me a guitar into my hands, I was decided. Guitar would be the instrument I would learn. This, finally, is my decided aspiration.
After I got up to realize that I had, in this way, decided what I was going to do with my life, I started looking for as much information about learning guitar as I could. The information I got was that, for beginners, I should start with the so-called "Chords" and only then should I start playing on strings individually. My goal for today was only to be able to do two chords. The G chord and the D chord. In the next few days, I would learn to do more, however, for today I think I would be the right one.
Although the position of the keys was already predefined, it really wasn't easy to switch between simple two chords because, being a beginner, just messing with the guitar strings was like messing with barbed wire.
However, I did not give up. I spent about an hour practicing and, after that time, I was able to switch between these two chords perfectly for the first time a few times. I was super excited and immediately arranged a coffee with Saito and Fujimoto to tell them the latest news.
Since it was late, I couldn't introduce them to the "The Rock Oasis", since the time it would take us to get there would be huge and there would be almost no time left to talk.
We decided to go to the café that was in a natural park very close to our homes, and which we usually used to talk in a relaxed way in the afternoons of days with or without school.
After we sat down and I told them the news, they were both completely surprised:
"A real guitarist? Really only you to have that profile, Nakamura. I like it man, I think it's a great dream for you to follow, I myself like some rock songs and I think it will be really nice for you to have something to focus on, since school is already out of the question."
"I completely agree with Saito. Music is something very good to follow as an aspiration, especially if it's to revive rock which is one of my favourite genres of music and has been little recognized lately. We're all rooting for you Nakamura!"
"Thank you, brothers, I am extremely grateful for your support. Now I'm going to have to take some time to learn everything there is to learn about the guitar and see if I can start producing some songs, even if it's just with the acoustic guitar."
"That's great. I think I speak for both of us when I say that we are looking forward to hearing your songs, however, how did you suddenly have that aspiration for music?"
"It was a girl I met in a café who introduced me to songs of this genre. I didn't even knew her, however, she presented me very good songs that awakened within me a passion that had not been awakened in me before."
"Here, for me, the passion has more to do with the girl than anything else, let me tell you."
"Shut the hell up Saito. You must think that I am like you who only think with your little head instead of the big one."
What? You know VERY well that this is not true.
This phrase made me and Fujimoto start laughing heartily.
"C'mon guys, don't be like that. I don't think that much with my heart."
"Saito, my friend Makoto Saito, let's be honest. Both you and Fujimoto and me, as well as everyone who has met you for five minutes, knows very well that your head is only there taking up space, since even to do math, you must think first about the feelings of the equation than about its resolution."
"Come on, you're exaggerating too much, I'm not that much..."
While Saito was saying this and Fujimoto was breaking up laughing at the coffee table, I pulled out my phone and showed him a picture of a very beautiful girl from our school, named Akemi Suzuki, a very beautiful aspiring model who was at our school, being a year younger than us. He completely lost his train of thought
"This is unfair. She is so beautiful..."
"Therefore, as we have said, you are incapable of thinking with your head."
"Okay, okay, I'll give you reason, but that only happens with Suzuki, let's make it clear."
Saito really is an incredible man; however, his way of thinking is in fact quite different and illogical. It would still evolve one day. Of course, we are still young and we would have plenty of time to grow up together.
"We have already deviated from the topic. Again, Nakamura, you're sure that's not the heart talking."
"I'm absolutely sure, Fujimoto. You know that I am the logical one of the three of us and, although the girl is very beautiful, I saw her simply as a friend, I did not know her in time to consider her more than anything."
"I believe in you friend. Really you were always quite logical, and I really think it was something that you fell in love with for the goal, not the female."
"Thank you for the trust Fujimoto. Today I have already managed to learn two chords that are quite simple things, however, I will strive to evolve a lot during this year, this being the time I will give myself to start making my first songs."
Fujimoto picked up his cup of coffee, as did Saito, both said:
"We trust you brother. To your success."
We both toasted a coffee and enjoyed a few more minutes in the beautiful sun of that day, the Saturday that was the favourite day of any self-respecting young man, where we had a little of the freedom that was taken away from us during the week, where the city seemed more beautiful, the wind seemed less cold and the sun seemed warmer.
As we walked home, the light had already gone out, so all that remains was to say goodbye and go home.
Just before I went to bed, I looked at my recent guitar that I had accidentally discovered in my father's office and thought that, from today, I would begin my journey.
When I found myself waking up, it was already Sunday, and I had another free day ahead of me to start working on my guitar skills. To do this, I started by searching the internet if there was any song that could be played with the chords I already knew. Interestingly, I discovered that one of the songs Naomi had shown me could be played with these two chords along with one more that I would learn that day. The C major chord.
However, when I started trying to make the chord and passing it on to the others, I realized that, even though it was the second day I picked up a guitar in my life, I was able to learn it extremely quickly, taking less than ten minutes to start switching between it and the others with great ease. I was then prepared to play "Knocking on Heavens Door", by the musician Bob Dylan. While trying to play the song I realized something that was quite important and I, focused only on the position of the left hand to form the chords, had not even realized it very well. The strumming pattern was also very important for playing guitar and I only realized that while playing this song that, although I already knew how to play the chords with some ease, the strumming pattern was completely different from the monotonous pattern I used to practice the chords. And that was the first challenge I faced on the guitar related to the right hand and not the left.
The challenge was tough and, I confess that for a while I even thought about giving up for the day. I often took breaks to eat to try to de-stress my body, as I was going crazy for various reasons. First, realizing that I had forgotten to train one of my hands and, second, because I saw on YouTube that that song was considered easy, considering me a failure because I was not able to play it.
However, I couldn't consider myself a failure. Today I would only allow myself to see Naomi at The Rock Oasis if I had something of interest to show her. I refused to get there with a defeat. Just the information about playing guitar wouldn't show my commitment.
I spent a little time just practicing my right hand, without making any chords, just to get the rhythm and pattern that the music required to be played and then, slowly, I tried to do the chords and the strumming pattern at the same time, thus putting my left and right hand in harmony.
"FINALLY. I DID IT."
I played the song from start to finish without any mistakes, with both hands in perfect harmony, and being able to play it was undoubtedly a big step in my guitar learning. I had managed to play my first guitar song.
As soon as I knew I was capable, I rushed to Oasis Rock, which, despite being forty minutes from my house, I managed to get there in just twenty, so excited I was to tell Naomi the latest news.
When she entered inside, as the first time, there she was. Serving the customers of the café in such an ordinary way but nevertheless it seemed so beautiful. Maybe the fact that she introduced me to such a great form of music made me start to see her with a kind of divine touch.
She noticed me after serving a customer and, after seeing me, she immediately came to give me a hug, however, without even giving her time to hug her back, she let go of me, blushed slightly and just said"
"You really came back here. Is everything okay with you Nakamura?"
"Of course I came back, I told you that I loved the atmosphere both up here and downstairs. Everything is great with me. And with you Aisaka?"
"Everything is perfect with me. However, today I can't go with you downstairs, at least now, the café is full, and I need to help serve everyone."
"There is no problem at all. I wait here until you have some free time. I need to show you something."
"Show? What can you have to show me. At most I can show you more new songs."
"You'll see. As soon as your parents give you some time, take me down there and I'll give you a nice surprise"
"Okay. I can't wait to see. Until then, you can seat freely and I'll bring you a cup of coffee."
"Thanks sweet".
She blushed slightly and , after serving me my cup of coffee, started to serve the other costumers as well.
Aisaka continued her work while I just sipped a coffee at one of the tables trying to predict her reactions to my surprise. I thought she would be happy, and it was the only reaction I could predict from her, since it was one of the only emotions I had ever seen her face express. She in fact seems to be someone who doesn't even know what sadness or an emotion that isn't negative is. I wish I was like that.
After three long hours of waiting, in which I was only reading a book that I always carry in the pocket of my overcoat, Aisaka approached me slowly which made me get a huge fright and put half of the coffee looking at me. I've always had a weak heart.
After apologizing for my sudden scream, Aisaka took me back to the basement of the café, which I affectionately nicknamed "Heaven".
"Close your eyes Aisaka."
"What do you mean close your eyes, you want to give me a kiss without my consent you great pervert"
"No woman, nothing like that. I want to surprise you that I had planned. You must close your eyes for a while. You'll understand when it's time to open."
"Alright, I'm going to close. But if you start to feel a breath too close to me, I'll wash your mouth with soap"
"OK ok, agreed."
After Aisaka closed her eyes, I picked up the acoustic guitar she had in Heaven and, after a countdown, I started playing the song.
Aisaka opened her eyes in immediate amazement, her eyes completely shining and then looking at my hands moving in perfect harmony with the guitar. I thought she would say something, however, she smiled at me, stood in front of the microphone and, in perfect harmony with me, began to sing the song perfectly and in complete harmony both with the guitar and with my heart.
We can play the music from beginning to end without the slightest error in the harmony, in the rhythm, as in the chords, as in the intonation of the voice. We were able to play the song perfectly and on our first try. We formed an incredible duo.
After we finished playing, we were both quite surprised by each other:
"You play guitar, and you never said anything to me???"
While he was saying this, he was giving me a lot of slaps on the head, however, I turned the tables on me.
"And you? Do you also sing, and you didn't say anything to me???"
At that moment I was the one who slapped her on the head while she tried to run away from me.
"CALM DOWN. Let's calm down and each one explain their part."
"All right, I'll start. Since I liked the songs you showed me so much the other day, when I got home, I was determined to learn an instrument, being just in doubt which one it would be. After tidying up in my father's office, I managed to find a lost acoustic guitar there, so I decided to start learning. I didn't want to come back here without news after everything you showed me."
"Okay, okay seems a valid justification to me. But how did you play that song so well. I know it's not very complicated, but still, in two days it was a fairly quick learning experience."
"A lot of effort and dedication, but that doesn't matter now," I said, holding her neck with my arm and moving her head, "can I know why this sweetpie in my arm didn't tell me she sang so well?"
"Although it doesn't seem like it from our first interaction, I'm not as sociable as I implied on our first date. In fact, I'm quite ashamed, I can only relate and create conversation with people who like the same music as me, however, despite being able to start a conversation, I never told anyone else that I sing. In fact, you're the first person that ever heard myself sing."
"This is really a shame for humanity. You have a beautiful voice, that shouldn't be hidden from the world."
"Thank…Thank you "
Before I could even start my sentence, I got a big punch in the stomach
"Stop embarrassing me, clown"
"Sorry, it wasn't my intention. I just wanted to say that you should sing live or something like that. It would be amazing."
"I'm quite embarrassed, singing in a concert would be very difficult. In fact, in addition, you were the first person I met who knows how to play an instrument and if, hypothetically speaking, I ever played in public, it would be with someone to accompany me."
At that moment my head was taken by a bold idea:
"Aisaka, when I play acoustic guitar well and start making my own songs, will you form a musical duet with me?"
Aisaka was reflective for some time. She looked everywhere but me, seeming to have completely detached himself from reality. After a few minutes and, blushing a little, she confirmed it.
"Okay. I accept your proposal. However, first I have to solve even if temporarily this problem of shame. If it's not resolved before we go on stage, there's a high probability that everything will go wrong and I don't want to ruin our future shows."
"Let's do the following. I know a lot of people; I have friends scattered all over the city. So, if you think it will make you less embarrassed, I can start introducing you to some friends I have and see if you can talk to them with as little embarrassment as possible."
"Okay... I believe I can try. Even if I make a mistake, as your friends , they will understand."
"Exactly. And I know exactly why two start. Get ready to meet Makoto and Saito."
"But right now?"
"Yes, of course. Those dudes don't do anything in their free time, I just need to call them and they come running here."
"Even so, this is a little sudden, I don't know if I'll be able to talk to them very naturally."
"I assure you that there will be no problem. They are extremely communicative people just like me, so I'm positive that communication won't be an issue. If you can't talk, they'll bring up the conversation themselves."
"Okay, okay, you can call them."
As soon as I had her permission, I immediately took out my cell phone and started calling, first to Saito.
"Bro c'mon, unnecessary rudeness, I was sleeping."
"Sleeping at four in the afternoon?? Crazy Bastard, don't you have anything else to do with your life?"
"Man, it is Sunday. What do you do on Sunday?"
"I'll tell you what you're going to do, you'll get dressed and come directly to my location, follow the coordinates on your cell phone. FAST."
"But for what."
"Because I'm asking. FOLLOW and don't take too long"
"Calm down man, I'll get there as soon as possible."
Next, it was time to call Fujimoto:
"Bro c'mon, unnecessary rudeness, I was sleeping."
"ANOTHER? Jesus, these guys are like to pees in a pod. Get to my location FAST, no questions asked."
"Man, give me five minutes and I'll be there."
Saito and Fujimoto were really amazing guys, our friendship was already at a point where neither of us had to justify ourselves to request the presence of the others. It was just someone asking and the others would be there without the need for questions. In addition, we all continuously shared our location with each other, so it was not even necessary to specify place, time, or any of those other things that would take longer to call. It was only necessary to follow the GPS location.
"Now they should not be very long..."
As I said this, not even five minutes had passed, in fact, not even a minute had passed, and yet, in some magical way, Fujimoto slammed open the door of the café, giving me and Aisaka a scare to die:
"Good mornings. How are we?"
"My friends, are you insane? How did you get here so fast?"
"I got dressed pretty fast and got on my skateboard, ran over the cars with it and everything and, right halfway through, I grabbed a Ferrari with the skateboard, that's why I got there so fast."
"In other words, in common words, you hitched a ride from your parents"
"It's not fair. I wanted to see if I surprised your friend by your side"
Aisaka hid behind me in shame, turning completely red.
"Dude, look at your non soft way of introducing yourself. Introduce yourself to this fine lady in a normal way, please."
"You're right, you're right. I apologize for my manners. My name is Kenzo Fujimoto. It's a great pleasure to meet you Aisaka." As he said it, he bowed deeply in a form of true respect
"I.. as well Fujimoto"
"Nakamura spoke very well of you ,both to me and to Saito.-said he getting back to his normal posture- By the way, where is that lazy man."
While Aisaka was slightly flushed from Fujimoto's words, I continued the conversation with him, giving her a little time to process things before getting her talking again.
"That other fat man was also sleeping; however, you already know him, arriving early is almost impossi..."
As he said this, he also came in almost ramming the door, entering the café in exact same way as Fujimoto.
This time not only was I scared, but also Fujimoto and Aisaka, since the door burst was much bigger, having also caught the attention of some of the café's customers.
"Jesus, bro, you gotta stop doing this to me. My heart can't stand such constant blasts"
"In my defence, since we are in the presence of a maiden, I wanted to make sure I wasn't late and, as you can see, I got here in five minutes."
"My question is, how did you get here so fast?"
"Bro, you won't see this coming. I was already dressed at home, so I drank two energy drinks and started running like a fanatic through the ci…"
"Meaning, you hitched a ride from your parents"
"C'mon, don't cut me off like that, it's not even fun to try to deceive you, you always know. I wanted to see if I would surprise the girl"
Aisaka was completely in shock. I couldn't tell from her face if it was positive or negative, but she was extremely impressed with my friends. They both arrived in an uproar, lied about how they got here, and yet I couldn't see her disliking them. However, after gaining a little courage to, Aisaka, in a somewhat embarrassed way, she cleared my doubts saying with a soft smile while holding my arm:
"Your friends are very funny."
"These guys are some lazy bastards, but they are loyal and smart, that's why I love them so much"
Both smiled kindly while replying:
"We also adore you bro, I think I speak for both of us when I tell you that for us you are like family, but, a quick question, can I go outside and smoke a cigarette?"
I punched him in the stomach
"So, I mean, you start the conversation all sentimental and all and now you come to finish me off with your addiction. C'MON you just arrived Saito, stop being a nicotine addict and go to talk to us. First you come to meet the girl and only after that will I allow you to smoke."
"Okay, okay, okay, let's talk."
Saito had a serious problem with nicotine, and I was very surprised that he didn't smoke yesterday when we were at the park. However, he had withdrawal symptoms that were a little different from normal. Instead of becoming violent or something like that, he went through several phases of withdrawal: First, he simply got an itchy butt, which intensified as he approached the second stage.
The second stage of Saito's abstinence from nicotine was when he began to give sudden screams while talking, these screams being completely randomized, being given both at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of a conversation. They were random screams that usually gave me a huge fright.
Saito's last and worst phase of abstinence, Fujimoto and I only managed to witness once, and God make it to be the last we will have to witness. It happened when he and we were meeting at his house to help him, and his parents do some renovations in the house. Since his parents don't know about his addiction, he couldn't smoke in the middle of the renovations, and he couldn't even see any loopholes to smoke without his parents noticing. After going through the previous stages, Saito, after a few long hours without putting a cigarette in his mouth, took off his shirt and started doing "The Worm" on the ground tirelessly, seeming not to even hear our voices when we asked him to stop.
After their parents were worried and ran to the neighbours for help, we, having already seen the other signs and were sure that it was the abstinence talking, made a plan. We counted to three, and, with a lot of effort, Fujimoto managed to grab him while I put a cigarette in his mouth. The effect was almost immediate, and he managed to endure the rest of the changes, staying, only at the end, with some itching in his butt, indicating that he was not even close to the second phase.
We sat at a table at The Rock Oasis, while I explained why I had contacted them.
"My dear friends, the problem is the following. As you have seen, Aisaka is very friendly, however, she is quite shy. I called you here to see if we can improve her social skills, as we can all agree that we excel at it."
"I couldn't have said better myself Nakamura. We both met in rather strange circumstances, which would have made anyone else have moved away immediately, or at least not stayed with the connection that we did, however, as we observed that we were so alike, we decided to join and , from strangers, gained very quickly such a high grain of affection that we knew we were bound to stay with each other for life."
"Exactly. Nakamura and I have been friends since childhood; however, Saito joined us in circumstances that defy the laws of common sense, and it felt like we were brothers by the time we met. But that's an all other story. Do the following Aisaka, try to start a conversation with me with the topic you want and, usually only that topic will lead to others that will make the conversation go on for a long time. Whatever you want, just try."
For a moment. Aisaka was thoughtful. There were millions of topics she could choose to talk to us about, starting with Fujimoto, however, the topic that Fujimoto accidentally mentioned became her most interesting goal.
"Actually, since you both touched on the topic, I would like to know how you met. How did you meet Nakamura and then Saito?"
"Something told me that you were interested in the topic. In that case I'll tell you the whole story."
Fujimoto closed his eyes and reflected during the moments. Telling the story of how our friendship began would only be a story that would be between the three, however, as I spoke so well of Aisaka, Fujimoto felt entitled to tell her the story as well, which had the gestural approval of both me and Saito.
"First of all, the story of how I met Nakamura, which was quite simple, but for us it is still a beautiful story. We were both in the same class when we were still only 10 years old, however, we spoke only for formalities, nothing important. However, on a specific day, during physical education class, we were both selected to play tennis together and we both had a very high competitive streak and played both well. This generated a moment where we started to play with the intensity of a game at national level that made the whole school stop to watch our game.
After I defeated Nakamura in the game, the whole school was around the two of us for a while, and, after everyone had dissipated, Nakamura came to my side impressed with my quality of play and we discovered that our way of thinking and seeing the world was very similar, becoming inseparable friends over the years."
"You big liar. Although the game was intense, I was the one who won it."
"SHHH. I'm the one who's telling the story and I didn't ask you anything."
"Ahahaha. You guys are very funny. And what about Saito? How did you know him?"
"It was an equally funny story, even though they were different circumstances. Saito, although you haven't had time to realize it yet, is someone who can't help but stay in love for a long time and, at the time, he was in love with one of Nakamura's childhood friends, Aimi Suzuki, and couldn't take his eyes off her, something that caught Nakamura's attention as well as me. Therefore, we had both planned to scare the boy who was chasing her while he sneaked to smoke a cigarette during his lunch break. As we surrounded him, he remained completely calm and didn't even move a muscle, saying only that we were terrible at following someone and, as he said this, the real Saito appeared behind us. The one in front os us was a hooded man whom we thought was Saito, whoever, it was just a friend of his with whom he had planned the game. I confess that we were both impressed by Saito's cleverness and began to spend more time with him, until we reached what we are today."
"Wow, this sounds like the story of a movie. I can't believe you met in such a crazy circumstance. Really your trio is unique in everything, the only thing that really unites you is your intelligence which, despite being in different areas, is still both equally admirable."
"And you know what the best part of it all is, Aisaka? It's just that you're already talking to me without any trace of shame, which shows that you can really integrate with the right company. Whenever you need help with something like this, we are available to help. From help, you can consider our trio your ultimate friend."
"Thank you so much for everything. You…You guys really are amazing"
While this conversation was going on, Aisaka's parents called her and she had to leave with her parents to start taking care of the café, as it was starting to get crowded again. We thanked the parents for the hospitality in that beautiful space and, after saying goodbye to Aisaka, we both left slowly towards home.
After walking just, a little I couldn't help but thank Fujimoto:
"Thank you for not telling the true story of Saito. I don't think a pure girl was ready to hear a story as heavy as that."
"No problem my brother. Everyone knows that The Rainy Day is not meant to be mentioned in the world anymore. If you want to let it out again, that permission belongs to you alone, that's up to you to decide. However, neither Saito nor I have the right to even tell anyone else about it."
I gave a lateral hug to both at the same time while we were still walking and completed.
"Thanks for understanding brothers."
The Rainy Day was that kind of day that, although I wanted to, I couldn't tell anyone else. Not out of shame, not out of any feeling of the kind. However, I think it was a part of my life that people are not ready to know or understand. As someone who likes to do everything, I felt the impotence of not being able to do anything, however, those who are already used to doing nothing cannot feel, not even close, what I felt that day. Aisaka could understand; however, I didn't want to traumatize her with such a story.
We quietly followed our way home and, after arriving at mine, I knew exactly what awaited me. My Yamaha was waiting to be played and I would be very happy to comply with her request. I just played Knocking On Heavens Door one more time as I remembered the beautiful moment I had witnessed that same day with Aisaka. The lady sang really well, and I couldn't wait for us to start composing our songs together, however, it was late and bedtime was approaching, since tomorrow was already a school day.
I woke up startled and upset as any student would be on a Monday. After two days of authentic freedom, there we were again in the cycle that they want to put us in, studying everything but without internalizing anything. What a despicable life of mine during the week.
I put on the uniform and off I went to school, where this and another year of suffering still awaited me until I could be in fact exonerated of these responsibilities and lack of freedom.
At our school, our trio were somewhat known, since we had a kind of superpower that we call "Super Extraversion". There was no one we couldn't talk to, and each of us used that for our own ends. Fujimoto usually used it to get discounts on things in stores or to hitchhike strangers on the street, Saito used the same skill to get girlfriends and female partners while I simply made friends with everyone to always have information about everyone from the corners of the school and the city, which was often very handy.
When I got there, I wasn't exactly happy. Saito as always was late and Fujimoto has revising for a test in the library, which was something he didn't need help with, and I had no intention of spending more time with school topics than necessary. I was only talking to a few other people in my class, since only Fujimoto was in my class, Saito belonged to class 2-C. However, something strange happened on that school day. While I was talking to two of my classmates, abruptly, the school released a notice, saying that all students in class 3-C should present themselves in the classroom to receive a new student.
My shock was immediate because, according to my spies, there was no girl who was free in these times to enter our school, the transfer had been so sudden that my spies did not have time to pick up the information as soon as it flowed.
I went to the classroom along with my two classmates, until I came across Fujimoto completely surprised. When I asked him what was going on, he just pointed forward. Looking at the front of the room, I could see why he was so amazed. The new student in the classroom was none other than Aisaka!
While the teacher introduced her, Fujimoto and I were completely shocked with the situation. There were so many questions going through my head. How, when why? But as soon as the class was over, I would have time to know all this.
We were having English, one of the subjects that made the least sense at school. The teacher spoke in English and explained things that those who did not speak English did not understand and those who spoke English already knew. In other words, it was basically more of a bedtime class, since I and Fujimoto were able to speak English with a better intonation and accent than the teacher, something more to add up to the stupidity of the class.
I really wanted to fall asleep, however, the fact that I had Aisaka in the classroom made me rethink myself. I didn't want to give a bad impression to my friend recently placed in the class. I made my effort not to fall asleep and started to do something that would be very useful in the future. I took a book out of my coat pocket to read in class but, in the rush to leave home for school, instead of picking up a book I had accidentally put a mini black notebook that I had in my room to store some ideas and thoughts. Then I had an excellent idea. I used that notebook to start writing lyrics for songs so that, as soon as I had good playing, Aisaka would already have enough songs to sing with me.
But it wasn't as easy as that. Never in my life had I written anything other than essays for school. How would I suddenly start writing songs? I didn't know about that or even how to rhyme coherently. But that class would be the training ground for that.
I started thinking about all the themes of humanity that could make a good song, that could make a good theme. There was so much and at the same time nothing to talk about. I spent at least twenty minutes staring at the notebook sheet without even having the slightest idea of what to write.
After all this time, I got angry and punched the table where I was, causing everyone in the room to start looking at the source of the noise.
"What was that Nakamura, the noise came from your direction."
"It was my arm that slipped on the table, professor. It will not happen again."
I managed to avoid another trip to the director's office, however, I had not yet been able to decide how I was going to write a song and, if I could not even start one, how I thought of writing several.
I thought about it for a while, but my brain started to knot, and I'm sure that for a few minutes I started to go into a trance and fell a snowman attacking me with his nose.
I closed the notebook and tried not to think about it anymore. Since I was still completely useless in the art of writing music, I would have to ask Aisaka for help as soon as the class was over, and I was so distracted thinking about the lyrics that I didn't even remember that she was in my class. In addition to asking her about letters, I still had to understand why she suddenly moved to this school and what her plans were for the future.
I greeted her with a warm kiss on the hand, which was my greeting to the girls, since it is not very common here in Japan. She blushed immediately.
"Look how you greet me because people still think we're boyfriends!"
"And are we not? Look..."
I couldn't even finish the sentence I was already getting kicked in the testicles
"You great pervert, I hope this doesn't happen again."
After recovering from the near knockout I had taken, I explained myself before asking anything else, since I have a lot of love for my teeth:
"M'lady, if it makes you feel less embarrassed, that's the way I always greet girls. I feel that a bow is not enough. You can ask all the girls in my class."
"Okay ok, I believe you.- She blushed slightly-"But it still is a silly way to great"
"Jesus girl, you are very calm but God help me when you turn to aggressiveness no one stops you."
"I'm basically a camouflaged pervert hunter, so if I were you, I'd be careful."
"Okay, it's decided, I won't bother you like that again, otherwise I've seen that the situation is going to get complicated for my side. But if you would tell me something, why the sudden move to this school, something happened?"
By asking this question, she returned to her more passive normal state, answering softly.
"I always preferred to be homeschooled. Since I'm so embarrassed, I was very afraid of being bullied or not being able to fit in, so staying home minimized that risk. Therefore, I had never even set foot in a school. However, after meeting you, Saito and Fujimoto, I felt more inspired to try to make new friends, and the best place to do so was school."
"This is very good, really. I'll be honest with you. I hate school because it takes away a lot of free time, however, to make friends is one of the most suitable places, especially for a person like you who is starting your social life. I'll help you whenever you need it. There is no one in this school who does not know who I am."
"This is very good so I can make friends much more easily. Thank you."
"Ohh, there's no need. I'm always available to help you."
"You are very dear Nakamura."
I blushed a little listening to this but, in the meantime, I remembered the reason I went to Aisaka, in addition to asking the reason for her "transfer".
"Tell me something Aisaka, since you sing, do you also usually write lyrics?"
"Well, that depends. I can do it, but I'm only really good at choosing the topics because, writing the lyrics themselves, I usually start to mix everything up and I can't write anything coherent. Why do you ask?"
"Here's the catch. During classes, I wanted to start writing songs to be able to compose when I already have the ability to do so, however, I could not choose a theme for the song at all. Can you give me a theme to try to do my first one?"
"That's not how it works Nakamura. Song lyrics are usually your soul, making it impossible to simply choose a theme at random to write and hope for a good song to come out. The same applies if the writer of the same is not the one to choose the theme."
"So, what do you advise me to do?"
"The only way for a song to be good is if the lyrics are inspired by something that its author felt, that being anger, tranquillity, incomprehension. Therefore, what I advise you to do if you want to write a song in the next class, is to take advantage of this break to analyse the environment around you and see what it makes you feel. It doesn't matter the feeling; the important thing is that it's something around you that makes you feel a strong emotion."
"Thank you so much Aisaka, you're amazing."
She blushed slightly as always and added:
"Come on, go out there and look your lyrics for today!"
I confess that even with her guidance, I found myself quite lost. There was so much going on around me. The gossips on one side, the intellectuals on the other, the dorks in another corner. What could arouse emotion in me those people?
I decided to simply lean against the wall of a corridor and hope to see something that would arouse an emotion in me, and I stayed like that for a good part of the break without feeling the slightest trace of feeling.
However, even after giving the entrance bell, I noticed a unanimous act of the people that had gone unnoticed when observing them, although it was being done by everyone, since it was something so common that only after a while I remembered the feeling that it gave me. All the people unanimously put away their mobile phones when the entrance tone was given.
As I entered and sat down, I was still quite thoughtful about the subject, although I was decided that this was what I was going to talk about in my lyrics. I've always been someone who started hating mobile phones from the moment social media became not a simple hobby, but a lifestyle. Not to mention the games that, instead of just being used to pass time in a queue or something like that, nowadays are more addictive than some drugs, making people get lost in this addiction losing health, but mainly wasting time. The fact that I know that people waste valuable minutes of life just by scrolling on their cell phone means that I only use mine to make calls, and no more than that. Just thinking about mobile phones makes me upset and disappointed. And there were the emotions that Aisaka told me so much that would be necessary to write the lyrics. I decided that I would try to write lyrics in order to satirize the theme but, however, that would make those who listen to the song reflect on it, possibly improving their lives for the better.
From the moment I realized that these were the emotions and that was the goal, my pen seemed to slide across the paper. I was writing so quickly and harmoniously that it felt like I was on autopilot. I was writing it so automatically that, when I finished, I didn't even remember what I had written, and it was necessary to have read the whole letter again to confirm if my lightness of spirit was equivalent to my talent at writing. As soon as I finished reading it, I was so excited that I even screamed in class.
"IT'S DONE"
"Nakamura, director's office."
I got up and mumbled to myself:
"It was worth it."
"Yes, I will, sir."
There I was in the director's office again. Fortunately, since I was already expecting this to happen more often, I already had things planned out. During the days I made a point of befriending the director's daughter who, despite her kinship with the director being a secret, I recently discovered that the girl called Hana Tanaka of my class was, in fact, the only daughter that the director of our school had and I made a point of making friends with her more intensely during these last few days.
Although at my last arrest the director was not yet fully aware of my relationship with his daughter, during this I hoped that my sympathy for her would not go unnoticed. We all know that people in positions of power, despite trying hard, cannot be completely impartial.
"Good morning, Mr. Director. My English teacher sent me here." "Tell me what you did this time Nakamura."
I could tell from his tone of voice that he seemed complacent, which indicated that Tanaka had already told him about my friendship with her. I gave a soft smile as I thought to myself "It is t time to play with his emotions."
"Our most honourable director must already know that I get scared with some ease and today in class I saw something moving on my desk. I screamed as if in fright, but you know that as I am now marked as bad guys, I don't even have the right to the benefit of the doubt."
"This is what is going to happen Nakamura. Of all the times you came here you were always honest and never lied to me, so I trust that you are not lying to me now. You don't need to go back to class, and you don't need to worry yourself with any advertence." As I got up, I shook hands with the director firmly and added, "Thank you for understanding my position Sir. I'm sure you would be an awesome father."
People in positions of power are like puppets, all with the same personalities. To mess with them all you need is charisma, honesty, and knowledge of those they hold most dear. That was my role in the trio. The logical manipulator of minds, genius of crime and (i)legality. Everything that involves people and problems that are difficult to solve was up to me.
After the English class was over, Aisaka came to me very worried.
"Nakamura, you were sent to the director's office. Are you going to be punished or something like that?"
"No, no, don't worry about it Aisaka. I've been there enough times to know how to mess with the director's head. I believe I won't have problems for a long time."
"Are you absolutely sure? It's just that I don't want you to be expelled."
"It's very dear of you, Aisaka, but you don't need to worry. I'm not even close to being punished, lesser being expelled."
After the "dear" came out of my mouth, Aisaka blushed a little as usual and continued saying:
"Let's also be honest, honest, Nakamura. Who is the crazy guy who remembers shouting such a big scream in the middle of class. You were basically asking for a trip to the director."
"I'll explain why. Look at these lyrics I wrote during class, and you'll understand why I screamed."
Aisaka's eyes lit up as she advanced through the verses of the lyrics. She was impressed and, at the same time, her eyes were so bright that for a moment I thought I saw the formation of tears reflecting in the light, something that didn't make sense since it wasn't a sad music. So, as soon as she closed the notebook, I asked her:
"So, did you like it?"
"Nakamura, look at me. I want to sing this song as soon as possible, because these lyrics have the material to be a great song, and I don't know if I can wait too long."
"But Aisaka. Don't forget that I started learning guitar not even a week ago. I still don't have enough knowledge and skill to compose a song."
She looked deep into my eyes and said:
"My good friend Nakamura. It doesn't have to be a complicated song. As you can confirm to me yourself, you learned a song in about an afternoon, a song that is well known and, just because it's simple, doesn't mean it's less good than all the other songs out there."
"And do you think it's really possible for me to be able to compose a song in such a short time and with so little skill?"
Aisaka grabbed me in her arms and, in a very soft tone of voice, said the following:
"Do the following. Learn three more chords of your choice and you don't even have to worry about the names, simply learn the position of the hands and, as soon as you can do that, come to The Rock Oasis and we'll compose that song. Together."
I would be lying if I didn't say that my pulse rate rose a little after this unusual challenge. Composing a song after such a short time of practice would undoubtedly be difficult, however, I was not someone who gave up that easily.
"Ok Aisaka, I accept your challenge. Give me today and two more days and, at the end of the day on Thursday, I'll go with you to The Rock Oasis, and we'll compose this song. Together."
"I'm very happy that you accepted the challenge. I will be there waiting for you when the day comes. Good luck for your learning."
After this brief conversation and classes, we all decided to return to our homes. Saito and Fujimoto still went for a coffee; however, I couldn't stay out more that day, I had to learn something else on the guitar. I refused to go even a day without learning something new. Besides, after the challenge I made to Aisaka, I couldn't dedicate a second of my life to anything other than that.
After getting this idea into my head, these three days passed for me with an almost superhuman speed, since when I didn't have a guitar in my hand, I went on autopilot, only regaining consciousness when I found it again. In these three days when I was only supposed to learn three chords, I was basically able to learn all the chords that didn't involve using a finger as a bar, since these required a high level of commitment and practice time and, since I lacked the last factor, I decided to stick only to the normal chords.
Following this temporal vortex, I returned to control of my body on Thursday morning, just after I got out of bed.
I picked up the guitar just before going to school, just to see if I had really learned all the chords I had planned and was actually ready to compose, and I felt quite inspired to go to school and tell Aisaka that I was ready to start writing our first song.
I arrived at the school confident, and I looked for Aisaka everywhere to tell her that I was indeed ready to compose our music when school was over, however, even when the entrance bell rang, she was not in the room.
This was unusual, since it was the first day that Aisaka was missing and, because it was a somewhat important event, since we would go together to The Rock Oasis after school, I thought it was strange that she didn't show up. I texted my spies to keep an eye on The Rock Oasis to see if there was any news from her and to pass it on to me immediately. I was very worried that something wrong might have happened.
After they finished the morning classes, I was informed by my spies that Aisaka was at The Rock Oasis, however, she was not working or anything like that. She had spent all morning upstairs in the café that, according to my spies, was her home.
I was quite worried. It could even be just a cold but, when it comes to diseases, I'm usually the most worried, since Fujimoto gets sick with some ease due to his low immune system, making me always have the mania of diseases. As soon as I had the impression that she might be sick, I decided that I was going to visit her at her house, to ask her about the music and to check if she was indeed sick or was just some less serious problem.
All the way, I imagined all kinds of possible problems. From flu to cancer and from a fall to a hit-and-run. My head was racing, and I started to walk faster. That's when I realized that my friendship with Aisaka had already evolved a lot over the last few days. I had only met her on Saturday; however, I was already worried about her to the point of creating all these scenarios in my head. She was indeed special. She deserved a place in our, until then, "trio".