In The Rapids

May 20, 2024

Momo and Ai were reviewing the recordings the band had made over the weekend at school while in the former’s dorm room. Although, as expected, the sound quality was not the best due to them recording in a practice room rather than a proper recording booth, they sounded good enough to get the point across. Over the course of the weekend, the band had worked on Metal Machine as well as two songs that Ryosuke had written, with Metal Machine basically being finished at this point. Ai was also editing down the recordings to make a single cohesive song out of them as they listened. “Hmmm…”

“That last bit sounded good, but I think Sadako-chan fucked up on the guitar right at that moment, so we’ll have to use another take,” Momo said to her as they heard a mistake Sadako had made during the band’s third take on Metal Machine. “Why not pull that part from the second take?”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Ai replied. She then looked around at the relatively plain-looking dorm room and asked Momo, “By the way, uh… Momo, do you have a dorm mate or is it just you?”

“It’s just me,” she replied. “We had an odd number of students in my grade staying in the dorms this year. That, coupled with some preferences, led to me choosing to dorm alone this time.”

“I’ve always just commuted here from home, so I don’t really know what it’s like to dorm here.”

“The rooms are alright,” Momo shrugged. “It’s not super luxurious by any means, but it’s just enough to get some sleep.” She then turned her attention back to the computer. “Anyway, with this one last edit, Metal Machine’s demo will be all set, and we can start reviewing the songs Ryosuke-kun made. I’m really interested in what he wrote, honestly. I like how every song he made linked up with each other.”

“That’s not uncommon with prog rock,” Ai replied. “Genesis themselves did it with The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. A more well-known example would be The Wall by Pink Floyd.”

“Ah yes, The Wall,” Momo nodded, recognizing the name more easily than The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. “I remember hearing Another Brick In The Wall and Comfortably Numb on some radio stations.”

“Those are the most well-known songs from it. What Ryosuke wrote is essentially a much shorter concept EP rather than a full-length concept album.”

“Hmmm…” Curious, Momo then asked Ai, “Would you want to write a concept album one day?”

Ai quickly replied, “Hell yes. I’d love to, but I don’t really have any concrete ideas. To be honest, I think we should hold off on the idea of a full-length concept album until we get at least one regular album out there.”

“That brings me to my next question, by the way. Should we focus on a full-length album first or getting Ryosuke-kun’s EP out there first instead.”

“I would like an album out there first, but… I know the industry prefers singles.” Ai was conflicted between the two choices. While she wanted to put out a traditional vinyl-length album as Sweet Juliet’s first public release like her heroes often did, she knew that the modern Japanese music scene preferred shorter releases, especially a record company as pop-focused as Time Clock Records. “You got any ideas?”

“I think we should get Metal Machine out there first,” Ai explained as she began to write down notes about their plans in a notepad. “Its short length makes it good for a single release. After that, we could release that EP Ryosuke-kun wrote and try to pull a second single from that. Once we do some promotion for it, whatever that may entail for us, we’ll fill up our first full-length album with other songs. I’m sure we’ll come up with plenty more stuff over time. We’ll put out another single or two from the album, and we’ll make sure we put Metal Machine on it. I know for a fact that Time Clock Records would try to push us as a subunit of A TO Z SIX, at least to start off, so they’re gonna need to see some singles. They’re probably gonna ask for some bonus content, too, like maybe spoken-word intros from me and Sadako-chan, maybe even from you since you’re a girl. As for the boys, well, they’ll probably promote them as little as possible, but I’ll make damn sure they don’t try to kick them out. Either it’s all of us or none of us, no matter what those stuffy executives say. We work as a band, not as individual artists.”

Ai chuckled, amused by Momo’s passion and her knowledge, “You sure know the modern music industry better than I do, Momo.”

“I’ve been in it since I was a third-year middle schooler. Being an idol for four years gives you that kind of insight, especially when you’re as curious as to how things work behind the scenes as me.”

…

May 22, 2024

Ai, Masato, and Ryosuke were practicing together after school, with Momo and Sadako both being busy with idol work. Their main goal today was to keep refining Ryosuke’s lyrics and song ideas into proper music. As agreed upon by Ai and Momo, the band had decided that they would pursue Ryosuke’s ideas as an EP and as their first full-length release. “I think we would get a better result if this song directly led into this song,” Ai explained to Ryosuke as the three of them reviewed the notes the latter had written down. “The Premiere into Exit Stage Left just makes sense, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know,” Ryosuke replied, unsure about doing what Ai had proposed. “If I wanted that, I would just make them one long song.”

“Honestly,” Ai replied back. “I think The Premiere is long enough, especially with the keyboard solo I suggested. Besides, I feel like even if we link them together, Exit Stage Left is still different enough from The Premiere to be counted as a separate song, even if the ending of The Premiere leads right into the start of Exit Stage Left. Believe me, we wouldn’t be the first band to have two separate songs lead into each other, nor will we be the last.”

“She’s got a good point,” Masato agreed. “It’s been done before. There’s no reason why we can’t do it.”

“I guess you’re right,” Ryosuke finally relented. “We could do it. Both songs are similar enough in tempo that it won’t be a drastic change.”

“Excellent.” Ai then got up and hopped behind the school drum kit. “As for the keyboard solo, have you come up with anything?”

“I got some ideas, but I can’t really write them down since, you know… You’re the only one here who’s an expert at reading and writing sheet music.”

“That’s fine. We’ll kick off from the ending of the second verse, and if you’re satisfied with what you come up with, I’ll transcribe it. Now… One, two, three, four, five, six, seven!”

On her mark, Ai began playing an energetic mid-tempo drum beat while Masato laid out a basic bassline. Ryosuke meanwhile began hammering away at the keys, but as he continued, he felt as though what he was putting down was not distinct enough to be considered a true solo. After about a minute of trying, he spoke up above the other two, telling them, “Hold it, hold it, stop!”

Ai asked him as she and Masato halted their performance, “What’s wrong?”

“That just didn’t sound right on my end,” he replied. “I wanna do it again.”

“Alright,” Ai replied with a sigh as she got ready to restart. “Take Two for the keyboard solo in The Premiere. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven!”

After half a minute of playing, Ryosuke once again called it quits. “Stop, stop! Sorry, I just… Let me try again.”

“Damn it,” Masato muttered. “I had a good bassline going, too.”

“It’s fine,” Ai assured him. “We’ll do a third take. Stuff like this isn’t uncommon. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven!”

This time, the keyboard solo went on for a full three minutes with zero interruptions. The whole time, Ai had maintained a steady 7/4 rhythm until the last few bars, when she switched to a regular 4/4 rhythm upon a nod from Ryosuke, who adjusted his playing to the change in time signature. When the solo ended, everyone stopped playing and looked at each other. “Well then,” Ryosuke remarked. “That settles that, I guess.”

Masato was floored. “You… You played all that, and that’s all you have to say?!”

“...What?”

“That solo was pretty good,” Ai told him. “Like, really good, Ryosuke.”

“I’d say it’s certainly better than my first two attempts. How long did we let that solo rip for anyway?”

“About three minutes.”

“That would probably make the song about eight minutes in length,” Ryosuke theorized. “So I’d say we’ll keep it at that length. I don’t think the song needs to go over eight minutes, to be honest.”

“It’s your song,” Ai pointed out. “And I have to agree. Not every song needs to be a massive epic.”

Masato chuckled, “You say that and yet the song is already over twice as long as most other ones.”

“In this genre, eight minutes is nothing,” Ryosuke reminded him. “Just ask Ai-san about some of the songs she can list off.”

“Supper’s Ready is twenty-three minutes long,” Ai immediately pointed out as an example. “2112 is twenty. Domino is almost twelve. Achilles Last Stand is ten and a half. Art of Life is half an hour. Close to the Edge is seventeen. Hell, there’s even an idol song called Hana that’s also seventeen whole minutes.”

“...Ai-san,” Masato then asked her with a hint of fear in his voice. “Did you write a long song like that?”

“Not yet.”

“Not yet?!”

…

Later that night, Sadako returned to her dorm. As she opened the door, Asuka welcomed her from her bed with, “Hey there.”

“Hey, Fukami-san,” Sadako replied as she set her bookbag down and then closed the door. “How was your day after school?”

“I had a photoshoot for a cosmetics company today,” Asuka replied as she put her phone down and grabbed a small plastic bag from a drawer nearby. “They gave me free eyeliner and lipstick in addition to a paycheck. This costs over eight thousand yen in stores combined, so I’d say I lucked out with this. I love it when companies give you free shit for doing a shoot or an ad for them.”

“That usually doesn’t happen for us.” Sadako then stepped into the bathroom to shower. “I can count the number of times they gave us free shit on one hand in the four years I’ve been an idol. Anyway, I gotta shower. We spent the whole evening doing dance practice and rehearsal, and I sweat like a pig today. I’ll try not to stay in too long so you can get some sleep. I know it’s late.”

“It’s fine,” Asuka assured her.

Sadako then took off her clothes and entered the shower, turning the hot water on. The bathroom was shared with the dorm room next door, and had two doors on each end. As she began to wash her body, she looked at herself in a small mirror hanging off the wall and said to herself, “I hope we’re able to convince Time Clock Records to make Sweet Juliet work.”

When her shower ended, she stepped out and began to brush her teeth. However, right as she finished, she heard Asuka begin to cry in the other room. Concerned, she quickly threw her bra and underwear back on before walking out to see what was wrong, right as Asuka said to her phone, “You can’t come back from that, asshole!”

Sadako asked her, “Hey, Fukami-san, what’s wrong?”

Asuka wiped away her tears and explained, “My ex just came out of the blue and said he wanted to apologize to me. I told him he hurt me and I can’t forgive him, and he got all mad!”

“So he’s mad at you for not accepting his apology?”

“I just can’t accept it,” she told her through her tears. “Not after I gave him so much of me. This is one thing he can’t come back from, and he’s gonna have to live with it forever. If he’s mad, he should have thought about that before leaving me.”

Sadako felt terrible for her. After she got dressed in pajamas to be more presentable, she sat down next to the crying Asuka and said to her, “I know you’re conflicted right now. You just went through the breakup, and I doubt you feel ready to talk to him about it.”

“Yeah, I’m not ready for this conversation with him at all,” Asuka confirmed as she wiped her face. “The wound is still pretty damn fresh.” She then asked her, “Sadako-chan, have you been in love before? Do you have any experience with boys?”

Sadako was not sure how to answer that question completely. “Boys… I don’t have any experience with a boy.”

“But you must have been in love with someone at some point, right? Not many teenage girls can say they haven’t felt that way about somebody, even if it never went anywhere.”

“Well, um…” Sadako nervously replied to her with a shrug, “Maybe I’m part of that ‘not many,’ Fukami-san… Heh…”

Asuka felt as though she was not being entirely truthful. “Are you sure?”

“Honest to God, I haven’t yet. I’m not saying it’ll never happen, but it hasn’t happened yet.”

Deciding not to press the issue any further due to the fact that Sadako’s tone of voice indicated she was getting a little uncomfortable with the line of questioning, Asuka dropped it. “It’s fine. Still, I appreciate you hearing me out, Sadako-chan.”

“Of course. I’m still a girl just like you after all. I can relate in that way.”

“So going back to what I said, look, I… The way he just broke it off with me came off as being really asshole-ish. He dropped it on me with zero fucking warning, like… What the Hell? Ugh…” Asuka then got up from the bed and told Sadako, “I’m gonna take a shower. Maybe the warm water will clear my mind.”

“That’s not the worst idea. Sometimes, a nice, relaxing shower is all you need.”

“I hope so.” Asuka then left to go shower in the shared bathroom.

Now alone in the dorm room, Sadako reached under her pajama shirt and undid her bra before taking it off while managing to keep her shirt on. “God, I can’t imagine sleeping with this on. Girls who do that are weird.” She then grabbed her phone and began to scroll through a social media site she had a secret unmarked account on. Among the many posts she favorited or liked were several posts featuring images of girls kissing each other, both in real life and in drawn form. She sighed as she looked at them, remarking, “And this is why I keep this account hidden… Certain people would flip their shit if they found out I was gay.”

…

May 24, 2024

Ryosuke was waiting for a call on his phone shortly after he got home. As he sat at the kitchen table, his father, who looked much like an older version of him, asked, “Still no call from the ad agency, huh?”

“Not yet,” he replied. “If I don’t get one in the next few minutes, it means I didn’t make the cut.”

“I heard you and your friends are gonna be working this weekend on that band you talked about to us,” his father then brought up. “Is this gonna interfere with your acting work, Ryosuke?”

“No,” he shook his head. “I promise it won’t.”

“I mean, if you can make a career out of this band somehow, I won’t be opposed at all, but your current work does come first,” his father then pointed out. “That said, I’m glad this band thing makes you happy. Just make sure you’re able to balance your life well. You can’t overload yourself.”

Then, Ryosuke’s phone rang. He quickly answered it with, “Hello?”

A female voice on the other end asked, “Is this Sakamoto Ryosuke-san?”

“Yes it is.”

“Excellent. I’m Shirowa Rie from the Konishi Ad Agency, and we would like to have you work with us on some commercials. Do you have a parent or legal guardian around we can speak to?”

Excited, Ryosuke replied, “Oh, uh, yes, I do. My father is in the room.” He then turned to him and asked, “Dad, it’s the ad agency. They want to speak to you.”

His father then came over and was given the phone. As the conversation continued with the representative in another room, Ryosuke waited patiently for his father to deal with the legal aspects of the offer. Then, his father asked him from the kitchen, “Are you free this Sunday around noon for about three hours?”

“Yeah, I-” Ryosuke then stopped himself. “I…” He remembered that he had plans to rehearse and record with Sweet Juliet on both Saturday and Sunday, and he suddenly grew conflicted, freezing in place.

“Remember what we talked about, Ryosuke. Your work and your schooling come first.”

Those words snapped him out of it, and he replied to his father, “Yes, I am.”

“Good choice.”

…

May 25, 2024

As the band finished a full rendition of a song that Ryosuke had written while at the school, Masato asked Sadako, “How did my bass come out on that amp near you?”

“It sounded fine to me,” she replied. “Why do you ask?”

“I was having problems with the amp at home. I was just curious.”

Ryosuke meanwhile had not told the rest of the band that he would have to either show up late or not show up at all to their planned Sunday session. He was nervous, and as a result, he had misplayed a few notes and chords. Concerned, Momo asked him, “Hey, you alright, man?”

“I…” He then sighed and told the band, “Guys, guys… I can’t make it Sunday, or if I can, I’ll be late. I know we planned it, and I’m sorry.” Ryosuke clearly felt bad as evidenced by his tone of voice and his facial expression.

Momo assured him, “Ryosuke-kun, it’s fine. Did something come up with acting?”

“Yeah. I got a call from an ad agency to head in for a shoot at noon tomorrow. They said it would last no more than three hours.”

“Listen, it’s fine. Me and Sadako-chan have stuff to do with A TO Z SIX that morning anyway. I’m sure we can push practice back to around four-thirty. Ai-chan, is that okay with you?”

Ai asked from behind the drum kit, “Hm?”

“Ryosuke-kun has work at noon tomorrow and he gets out at three. Can we push practice back to four-thirty?”

“I don’t have a problem with it. Work is work. Shit happens. Besides, we’re making a ton of progress today. I think you’ll be more than ready to present some music to Time Clock Records by this coming Wednesday, Momo.”

“Good luck with that, by the way,” Ryosuke told Momo. “Tell us how you did as soon as the meeting’s over.”

“Will do,” Momo nodded.