The Crowd Roars, and So Does My Heart

🎸

BAWAAAANG!

The guitar screams.

The crowd roars.

There she stands, crowned by blinding stage lights. They cast dimensions of dust and darkness across the stage. The deafening hollers from the dance floor below were swallowed by the electric scream of amplifiers.

She closes her eyes. Arms raised.

This is it.

She inhales.

Her fingers poised. The strings are waiting.

The world presses in. Roars fade into low white static. Then everything narrows to a single point.

For a second, nothing. Just her and her guitar.

She exhales.

And her hands finally crash down.

And in an instant, the world snaps back.

The sound shatters in all directions and the crowd erupts once more.

BA-BOOM! The drums explode with a deep, heavy thud. Then the snares— TSSSHH!

NEEEOW! Then a second guitar. A riff cracks through air in the room like a whip.

Pure, raw energy, she could feel it. As if they had just moved the world one inch.

For five minutes, it was a blurry of sound.

But as quickly as it came, it fades.

The music settles into an echo, then overtaken by the crowd’s roar.

“Give it up for Harmonic Distortions!”

The stage lights dim, and the curtains fall.

*

Haruki Amane was breathing heavily, sweat dripping down her face. She had never felt so alive yet so drained at the same time. She kept replaying the performance in her head, over and over again, trying to make sure that it had been as perfect as it felt.

A voice rang out.

“Yeah, we did it! We totally did it!”

She was punching the air, practically bouncing off the walls with excitement. Her wild, messy bright hair stuck to her forehead from the sweat. And yet she still wore that unmistakable mischievous grin.

Another girl casually leaned against a wall. She was a bit taller, short hair, guitar over her shoulders. Like the rest of the band, she was also soaked in sweat and practically panting but still held her confident stature.

“Tone it down, Sakura. Some of us still need to catch our breath...”

Then she let out a casual chuckle and replied, “But, yeah, that was pretty great.”

Sakura seemed to take great offense to that. “Just great, Aika?! Did you hear them? The crowd?!”

Nothing in the world could dampen this girl’s enthusiasm.

“You sure about that? Or were you just too busy screaming yourself?” Haruki cut her off.

“Hey, I was screaming, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t too!”

Sakura gave Haruki a cheeky wink before spinning around to face Aika. “See? Even she can’t deny it!”

Even though exhausted, Sakura never turned down the opportunity for some friendly banter. She brought a charm to the group, and Haruki enjoyed that.

“I think we did well, guys...” Another voice spoke out, this one softer than the rest.

Mayumi, the keyboardist, stepped forward from her corner. Her soft demeanor contrasted with the chaotic nature of the rest of the band. Haruki could still remember the first time she performed—how visibly shaken she was. She had come a long way.

Haruki flashed a tired smile to Mayumi. “Yeah, I think we really killed it tonight.”

Sakura’s lips widened into a huge grin, as if she knew she had won.

Aika wiped her neck with a towel. She shook her head with a smile, eyes rolling. “Alright, alright, c’mon. Let’s pack up. Who’s hungry?”

"I could demolish a whole pot of miso ramen right now," Sakura said, rubbing her stomach. "Let's go."

Haruki felt her stomach growl too. After a performance like that, ramen did sound good.

*

Haruki stared at her empty bowl, completely wiped clean. Proof that ramen really was the cure to everything. The warmth of the broth in her stomach brought her some needed contentment, but the ringing in her head hadn’t quite receded, and her hearing hadn’t fully recovered either. She picked up her chopsticks and twirled them around as she quietly listened in on her bandmates’ conversation at the table.

Sakura slurped down the last of her noodles before ungracefully wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

“So, I was thinking… The autumn festival’s coming up. We have to start practicing, right? I mean, the whole school will be there.”

Aika took a sip from her glass without looking up at her.

“You mean that weekend where the whole school is desperate for attention?”

“Exactly. Except this time, we’ll be the main event,” Sakura replied.

“We literally just performed, and now you’re already planning for the festival?”

“Uh, duh!”

“What about midterms?” Aika asked with a raised brow.

“That’s future Sakura’s problem.”

“Future Sakura’s already failing classical literature.”

Sakura groaned, then dramatically flopped back against her chair. “That class doesn’t even make sense! Why are they talking about, like, samurai ghosts? Literature's for boring people!”

“You might not be failing if you didn’t spend the whole class drawing hearts around a certain third-year’s name.”

“HEY… that was private research!!”

“Yeah? Research for your imaginary wedding plan?”

Meanwhile, Mayumi appeared to have fallen in love with a cup of pumpkin pudding she was now stuffing into her mouth. Perhaps she was planning a wedding too?

Haruki perked up at the topic with a grin. “Who is it this time?”

Sakura threw her hands over her head. “No comment! Zero comments! Comments are illegal!”

Mayumi raised her head up with a confused look. “W-wait, who’s getting married?”

The table laughed.

Haruki leaned in and whispered to her. “No one’s getting married, Mayu. It’s just Sakura’s latest daydream. Nothing to worry about.”

“Ohhh...” Mayumi exclaimed with a finger to her chin. Then she went straight back to spooning pudding into her mouth without a care in the world.

Sakura crossed her arms and muttered under her breath. “You guys are mean…”

*

As ramen night came to a close, the group began to gather their bags and head for the door. The night air had a chill to it, which was normal in Hokkaido by mid-September.

It was at that moment that Haruki realized she'd forgotten her hoodie backstage. She sighed, knowing she’d have to suffer in the cold all the way home.

The four stood outside the ramen shop, chit-chatting for a while longer until they were too exhausted to continue.

“Hey, I’ll see you guys later.”

“See you, Haruki.”

“Bye!”

“See you guys at school tomorrow!” Sakura called out, already halfway down the block. Then she rounded a corner and disappeared.

Haruki lingered until she could no longer see her friends. A gust of wind swept beneath her skirt. She shivered, hugging herself. With no other options, she started walking.

The streets of Sapporo were quieter now that school was back in session. The glow of many street lamps stretched across the wet pavement, their lights twinkling over a vast sea of puddles.

Haruki didn’t particularly enjoy walking alone. It was too quiet for her. She tried to occupy her mind, thinking about how far the band had come.

It all began when Sakura, in her usual fashion, had yanked the three of them out of the music room one day during their first year.

“We’re starting our own band!” she had declared, ignoring the fact that none of them had ever agreed to it. Not that it mattered to her anyway.

From that day on, they were officially the Harmonic Distortions. Of course, a name Sakura had chosen without their approval.

Though the thought made her smile. It was strange, really. It felt like a lifetime ago. She loved her bandmates more than anything... though sometimes she still wondered if she were truly a part of it. It was a tight-knit group. Aika was the backbone, Sakura was the banter, Mayumi was a total sweetheart, and Haruki? Well, she was a decent guitarist and had a nice voice... which is why she ended up as the lead vocalist. Still, she couldn’t have been more grateful.

Now they were in their second year at Hoshino High School, and so far, it was going surprisingly well. It was as if they'd broken a barrier and things were finally looking up for the band. More gigs were coming in than ever before, and the four of them had even started receiving compliments at school—sometimes from complete strangers.

For Haruki, balancing school, the band, and workload was quickly turning into a juggling act, but she was determined to make it all work. If not for herself, then for her friends.

She didn’t have many close friends growing up. Or at least, that she could remember. Strangely, her life was all but a blur before high school. Perhaps it was because she had only recently come out of her shell, or perhaps it was because she seemed to move schools every few months due to her father's work.

Or maybe she just had memory loss… That might've been it.

She vaguely recalled something her middle school science teacher once said. He explained that your mind tends to erase things that aren't important—the little moments that don't make much of a difference in the long run. Like, if you forget what you ate for lunch a week ago, it’s because your brain decided it wasn’t worth remembering. But then, the stuff that matters—like your friends, your passions, that big moment that'll determine the rest of your life—it all gets filed away in a way that sticks, sometimes without you even realizing it.

She smiled to herself. Perhaps that part of Sakura’s brain simply didn’t work.

Haruki continued walking. Past a park where the band would hang out. Past the little ice cream shop that served the best matcha ice cream she’d ever tasted.

The streets were still now. The only sounds were the last batch of summer cicadas, whose chirps gradually dwindled as the autumn cold crept in.

She checked her phone.

10:45 PM.

It was late, and she was tired.

After dragging herself a little longer up and down hilly residential roads, she reached her building.

The neighborhood Haruki lived in was a typical suburb. Rows of apartment complexes lined narrow streets. She had called this place her home for nearly three years now.

Her unit was on the second floor. Tonight, it was completely void of life—or lights, for that matter. She figured her father was out late drinking with colleagues again.

Haruki unlocked the door and stepped inside to the usual silence. A skinny gray tabby darted out from the shadows, meowing as it rubbed against her legs.

She knelt down to give the cat a quick scratch behind the ears. “Hey, you.”

It purred a response before darting away into darkness.

Then she headed to her bedroom, only now remembering the unfinished pile of homework sitting on her desk.

She let out an exhausted groan.

Not tonight.

Right now, all she wanted was to go to bed.