Chapter 5
I woke up to what would be one of the best days of my life. Meeting my best friend's girlfriend, playing live for the first time, and spending quality time with the people I love the most. I spent a little more time than usual practicing guitar to make sure I knew the tabs completely by heart so there wouldn't be any mistakes in the concert and, after that, I had a hearty breakfast to make sure I had nutrients to last throughout the day. Two toasts, a latte, cereals, two slices of cheese and two slices of ham and, to finish, a banana. I put my usual suit while my costume for the night was already stored in the limousine that would take us to the place, along with the accessories. So, taking advantage of the fact that I still had ten minutes left to start walking to the café, I lay down on a sun lounger near my pool just to reflect a little on everything that was going on, as I usually did. My moment of reflection was this time dedicated to the words of Mr. Fujiwara. "Aren't you dating?" Of course, it was not the first time I had heard this, however, Mr. Fujiwara was the first person who actually made me reflect on it, and, although I had already thought about the topic a few times, I would take advantage of these ten minutes to make a deep reflection on it. In fact, now that I was thinking about it, I couldn't imagine any woman to fall in love with other than Naomi, however, I couldn't imagine myself in love with her either. Love has always been an emotion that has been far beyond my intelligence, and to be honest, far beyond the intelligence of anyone who has ever walked the earth. Only once in my life have, I felt such a feeling and it didn't go the best way, however, there are people who go wrong many times and then it goes right, others who never go right, and some lucky ones who go well the first time. It is really difficult to understand why it is not enough just to have common points and both get along. I know relationships where this happened, and everything ended and others where it didn't happen and people are still very happy together. Therefore, love is the most difficult thing to explain because, unlike other emotions that can be somewhat predictable, love is completely volatile. In fact, I consider the power of the Saito of us the three of us the deadliest and most powerful because he can play with love, something that is more volatile than a flame lit on a trail of gasoline. Quite honestly, it amazes me to this day that everything has always gone well, except for the punch of that uncontrolled father, he never had a failed relationship in a disastrous way, they all ended either because the flame of love had caught over time or due to personal reasons that prevented the girl from being with him, however, everything was resolved with a simple conversation. I would have to wait and see how my heart would behave towards Naomi from now on. Anyway, I was happy the way I was.
So, the ten minutes had passed and I was ready to start going to the café. As I walked, both the sun hitting my face and the music playing on my headphones were giving me a different feeling, even though I did the same route exactly every day. The day seemed like it was going to go smoothly.
As soon as I got there, Saito and Fujimoto were already waiting for me, as usual, Fujimoto discussing ideas with Saito while he rolled a cigarette. What was not usual was that they were waiting for me and not the other way around. As soon as I approached, there they were looking at me.
"So, Nakamura, late for the first time?"
I showed them the clock to show him that it was exactly ten in the morning, the time we agreed upon:
"It was at these times that they told me to be here, it was at these that I arrived. My question is. How is it that you lazy bastards, besides having both woken up so early and not looking sleepy, got somewhere before me?"
"Sit down, I'll tell you everything my brother."
I sat down at the table and ordered my usual. A coffee and toast, while I waited to hear the story that Fujimoto would tell me.
"So, it all happened like this. At five in the morning, Saito called me to say that he couldn't sleep anymore because he was too anxious about the dinner and the concert opening and everything else, and since he knew that you were already awake but you should be busy taking care of some pending business, like practicing a little for the opening and similar stuff, he sent a message for you to come here only at ten..."
"I really thought it was very strange that you sent me a message at five ten in the morning, but I thought you still had to go to bed not that you had already woken up, that is very rare about you."
"And I really was sleeping like a baby, this guy is the one who woke me up, which makes it even stranger."
"EXACTLY. The fact that it was Saito who was awake at those hours is what makes everything more worrying. I've never seen you do this for any girl before, what's wrong?"
"Brother, I don't know. I have no idea. That's why I scheduled this coffee here with you like in the old days only between our trio, to try to solve this situation."
While we were talking among ourselves, my coffee and toast were served to me by a very beautiful girl, who then withdrew for us to continue our usual conversation:
Saito lit his cigarette and took the initiative to finish the story that Fujimoto had begun to tell.
"As I couldn't sleep, I asked Fujimoto to help me. Before you arrived, I just had to collapse with Fujimoto, nothing very important, because it's your help that I really need."
At this point I finished drinking my coffee and then I asked Saito:
"In what specifically do you need my help with?"
"I need you to analyse me with your psychology skills, so I can understand what's going on."
"I'll do my best. Tell me what's going on in your head."
"I, as you may have noticed, am still a little afraid of the relationship with Suzuki. We're dating but only by assumption, because there has not yet been a formal request. We only kissed and talked about "being together", but the request never came up, both due to lack of time and lack of authorization. So, Fujimoto has already given me his blessing, Nakamura, do you think that by saying that I will be happy it's enough for you to grant me your blessing as well?"
"You could have started right there man. That wasn't something I needed to judge by your face, I needed to judge by her. I'll be honest, since I don't know her, I don't like to give the blessing without getting to know people first, however, since you forced me to be aware of your face, I realized that you talk about it with a lot of emotion and joy, not being able to see another emotion in it. Therefore, based on this principle, I will bend my own rules and give my blessing without first knowing her. I'll trust your good judgment."
Saito sighed with relief and continued:
"I'm glad brother, I'm glad you gave me your blessing. Thank you!"
"But why were you so suspicious that I wasn't going to give you, my blessing? You didn't have to lost sleep over it, you just had to call me. The way you unfold the story, I thought it was some problem with the girl, not with me."
"I don't know brother; you don't usually fail in your predictions and let's just say I was a bit afraid of your answer that's all. I think I'm already at a point where hearing you say "no" would be extremely painful to me. We did it on purpose to try to confuse you and we try by ourselves to evaluate your chance of accepting or not the blessing, but your face inhibited by emotions other than happiness does not make the task easy."
"We have the voting systems, but you know perfectly well how we work. As Jimmy Hendrix would say, a friend is that person who gives you the freedom to be who you are. Even without my blessing, you could still have your way, and I would be happy for you anyway."
"I know, I know that. But I also know perfectly well that your predictions are usually never wrong, that is, I would not trust her in the same way that I would, do you understand?"
I have always had, and I think everyone in this relationship too, a notion of the relevance that each one has in the lives of others. We rule our friendship by dogmas that come close to perfection, however, it is always strange to see up close the influence that each of us has, despite its excellence. The system is perfect only because the three of us are aware of the power we have. For example, the form of decision-making that we make could never be adopted in a government. People are too vile to have so much power in their hands and direct it right. I could simply base myself on the suspicion I had yesterday while Saito was telling me about Suzuki and not give my blessing here, probably condemning the relationship to failure even before it started. However, even though I have the notion of this power, my best interest is Saito's well-being, and if for that, my blessing is needed, then so be it. Anyway, I can always talk to him if my opinion changes after meeting her.
"I know, I know, but you have my word that, at least for now, you have my blessing."
"Thank you, Nakamura, thank you very much."
I quickly pat his head and turn back to my seat:
"Now this is my man in love, but let's talk about other things because today we'll already have a lot of Suzuki. It's been some time since we had this threesome talks, right?"
"Your completely right my brother. Let me tell you Nakamura that Aisaka is an incredible person, I think it is excellent and even good for us that she joins us on most of our occasions, however, I think it is also beneficial for the three of us to keep our "meetings" as a trio. There are things we can't say in front of girls, besides, it's always good to remember the old days, where it was just the three of us against the world."
"I fully agree with you Fujimoto, so much that that's why I didn't call Naomi to come with us this morning. Although I understood that you like her almost as much as I do, I felt that I needed some time just with my bros."
"You did well to do this, there's no problem at all, especially on a day that will prove to be very important."
"And what about training Nakamura, have you trained enough?"
"To be honest Saito, I think so. It's just a song that, on top of that, was composed by me, which means, it's easier for me to play. I'm ready to put on a show."
Both Fujimoto and Saito grabbed me one on each shoulder and expressed their admiration:
"Yes sir. I'm proud of you my beautiful Nakamura. In a matter of a few weeks, you managed to compose an album of acoustic songs with your old man's dusty guitar and put on a performance. We will be there to support you; I hope we can sober up enough to get to the restaurant without making a big fuss."
After Fujimoto said this, Saito, who was also preparing to say something, put his hands to his head and remembered this important detail:
"BROTHERS , I DIDN'T EVEN REMEMBER THAT. I'm going to have to see your concert SOBER."
Something that our trio has always had an easy time with was getting alcohol and tobacco. As I said, we both think it's a joke for the government to decide the age at which we should use anything, so we both use what we want, no matter if it's for our age or not. Tobacco was something that both Fujimoto and I tried to stay away from as much as possible, except for cigars. Saito was the only one who developed a nicotine addiction. However, alcohol among us was almost like a tradition either at dinners or on important days. But we knew that at Naomi's coffee we wouldn't be able to drink, not only because of the prohibition but because we would both have things to do. I would have to play, Saito would have to have his date, and Fujimoto would not drink alone, it was supposed to be a traditional act. And traditions aren't meant to be done alone.
"That's right, I think we're really going to have to be sober at my concert."
"Brothers, we can't, that's not the tradition."
"Calm down Saito, you're very nervous. Put another nursing nipple in your mouth and I'll explain what we're going to do."
Saito lit up another cigarette, still a little anxious, while I explained to him what we were going to do.
"Here's the thing, my young people. In the concert itself, we will have to endure. None of us are addicts, we can do this in a way that does not dishonour tradition in the way I am going to say now. After the concert, the four of us we'll celebrate my success in the limousine and, then, when we get to the restaurant and light the cigar, we'll end the party celebrating the five. If you want my opinion on the matter, I don't see a way for the night to end better than this. So, we even have more stomach to handle more drink at that time."
Saito was nodding his head at any sentence I said and, finally, when I finished speaking, he already seemed to be calmer and replied:
"Honestly, I think it's an excellent plan. Do you agree, Fujimoto?"
"I completely agree. It's the perfect plan to honour tradition. Besides, in fact, I hadn't even thought that at the time we are at the restaurant we would no longer have strength to drink more. In fact, you are quite more than quite right."
"Only with you present will I can came up with these genius plans ahah. It's still early guys, do you have any plans for what to do now?"
"I have no idea. I would like to have a time machine to move forward into the night. I'm sure the day will take a long time to pass."
"I'll have to agree with you, Saito. I bet time will pass very slowly. By the way, it's only been fifteen minutes since I arrived, and we still talked for a while."
"You swear it's only been 15 minutes?"
"I swear, look at the clock here."
"HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!"
"I can't tell you either, and honestly, I don't know what we're going to do with the day with this spell of time not passing."
"What do you say about just taking a walk to the beach and going for a swim?"
"It seems like an excellent idea to me Fujimoto, however, neither you nor I have shorts."
"And since when can that be a problem, my good man? We dive in our underwear. Don't tell me you'll ashamed."
"You know perfectly well that in this trio of friendship that word is not applicable. Of course, that's not going to get on our way."
"And what about the check, won't we pay?"
"We have already paid ours and yours. We already knew what you were going to ask."
"Thanks bros, but you know perfectly well that you don't have to pay me anything."
"For God's sake Nakamura. You buy us cigars and dinners in fancy restaurants. Let the poor people buy you at least a coffee and a piece of toast. Each one offers what he can."
"Yes, yes, you are right. Thank you both very much for the beautiful gesture."
"It was nothing little brother. Let's go to the beach then?"
"Let's go."
We both started walking down the street while the topic and conversation as usual didn't seem to die, however, instead of talking about what was about to happen more during the night, our brains seemed to have completely disconnected from the subject, as if we wanted to avoid it to enjoy the moment, and we ended up going all the way discussing abstract or philosophical ideas, as usual.
"Bros, I was here thinking as we walked down the street, have you seen the Death Note anime?"
"Of course I've seen it Saito. You know perfectly well that the philosophical theme adjacent to this anime is of great interest to me."
"And as for you Fujimoto, have you seen it too?"
"No bro. You know perfectly well that, although it's a crime to say this as a Japanese, I don't like to watch anime."
"Yes, I always forget that."
"Honestly, I don't know how you do it."
"What do you mean by that Nakamura?"
"My point is as follows. I think we can all agree, and I know we already agreed that this world is a rotten place, despite the few exceptions of people who make it a beautiful place if you surround yourself with them, correct?"
"Yeah, and what that has to do with anime?"
"Not only with anime, but with cartoon works in general. Both of these animated works have something in common that attracts me. There are no humans, which makes things much more beautiful, even if it's heavy anime like Death Note where the main character can be seen as evil, you see more humanity in characters like that than in characters represented by humans. Also, if the purpose of the animation is, for example, to represent love, there is nothing better than an animation. To this day, being rational as I am, except for the Rainy Day that I don't need to be remembering, the only time I cried with feeling was watching an anime. The characters seem so pure and the love so true, it's something that helps me keep my sanity and hope that, one day, I too will be able to find someone as perfect as they appear in anime."
"I've always preferred live action but, if the human factor really makes a negative difference, I can try to follow your recommendation, especially the final part you just said. Tell me what anime is what made you cry because I'm going to marathon it tomorrow night. Without a doubt it was the best work of fiction ever achieved by humanity, to have made someone like you cry for something that is not even real."
"It's really amazing how the author can show so much emotion in a work, really amazing. It's called Toradora, give it a chance when you get home."
"You can be sure that I will."
"BROS, YOU'RE GOING OFF TOPIC."
"Sorry Saito, my bad. Explain in a moment what the premise of Death Note is to Fujimoto for us to discuss on the way to the beach."
"Basically, long story short, a boy finds a notebook that allows him to kill people just by writing their names and knowing their faces and starts killing criminals. However, as time goes by, he also begins to kill innocents who oppose his vision of the new world. So, was Kira a hero or a villain? You begin, Fujimoto, since you have never seen it."
"From the summary you gave me, honestly, I still consider him a hero. Of course, if I were in his position I wouldn't kill innocent people, in fact, I would try to do my best to make the deaths not even stand out, doing it only for the good of the world and not to boost my ego."
"I disagree with you. I don't think I could have done such a thing. Even though I know that in the series crime was greatly reduced, I think that killing a human being is not a job that belongs to us humans. Even if it brings advantages to other human beings, I don't think we have the right to take a life."
"It's really a response "by Saito" ahah. What about you Nakamura?"
"You already know me; you know perfectly well what I was going to do. If that notebook had fallen into my hands, it was not only heavy crime criminals that I would kill, but also violent people, people who are mean to others for no apparent reason. I was going to do a complete cleanse on this planet. As Saito said, I can't claim that I would have the right to kill anyone, however, if it means greater world security as it did in the series, I would be happy to do so."
"It is a really interesting opinion. What's the philosophical concept that's behind this anime then?"
"Ethical philosophy, approached from the Kantian perspective, which is the ethics defended by L in the series and by Saito in real life, and utilitarianism, defended by both of us in real life and by Kira in the series. In simple terms, the first says that the important thing is the person's intention and that there are rules that you cannot cross, such as killing someone, while the second says that as long as the consequences are positive for as many people as possible, you should approach that path, no matter the methods or intention."
"The second option actually makes a lot more sense in my head."
"I also think it makes sense Fujimoto, by the way, I'm a proponent of utilitarianism in just about any other circumstance, however, when it comes to taking the life of another human being, I really think it's a moral rule that no one should cross."
"I understand your point of view brother. None of us can be one hundred percent right or wrong. That's why philosophy is so interesting to discuss."
"I have to agree with you there. However, let's turn off our brains for a moment and let's enjoy this beautiful day at the beach."
"Nakamura, I just remembered a little micro detail. Apart from shorts, none of us brought a towel as well."
We both put our hands to our heads to try to prevent it from detaching from the body since I think that would be the only thing missing to forget that day.
"How come none of the three of us remembered that, and better, how did we remember the shorts and not that?"
"That's an excellent question, Saito. I have no idea. I hope I'm forgetting everything now and at least tonight I won't forget anything. Let's go to the corner store to buy towels and shorts, since we'll have to pass there. Surely they have it for sale."
"Good idea Nakamura, excellent idea."
We both stopped in front of the store that was near the beach and bought shorts for me and Fujimoto, three beach towels and, since we were already in a store, I also took the opportunity to buy a volleyball ball to play a little.
We were all trying to find a place to set up our towels and even though all the place on the beach was empty, we still seemed to be undecided about which place to stay."
"So guys. Make up your mind."
"Calm down Nakamura. Let's stay close to the sea. It must be good there. Does it sound good to you?"
I was already a bit nervous for walking so much in the heat and replied angrily:
"It seems perfect to everyone Saito. All I want to do is sit down, I'm tired of walking in this desert."
"OK, OK. Calm down my good man. We stayed here so we didn't have to walk any further. Anyway, it's a great place."
"FINALLY."
We both spread out the beach towel and lay down in the sun. We thought about warming up for a while before throwing ourselves into the sea that we already knew was cold as Siberia. I put on a calm song for us to think about the journey that we still had to go to end that day, so I chose an instrumental song to make us reflective for a while. Time To Love-October. There was no conversation for a while, we just stared at each other while Saito smoked a cigarette, Fujimoto ate a sandwich that, honestly, I had no idea where my head was. I was simply looking at both them and the horizon. It was a serenity that I thought we had to enjoy. It always feels good to stop to the rhythm of good music and slow down.
After the reflective moment we enjoyed, Saito put out the cigarette and Fujimoto took the last two bites to devour the rest of the sandwich that was missing and, the three of us on a single impulse, we got up from the towels and said:
"SEA. HERE WE GO."
With excitement, I even thought they wanted to make a run to the sea, however, as soon as I started racing and Fujimoto ran to keep up with me, Saito started to fall behind and muffled. Both Fujimoto and I went back to help him.
"My bad brother. I forgot that I was in the presence of a smoker without lungs."
"Without... cough... problem."
"C'mon, you're already coughing like you have a dying cancer."
"It's over, it's over already. Can we go slowly from now on, please?"
"Yes, of course, let's go slowly to see if you don't have a heart attack halfway through, you black lung."
We both went straight ahead again towards the sea, but more slowly so as not to make Saito faint again halfway through and, as if on a single impulse, as soon as we looked at the sea, we looked at each other and dived directly into it, without hesitation or even trembling due to the icy water.
After the three of us emerged from the water, we looked almost like movie stars shaking the water out of their hair. The three of us took just that dip and then retired again to our towel without mentioning a word and, as if by chance, the scene we had when we arrived here was repeated, however, this time with us all wet. Saito lit up another cigarette, Fujimoto pulled out another sandwich that, again, I have no idea where he got it and I, after putting on a more upbeat song this time since we were already more energized due to the cold water, put the opening song of an anime, tomoshibi, present in the anime Spy classroom, instrumental again, so that we could have a stirred music that, at the same time, let us enjoy the landscape.
However, even though the song was only instrumental, it was so lively that Fujimoto finished the sandwich in the middle of the song just as Saito finished his cigarette and, like three small children, we started trying to recreate the opening there in the middle of the beach. Fujimoto had never seen the anime, however, as he knew it had something to do with spies, he started mimicking as if he were removing silencers from a pistol and rolling on the floor like a madman, while Saito and I tried to recreate the opening in a more manly way, since the anime's casting was almost completely female
And, as expected, our attempt to make the opening more masculine was a mess of all sizes. However, as I looked at the scene unfolding in my eyes, I could see glimpses where we really looked like spies and other glimpses where we were just insane people who looked like kids on the beach. It was still quite funny.
As soon as the song ended, we all lay down on the towels realizing the clowning we had just done for no reason, just for the pure encouragement of the music, and we started laughing non-stop.
As soon as the laughter stopped, our "brother love" moment began, which usually happened after simple moments like these
"Bro, I love you; you are beautiful."
"No bro. I love you. You are the one who is beautiful."
We stayed in this discussion for about two minutes until, finally, I took the initiative to end it:
"Ready. To be fair, I think we can say that we are all three equally beautiful."
"I agree."
"Yes."
"After all, you know a discussion that will perhaps be more important. What are we going to do now?"
"It depends, what time is it Nakamura?"
I looked at my clock:
"Right now, it's 11:30"
"Again, so much we've done, and time doesn't seem to pass."
"As a normal day with a special event. It seems that just sleeping would be the solution for us to travel forward in time."
"That isn't a bad idea at all. While we're sleeping, we are sure that time passes quickly."
"... and to be honest, I think both Saito and I are already in need of a little sleep."
"By the way, I didn't even ask you, how come you managed to stay awake until now when you barely slept? Walking, diving, I haven't seen you show fatigue once and..."
Before I even continued what I was going to say, they both started looking at each other and then looking at me.
"... Now that I think about it, you even seemed to have more energy than I was. What the hell did you take to..."
As soon as I said that, they both realized that I would find out what they had done so they started running in the opposite direction of mine while I tried to remember what it was. My special coffee? But of course. It was the only explanation for all this. I think that was the only plausible explanation for both of them being so energized so early. As soon as I turned my back to start running after them, Saito was lying on the ground already exhausted, and he was only about twenty meters away from me.
"I surrender, cof cof, I surrender."
I immediately placed myself on top of him with my fist raised, ready to begin the interrogation.
"May I know why the boys stole my coffee?"
"We had no other option. Both Fujimoto and I were exhausted from sleep, and since I couldn't fall asleep at all, we decided to go into your house just to make some of that magical coffee and then we left."
"WITHOUT ASKING ME FOR PERMISSION!"
"It was an emergency Nakamura, please understand our side."
I got up from the sand and helped him to get up as well:
"Of course, I understand you no sweat. You really think it would upset me that you went to my house. You have the key. As long as you come and go without waking me up or breaking, it will never pose a problem to me."
"Yes, but we stole coffee from you, which I'm sure isn't cheap at all…"
"Don't you worry about that. I know you did it out of necessity and money is not an issue. Seriously, don't worry."
"I'm relieved you're not mad. Fujimoto, you can come out of hiding."
"Suddenly, Saito moved aside and, under himself and the sand, I started to see something moving that was nothing less than Fujimoto buried."
"Brother, how did you have time to dig a hole and hide there??"
"Saito already knew he wasn't going to get away with it, so he helped me dig and cover me with sand and himself, as he laid on the ground for you to think he was out of air."
"I liked the Saito act. How beautiful of you. I'm actually surprised you managed to fool me. But now that we have all been alarmed and we are all calm, what do they say about going to sleep the little sleep I had said?"
"Yes, I think it's excellent, let's go sleep a little bit."
"But I'll warn you right away. I'm a real rock when I sleep, there is nothing that wakes me up. Therefore, if I don't wake up with the alarm clock, please let me know"
"We'll warn you, don't worry. What time do you want me to set the alarm clock?"
"By half past three it must be good. We can have a big snack to make up for the lunch we won't have, and we head to the concert venue. Does it sound good to you?"
"It seems to me all excellent. Let's go to sleep because I'm already entering zombie mode."
"Well, the effect of coffee is not eternal either. Let's sleep a little then."
Even though I wasn't sleepy, I knew perfectly well that sleeping was the only solution for that moment to pass faster and go straight to the best day of our lives. Even if we went to Everest and back, it didn't matter. With my eyes open and with something fun to do later, the time of day seems to change ten times slower. Only sleeping nullified this effect.
After a beautiful period of deep sleep, I was surprised that I was the first to wake up and, on top of that, that I woke up without an alarm clock. Despite being the one who was least sleepy, I usually sleep for several hours in a row, having been few times that the opposite happened.
"It's going to be a good day from now on, let me just check the time in an instant."
As soon as I picked up my phone to check the time and how much time was left, I noticed something that left me completely petrified. None of us had woken up with the alarm clock and there were exactly 20 MINUTES left for the concert.
The first thing I did was call Naomi who, by now, must have been in a nervous wreck, since I had five unanswered calls from her.
"AKIRA. AKIRA NAKAMURA. WHERE ARE YOU??"
"Calm down Naomi, I'll explain. I fell asleep but I'm on the beach, I'm not far from the café. I'm going to call Mr. Yamaguchi now and I'll be there in five minutes."
She added with a scary tone:
"Don't be late, please, Akira."
"Even if my life depends on it. See you soon, sweetheart."
After the call ended, I called Mr. Yamaguchi almost immediately afterwards:
"Mr. Yamaguchi, it is an urgency. Protocol Imminent Delay, take the necessary steps to pick me up at the beach. And bring my guitar please"
"Surely Mr. Nakamura, I'll be there in less than five minutes."
Mr. Yamaguchi and I had already established a protocol in the unlikely event that I was almost late for an event. To make it short, whenever I uttered these words, Mr. Yamaguchi would immediately take the Bugatti "La Voiture Noire" and come to pick me up as quickly as possible, bringing a spare suit in the trunk of the car in case of need. Linked to this, he talked to friends at traffic control to only get green lights until he reached his final destination. For him, punctuality was something very important in a rider, something I cannot disagree with. This specific car was always prepared for this eventuality and only left the garage in case of a real emergency or a special event."
I immediately ran to Fujimoto and Saito and woke them both up with a slap on the face:
"WAKE UP THIS INSTANT."
"Dude, the alarm clo..."
"It has already played but no one has woken up, and so that no one is late, let's go NOW."
They both began to grunt and were beginning to turn the other way. Therefore, I activated all my anger and pulled the towel from under them, followed by having threatened them with a beating, however, lazy as they are, nothing seemed to help. If necessary, I had to play with their psychology.
"If they don't get up right now, I won't pay for anyone's dinner."
They both looked like tin soldiers and rose immediately behind me. They even saluted me as soon as they put me on my feet.
"That's what I like to see, let's run to the road RIGHT WAY."
"But..."
Saito was already going to say that he wouldn't have enough resistance to get there, however, as I already knew what he was going to say, I took my special inhaler from my jacket pocket and threw it at him.
"Use a puff of that stuff and your problem will be temporarily solved."
Saito used the inhaler and, after feeling his pulmonary alveoli open, he said
"LET'S GO."
We both started running wildly along the beach while I still had to carry my suit in my hand. All I wanted was to get to that performance on time.
Almost like in a movie, Mr. Yamaguchi arrived at exactly the same time as us and, as soon as he stopped, he opened the doors for us remotely so that we could enter with greater speed. Each of us stood in single file and jumped into the car one at a time. I was the last one to get in and, since I had to close the door, I jumped into the car on its side and, in doing so, closed the door at the same time as my butt sat down, making Mr. Yamaguchi catch us in record time.
There were only fifteen minutes left for the performance and we had just left the beach. While I was getting dressed in a hurry, Fujimoto kept talking to Naomi to try to calm her down and saying that we would arrive on time. At the last minute, however, in time.
The trip would be made in around 25 minutes in normal time, however, with the special protocol activated, we were able to arrive in 12 minutes, three minutes before I entered the stage.
I pulled out of the car just waving quickly to them and went straight to the suitcase to take out the guitar, immediately running to the backstage of the café, where I was expected.
As soon as I got to the back of the stage, Naomi was biting her nails as she looked at her watch many times, being in the most nervous she had ever seen and, off course, with good reasons to.
I ran right to her side and begged for her forgiveness:
"Naomi I'm sorry, I..."
She immediately jumped up to me to hug me, causing me to drop the guitar on the floor to catch her. She crossed her legs and leaned on my body.
"AKIRAAA. YOU ARE HERE."
I was confused by the sweetness, however, I would her tight as I blushed slightly:
"I'm here, I'm here sweetheart. You don't need to worry."
"I knew you weren't going to leave me hanging."
"Of course not, I said I would be on time even if my life depended on it."
She hugged me again as she repeated.
"Thank God, Thank God."
While we were hugging, a gentleman came to us and said:
"You two, it's your time to shine."
Naomi got off me, looked me deep in the eyes and exclaimed.
"Let's tear the house down."
"I couldn't have said it better myself."
We both sat on stage and, while I tuned the guitar, Naomi introduced us:
"Good evening everyone, we are the..."
She stopped and then I realized that we had forgotten something important. A name for our musical group.
Naomi was already getting quite nervous, and people were already starting to murmur, while I was quickly trying to think of a name for us. However, even though I was there without pressure, it wasn't easy to get a name for a musical group so quickly. There are people who take years and diverse experiences to choose a name, and I would have to come up with one just a few seconds years of playing. In those micro seconds many things and moments came to my mind. I first thought that the moments where we focused the most on music were when we were in the car, that is, some reference to that had to be made. We were playing acoustic music, so any reference to that would also make sense. But at the same time, I couldn't assimilate anything that had reference to it. Therefore, I opted for the easiest option of the moment, which was to give an acronym with the first combination of words I could think of:
"We are WW, and it's a pleasure to be here with you today."
Naomi looked at me with a face of incomprehension, however, she seemed to accept the idea at the moment and went on to introduce the song:
"We're only going to play one song to open the 'Sugar' concert, so I hope you enjoy it."
The audience in the café that night was mostly adult, with two young people who should only be accompanying their parents out of obligation and not out of pleasure, because none of them would let go of their cell phones, and it's even funny that our song is about that.
I counted down to three and we started playing in tune, with both the guitar and the voice tuned perfectly. However, when I lay my eye on the audience, I expected a way warmer reaction. The young people remained on the mobile phone while most adults just seemed to be looking forward to the main band, not even giving themselves a chance to enjoy our music. As soon as we finished playing, even though the round of applause we received was not as warm as we expected, we were still very happy because it was our first time playing live, maybe it was unusual to not have such good feedback. Besides, when we were the main band, we would certainly have a much better performance.
Anyway, Naomi was very smiling and thought she would receive another warm hug when we got backstage, in fact, I was already preparing for it, however, as soon as I extended my arms for the hug I was punched in the stomach so devastating that it was a close call that I didn't spit out breakfast:
"MAY IT BE THE LAST TIME YOU COME TO ME AT THIS HOUR, HAVE YOU UNDERSTOOD ME AKIRA NAKAMURA?"
Before I could answer, I had to burp twice that were to prevent me from vomiting right there:
"Calm down, I promised I would arrive on time and I arrived. Besides, you were in such a good mood when you saw me a little while ago how did you look like that now?"
"You know that famous line that goes, "I don't even know if I should hit you or kiss you"? Let's say I was at this impasse, so I decided to hug first and hit later ahahah."
"You know what? It seems fair enough to me. After all, no one told me to fall asleep for so long. You made your choice of action very well Naomi ahaha."
"Okay, now that I have the anger and love discharged, call Mr. Yamaguchi so that there are no more delays on anyone's part. It's already a quarter past seven and it's about a 20-minute drive there."
"You're right, you're right. I'm going to call him right now."
"Mr. Yamaguchi, are you ready to come and pick us up yet?"
"I am already at the door of the limousine establishment as Mr. Nakamura had requested me. Your classmates have had time to switch to their suit as well and now everything is set for both you and Miss Aisaka to change."
"Thank you very much for your excellence once again Mr. Yamaguchi. We'll leave now."
I took Naomi's hand for both of us to go faster and started running towards the street, where I knew that Mr. Yamaguchi would have the car parked.
As soon as we got there, even I was impressed, since I hadn't seen limousine since my parents wedding birthday, which was some time ago. It was a Rolls Royce Phantom completely black, armoured, and with tinted rear windows. The interior had a bar with various drinks, including gin, whiskey and beer. The seats were real leather armchairs, being more comfortable than some of the beds I've slept on. Simply put, it was simply a paradise on four wheels.
I opened the door for Naomi to get in like a handsome gentleman that I am and, when we got into the car, Saito and Fujimoto were already dressed up waiting for us. The first thing Saito told me was something I hadn't thought of initially and that we would have to solve in the middle of the trip.
"Let me just ask you something, how are you going to get dress here?"
He was really right. Although the limousine was quite large, it didn't have room for two people like us to be changing, especially Naomi, a girl in the middle of so many boys. I started to think about so many things at the same time to try to solve that situation, including blinding everyone for us to dress up, however, Mr. Yamaguchi overhearing our conversation, asked us to look at him and clicked on a button that the car had. As soon as he pressed that same button, something happened that seemed humanly impossible to be true. The bar that the limousine had was divided into two parts, each of which was on the right and left side of the vehicle. However, as soon as Mr. Yamaguchi pressed this button, he activated a mechanism that took the bar into the side of the car and that simultaneously came out a fitting room on each side for us to change. All five of us stayed for a long-time processing what had happened. How was that possible. I didn't even know that car had that capability, and the limousine was technically mine. Mr. Yamaguchi realized our incomprehension, but to prevent us from taking any longer, he simply said:
"I'll explain everything to you tomorrow. Now, you two, get dressed before there are any more delays."
Still a little confused, Naomi and I entered the fitting room and started changing clothes.
As I imagined, the fitting room was quite small, so getting dressed inside wasn't exactly easy, and since Naomi would have to wear a dress, I imagine it would be even harder.
As soon as I felt that the car was ready, I was finishing fixing my bow. In almost perfect timing, I had just gotten dressed by the time we arrived.
As soon as I clicked on the gate to open the door, Naomi left at exactly the same time as me, which made the timing even more extraordinary than it seemed. However, the one who was not happy with the timing was Saito.
"Brother, we've arrived and there wasn't time to drink anything."
"Stop being such an alcoholic, Saito. Dressing in there is not exactly easy."
"But I'm thirsty...."
"Calm down, we'll already quench our thirst inside as it should be done."
"Will you pay?"
"Have you ever been the one to pay here, you moron?"
"You are right. You're right. Let's go then."
After we all thanked Mr. Yamaguchi for his service and disposition, we all got out of the car with a huge style, and iteven seemed to be a kind of aura around us. We could hear the murmurs of those walking on the street immediately turned in our direction. As soon as we entered the restaurant, Suzuki was sitting waiting for us in one of the armchairs to the right of the reception. I had already seen her in photos, however, live, she was completely different. She was neither uglier nor more beautiful, but for some reason she seemed to have another look. Maybe it was the makeup that she should put too much in the photos or something like that.
As soon as Saito saw her, he was the first to greet her as usual and, honestly, knowing him as I do, he even acted quite rationally finding his girlfriend. He gave her a kiss and introduced her to all of us:
"Guys and gal, I introduce you to my girlfriend, Akemi Suzuki. Akemi, these are, Nakamura, Fujimoto and Naomi."
"Hello you all. It's a great pleasure to meet you."
Each one greeted her, and she seemed to like my "different" greeting and smiled a lot at each of us. She looked like an angel indeed. In my head I just thought "Nice choice Saito. Nice choice."
We all sat at the table and, as soon as the waiter came to serve us, each one made their individual request, until he asked the last question.
"What will you want to drink?"
We both looked at each other and almost telepathically we already knew what we were all going to want
"Bring us a demijohn of your best red wine, please."
The waiter was a little confused and frightened by the order
"A... A demijohn you said'"
"Yes, a demijohn. Or about five bottles if it's more convenient for you."
"That's how it is, sir. We don't have carboys here; however, we have a giant bottles that each have three litres. I can bring one of these if you wish."
We both looked at each other in ecstasy, we had no idea that bottles of that type existed.
"Very well. It could be three bottles of that then."
"I'm sorry. THREE BOTTLES?"
"Of course. One for each of the men, of course."
"Before that, can I see your identity if you please?"
Everyone was very worried, especially Naomi and Suzuki who were not used to going out with us. However, Fujimoto calmed Naomi down and Saito calmed Suzuki down as they looked at me. They already knew that I could solve the situation.
My head had to think fast. How did you get around the basis of conversation in this type of restaurant? Simple, there was only one solution.
I went into my pocket and pulled out a bundle of bank notes specifically dedicated to these situations.
"Listen sir, we came in a hurry from a concert, and we didn't even bring a wallet, we brought the money in our pockets. Therefore, please take this bundle of bank notes as an apology from me to you and buy yourself a gift, you look like a hardworking man that already deserves it."
The gentleman who served us was astonished looking at the bundle of bank notes. 50 bank notes of 10,000 yen mor or less, which was a considerable amount of money for a tip. After thinking for a while, the gentleman quickly took it and said that he would come back with the bottles. As soon as he left, while the boys and I clashed hands for another successful manipulation, Naomi simply breathed a sigh of relief as Suzuki started to complain to me:
"Did you just bribe a waiter?"
"Not exactly. I gave him only a considerable tip to see if he would willingly give us the bottles of wine."
"THAT IS BRIBERY."
"If that's what you want to call it, then yes I bribed the waiter. What's the problem?"
"What's the problem?? That's wrong, you can't do that."
"In my view, I only see three young people who will have the wine they wanted and a waiter who has become a few thousand yen richer. Can you tell me where the problem is?"
She started to get excited but, instead of screaming, she didn't answer me and simply turned herself around, avoiding looking at me.
"My love don't get upset with Nakamura. Drinking once in a while is nothing wrong but, as the law does not allow us, sometimes Nakamura has to use these techniques so that we can drink at will."
Suzuki not only ignored me, but also ignored Saito, and was silent towards us.
While Saito tried to get her to talk, the waiter arrived with our wine and asked what we wanted to eat. We had both already agreed to order a big platter, sushi and rice and eat all of them from there, and that's what I ordered for us. So, distracted by the wine, we all open our respective bottle and toast a glass that we drink almost in a gulp, then fill another to drink little by little. Suzuki continued sulking in her place however, since the wine had arrived, Saito decided to give her a little space and enter the conversation, and the three of us and Naomi were left to have a pleasant conversation.
"So, how was the concert, Naomi? We didn't even have the opportunity to see it."
"It wasn't a concert Saito; it was simply an opening. Everything went very well. I confess that I expected more enthusiasm from the audience, however, as we were only the opening band, it is somewhat understandable."
"Next time we have to be there. We will make so much noise that I am sure everyone will join us."
"The Group Effect? It's an excellent tactic indeed. For the next one I have to take a bulletproof vest."
Both Fujimoto and Saito were confused and asked:
"What do you mean a bulletproof vest?"
As soon as they asked, Naomi started snapping her fingers and finished:
"Nobody told you to be late, right Akira?"
"True, true. You couldn't be more correct. Please don't hit me again."
She stopped snapping her fingers and smiled at me:
"Of course not, I was just seeing if I could scare Saito and Fujimoto."
When we were looking at them again, we noticed that they were not sitting in the place and were hiding behind a column in the restaurant. As soon as they heard Naomi's last line, they sighted and came back.
"For a few moments I feared for my life Aisaka, I'm not going to lie."
"C'monnn Fujimoto. You already know me, you really think I was going to hit you. Only this boy Akira deserves a spank every now and then. You can relaxed."
"Ohh. I'm relieved."
Even though the sentences seemed threatening, Naomi ended them with a gentle smile that characterized her face so much, and that made any threat sweet. Even the beating she gave me every now and then, if it were anyone else, would have already made her life hell by abusing my trust. But she lets out such a tender smile after doing so, that it's simply impossible to stop a shred of hatred for this girl.
The dinner was quite pleasant and, although Suzuki didn't even talk to us, I was so happy to blame her or even accuse her of anything. It may have only suddenly become reactive; it can happen to everyone. Me, Fujimoto and Saito had already turned our bottles over and, although we were not drunk, it could be said that we were in a good alcoholic mood.
We all finished eating and, for once, Suzuki finally spoke again and took off the sulky face she had:
"What do you think about going upstairs to the terrace?"
"It's an excellent idea Suzuki. I have the cigars here with me."
Suzuki gave Saito her arm and he took her by the arm like a true gentleman, so I found myself in the duty to do something of a similar character
"Naomi, give me your arm. Saito is being a gentleman; I'll have to be too."
She reacted quite calmly even compared to what I expected. She simply blushed slightly and added.
"Well, for sure, Mr. Nakamura. Be so kind as to take me to the terrace."
So, I took Naomi by the arm and Fujimoto, who was behind us, was outraged:
"And who should I take by the arm now?"
"Give yourself your own arm and take yourself up ahaha."
It was supposed to be a joke, however, as soon as we all got up there, we noticed that the man really was holding his own hand:
"Brother, I was messing with you moeon."
"I don't give a damn; I wasn't going to be the only one doing this alone."
"You're already drunk ahah."
"A bit yes."
"Let's go, but it's time to sit down. Can anyone get a decent seat?"
"I'm already far ahead of you. Look there, right near the edge of the roof, and facing the moon."
"Excellent eye Saito. That's exactly where we're going."
We both sat in the seat facing the moon which, just like that day, was perfect. It gave a very beautiful natural illumination to the sky, which reminded me of the serenity that was going on in my soul.
"And then bro, let's light our cigar."
"Calm down Saito, before that, you already know what the tradition is, don't you?"
"Yes, you're right."
Naomi was a little confused and asked:
"What tradition? I had never been told about this one"
"It's a pretty simple concept, actually. Before we light the cigar, we have to put on a blues as background music, talk a little about the day, since cigar days are always a special day, and then Saito does the honour of taking the cigars out of their plastic, Fujimoto does the honour of cutting our cigar and I do the honour of lighting them."
"You are indeed complete gentlemen; I have to tell you."
"Thank you very much Naomi. Now that we know you, I'm also going to assign you a function, even though you don't smoke. Can you do us the honour of going and asking to put the blues playing for us please?"
"Well, certainly Akira. Wait for me a little and I'll be right back."
"Why don't I have the right to play a role?"
"Sorry Suzuki. As you were not talking, I did not even think of you. But honestly, I don't think there's any role left to assign, I apologize."
"No problem."
Although she said this, she did seem bitter about the fact that we didn't give her a role, and I think I was the only one who actually noticed. I had to take advantage of another day to get to know Suzuki better because clearly, today, she was in a bad mood.
After her statement, the jazz that was previously playing in the place where we were became a blues, exactly what we needed. Naomi came back and held out her hand to me to give me a "High Five", which I of course reciprocated.
"Mission accomplished."
"Well done girl Aisaka. Sit next to me again, please."
"Ahahaha. Absolutely."
Suzuki looked at us with a smile, something they had hardly done that night before, and said the following:
"You are a very cute couple."
Naomi and I looked at her with a confused expression, and even before I said anything, Saito interrupted and said:
"They're just friends my love."
"What?? How is that possible, they're both so cute besides one another."
"I guess we can assume we're two cute friends ahaha."
"I couldn't have said better Akira."
Although I answered automatically, that thought stayed in my head again. Me and Naomi. Indeed, each time he returned to that thought, he seemed sweeter and more realistic than the last time. But it was still not something I was willing to explore. It was time to light our cigar, and the conversation was already taking on other proportions, which I didn't want to be thinking about at the moment.
"Okay guys, the blues has been playing for a while, what do you say about lighting the cigar?"
"It seems good to me. Saito, will you do the first honours?"
"Absolutely."
Therefore, tradition was followed as usual. Saito removed the plastic from the cigars that were then cut by Fujimoto and finally, after each one put their own in their mouth, it was lit by me. I lit Saito's first, then Fujimoto's and, finally, mine, sitting again next to Naomi, Saito next to Suzuki and, after that, Fujimoto in the centre of both pairs. We all gave a nice shoulder hug as we enjoyed the stars and the beauty of the moon that night, while the three of us also enjoyed our cigars and the beauty and delicacy of the girls who accompanied us.
We had always enjoyed this threesome moment, however, at this moment, Saito had a girlfriend who seemed, in fact, to be definitive, I had an excellent friend who I was sure would be forever too and, although Fujimoto at the moment had no one, he would soon, if he wanted, find someone. Of course, all this brought us back to the question. Was this feeling I had for Naomi simply friendship or was it something more?
At the moment, it doesn't matter. The important thing now is to enjoy the rest of this night and, if all goes well, the rest of my life, with these crazy people who are by my side.