Page 57 of A Different Melody
As the crowd quieted down again, I asked the question that was itching at the back of my brain.
“Who in here doesn’t know what they are?” My hand shot into the air, and my heart rate skyrocketed to a concerning rate as murmurs filled the concert hall. At first, I was the only one standing there with my arm stretched high in the air, but the longer I stood there, one, and then two more hands went up.
My eyes burned because I’d just told them that this was okay. “I see you,” I said, as I rushed to wipe unshed tears from my eyes. “There isn’t always an answer, and that’s okay. But you are not alone. My friends have shown me nothing but love and acceptance. I only hope that you receive that much support as well.”
Everyone in the room was back to cheering as the band surrounded me on stage and wrapped me in a big group hug. I’d done the scariest thing of my entire life. I’d stood in front of a group of strangers and loudly proclaimed that I didn’t know what I was and that was okay. That those who were in the same boat as me were okay as well. That we would all survive together.
“That was fucking awesome!” Riku cheered as we all moved around backstage after the concert.
I was still riding the high of coming out so publicly, but it was okay. I hadn’t gotten a bad response from the fans, and that had been my biggest fear. They loved me no matter how I saw myself, and I knew the same was to be said about my friends.
As soon as I knew we were out of sight of the public, I threw my arms around both Yasu and Ryosuke, pulling them close and giving each of them a quick kiss. The label hadn’t been all that strict about the relationship. We did have to sign documentation that stated that if things ended between us that it wouldn’t impact the band. Reality was that we knew it would, but none of us saw it ending. I loved my men. Yasu loved me. We were still working on Ryosuke.
“So, what’s the plan for tonight?” Yasu asked as we made our way to the dressing room to change.
We weren’t in Hokkaido very often, so I wanted to see some of the sights, but it was on the later side. As much as I didn’t want to, the reasonable thing to do was to go back to the hotel and get some rest before we had to catch the train back to Tokyo in the morning. It would be a long day of travel, and I didn’t want to spend all of it sleeping.
Then again, that also meant I was prone to causing chaos on the train. It wasn’t always a bad thing, but with as horny as I’d been lately, I could see myself dragging Yasu and Ryosuke off to find a place to have some fun.
“I think we should head back to the hotel,” I answered, because yeah, maybe it would be better to get out some of that horny energy before being stuck on trains for eight hours.
Both Ryosuke and Yasu laughed while Tatsuki and Riku groaned. While the other two band members had been accepting of our relationship, because we were out in the open with them, they sometimes saw things they didn’t always want to. We triedour best to keep things tame in public, but I couldn’t forget the day that we’d gotten a little too carried away in the studio and Riku had walked in on us.
Thankfully, clothes hadn’t come off, but there’d been some heavy petting going on, and we’d had to listen to him complain about it for days afterward. We’d since been careful to keep things behind closed doors where our bandmates couldn’t accidentally walk in.
“Hey, at least we’re going back to the hotel. It’s not like we said anything weird.” I pouted as I untangled my arms from around my men and crossed them over my chest.
Did I come across like a child? Probably. Did I care? Not one little bit.
But this all felt right. Like we were all finally where we were always meant to be. It didn’t matter that we’d started off in a rough place with Ryosuke. He fit in with the band as if he’d always been a part of it. Yasu didn’t compare him to Mamarou anymore, and we’d completed a kick-butt tour.
Nothing felt as if it could touch us.
Things were better with Toshi now that his relationship with Reiko was out in the open. He’d even started being a little nicer and had stopped playing as many mind games. My hope was that he was finally realizing that we knew what we were doing as a band, but the reality was that he was still a sort of shifty person, and Reiko probably played a bigger role than we all gave her credit for.
This was us. It was Pink Cherry, and I couldn’t have been happier with how things had worked themselves out over the last few months.
Life didn’t always make sense. There were times when you couldn’t always define who you were as a person, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t feel comfortable in your own skin. If you had the right support system, everything could be okay. My supportsystem wasn’t my birth family, but the family I’d chosen as an adult.
And I couldn’t imagine a more perfect life.
THE END