Karaoke Time

Hirasaka-sensei was busy tidying up as Homeroom was coming to an end. It was during the brief down period before our lessons started for the day when Shinohara leaned over my desk, grinning like an idiot.

“Yo, Ren! How about we hang out later?”

I didn't really have any other plans for the day now that Nakamura was busy, and I hadn't had the chance to spend any quality time with Shinohara since we had made up.

“Yeah sure, why not?”

“Great,” he grinned, “I was thinking of karaoke.”

It took a few moments for that to really sink in.

“Woah, woah, woah, you can't be serious!”

“Why not?”

I couldn't think of anything worse than me standing up and singing in front of people, even if it was just Shinohara. He wasn't exactly the type to make fun of someone's shortcomings, but still, me … singing?

I’d really rather die.

But Shinohara kept looking at me expectantly, and I didn't want to disappoint my friend.

"Fine," I said begrudgingly, "I'm in.”

The karaoke box in question was located at the far end of the shopping district. My mind flashed back to when Nakamura and I had gone out together around here not so long ago. I briefly wondered what she was busy with tonight, but Shinohara soon snapped me back into reality.

"Come on, hurry up!"

He was waving back at me, already quite ahead of me.

"Ah, sorry," I said, picking up my pace.

When we reached the karaoke box, Shinohara took charge and led me inside. He seemed to be quite familiar with the cute looking girl manning the reception desk. I suspected that he must have come here fairly often.

"Hi, Shinohara-kun. You want to book a room?" The girl asked.

"No need, I already booked it earlier.”

Hang on, he’d already booked in advance? What if I had declined his offer after all, was he that certain that I was going to say yes? Or had he just not thought that far ahead? 

…On second thought, that did sound like something he'd do.

"Ah, yes I see it. You can go in, it's room three down the end."

"Sweet, thanks!" He said, with his signature smirk on his face.
We headed down the corridor until we stopped outside room three.

“After you,” Shinohara motioned to the door.

I obliged, and took hold of the handle. The door slid open, and I stepped inside.

I froze.

For a second, I thought we had entered the wrong room. It was already occupied by a trio of girls settled down on the black leather couches. But no, the door had clearly been labelled with a big "3". This was the right room. Stranger still, I recognised each of them. It was Iwasaki Chizuru and Inaba Miyu from the light music club, along with Nakamura Ayane.

"Ah Shino-kun, you've finally … huh?"

All of us exchanged glances with each other, none of us quite sure what to make of the situation. Clearly I wasn't the only one who Shinohara hadn't told about this. Nakamura was possibly the most flustered. She stared directly towards me and mouthed the words "What are you doing here?”

Thankfully, Shinohara offered up an explanation, even if it wasn't a very good one. Apparently this had initially meant to be a get together for just the members of the light music club, but Nakamura had been invited along by Iwasaki. Shinohara claimed that he was feeling outnumbered by the amount of girls, and decided to drag me along too.

“You really should have told us first,” Inaba-senpai reprimanded, “but I'm okay with it if everyone else is. Iwasaki-san?”

“Oh, er … s-sure.”

I didn't think she looked all too happy about it, personally. But it seemed like I was welcome to join them all, Shinohara had been able to convince them. Though two of us, Nakamura and I, didn't buy it. We both could see exactly why he had made me come along.

"So," Shinohara asked, collapsing into the seat next to Nakamura, leaving only the empty space by Iwasaki free, "what are we in the mood for? Maybe a classic?"

He started flipping through the booklet of songs while I awkwardly sat down next to Iwasaki.

"Hi again," she smiled as the pit of my stomach sank.

"H-hey."

This was a bad situation. Very bad.

"Alright," Shinohara announced, "let's do this."

He picked up the microphone and began belting out the lyrics to some obscure rock song that none of us had heard before. Despite how awkward this all felt, I couldn't help but smile. His enthusiasm was infectious. Even Nakamura was tapping her feet along with the beat.

"That was awesome, Shino-kun," Iwasaki clapped when he finished.

"Damn straight it was."

Shinohara handed the microphone over to Iwasaki and she stepped up next and picked out a song for her turn. I noticed her sending a few awkward glances my way, and I was expecting her to cave under the pressure of people watching her. But as soon as the beat of a cheesy pop song started to play, she easily slipped into performer mode. She certainly lived up to her role as the lead singer of their band, her singing voice was amazing. When the song ended, the four of us applauded her performance, and she took a playful bow in response.

"You're up, Ren!" Shinohara said, winking my way.

No no no no, I was already uncomfortable with the idea of singing alone with Shinohara. There was no way in hell I would sing in front of so many people, especially not Iwasaki.

"B-b-but…" I started.

"Hey, you know the rules," Shinohara interrupted, "you've gotta sing at least one time! Don't make me drag you up there."

I had no doubt in my mind that he would indeed try to force me up there, and it would just end up being even more embarrassing if I acted out.
"Fine," I groaned, grabbing the microphone.

"You'll do fine," Nakamura chimed in, "just pretend we aren't here."

Easy enough for you to say, I thought bitterly to myself. I picked a random song off the menu that I was familiar with, and the first few beats started to play. 

"Let loose, buddy," Shinohara bellowed.

My voice croaked out the opening line, but I managed to stumble my way through the first verse. By the time I reached the chorus, the others had also joined in. It was like I had my own personal backup singers. Knowing that we were all in the same boat spurred me on, and I put everything I had into it. I was probably way out of tune, but I didn't care.

It was a rush.

By the time the song had finished, I was out of breath, wiping sweat from my brow. Inaba and Iwasaki were clapping in praise, as Shinohara slapped me hard on the back enthusiastically. I looked over towards Nakamura, who gave me a satisfied nod in response.

While Inaba began to sing a pretty hearty rendition of a classic ballad, I stepped out of the room for a quick breather. At some point, Nakamura had followed me out.

"I'm going to kill Shinohara once this is all over," she grumbled, "you didn't know about any of this?"

I shook my head.

"Still, you handled yourself well. I'm impressed, I didn't think you'd actually go through with it."

"It wasn't like I had much of a choice, he was practically pushing me up to the mic…"

"True, though you looked like you were having fun by the end."

"Yeah," I chuckled sheepishly.

"Chizuru seemed to be enjoying it too."

I blushed at that, and she laughed.

"We should probably head back before they wonder where we've run off to," Nakamura finally said.

"Yeah, okay."

We walked back to the room, just as Inaba was finishing up with her turn. Catching sight of Nakamura, Iwasaki grabbed her and pulled her into a duet. She protested, but Iwasaki was adamant. The two began to sing together, and while she was a little shaky, Nakamura seemed to be enjoying herself.

The rest of the afternoon flew by and it was already early evening by the time we finished. We'd all got so caught up in the moment that the time had simply flown past.

"We should all hang out together as a group again sometime," Iwasaki suggested as we were leaving.

Wait, was Iwasaki saying that she wanted to see me more? I couldn't believe this was real, I must have been dreaming.

"Agreed," nodded Inaba, "it's certainly a lot livelier with all of us together."

"Yeah," I smiled back, "it's been fun."

It wasn't a lie either. I may have felt completely out of my depth to begin with, but as the night went on, my anxieties had slowly faded. I had really enjoyed myself. I made a mental note that I would have to thank Shinohara for setting this up – right after I scolded him for forcing me into that situation blind!

***

Checking the time on my phone, I realised it had turned 8pm by the time I had arrived back home. I climbed the stairs up to the upper floor and inserted my key into the door of our apartment.

"I'm home," I called out of habit.

I didn't expect anyone to come out and greet me at this time of day, but Dad popped out from the living room and called out to me.

"Ah, you're here. Can we talk?"

Confused, I followed him back into the living room where we both took a seat. The silence that followed was long and uncomfortable.

"Look," he finally started, shuffling his hands, "I, er, don't want to come across as controlling, but I've noticed you've been going out more than usual recently. Is… everything okay?"

"Huh?" 

That's what this was about?

"If something's bothering you, or you've gotten into some trouble, you know you can tell me, yeah?"

"No, no. It's nothing like that!" I shook my head.

"Oh, thank goodness," he slumped further down into the sofa, "you've been acting so differently lately, and coming home so late, I thought something might have happened."

"Yeah, there has," I answered with a small smile, "I've finally made some friends."