Spotting the blonde from a distance, Mahiru quickened his pace. He stretched his arm out to the sky and waved in hopes that the motion would catch Tetsu's attention — which unsurprisingly did, albeit drawing a lot of other eyes to it — without yelling his name. As Mahiru traversed the distance between them, Tetsu nodded and rested his knuckles over his shoulder, his schoolbag hanging from his closed fingers. It was a very 'manly' way of holding one's schoolbag, making him look more intimidating. Like a greaser.

"Alright, we gotta hurry up and go before Sakuya and the others catch up!" Mahiru exclaimed, using both hands to push the taller individual behind the gates. "You'll be meeting Kuro today. I haven't told him about it yet, though."
"Is that okay?"
"Yeah, he'll be surprised."

They spoke as they half-jogged, half-walked towards the nearest train station.

Tetsu looked up — as if to think — for a while, and asked, "What if he's not home?"
"Ah, Kuro?" Mahiru laughed. "He's always home, believe me. Well, don't worry about that. We'll ask around for him if ever he's gone out to, well, do something. Last time I've been there, it looked like everyone knew each other."
"You seem pretty confident about this. And a little pushy."

Mahiru laughed, a guilty look crossing his face for a second.

They rode the train — which thankfully was not as packed considering the time — and stood in silence for the entirety of the trip. There was no surprise in that; although they seemed to be getting along fairly well, it was still difficult to strike up a conversation with a person you have known for less than a day, especially when they seemed quite guarded.

The brunette shot a look at Tetsu, who was looking straight out the window, the same stoic look on his face. His blue irises only ocasionally shot up, as if to mull over something, before dismissing it with a slight shrug of his right shoulder. Their eyes met a few times, contact which always ended with a slight smile on Mahiru's side, and a nod on the other.

The setting sun made tall shadows stand by the apartment building, and upon arrival, a person who seemed to be the landlord greeted them briefly before closing his door on them. It was difficult to determine whether or not they had been welcomed or had been shown they were unwanted, though, so the students looked at each other, their mouths in grim lines, then shrugged simultaneously.

"Well, Kuro's worse."

Led by the smaller individual, Tetsu advanced up the stairs with little to no mind about the child warily staring at him from behind a different tennant's door. He watched as Mahiru knocked, received no response, then pushed the door open, a creak echoing in the sun-kissed hallway.

A low, loud sigh came after.

"I told you not to come here if you d—" Kuro appeared at the door, surprisingly, an irritated look on his features, stopping in surprise as he looked up and noticed Tetsu standing behind the brunette. A deadpan face turned to Mahiru, then, "I see you have come to threaten me with a thug."

"Wait, no! This guy is—"
"I do dislike you, but I actually thought you were better than this, Shimoda-sama."
"Would you listen to me first? And who the heck is Shimoda anyways?"

Before their banter got worse, Tetsu stepped in to introduce himself.

"I'll be your bassist. I'm Sendagaya Tetsu, 15. Nice to meet you." he threw up a peace sign, which was ill-fitting for his flat tone and stoic demeanor.

Kuro stared at him with an unreadable expression, looked at Mahiru, then shook his head.
"What?" the latter asked.
"Goes to show how inadequate you are, upperclassman Shiratori." Kuro said. As Mahiru protested, the pale individual stepped closer to Tetsu and maintained eye contact, then asked,
"So how'd you get dragged into this? You really shouldn't have listened to this lunatic, he raves all day about forming a new band with little ol' me, pretending not to hear any of my disagreements."
"I don't think he's crazy." Tetsu answered after a pause, as if he had given himself time to actually think about it. Mahiru felt insulted, and he burned holes on Kuro's back with a glare.

"But I joined because I'm interested. And my father tells me to stop thinking about our family business and enjoy my youth instead, so I took the opportunity."
"Oh... Mahiru, your school allows Yakuza to st—"
"He's a good guy, Kuro! Stop that," the brunette turned to Tetsu. "He's pretty good, not gonna lie. Tetsu, show him that video."

The blonde was still, then expressed a thought, which was a little surprising considering he initially just nodded to everything.

"I would rather play live infront of him. He seems inclined to not believe me unless he sees it with his own eyes."

Kuro looked surprised, then retreated back behind the threshold of his door. "Well, you read me. I didn't sign up for this, though, so if you could please excuse me..." he began to turn around and close the door along with the action, but Mahiru held it open.

"You told me you'd give it a chance if I found a bassist." he said. "There's one right here. And he's got a pretty good reason, too! It'd be a waste to let his skills rot."
"Look, you're really... imposing. I have to continue playing my game—"
"That's not good for you either, so I would rather watch you play the drums with us instead of staying shut up in this dim place."
"What is this classic Asian Mother situation...?"

Mahiru was silent, facing Kuro. Tetsu couldn't see anything from behind, but the apparent drummer began to break into cold sweat the longer the silence went on. Finally, he slouched further and sighed, and although his next words expressed displeasure, there was a little bit of curiosity as an undertone. He was probably also dying to know what kind of music the three of them could make, or atleast, how well they could understand each other's beats and play a song.

"Alright, fine, whatever. There's a studio for rent a few paces away. They've the entire setup. Smells a little like smoke and drink but place isn't half-bad."

Mahiru beamed, having expected a harder time negotiating with Kuro. He gave him a clap on the shoulder, which Kuro had so bedrudgingly shrugged off, before turning to face Tetsu, who was standing quietly to one side. The setting sun made him look just as innocent as he was intimidating at first glance, the contrast of the rising twinkle of eagerness in his blue eyes against the sinking light behind him creating an interesting picture.

As Mahiru and Tetsu looked at each other, each of them had seen a flitting image in his mind, as if the shadow of something that smelled of triumph and satisfaction decided to cross the boundary between the present and the future. Both had seen the same shattered image, but neither had the capacity to name what exactly it was that they had been shown, nor did they have the audacity to voice out anything regarding this insane prospect.

Shaking it off as soon as it had come, Mahiru dismissed the flash of the image as some sort of hallucination, or something of the like. He crossed his arms and looked at the pale individual, who sighed and crawled back into his apartment room.

"Be fetching a few things. And I'll probably have some kind of a last look. Might be the last time I'll ever set foot in this place." He looked back at the two of them, gesturing towards the interior of the room, as if telling them it was fine to go in with their shoes on. "You're both welcome to stomp on the mats with your shoes, yes."
"... Wait, why?"
"Meh. Just do it. If I'm getting out, I might as well go out with a," Kuro grimaced at the cockroach that escaped the underside of a cabinet near the entrance. "Bang."

I thought Mahiru cleaned that apartment? Why are cockroaches even in existence? Believe me, they won't be wiped out with a simple airing out lol. Anyways, thoughts? What do you think is going to happen, and who will the other members be?