Chapter 24
Itsuki
While everything had seemed fine the morning after our escapade at Ryosuke’s place, it wasn’t even a week later and we were back to the awkwardness from before. The only exception was that now Yasu wasn’t randomly snapping at Ryosuke, so there were some small victories associated with that.
Something still hung heavy in the air, even though we’d sort of talked about it, we still hadn’t established what it was that happened or if it was something that would happen again.
God, I desperately wanted it to happen again.
It wasn’t just about the sex, either. There was something about seeing these two broody men let down their walls, giving in to something so vulnerable. Especially to each other. The way Ryosuke commanded a situation, that was the hottest part of all.
My fingers slipped, messing up the chord I was trying to hit. Everyone stopped playing around me because it wasn’t like me to mess up a song.
“You okay, Itsu-chan?” Tatsuki asked.
My face heated as I readjusted my guitar strap while looking around the room. There were two sets of eyes that were staring at me a little more intently than the others. It was as if Yasu and Ryosuke had a direct line to my thoughts, knowing why I was so darn distracted.
“Great!” I lied. My voice didn’t even sound convincing to my own ears, but it didn’t seem to matter. Everyone went on as if nothing had happened. We picked right back up with the song, my fingers flew across the strings of my guitar like I’d been doing it my entire life.
The song we were rehearsing was one of my favorites.
It was more upbeat and had such a positive message about overcoming things in life.
Our music wasn’t depressing; most of it was optimistic, but every once in a while, you could tell when Yasu got in a mood and something a little more deep slipped in.
I got into the song, swaying to the melody, even mouthing the words along with Yasu. I didn’t get to do that during an actual performance. Tatsuki was usually our backup singer. I was great at playing guitar, and I loved to sing along, but I couldn't carry a tune to save my life..
As the lyrics broke into talking about finding your one true love, I was really getting into it.
We didn’t normally practice our stage presence while rehearsing, but I didn’t care.
Before I knew it, I was pressing my back against Yasu, swaying to the beat.
He briefly cracked in his singing, laughing a little as he started to move with me.
That was all it seemed to take to break the tension in the studio. It was as if we were on stage in front of a screaming crowd, the fans dancing in front of us as we played.
When I looked over at Ryosuke, he was the only one who wasn’t really doing anything. Not that I could blame him. It would take time for him to adjust to the chemistry of the band. That didn’t mean I couldn’t have my fun with him.
I left my spot behind Yasu, dancing my way across the room until I stood directly in front of Ryosuke.
The bass player raised an eyebrow at me as I leaned in close, making him lean back a little.
It was enough to make me smirk. I wanted to make him follow me, so I copied him leaning away from him as well.
And that was all I needed to do. Without words, Ryosuke got the message, following my lead, leaning toward me.
We shifted back and forth like that a few times, leaning just a little closer to each other each time. On the fifth pass, we were so close I could feel the moist heat of Ryosuke’s breath against my lips, it would be all too easy to kiss him. But not here.
The fans would eat that shit up, though.
I twirled away from Ryosuke as the song wrapped up, everyone started laughing because I never acted that way at practice.
“What was that?” Yasu asked as he set his mic back in the stand.
I was a little out of breath, but once I gathered myself, I laughed, shaking my head. “After the last few days? We needed to loosen up. You can’t tell me that wasn’t fun.”
Riku’s drumsticks clattered against the edges of his snare drum as he rested them there. “Honestly? I think this is one of the best practices we’ve had in a long time. There’s been some sort of funk over all of us ever since Mamarou announced that he was leaving.”
A collective sound of agreement made its way through the practice room. Change was always hard, it didn’t help when Ryosuke and Yasu hadn’t gotten along at first. They still weren’t close, but at least I hoped that I was getting them there.
We played through another few songs, all going just as smoothly. Instead of sticking to only playing the music, we had fun, just like we’d done when I’d started goofing around.
When Toshi walked in, we were wrapping up “Red Cherry Bomb,” which was one of our harder songs. Tatsuki and I were back to back, holding each other up with our weight, covered in sweat from the exertion, just as if we’d been performing a real concert.
“What is all of this?” He crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the wall near the door.
Yasu grinned, I loved seeing him happy after he’d been so upset for so dang long. “I don’t know. Itsuki thought it would be fun to act as if we were on stage. It ended up being one of our best practices.”
Toshi sniffed, but didn’t drop his rigid posture. There were times I wondered if he had our best interests in mind, but that was when Yasu called in Reiko and we got our way. Toshi was a hardass, sometimes the label had some really stupid rules.
“We got complaints that it was too loud in here. It’s interfering with another band,” Toshi explained.
My eyebrows shot to my hairline because that was so weird. This was a studio. The walls were soundproofed, we never heard other bands practicing. This had to be another way for Toshi to keep us under his thumb.
I wasn’t the only one confused by the statement. Wasn’t it a good thing that we were meshing, bonding, doing better?
Yasu walked over to Toshi, grabbed his arm, walking him out of the room. The door slammed shut behind them, and as suspected, we couldn’t hear them. Even if they were yelling in the hall. There was no way we were disrupting another band.
Ryosuke took his bass off, propping it on the stand. He looked at the door before he shook his head and packed up for the day. Since we had been interrupted, we might as well all call it a day. We’d actually gone over our practice time, anyway.
All things that should have made Toshi happy. Something was off.
By the time everything had been packed up, Yasu still hadn’t come back into the room. I was starting to worry about him. That worry didn’t fade when we opened the door to the hall, finding it empty.
Riku and Tatsuki left while Ryosuke stayed behind with me.
He rested his hand on my shoulder as we watched the other two leave.
I wanted to turn into his hold, wrapping my arms around him, but even I knew it was too touchy-feely for public.
The longer we stood there, it became more and more apparent that Yasu wasn’t coming back anytime soon.
“Why don’t we go get something to drink?” Ryosuke asked. While I felt sort of numb to the idea, I nodded because it would at least take my mind off things for a while.