Broken Record Pt. 1

I don't know if it's because Sunayomi is still a new group that is still rising in popularity, but Manager Na has been calling me in much more than before.

Today, at the very least, he had a valid reason. The speakers in Sunayomi's rehearsal room were acting up during their dance practice today, so he asked me to come fix them.

He could've easily hired a real technician, but of course, that's not his style. Even on my day off, he’ll contact me directly if there's something he thinks I can fix. Gives him a reason to call me in.

It's annoying, sure. I just suck it up and go. I'm getting paid for it, so there's not a lot of room for me to complain. Still, a little warning would be nice.

With a satchel around my shoulder, headphones on, and music blaring, I walked into the rehearsal room. No idols in sight, or anyone else for that matter. Perfect.

I began making my way across the smooth wooden floor until I reached a small panel in the wall. As soon as I pulled it open, I immediately noticed the problem.

Between the gap of the panel and the wall were many wires leading out to the speakers on the ceiling. Several of them, which were the thicker ones, were the main power cords that connected the speakers to the system, and the wire was visibly ruptured. I can even see the inner wirings.

"The hell...?" I sighed. "Whoever designed this thing needs to be fired as soon as possible. Not only is this stupid, it's outright dangerous."

I unplugged the cords from the system and yanked out the other end from the ceiling speakers.

"Hm... I have new cords. The only thing I need now is..."

My eyes caught onto a small step stool off to the side.

"Hah. How convenient."

After plugging in one of the ends to the main unit, I grabbed the step stool and stood at the very top, attempting to plug it into the ceiling speakers. That was until I felt two gentle tugs from the bottom of my jacket.

I pulled aside my headphones as I turned my head, and I nearly fell on my ass the moment I saw who was there.

A head of pale cyan, and a head of light pink, both looking at me with those curious eyes of the same deeper color respectively.

"Ah! I was right!" Suguha grinned. "It's Yozora! See, Nabi? I told you!"

"Eh?! Wait... Y-you're the one who said that it wasn't..." Natsume muttered with a soft tone.

"Anyway~! What's up, Yozora? Long time no see. It's been, what, almost a week now? And here I was wondering if we'd ever see you again."

"Oh," I gulped. "Um... I'm doing fine. How about you two?"

"Us? We're doing great! The album that we dropped last week is getting more and more popular!"

"I-is that so...?"

"Have you listened to any of the songs, Yozora?" Natsume asked. "What are your thoughts?"

Ah, shoot. Despite Nae pestering me about it for the past week, I still haven't listened to the album. I wasn't busy. I had plenty of time. I just didn't, and I don't even have a good reason.

"Erm... Honestly, I haven't... listened to it yet," I mumbled.

"Huh?" Natsume let out a subtle gasp.

"Wh~at?!" Yoshino shouted. "H-hold on... You work for Yori Entertainment, and you've got those headphones on right now. You're telling me you haven't listened to any of our latest songs?"

"Well, when you put it like that... Yeah. It's exactly how it sounds."

"Ack...! My heart..."

Suguha fell lifelessly to the ground. If I didn't know any better, I would think that she was actually dead. Isn't this a bit dramatic?

"A-anyway! What are you doing here, Yozora?" Natsume asked.

"Ah... I'm just fixing the speakers," I answered. "Manager Na said that they went offline during your dance practice today, so he called me over to fix them."

"Wow! So you're capable of doing that too, huh? I can see why Manager Na likes you so much."

"Capable of this, but not capable of listening to our songs..." Yoshino muttered with a pout.

"Just drop it, Suzu. Well, Yozora. We'll leave you to it."

"Y-yeah..."

They walked off toward the other side of the rehearsal room, leaving me alone so I could continue my work. However, the moment I tried to go back to doing what I was doing, I couldn't. My hands... are shaking.

What the hell? Why are they here? Manager Na specifically said that they wouldn't be here for the rest of the day. Unless...

An image appeared in my head. It was the manager, snickering and trying to hold in his laughter while talking to me on the phone.

Yeah. He definitely lied to me. There's no way he didn't know they'd be back. He's their freaking manager. Their whereabouts are on his radar at all times.

Finally, I reached for the speakers and plugged in the new cord. The speakers automatically turned back on, but I should still test it out. Just in case.

I plugged the aux cord into my phone and scrolled through my phone to find a song. For a moment, my eyes turned to the two girls, who were sitting on cable trunks while looking at their phones.

"Fine," I whispered to myself. "This one's for you, Nae."

With as much courage as I could muster, I pressed the play button. Immediately the intro to one of their songs blasted through the now-functional speakers.

Suguha and Natsume turned from their phones to look over, but I tried my best to ignore them. While I continued testing the sounds, volume, and settings, the music went on.

Instead of leaving the cord to get crushed between the gaps like before, I pulled them through two ventilation holes. Might get dicey from the heat, but that's better than having the wires crushed.

The song ended as soon as I was done, so I shut the panel and readied myself to leave. I was fully expecting to walk past them without saying a word, but it seemed like they had different plans.

"Yozora!" Suguha called out, prompting me to stop.

"...Yeah?"

"Were you really just gonna walk past us without saying a word?"

For some reason, it felt like she was reading my mind.

"Was there something I was supposed to say?" I asked.

"Your thoughts, Yozora," Natsume said. "You know... About the song. You play it because we wanted you to listen to it, right? Well? Did you like it?"

Natsume kept her gaze on me, eyes sparkling with anticipation of my answer.

Why does it matter if I liked it or not? My opinion doesn't come anywhere close to the millions upon millions of people who liked the song enough to raise its popularity to this extent.

I crossed my arms and lifted my head to think.

"The beat was catchy, the instrumentals were nice, but the general tone was too bubbly for my taste."

"A-ah... You think so?" she said with a saddened expression.

My mind went into full panic mode, but I was still able to keep my composure. "I'm not saying that it was bad. It's just not for me. I saw that the song had over twenty million streams, so clearly, you're doing something right."

Just like that, her mood lifted. "R-really? That's good."

That's all it takes, huh? I'm noticing that Natsume seems to be the most reasonable among the members of Sunayomi. Well... Maybe I'm just being biased against the rest because of what happened at the photoshoot.

"Hey, Yozora!" Suguha unnecessarily shouted.

"What...?"

"Come here for a minute."

"Is it important? I have somewhere to be."

"Just for a minute! Promise!"

For perhaps the thirtieth time today, I let out a restless sigh. With each second that goes by, I'm regretting coming here more and more.