Plim! Plim!
Yume let out a long sigh and glanced at her phone.
"Again…"
"Usagui?" Sayuri asked.
"Usagui what?"
"Oh my God, Kenji, I can't take this anymore. It's all day long. Doesn't this girl have a life?"
"They're fans. What did you expect?" he said.
"I expected her to have a life."
Jun laughed.
"Maybe this is her life, leaving comments all day."
Plim! Plim!
"Again?" Kenji asked.
"Ahhhh, I'm going to lose my mind," Yume groaned, throwing herself onto the couch.
Kenji opened the notebook to see what the girl kept writing.
"Wow… ten messages."
He started reading them and quickly realized they were all directed at Jun. Only Jun.
"Jun is the problem."
"What?"
"Apparently she likes Jun…" Kenji leaned back and showed him the messages.
"Sometimes I wonder how I could live without hearing your voice."
"Never stop singing."
"When I listen to Cherry Blossom, I always think it was written for me."
"It's my dream to meet you in person."
Jun looked uncomfortable and complained that Yume hadn't written anywhere that the song had been written for Sayuri, his girlfriend.
"Oh come on, Jun. If we did that, the fans would hate the song."
"But it's the truth…"
"It's a truth that doesn't need to be said," Yume replied.
Sayuri, who had been quiet until then, agreed with Kenji.
"Even you, love…"
"At least in the beginning of the band. The important thing is that I know the song was written for me."
"Relax, Jun," Kenji said.
Plim! Plim!
"Oh no, that's enough for today," Yume said while disabling the website comments for a while. "Tonight I just want to celebrate with us. No one else."
The winter break finally came to an end, and with it, the last semester of college.
Sayuri and Yume were excited to finally graduate and begin adult life.
"So, bestie, excited for the first day back?" Yume asked.
"A little nervous, but excited. What about you?"
"Very excited, because soon this will all be over and I won't have to wake up early to hear professors yelling anymore."
Sayuri burst out laughing.
"You're unbelievable…"
"And tell me, how's Jun doing at work? Is he liking it?"
"He's super excited about the job and the apartment. Next weekend I'm helping him paint the living room walls."
"Only next weekend? Why?"
Sayuri explained that she still hadn't told her parents about Jun and wanted to avoid it until after graduation.
"Alright, everyone, open your books," the professor announced as he walked into the classroom with way too much enthusiasm.
Kenji was the only one with nothing to do that afternoon, so he spent his time recording different chord progressions, writing lyrics, and replying to fan comments. During one of his visits to the website, curiosity got the better of him and he finally replied to Usagui.
"Thank you for all your support."
Plim! Plim!
"Wow, that was fast…"
"I can't believe you replied to me, Jun."
"Oh… she thinks I'm Jun."
He typed another response.
"This is Kenji. Jun appreciates your support, but he can't reply right now."
Plim! Plim!
"I see… is he busy?"
"Yes."
Plim! Plim!
"Girlfriend?"
Plim! Plim!
"Fiancée?"
Kenji found that weird, but answered that Jun was working and couldn't respond at the moment.
Plim! Plim!
"Oh… so that's it. Good."
"Good?" he muttered. "What a weird girl…"
Plim! Plim!
"My number. We can talk."
That crossed the line for him. He shut the notebook, grabbed his keys, and left.
Beep Beep!!
Jun looked out the record store window and spotted Kenji waving at him. A text message appeared moments later.
Getting off soon? Wanna grab a drink?
Ten more minutes.
Kenji waited outside while Jun finished helping the last customers.
"Hey," Jun greeted him.
"Looks like you're doing pretty well at work."
"The job's easy when you actually know music. But tell me, where are we going? Did you call the girls?"
Kenji started the car.
"I didn't call them. I wanted to talk to you alone."
"Ohhh, here comes trouble," Jun replied.
Kenji laughed.
"Relax, Jun. It's just about the band."
They went to a cozy tavern on the other side of town. As soon as they sat down, they ordered their usual: whiskey and beer.
"So, what did you want to talk about?"
"I've been thinking about going back to performing in bars downtown. It'd help us improve our songs."
"That'd actually be good. It's been a while since we played for a crowd."
Kenji took a sip of his cold beer.
"One more thing… I was reading the fan comments on the website and I talked to that girl…"
"What girl?"
"The Usagui girl. The one leaving all the messages. Some of her questions were kind of strange, Jun. Too personal."
Jun narrowed his eyes.
"Personal?"
Kenji took another sip.
"Yeah… apparently she wants to know a little too much about your personal life."
"Did you tell her anything?"
"No, of course not. I'm just warning you so this doesn't turn into a problem later."
Jun grew thoughtful and, without hesitation, blamed Yume.
"I told Yume she should've written that the song was for Sayuri. That I have a girlfriend. It would've avoided girls like this…"
"I don't know, Jun. Yume's good at marketing, so if she thought hiding it for now was better…"
"Well, if anything happens, Yume's the one dealing with girls like that. I don't want problems between me and Sayuri."
Kenji ordered another beer and nodded in agreement.