Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It has been roughly a week since Makoto and Hitori became friends.

One words could not describe how happy was the face of the pink-haired girl after they exchanged phone numbers with each-other.

So now, meeting in the playground again, both Hitori and Makoto were sitting on the bench. It was first time after that day that they met.

"Man, it is surely hot outside!" Makoto chirped sweating like an ice cube under the hot sun.

Pink-haired girl nodded in response.

"U-Umm...I…"

"Hm?" Makoto looked at her "What is it?"

Her face started to become pale as Makoto was looking at her. She had no idea what to talk with the boy about, after all he was her first ever friend…

'What if he will think that I am strange!?'

A scene where Makoto looks at her disgusted pops out in her mind.

"Awa...awa...awawawawawawawawawaw!"

Sudden enough Hitori started to tweak.

"H-Hitori!?" Makoto worriedly stood from his place looking at the girl who had foam formed in her mouth.

Words were futile as the girl was continuing to tweak while laying on ground.

The Lucky student sighed as his worried face was replaced by a gentle smile.

"I know it might be hard to talk with someone sometimes...but I will be glad if you will be able to talk freely with me, Hitori."

The girl's tweaking stopped for a second as she gloomily looked towards Makoto's smile...it was bright.

"S-Sorry just…" Hitori was reluctant whether to say this or not but regardless she clenched her fist as decided to shout out the thing which was in her mind. "I was wo-wondering if we can play a duo together!"

Sudden change in tone startled Makoto as he calmly looked towards the pink-haired girl. The green meeting blue they stared at each other for a good five seconds.

"Fu….Haha, and here I thought it was something scary." Makoto laughed confusing Hitori.

"E-Eh? You are not m-mad?"

"And why should I?"

"J-Just you seem to not like showing off how well you sing so I thought that playing a d-duo together was also out of question for you."

Makoto scratched his chin for a moment as if thinking about something deeply.

"I wouldn't say I exactly like singing in public but I would say that I don't like to show off my singing skills and that's not because of some sort of embarrassment…"

"…"

"And beside isn't it fine to sing near you?"

"W-What do you mean?"

"Well, we are friends who have same interest so it won't be strange for me to sing in duo with you...after all that's what friends do."

His smile was calming and Hitori surprisingly felt tears fall from her eyes.

"E-Eh!? D-Did I say something wrong?" Makoto worriedly looked towards the pink haired girl who shook her head.

"I-It's j-just...*sob* nobody ever told me those words...so...u-umm...thank you for choosing me!"

She bowed her head down deeply.

A soft smile formed on Makoto's face.

"Don't mention it and beside...let's start our show shall we?"

.

.

.

Waiting for people nearby to leave the area while finally being alone to themselves Makoto and Hitori deducted that it was a perfect time for them to start singing.

Deciding on song Gotou got out her guitar while Makoto cleared his throat.

"Shall we start than?"

Hitori nodded as her fingers swayed through the guitar strings.

A pleasant melody got out from Hitori's guitar as the sound blended with the air thus signaling the start of her performance.

Her fingers were gently going along with the strings and melody and the music was pretty pleasant to ear.

Makoto listening to this couldn't help but smile looking towards the focused face of the guitarist girl.

'I can't let myself to slack off when she is so focused…'

clearing his throat for the last time Makoto was finally ready to start the performance.

His voice soothing, soft and pleasant he started to sing going along with the rhythm of the melody which was playing, his voice was blending together and mixing with air while both pink-haired girl and brown-haired boy were singing and playing. The rhythm, the sound and the timing...everything seemed perfect in the song they were playing.

A Soft smile on each of their faces they were unaware of surroundings and didn't seem to be even bothered by anything.

In music terms you will call this a…

Perfect Sync.

Even Hitori herself could not help herself but forget about anxiety while she was thinking about how good was Makoto's voice.

'He is setting his voice exactly to the sound of my guitar…' It was amazing to say the least.

Finally getting to the end of the Melody they were about to perform the last lyrical end but…

"So Cool!!!"

"!?"

"!?"

Both Hitori and Makoto half chocked being interrupted by the outsider.

Hurriedly looking towards the source of the voice they both saw a cute looking blonde-haired girl starring at them with sparkles in her eyes.

"Wh-Who are you?" Makoto was the first to ask the question in confusion.

The girl still smiling and grinning crazily looked at them with an admiring gaze.

"Your guitar play was so amazing it makes it clear that you got a lot of experience!" She complimented Hitori while than shifting her gaze to Makoto. "And you! I don't know what to say...it is first time in my life I ever heard voice as pure and clear as this!"

She seemed to explode out of happiness while looking at the duo.

Even so they liked compliments it was still confusing to know who is this girl.

"U-Umm…" Makoto wanted to ask his question again but the girl seemed to understand what he was trying to do.

"Oh sorry! I didn't get to introduce myself properly!" She half bowed as let out her brilliant smile. "I am Ijichi Nijika and I have a favor to ask both of you!"

"A f-favor?"

"Yes!!!" She loudly said. "Please join our band!"

. . .

Silence...a deep silence filled the area.

.

.

.

"So long story short you need a guitarist and vocalist in your band since today you have a performance?"

Nijika nodded profoundly.

"Yup! Good job on shortening the word count!"

"Stop breaking the 4th wall…"

It was a surprising offer and to top it all out of nowhere.

Makoto himself was not so willing in this matter but decided to ask Hitori about this.

"Umm...Hitori, do you think we should help her?"

It took Hitori by surprise.

In fact she always dreamed to play in a band so it was dream come true yet...she wasn't so sure about Makoto since she knew that he don't want to show off himself.

"U-Umm...well I…"

It was a hard choice...too hard of a choice! Why must god send this choice to her, she wondered.

Makoto sighed already understanding what the guitarist girl was thinking about.

"Hitori…" He called her out. "I know for the fact that you don't want to offend me but I will be okay with any choice you will make here."

"A-Are you s-sure?"

"Yup, I am."

Her face lit as in her view Makoto was like an angel as she wanted to cry this out.

"Th-Th-Than I would like to h-help her…"

He smiled at her choice as turned towards Nijika.

"You heard her."

Blonde-girl's face lit up from happiness as she looked towards the duo.

"Yes! Thank you! I swear you both won't ever regret this!"

.

.

.

As the trio was walking towards the place where the performance was going to happen both Makoto and Hitori were starring daggers at Nijika.

'Did I do something wrong…?' Blonde-haired girl questioned herself.

In fact it was because of how stylish did the girl looked in their eyes.

"So that's h-how fashioned girls in group dress themselves…" Hitori leaned towards Makoto.

"I have an upper class-man who is also kind of a musician and her sense of dressing is also unique...maybe you are right, Hitori."

Nijika unable to bear with all those comments decided to change their topic of conversation.

"You both seem awfully close...don't tell me you both are dat-"

""W-W-WE AREN'T!""

They both answered in unison in embarrassment.

"Huh? R-Really? J-Just you seem so close that...i am sorry…"

Makoto sighed.

"No, sorry us...we shouldn't have startled you like that. J-Just we met with Hitori around week ago when I was singing in playground." Makoto than proceeded to tell her the story of how they met.

"…I see! So that's why you was so reluctant on going here...you just don't like to show off right?"

Makoto scratched back of his head.

"Y-Yeah sort of it...but Hitori over here is also amazing...i mean you heard her guitar performance, right?"

"Yes, it was brilliant!"

A flattery started to fly towards Hitori as the timid girl seemed to half-way die from sweetness of the words and compliments said by the boy and the girl near her.

"Say Hitori, why did you decided to play a guitar?"

"E-Eh…well, because I want to be popular."

"…"

Nijika looked towards Bocchi for sometime before switching her attention towards Makoto again.

'D-Did I said anything wrong?' Hitori thought to herself

Meanwhile the group was getting near towards the Live House.

"Ah before we go there you don't happen to know which live house we are going to, right?"

Makoto scratched his head sheepishly.

"To be fair...yes I was just about to ask you where we were heading to…"

Suddenly Nijika's nose rose up as she with proud puff took an intimidating pose.

"Hmph! We are going to the newly opened Live house which happens to be the place where I live...the Shimokitazawa Starry!" She declared with a profound and proud laugh. "So you know my sister is the manager there"

Makoto and Hitori took a moment to appreciate Nijika's performance by clapping to her.

"That's actually impressive...your sister might be a real hard worker."

"Like hell she is!" Nijika seemed to jump up and down from the excitement while telling this to Makoto.

Strangely enough Hitori was quiet all the time but we all can probably guess why.

'Makoto is so amazing...to be able to strike conversation with anyone on any theme he can think of.' A sudden sparkles appeared on Hitori's ayes as she observed her very first friend.

It didn't go unnoticed by Makoto as he sweat dropped seeing strange enthusiasm in the girl's eyes.

'I just hope everything will go alright...considering my luck...that will be difficult.'

His thoughts were interrupted as they reached the Shimokitazawa Starry.

"Ta-Da~!!! Welcome to our live house Makoto-kun and Hitori-chan!"

""Whoaaah""

Both Luckster and Timid girl said in unison.

.

.

.

Makoto did not expected to see something like live house in his life and so the same can be said for Hitori who was starring everywhere awestruck.

"It is so gloomy, dark and tight in here…" Pink-haired girl said concerning Makoto for a moment. "Makoto-kun, I am home~!"

Luckster backed up from the sudden change in mood of the said girl while Nijika sweat dropped from the girl's statement.

"Isn't it my house tho…"

Looking left and right there were not as many workers as Makoto expected.

"This place is surely big Nijika-san must be hard to man-" As he was about to finish his sentence halfway through he stumbled and trip over his own shoelaces as started to fall.

*Boom*

He fell with a loud sound surprising everyone nearby.

"Oww...my bad luck...AGAIN!?!?"

He felt it. The soft sensation under his hand as upon lowering his eyes he saw the blonde haired girl right under him with his hand on her….

'B-Boobs!?'

As if he touched the fire Makoto quickly jumped up high his position offering a helping hand to Nijika.

"Oh my god! I am sorry, N-Nijika-san!!!" He apologized bowing up and down profoundly.

Nijika's face resembled a tomato as she averted her face from Makoto.

"N-N-No problems! It w-w-was accident after all...haha…."

Makoto bit his lip.

"S-Sorry…"

While this scene happened Hitori was looking even more embarassed as Nijika.

'D-Did he really touched her...B-B-Breasts!?' An unknown feeling swayed in the girl's heart for some reason it bothered her greatly.

"I was gone for five minutes and you are already having a boyfriend, Nijika?"

A sudden voice got ther attention as Nijika's face shined upon seeing who it was.

"He is not my boyfriend, Ryou~!"

The girl before them had a dark blue hair while her face seemed to be monotone.

"Boss was really mad because you left so early."

"Agh! You shoul have said that earlier you dummy!"

"You vocabulary is strangle lacking." Ryou said still in monotone.

While they both were playing around Makoto and Hitori were just blankly looking at them.

"Oh I forgot to introduce you all!" Nijika gasped as looked at the duo apologetically "This girl over here is Ryou and she is our Bass Player and..uhh...She becomes happy when people call her weird."

Ryou's expression from monotone become a happy one as she delightedly was about to fly.

"I am not happy."

'She does look happy tho…'

'Oddly enough she looks happy.'

By now Makoto, Hitori, Nijika and Ryou were enough to be able to play but there stood a problem.

"What are we going to play and will the remaining time be enough for us to make a good performance?" Makoto asked the obvious question which everyone had in mind.

Nijika scratched her head.

"I...haha...don't know?"

Makoto and Hitori face palmed hearing that.

"W-Wait you are not even sure whether it will hit the audience!?"

"Hey everything is going to be fine because everyone who will come are my classmates."

"Oh...I see."

"Yup and besides high school girls nowadays have no sense of fashion whatsoever"

Hitori gulped at it.

'We will be flamed if someone would ever hear this…'

"But hey!" Nijika exclaimed "Let's start our practice right away. Hitori-chan is our guitarist, I am the drummer, Ryou is bassist and Makoto is going to be vocalist!"

While Hitori was fighting her anxiety Makoto had a bad feeling in his stomach.

'After all I never really sang near anyone beside my family...Hitori is probably feeling the same.'

He just gulped hoping for a proper end of all this story with the performance.

.

.

.

"Terrible!" Nijika shouted out after hearing Hitori's guitar skills.

"Huh!?"

Makoto was the most startled out of all as he was sure that while they bpth were playing back than near the playground Hitori's skills were outstanding and even more than that but now they were plainly...terrible.

He himself didn't sang a song yet because he was now forced to learn the lyrics which weren't complicated but the whole amount of words was insane in fact the performance they were about to make was pretty much hard to say the least but leaning on Nijika's words about the viewers being highschool girls he felt a great load fall from his heart due to their inability to rate their play.

But the fact ewas still on play...why did Hitori's guitar play suddenly became this bad?

"I do have idea why." Ryou said surprising the group. "Since Hitori-chan over here is a loner it is safe to assume that she is not used to play with others."

This made Makoto confused.

"Wait but back than we managed to play together though."

Hitori chuckled as looked away a bit red.

"Th-That's because I somehow do-don't feel pressured when playing with you Makoto-kun."

"R-Really?"

She nodded.

That was actually nice to hear since Makoto was worried that the timid girl might not open up at all but turns out it is opposite.

"Well those matters aside...how are we going to fix that problem?"

To this the loud chuckle from Ryou's side was heard quite quickly.

"Bold of you all to assume I don't know how." Out of nowhere she got a huge human sized box with the sign 'Riped Mangos' "Since Hitori is used to play in dark and people-less places I assume this will be her perfect spot."

Nijika and Makoto sweat dropped from the girl's idea but were too late to say anything since Hitori already entered the box.

"Umm...how is it over there…?" Makoto reluctantly asked.

"It is dark in here and smells funny...this...this is the perfect spot!" A sudden enthusiasm made even Nijika to back up from Hitori. "Hey everyone I am Hitori Gotou, round!"

"Are you going to sing a rap there…"

With the major problem solved Nijika remembered something else.

"Come to think of it do any of you have nicknames?"

Makoto did have some but he would prefer to not tell them since one of his nicknames is linked with his childhood trauma which is...him peeing his bed in his 5th class(poor Makoto always taking Ls bruh)

"I was called 'Hey You' or 'Oi' by my previous classmates does that count to call me Oi-chan?"

Nijika face palmed.

"That isn't even a nickname!"

Ryou had a thoughtful look upon this matter a suddenly bumped her fist against her palm.

"Hitori...How about Bocchi?"(A/N: I am not Jp talker but I surely watch a lot of Jav porn to know that Bocchi means loner P.S. I used Google to find it out)

Makoto reluctantly looked towards Ryou.

"I-Isn't it her sensitive topic though….?"

Albeit the pink haired girl liked the nickname...part of it was because it was the first time someone actually gave her one.

"I-I-I-I'm Bocchi now."

Despite the strange nickname Makoto had a soft smile on his face while looking at Hitori's happy face.

'As long as she is happy with this it is okay I guess…"

"Okay with that cleared now our Cable Ties band is going to be complete." Ryou said making Nijika to flinch.

"Why are you saying this embarrassing band name out loud?" She started to lightly hit Ryou as she remained with steel face.

Makoto smiled looking at them as looked towards Bocchi.

"Th-Thank you...M-Makoto-kun."

Makoto looked towards her confused.

"Why are you thanking me?"

Hitori got out from her riped mango box as looked down for a brief moment.

"I am j-just glad that I met you and...w-want to say thank you for becoming my friend...i-i-if not for you than I wouldn't had so much fun."

This took Makoto by a complete surprise. He softly smiled as reached out his hand to Bocchi.

"Don't mention it after all that's what best friends are for!"

She slowly reached her hand towards his and lightly handshake with him.

.

.

.

By the time people gathered in the hall awaiting the performance. All of the people gathered out there were highschool girls as they came here to see Nijika's performance.

"I heard that they got two new members in their band."

"Can't wait to see Nijika's play, she promised it was good."

"Oh, the performance is starting right now."

As the people got silent the lights turned on in the scene as four figures become visible under it.

First to pop was Nijika sitting out there ready to start plalying with drums near her was Ryou, in the middle stood Makoto and right behind him was...riped mango box.

"Hey is it riped mango box over there?"

"Yes but look at their vocalist he looks so small and adorable!"

"Now that you say that you are right this guy looks like a middle schooler...aww so adorable!"

The people's gossip started to increase while Nijika nodded her head signaling everyone to start playing.

With drum rolls as starter the light rock melody started to play. Drum sounds mixed with electronic guitar and bass guitar started to play. Even inside the box Bocchi had a determination to show herself off to the public at the moment.

While music was starting to play Makoto huffed as started to mentally prepare himself to sing. Just like Hitori it was his first time singing in public.

'I can do it...I should do it!'

With another preparing sigh he started to finally sing.

His voice was soft and beautiful reaching towards everyone's ears. It was a surprisingly tallented voice which screamed of enthusiasm and hope in makoto's tone as he was singing

The crowd, the Shimokitazawa Starry stuff and even his own band mates along with Hitori were left speechless...heck even Ryou herself was surprised to hear something like that.

At the end they all were complimented with a wild ovations and claps from the hall.

Nobody expected something like that from such a small band.

.

.

.

"Th-That was pressuring…" Makoto said resembling Hitori for a brief moment.

"I barely heard you last time but this time it was even more amazing hearing you sing like that you were amazing and Bocchi-chan was amazing too with her guitar skills." Nijika exclaimed while Ryou beside her nodded with a smile.

"You got a beautiful voice just like mine, Makoto-kun." Ryou admitted.

Makoto wasn't sure whether she was praising herself or him.

But regardless his attention swayed to Hitori who was laying on the corner.

"I didn't managed to show my skills good this time…"

"No, you were amazing...in fact my voice sounded better because of yours and other girl's hard work.

"Do you r-really think so?"

"Yes so next time let's show ourselves to the world fully."

Hitori's eyes lit.

"Yes!" She cheerfully said.

_____________________________________

Fun fact; I drew the cover for this book with Makoto and Bocchi If anyone is interested I have my twitter art account and will be glad if ya all would follow~

Twitter(X): @jumboignir

Instagram: Jumbo_13