A few minutes had passed when the door opening beside me woke me up from my thoughts. One of the two nurses that had entered Chiharu's room stepped out and walked away. It didn't seem like anything serious.
Mr. Mochizuki took advantage of me coming back to reality to say, "I'll give you some time to relax. There are some things I need to take care of anyway. I'll see you later."
"Sure," I replied.
Once he was gone, I asked Aya and the nurse from earlier to help me stand up and walk back to my room. The pain had weakened a lot by the time I lay down on the bed, yet the nurse gave me a quick check-up and glued the sensors back onto my body.
The nurse asked me to relax before leaving, then Aya did the same, but worries about practically everything kept bugging my mind.
Dozens of reporters flooded the entrance to the hospital. They didn't block the door—because it would've been illegal—but people still struggled to walk in and out, especially if they were a big group who were with their families. The lower part of my chest would tighten every time I got agitated, so I stopped peeking out to take a deep breath. Mr. Mochizuki approached and asked, "So, do we have a deal?" "What's in it for me?" "Not being sued for disobeying the instructions from the authorities," he smiled. We stared at each other in silence until he laughed. "I'm joking. Your part is that we won't bother or spy on you ever again. Pretty good, huh?" "Something tells me you'll have to do it again sooner or later."<
To summarize, Mom and Dad were obviously far from happy since I had hidden things from them. Despite trying my hardest to apologize, they wouldn't even let me talk. Although the rest of the team couldn't hear me being scolded like never before, my red face probably gave away my embarrassment. Fortunately, no one said anything, except for Aki, who kept chuckling at my side. It took six whole minutes of them ranting before I was able to say a word. The only way for me to calm them down was to promise them I was going to spend the next three days resting as the doctor had instructed. Once that was over, we spent the entire trip back home discussing the plans for the upcoming album. Two hours were far from enough to come up with a course of action, but the sun had already hidden behind the buildings of the city by th
My parents and I stayed at the bridge for another hour, looking at the ships taking off and talking about good memories. They then drove me around the city to take me to other places I used to frequent in the past, including my schools and the restaurants we used to eat at as a family. During dinner, Mom came up with the idea of giving a surprise visit to Takuya. I was up to the idea of teaching him to always be prepared for unwanted visitors, but as a fellow apartment owner who hated surprise visits, I couldn't do that to him. I also wanted to pay Aya back for what she did for me when I moved out. Dad agreed with me, so he sent him a message behind Mom's back. However, we had to be clear that he couldn't make it obvious that he knew we were coming by making everything pristine. To our surprise, he did a good job
Standing still in the middle of the room, I wondered, "Surprise?" Aya crossed her arms and nodded. "Do you want to hear it or not?" "Just spit it out already." "Three venue managers have called us so far." "Venue managers? For what?" I frowned. "What do you mean for what, you idiot? They called to ask us to perform at their venues." My mind went blank. "Huh?" She sighed and raised her voice, "They want Blostars to perform—" "I understood that!" I yelled. "Did three venues really reach out to us to perform at their venues?" "Why would I
Since we wanted to make the announcement exactly at noon, the entirety of the GIMA staff arrived an hour early—save for the accountant. As always, we met in the dance studio because it was the most spacious room. Although we had sent a draft of the announcement to the advertising company—which owned many spots on the busiest streets of the country—to be reviewed, Jun was still working on the art thirty minutes before it went live. They were small details, of course; it would've been illegal to change the entire concept. Meanwhile, Aya reviewed all of the text that was going to appear in both the advertisements and the social media posts, including a short FAQ. I kept an eye on everything that was going on. Seeing the information scattered through our social media made me realize we needed a place where we could p
With the album's release date out in public, we had to work even harder to get everything done on time. Aya became very busy with replying to messages on our social media accounts and business inquiries. Jun still had song cover art to make, as well as an animation. Miki had to work with him to design a stage for the tour while working on the songs, and Tomokazu also had to work with Jun to create new merchandise. Meanwhile, I did the necessary paperwork to register the copyright we needed while replying to business inquiries and finding more venues to perform at. Aside from not revealing that the collaboration was with Aeryx, we also didn't reveal that there was going to be a tour. There were very few shows scheduled, so I needed more time to find my way around them since it was my first time doing something like this. But that wasn't all. Although it wasn't
Umi, Jun, Tomokazu, and Aki seemed more shocked than I had expected them to be—even Astra, Sanae, Risa, and Satō, who weren't part of the conversation. However, Aki's wide eyes promptly turned into a frown. She wouldn't even blink as she stared at me with her arms crossed. Only then did I realize the grave mistake I had made by not telling her beforehand, but I wasn't going to back up. "As you heard," I continued. "I've been planning to buy the building for a while now, but there was no money nor the need to do so. Now, there's both. Profit keeps going up, and the imminent hiring of a market analyzer will use up the little space that remains in the art and sewing office." The four stared at me intently, while Aki's glare cut my breath short. I had to clear my throat before continuing to speak. "Obviously, I've al
The words pierced my ears, leaving a deafening whistle behind. Even though the cup of tea stayed against my lips, I had stopped drinking it. He stared at me as I lowered the cup to place it on the table. "I'm very sorry to hear that," I said. "I… I didn't know about it." "Why would you?" His sentences were never easy to reply to. And to top it off, I wasn't used to having a conversation about such a topic. "What happened?" I asked. "Heart attack." "I see…. You must have so many memories here. I guess you don't have a reason to sell your home anymore." "Are you joking? I want to leav