Feeling the faint tugging at his cuff, Kiyotaka slightly turned his head to meet those pink pupils.
After a few conversations by the flower bed, the introverted girl Takamatsu Tomori had subconsciously built a certain degree of trust in him.
“Well, from my perspective, I certainly hope everyone can produce original songs as soon as possible.”
Ayanokouji replied to Tomori.
His calm words carried the magic of soothing, and his volume was loud enough for the rest of the people at the table to hear the thoughts of him, the Band manager.
“If we blindly cover other people’s tunes, not only will we fail to form the core competitiveness of the Band, but when commercial performances happen in the future, it might also cause some troublesome copyright disputes.”
Ayanokouji had long known that group activities of an artistic nature inevitably involved differences.
Just upon their first meeting today, these girls with distinct personalities and rich inner worlds had already shown impressive ‘conflict potential’.
Managing this Band was definitely not an easy task.
In that case, in order to gradually gain the trust of the target characters, namely Togawa and Wakaba, then…
when the time was right, execute the plan tailored for the two of them to significantly advance the progress and deliver the first result to that man, before that, stepping into the role of the manager and letting this Band complete at least one successful performance seemed like a good choice as an incidental bonus of experiencing freedom.
“Haha, Ayanokoji-kun is really looking more and more like a manager desuwa!”
“That occasional realistic, meticulous side of you also makes people feel very reliable.”
Sakiko smiled and responded.
She keenly noticed that her own Band manager’s effect in expressing opinions was surprisingly good.
Soyo listened and nodded thoughtfully, while Taki, who was just questioning earlier, no longer said anything because of the subtext in Ayanokouji’s words—’affirming the abilities of the Band members and expecting commercialization as soon as possible’.
Thus, Sakiko hurriedly struck while the iron was hot and said, “Everyone doesn’t need to worry about the difficulty of originality.
Composition will be handled together by me and Ayanokoji-kun, who is well-versed in music theory.”
“And the lyrics will be left to this lyric-writing genius, Tomori-kun!
Ayanokoji-kun will also help review and refine them.”
Hearing her name, Takamatsu Tomori’s body suddenly stiffened.
Because of yesterday’s confession, Sakiko already knew that what Takamatsu Tomori showed her before was just a haphazardly written radio-wave-style diary written by Tomori.
On the way here, due to a lack of confidence in herself and worrying that the new members would think what she wrote was not good enough,
Takamatsu Tomori even specially took out the insect-covered notebook and anxiously asked Ayanokouji to look it over.
Therefore, facing Taki’s slightly urging gaze at the moment, as well as Nagasaki Soyo’s gentle expectation of ‘I want to see it too’,
Takamatsu Tomori subconsciously turned her head and exchanged a glance with Ayanokouji beside her.
Drawing a trace of courage for approval from those calm amber eyes, Takamatsu Tomori finally took a deep breath.
With slightly trembling hands, she handed over the notebook.
“There won’t be any problems desuwa.” Sakiko also smiled gently on the side to cheer her on.
Ayanokouji observed the angle at which she handed out the notebook.
If it were a choice between the two, compared to the strong-aura Shiina, the timid Takamatsu was obviously closer to the seemingly gentle Nagasaki.
Nagasaki Soyo was slightly stunned, and took the notebook with both hands.
Mutsumi and Taki beside her leaned in at the same time.
After reading it, Wakaba Mutsumi nodded slightly, and Nagasaki Soyo smiled and gave her evaluation,
“I’ve never written lyrics before, so I think it’s already amazing that Tomori-kun was able to write them.”
It seems Nagasaki doesn’t really approve of the lyrics.
Catching the opponent’s momentary subtle expression change, Kiyotaka made such a judgment in his heart.
For Nagasaki, who was accustomed to catering to others, in this atmosphere where everyone was full of expectations, merely giving a hollow evaluation of ‘it’s already amazing to write it out’ had already exposed her true inner thoughts.
One possibility was that, like Ayanokouji, she couldn’t empathize with these words; and another possibility was that the emotions contained in Takamatsu Tomori’s lyrics poked at certain things deep inside her heart that she was unwilling to admit and unable to face directly…
What surprised Ayanokouji a bit was that after reading it, Shiina on the side instead flashed a momentary light in her eyes.
It seemed she resonated with these lyrics.
Why would the two people show such a difference in attitude towards the exact same set of lyrics?
To figure this out, one had to gain a deeper understanding of their hearts and the [emotions] contained in the lyrics.
And these, Ayanokouji couldn’t do for the time being.
…
…
Under Sakiko’s suggestion, everyone left the cafe and came to a recording practice room.
When entering the door, Nagasaki Soyo even half-jokingly said that it was a bit regrettable not to be able to book the practice room of “CiRCLE”.
Learning that the other party wanted to accidentally encounter the Band members she admired, Sakiko unexpectedly uprightly “criticized” Nagasaki Soyo’s impure motives.
After entering the practice room, the other members quickly took their instruments and stood in their respective positions.
Only Takamatsu Tomori stood blankly in place like a lost child, dazed.
“Takamatsu, aren’t you going to stand over there?”
Kiyotaka, with his hands in his pants pockets, walked up behind her, stopped, and signaled with his eyes to the position in the exact center of the practice room where a microphone stood.
“As for the lead vocalist, you should stand over there.”
“…Eh?”
Hearing this, Takamatsu Tomori instantly looked like a startled small animal.
Her hands were nervously crossed in front of her lower abdomen, and her body made a slightly hunching instinctive defensive posture. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
“Is it…
for me to sing?”
Looking at the surprise and unease in her eyes, Kiyotaka finally understood.
Togawa…
simply hadn’t communicated about this matter with Tomori in advance.
Drag people to the practice room, only to temporarily notify the other party like pushing a duck onto a shelf: “You will be the lead vocalist, I believe you can definitely do it!”
If it were a romantic personality like Sakiko, which was basically dominated by emotion and idealism, maybe she could really do such a thing.
As for Nagasaki, forced by the gaze of others’ expectations, with a little pressure applied, she could probably bite the bullet and step up.
But for the introverted and even somewhat withdrawn tendencies of Tomori and Wakaba.
This kind of surprise approach would definitely cause a disaster.
Sure enough, the result was disastrous.
Several people spent money to rent the practice room, but in the end, they just played the piano accompaniment demo of the song “Song of Wanting to Be a Human” inside once.
The lead vocalist couldn’t sing out loud even once, and the ensemble between the members could not proceed because of this.
In the cold and stern atmosphere, everyone silently walked out of the practice room and returned to the cafe.
The result of wasting time in vain made Shiina Taki, who had finally made up her mind to join the Band and was eager to start practicing to prove herself, feel anxious, and she couldn’t help questioning Sakiko,
“The lead vocalist is the face of the Band, so why choose Tomori.”
“Wuu…”
Takamatsu Tomori was obviously frightened by her somewhat fierce attitude, whimpered, and shrank behind Ayanokouji.
Feeling the trembling coming from the petite body behind him, and the action of gently tugging at his hem to gain a sense of security, Kiyotaka sighed in his heart.
Sure enough, this kind of thing would happen.
Half-blocking Takamatsu Tomori behind him, his unruffled eyes met Taki’s purple pupils that were trying hard to suppress her anger.
“Shiina, this matter cannot be blamed on Tomori.”
“Today is everyone’s first step into operator practice room, and the coordination has just begun.
Whether it’s Tomori’s state or the lack of prior communication…
As the manager, not confirming everyone’s psychological expectations in advance and coordinating well is my dereliction of duty.”
Actively taking over Sakiko’s responsibility, getting her out of a tight spot, and demonstrating the responsibility as a manager,
Ayanokouji stared at Taki’s flickering gaze: “If it’s just a one-sided emotional vent, the meaning of forming a Band is lost.”
“So, I hope you can give our lead vocalist and this team a little more patience, okay?”