Akiri: No way!

Akari + Dad: Surprise!

He looks all around the room in complete awe.

Akiri: This is...

Dad: Our own little studio

Akari: So what do you think?

Akiri: It's amazing!

???: Oh? You guys finally decided to show him your secret project

He looked back at the bottom of the stairs to see that it was his mother.

Akari: Yup!

Akiri: You guys been working on this behind my back for this long?

Dad: We wanted to surprise you since you always wanted a home studio

Akiri: Wow...

He walks around the room, completely shocked.

Akari: Hey, since we're all here. Let's have a quick jamming session

Akiri: Yeah! We haven't jammed since we moved back here

Mom: I don't know... I'm kinda busy right now

Akari: Pleeeease, just one song

Akiri: Yeah, just this once. You haven't played for a while either

Dad: Well, the kids really want you to play

Mom: Okay, okay. Just one song though

The siblings shouts as puts their fists up in the air.

Akiri + Akari: Yes!

Their mother just smiled at them and went to grab her bass that was hanged on the wall. While their father went to the drum set.

Akari then grabbed her left handed guitar that was hanged on the wall.

Akari: What are we going to play?

Akiri: Let's just play the usual

They just nodded in agreement and Akiri went to sit in front of the grand piano and he stretches his fingers.

They all nodded their head and got ready to play. Akiri took a deep breath and began to play while singing.

https://youtu.be/fJ9rUzIMcZQ

(Next day)

(Akiri POV)

Currently, I am getting ready to go out and meet up with the girls. I got dressed and quickly went to the front door and tied my shoes.

Akiri: Alright, I'm heading out!

Mom: Okay, be careful!

Akari: Enjoy your date!

Akiri: It's not a date!

I can hear my sister laughing as I went out the front door.

(Timeskip)

I am currently making my way to where I am supposed to meet with the girls. Once I made it there, I saw that they had already arrived.

Ritsu then notices me and calls me over.

Ritsu: Hey, Akiri! Over here!

I then walked over to them.

Yui: Hi, Akiri-kun

Akiri: Hey girls, sorry I'm late

Mio: No, we just got here ourselves

Mugi: Yes, no need to apologize

Akiri: So, what kind of job did you all pick?

Ritsu: We'll be counting vehicles on the road

I sighed in relief after hearing that.

Akiri: Thank god it isn't anything that involves other people

Mio: Y-yeah...

Ritsu: Here

Ritsu then handed everyone a tally counter.

Ritsu: We'll go in groups of two, withing over every hour

Yui then started to repeatedly tap the really counter.

Ritsu: Oh, look at you

Ritsu then joined Yui and taps the counter at a faster pace.

Ritsu: Ricchan, you're fast!

Akiri: Wait, if you do that, you could-

Ritsu: Ow!

She felt a jolt of pain in her finger due to a muscle cramp.

Akiri: Hurt yourself...

Mio: You got way too crazy

(Timeskip)

We then divided into groups, Ritsu, Yui and Mugi had gone ahead first and it is now me and Mio's turn to count the vehicles. We are currently sitting on a chair on the side of the road with our tally counters on hand. I then decided to break the silence.

Akiri: So, how are you? We haven't got a chance to catch up after so long

Mio: I've been fine. Ritsu kept me company most of the time since you left

Akiri: Good to hear

Another awkward silence pass by.

Mio: Can I ask you something?

Akiri: Go ahead

Mio: What makes you want to play the guitar?

Akiri: A lot of things I guess. But I think the main one is because of my shyness

Mio: But the guitarist is always the center of attention

Akiri: That's the point. I thought it could help me with my introvertedness. It helped a little bit, but I'm still the same shy boy from all those years ago

Mio: Really? You look like you've changed a lot. You seem a little more confident now

Akiri: Only around you guys. Believe me, I'm still the same. I've barely even made any friends at my new school

That made her let out a small giggle which was cute. We then continued talking while not forgetting to do our job counting vehicles.

At first, we were a little awkward. Being apart for a couple of years does that to you, but eventually we got back to talking like normal. Talking to her and hearing her laugh reminded me of childhood days.

The day then goes on with us taking turns counting vehicles until our shift is over.

(Timeskip)

We are gathered at a bus stop when Mugi made a suggestion.

Mugi: We could have some tea before heading home

Yui: Wow, it's a picnic!

Akiri: You girls brought food?

Yui: Don't worry, Akiri-kun. There's some for you too

Akiri: Really? Thanks, Yui

We then moved to a nearby park to have our picnic, I layed down the picnic sheet on the grass and Yui and Mugi puts down the food and snacks they've brought.

Akiri: Woah! That's a lot of food

Yui: My sister made it for everyone

Akiri: Well, tell her we said thanks

Everyone: Itadakimasu!

After eating our lunch, we helped ourselves to some desserts which Mugi brought.

Yui: Is this okay? You're always bringing expensive looking sweets

Mugi: It's fine, a lot of people give these to me. They'd go to waste if I just left them at home

Yui: A family that gets sweets from a lot of people. What kind of family is that?

Akiri: Rich people are an entirely different species...

(Timeskip)

After a while, we noticed that the sun was going down. We decided to call it a day and start heading home.

Ritsu: Our first day is over!

Mugi: Okay, I'll be going to the train station

Ritsu: Mio and I are taking the bus

Mio: Yui, Akiri, you two are walking home?

Yui: Yup

Akiri: Yes! I am!

Mugi: For tomorrow-

Yui: Yeah! Please bring more snacks!

Mugi: I was going to say, "let's do our best"...

Me and Yui then started to walk away in separate directions.

Yui: Bye bye!

Akiri: See you all tomorrow!

Ritsu: Bye, Yui! Bye Akiri!

Mio: Bye!

For the next few days, we continued working hard on our part-time job. Determined to get Yui her dream guitar.

After yet another long day of counting vehicles, we are currently accepting our paychecks from a lady.

Lady: Thank you for all your hardwork for the past two days. Here's your paychecks

Everyone: Thank you

We all said while bowing.

Ritsu: Here

Each of us then gave Yui our paychecks.

Ritsu: We get about 8,000 yen per day

Mugi: So, even if you add that to the 50,000 yen you got from your mother earlier, we're still not even close

Akiri: At this rate, we're going to have to do more jobs or we can kiss that guitar goodbye

Mio: Yeah

Ritsu: Akiri's right. Let's search for some jobs again!

Yui: No, this is fine

Akiri: Huh?

Yui: Everyone just take your own money back and use it however you want

Yui then proceeds to give us back the work money.

Mugi: Yui-chan...

Akiri: Wait, are you sure? You've worked hard as well

Yui: It's fine, Akiri-kun. I'll buy a guitar that I can afford. Even if it means I can practice one day sooner, I want us to be able to play together. Can you come to the music store with me again?

All of us smiled and we nodded.

Yui: Thank you, everyone. I'm going home now

Ritsu: Yeah

Mugi: See you tomorrow

(Timeskip)

We are currently back at the music store in front of the guitar section. We were heading towards the cheaper guitars until we noticed that Yui is still looking at the guitar she wanted.

Mio: She really wants that one

Akiri: Can't blame her. It is a really nice guitar. For a beginner, she does have good taste

Ritsu: Alright, I guess we should do more part time jobs!

Mugi: Please wait here a bit

She then went towards one of the workers. She talked to him for a little while and for some reason, he had a panicked and nervous expression. A while later, Mugi then walked back to us.

Mugi: He'll sell us this guitar for 50,000 yen

Ritsu: Really?!

Akiri: That's nearly an 80 percent discount!

Yui: What?! What did you do?

Mugi: Actually, my family owns this store

Yui: Eh?! I see...

Akiri: That explains why he was so nervous

Yui: I'll pay you back the difference somehow

Yui excitedly grabbed the guitar and we head over to the worker.

Ritsu: We would like to buy this guitar please!

Worker: Right. 50,000 yen, was it? Hand it over to me and I'll set it up for you

He then did multiple maintenance for it, such as restringing it, cleaning and standard setups and tunings.

After a while later, he was finally finished. On his gloved hands, is a shiny new Gibson Les Paul.

Worker: All done. Would you like to try it?

Yui: I don't know how to play...

Akiri: It's okay, I'll try it for you

I then went to plug the guitar to an amp and turned it on. I sat on a nearby stool and started to test the guitar by playing a couple of licks and improvisations.

Akiri: Plays like a beauty

Yui: Wow! That was so cool!

Mio: The sound is really nice

Ritsu: Oh yeah! The band is finally complete!

I then started to play the first few notes of a song. Until the worker immediately went over and puts his hand on the strings, muting the sound.

Worker: Take the guitar and get out

Akiri: No Stairway, denied!

-------------------

(Hey, there. First of all, I want to apologize for the long wait. Second, I want to clarify that I'm going to work on this book along with some others so don't expect frequent updates. That's all for now and thanks for reading)