Words

In the metro sat Masaki, on his way to one of the city's many concert venues. In fact, this was the exact venue he saw them the first time around. The same band, but totally different circumstances. Since today will be the day they perform their new song live for the first time. The song Masaki made from them himself.

Although it would never have worked without Ishihara-san’s amazing lyrics.

No business card, no notebook - since today he was here purely to support the band - and enjoy the music of course. He could use some entertainment after being shut up in his room for weeks trying to get the mixing and mastering of the tracks they recorded in the studio. Luckily, the girls recorded their instruments well and no further studio sessions were needed.

Let’s hope they kill it today live - and Ishihara-san doesn’t get too conscious about those lyrics.

The tram stopped a couple of blocks from the concert venue. Masaki got out. It was still daytime, no lines had had the chance to form yet.

“He Mwaster!”

Chifumi was chilling out in the sun on a little bench before the venue, holding a bag of sweets in her hands.

“You want some?”

Masaki shook his head, but Chifumi wasn’t going to give up this soon.

“Don’t lwie to me, I know you like sweets too”

“Alright, just one then”

The girl turned the bag toward him. Slowly, in a typical Chifumi manner. He reached into the bag with his hand and grabbed one.

He unwrapped the candy and put it in his mouth. His tongue was met with the sweet taste of cherry.

“Mmm, thank you Chifumi”

She started grinning - Masaki already knew what mistake he made.

“I am sorry Nagamatsu-san, I’ve been calling you that the whole time right?”

“Ywep!”

“I don’t mind - plwease call me Chifumi”

Masaki entered the door, entering the small warehouse-like venue. The first thing he saw was Haruka mopping the bar area, where the concert-goers could get drinks. She was scrubbing really fanatically, she wiped some drops of sweat from her face.

“Bugger off you nasty stains!”

He could hear her say to herself.

“Can I help you Miyazaki-chan?”

“Oh…oh… good afternoon Tsuchiya-san!”

Her voice instantly switched to cute and sweet again.

“A producer shouldn’t be cleaning… please call Chifumi she has been slacking off again.”

“Haha, no issue, please just let her be, she needs to conserve her energy for the concert.”

Masaki grabbed a squeegee and started helping Haruka out.

After a bit of cleaning, Masaki heard a voice talking to him.

“Masaki-kun? You’re here already”

He looked up from the shrubbing and saw Ishihara-san leaving the toilet, wearing cleaning gloves and carrying a bucket with supplies.

“We have to help the venue with some chores so they let us play here.”

The three of them finished cleaning after which they carried on setting up their musical instruments. Masaki set up his laptop in order to sequence the backing track elements he created for their single.

Some employees and volunteers of the venue had arrived to support the sales that night. Masaki could see the first people standing in line, waiting before the concert to start.

“How do we look?”

The three girls came walking out of the backstage room, now all dressed in their usual maid-inspired outfits.

“Stunning, as always!”

“Can you follow us into the backstage area, Masaki-kun?”

Masaki followed the band girls into the small dark room beside the stage.

“We wanted to do something to thank you for, helping us out”

Haruka opened the white box standing on the table.

It was a frosted cake covered with pink hearts and glittery stuff.

“Thank you a lot girls. You baked a delicious-looking cake Haruka”

“Ehh…”

Haruka giggled.

“Actually it was Akane who baked and decorated that cake for you.”

Masaki turned his head towards Ishihara-san, and her cheeks turned a bit red.

“I hope it tastes well”

Masaki could hear the crowd entering the concert hall.

The girls nervously anticipated the start of the concert.

Just before the girls got onto the stage, Akane grabbed Masaki’s shoulder and whispered in his ear.

“Please don’t turn away when I sing the song. I am ready… It was written for you after all…”

With his heart beating faster and faster, Masaki left the staging room to join the crowd during the concert. He wormed himself through the crowd of people and was able to get a nice spot in the front of the band.

“Please give an applause for, Maid in Melodies!”

Masaki saw the three girls entering the stage, Haruka, Chifumi, and Akane. The real star of the show. She grabbed her guitar from her stand and refocused her microphone.

She looked at Haruka and then signed Chifumi to start.

“3…2…1…”

As Ishihara-san stroked her first chord, the crowd lived up and started cheering for the band. Her powerful voice resounded through the dark room. Her blue eyes lit up like two little diamonds, her deep red hair flowing with every motion.

After finishing the first two songs, Akane grabbed the mic and started speaking to the audience.

“We are Maid in Melodies, thank you all for coming here!”

“Today is a special occasion, since this, we have an important announcement to make.”

“Maid in Melodies will be releasing their first single this Saturday. It will be available to buy in the record shops!”

“To thank you all for coming here, we will now play it live for the first time.”

She looked in Masaki’s direction. They made eye contact briefly, after which Masaki gave her the thumbs up.

Finally, it was time for Masaki to hear the song he spent that night meticulously arranging. , after Ishihara called him while in the bath.

He glimpsed, thinking back about how far they had come since then.

Do your best Ishara-san!

The drums, bass, and guitar all perfectly harmonized that intro Masaki had heard so many times by now. He could hear the crowd cheering, anticipating Ishihara-san to start singing. Three more bars, two more bars, one more bar.

Ishihara-san briefly made eye contact with him again, before she took a breath and started singing.

Flawlessly

Once the song's refrain started, the audience seemed more and more warm. They cheered on the passioned Ishihara-san, shining from the stage.

She’s such talented… and beautiful…

Their eyes made contact again as Akane sang the second refrain. She briefly smiled at him.

This song definitely is about me…

After playing the song's final notes, Ishihara spoke to the audience again.

“Thank you”

She said through the microphone before they started the next song.

In total, Maid in Melodies played for about two hours. In the middle of the set, Ishihara-san sang the acoustic song again, now with Chifumi and Haruka joining in halfway through.

“Encore, encore!!!”

The crowd yelled after they had finished their last song.

It didn’t take long for the girls to re-enter the stage and they played their new single one more time. Some of the crowd members standing around Masaki already picked up some of the lyrics and started singing along during the last refrain.

This is going to be a smash hit!

Masaki reentered the staging room after they finished performing their song.

He saw the band members hanging around, exhausted from their performance. Ishihara-san was drinking a bottle of water, and Chifumi was eating some more sweets from the bag she held earlier that day.

“You were awesome girls!”

Masaki shifted his focus to Ishihara-san.

“Your voice sounded awesome, even better than what you did on the single”

“You think so?”

She played with her hair.

“Yeah, absolutely, not to discredit your singing during the recording session.”

He proudly nodded.

“I gave it my all”

Masaki left the room so the girls could change, and then helped them clean up all of their equipment. He was soon joined by the now in-regular-clothes-again band members.

Working together, they got done in no time.

“Cwake time!”

Chifumi yelled.

The three went back to the backroom where Haruka sliced the cake and gave them all a plate.

Exchanging some smiles, and having some light-hearted discussions about their performance. At a certain point, Masaki and Akane couldn’t help but stare into each other's eyes, smiling. Together they were, in a brief moment of bliss. All they worked all this time had finally paid off. Masaki’s music, with Akane’s lyrics and the band’s excellent performance. Something he could never have created himself. The sum greater than its parts.

When the four were all done cleaning up, they exchanged a brief goodbye with the venue staff and then exited through the door together.

Shortly after that, Haruka pulled Chifumi in the other direction, leaving Masaki alone with Akane.

Masaki’s heart started beating faster, thinking about what he was going to do next. He did want a repeat of the whole business card situation. He wasn’t going to let the chance slip like almost happened with that other producer.

I can do this!

He grabbed Ishihara-san’s hand and looked her in the eyes.

“Would you like to go out with me next Saturday?”

Her cheeks turned a bit red.

“Of course, I’d love to!”