Waiting

After handing Akane Ishihara the business card, an agonizing day of waiting followed. Another day of denying each other's existence at school. It is not like the two of them ever interacted, even though they spend a big part of their day in close proximity. It was as if they lived in two separate worlds that only recently started to blend together. Blend together, in total secrecy of their friends and classmates.

“You seem more absent-minded than usual Masaki - It’s almost 2 PM and I haven’t heard you rant about how Newton’s apple actually was a pear or something like that…”

Masaki looked at Kazuki, while the two of them were waiting in the school’s hallway.

He shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t know - I feel a bit tense today”

Kazuki looked at Masaki and gave him a pat on his shoulder.

“It is hard being in love, I know.”

“This morning in the shoe locker room, Kitamura-san started in me for three seconds straight. I think she finally started to notice me.”

He looked quite full of himself.

“She was probably questioning your eccentric clothes choices. Wearing a bright yellow tie like that - I wonder why the disciplinary committee hasn’t taken action against it yet..”

“Masaki, that is how you get the girls to notice you. This is a real Vibaldi Italian design tha..”

Masaki interrupted his friend's monologue.

“Also I like to dismiss the misunderstanding that I have fallen in love with someone like that.”

Kazuki grinned.

“Someone like that… so you don’t deny you have fallen in love - just not with a gyaru like Kitamura san.”

“So I guess your type is a shy, librarian girl then?”

Masaki sighed, the only thing he could think about was the business card. About Akane telling whether or not the band wanted to work with him. About his phone ringing, him picking it up and hearing her voice entering his eardrums.

To please Kazuki, Masaki affirmed the statement his always-thinking-about-girls friend made.

“Yes, I would I prefer introverted girls like that.”

“But can we please stop talking about this subject, I’ve had more than enough girl talk today.”

“We need to focus on our studies.”

X

When Masaki got back home, the waiting continued. He sat down at his desk - trying to improve a new track he started working on the other day. But he just couldn’t concentrate - something that had become a bit of a pattern lately. Masaki fell into a pattern of:

Making a change.

Looking at his phone.

Then reverting the change again.

The possibility of Akane and the other members of Maid in Melody rejecting worked as a big demotivation to him. It was as if all the effort he put into learning his craft would be flushed down the drain.

No!

I can’t think that way, I have had this dream for years before ever hearing about Akane’s band.

Even if they were to choose the other producer, he had to pursue his passion non the less.

Rejection must be a big part of this dream as well.

The thought bubbled up - his dad must have gone through this many times in his long career. Even though his cold and calculated exterior has never shown it, he must have felt devastated quite a few times.

Anyway, stop the doom thinking - it’s not like the offer has been rejected already.

Masaki's eyes gazed at his phone screen again.

Zero new notifications.

He sighed - and wiggled around in his desk chair.

I didn’t know an afternoon contained so - much - time.

X

The afternoon passed…

Diner passed…

The day ran out of daylight…

No phone call… no Akane Ishihara…

It’s not happening…

Masaki felt devastated.

He walked into the bathroom and turned on the faucet. Hot water started pouring into the big ceramic tub - steam filled up the residential bathroom.

“There is nothing a steamy hot bath can’t fix”

His mom always said to him when he was younger.

Time to let the despair soak off.

He lay down his phone next to the bathtub - just in case she might call.

After taking off his clothes, he dipped his toes into the bathtub.

Just the right temperature.

He slowly lowered the rest of his body into the tub. His muscles finally got the chance to relax. However, he still hasn’t been able to relax fully since something was bothering him.

He grabbed his phone in order to turn it off.

Just as he wanted to slide his finger down the screen, the phone started buzzing.

His hand shook so much he almost dropped the phone in the bathwater.

An unknown number was calling him - at this hour.

Could it be… Akane Ishihara?

Masaki hesitantly pressed the Accept Call and moved his mobile phone toward his head with a shaking arm. The moment he had feared and spent all this time evading had finally come. Knowing this was most definitely the decisive moment that would dictate an important part of his future, he tried to remain calm and spoke to the anonymous caller.

“Tsuchiya Masaki, how can I help you?”

There were a couple of seconds of silence that felt like a decade to the heavily anticipating Masaki.

“It’s me”

A slightly distorted feminine voice met his ear through his phone.

Is that her?

Even though it was obviously Ishihara-san, Masaki’s nervousness made him really uncertain. A part of him wished it was just some random woman that dialed the wrong number. That way he could postpone this inevitable moment to the next day, and have tomorrow-Masaki deal with it. But this wishful dream was soon scattered to pieces, the silence interrupted by her delivery of the truth.

“Why aren’t you saying anything, you silly? It’s me, Akane!”

“Hello… hello Ishihara-san.”

Masaki’s nervousness made him struggle to retain his usual cold and calculated exterior.

“I am not going to make you have to wait any longer.”

“We are willing to work with you and your dad’s production company under one condition.”

A condition?

This ominous addition made Masaki unable to cheer just yet…

“What… what condition exactly?”

He could hear Ishihara-san giggle for the phone.

“I would have thought you’d react more enthusiastically, instead you sound like a scared little chicken.”

“Alright, let me tell you the condition.”

“You have to tell me your secret. Show me whatever you were doing with your laptop the other day in the schoolyard.”

Only that?

“Well, I was working on producing a song - it would’ve been cool for your band if I haven’t deleted it.”

“You deleted it..?”

Akane sounded really disappointed by that.

“It’s no problem - I have way better tracks laying around.”

“Awesome!”

Akane sounded really excited.

“So… you are not just a scout - you're going to work on our tracks as well?”

“That was pretty much the plan - if you don’t mind tha-”

Akane interrupted Masaki’s sentence.

“Of course, I want to! This was already what I was hoping for.”

“Great - do you have time tomorrow to meet up after school to discuss the details?”

Akane giggled.

“You're asking me on a date?”

Oh right, it really does!

Masaki quickly refuted this.

“No Ishihara-san. I can’t show you my laptop stuff at school right?”

A sigh exited the phone speaker.

“That’s true… where will we meet?”

“I have a place in mind - just stalk me like you did the last time.”

“That is-”

Masaki hangs up. He didn’t give her time to finish her sentence.

He lay down the phone and started cheering. All the excitement he tried his hardest to repress during the phone call surfaced in an instant. The only way to deal with this amount of energy was for him to start screaming. He lifted his arms in the air and yelled in the bathroom.

“Woohoo! Woohoo!”

His voice was being amplified by the echoey nature of his bathroom. He jumped up out of the bathtub and did a little dance, all naked.

I can’t believe this is actually happening!

Me - working with the amazing Maid in Melodies?

His victory lap was interrupted by someone yelling at him.

“Masaki! Why are you making so much noise - people are sleeping already!”

“I am sorry Mom!”

He grabbed a towel and immediately started drying himself and put on some clothes, after which he rushed toward his bedroom and plopped down in his desk chair.

Let’s make Ishihara-san the best track possible!