Chapter 4
Yasu
This was so stupid. In the few years we’d been doing this, I’d never been nervous walking into a practice. But this one was different.
My heart slammed against my ribcage as I opened the door to the room.
My panic was unnecessary because, per usual, I was the first person there.
Maybe there was a small chance that this new guy would beat me there.
It was dumb because Toshi had already told me he would introduce him to everyone.
There would be no throwing him to the proverbial wolves.
I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths to try to calm myself.
Getting ahead of myself wasn’t doing anyone any favors, but all I could think about was this guy coming in and acting like he ran the show.
That he’d try to change everything about what we'd already established to make the band his. Yes, we’d have to wiggle a little to accommodate him, but the fear that he’d take over entirely?
Shit, I needed to shift my focus. Always easier said than done.
When I opened my eyes again, I looked around the room, trying to find something to distract myself until someone else arrived.
Thankfully, it didn’t take long because Itsuki was walking in the door not even a minute later.
His entire face lit up the moment he saw me, and he bounced across the room to wrap me in a hug.
“Yasu-san,” he cooed as he placed a quick kiss on my cheek.
It made me laugh. Out of everyone in the band, Itsuki was always more affectionate. He loved to shower everyone with touches and kisses, even when it made some uncomfortable.
“Itsuki-chan. It’s good to see you.”
His smile grew before he released me from his hold, and he slid across the room to grab his guitar from the rack.
It was amazing how quickly he could flip the switch from playful to business.
But that was something Itsuki had always taken seriously.
The music was important to all of us, and we never messed around when it came to it.
I listened as Itsuki idly plucked at his guitar strings to tune them. It had been what I needed to calm my racing thoughts about the new bassist.
Before long, Riku and Tatsuki joined us. We all warmed up with one of our earlier songs, but it wasn’t the same since we were missing the entire bass line. It still allowed me to warm up my voice, but the longer we sat there and played, the more anxious I grew.
Where the hell was Toshi?
This was a waste of our time if we couldn’t see how this new guy fit in with our sound, and after another 20 minutes of playing, I covered the microphone and turned to the guys.
“Tell me I’m not alone in wondering where the hell this guy is?”
Riku set his drumsticks on his kit before he shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just doing my best until he gets here. Maybe there was something that made them late.”
Being late was rude. Especially when you didn’t have a good reason for it.
Maybe I was the only one annoyed since everyone resumed playing but paused when I didn’t start singing again.
“Yasu?” Itsuki asked, lowering his guitar.
I shook my head before walking away from the mic stand toward the door. They didn’t need me to practice since apparently we didn’t need a bassist. I totally understood that I was being ridiculous, but it didn’t stop me from throwing open the door and storming out into the hall.
The music grew fainter behind me as I made my way toward the offices. I was a man on a mission. Toshi didn’t really have to answer to me—he was our manager after all—but this still wasn’t nice. Our band had been through enough without him being disrespectful.
I turned a corner and ran smack into something hard and solid.
The second my ass hit the floor, I stared up in shock, realizing that I’d run into someone.
I’d never seen him before. He had red spiked hair, and charcoal lined his eyes.
He looked like he was dressed for a show, which was dumb.
No one dressed up like that on a normal basis. Well, except for maybe this guy.
He said nothing, only stood there and stared at me, which only made my skin crawl. I huffed my irritation before standing and brushing my hands off on my pants.
“You make a good wall,” I said.
The man smirked but didn’t move out of my way. I was about to go off on him when a large hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him to the side.
“Yasu-san, there you are. Osoku natte sumimasen.” Toshi dropped his hand from the guy’s shoulder, offering me a slight bow.
My lungs seized.
If Toshi was leading this guy around, that meant this was our new bassist. Based on first impressions and appearance alone, he wasn’t the right fit at all. What the hell had our label been thinking picking this guy?
I was looking at dark punk, not the peppy vibe that Pink Cherry was known for.
At least I knew he wouldn’t have an issue with the whole Visual Kei concept.
While the genre was wildly popular, there were still people who had an issue with it.
Considering that the entire premise of Visual Kei was based on nineteen eighties American hair bands.
It was like people didn’t understand how to appreciate other cultures.
Maybe it was because of the fangirling or how obsessive some listeners could be. They liked to match our costumes, the crowds at concert venues could sometimes be extreme. Compared to American concerts, ours looked a lot tamer.
I’d take a synchronized dancing crowd over chaos any day.
“Yasu?”I shook my head as Toshi said my name again.
How many times had he said it? His brow showed concern, and when I looked up at the other man between us, his smirk grew.
It made me want to slap the look off his face.
I didn’t have time for people who were overly cocky like this.
This was my band, and I didn’t need someone to come in and throw a wrench into a well-oiled machine.
“Toshi-sama, You know me. I get focused on one thing and I can’t let it go. You were so late, I couldn’t focus on the rehearsal until I knew what was going on,” I explained, standing from the floor and brushing my hands on my jeans.
The longer the other guy stood there continuing his silence, the more angry I got. He was downright rude. He couldn’t even offer to help me up? Not that I would have taken the help. It was the principle of it. You offered.
Toshi nodded before motioning to the still silent red-headed man. “This is Ryosuke. He’s been to the studios before, but not to this part of the building. It was my fault for assuming that he could find your practice room.”
Instead of doing the nice thing and greeting him, I only nodded at Toshi. It was dismissive as hell—I knew that—but this guy was already rubbing me the wrong way. It wasn’t fair to not even give him a chance, but I was in a mood now. There was no snapping me out of that.
It wasn’t missed.
Toshi narrowed his eyes at me as he directed both of us back down the hall toward our practice room. The guys were still playing, which was great because the last thing we needed was for Toshi to berate us for neglecting practice after I’d just dropped a ton of attitude all over the hallway.
It didn’t help that the second I opened the door to the practice room—it was enough to disturb whatever momentum the guys had going. Instruments slowed to a halt as three sets of eyes turned to us standing in the doorway.
As always, Riku was indifferent, he couldn’t care that we had someone new intruding in our carefully crafted space.
Tatsuki set his guitar to the side, eyeing the man who was following me maybe a little too closely.
Seriously. What was with Ryosuke? Did he need to be right up on my ass?
He’d get to meet everyone, and I got I wasn’t being the nicest, but it was his fault for putting me in this mood.
Okay, so my mood was my fault, but come on.
What had my hair standing on end?
The way Itsuki set his guitar down... no, not set it down. He basically threw it down before he bounded across the room to throw his arms around Toshi, who instantly tensed at the contact.
“Toshi-sama! Did you bring me a new friend?”
God, he was always so bubbly, and I wanted to pull him off our manager, direct him back to his instrument and show him how to care for it properly.
But it had always been that way. There was a pull there when it came to Itsu. Maybe it was because he was so innocent and caring. I was always worried that people would take advantage of him, but he was damn talented with that guitar, so it was a no brainer to add him to our roster.
Toshi carefully extracted himself from Itsuki’s embrace before making his way into the room.
It was always hard to figure out what was going through his head and whether or not he was impressed with us.
The man gave no indication, his face remained still.
If it weren’t that we’d been working with him for years, I would have sworn he was a robot.
“Pink Cherry...” My eyebrows raised as Toshi addressed us by our band name.
He never did that, and it was strange. If he was doing it because of Ryosuke, I didn’t need this guy. Nope. We could go without a bassist. Plug in some background synthesizer or something. Or hell, play a recording of Mamarou for the rest of our careers... but that also meant no new music.
Toshi waved in Ryosuke’s direction and I tried really hard to suppress an eye roll. Tried, but failed. Yes, I was being an asshole. I’d earned the right at that point.
“This is Ryosuke. He comes highly recommended by the label. His former band was a little more on the wild side, and perhaps you’ve heard of them.”
“Tokyo Roadtrip, right?” It wasn’t often that Riku spoke up in situations like this, so we all turned to look at him.
Ryosuke visibly tensed next to me. “Yes, that would be correct,” he said slowly, eyes narrowing as he studied my bandmate.
Riku set his drumsticks down, the loud clang of the wood hitting the snare drum filling the room that was suddenly too quiet to be comfortable.
We all knew what had happened to their band.
Sometimes fame did stupid things to people, but we all knew that it was a bold point in all of our contracts that drugs were a no-go.
When the news dropped that the band had gotten caught with a bag of hallucinogenic pills, it rocked the entire company.
We all had to be subjected to a month of routine drug testing.
It didn’t matter that most of us had no reason for them to suspect us.
All it took was Tokyo Roadtrip slipping up, and we all had to pay the price.
When everyone continued to say nothing, Toshi cleared his throat.
“I get why you all might be reluctant because of that. Please rest assured that the reason Ryosuke is here is that he is the only member of the band that tested negative for drugs and remains clean to this day. He has proven himself time and time again. I only hope that all of you will give him a chance as well.”