I hate school. Preparing you to be a functional part of the society, get an underpaid job legally working 12 hours a day and die in your early thirties of overwork, I always knew I wanted something different for my life. Regardless, when I told my mother that I wanted to drop out of school and become a neet... it didn't end up well. So here I am, in a bench by the middle row in the classroom, waiting for the classes to be over. Here I am just a regular and unremarkable student of the Kokusai High School in Matsumoto, after all.
I could hear my classmates taking amongst themselves all around me, but one of my biggest talents was filtering out the background noise. Both in the mixing software and in real life.
I don't know what am I doing here with such a bunch of normies. I'm like fish out of the water.
Just as I thought that, I left out a tired yawn. Yeah, I've stayed up till 3 am last night playing games. Well, I suppose I'll just try to take a nap or something. Waking up when the classes end wouldn't sound half bad either... I think Imma do just that.
Last thing I remember after that was placing my head on my arms on my desk before drifting to unconsciouness. I don't really dream nowadays, so my sleep looks like a void...
Kinda like what I picture life after death would look like.
That's why when I close my eyes, I never wanna open them again.
I opened my eyes after the sound of the bell rang in my ears. Checking my phone, I noticed it was finally time to go home (and that I somehow managed to sleep through all the classes and the dumb teachers never even noticed). I gathered my stuff and left the clasroom in a rush.
However, I was in no hurry. I'm as unenthusiastic about going home as I'm in a rush to get done with another boring day of school. Sometimes, I even wind up walking aimlessly through the school building's hallways, like a ghost. Just like...
Now.
The stairs, the hallways, everything. 20 minutes of being overpopulated with people leaving for home or heading to their clubs for activities... I didn't know shit about the latter case, I was always a member of the going home early club. And there's absolutely no way that would ever be different. Anyways, after that time span, everything would be back to normal, deserted. Just my kind of space.
Walking on autopilot is quite a challenge, because you never know where your feet might carry you. In my case, they seemed to be leading me to the third floor, one floor above where my classroom was. That part of the school building didn't have much of a use, the thousands empty classrooms being proof of that.
Yet echoing from one of these empty classrooms was the voice of angel. I felt it drawing me like a magnet and, before I knew it, I was heading for the classroom in question until the sound was close enough. Curiosity got the better off me and I cracked the door open, just enough to get a peak at whoever was practicing their singing in such an environment.
A girl my age. Dark purple hair styled in twin braids, a pretty face noticeable by the amount of makeup covering it, blue eyes akin to shining stars and a large smile on her face. Any other normal guy would have fallen in love at first sight.
[Tokidoki, my heart is beating when I'm with you
It's a feeling I can't express in words]
I don't like the genre, but this voice is what managed to hopelessly draw me in. I feel drawn to it like a moth to the flame.
Wait... I know this girl... she is my classmate. What was her name again? Uhh, I forgot. You see, I'm not best at remembering my classmates by names. I barely had any interaction with them, apart from the Class President bugging me about my attendence and handing me the printouts.
Before I knew it, the girl in front of me has stopped singing and now was eyeing me with a suspicious look on her face. A look that seemed to be saying my very presence was a factor of disturbance for her.
"Will you quit staring?"
She said in a flat tone, effectively snapping me out of my reverie. I left out a cough, and flashed a "sorry".
"What are you doing here?"
"I just happened to hear your singing from the hallway... it was rather loud, you know."
At this, the girl in front of me blushed nervously, seemingly getting ready to scream at me, but at the same time looking seriously at a loss for words.
"Can't believe this... of all people why would freaking Shiba Takumi find me here?"
Way to talk about me when I'm standing right in front of you, bitch.
I sighed inwardly. Guess I'll try playing it cool then.
"Well, umm... who are you again?"
That feeling when you try saying something out of self defence but you're stopped by literally not knowing your interlocutor's name. I mean, why should I? This is the first time I have interacted with this person, classmates or not.
I stopped mid-sentence, telling myself that it's useless. I was actually one step clear of walking away when a sudden scream pierced my ears and nearly made them bleed.
"What? Don't tell me you can't even learn your classmates' names!"
I can't. That's why I asked you, in the most polite manner possible, who am I talking with. I can recognize people visually but don't task me with the burden of remembering their names unless they interacted with me in some form... which wasn't the case for this girl in front of me.
Said girl left out a low snarl, as if annoyed, before (re)introducing herself.
"It's Suzuki Aika. You better not forget next time."
I better not forget next time... yeah, yeah, boss, whatever you say. Jeez, talk about moody. As far as I can remember, she's nice to everyone in class. So she's also fake... dully noted.
"So, what's Suzuki-san doing here?"
She seems to have calmed down enough to be able to speak normally so I thought I should ask this. I'm not usually interested in other people, but one can't help but being captivated whenever he'd hear such a voice.
"P-practining.."
Are? Why are you stumbling upon your words, did I say something?
"Interesting... basically, you're practicing your singing."
She nodded.
"I could show you."
You're suddenly so energetic, Suzuki-san. Whatever. I nodded in approval, signaling the fact that I wanted to hear this girl singing. After all, the sound of her voice bought me here in the first place.
She started singing, an upbeat love song, apparently. I wasn't at all focused on the lyrics, but the voice, god, I felt I could have fallen for her for that reason alone. How could such an angelic voice be attached to such a nasty personality? Isn't this too ironic? Wait a minute... this could be my chance.
If I do a song with her, then I'm sure I'll get a shit ton of views and I'll be able to finally boost myself out of my anonimity straight to national fame.
Just as she finished her singing, I heard myself asking something I would have never asked anyone before.
"Wanna do a song with me?"
My question seemed to have shocked her, as if she wasn't able to process what she just heard.
"Eh?"
"Like I said... I'm also doing music. Well, I'm an underground artist, but I believe in my chance to make it big."
She seemed thoughtful for a moment after hearing my explanation, before finally opening her mouth.
"Show me some of your stuff"
She said she wanted to see. I got my phone out of my pockets and opened YouTube looking for my latest release. Come on, I really think this one is a banger, there's no way you can refuse.
She wore a poker face I couldn't read through while the song was playing so it seemed I had to wait for her to hear everything so I could know her opinion.
"I am not gonna do a song with you"
It's not like I had high hopes, but hearing that somehow pissed me off. I wanted to ask her why, but she started speaking again, as if she just read my mind.
"First of all, the autotune. If you wanna sing, do it without cheating, else it's nothing but a bunch of robotic noise scratching at the ear. Second of all, the song is too gloomy. The lyrics are sloppy and seem to be copy-pasted from American songs. There's no way a popular idol such as myself would find common ground to sing with a second-hand 'artist' like you."
This girl is really pissing me off... wait, popular idol? As if realizing what she said, Suzuki covered her hands with her mouth.
"You're..."
Now I remembered. I've heard this voice somewhere before. My little sister wouldn't shut up about this idol on the rise, Ai-chan. To the point it became annoying to be in her presence, as she was acting like a stupid fangirl.
"I see... yeah, there's no way the oh so popular Ai-chan would ever make a song with a second hand artist like me, I apologize for asking such an unreasonable thing. Good evening to you."
I said that and turned to leave, shutting off every attempt this girl had at calling me back. I slammed the door to the classroom in anger then hurried to leave the school.
I really hate idols, after all.