Showtime!

“Alright, everyone, it’s about time we head over to the concert!”

As dinner wrapped up, I felt my stomach had been completely satiated. That was good, I have to admit. Perhaps I should have gone lighter on some of the dishes, especially before a three-hour concert with limited access to restrooms during the show–but that was an amount of self-discipline and foresight I chose to ignore after seeing the second set of sizzling beef pass by our table.

Surely I can just walk it off. As we walked towards the concert venue, Sato continued forward with Watson and some of her classmates, chatting about something I couldn’t quite hear. How was their pace so quick after such a meal? I’m struggling out here….what did they call it again….meat sweat?

Looks like Lafon is also struggling…or in some sort of food coma. Figures after she ordered not one, not two, but three desserts. But usually, that much sugar would turn a normal individual hyperactive, pretty much bouncing off the walls.

“Something on your mind, Lafon?” I asked, managing to not to sound out of breath.

“A bit…” She looked up at the sky. ”The package from France….hasn’t arrived yet.” Must be her Azure outfit. She mentioned a few weeks ago that it was being shipped to her, so she has time to tailor it before the competition.

“It’ll come soon enough,” I reassured her. “By the way, you must’ve heard the songs from this group before–”

“Yep. They often play their songs during the routine.”

I also looked up at the sky, still a blue hue of daylight. “Have you looked up the translations for their songs?”

“No.”

“Well, the main song talks about whether the singer’s messages reach their destination in time,” I paused, looking for the right words. “So it’s like your packages…they’ll make it.”

“Mm…” she nodded. “Thanks.” I don’t think the words I put together would’ve made sense in Japanese either, but I’ll take it.

“C’mon, you slowpokes!” Sato bellowed from afar, waving at us to pick up the pace. Are their metabolisms that strong, or maybe mine is just underpowered in comparison? Lafon carried forward to rejoin them, and I signalled to go on and give me a few more minutes, continuing my stroll at a relaxed speed.

No need to crash and burn before the actual concert; who am I, a racing rookie?

I felt a tap on my shoulder, and to my left appeared Tachibana.

“Hey Tachibana-senpai.”

“Iwasaki-kun! Haven’t gotten a chance to say hi since earlier this afternoon!”

“Leading an event’s busy.” She was practically on top of everything, getting this event together, with no pause.

“Yeah, how’re you enjoying today so far?”

“So far so good…” Truthfully, that’s like the chef asking how the food is after getting the drinks and appetizers— “still have the concert to look forward to of course.”

“Yep! Seeing everyone have a good time is worth it.”

I nodded. “The group’s got a lot of energy–more than I do apparently…guess I’m conserving what I got left for the concert.” I wouldn’t say I was out of shape, but stamina-wise definitely wasn’t on my set of skills.

“Alright, don’t fall too behind then!” she smirked. “And tell me all about that omurice you made for Sato-san during our next shift–”

She heard that?!

***

At the venue, we stood in line as Tachibana coordinated our entry to the venue. Known for their baseball games as well, the dome towered over the crowds of people waiting to enter. Tachibana and some of the senior group members started handing out….looks like glow sticks.

“What are these for?” Sato asked.

“There’s a part of the show where everyone takes these out and lights up the crowd,” Tachibana replied, waving them around. “You’ll know when people around you start doing it–”

“Oooh!” Sato beamed. “I think I’ve seen a video of that online–”

As we entered the stadium, the encapsulated architecture made it seem like we were transported to somewhere far away from Tokyo, secluded from the rest of the metropolis. The stands were being filled with more and more fans, encircling the stage and arena. The arena section in front of the stage usually went for at least double the price of stadium seats, especially for popular artists, where they could go north of ¥30,000 per ticket.

Even our stadium tickets were likely a hefty chunk of change. How Tachibana and they crunch the numbers, even with extra funding, must be nothing short of a miracle.

I got to my seat, which was near the center of the row and had a good view of the stage ahead. Sato, along with Watson and Lafon, sat in the adjacent seats, clearly ecstatic in anticipation of the show.

Tens of thousands of others lined the stands around and below, the noise of chatter increasing to a steady buzz.

“So many people,” Sato commented as she looked around at the crowd. “I don’t think I’ve been somewhere with so many people together, not even at sporting events.”

“Not even at football games?” Lafon inquired. “PSG games always look like this, maybe more people even.”

“My family didn’t really watch football, plus our team sucks. We did go to a few basketball games, but the arenas are smaller. But that one year they won the championship, the whole city went crazy!”

“Crazy?” I asked.

“Like, partying in the streets, climbing light poles and cars and stuff.”

Oh.

“That’s…interesting. I guess…that’s not a thing here, anyone else?”

“Sometimes the fans storm the pitch after a win with smoke canisters and flares,” Lafon noted.

“I guess not the fans, but in hockey, the guys will get into fights with the rival teams,” Watson chimed in.

Were sports events this violent in general? As I pondered this question, the lights in the stadium started to dim, and the crowd noise slowly decreased to a whisper.

“It’s starting!”

“How’s everyone!!!”

The crowd applauded and cheered as the group entered the stage. “Hello Tokyo! Let’s have some fun tonight!!”

At that moment, the guitar and drums kicked into life, and they began their first set. Between the high-energy rhythms and vocals, it wasn’t long before the crowd reflected the band’s excitement in their performances.

I looked over at our group, their faces showing the enjoyment of the spectacle. I was a little worried that if they were unfamiliar with the song and lyrics, especially with the difference in languages, that it might not have been as enjoyable, but it seems like I was fortunately mistaken.

The group played several of their older hits, mixed in with songs from recently airing shows.

To say the crowd was electrified was an understatement, and I found myself in sync with the entire stadium’s energy and flow; the slower and more sentimental songs ebbing and flowing with emotion, to the fast-paced bangers….it was truly mesmerizing.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a wave of blonde hair twirl into view–must have been Sato’s head bobbing again to the music. I looked over to see her turned towards Lafon on her left – or maybe she was talking to her about this song—

As the next song started, the three of them started jumping up and down. The crowd also reacted enthusiastically, bringing out their orange penlights and glowsticks.

“Wait, I know this song!”

“Me too!”

“Iwasaki-kun, this song!” Sato looked at me with surprise. “I didn’t know this group played it!”

This song was one of their older hits, one of the more popular openings in a long-running shonen series. “How’d you recognize it?”

“The show this song’s from would play on cartoon channels when I was growing up–”

The beat picked up as the crowd started cheering. As everyone turned to the stage for the vocals to begin, I caught a glimpse of Sato cheering them on. She was for sure enjoying herself and the music, smiling ear to ear, eyes fixated on the stage, illuminated by all the dazzling orange lights from the audience below.

Even with the dimness of the stadium, she was….

Beautiful.

Right…the concert. The song’s chorus. The tips of my ears felt warm…what was I thinking…if Sato had caught me there, I would’ve been dead on the spot–

“Iwasaki-kun!”

Snapped out of the moment, I refocused on Sato, smiling back at me, almost dancing to the music at this point. “This is so fun!!”

Collecting what coherent thoughts I had remaining, I grinned back, “Yeah!”

***

“A cool dessert after the concert hits the spot!” Sato exclaimed.

“Agreed,” Lafon said while holding onto a bag of takeaway desserts.

“Tachibana-senpai sure planned everything out well,” I took the last bite of my ice cream.

The main group of students had just disbanded to head back to the dorms after the dessert run we just had. We were just getting to the train station.

“Today was so fun,” Watson hummed. “A little sad it’s done–but there’s always next time!”

As we entered the station, we passed by the restrooms, where Watson and Lafon excused themselves to. Which meant holding onto all of Lafon’s desserts.

“Need any help?” Sato giggled.

“It’s fine–” I sighed. “I’m not that exhausted.” Another hour or so more, and I’d probably not have made it back to campus.

“Means you were really enjoying it,” she stretched her arms. “You were smiling and cheering a lot during the concert.” I was? I guess I did during some of the sets.

Sato shifted her weight to the side. “I used up a lot of energy as well, even after such a good dinner, too.”

“That was a nice meal,” I thought back to just a few hours ago, even though it felt much longer. "Everyone at the table had a good time." 

“Yep! And we ran into some of your old schoolmates,” Sato noted.

“Yup.” I mulled over that for a bit. “I was wondering if you all were going to ask more about that, or wanted to know about my high school days–”

Sato turned to me. “I do want to know more! But…”

“But?” I looked back at her with a hint of confusion.

“I…didn’t know if I was imagining it, but it looked like you weren’t very comfortable when it was brought up–” She shifted her gaze. “Didn’t want to pry too much into it.”

Wait, did my face look that strange then? I don’t remember exactly….Maybe I was a bit more reserved…. Was Sato that perceptive? She is quite a caring person, and maybe she really felt that I didn’t want to talk about it…

“Don’t worry about that,” I shrugged it off. “It’s a long…not so great story, I think you’ve interpreted by now.” Even now, I was sugarcoating it. Something I was so sure to never tell anyone else about.

“I understand!” she smiled.

“Thanks.” Sato really is a kind person.

“You know…” I trailed off…

Trusting someone after…was extremely difficult. Impossible, I had reasoned.

Though…

“...One day, I’ll tell you a bit about it.”