Music and Lollipops - Aki

Aki had practically stormed to the little store around the corner. The idea of Kumi walking in on her making out with Ryo against a wall was too powerful for her. Even if she removed the part with Kumi. She couldn’t handle such a fantasy. Not when he was in the room.

The woman by the register had welcomed her but then let her mind her own business. She knew what Kumi would like. She loved everything matcha. Sometimes Aki wondered if it was the taste or the color. But ever since they met Kumi had downed matcha everything.

Aki was in the mood for milk tea, but she had no idea what Ryo would want. Her eyes fell on the section with fruit milks. He had eaten a strawberry soft serve earlier, so maybe strawberry milk was an option. It was definitely sweet. And he liked candy. He had said that.

She considered calling him, but she was still not completely recovered from Kumi’s mental image. Hearing his voice would only bring back that and she didn’t want that.

No. She grabbed some bottles of strawberry milk and some other fruit milk options. Both chocolate and peach was sweet and candy like, right?

She payed for the bag of drinks and returned out to the street. The neon lights from the city around her was still bright, despite the sun being high enough to make the buildings sparkle. The world could be pretty nice when it was this peaceful.

“Hiraoka!” Someone called out to her. “I was just about to head over to your place.” It was Ryo’s friend. Kumi’s person.

“Mukai!” She hoped that she remembered his name correctly. “That’s not such a good idea.” She would not be the person who brought him home. Not when Kumi was there.

“Oh.” He stopped a bit in front of her. “I take it you have Ku—Shiraki over.” His eyes turned to the ground, but only for a slight moment. “Then I’ll have to come over another time. I’ll text you before.”

“Actually. Can I borrow your phone?” She had planned to text him Ryo’s new contact information, but she just hadn’t gotten to it. So why not input it right now?

“No explanation? Sure.” He handed her his phone.

“Right.” She probably should have given him the reason first. “I assume you want his new contact info?”

“You gave him a phone? How did you even do that?” He took back the phone when she handed it to him.

“It’s a safety phone.” They were more common among women, but they were available for anyone to get. The intended use was as a safety measure in the dating scene. You could give anyone the number to your safety phone, and if you disconnected it, they wouldn’t be able to contact you.

Not that it was the most used safety measure, especially not when you could always block people. But they were still used in some capacity because it felt better for some people. And they still could be tracked by law enforcement in case of a crime.

“Huh?” He nodded. “Why didn’t I ever think of that?” He shrugged. “Thank you again for taking him in, by the way.”

“Do you mind if I ask why you kicked him out? All he said was that it was a fight.”

“We started a band in collage. Some members have changed but me and Ryo was always there. We share a house with the rest of the band, but a few days ago he and our singer got into a fight. That’s not unusual. They are both very stubborn and stupid. But this time our singer announced that he had accepted an offer from a bigger music producer. He also claimed that we no longer needed Ryo’s songs.” He looked at the big neon sign above them. “To be honest, Ryo has been out of it for months and kind of disconnected from everything. I think his nightmares finally caught up to him and the lack of sleep has made him really hard to deal with.” He turned back to her. “But he disagreed and said he wasn’t going to play boring songs. So we voted and all but me wanted him out of the band. I offered to quit with him but he wouldn’t have it.”

“He wrote the songs?” She should have been angry over the lack of support from the other members, especially since he had talked so dearly about them. And she was. But the idea of him writing songs was more exciting. Besides, she knew fully well how uncomfortable nightmares could make people. She knew nothing about music.

“Wrote, arranged and produced them.” Mukai chuckled. “He used to loose track of time on my computer or in the studio.”

She wanted to see it. She wanted to see him immersed in something he enjoyed.

“I hope the change of environment might get him back to it.” He smiled. “I really love his music and I know the rest of the band do too. Besides, I want him to be happy again.”

She could relate to that. She also wanted to see him happy. Not only to calm the nightmares. But also to see him smile more. His smile was cute.

“So, how’s he doing?” Hiro pulled her out of her thoughts. “I know he only moved in yesterday but is he behaving?”

“Apart from attempting to make pancakes and instead creating a mess in the kitchen, I would say he is behaving.” She chuckled. “He and Kumi is hopefully assembling furniture as we speak.”

“She still like doing that?” He smiled. “Wait, you got him furniture? I did not expect that.”

“She does.” So he did care about her? She couldn’t contain her smile. “And yes. I want him to feel at home.”

“You know, Hiraoka, that might be a good idea. We always shared things so, besides his guitars, I don’t think he’s had his own things since he came here.” He smiled. “Thank you. I feel better about leaving him in your hands. But I’ll let you get back to them.” He handed her a notebook and a bag of lollipops. “He forgot his notebook. The candy is from me and the rest of the reasonable band members. And tell them I said hi. Or just Ryo. Your choice.” He waived and went back the way he had come from.

She knew she shouldn’t open the notebook, but she couldn’t help herself. Not that she actually understood a single thing from it. It could very well have been some secret code. Actually, music notation could fall into the category of codes.

But she could see from his handwriting that he had poured his soul into it. It reminded her of Kumi’s technical notes.

Just looking at it made her want to hear it. She wanted to see that side of him. She wanted to see all sides of him. Know more about him.

Mukai had said that his dreams had caught up with him, and while they had been a bit worse lately, it wasn’t the first time it happened. What happened to him to make him loose his drive for his passions?

She walked into the apartment to find Kumi in full force of assembling the furniture, while Ryo carried the finished pieces into his room. It wasn’t surprising. Kumi had always been very excited to put things together. Taking things apart too, but somehow, putting them together made her shine the most. It was why she had decided to be a Time Travel Technician in the first place. Fixing things seemed more like a passion than a job to Kumi.

“Welcome back.” Tyo put a side table town and met her in the hall. “How did it go?”

“Good. I don’t know what you like so I got some sweet milks for you. I hope you like any of them.” Maybe she should have called him anyway.

“You didn’t have to.” He grabbed one of the bottles of strawberry milk and his hand briefly touched hers. “But for the record, I like all of them.”

She didn’t know what sent her heart racing the most, their brief touch or the smile on his face. She almost dropped the bag.

“I ran into your friend.” She looked to see if Kumi paid them any attention. She didn’t. “He told me you forgot this.” She handed him the notebook. “And these are from the band, he said.” She was careful not to let their hands touch again. She would not be able to handle more of that today. Or maybe for a week.