[cecil]
LIVE TONIGHT
by trixie_chick
She was waiting in line.
Her friends were talking rapidly about something that she didn't understand; she wasn't even sure if they were talking about something on television or something that happened to someone she didn't know, or what. She looked down over the rail... the line trailed all the way down the staircase, to a lower floor where it wrapped around the room, hugging the walls. The floor was made of wooden squares that fit together with black strips separating them. It reminded her of a goban. Tonight, Touya Akira was playing Kurata-san for the right to compete against Ogata-san for the 10 dan title. A lot of people were feeling really optimistic about Touya Akira's chances, but Nase was hoping that Kurata-san would win, just because he seemed nice. She didn't agree with Waya that Touya was a demon or anything, but. She liked cheering for Kurata-san. She never told anyone that, because it seemed unfaithful to her generation.
Waya and Shindou made plans to go watch. Shindou had still been a bit bummed about being knocked out of the competition, so he acted like a brat, and Waya had texted Isumi about the details. She had been sitting at the table with them in the lunch room, and she'd been talking to them two minutes prior, but they didn't ask her to go. She wasn't a pro yet... the pro exams were next week. She was going for it, but there was a middle school girl, an eighth grader, and she was making waves. Maybe the Chinese were right, and go belonged to the young. Did that make her old?
Or just forgotten.
"Nase-chan!" her friend tugged on her elbow, laughing. "C'mon!"
The line was moving. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, they were near the goods table. Her friend beamed at her. "What do you want me to buy?"
She hadn't thought about goods. She didn't know the group they were coming to see. After go, she had gone back to the university, and ran into Maki-chan and Hana-chan, and they asked her to come with them. Was it a band or what? She didn't even know. Her favorite band broke up a year ago, so she didn't know too much about music anymore. She knew that Ochi only liked classical, which must make Ayu-chan classical, then, because he secretly loved her. Waya and Shindou were always trading mp3s, but they mostly just followed anime and game music. Isumi liked foreign bands, but nothing too heavy. Honda watched Music Station and Music Fighter religiously every week, so Nase assumed that he was a closet Johnny's Entertainment fan. That would be hilarious if it were true.
She gave Hana-chan her wallet, and asked for a pamphlet. She just hoped she had enough money. Maki-chan bounced on her feet and tried to make Nase bounce, too. She'd never been to this club before, but she'd only been to two concerts, anyway, and one was at the Dome, and one at Budokan. She wondered if this band was really any good, if they were playing such a small livehouse, though it was nice, at least. And there were tons of fans, but that would just make it hot and sweaty.
She took off her sweater and tied it around her waist. Maybe she could be the type of girl who took off her shirt and bounced around in her bra at a thing like this.
But she was just wearing a plain white bra, so.
Actually, she only owned plain white bras. Maki-chan's bra straps were showing, and they were red. On the train there, Maki-chan and Hana-chan were laughing about all the things they'd do to the singer if they had a chance. A couple of salarymen were watching with more interest than Nase was comfortable with; actually, Nase wasn't comfortable hearing about any of that. Her friends always teased her for hanging out with boys all the time, but the boys she hung out with never talked about sex or dating or anything. Just go.
She'd thought about sex, of course. Especially with Isumi. But that was different. She had a dream about kissing Isumi once. That was it.
She needed to buy some sexy lingerie.
Hana-chan came running back, and they looked over their goods. Based on the pamphlet, Nase guessed they were going to see a singer, though he at least owned a guitar. He wasn't bad looking, and she liked having a souvenir. The line started to move again, and they went into the livehouse. The put all their things in Maki-chan's bag, and left it by the door, with everyone else's things. And then they crammed as close to the stage as they could. Thousands of women stuffed together in small space, all dancing and gyrating together at the band's command... had to be every boy's dream come true.
Unless the boy in question only dreamed about black and white stones and territory and hands. Maybe she needed to dream more about that stuff. The pro exams were next week... Iijima wasn't going for it. He'd given up. She didn't try last year. She had to face facts and study for exams. She got into a decent university, too, which was amazing because she only barely passed out of high school. Spending all her time with the go boys wasn't good for her academic life. She never cared about her academic life, though. Play go, get married, have fun... that was as close to a plan as she ever got. She didn't even know that she much wanted to get married, or have kids or anything like that. Lately, she'd been thinking about traveling. Like... going to Korea. Go was really strong in Korea. That was a stupid reason to go, though, wasn't it?
Maki-chan threw her arms around Nase's neck and kissed her cheek, laughing. "You're lost in your own world again!"
Nase laughed, and hugged her back. She liked having girl friends. They were more fun than the boys, in a lot of ways. Boys were only capable of thinking of one thing at a time. Go, or sex, or cars, or whatever. Girls could think about two things at once. The three of them laughed, and chatted, and they talked to the girls around them...
When the show started, Nase was almost totally in the moment. The first song was loud, and everyone around her was excited, but she didn't know it. The singer was tall and way too skinny and he had a weird nose. She was surprised because the music was harder than she thought Maki-chan or Hana-chan would be into, but maybe they just liked how he kept pulling at his shirt, and how his pants were dripping off of him.
Before her eyes, images of Kurata-san and Ogata-san and Touya Akira and Shindou and Isumi and Waya and Honda and Ochi and Iijima floated, shimmering, sometimes transparent, and sometimes close enough to touch. The boys in her life. There had been a boy in middle school that she'd liked. He'd been on the basketball team. Boys only thought about one thing at a time, though, so the one time she went with him for burgers after school, he talked about basketball nonstop. She didn't care about basketball, and most people her age didn't care about go.
After a couple of songs, the singer talked to the audience. His voice was sexy and he was funny, and then he started a slower song. He let his hands drift down his chest, and then he started undoing buttons. He was singing about sex, too. Nase got into it. That song bled into another song, a bit faster-paced, but just as sexy. Actually, all of his songs were about sex, right?
Boys could only think about one thing at a time.
She danced and held her hands up and cheered for him, and she thought about him taking off more of his clothes, and she thought about the sexy lingerie she wanted, and about go, and the pro exams. He left the stage, but the lights stayed down, so they all chanted like they were supposed to, and Maki-chan put her arm around Nase's waist and whispered in her ear, "I'm so glad you came with us tonight. You're finally having fun! Shouldn't you have more of that while you're young?"
Nase blushed, and grinned at Maki-chan. And she yelled and cheered just as loudly as everyone else when the band came back and the singer was now without his shirt. She didn't like boys with tattoos and she wanted to go out to eat with him just to make sure he did eat, but she still swayed with his music like she was swooning, and she still cried a bit during the sad song, but that was only because she'd finally realized it.
She was never going to be a go pro.
She needed a new plan. A whole new life, because the one she'd been leading now... her friends had gone on ahead and left her behind. And she'd known for years that they would. Like how Waya had slowly stopped inviting her to his apartment for study sessions. Like how no one invited her to watch matches anymore. Like how Iijima hadn't answered her last email, and Honda hadn't returned her last call. Maki-chan and Hana-chan were her close friends now, and she knew nothing about their preferred foods or hobbies or anything. She wasn't even sure what Hana-chan's major was. They had no classes together. Maki-chan knew her in high school, so they ate lunch together most days. She didn't know them, and they didn't know her, but at least they cared enough about her to want her to have fun.
After the slow song, the singer screamed out an obscenity, and the band started to play something really fast and heavy, and even though she never really liked hard rock stuff, she jumped and screamed just like everyone else.
Being lost in a crowd was better than being alone.
When the show was finally over, Hana-chan turned to her, beaming. "Wasn't he amazing?" she asked, and Nase beamed and nodded, and they all gasped and laughed and generally made fools of themselves, reliving it. They collected Maki-chan's bag on the way out, and walked into the night air amidst the crowd. Most people were going toward the nearest stations, but a lot of girls were heading toward the back of the livehouse, to line up and wait for the singer to leave. It was only when she was outside that Nase realized how hot it had gotten in there. She was covered in sweat, and her hair had to be a mess. Maki-chan and Hana-chan definitely wanted to wait, though, so she stood with them and a hundred other girls, and she jumped and cheered with them when the white van pulled up, and then waited with them again. She got involved in their conversation about the boy in the coffee house across from the university who was always staring at people's asses as they walked down the street, and about the rumors about the professor in the Chemistry department and his teaching assistant, and about how expensive it was getting to live in the city, and about how annoying it was to go home after getting used to living on their own.
She never noticed the boy at the coffee shop, hadn't heard the rumor about the Chemistry professor, didn't think about money, and liked going home, but that didn't stop her from talking to them about those things.
After a while, some people came out of the back of the livehouse. Each time the door opened, everyone got excited, but there were so many people involved with moving a rock star around. Finally, the singer came out, and everyone cheered and screamed. He sort of looked at them and waved, but as the van pulled away, he waved to them again from an open window. Nase blushed, because she had a sense for a second that someone famous looked at her.
They went to a family-style restaurant to get something to eat, and Hana-chan offered Nase a cigarette. She was nice about Nase turning her down, though. Nase asked them if they wanted to go shopping with her tomorrow. She needed underwear and stuff. It was embarrassing, but Maki-chan instantly said that she needed some things, too. They talked about shopping alone versus shopping with friends versus shopping with family. Nase told them a funny story about shopping with Waya and Honda, but she changed a few details so she wouldn't have to mention go.
After they ate, they went back to the apartment complex where Nase and Maki-chan lived. Hana-chan was going to stay with Maki-chan, but as they were going up, the guys on the second floor invited them over for some drinks and cards. At first, they were going to refuse, but then Hana-chan got into a bit of a thing with one of them, and ended up challenging him to poker. They guys wanted to make it strip poker, but Hana-chan cheekily told them they had to give up all their money first. So, they went in, and Nase had beer, and sat to the side talking politics with the quiet guy while Hana-chan gambled and Maki-chan flirted. He was sort of shy and only a little bit cute, but he listened to her when she spoke, and she liked the sound of his voice. And she possibly liked beer, too. It was somewhat connected. At two in the morning, the guys ran out of beer, and Hana-chan decided that she had enough of the guys' money. They tried once again to suggest strip poker, or some variant of that without the poker part, so Hana-chan flung herself into Nase's lap, and kissed her. They all had a good laugh, and the guys got really rowdy, until the people downstairs made noise like they were pounding on their ceiling with a broom, yelling at them to quiet down. The girls made their exit then, running upstairs.
Hana-chan took Nase's hand when they got to Nase's place, and asked her if she wanted to come over to Maki-chan's with them. After all, it was their girl's night out and all. They were having so much fun...
Nase smiled. "No, I'm ok on my own. Give me a call tomorrow, though, when you're ready to go shopping."
by trixie_chick
She was waiting in line.
Her friends were talking rapidly about something that she didn't understand; she wasn't even sure if they were talking about something on television or something that happened to someone she didn't know, or what. She looked down over the rail... the line trailed all the way down the staircase, to a lower floor where it wrapped around the room, hugging the walls. The floor was made of wooden squares that fit together with black strips separating them. It reminded her of a goban. Tonight, Touya Akira was playing Kurata-san for the right to compete against Ogata-san for the 10 dan title. A lot of people were feeling really optimistic about Touya Akira's chances, but Nase was hoping that Kurata-san would win, just because he seemed nice. She didn't agree with Waya that Touya was a demon or anything, but. She liked cheering for Kurata-san. She never told anyone that, because it seemed unfaithful to her generation.
Waya and Shindou made plans to go watch. Shindou had still been a bit bummed about being knocked out of the competition, so he acted like a brat, and Waya had texted Isumi about the details. She had been sitting at the table with them in the lunch room, and she'd been talking to them two minutes prior, but they didn't ask her to go. She wasn't a pro yet... the pro exams were next week. She was going for it, but there was a middle school girl, an eighth grader, and she was making waves. Maybe the Chinese were right, and go belonged to the young. Did that make her old?
Or just forgotten.
"Nase-chan!" her friend tugged on her elbow, laughing. "C'mon!"
The line was moving. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, they were near the goods table. Her friend beamed at her. "What do you want me to buy?"
She hadn't thought about goods. She didn't know the group they were coming to see. After go, she had gone back to the university, and ran into Maki-chan and Hana-chan, and they asked her to come with them. Was it a band or what? She didn't even know. Her favorite band broke up a year ago, so she didn't know too much about music anymore. She knew that Ochi only liked classical, which must make Ayu-chan classical, then, because he secretly loved her. Waya and Shindou were always trading mp3s, but they mostly just followed anime and game music. Isumi liked foreign bands, but nothing too heavy. Honda watched Music Station and Music Fighter religiously every week, so Nase assumed that he was a closet Johnny's Entertainment fan. That would be hilarious if it were true.
She gave Hana-chan her wallet, and asked for a pamphlet. She just hoped she had enough money. Maki-chan bounced on her feet and tried to make Nase bounce, too. She'd never been to this club before, but she'd only been to two concerts, anyway, and one was at the Dome, and one at Budokan. She wondered if this band was really any good, if they were playing such a small livehouse, though it was nice, at least. And there were tons of fans, but that would just make it hot and sweaty.
She took off her sweater and tied it around her waist. Maybe she could be the type of girl who took off her shirt and bounced around in her bra at a thing like this.
But she was just wearing a plain white bra, so.
Actually, she only owned plain white bras. Maki-chan's bra straps were showing, and they were red. On the train there, Maki-chan and Hana-chan were laughing about all the things they'd do to the singer if they had a chance. A couple of salarymen were watching with more interest than Nase was comfortable with; actually, Nase wasn't comfortable hearing about any of that. Her friends always teased her for hanging out with boys all the time, but the boys she hung out with never talked about sex or dating or anything. Just go.
She'd thought about sex, of course. Especially with Isumi. But that was different. She had a dream about kissing Isumi once. That was it.
She needed to buy some sexy lingerie.
Hana-chan came running back, and they looked over their goods. Based on the pamphlet, Nase guessed they were going to see a singer, though he at least owned a guitar. He wasn't bad looking, and she liked having a souvenir. The line started to move again, and they went into the livehouse. The put all their things in Maki-chan's bag, and left it by the door, with everyone else's things. And then they crammed as close to the stage as they could. Thousands of women stuffed together in small space, all dancing and gyrating together at the band's command... had to be every boy's dream come true.
Unless the boy in question only dreamed about black and white stones and territory and hands. Maybe she needed to dream more about that stuff. The pro exams were next week... Iijima wasn't going for it. He'd given up. She didn't try last year. She had to face facts and study for exams. She got into a decent university, too, which was amazing because she only barely passed out of high school. Spending all her time with the go boys wasn't good for her academic life. She never cared about her academic life, though. Play go, get married, have fun... that was as close to a plan as she ever got. She didn't even know that she much wanted to get married, or have kids or anything like that. Lately, she'd been thinking about traveling. Like... going to Korea. Go was really strong in Korea. That was a stupid reason to go, though, wasn't it?
Maki-chan threw her arms around Nase's neck and kissed her cheek, laughing. "You're lost in your own world again!"
Nase laughed, and hugged her back. She liked having girl friends. They were more fun than the boys, in a lot of ways. Boys were only capable of thinking of one thing at a time. Go, or sex, or cars, or whatever. Girls could think about two things at once. The three of them laughed, and chatted, and they talked to the girls around them...
When the show started, Nase was almost totally in the moment. The first song was loud, and everyone around her was excited, but she didn't know it. The singer was tall and way too skinny and he had a weird nose. She was surprised because the music was harder than she thought Maki-chan or Hana-chan would be into, but maybe they just liked how he kept pulling at his shirt, and how his pants were dripping off of him.
Before her eyes, images of Kurata-san and Ogata-san and Touya Akira and Shindou and Isumi and Waya and Honda and Ochi and Iijima floated, shimmering, sometimes transparent, and sometimes close enough to touch. The boys in her life. There had been a boy in middle school that she'd liked. He'd been on the basketball team. Boys only thought about one thing at a time, though, so the one time she went with him for burgers after school, he talked about basketball nonstop. She didn't care about basketball, and most people her age didn't care about go.
After a couple of songs, the singer talked to the audience. His voice was sexy and he was funny, and then he started a slower song. He let his hands drift down his chest, and then he started undoing buttons. He was singing about sex, too. Nase got into it. That song bled into another song, a bit faster-paced, but just as sexy. Actually, all of his songs were about sex, right?
Boys could only think about one thing at a time.
She danced and held her hands up and cheered for him, and she thought about him taking off more of his clothes, and she thought about the sexy lingerie she wanted, and about go, and the pro exams. He left the stage, but the lights stayed down, so they all chanted like they were supposed to, and Maki-chan put her arm around Nase's waist and whispered in her ear, "I'm so glad you came with us tonight. You're finally having fun! Shouldn't you have more of that while you're young?"
Nase blushed, and grinned at Maki-chan. And she yelled and cheered just as loudly as everyone else when the band came back and the singer was now without his shirt. She didn't like boys with tattoos and she wanted to go out to eat with him just to make sure he did eat, but she still swayed with his music like she was swooning, and she still cried a bit during the sad song, but that was only because she'd finally realized it.
She was never going to be a go pro.
She needed a new plan. A whole new life, because the one she'd been leading now... her friends had gone on ahead and left her behind. And she'd known for years that they would. Like how Waya had slowly stopped inviting her to his apartment for study sessions. Like how no one invited her to watch matches anymore. Like how Iijima hadn't answered her last email, and Honda hadn't returned her last call. Maki-chan and Hana-chan were her close friends now, and she knew nothing about their preferred foods or hobbies or anything. She wasn't even sure what Hana-chan's major was. They had no classes together. Maki-chan knew her in high school, so they ate lunch together most days. She didn't know them, and they didn't know her, but at least they cared enough about her to want her to have fun.
After the slow song, the singer screamed out an obscenity, and the band started to play something really fast and heavy, and even though she never really liked hard rock stuff, she jumped and screamed just like everyone else.
Being lost in a crowd was better than being alone.
When the show was finally over, Hana-chan turned to her, beaming. "Wasn't he amazing?" she asked, and Nase beamed and nodded, and they all gasped and laughed and generally made fools of themselves, reliving it. They collected Maki-chan's bag on the way out, and walked into the night air amidst the crowd. Most people were going toward the nearest stations, but a lot of girls were heading toward the back of the livehouse, to line up and wait for the singer to leave. It was only when she was outside that Nase realized how hot it had gotten in there. She was covered in sweat, and her hair had to be a mess. Maki-chan and Hana-chan definitely wanted to wait, though, so she stood with them and a hundred other girls, and she jumped and cheered with them when the white van pulled up, and then waited with them again. She got involved in their conversation about the boy in the coffee house across from the university who was always staring at people's asses as they walked down the street, and about the rumors about the professor in the Chemistry department and his teaching assistant, and about how expensive it was getting to live in the city, and about how annoying it was to go home after getting used to living on their own.
She never noticed the boy at the coffee shop, hadn't heard the rumor about the Chemistry professor, didn't think about money, and liked going home, but that didn't stop her from talking to them about those things.
After a while, some people came out of the back of the livehouse. Each time the door opened, everyone got excited, but there were so many people involved with moving a rock star around. Finally, the singer came out, and everyone cheered and screamed. He sort of looked at them and waved, but as the van pulled away, he waved to them again from an open window. Nase blushed, because she had a sense for a second that someone famous looked at her.
They went to a family-style restaurant to get something to eat, and Hana-chan offered Nase a cigarette. She was nice about Nase turning her down, though. Nase asked them if they wanted to go shopping with her tomorrow. She needed underwear and stuff. It was embarrassing, but Maki-chan instantly said that she needed some things, too. They talked about shopping alone versus shopping with friends versus shopping with family. Nase told them a funny story about shopping with Waya and Honda, but she changed a few details so she wouldn't have to mention go.
After they ate, they went back to the apartment complex where Nase and Maki-chan lived. Hana-chan was going to stay with Maki-chan, but as they were going up, the guys on the second floor invited them over for some drinks and cards. At first, they were going to refuse, but then Hana-chan got into a bit of a thing with one of them, and ended up challenging him to poker. They guys wanted to make it strip poker, but Hana-chan cheekily told them they had to give up all their money first. So, they went in, and Nase had beer, and sat to the side talking politics with the quiet guy while Hana-chan gambled and Maki-chan flirted. He was sort of shy and only a little bit cute, but he listened to her when she spoke, and she liked the sound of his voice. And she possibly liked beer, too. It was somewhat connected. At two in the morning, the guys ran out of beer, and Hana-chan decided that she had enough of the guys' money. They tried once again to suggest strip poker, or some variant of that without the poker part, so Hana-chan flung herself into Nase's lap, and kissed her. They all had a good laugh, and the guys got really rowdy, until the people downstairs made noise like they were pounding on their ceiling with a broom, yelling at them to quiet down. The girls made their exit then, running upstairs.
Hana-chan took Nase's hand when they got to Nase's place, and asked her if she wanted to come over to Maki-chan's with them. After all, it was their girl's night out and all. They were having so much fun...
Nase smiled. "No, I'm ok on my own. Give me a call tomorrow, though, when you're ready to go shopping."