Iwasaki On Stage

Backstage, Iwasaki was pacing up and down. The moment that she had been dreading was quickly creeping up on her. They were set to perform directly after the drama club, who were currently up on stage, already halfway through the play they were putting on. In only a few minutes more, she would have to sing in front of God knows how many people. They would all be watching her, every single one of her mistakes on full display.

“Take some deep breaths,” Inaba advised her, trying her best to calm her down.

Iwasaki complied and inhaled deeply, but when she tried exhaling, her breath was still shaky and uneven.

The sound of applause reached them, and soon the members of the drama club had left the stage. Each of them smiled as they passed by Iwasaki and the others.

This was it.

Oh God, she thought to herself. She could feel her heartbeat racing. It must have been so loud, why could no-one else hear it?

Shinohara clapped her on the back encouragingly, though she could have sworn he averted his gaze. He had no faith that she would be able to pull this off, and he was right to think so.

“Come on, let's get out there,” Inaba said.

Iwasaki’s feet felt heavy. She moved them cautiously one after the other in fear that she would stumble and trip herself up. When she was halfway out onto the stage she froze at the sea of eyes staring back at her.

“Iwasaki-san,” Inaba whispered into her ear, “It's okay, we're right behind you. You can do this, I know you can. Just breathe and try your best, okay?”

She felt Inaba's gentle touch on her arm, as she slowly stepped towards the front of the stage with her. Iwasaki gripped the microphone in front of her tightly, trying desperately to steady her balance as Inaba left her to take her own position.

Behind her, Shinohara and Inaba had already started playing a simple beat. They were just waiting for Iwasaki's cue to begin. She opened her mouth to sing, but her mouth felt dry.

“Ah…” she croaked.

Her worst fears were coming true. The crowd that spread out before her began turning to each other, whispering and muttering amongst themselves.

“What's going on?”

“Why aren't they starting?”

“Did she forget the words or something?”

A couple of people had even started to leave. Iwasaki’s hands began to tremble, and she bit down hard on her lip. This had gone exactly as she had feared it would. It was a disaster, and it was all her fault. She had to get away, she had to get off the stage. She had to…

“You can do it, Iwasaki-san!”

“Huh?”

A lone voice, louder than any of the others, pierced through the jeering crowd. Everyone turned away from the stage, searching for the source of the commotion. But Iwasaki didn't need to see to know who it was that had spoken up. It was a voice she had been hearing a lot recently, the most welcome voice in the world.

“T-Tachi-kun?”

She spotted him halfway towards the back. He had cupped his hands to his mouth like a makeshift megaphone. His eyes filled with determination as he continued to shout words of encouragement, despite the bewildered looks of the people around him.

“Don't give up!”

From the same direction, a second, softer voice joined in the chanting, “we believe in you!”

She knew this voice too, it belonged to her cousin, Nakamura. Soon, more and more students started chiming in too.

"You can do it!"

"Keep going!"

"Don't give up!”

Her eyes and Tachibana’s locked, and Iwasaki felt her heart jump. He flashed a wide, toothy grin, and gave a big thumbs up.

“We're all with you Iwasaki-san, now show us what you've got!”

“Thank you, everyone,” she said into the microphone, wiping away the tears that had begun to well up in her eyes.

Inaba and Shinohara shared a glance to each other, thrilled that their bandmate and friend had been able to regain control.

“Okay, 3…2…1…Let's go!”

***

It was tradition for the festival to close the evening off with a bonfire. Dozens of students had gathered around to celebrate their successes. Iwasaki stood, silently watching them all dance around and cheer as the flames flickered.

“There you are!”

She turned to spot Nakamura and Tachibana heading her way.

“You were amazing,” Nakamura said, grabbing Iwasaki by the hand.

“T-thanks,” she blushed, “though I wouldn't have been able to do it if it weren't for the two of you cheering for me.”

Nakamura glanced over towards Tachibana, who was rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

“I'm just glad it all worked out,” he said.

Iwasaki felt a warmth rush over her. She wasn't entirely sure if it was due to the nearby flames, or if it was something else entirely.

Just then, Shinohara came barrelling over, throwing himself on Tachibana and ruffling his hair playfully.

“Aha! There's our little hero of the hour. Come on, join us! We're all gonna dance together, right, Inaba-senpai? Oh, sorry, are we interrupting something here?”

“No, it's okay,” Iwasaki said, laughing at his antics.

“Great, I'm just gonna steal him away for a while,” he said, dragging poor Tachibana towards the horde of dancing students.

“H-hey, quit it!”

The pair disappeared into the crowd, with Nakamura tagging along behind, mumbling that this was a sight that she didn't want to miss.

Inaba stopped Iwasaki and pulled her into a hug.

“I'm so proud of you,” she said, squeezing her tightly.

They separated after a few moments, and Inaba began discussing the performance in great length, critiquing the areas they all needed to improve on. Though she paused when she noticed Iwasaki's expression.

“Are you listening? You seem distracted.”

Inaba cocked her head to the side curiously, and followed Iwasaki's gaze over towards Tachibana and the others. That's when it dawned on her.

“You like him, don't you?”

Iwasaki's eyes widened in surprise. She turned to face Inaba, who was staring at her with a serious look in her eyes. Iwasaki hesitated, before finally replying.

“I…”