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An awkward silence filled the studio, save for a few sighs here and there courtesy of the members more prone to speech. To her shock, the entire MyGO!!!!! presented responses Anon wasn't really expecting. She knew these people didn't care much for publicity or fame but she didn't think it was this bad. Maybe it didn’t get through to them the first time. So Anon decided to try again.
“Let’s make our own music video! It'll be really fun!”
A sharp sigh from Taki. “We don't need to go through that much trouble, it's not like we wanted to be super famous.”
A longer exhale from Soyo. “Anon-chan just wants the attention, right?”
“That's not it, Soyorin!” she protested as she looked over to her other bandmates, waving her arms frantically. “Every good band has music videos! It’ll be a nice change of pace!”
Raana had a slight grin on her face, but Anon wasn't sure if it was for her idea or because of how other people had been responding. The only ally left would be Tomori. Anon knew that for sure because she bounced the idea with her on the way from school earlier. The vocalist looked nervously while trying to lock eyes with Anon, trying to find the right words to say something. The pink-haired girl really wanted her support but it’s so hard to suppress the pressure she was probably putting on her.
“A-ano-chan… might be right…”
Everyone flicked their heads towards Tomori, except Anon who was already looking at her.
“I-I’d like to do more fun things with everyone…”
The worst of Soyo and Taki’s fears materialised as a devilish yet pathetic smile crept across the pink-haired girl’s face.
Anon swiftly grabbed Raana’s arms from behind and raised them in the air to her chants; “Yay yay! First music video! It’s. My. Go!!!”
“God, you’re cringe.” groaned Taki. Soyo merely rolled her eyes.
Tomori gently clapped her hands to Anon’s excited hurrahs, all while Raana allowed herself to be puppeteered.
“Taki-chan… let’s have lots of fun..!”
Taki’s eyes widened and snapped into a serious gaze. “Of course, Tomori.”
Soyo didn’t know how much farther she could even roll her eyes anymore.
—
“Come on Rikki! It’s gotta be Mayoiuta!”
“Sheesh, fine, fine, it doesn't really matter to me anyway. I just thought a slower song would be easier to make an MV for.”
The girls were ‘discussing’ the song of choice for their music video production over the RiNG countertop where Taki was on shift. The raven-haired girl had so easily dismissed Anon’s suggestions until she finally gave her the explanation. Soyo merely observed from the table across, deciding not to weigh in on the squabble.
“What do you think, Tomori?” Taki suddenly asked.
“U-uh, I-If you ask me… I don't really mind either way.”
“So Mayoiuta it is?”
“Fine. But only because Tomori said so.”
“Whatever, Rikki.” Anon rebutted. She turned her head behind her. “Soyorin~! Any objections?”
Soyo just waved her hand lazily to signal a ‘no’, not lifting her gaze from her phone.
“I knew Soyorin would agree with me from the start.”
“It’s not like that, Anon-chan.” Soyo said in her faux motherly tone.
“Hmmm, if it's Mayoiuta, then I guess it'll be an upbeat video, but also like, kinda inspiring.” Taki started.
“Oooh, listen guys, our composer’s speaking.” teased Anon.
Taki shot her a glare. “It’s only natural because of the lyrics, right?! Anyone would think that, right Tomori?”
“Hmm!” Tomori nodded in agreement. “It's the composition you made, too, Taki-chan.”
Taki looked away to her left. Even from further away the sight didn’t escape Soyo’s view, as she internally snickered at Taki’s instinctual reaction.
“A-and it’s the song of us… when we became MyGO.”
Taki smiled. Soyo turned her head to her bandmates’ direction. Anon couldn’t help but giggle affectionately. “Heheheh! We worked super hard for those 3 days, didn’t we?”
“We did. But Tomori worked harder than you, that’s for sure.”
“You’re always so mean, Rikki-”
TWANNGGG
A slow strum of an unplugged electric guitar suddenly reverberated. “Let's do the band.”
“Stray cat, I’m still working.”
“Talking about the live makes me wanna do the band.”
“Raana-chan, we’re discussing our video now. We’re gonna practice after Rikki’s shift is over.” said Anon. Tomori nodded her head as if to accompany Anon’s words.
“D-do you have any ideas, Raana-chan?” asked Tomori.
“I’ll think about it.” Raana said as she made her way to sit across Soyo, then proceeded to sleep slumped over the tabletop.
—
“I’m just saying there should be a proper way to manage this, we need to list it all down.”
“Shhh, Rikki. This is a good shot. Just keep on walking, Soyorin.”
The image on Anon’s phone depicts an asphalt road taking up nearly half of the screen, shophouses framing the sides and a backdrop painted with a grey sky, telephone wires criss-crossing the upper edges. In the middle of it all was Soyo, probably about the size of an ant on the phone screen.
Anon was kneeling on one knee, smartphone camera positioned in her hand, shooting the bassist walking across the screen. She was probably imagining herself as a cool indie director, but Taki thought otherwise as she looked at the pink-haired girl equipped with a backpack adorned with too many keychains, a beret that got moved from its proper position and sunglasses.
“Taki-chan’s right, you know. Having some sort of storyboard would be helpful. If we know all the places we need to film in, we don't have to go here and there many times.” said Soyo as she approached the other two.
“Geez, I’m not an amateur at this, guys.” Anon pouted, standing up while checking the footage she just recorded. “I'm not just about fashion taste, you know.”
Taki and Soyo gave each other a look of shared skepticism. “No one even brought that up…” mumbled Taki.
“There’s this nice spot behind the Haneoka school building, we could make it a mood shot. Tomorin and I went there yesterday, here, look at this.” Anon showed the two other band members a video of Tomori standing still under sun rays filtered by trees.
Taki became oddly focused, something that Soyo and Anon didn’t miss out on picking up.
“Then there's this one, just in RiNG.”
A 5 second clip of Raana messily eating a parfait appeared on screen. It was shot from a side profile. Taki’s signature ‘Huh?’ escaped her lips.
“Sorry, not this one.” Anon sheepishly swiped the screen, bringing up a video of Raana playing her guitar, shot from above. “We should have some shots like this too to sync up with the music.”
Anon continued swiping, showing pictures of herself slumped over RiNG’s countertop in different poses, herself posing politely in a library, a close-up of herself with her guitar in front of her house, herself blowing a leaf in the park, herself-
Soyo lowered Anon’s phone down.
“Are these really still part of the video, Anon-chan?”
“It’s all trial and error! There’s no better model than myself and Tomorin as the photographer!”
This earned her a pinch on her thigh from Soyo and an elbow nudge from Taki.
—
WREEEEEREOOWWWROWROWOW~~~
Raana was strumming her guitar with all her heart. She was playing flashier than usual, even rocking her head back and forth occasionally, whipping her short white hair around. The girl was grinning from ear to ear.
While she played, Anon was focused on filming her performance from various angles, trying to keep a steady hand. Taki frantically hovered over her, recording with her own phone in hand, trying to keep up as ‘Camera B’.
This was one of the standout scenes from the MV, and one that Anon specifically tailored for Raana because she felt she would excel at this. Anon was thinking it should be placed somewhere near the chorus and guitar solo sections.
Raana reached the bridge section of Mayoiuta, and gracefully collected herself before resuming the piece. Anon and Taki found their hands tangled with each other and comically struggled to break free.
Soyo and Tomori were squatting on the floor across from the other bandmates, simply looking from afar. Tomori’s face displayed amazement at her bandmate. Soyo’s would have too if she wasn’t so used to keeping up her usual expression.
Tomori glanced toward Soyo, who immediately turned to face her as well. The short-haired girl’s lips blossomed into a smile. Soyo answered her warmth with a smile of her own.
—
Anon declared it was time for her own video shoot. Taki noped out of filming, anticipating herself getting too annoyed. Surprisingly, Raana had volunteered to be the one behind the camera. Tomori was there to provide emotional support to Anon, but mainly to make sure Raana didn't mishandle Anon's phone. After all, Raana only recently figured out how to send text messages.
“Raana-chan, you don't need to press the record button right away! My storage is gonna run out!” complained Anon, who was trying her best to act naturally with her guitar, positioned in front of an empty wall in an alleyway.
“Go, Anon.” Raana called out, probably signalling the pink-haired girl to do… whatever it is she should be doing.
“Um, Raana-chan, I think you should focus more on Ano-chan, instead of that wall.”
On the other side of the wall stood the two other band members. The brunette just finished taking a drink from her water bottle and set it down gently. The raven-haired girl beside her watched her rather intently.
“What?” Soyo asked.
“Nothing.” Taki looked away.
Soyo’s gaze rested on Taki for a second or two before glancing over to the nonsense trio.
“Tomori looks like she's having fun.”
“That's good, isn’t it?” Soyo replied.
“What about you?”
“Hmm, it has been a nice change of pace.”
“I figured you'd be more into making this video. You know, like, you're pretty up-to-date with social media and stuff too.” Taki bluntly stated.
Soyo felt mildly amused at Taki’s assumption, it's so innocently obtuse at times that it's so Taki. Her mind wandered through the options for her to respond.
“Anon-chan’s so enthusiastic about it, I don't think we need too many cooks in the kitchen.”
“Mm-hmm.” Taki nodded in agreement.
A silence fills the air around the two, despite the occasional sounds from the three other MyGO members, and Mayoiuta playing as accompanying music for Anon’s video shoot.
“When you listen to Mayoiuta, do you think of the live or our practices?”
Soyo turned her head after hearing the unexpected question from Taki.
She kind of didn't feel comfortable giving her real response.
“I think of Raana-chan cutting my dress in half.”
The answer prompted a chortle from Taki. “Seriously?”
"If it wasn't clear, I was joking." Soyo retorted.
"Nothing's really clear if it's with you." Taki replied cheekily.
Soyo almost takes that as an insult. Taki’s been weirdly chipper today. Did something good happen at school?
The chestnut-haired girl's face softened into a little smile instead. “It's one of the things that comes to mind. You?”
“It depends… when I hear it sometimes my mind goes to our practices, and some other times I think of the nights I spent composing it on the PC…”
A shriek could be heard in the distance. It was Anon in semi-despair and relief after Raana almost dropped her phone.
“What the heck are they doing…” groaned Taki.
Both Soyo and Taki were watching Anon from a distance as she gave Raana a double pinch on the cheeks and quickly went back to pose.
“Come to think of it, you haven't done as many scenes as the rest of us. Besides Raana-chan, that is.” prompted Soyo.
Taki lowered her body to squat down. “Is there a problem with that?”
And there's the Taki Shiina she knows, always getting combative. But really, did that pull a trigger too?
“I suppose not.” Soyo huffed, twirling her hair with her finger. “Just thinking out loud.”
“...” Taki placed both her hands on her knees. “I prefer doing my part behind-the-scenes. It makes me feel better seeing more of Tomori whenever I watch the video.”
“Hmm…”
“...and you guys too, of course.” She said in a tone not nearly as nice as her previous sentence. Taki involuntarily placed her hand on her nape as if saying that made something expose itself on that part of her body.
"Eh... someone's being sappy."
Taki bashfully blushed as her eyes grew wide.
"Hah?!"
Soyo sensed Taki's emotional embarrassment was at its limit and she'd probably start lashing out if she were teased any further. No need to feel, it was obvious on her face anyway.
"Relax, Taki-chan." Soyo breathed out heavily, amused by Taki’s reaction, but also doesn’t want to risk making her mood any worse. She placed her fingers in front of her lips and giggled lightly.
“Of course I get it.” Soyo continued. "I reminisce a lot too."
It looked like a shadow had briefly fallen over Soyo's expression. Taki knew what Soyo was talking about. Only she could understand after all, what they had lost before and looked so beautiful whenever they think back about it.
“...We’re all gonna be with each other for life, right?” Taki spoke up.
"Yes." Soyo gently hummed in response. "But still, we won’t look like this forever."
She continued, “Maybe Tomori-chan would like to see more of you too, Taki-chan.”
Taki reflexively wanted to dispute Soyo’s statement, but even she knew Tomori loved her bandmates more than anything else to not feel that way. Taki simply hummed a “...hmm.” in silent agreement.
After a moment's quiet reflection, Soyo stole a glance toward the drummer, who looked like she was deep in contemplation.
She finally spoke up again. “Do you think we'll think of this moment whenever we watch our video down the line?”
“...I guess.” Taki said as she looked in Tomori’s direction. “Though the other three’ll probably be thinking about their own moment they're having right now.” she said as she tried to shift the subject away from herself.
“That’s a given,” Soyo lowered her body to match Taki’s. “If a shot in an alleyway comes up in the video, I’ll probably think of the high schooler Taki-chan picturing all of us in the future.”
“H-huh? Sh-shut up…” Taki said, cheeks flushing.
Taki averted her gaze from Soyo, her expression flustered yet thoughtful as she mulled over the rhetoric they just talked about.
Soyo fixes her gaze ahead as well.
This time the silence doesn't feel as unpleasant.
—
“M-ma-yo.. i…”
“You can do it!” Anon cheered on.
The two of them were in one of Anon’s scenic spots in Haneoka’s backyard chosen for the video. She was trying to get a close-up shot of Tomori singing some of the lyrics, to later sync up to the studio recording in-video.
“Sorry Ano-chan…”
“Don't worry, just sing like you usually do!”
“It's just… the camera’s really close…”
“But I kinda need it to be close for the shot… Please Tomorin, just pretend I’m not here.”
“O-okay…”
Tomori was trying her best to keep up with Anon’s direction. Admittedly, she knew very little about the making of a video, but it made her heart pump seeing Anon so spirited. And whatever they decide to do as a band, they’ll do together.
Although as soon as the lyrics start leaving her mouth, she couldn’t help but feel a wave of nerves as she imagines people passing by. Anon had assured her no one would, but the empty space behind the school is still an open space after all. She tried closing her eyes a few takes ago but both of them thought it wasn’t working out.
“Sorry if I put too much pressure on you, Tomorin, I could think of another shot…”
“It’s ok, I want… to do this. Thank you.” Tomori assured her pink-haired friend.
“Okay then, ready?”
Anon played the recording of the song on her tablet. She positioned the phone camera in front of Tomori’s face, getting a good, aesthetic shot of her partially obscured in the shadows of the leaves. ‘Tomorin’s so cute… and she hardly wears any makeup too.’ thought Anon. Tomori’s little reactions and nervousness at the whole process reminded her of a small animal, another thought that tickled Anon’s mind.
She didn't realise that Tomori was inching closer towards her by the millisecond.
“Achoo!” sneezed Tomori, jerking her head forward, startling Anon.
“Ano-chan, sorr- Achoo!” the vocalist sneezed again, managing to cover her mouth and nose this time.
Anon took out a few tissues and wiped Tomori's face.
“Ahaha, well, that's one for the bloopers.”
—
Taki managed to grab hold of Raana before heading towards their scheduled meeting at Soyo's. ‘Grabbing hold’ of her doesn't seem right though, as she willingly lets herself be found by Taki. The stray cat has become increasingly aware of the band as time passes by. Or was she always aware, just in her own way? Taki briefly deliberated it in her head before ultimately deciding it didn't matter.
What did matter though, was that she didn't have any snacks for Raana. Although the two of them did make a deal, it was still good to have a stock of matcha-flavoured candies on hand whenever she needed Raana to do something she wasn't willing to do. ‘That doesn't sound very right.’ Taki thought, but she knew what she meant, as she shook her head. The white-haired girl only stared at her actions.
The drummer and the guitarist stopped by a convenience store. The moment they walked in, Raana wandered off to a different section. ‘Probably off to get Soba’ Taki thought, just like she did the first time they went to Soyo’s place.
Taki picked up the usual packet of matcha candies, but stopped short of it when her eyes saw the flavours beside it. ‘Coffee-flavour sounds nice, too.’ Before she knew it, she picked up two packets, strawberry and coffee flavours, in each hand respectively. The drummer was inspecting the two packets closely until a thought sprung to her mind, ‘Does the stray cat like any other flavours besides matcha?’
‘It's insane to only eat matcha everyday.’ Taki crossed her arms, now looking towards various other matcha candies in the aisle. ‘But wait, the matcha parfait she eats has a bunch of other fruits inside too, so she does eat other stuff.’
Taki was nodding her head on her own, then flinched when she noticed Raana standing right next to her.
“What's that?” Taki asked, referring to the big packets in her arms.
“Gyoza.”
“Not what I expected. And the other one?”
“Matcha pocky.”
“There's a lot of those. Are you really that hungry?”
“For everyone.” Raana simply said, with a little grin plastered on her face.
Taki couldn't resist the strong urge to embrace the cat right there and then.
—
“Argh, I can't find that clip anywhere! I swear I took it with Rikki and Tomorin!”
“Did you check if it's in Tomori-chan’s phone?”
“I-is it this one, Ano-chan?”
“Is it done yet?”
“Not yet, Stray Cat. It's only been 5 minutes since you last asked.”
The girls sprawling over Soyo's living room were becoming an increasingly common sight ever since they started working on their first live as MyGO. The drinks Soyo prepared, and the snacks Taki and Raana brought were laid over the coffee table, most of it in the stray cat’s vicinity of course. Anon’s sitting at the coffee table with her iPad open, erratically sorting out the footage. Taki’s right next to her, making a slapdash checklist to sort out Anon’s clutter, while simultaneously making sure Raana didn't mess with anything unnecessary. Tomori’s trying her best to help Taki and Anon, even though it’s clear she didn't really know what was happening most of the time. Soyo assigned herself the duty of timekeeper, and she was about to let everyone know it was nearly 10 PM. She also gave second opinions on choosing the footage after Anon had transferred them to the iPad.
“Absolutely not.” Soyo vetoed a clip of her waving towards the camera while walking away.
“But Soyorin! It's super cute!”
“You’re not using that video of me and that's final.”
“But why?” questioned Anon.
It was quite hard for Soyo to put it into words. It's the same expression she puts on everyday at school and with her peers but seeing it in a MyGO context makes her feel mucky inside.
“How about this one?” Taki suddenly interjects between the two.
The tablet Taki held played a video of Anon walking gracefully. Taki pointed her index finger at the lower left corner of the screen, where Soyo was spotted biting on her fingernails.
“Pffft!!!” Anon spurted out. Taki started giggling mischievously. Soyo looked in horror. Tomori and Raana looked in their direction but had no clue as to what was going on.
Soyo snatched the tablet from Taki’s hands and tapped on the trash can icon. Soyo turned her head so slowly it felt like the air froze up, her eyes screaming more furiously than anything she could say to the two of them.
Anon gave a saluting gesture to the bassist, then swiftly turned back to her phone. Taki ducked her head and went back to work.
‘Aww, and on one of the rare times Rikki decides to be fun, too…’ Anon thinks.
—
Timekeeper Soyo was already lying down on her sofa, casually looking over her bandmates’ activity. It was around 10:45 PM and Soyo reminded them once again that she wouldn’t pull any all-nighters. Anon and Taki just ignored her.
They were already starting to compile the video on Anon’s iPad. Everything they needed (up until that point) was already transferred to the device. Anon, Taki and Tomori were huddled up facing the tablet screen with the pink-haired girl in the middle. Soyo was looking too, albeit from whatever angle she could manage to see from her sofa. The stray cat had hijacked the other sofa, already curled up in a blanket.
Taki and Tomori watched as Anon dexterously edited the clips into a video, pausing every few seconds or so to pay attention to the music and the flow.
“You’re pretty good at this, Anon-chan.” Soyo interjected, her tone of voice particularly monotonous.
Anon didn’t miss the chance to celebrate the win she scored by getting praise from Soyo. She cocked her head back and smiled while sticking out her tongue.
“Thanks, Soyorin!” Anon’s fingers were positioned into a heart-shape. Soyo turned away to face the ceiling.
Taki nudged Anon’s shoulder, “Hey, don’t get distracted.”
The guitarist pouted and went back to work. Tomori was now reaching for a notebook; she probably had some words she wanted to get out of her system.
“It’s kinda like my music software.” Taki suddenly spoke up.
“Yeah, I guess many applications are like this.” replied Anon. Honestly, Taki was observing her pretty intensely, she felt like a hawk was watching over her.
“You’ve never edited a video before?”
“Hmm, I never had to. But it looks pretty simple.”
“Yeah, apps these days make a lot of digital work super easy.” Anon added. “Though I wouldn’t know how to use your music software.”
“It’s not that hard either. If you know the notes and progressions and stuff, you just drag and drop things here and there.” Taki tried to casually explain the process.
“Easy for you to say, Rikki.”
Taki grimaced lightly to Anon, then shifted her eyes back to the editing software. “You learnt to play guitar pretty fast yourself.” the girl mumbled.
Anon was taken aback. ‘Two praises in a day from her stubborn bandmates?!’
Her gleeful expression didn’t escape Taki’s sight.
“But there’s more to the theory you don’t know yet!” the drummer said sternly.
“I get it already.” Anon pouted once more.
Anon paused her handiwork briefly and dragged the scrubber all the way to the beginning. She wanted to see how the video was turning out. She had completed about 40 seconds worth of the song by now. Taki raised her head slightly, appearing quite excited to see it.
The opening notes played against a black screen. Coloured lines came across the screen until the louder notes started hitting, which was when a montage of sceneries they captured throughout the week flashed on screen. A bit heavy on the filters, but it was still a work in progress after all.
“La la la la~”
A shot of Soyo on the road with her back facing the camera, another shot of Raana lifting her head after strumming the guitar, a wide shot of Tomori in the sun…
“Mayoiuta” faded across the screen.
Anon gave herself a nod of approval. Taki was impressed. Until she squinted her eyes below the song title.
“Anon Tokyo Pictures? Haah?!” Taki swiveled her head towards the culprit.
“Ah! Hehehehe…” Anon sheepishly rubbed the back of her head.
—
It was past midnight. Soyo and Raana were long asleep, dominating the sofas. Anon was knocked out too, her body curled up on its side next to the coffee table. The lights were turned off, save for a few table lamps and the light emanating from the rhythm guitarist’s iPad.
Taki was studiously working on the video, her brows furrowed from focusing on the screen in the dark. “In the end, I’m the one who’s doing this.” she muttered, while obviously thinking of Anon. Good thing she had left a basic skeleton of which parts go where.
The vocalist was still awake too though. Tomori was also watching the screen intently, focusing on anything she could do to help. Drowsiness had gotten to Taki, but her heart was still racing quite a bit knowing Tomori’s by her side.
It was just the two of them in the dim light of the quiet living room. All you could hear were the dozing breaths of 3 sleeping girls.
“You can hit the sack if you want to, Tomori. I’m used to staying up like this.” said Taki, concerned over her bandmate who was clearly losing her battle against sleepiness.
“It’s ok, Taki-chan. I don’t want you to be alone.”
Taki’s heart squeezed a little hearing her words. “T-thanks, Tomori.”
The long-haired girl continued to chip away at the video. She heard a yawn from beside her, it was from Tomori.
“Ah, this is from that time in the alleyway.” Tomori pointed out.
“Oh yeah. This was before Raana took a hold of the camera, right? I can’t believe she actually wanted to do that.”
“Mmhmm. She must’ve been curious.” Tomori nodded, still staring at the footage on screen. “Soyo-chan’s so pretty.”
“Yeah.” Taki gently huffed. "If only she'd stop being such a tease."
The two of them looked backwards to peek at the person in question, who, as expected, was fast asleep. They exchanged quick grins.
Taki dragged another clip and dropped it into the timeline. It was of Raana playing guitar from the bottom of her soul.
“Raana-chan’s incredible.” Tomori started.
“She really is. Oh, I took this footage, by the way, Tomori.” Taki excitedly said to the girl beside her.
“It looks nice, Taki-chan. I-it looks hard to film.”
“W-well, I just did what I could, trying to avoid crossing over Anon at the time.” Taki replied.
She dragged the scrubber backwards to see her progress so far. Tomori was observing as well. Coincidentally, Taki paused the frame right where the closeup shot of Tomori was used. Her mouth was wide open, in the middle of singing the chorus.
Tomori looked to the floor and put her hands on her eyes.
Taki noticed and immediately continued the playback, skipping over Tomori’s scene.
“You okay, Tomori?”
“Sorry, mmghh, I-I just didn't think that's how I’d look...”
“Ah! Don’t worry, you look great. W-well, even Anon must’ve thought so too, otherwise she wouldn’t have let it pass.”
“Hmm. It's okay, Taki-chan. Thanks.” Tomori’s blush started to fade away, although it wasn’t really visible in the dark.
Once again the two girls sat in silence, as Taki focused on the video in front of her. She didn’t actually need to finish the video tonight, but if she had to be honest she was pretty excited about it as well, plus she was getting the hang of the video editing software.
“Ah, I haven’t seen this one before.” Tomori spoke up.
It was a shot of Taki sitting by the roadside. It was a side profile, one leg outstretched and the other folded upwards. Taki remembered Anon calling it the ‘cool beauty’ shot.
“Oh, it was just me, Soyo and Anon that time. We were scouting locations to shoot, but Anon thought the sky looked pretty enough to just film straight away.”
Tomori beamed a gentle smile to Taki. Taki couldn't help but smile in return.
The shot on the screen prompted Tomori to ask; “A-are you having fun, Taki-chan?”
Taki thought about it for a moment. “I mean, I guess I’d be lying if I said I'm not.”
Tomori yawned. “I’m glad.”
“Are you having fun?”
“Yes. I’m glad we decided to- Yawn… do it…” Tomori replied.
“When it's done, I want to watch the video many, many times…” she started saying drowsily.
“I’m sure, Tomori. Me too.” Taki stopped facing the tablet to look at her bandmate.
“Let's do it again and.. yawn…again…”
Tomori slumped her head over Taki's body, clearly unable to fight back her body clock anymore. Taki froze up for a second, but quickly held onto her.
She placed her hand awkwardly on Tomori's head, gently stroking her soft hair. She could hear Tomori's slow breaths.
“T-Taki-cha…” Tomori murmured sleepily.
Taki gave a glance toward the girl weighing on her, then proceeded to gently lay her down on the carpet. She grabbed a blanket Soyo prepared earlier and draped it over Tomori.
She looked at the iPad and decided to turn it off, then also turned off a few other table lamps around the house, save for one near the corridor.
Taki scooted over to the space next to Tomori and laid down. The night settled over the world like a soft sigh, quiet and relaxed. At that moment, she wished that life could be this serene forever. Turns out she herself would immediately fall asleep as soon as she closed her eyes. Although she would remember herself thinking;
“Maybe I’ll remember this moment the most.”