Bright Lights - Chapter 3
Title - Bright Lights
Rating - PG for now.
Chapter - 3/? Multichapter
Genre - Romance, Drama, AU, School Life,
Warnings - Fanboying, dancing, dreaming. Not beta'd
Bands - The GazettE, Dir En Grey, Alice Nine, OC's and more..
Pairings - ?/Reita, more to be revealed.
Summary - What does it take to reach the bright and shining stars? The answer is to become one.
Disclaimer - The story is from my dreams of real characters :p
Notes - This is the first story I've posted up, so I really hope that my writing is not too bad >.< Feel free to criticize, comment and tell me what you think so I can improve in writing^^
Author's comment - Almost been a year since this was last updated. Hehe. I'm not giving up! I'm gonna make this live!!!^^
More comments below~
Previous chapters: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2
~Chapter 3~
Three weeks has passed since the auditions were announced. Every day since the barbecue at the Takashima's pool, the group would all meet up in the morning to follow their daily schedule.
5AM: Wake up before the sunrise and go out for a run along the beach from the neighborhood to the pier 3 miles away, and back. Rest.
7AM: Conditioning & light weight training at Kouyou’s makeshift gym in the extra garage at his house.
8AM: Singing Practice at Lexy's house. Around that this time, her parents would already be out for work, so it was fine to make noise in the house.
9AM: Light Breakfast
After Breakfast, they were free to rest, relax, do chores and errands, whatever, until they had to meet up again later in the afternoon.
3PM: Meet up at Lexy's house and and practice dances that they learned from the Monday Night workshops that they attended, and learn the dances from PSC artists dance videos online.
Lexy's older sister, Dani acted as their dance teacher. She is a dancer for in a hip and jazz dance crew in her university, and also a very supportive older sister. Since she's staying home for the summer, she is more than happy to help out her sister and her friends get ready for the auditions. Their practices would usually last from 4-5 hours and they'd usually end up just chilling at someone's house until they have to go home and repeat the next day.
On some days, Midori didn’t join them since she’s such a heavy sleeper for such a petite girl. It’s fine because she’s not auditioning with them anyway.
Collective progress report:
- They 3 can now can reach higher notes without cracking. Kouyou actually improved in singing; he's not as tone deaf as he was before. Amazing what singing at least 20 songs a day can do to your voice.
- Akira and Lexy are now 2 shades lighter (in foundation shade terms) than 3 weeks ago. Kouyou and Midori's complexion pretty much stayed the same.
- Everyone lost at least 5 pounds in weight most probably water weight, even Midori. She was already tiny before that, but her body got shapelier after being dragged to do whatever her friends are doing like running and dancing.
- With the help of the workshops, and Lexy's sister whipping them every day into shape, they improved in dancing in a way that Kouyou and Akira actually learned how to do proper body rolls. Body rolls were important even for guys, if they wanted to be like their sexy dancer idols.
The hardest task they had to endure, other than resisting the temptation to eat their favorite heavy food especially during meals with the family, was not being able to drink anything cold or even eat ice cream. It was summer, and the temperature was always about 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside, and they also had to stay away from the beach during the hottest times of the day. The good thing about the hot and humid weather was that it helped them sweat much quicker when working out, and it kept their skin moisturized and glowing. The down side with the hot and humid weather was that they would sweat anyway even without moving around much. Akira thought that he would seriously pass out from a heat stroke one of these days. The only thought that comforted him was that he had Lexy and Kouyou to suffer with him in heat. Midori was lucky. She could eat ice cream everyday if she wanted. That lucky butt has it so easy.
The past 3 weeks weren't easy no matter how determined they were to work hard. They decided to reward their hard work with a little vacation. Kouyou's family owns business, the very popular SoundWave music stores and joint internet cafe by Takashima Co. They had 5 branches in the country, including an online shop. The 6th branch was having a grand opening, and when Kouyou's parents invited him and his friends to come along, they didn't hesitate to say yes. The location of the new store happened to be at the country's biggest metropolitan city, in an area which happened to be a popular tourist spot at the south of the country.
All their parents agreed that the kids needed a break, especially since it was summer and yet their hard work was apparent from the way they drop dead asleep on the couch from training. Their parents supported it is whatever they wanted to do, as long as their hobbies were productive and helped improve their skills, and not anything stupid like drugs and violence. Okay honestly, they were pretty violent people when it comes to fandoming over their favorite idols; their joking and playing around would get violent a lot of the times, but at least it was limited to only that.
After an hour long flight and 30 minute car ride, they arrived the place that they will be staying at for a whole week. The Hotel St. Augustine, a 30-story 5-star hotel in the middle of the safer and nicer side east of large metropolitan city. Their suites were on the 27th floor. Mr. & Mrs. Takashima stayed in one suite, and Kouyou, Akira, Lexy and Midori stayed at the suite next door.
"Our home for the next few days!" As soon as Kouyou entered the large suite, he immediately dropped all his bags by the entrance, ran to living room area, and jumped on the sofa, making himself comfortable and knocking off a few of the fluffy throw pillows to the floor.
The two girls wandered through the halls, contemplating the surroundings, Lexy holding up her DSLR camera, recording a video of their suite. Akira dragged his rolling bag further into the room, walked to the other side of the room, and opened up the double glass doors to the balcony. He rested his elbows on the concrete railing and took in the view. Sure, the sky looked grey and cloudier from the metropolitan air than it did back home, despite the bright early afternoon sun shining harshly, but what can you expect from such a big and lively city. It still didn't change the fact that the view right in front of him was perfectly lovely. Right in front of their side of the hotel was large luscious greenery, a round park with trees and flora with the colors of summer. From the 17th floor of their tower, the circular park could be clearly seen, it looked at least 2 miles in diameter with a little lake or large pond at the boarder by the patch of trees at the far side of the park. What a refreshing view after almost an hour's worth of staring at the wonders of the concrete metropolis through a window within the confines of their service van on the way to the hotel earlier.
"Here is the balcony! And look who is here! Say hi to the camera, Akira."
"What are you doing Midori?"
"I'm 'vlogging'! Or video blogging, or however you wanna call it. We haven't really been out of town much as a group ever since summer started, so I thought it be good to record our adventures starting today." She said with a smile, still focusing the camera lens on the boy.
"Don't tell me you're gonna post them up online for the world to see."
The petite girl scoffed. "Akira. I am offended! Of course I'm going to post this up for the world to see! Now say 'Hi' to the camera, and talk to it like you're a super star, but you're still talking to me at the same time."
Akira took a deep breath, "Hello! Isn't our view beautiful?! Take a look and see that we have a park right across." He lifted his arm to point out. "It's the perfect place for us to go for our early morning jogs during our stay here in the Hotel St. Augustine."
"Mmmm that's true. We'll go there tomorrow morning to see how it is. Have you seen the rest of our suite yet?" The petite camera person asked.
"Not yet. I went straight out here as soon as we got in."
"Well just so you know, Lexy already started unpacking so you & Kouyou have no have choice but to stay in the room with a smaller bathroom."
"Fine by me. It's not like I need the space to for all my beauty products like you girls to look this good."
"How mean." Midori pouted.
"Hey guys! Let's go out sightseeing! The new store location is just nearby at the mall. Let's go check it out." Kouyou came out, munching on a bag of chips.
"Sure, sure. I'll go freshen up first. I wanna change out of my travel clothes." Akira finally took his eyes off the view and went inside along with Midori.
A little later, Akira changed into a simple outfit, a white v-neck shirt that has the words "Rock N' Roll" across the chest, teal Bermuda denim shorts, and white wingtip shoes. He did his hair the way he usually did, just down and combed to the side with a little wax. He went out to the living room where he met Lexy with biggest smile on her face in a while.
"Notice anything different?" She asked still smiling.
Akira looked at her from head to toe. Her hair style and makeup is the same that she always wears them when they go out somewhere special; hair pinned to one side with a clip, thick eyeliner, and pink lips. He looked at her dress. It was a blue lace high-low 80's style dress with slits at the sides under the chest revealing skin, which was perfectly appropriate for the hot summer heat.
"Are you wearing a new dress?" Akira asked.
"Yes and no." She happily replied. "I bought this dress 2 summers ago, but never wore it. It was 2 sizes smaller than my size back then, and I bought it because it was the only size on the rack, but I never lost the weight to wear it until now."
"That's great! And yeah I did notice! Your boobs are actually bigger than your belly now!" Akira snickered. Lexy seemed to agree with him anyway as she continued admiring her reflection on the large mirror hanging in the hallway.
Half an hour later, all four teens are ready to go. Midori in her orange high waist shorts and sleeveless white crop top chiffon blouse, with the first two buttons undone, exposing her chest a little. Styled by Lexy. Kouyou donned a navy blue skinny jeans and black and white stripped wife beater tank exposing a good amount of his natural milky white complexion. He does not fear sunlight.
As they descended down the elevator from their upper level floor, they could see a commotion through the glass down at the lobby. There's a crowd gathered by the front entrance of the hotel, all as if waiting for something amazing to happen.
"Ooh, a crowd. There must be a celebrity staying at this hotel. I wonder who it is." Midori said excitedly.
"Way ahead of you. I'm filtering through twitter hashtags to see which celebrity is staying here." Lexy was already scrolling through her smart phone before the elevator reached to a stop at the hotel lobby.
Kouyou smirked, "You guys, what if Shadow621 is staying at the same hotel as we are? The concert is gonna be in a few days."
The other teens gasped.
"Kou..." Akira placed his hand on Kouyou's chest. "Don't get our hopes up. I don't wanna get too excited over nothing, even with the concert so close."
"I know, Kouyou don't jinx it, please! My heart can only take so much. We're not in the suite anymore and I don't think it's appropriate to fandom all over the lobby, all fabulously dressed and made up at the moment." Lexy said while fanning herself with her hand.
The handsome tall boy just laughed at his friends, "Fine. Before anyone gets a heart attack, Lexy put your phone away. Let's hurry and leave before you guys decide to join the crowd stalking for whatever big shot staying at this hotel."
Kouyou grabbed both Akira and Lexy's arm and dragged them away through the crowd and away from the hotel, Midori giggling as she followed with her DSLR camera out recording everything, barely keeping up with Kouyou’s long strides.
They walked to the upscale mall by the sea which was conveniently only 3 blocks away from their hotel. The Grand Waterfield Mall. It was huge in both length and height, and also considered to be a tourist attraction of the east side of the city. It would take them 2 whole days to actually go through the entire mall, which would be fine because they had the rest of the week to roam around the city as they pleased. It's the same mall where the Kouyou's family's new SoundWave music store and cafe will be opening 2 days from now on Friday. Since the Shadow621 concert will be on the same day as the SoundWave grand opening, they decided that right now was the perfect time to go shop for their concert attire.
They didn't pack too much clothes, knowing ahead of time that their intention was to go shopping at the huge luxury mall. After looking around for a bit, they started with the trendy boutiques. As usual, the girls dragged the boys around with them, because they would never let them buy clothes for an important event such as the concert in a few days without their approval. After 3 hours, 5 stores, and trying on like fifty different outfits, the teens all collapsed on a booth in one of the cafes in the outer part of the mall facing the setting sun above the ocean.
"You know, looking at the sea makes me feel like we're at home, but somehow different." Kouyou said, while watching the beautiful sunset.
"Everywhere we go, it seems like the sea is following us. I like it though, it makes me feel comfortable.” Akira puffed out a comfortable sigh.
"Where's the camera? I thought you're vlogging our adventures?” Lexy asked Midori.
"The DSLR is too freaking heavy to be carried around all day. My arms are sore." Midori let out a sob as she massaged her arm. "I should invest in a smaller camera next time.
Kouyou’s cellphone rang, and he got up and went outside to answer it. The remaining three just took selfies to post on their social media. Without Kouyou of course. They wanted to tease their gorgeous guy friend once in a while. A few minutes later, Kouyou returned and sat back on his spot.
"My dad just called me to meet up in half an hour at a restaurant for dinner. The place is called Gino's, it's Italian. He said it on this same side of the mall facing the ocean. Just down farther by the Ferris wheel."
"Oh yay food. I was about to order that cheesecake on the display. I'm starving." Midori says, still staring at the cheesecake.
"We have time to cool down. I'm ordering iced tea. All this walking and the heat man." Kouyou said, fanning himself with his own shirt.
Akira wiped the trickle of sweat on his neck with a napkin. "I think this should count as our work out for today. Just walking around this mall all day was at least worth 1,000 calories burned."
"Too tired to argue with you, so I'm just gonna agree." Lexy said, leaning back on the backrest of their booth seat.
"Yes! Connected to WiFi." Kouyou had his tablet out. "And calm yourselves, I'm already checking updates."
He scrolls on until he found something that caught his attention.
"Spotted at the Metropolitan Hotel St. Augustine..." Kouyou paused, eyebrows raising.
"...Peace & Smile Company artist..."
Akira, Lexy and Midori all now sitting up tensed in their seats, eagerly waiting for Kouyou's next words.
"...the rookie idol trio, Day One." Kouyou finished.
It wasn't exactly what they hoped for, but the fact they were somewhat related to Shadow621 was interesting. Day One is a three-member boy band that debuted a little less than a year ago under the same monster top entertainment company as Shadow621, the Peace & Smile Company. That was enough for them to easily gain a large fan base so early in their career. That fact was apparent from the large crowed patiently awaiting the band's appearance at the hotel earlier that day,
"Well that's interesting. I wonder what they're doing here." Midori said.
Lexy leaned forward on her elbows. "Could it be that they're the special guest for the Shadow621 concert?"
"That would make sense. It's on the same day as the store's grand opening." Kouyou stated.
"Not so secret special guest then I guess. Ha!" Akira scoffed.
The teens rested for half an hour in the cafe. Midori ended up ordering the cheesecake on display which she shared with Kouyou, and both had cold raspberry iced tea. Still determined to sticking to their strict pre-auditon diet, Akira and Lexy opted for a glass of water without ice of course. By the time they needed to leave, Midori and Lexy were reluctant to go, because they were too busy ogling at the group of cute guys that arrived the cafe sometime earlier. Both boys had to pull them out of their seats, embarrassed that the girls were not in any way subtle (or quiet) with their appreciation for the eye candy. They blamed the heat for their uncool behavior.
When they arrived the Italian restaurant, they were led by the servers into a somewhat large private room where they found Kouyou's family and some other guests of Mr. Takashima, happily chatting over wine and appetizers; the room well lit with the hanging black chandeliers.
The teens greeted the adults as they sat their places next to beautiful Mrs. Takashima.
"Ah this must be Kouyou's friends." One of guests, a man in dark blue Lacoste polo shirt said smiling. The large brand logo stamped on the shirt was hard to ignore.
With the charm, Kouyou himself introduced his friends by name to older men. Three men happened to be Mr. Takashima's business partners and other important roles involving the Takashima business, just in casual clothing. All seemingly friendly and all seemingly tipsy from having a little too much wine early in the evening. At least they looked like they were having fun.
"They're all going to a concert on the night of the grand opening of our new SoundWave branch." Mrs. Takashima stated.
"That's nice. What kind of concert is it?" The man in the Lacoste shirt introduced as Mr. Takada asked.
"It's a pop boy band that these kids all worship. Shadow621 was it?" Mrs. Takashima said amusedly. The teens didn't mind. It was the truth.
"Is that so?" Mr. Takada just chuckled and took another sip from his wine glass.
A lady server entered the room filling up their glasses with water and wrote down what the teens would like to drink. Tea for Akira and Lexy. It was a good thing that the room was well air conditioned so they wouldn't die from a heat stroke or something.
"I see that there are still some empty seats. Are we expecting anyone else?" Kouyou asked the adults politely.
As if on cue, the door to their private room opened. Four people entered the room led by the middle aged man in casual business attire, followed by three teens with really great hair. The first teen that appeared had long perfectly straight brown hair that went a little past his shoulders thick bangs that cover half. The teen could be easily mistaken as a girl if not for the guy's strong eyes, well-toned arms, and a plunging white V-neck shirt that exposed part of his chest.
The second teen that followed was shorter guy wearing a black t-shirt with the word "RAD" printed across in big golden letters. His jet black hair was perfectly styled almost like an anime character with a bright red streak across his head from the back that went down all the way to his front bangs. He wore red fitted jeans with a large belt buckle which complemented his hair color.
The third and last person to enter the room was the tallest out of the group. He had the wildest hairstyle, having part of his hair was shaved off at one part at the side, making his hair a half mohawk style. The long hair spiked on top to his bangs were colored in shades of red pink and purple. He wore a dark purple wife beater under a plain black vest.
Akira observed that this bunch of kids really cared about their hairstyles. Akira and friends studied them a bit, they were all very stylish, all incredibly good-looking and attractive, and their faces all so very very familiar. Why were they familiar?
It took Akira about fifteen seconds after all three entered the room until he made a realization. His eyes widened. He looked at his friends. They all looked at each other with the same wide eyed expression. All four tuned back to the front at the new faces in the room.
"Ah it's about time you all arrived." Mr. Takada boomed, and the four friends snapped from their gaze to turn to the source of the boom.
"You boys must our SoundWave Grand Opening guest performers." Mr. Takashima stood up and walked and shook their hands individually.
"I'd like you all to meet guest performers." Mr. Takada said.
The boys lined up and to introduced themselves with such bright smiles on their faces.
"Hello. My name is Shinya. Nice to meet you all." The one with long hair bowed gracefully.
"I'm Ruki." The short one beamed at everyone, his eyes lingered especially at the younger ones at the table.
"I'm Miyavi." The colorful one also smiled and turned to the older man next to them "And this is our manager."
Mr. Takada turned to the four gaping teens in their seats.
"I'm sure you youngins are familiar with the band, Day One."
The four nodded quietly, their faces still in shock with a mixture of surprise, delight and confusion. Whatever their expression was on their faces Akira really hoped it wasn’t ugly or strange, but he couldn’t help it. Was what they heard correct?
Day One will be the guest performers for the new SoundWave branch?
Day One, the band that they learned just a while go that is staying in the same hotel as them?
The same Day One from the Peace and Smile Company as Shadow621, which basically makes them the younger brothers of Shadow621?
With that realization, Akira couldn’t help but feel his heart starting race and his palms starting to sweat. He knew well enough that his friends are having a similar reaction.
"Well, have a seat!" Mr. Takashima insisted.
As the sparkling idol trio with really awesome hair and their manager took their seats, Akira, Lexy and Midori all turned their heads to Kouyou, silently questioning him with their eyes. Kouyou just looked at them with a mirrored expression, then looked at his dad who just smiled at him, then back to his three friends and shrugged. It seems like the only ones shocked in the room were the four teens, and everyone else looked pleasantly happy. It also seems like Mr. Takada knows them quite well. It’s either they all need to have a talk later, or they hope someone in the room will kindly inform them of what’s going on.
Anyway, it’s uncool to shake hands (if ever they will shake hands) with rising stars with sweaty palms. Akira wiped his palms the sides of his shorts just in case, while attempting to fix his facial expression to what he hoped was a more pleasant and handsome one. Thank goodness they always made the effort to dress up whenever they went out, and that they don’t look like a hobo at the moment. Vacation times are not meant be spent looking like a hobo. Anything can happen.
How should they react to seeing sparkling idols in front of you without scaring them off with ugly explosive fangirling and fanboying all over the floor, when that’s pretty much all they do when it comes to idols?
Might as well find out right now.
How terrible writer's block can be! Am i so ambitious to be writing a multi-chapter fic as my first story ever? It's like my imagination is way to big and broad for me to handle. At least it's finally moving along, and especially this chapter is longer than the first 3 that came before this. I feel guilty that I don't update this fic as much as I would like to. Does anyone even read this story of mine? Haha.
I'm just going to promise to myself that I will keep working on this as much as I can over the summer, becuase as soon as the semester starts, it'll be harder to update. I've finally learned my lesson the past year ._.
Anyway, new characters finally appeared! What exactly do they have to offer in the fabulous life of Akira & friends? :D
Rating - PG for now.
Chapter - 3/? Multichapter
Genre - Romance, Drama, AU, School Life,
Warnings - Fanboying, dancing, dreaming. Not beta'd
Bands - The GazettE, Dir En Grey, Alice Nine, OC's and more..
Pairings - ?/Reita, more to be revealed.
Summary - What does it take to reach the bright and shining stars? The answer is to become one.
Disclaimer - The story is from my dreams of real characters :p
Notes - This is the first story I've posted up, so I really hope that my writing is not too bad >.< Feel free to criticize, comment and tell me what you think so I can improve in writing^^
Author's comment - Almost been a year since this was last updated. Hehe. I'm not giving up! I'm gonna make this live!!!^^
More comments below~
Previous chapters: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2
~Chapter 3~
Three weeks has passed since the auditions were announced. Every day since the barbecue at the Takashima's pool, the group would all meet up in the morning to follow their daily schedule.
5AM: Wake up before the sunrise and go out for a run along the beach from the neighborhood to the pier 3 miles away, and back. Rest.
7AM: Conditioning & light weight training at Kouyou’s makeshift gym in the extra garage at his house.
8AM: Singing Practice at Lexy's house. Around that this time, her parents would already be out for work, so it was fine to make noise in the house.
9AM: Light Breakfast
After Breakfast, they were free to rest, relax, do chores and errands, whatever, until they had to meet up again later in the afternoon.
3PM: Meet up at Lexy's house and and practice dances that they learned from the Monday Night workshops that they attended, and learn the dances from PSC artists dance videos online.
Lexy's older sister, Dani acted as their dance teacher. She is a dancer for in a hip and jazz dance crew in her university, and also a very supportive older sister. Since she's staying home for the summer, she is more than happy to help out her sister and her friends get ready for the auditions. Their practices would usually last from 4-5 hours and they'd usually end up just chilling at someone's house until they have to go home and repeat the next day.
On some days, Midori didn’t join them since she’s such a heavy sleeper for such a petite girl. It’s fine because she’s not auditioning with them anyway.
Collective progress report:
- They 3 can now can reach higher notes without cracking. Kouyou actually improved in singing; he's not as tone deaf as he was before. Amazing what singing at least 20 songs a day can do to your voice.
- Akira and Lexy are now 2 shades lighter (in foundation shade terms) than 3 weeks ago. Kouyou and Midori's complexion pretty much stayed the same.
- Everyone lost at least 5 pounds in weight most probably water weight, even Midori. She was already tiny before that, but her body got shapelier after being dragged to do whatever her friends are doing like running and dancing.
- With the help of the workshops, and Lexy's sister whipping them every day into shape, they improved in dancing in a way that Kouyou and Akira actually learned how to do proper body rolls. Body rolls were important even for guys, if they wanted to be like their sexy dancer idols.
The hardest task they had to endure, other than resisting the temptation to eat their favorite heavy food especially during meals with the family, was not being able to drink anything cold or even eat ice cream. It was summer, and the temperature was always about 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside, and they also had to stay away from the beach during the hottest times of the day. The good thing about the hot and humid weather was that it helped them sweat much quicker when working out, and it kept their skin moisturized and glowing. The down side with the hot and humid weather was that they would sweat anyway even without moving around much. Akira thought that he would seriously pass out from a heat stroke one of these days. The only thought that comforted him was that he had Lexy and Kouyou to suffer with him in heat. Midori was lucky. She could eat ice cream everyday if she wanted. That lucky butt has it so easy.
The past 3 weeks weren't easy no matter how determined they were to work hard. They decided to reward their hard work with a little vacation. Kouyou's family owns business, the very popular SoundWave music stores and joint internet cafe by Takashima Co. They had 5 branches in the country, including an online shop. The 6th branch was having a grand opening, and when Kouyou's parents invited him and his friends to come along, they didn't hesitate to say yes. The location of the new store happened to be at the country's biggest metropolitan city, in an area which happened to be a popular tourist spot at the south of the country.
All their parents agreed that the kids needed a break, especially since it was summer and yet their hard work was apparent from the way they drop dead asleep on the couch from training. Their parents supported it is whatever they wanted to do, as long as their hobbies were productive and helped improve their skills, and not anything stupid like drugs and violence. Okay honestly, they were pretty violent people when it comes to fandoming over their favorite idols; their joking and playing around would get violent a lot of the times, but at least it was limited to only that.
After an hour long flight and 30 minute car ride, they arrived the place that they will be staying at for a whole week. The Hotel St. Augustine, a 30-story 5-star hotel in the middle of the safer and nicer side east of large metropolitan city. Their suites were on the 27th floor. Mr. & Mrs. Takashima stayed in one suite, and Kouyou, Akira, Lexy and Midori stayed at the suite next door.
"Our home for the next few days!" As soon as Kouyou entered the large suite, he immediately dropped all his bags by the entrance, ran to living room area, and jumped on the sofa, making himself comfortable and knocking off a few of the fluffy throw pillows to the floor.
The two girls wandered through the halls, contemplating the surroundings, Lexy holding up her DSLR camera, recording a video of their suite. Akira dragged his rolling bag further into the room, walked to the other side of the room, and opened up the double glass doors to the balcony. He rested his elbows on the concrete railing and took in the view. Sure, the sky looked grey and cloudier from the metropolitan air than it did back home, despite the bright early afternoon sun shining harshly, but what can you expect from such a big and lively city. It still didn't change the fact that the view right in front of him was perfectly lovely. Right in front of their side of the hotel was large luscious greenery, a round park with trees and flora with the colors of summer. From the 17th floor of their tower, the circular park could be clearly seen, it looked at least 2 miles in diameter with a little lake or large pond at the boarder by the patch of trees at the far side of the park. What a refreshing view after almost an hour's worth of staring at the wonders of the concrete metropolis through a window within the confines of their service van on the way to the hotel earlier.
"Here is the balcony! And look who is here! Say hi to the camera, Akira."
"What are you doing Midori?"
"I'm 'vlogging'! Or video blogging, or however you wanna call it. We haven't really been out of town much as a group ever since summer started, so I thought it be good to record our adventures starting today." She said with a smile, still focusing the camera lens on the boy.
"Don't tell me you're gonna post them up online for the world to see."
The petite girl scoffed. "Akira. I am offended! Of course I'm going to post this up for the world to see! Now say 'Hi' to the camera, and talk to it like you're a super star, but you're still talking to me at the same time."
Akira took a deep breath, "Hello! Isn't our view beautiful?! Take a look and see that we have a park right across." He lifted his arm to point out. "It's the perfect place for us to go for our early morning jogs during our stay here in the Hotel St. Augustine."
"Mmmm that's true. We'll go there tomorrow morning to see how it is. Have you seen the rest of our suite yet?" The petite camera person asked.
"Not yet. I went straight out here as soon as we got in."
"Well just so you know, Lexy already started unpacking so you & Kouyou have no have choice but to stay in the room with a smaller bathroom."
"Fine by me. It's not like I need the space to for all my beauty products like you girls to look this good."
"How mean." Midori pouted.
"Hey guys! Let's go out sightseeing! The new store location is just nearby at the mall. Let's go check it out." Kouyou came out, munching on a bag of chips.
"Sure, sure. I'll go freshen up first. I wanna change out of my travel clothes." Akira finally took his eyes off the view and went inside along with Midori.
A little later, Akira changed into a simple outfit, a white v-neck shirt that has the words "Rock N' Roll" across the chest, teal Bermuda denim shorts, and white wingtip shoes. He did his hair the way he usually did, just down and combed to the side with a little wax. He went out to the living room where he met Lexy with biggest smile on her face in a while.
"Notice anything different?" She asked still smiling.
Akira looked at her from head to toe. Her hair style and makeup is the same that she always wears them when they go out somewhere special; hair pinned to one side with a clip, thick eyeliner, and pink lips. He looked at her dress. It was a blue lace high-low 80's style dress with slits at the sides under the chest revealing skin, which was perfectly appropriate for the hot summer heat.
"Are you wearing a new dress?" Akira asked.
"Yes and no." She happily replied. "I bought this dress 2 summers ago, but never wore it. It was 2 sizes smaller than my size back then, and I bought it because it was the only size on the rack, but I never lost the weight to wear it until now."
"That's great! And yeah I did notice! Your boobs are actually bigger than your belly now!" Akira snickered. Lexy seemed to agree with him anyway as she continued admiring her reflection on the large mirror hanging in the hallway.
Half an hour later, all four teens are ready to go. Midori in her orange high waist shorts and sleeveless white crop top chiffon blouse, with the first two buttons undone, exposing her chest a little. Styled by Lexy. Kouyou donned a navy blue skinny jeans and black and white stripped wife beater tank exposing a good amount of his natural milky white complexion. He does not fear sunlight.
As they descended down the elevator from their upper level floor, they could see a commotion through the glass down at the lobby. There's a crowd gathered by the front entrance of the hotel, all as if waiting for something amazing to happen.
"Ooh, a crowd. There must be a celebrity staying at this hotel. I wonder who it is." Midori said excitedly.
"Way ahead of you. I'm filtering through twitter hashtags to see which celebrity is staying here." Lexy was already scrolling through her smart phone before the elevator reached to a stop at the hotel lobby.
Kouyou smirked, "You guys, what if Shadow621 is staying at the same hotel as we are? The concert is gonna be in a few days."
The other teens gasped.
"Kou..." Akira placed his hand on Kouyou's chest. "Don't get our hopes up. I don't wanna get too excited over nothing, even with the concert so close."
"I know, Kouyou don't jinx it, please! My heart can only take so much. We're not in the suite anymore and I don't think it's appropriate to fandom all over the lobby, all fabulously dressed and made up at the moment." Lexy said while fanning herself with her hand.
The handsome tall boy just laughed at his friends, "Fine. Before anyone gets a heart attack, Lexy put your phone away. Let's hurry and leave before you guys decide to join the crowd stalking for whatever big shot staying at this hotel."
Kouyou grabbed both Akira and Lexy's arm and dragged them away through the crowd and away from the hotel, Midori giggling as she followed with her DSLR camera out recording everything, barely keeping up with Kouyou’s long strides.
They walked to the upscale mall by the sea which was conveniently only 3 blocks away from their hotel. The Grand Waterfield Mall. It was huge in both length and height, and also considered to be a tourist attraction of the east side of the city. It would take them 2 whole days to actually go through the entire mall, which would be fine because they had the rest of the week to roam around the city as they pleased. It's the same mall where the Kouyou's family's new SoundWave music store and cafe will be opening 2 days from now on Friday. Since the Shadow621 concert will be on the same day as the SoundWave grand opening, they decided that right now was the perfect time to go shop for their concert attire.
They didn't pack too much clothes, knowing ahead of time that their intention was to go shopping at the huge luxury mall. After looking around for a bit, they started with the trendy boutiques. As usual, the girls dragged the boys around with them, because they would never let them buy clothes for an important event such as the concert in a few days without their approval. After 3 hours, 5 stores, and trying on like fifty different outfits, the teens all collapsed on a booth in one of the cafes in the outer part of the mall facing the setting sun above the ocean.
"You know, looking at the sea makes me feel like we're at home, but somehow different." Kouyou said, while watching the beautiful sunset.
"Everywhere we go, it seems like the sea is following us. I like it though, it makes me feel comfortable.” Akira puffed out a comfortable sigh.
"Where's the camera? I thought you're vlogging our adventures?” Lexy asked Midori.
"The DSLR is too freaking heavy to be carried around all day. My arms are sore." Midori let out a sob as she massaged her arm. "I should invest in a smaller camera next time.
Kouyou’s cellphone rang, and he got up and went outside to answer it. The remaining three just took selfies to post on their social media. Without Kouyou of course. They wanted to tease their gorgeous guy friend once in a while. A few minutes later, Kouyou returned and sat back on his spot.
"My dad just called me to meet up in half an hour at a restaurant for dinner. The place is called Gino's, it's Italian. He said it on this same side of the mall facing the ocean. Just down farther by the Ferris wheel."
"Oh yay food. I was about to order that cheesecake on the display. I'm starving." Midori says, still staring at the cheesecake.
"We have time to cool down. I'm ordering iced tea. All this walking and the heat man." Kouyou said, fanning himself with his own shirt.
Akira wiped the trickle of sweat on his neck with a napkin. "I think this should count as our work out for today. Just walking around this mall all day was at least worth 1,000 calories burned."
"Too tired to argue with you, so I'm just gonna agree." Lexy said, leaning back on the backrest of their booth seat.
"Yes! Connected to WiFi." Kouyou had his tablet out. "And calm yourselves, I'm already checking updates."
He scrolls on until he found something that caught his attention.
"Spotted at the Metropolitan Hotel St. Augustine..." Kouyou paused, eyebrows raising.
"...Peace & Smile Company artist..."
Akira, Lexy and Midori all now sitting up tensed in their seats, eagerly waiting for Kouyou's next words.
"...the rookie idol trio, Day One." Kouyou finished.
It wasn't exactly what they hoped for, but the fact they were somewhat related to Shadow621 was interesting. Day One is a three-member boy band that debuted a little less than a year ago under the same monster top entertainment company as Shadow621, the Peace & Smile Company. That was enough for them to easily gain a large fan base so early in their career. That fact was apparent from the large crowed patiently awaiting the band's appearance at the hotel earlier that day,
"Well that's interesting. I wonder what they're doing here." Midori said.
Lexy leaned forward on her elbows. "Could it be that they're the special guest for the Shadow621 concert?"
"That would make sense. It's on the same day as the store's grand opening." Kouyou stated.
"Not so secret special guest then I guess. Ha!" Akira scoffed.
The teens rested for half an hour in the cafe. Midori ended up ordering the cheesecake on display which she shared with Kouyou, and both had cold raspberry iced tea. Still determined to sticking to their strict pre-auditon diet, Akira and Lexy opted for a glass of water without ice of course. By the time they needed to leave, Midori and Lexy were reluctant to go, because they were too busy ogling at the group of cute guys that arrived the cafe sometime earlier. Both boys had to pull them out of their seats, embarrassed that the girls were not in any way subtle (or quiet) with their appreciation for the eye candy. They blamed the heat for their uncool behavior.
When they arrived the Italian restaurant, they were led by the servers into a somewhat large private room where they found Kouyou's family and some other guests of Mr. Takashima, happily chatting over wine and appetizers; the room well lit with the hanging black chandeliers.
The teens greeted the adults as they sat their places next to beautiful Mrs. Takashima.
"Ah this must be Kouyou's friends." One of guests, a man in dark blue Lacoste polo shirt said smiling. The large brand logo stamped on the shirt was hard to ignore.
With the charm, Kouyou himself introduced his friends by name to older men. Three men happened to be Mr. Takashima's business partners and other important roles involving the Takashima business, just in casual clothing. All seemingly friendly and all seemingly tipsy from having a little too much wine early in the evening. At least they looked like they were having fun.
"They're all going to a concert on the night of the grand opening of our new SoundWave branch." Mrs. Takashima stated.
"That's nice. What kind of concert is it?" The man in the Lacoste shirt introduced as Mr. Takada asked.
"It's a pop boy band that these kids all worship. Shadow621 was it?" Mrs. Takashima said amusedly. The teens didn't mind. It was the truth.
"Is that so?" Mr. Takada just chuckled and took another sip from his wine glass.
A lady server entered the room filling up their glasses with water and wrote down what the teens would like to drink. Tea for Akira and Lexy. It was a good thing that the room was well air conditioned so they wouldn't die from a heat stroke or something.
"I see that there are still some empty seats. Are we expecting anyone else?" Kouyou asked the adults politely.
As if on cue, the door to their private room opened. Four people entered the room led by the middle aged man in casual business attire, followed by three teens with really great hair. The first teen that appeared had long perfectly straight brown hair that went a little past his shoulders thick bangs that cover half. The teen could be easily mistaken as a girl if not for the guy's strong eyes, well-toned arms, and a plunging white V-neck shirt that exposed part of his chest.
The second teen that followed was shorter guy wearing a black t-shirt with the word "RAD" printed across in big golden letters. His jet black hair was perfectly styled almost like an anime character with a bright red streak across his head from the back that went down all the way to his front bangs. He wore red fitted jeans with a large belt buckle which complemented his hair color.
The third and last person to enter the room was the tallest out of the group. He had the wildest hairstyle, having part of his hair was shaved off at one part at the side, making his hair a half mohawk style. The long hair spiked on top to his bangs were colored in shades of red pink and purple. He wore a dark purple wife beater under a plain black vest.
Akira observed that this bunch of kids really cared about their hairstyles. Akira and friends studied them a bit, they were all very stylish, all incredibly good-looking and attractive, and their faces all so very very familiar. Why were they familiar?
It took Akira about fifteen seconds after all three entered the room until he made a realization. His eyes widened. He looked at his friends. They all looked at each other with the same wide eyed expression. All four tuned back to the front at the new faces in the room.
"Ah it's about time you all arrived." Mr. Takada boomed, and the four friends snapped from their gaze to turn to the source of the boom.
"You boys must our SoundWave Grand Opening guest performers." Mr. Takashima stood up and walked and shook their hands individually.
"I'd like you all to meet guest performers." Mr. Takada said.
The boys lined up and to introduced themselves with such bright smiles on their faces.
"Hello. My name is Shinya. Nice to meet you all." The one with long hair bowed gracefully.
"I'm Ruki." The short one beamed at everyone, his eyes lingered especially at the younger ones at the table.
"I'm Miyavi." The colorful one also smiled and turned to the older man next to them "And this is our manager."
Mr. Takada turned to the four gaping teens in their seats.
"I'm sure you youngins are familiar with the band, Day One."
The four nodded quietly, their faces still in shock with a mixture of surprise, delight and confusion. Whatever their expression was on their faces Akira really hoped it wasn’t ugly or strange, but he couldn’t help it. Was what they heard correct?
Day One will be the guest performers for the new SoundWave branch?
Day One, the band that they learned just a while go that is staying in the same hotel as them?
The same Day One from the Peace and Smile Company as Shadow621, which basically makes them the younger brothers of Shadow621?
With that realization, Akira couldn’t help but feel his heart starting race and his palms starting to sweat. He knew well enough that his friends are having a similar reaction.
"Well, have a seat!" Mr. Takashima insisted.
As the sparkling idol trio with really awesome hair and their manager took their seats, Akira, Lexy and Midori all turned their heads to Kouyou, silently questioning him with their eyes. Kouyou just looked at them with a mirrored expression, then looked at his dad who just smiled at him, then back to his three friends and shrugged. It seems like the only ones shocked in the room were the four teens, and everyone else looked pleasantly happy. It also seems like Mr. Takada knows them quite well. It’s either they all need to have a talk later, or they hope someone in the room will kindly inform them of what’s going on.
Anyway, it’s uncool to shake hands (if ever they will shake hands) with rising stars with sweaty palms. Akira wiped his palms the sides of his shorts just in case, while attempting to fix his facial expression to what he hoped was a more pleasant and handsome one. Thank goodness they always made the effort to dress up whenever they went out, and that they don’t look like a hobo at the moment. Vacation times are not meant be spent looking like a hobo. Anything can happen.
How should they react to seeing sparkling idols in front of you without scaring them off with ugly explosive fangirling and fanboying all over the floor, when that’s pretty much all they do when it comes to idols?
Might as well find out right now.
How terrible writer's block can be! Am i so ambitious to be writing a multi-chapter fic as my first story ever? It's like my imagination is way to big and broad for me to handle. At least it's finally moving along, and especially this chapter is longer than the first 3 that came before this. I feel guilty that I don't update this fic as much as I would like to. Does anyone even read this story of mine? Haha.
I'm just going to promise to myself that I will keep working on this as much as I can over the summer, becuase as soon as the semester starts, it'll be harder to update. I've finally learned my lesson the past year ._.
Anyway, new characters finally appeared! What exactly do they have to offer in the fabulous life of Akira & friends? :D