Slowly but surely, I watched him gain his confidence back.

I understood a lot of hard work had gone behind everything during the months he'd been avoiding me, not only to improve his music but also to feel good about himself. I noticed that after a few weeks together, he wasn't quite so needy of my approval. It was less of "I want you to tell me what you think" and more of "please, let me play this for you". I gladly let him. Always.

Yet, I couldn't help but feel inferior, and as if I wasn't worthy of him. Who was he to tell me he needed to become a better man to be worthy of my love? I was mediocre, at best. He called me a peacekeeper, that I was the one holding the band together. I wanted and needed to be so much more than that.

I didn't ask him to listen to me play anything, and he was too respectful to ask. He was too respectful in general. I think that one time he'd forced himself on me had scared him. We had kissed, we had slept next to each other, but he hadn't tried to go further than that. Not yet.

The day I met Ugetsu for the first time, Mafuyu had asked me to meet him up to first go get ice cream together, and then help him with a new song.

"Aren't you and Uenoyama dating? You're not going to have ice cream with him?"

"We go out together all the time", Mafuyu said down the phone, and I could imagine the dreamy expression he got in his face every time he spoke about his partner. "Both of us believe it's important to have friends outside of the relationship, and to take care of those friendships."

I had smiled at that. I had been afraid Uenoyama would be too inexperienced to be able to handle the amount of heartache Mafuyu carried hidden underneath his breast bone. Turned out that couldn't be further from the truth. Uenoyama was nervous, struggled to show affection and treated Mafuyu as if he was made of porcelain, but he was incredibly patient. He respected Mafuyu's past and that he would always, in one way or another, still live in it. Yet, he gave Mafuyu a light in his eyes I hadn't seen in him before. And Mafuyu gave the same to Uenoyama. They were good together, and seeing them tentatively grow closer filled me with hope.

"Haruki-san!"

I looked up as I was standing on the subway station and saw Mafuyu wave at me, his guitar case on his back as always.

"Mafuyu!" I smiled and embraced him. I had dressed in an oversized jeans shirt for the occasion, and Mafuyu wore an apricot long-sleeved T-shirt and baggy jeans. To be such a shy boy, he was always incredibly stylish.

We walked together to Mafuyu's favourite ice cream bar, and I would soon learn why he loved it so much. The interior was simple, nothing special, really, but the ice creams were amazing. I had a caramel and almond ice cream with soft serve, chocolate sauce, slivered almonds and candied berries. Mafuyu had a Mojito sorbet with a fruit syrup and exotic fruits. We sat at a wooden table and ate in amicable silence for a while. I got an image in my mind of Akihiko covering my body with ice cream, licking it off, fast before it melted because he didn't like melted ice cream, first from my chest, then my belly, then further down on my-

"Why are you blushing, Haruki-san?"

I looked up, awoken from my daydream. Mafuyu was looking at me, a mischievous spark in his eye.

"Oh, well, umm, I, ehh..." I stuttered.

"Was it about Akihiko-san?"

I looked down, feeling myself blush even more. "Well..." Oh, what point was there in resisting. "Yeah..."

"It's okay", Mafuyu said earnestly, bless his heart. "I get those too, but with..."

"Uenoyama?" I filled in.

"What? Oh, yeah. Uenoyama."

"Hmm..."

We ate silently for a while longer, finishing our ice creams off before going out again to walk to the studio.

"We haven't practiced in a while", Mafuyu noted. "Me and Uenoyama will be done with our exams this week."

"We can practice on Monday", I suggested.

"Good idea", Mafuyu said. "I want to write more songs!" 

He looked at me and beamed with his entire face, and in that moment he looked so happy I felt a wave of brotherly love rush out from my heart to his. This boy had brought us so much more than just his voice and guitar; he'd brought joy and lightness and our love for music back. Especially Akihiko seemed to have re-discovered his love for music, and it pulled at every string of my heart. Yet, I felt a pang of something like jealousy, that insecurity that I wasn't only a black sheep among white sheep's, but a black sheep among geniuses. Akihiko said I was the glue that held the band together, but wasn't that glue Mafuyu now?

We started jamming the part of the song Mafuyu had already come up with.

"This is the part I want help with. I would like the bass to go quiet for a while, then start back up for full effect. But I don't know how to make the two guitars work together without the bass."

We played the part together over and over to find something that felt right to Mafuyu and the message he wanted to convey, and we were nearly done when there was a knock on the door.

Who would knock on our studio door? The only ones who used it were us, and we didn't knock, we just walked in.

I opened. Outside stood a slender man with short, wavy, black hair, a pointy chin and dark-brown eyes, dressed in an oversized dark grey cardigan. He was smiling and looked oddly familiar.

"Is Mafuyu here?" he asked.

"Ugetsu-san!" Mafuyu exclaimed, his face lighting up.

Suddenly, it struck me who he was. "Hey!" I said happily, pointing at him. "You're that famous violinist from our school, aren't you?"

He looked at me with a facial expression I had a hard time reading. It was as if he was trying to make up his mind of what to think of me. I could've been mistaken, but something in it told me he knew something about me that he didn't like. I felt an uneasy shiver along my spine.

Suddenly, he gave me a small, friendly smile. 

"I wouldn't say famous. But thank you. You're the bassist in Mafuyu's band. I've seen you play." I had to admit I was a bit star-struck. "I'm friends with Mafuyu, but I'd love to get to know you as well. Can I invite you for coffee at the cafeteria in the city centre?"

I blushed, looking to the side. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Mafuyu give me a curious glance. "Ehh... Sure!" I said. Wait until I told Akihiko that the famous violinist Ugetsu had invited me for coffee!

"Mind if I watch your rehearsal?" Ugetsu asked mildly.

"Sure!" Mafuyu said.

I agreed.