Summer and Spring

As nighttime fell at the Imagination Frontier offices, I enjoyed practicing in the emptier, quieter rooms. That day, being the 31st of December, was especially empty. Even if most of the staff was on vacation, they still let me go there to practice, and I really needed the practice. I wanted to work on a song I had been trying to write, and it was too cold to practice outside.

 I had become more and more attached to my usual practice spot, the dance room. It was hard to work anywhere else by now. The mirrors made the room feel spacious, and large windows helped me forget I was still indoors. I was sitting on the floor, trying out some arpeggios on my guitar for the song I was writing.

But she was the singing star,

That’d bring our heart,

Into tomorrow…

“Ugh that doesn’t sound right,” I thought out loud. I was close to giving up on the song. I kept rewriting, playing and singing the song and it just never felt right. Suddenly, I heard someone talking from outside the room.

“You know this room is mostly for dance recording and practice, right?” It was Summer, looking at me from the hallway. I was a little intimidated by the Final Boss’s presence, especially when I felt like I had done something wrong.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said. I scrambled to try to leave the room, somewhat embarrassed. I wasn’t familiar with any rules about the room, but I assumed Summer knew best.

“I’m kidding, I'm kidding, I know you like to practice here,” she said, trying to stop me. “What do you like about this place, anyway?” she asked. I took a moment to think, especially because I was surprised that Summer was talking to me in the first place.

“I… just like the big windows that let me see all the lights of the city, and I don’t feel trapped inside.”

“Trapped?”

“Well, I used to practice outdoors a lot, I guess…” I said, somewhat timidly. I wasn’t used to Summer talking to me at all, and least of all with both of us alone in a room. “This is a bit closer to what I’m used to...”

“Hm. I see,” she said, as she made her way to the window, and took a look outside. “It’s not bad.”

I admit I was a little intimidated by Summer, even though she had been nothing but friendly to me that night.

“Play that song again,” she requested.

“Oh, I’m working on it. I don’t quite have the right chords and lyrics-”

“Then just play what you have.” Summer seemed excited more than anything else, but I was a bit nervous about playing for her because I knew she’d been critical of my music in the past.

“Sure,” I said as I smiled.

I slowly started the arpeggio intro to the song and started to sing. Unfortunately there wasn’t much to sing, since I had barely started working on that song, and I was pretty unsatisfied with it.

“This song, it’s about you, isn’t it?” she asked.

“No, no,” I said shyly. It took me a bit longer to explain it to her. “I… actually think about the three of you.”

“The three of us-” Summer kept looking at the city lights for several minutes. At some point the silence started feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

“Summer?” I asked, wondering if she was still there with me.

“You really are a sweet one, aren’t you,” she said as she looked at the sky. A few minutes went by before she turned around and started talking to me. “I guess the first thing I should do is apologize.”

“Apologize, why?!” I was startled.

Summer laughed, but not in a mean way. She didn't seem to expect my reaction, or I just couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

“I’ve been in this business long enough to see some pretty nasty people. I couldn’t tell if this was just an act.”

“An act? Why would I?”

Summer looked a bit sad, likely thinking about some of her past experiences. “There’s lots of people in this world that will try to sabotage you for no reason other than thinking they’ll get a slight advantage. Even Autumn, in her apparent kindness, hides her dark secrets. And Winter, she doesn’t hide what she feels about us, does she?”

I thought back on our experiences together as a group of four, and I honestly couldn’t think of any time they felt as bad as Summer’s previous experiences.

“But they seem nice to me-”

“They are,” she said. “Even if they have their own secrets, they are some of the nicer ones. Even having a boss like Hiroaki, we’re lucky,” she explained. “I had a hard time trusting you at first, especially because of how charmed our bosses are by you.” She chuckled a bit. “To be honest, I was dreading walking in here, thinking I’d have to cheer up the boss’s sweetheart.”

“The boss’s?!” I was shocked. “No no I’m not Mr. Hiroaki’s…”

“Hiroaki?” Summer looked at me surprised. “I see…” Summer returned to her thoughtful silence looking out the windows. At some point she decided to walk over to the piano and open it. “Well, if we’re going to be in this room, might as well.” Summer then started playing some basic piano. She didn’t play at an expert level, but good enough for most pop songs.

“Wow, you can play piano too?” I admired Summer even more.

“I learned this when I was trying to train my voice for singing,” she explained. “We had an old keyboard at my house.” She then looked at me with a smile. “Try that song again.”

Summer stumbled trying to accompany my song, and it was honestly somewhat distracting and hard to continue, but eventually, she got good enough at it and it made the song a lot nicer. But the song would still end abruptly. The lyrics were still bothering me so I kept rewriting and trying stuff, while Summer simply waited for me to play along. Eventually, I managed to write a little more, and we both celebrated.

“Thanks, Summer.”

“Ah it’s fine, we all get stuck sometimes.” Summer smiled warmly.

“Maybe we can make a band?” I offered, somewhat jokingly.

Summer burst into laughter. “Sure sure, just get the other two to play something.” She then went back to smiling. “Want to keep trying? It’s not like we have anywhere else to go.”

“I don’t really want to bother you, especially when it’s getting this late.”

“Late? But we’re stuck here anyway.” Summer looked at me, puzzled.

“Stuck?” I asked. I noticed Summer take a deep breath, and sigh.

“You weren’t aware, were you?” Summer called me over to the windows and pointed outside. At some point during our practice, it had started snowing. “The biggest blizzard we’ve ever seen,” she said, as I noticed piles of snow already building up on the streets. “The city isn’t used to blizzards, so there’s not a lot of transportation right now.”

“No way…” I looked outside in disbelief. Summer seemed amused that I hadn’t noticed.

“The weather really is surprising these days isn’t it?” She was looking at all the snow piling up on the streets. “It’s a Winter miracle,” she said calmly.

“But the New Year, and…”

“It’s alright. Just let your family know,” she said confidently. “We can stay here tonight, I do it all the time.”

I looked over at my phone in horror, realizing I had missed several calls and messages from my mom and Aoi. I called my mom to let her know I could safely stay at work, and to not worry. She humorously scolded me for forgetting about the storm.

“Of course you’d miss the New Year because of this, Mika.” I heard my mom laughing through the phone. “As long as you’re safe, I’ll see you tomorrow!” My mom was only upset because I hadn’t let her know beforehand. I was a bit nervous about the whole situation, but Summer seemed completely calm.

“It’s not my first time here, so let’s make it a fun sleepover at least.” She got up and told me to follow her, and we went into Mr. Hiroaki’s office. To my surprise, Summer pulled out a keycard and opened it, letting the both of us inside. She found a couple of futon hiding deep in the office for us to sleep on later. “Make sure to raid his snacks too.”

“Snacks?” I asked, confused. Summer then showed me the snacks and the beverages that Mr. Hiroaki stashed in his office, and freely started grabbing some. “Is this alright?” I wondered.

“I’ve done it before, don’t worry.” I believed her. She seemed very comfortable in his office. Summer pulled out chairs for both of us, and we sat down to have some snacks. I still felt somewhat uncomfortable with it, but due to how naturally Summer was acting, it felt like it wasn’t her first time. So, I didn’t think it would be her last.

“Can you believe this guy?” she complained, “he bought some really crappy snacks this time.”

We spent a few minutes talking, laughing. For the first time, I felt like I could truly talk with Summer. It didn’t feel like she was an unreachable star. We were just two girls, eating snacks, talking with each other.