Type: Novel Translation
Title: Back Stage!!, Vol. 02
Series: Love Stage!!
Author/Circle: Eiki Eiki, Amano Kazuki
Rating: PG
Language: English
This time: Rei has been working himself to the bone, but Shougo has a great idea of a nice little pick-me-up sure to lift spirits all around!
Feel free to check out the book in-progress on Pressbooks!
Chapter 5 (cont.)
And that was when it happened.
“I want to record our next single overseas!” Shougo announced out of the blue, shortly followed by the sound of something snapping inside Rei’s head, as he’d just been peacefully reading over the upcoming schedule while lounging on the office sofa.
’We’re crazy busy already—and he wants to go OVERSEAS?!’
“What tripe are you spouting?!” he snapped, slapping a hand over the schedule book currently spread out on the table between them. Luckily, the late hour meant only the two of them were left in the office. Had Satou from accounting seen Rei react like this, she might have very well been so overcome with fright she would have quit on the spot—that’s how menacing he was being right about now. “Overseas? Where on earth do you expect to find the kind of time for that in this schedule?!”
Indeed, the schedule was jam-packed, without a moment to spare. Shougo had but to glance at the thing to understand this fact.
But strangely enough, Shougo wasn’t backing down this time. “We’ve got a whole week here set aside for recording, though! We can just go then!” Saying so, he pointed to a section in the middle of the page marked RECORDING, along with the name of a recording studio inside the city.
“And we’d waste much of that time on traveling alone! We’ve put together this schedule at the last minute, you realize?” Plus, while the place they’d reserved wasn’t the best in the country, it definitely had high marks, and it wasn’t Shougo’s first time using the studio. He’d never complained before about the facilities or the staff, so why…? “What exactly aren’t you happy about?”
“Well, I just feel like nothing’s gonna happen like this! We’ve been doing nothing but working from inside Japan this whole time! I’ll never be able to come up with new songs if I don’t get out into the world and stretch my wings a bit!” His tone sounded like something one might expect from a whiny child.
Rei’s lips pursed with a twitch. ’Here we go… Now he’s pulling the “artist” card…’ He began to rub his head, sensing the oncoming ache. People like this occasionally tended to put off work, professing a reason that no hard-working mature adult would ever use: “I’m just not in the mood.”
Seiya had the same temperament, and as such, Rei had come to understand a bit about how things worked with artists in this respect. For example, Seiya liked to wander off on trips at the drop of a hat while in the middle of composing a new song, or go out drinking the day before his lyrics were due, or even go see a movie—and he’d explain his actions thus: “I can’t just churn things out without a break. I’ve gotta give my brain some nourishment, some stimulation! If not, nothing I generate will be any good.”
Rei had been rather frazzled initially, worried about the time frame, but Seiya had yet to fall through with his work. And Rei couldn’t deny that, after any such escapes, Seiya would always complete the remainder of his work with frightening speed. Rei didn’t know much about creating art or anything like that, so it probably wasn’t his place to pass judgment, but having seen what Seiya could put out, he had to hand it to the guy.
However, this wasn’t Seiya he was dealing with now—a man Rei respected above all others—but Shougo, who’d never made these sorts of demands of Rei before, so he couldn’t treat the situation as quite the same. It was hard to tell if this was merely a childish demand or if it was truly necessary. But then…
”We’ve been doing nothing but working from inside Japan this whole time!”
Shougo was right; ever since his debut, the band had been running flat out, and on now being faced with the comment that they were reaching a point where they really needed a breather or something to change up the pace, Rei found he couldn’t give in to stubborn refusal.
With a deep sigh, he asked, “…So where do you want to go, then?”
The response to his reluctant question was a perky, “New York!”
“New York?” The flight alone would be over twelve hours from Japan! “Just getting there and back will waste a whole day!” They only had a week to finish up the recording, which left them with just six days to get the job done. They’d also likely be exhausted from the flight, and then there was the jet-lag to worry about… When it came down to it, their actual usable time would be even shorter—but then, Shougo was surely aware of that already. “You’re sure…you understand this?”
“I do! But I’m confident that if we go, I’ll be able to pump out something great in no time flat!” Indeed, he must have been brimming with confidence, the way he boasted.
With such a proclamation, it was starting to look like Rei didn’t have much choice but to trust he’d get the job done… “…All right. I’ll see if I can rearrange the schedule…”
“Wait, Rei!” Rei had already slipped into “give-up mode”, standing with exhaustion to head back to his desk in the office—when Shougo stopped him brightly. “It’s all right! I’ve already taken care of all the arrangements for the flight and hotel—even the studio rental!”
“You…what?” For a moment, he didn’t quite understand what Shougo was saying.
“And I’ve already talked things over with the other members! Plus—my dad’ll be composing that whole week and mom’ll have some time off, so since Satou-san’ll be able to take care of everything on her own, that means you can come too!” Shougo continued to press his case with the utterly dumbfounded Rei, pulling out a bundle of documents detailing everything and handing them to Rei.
Rei blinked in silence, skimming the pages he’d just been handed. “This…is…” Just as Shougo had professed, he had indeed taken care of all of the arrangements. Just to be safe, he whipped out his own planner to check—and Seiya and Nagisa’s schedules were in exactly the state Shougo had explained. “You mean to tell me…you can handle managing yourself…?”
He supposed he should have expected as such, given that until just recently, they’d been performing as an indies band, but he still couldn’t help but be surprised at just how perfectly and completely Shougo had pulled everything off. He came off as something of an airhead most of the time, but it was in times such as this that Rei was reminded that, deep down, Shougo was a genius, capable of pulling off stunts like this flawlessly.
“Ugh, no way! That’s way too annoying!” Shougo shook his head at Rei’s suggestion. “It was just that this time, I really wanted to go! With you, of course!” And when he flashed a wink, Rei fought the bone-deep urge to slug him but good.
The only reason he didn’t was because Shougo’s very body was part of his selling point as an entertainer. If that hadn’t been the case, though, rest assured that Rei would’ve well and truly laid into him.
He clenched his shaking fist tight, noting that he’d gotten exceptionally good at coping, and released a sigh. “…Then, for now, I’ll speak with Seiya-san on the matter.” Seiya was the company president, after all; even though his own son Shougo had taken care of all of the arrangements, they still needed to get his permission. Truthfully, Rei still clung to a shred of hope that Seiya might put a stop to the whole thing.
“Eh? Aww, c’mon; you don’t have to do that.”
“Of course I do.” He fixed a sharp glare on Shougo after his flippant comment, then stomped out of the office and headed off to find Seiya. At this time of day, he ought to be home—and he therefore made the living room his first stop, where he found Izumi, clad in his pajamas, having apparently come down just then for a drink.
“Huh? Rei?”
“Ah, good evening, Izumi-san. I came by to see if I could speak with Seiya-san…”
“Dad? I think he’s downstairs.”
“Thank you.” After bidding Izumi his thanks, he headed to the studio in the basement. The subterranean level of the Sena home had been converted to a recording studio, and Seiya could often be found working here. He shouldn’t have been so busy right now that he absolutely had to be working at this hour of the evening, but a great song might have just come to him.
“Oh, Rei? What brings you down here?” Seiya called out, cocking his head when Rei poked his face inside.
“I had something I wanted to discuss with you—are you busy?”
“Not at all.” Seiya motioned to a chair nearby, inviting him to take a seat, but Rei declined with the excuse that it would only take a moment, before diving into discussion of the conversation he’d just had with Shougo.
“You see, about Shougo-san’s upcoming recording session…”
“Oh—the New York thing?”
“Eh?” Rei’s eyes goggled at the response that came when all he’d said was recording—as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
“The studio he picked out has great facilities as well as top-quality staff running it, so I’m sure we can look forward to a wonderful finished product.”
“………” He even knew about the studio already…? From the looks of things, it seemed Shougo and already been down this road—which reminded Rei that Shougo had brought up Seiya and Nagisa’s schedules earlier, so there was a very high chance he’d consulted them personally on the matter.
“You’re going along with him, right?”
“No, just, that is…”
“You’ve been so busy lately; you really ought to get out for some fresh air!”
Faced with Seiya’s broad grin, Rei had little choice but to acquiesce. “…All right. I’ll go see about getting my passport tomorrow…” With Seiya’s blessing given, he’d run out of reasons to refuse. His shoulders slumped, he exited the studio and headed back up to the living room—where he found Shougo sitting on the couch alongside Izumi, twisting around now to see Rei walk in.
“So? How’d it go?”
Rei fixed a glare on Shougo as he leered from his spot on the couch, before releasing a defeated sigh. “I can’t believe you’d already gone and discussed the matter with Seiya-san…”
“Well, much as I hate to admit it, there’s no way you’d ever say no if my dad gave his okay, right??” He was absolutely right, so Rei swallowed any protests.
“Hey, are you going to New York, Rei?” It was Izumi’s turn to question him now. He must have heard from Shougo while Rei was downstairs.
“I am. This is part of my job, after all.” He had little choice but to go, he tried to make clear—but Izumi didn’t seem to get the message.
“I wanna go too!!”
“Eh?” Rei gaped at Izumi, thrown by the protest.
“It’s no fair that Oniichan and Rei get to go all by themselves! I wanna go to New York too!”
“Much as I understand, still…”
“I wanna go I wanna go I WANNA GOOOO!!” Rei never would have expected Izumi to be so adamant on this point. After all, Izumi was quite an introvert, preferring to play indoors in his room rather than go outside. This was a rare sight, seeing him so bent on going somewhere. To top it all off—this was New York, quite a ways away, so Rei felt quite justified in being shocked. In all likelihood, he was less worried about not going someplace than feeling lonely that Shougo and Rei would be going there together.
“Didn’t you hear me, though? We’re going for work. We can’t take you along with us.” He then directed his gaze at Shougo, silently imploring You say something, too! Even Shougo, a guy with a self-professed dyed-in-the-wool brother complex, had to see that there was no way they could possibly take Izumi with them.
“Bringing Izumi along, huh… That definitely sounds like it’d be fun!”
“Hey! You—!” Rei started, a snarling shout on his lips, when he was stopped at the pass as Shougo continued.
“But this time we’re going for work.” Apparently he’d accepted that they had no choice as well. “Even if you came along, we couldn’t bring you around anywhere to enjoy the sights, so why don’t we go some other time when we’re not gonna be busy with work?”
“Nnngh…” Given that Shougo, usually putty in his little brother’s hands, was standing his ground, perhaps Izumi finally understood that it really was no use protesting, and despite glancing up at Shougo with eyes glistening with tears, he eventually gave up his demands. Rei was at once both relieved—and a bit saddened for Izumi.
“…Izumi-san?”
“…What?” Izumi turned away from Shougo when Rei called his name, staring at Rei now. He must have really been holding back those tears, given how red his nose was now.
“We’ll bring you back lots of souvenirs.”
“…Really??”
“Of course, you can count on it. What would you like?”
“Okay…then, some chocolate! I want chocolates!”
Seeing this response, Rei released another relieved sigh.
To be continued…