5:30am Fridays, FiRE building, sharp! [Tutor with Yume]

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

A hint was given to her to call 'Ghoul Face' and other disparaging nicknames wasn't preferred over simply calling him 'Manager'. Kaori puffed out her cheeks before Yume rubbed her head. A cat-like grin came across Kaori's face, feeling warmth coming from Yume's hand. While it was drying her hair, the heat was very comfortable not only physically be emotionally. Her mother never hugged her nor gave any form of physical affection,
so this little bit she got from Yume filled a void that she was missing in her life.

Yume played with the tip of her hair, twirling it around her fingertips, and curling her hair in a playful manner. Her hair dried like that until she withdrew her hand away from Kaori's head. She silently missed the attention she was receiving, but knew that it wouldn't last forever. Quickly shaking her head,
returning from cloud-nine and with a quick nod, she raised a hand in the air. "Yeah!"​

After getting dressed, she walked with confidence, thinking she knew where she was going only to encounter 'Manager' at the edge of the gym. Like clockwork, Kaori pulled down one of her eyes in a taunting manner and stuck her tongue out at the man. She wasn't going to be left without Yume today and 'Manager' will have to deal with it. "Yeah! I'm gonna follow Yume today and there's nooooooothing you can do about it," she said as a spoiled child would. "Manager~" she also said in a condescending and spiteful manner. Just because Yume said to call him 'Manager' doesn't mean she would be nice to the person who seemed rather cold to her earlier (or at least that was her perception of the man initially).

Yume skipped out the door and Kaori was stuck with the Manager for a little bit. "Spam, eggs, and rice please," she said with an uncharacteristically polite tone. Perhaps teasing this man was getting a bit old as it wasn't nearly as fun right now. "Don't worry, Mister Manager, I'll behave and won't get in Yume's way," she said as she started to skip similarly to how Yume did in pursuit of her. "Thaaaaaanks"

Upon entering the floor they'd be gathered at, something sounded very strange. The acoustics of the room felt different. Perhaps it was sound-proofing that made everything sound so strange. Inquisitive, Kaori stopped her skipping and held her hands up to her ears, cupping them like an antenna dish. She started making unintelligible noises just so she could listen to the feedback of noise. The strange lack of sound reflecting from the walls was quite unsettling and unnatural to the Shrine Maiden. "This place feels funny"

Another woman was already waiting in the room as she turned to walk behind Yume. As she came to a stop, she ensured that her ribbons had covered up her horns, not wanting someone like her seeing them; someone she didn't know or trust. Even if Manager had seen her horns, he didn't say anything bad about them so she didn't dislike him (only liked teasing the poor man). Kaori hid behind Yume, grabbing at her clothes, hiding herself from view of this other idol named Kotone. She remained shy around this new person, only occassionally darting her eyes towards her then away from her just enough to get a good look at her. While she was pretty, she had nothing on Yume.

A lone hand stuck out from behind Yume in the form of a wave to the woman. Something about the way this woman looked rubbed her the wrong way. Perhaps it was just the look in her eyes. Her eyes weren't soft and gentle as Yume's was. She had the eyes of an animal, as if she was someone who would do anything to get it her way. This was, after all, perhaps just Kaori's imagination. Regardless of if it was her imagination going wild, something about this woman didn't really sit well with her.

 

[Yume]

Manager was the last one to leave the workout floor. He sighed, scratching the back of his head before bringing his hand to his ear and making a call to the cafe downstairs. Spam, eggs and rice is not something that is generally served in a cafe--that was more something that is made at home brought out by laziness and couldn't-give-a-damn. Surely, Kaori will make do with a similar dish instead.

Back at the recording/practice studio, Kotone smiled back at Yume. Her grey eyes darted down at little Kaori and she greeted her politely. "Nice to meet you, Kaori-chan. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if you'll enjoy yourself here. There isn't much to do."

"Oh, it'll be fine! She can even join in if she wants to, ne, Kaori-chan?" Yume giggled. Digging into her gym bag, the younger idol pulled out a bottle of water and took a long sip. She gulped, followed by a relieved "ah!" and held it out to Kaori. "Did you need some water after that workout? Here. I'm not sick, if that's what you're wondering!"

The concept of an indirect kiss from sharing a water bottle was lost on Yume. While Kaori accepted or refused the water, Kotone would set up her koto and order for Yume to do a vocal warm up. "Man, this part is always dumb sounding..." the spoilt princess mumbled under her breath, but she did it anyway. "Don't laugh, Kaori-chan. Actually, better yet you should join me!"

The warm up was in question was the lip rolling. Without sound, Yume would sound a lot like a horse. But this warm up was not just for loosening and tickling the lips. They had to release any vocal tension too, and that could be achieved through humming the scale with the horsey lip rolling. Now it just sounds like a horse trying to sing.

Yume looked towards Kaori, with a hand gesture to urge her to lip roll more. "Okay, appregio!"

Brr, brr, brr, brr, brr, brr, brr, brr, brr.

It was a silly looking scene, to say the least. Instead of looking loose and relaxed, Yume's mouth was more tightened up in attempt to refrain from bursting out laughing. Kotone had to cut that short. "Okay, I think you're plenty warm, Princess."

The slightest hint of annoyance flickered across Yume's blue eyes at the name, but she didn't want to react in front of Kaori. With a bright smile, Yume rocked on her heels with her hands behind her back childishly. "Alright, let's start."

It was a particular song she was required to practice. The techniques used for the song were of her weaker points. She was a loud person with a strong voice, after all, it was hard to...

"Stop," Kotone paused in playing the backing melody on her koto instrument. "Do that line again. You're not supposed to be singing from the diaphragm, you're singing from the throat. Again."

Yume made as much unintelligible noise as Kaori did when she was checking out the room.

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Kaori's face turned a bright beet-red at the idea of joining Yume with the singing. In the very little time she had to become her fan, that was still a little much even for her. She showed her palms and waved them from side-to-side and shook her head. She still had a strange, yet uncomfortable smile upon her face. "Oh, heheh, that wouldn't be necessary. I'll just ruin your recording. And besides, I don't understand the language you sing in," she said before lowering her head out of embarrassment. She wasn't very familiar with that language, only being versed in the common language; sometimes having troubles speaking that properly with the occasional stuttering and tripping over her own words.

She turned to look towards the other idol and bowed to her. "Oh, don't worry about me. Just being here is exciting on it's own" she said with the blush still tinting her cheeks pink. Anywhere other than the academy classroom, the training grounds, or the Shrine. Anywhere other than those three locations would make Kaori a happy girl. Every day, day-in-and-day-out she would go to just those three locations and she was starting to get sick of it. Though, sadly, her duty is what binds her to continue with the monotonous movements daily. At least her becoming a shinobi added a few more locations other than JUST the Shrine. At least that was a blessing for her.

Water was offered to her and she turned it down. While she was quite dehydrated, she didn't want to take any of Yume's resources away from her. She needed it more than Kaori did and the fact that she was being offered things made her feel like she was beginning to be a burden upon Yume. She sat there and observed while going through warm-ups and yet again, Yume encouraged her to go to her and try it with her. With a sigh, she pulled herself up and stood next to Yume. The lip-rolling sounded super goofy, but if it works it works. She stood there, watching and listening to Yume do it a couple times before she fell to her knees in laughter. She held her gut and her forehead hit the floor of the recording studio, eventually rolling onto her back, kicking her legs around laughing at the sound.

It was the most ludicrous thing she'd heard and to see someone as beautiful as Yume sound as goofy and stupid just tickled her funny bone. It's been a long time since Kaori laughed like this; the last time was with her friend Mina, 3 years ago. After the giggles cured, she stood back up and wiped the tears from her face. "Oh, sorry about that," Just by looking at Kaori, it looked like she was legitimately having a good time. Kaori attempted the lip-rolling and said in a horse-like voice. "WIIIIILLLBURRRRRR" she said before cracking up laughing.

She quickly recovered, at least much quicker than the last time she broke down, and tried to regain her composure. She did the lip-rolling once more, still cracking a smile while doing it, making it extremely difficult to do. Yume was called 'Princess' by the other idol. Kaori just looked up towards the idol and lip-rolled, intentionally making horse noises in her general direction. After that was done, it appeared that Yume's warm-up had finished. Kaori didn't quite understand what just happened or how that was supposed to help, but whatever.

As the song was about to start, Kaori had gone completely silent. She heard the background melody only to raise a brow, having never heard this rhythm before only for the background melody to be cut quick. The criticism from the other idol stated that she had to sing from the throat instead of the diaphragm. Whatever the diaphragm was. Kaori leaned towards the microphone and spoke into it. "What's a diaphragm?"​

 

[Yume]

Luckily, they were only practicing instead of recording, so the microphone Kaori was playing with was turned off. The two older women heard the question all the same and paused in their practice to turn their attention to the girl. Yume grinned, while Kotone's smile was a little more muted.

"The diaphragm is the muscle right here under your ribs!" Yume said, poking herself where the muscle should be. Her hand rested upon her abdomen."It helps with breathing. If you use your muscles to support your tone, your singing will be much stronger."

"Well... something like that," Kotone murmured. Yume wasn't entirely wrong, but that was a whole 'nother theory lesson. Yume practiced her songs for a little longer. At some point, the manager had arrived to the studio quietly and stood by Kaori. He held out a bentou box towards her. In it was a plush Yume teddy bear!

No. Of course there wasn't a teddy bear in a bentou box.

At least two of the three requested food items was in there. Rice and eggs in the form of nicely seasoned tamagoyaki. Spam was not something an established cafe would really stock, so to replace it instead were a few cutely crafted octopus wieners. Some greens were also there to balance out all the carbohydrates and protein.

At that point, Yume was no longer practising her singing, but new lyric lines. Kotone bowed her head to the manager with a coy smile. "She's is improving very quickly. That about does it for today's session. I'll see you tomorrow, Princess."

"Nnn..." Yume made a face for a second before traipsing over to Kaori. "Bye, Eonni. Oh, that looks yummy, Kaori-chan! Can I steal one of the wieners?"

Now that they had finished, there was no reason to stay in the recording studio. But by the whim of the idol, she wanted to eat breakfast here. It wouldn't be as crowded and busy as eating at the cafe downstairs and no one would come here to bother them. Given her breakfast item now, a simple sandwich, Yume sat down on the floor next to Kaori. Manager slinked off first, preparing for what was next on the schedule.

Yume scoffed down the food insanely quick. It was a habit from living fully booked schedules--there was not much time in between to have an half hour lunch. That didn't mean Yume would rush Kaori with her food though. She could take her time with it within reason. Yume was happy with relaxing for a moment.

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

So the diaphragm was a part of your stomach. It was weird, in Kaori's eyes, to sing from your stomach and not from your lungs and throat.
But she's the idol, she would know a plethra more of this stuff than Kaori would. She looked up at the microphone and opened her mouth, as if she wanted to sing something; a song from her family before the ghoul showed up. She took a sharp breath in and looked at the bentou box that he brought.
She moved towards him like a bolt of lightning and looked at the food. It wasn't quite what she asked for, but it still looked mighty tasty.

She looked up towards the manager and forced out a smile. "Thank you, Manager-san," she said, forcing out the name 'manager'.
She was so tempted to call him other names, but at Yume's behest, the name Manager was what she is to call him for now on. Either way, it was a nice thing that he brought the food. Even if it wasn't quite what she asked; it was close enough. "I'm sorry for calling you a Ghoul or Skeleton or Zombie or.." she said as she continued to rattle on for a bit longer with some of the nicknames he had gave him. She looked at the food for a moment before Yume asked to take one of the octo-wieners. She turned to look towards Yume and nodded her head with a big, radiant smile on her face.
"Yes! If you want some, I'd be more than happy to share!" she said enthusiastically.

She held out the bentou towards Yume before turning her head to look towards the Manager. "Do you wanna eat one of my wieners too, Manager?" she said, too naive to realize the perverted implication of her own statement. She did offer the Manager some of her food, even knowing that someone as professional as he would turn it down. It didn't help to share, even with a zombie. She would offer the other idol, but she had took off on her own. Whether he grabbed one or not was irrelevant as she took a seat next to Yume (or rather, it was the other way around) and she began to eat her bentou box.

"I guess I'm probably wrong about zo-- Manager-san. He seems pretty nice. But he's just creepy looking," she said as she at her food. "So that was just warm-up huh? What do you have to do next? Probably learn a new song or start recording?" She was still a novice, not having sang outload ever (only to herself) but she wanted to give it a shot. But the time, right now, wasn't exactly right. But, eventually,
she wanted to wow Yume with either her absolutely awful singing voice or absolutely amazing singing voice. Kaori never had anyone judge her ability to sing as singing something other than traditional songs was forbidden in her household.

She had heard some of the traditional songs sung by the elderly women in the Shrine and she most certainly didn't want to sound like them. She wanted to have a beautiful, angelic voice like Yume did; even if she didn't sing in the same genre as her. If she were to sing, she'd want to sing more ballads than pop, having this strange fantasy of people wanting to be there for just her voice and not because of a mixture of her voice, beauty, and theatrical performance. While that isn't a hit on the type of music Yume does, she'd rather not have people look at her, her horns, or her eyes. She'd rather they concentrate on JUST her voice and nothing else.

She finished eating her food and placed the bentou neatly off to the side, setting the chopsticks on top of the box. "There's a song that was in my family that I'd like to sing. Do you wanna hear it?" she asked Yume. She didn't know if Yume had any time constraints or if she wanted to even hear Kaori sing. She was, actually, quite embarrassed talking about the family song and hoped that it wasn't too far outside of Yume's style. A bunch of variables flew through Kaori's had, expecting rejection; which isn't something she really took lightly. Not because of her being spoiled,
but because people didn't really value her opinions as tools weren't entitled to those.​

 

[Yume]

Yume almost choked on her sandwich when Kaori said that unintentionally perverted line. She didn't bring it up though; Kaori seemed blissfully unaware of it and to bring it up would surely bring the atmosphere down to embarrassing for her. Manager raised a brow at the offer, having already politely declined and left to prep first for the next item on the schedule.

"Oh, does he?" Yume smiled at Kaori's remark at the manager's appearance. "I think he's alright looking--he just needs some sun." She had already finished her bite of sandwich at this point and was resting her head on her knees with her arms wrapped around her legs. She watched Kaori eat, though it wasn't intended to be that focused. If Kaori expressed some discomfort, Yume would snap to, apologise and turn her head to look in front of her.

Warm-ups, practice, those were all finished for today. Yume explained that today wasn't a recording day, rather just a practice to keep her vocals up to speed. More specifically, to train her vocals to be able to perform other techniques and sounds in order to expand her range and versatility. The idol smiled. She wasn't as gifted in music as her mother, to be honest. Work had to be put into this one.

"Oh!" Yume sounded, pleasantly surprised. "I didn't know you sang, Kaori-chan! You should have joined me in the practice session. Let's hear it after you finish your food and have a drink. Food sticking around won't be good for your voice."

By the time Kaori had done all that and presented her song, the pair would hear a set of light footsteps coming towards the door. Manager would be back, slightly annoyed at the two and start ushering them down the floors and out the building. Kaori's song would not be sung in vain though.

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Kaori scratched the back of her head and laughed. "Well, I never sang for anyone because my mother thought me singing anything other than traditional music was a blasphemy against the Great Dragon. But the family folk-song was so nice so I sang it to myself," " she said before taking a sip of her drink to wash down the food. She finished shoveling the food down her gullet and washed it all down with cool and refreshing drink. Afterward, she joined Yume in her warm-ups with her voice cracking (as puberty does to children), she cleared her throat and took a deep breath inward. Hopefully all of the cracking was down for the day now that her vocal cords received a bit of training, smoothing out her voice.

Her heart was racing, almost pounding into her throat. She never had anyone hear her sing before. Her heartbeat was so loud that she would be able to hear her veins beating as well. Her face grew bright red and her breathing started to shallow. It wasn't only because she finally had an audience for the song but it is also Yume as her audience. She didn't want to disgust her with how badly she sang. She closed her eyes tightly shut and started to tell herself to calm down. After silently hyping herself down, she turned looked to Yume and smiled to her, the color returning back to her face.

*Pretend it's a capella
*Pretend it's a little scratchy in the voice, rasping at times​

While she sang the song, she sang it with her eyes closed just so she wouldn't see Yume's reaction. An emotional reaction could cause Kaori's singing to be disrupted, whether it was a positive or a negative reaction. Once she finished her singing, she opened her eyes only to see the zombie had returned,
ushering the two of them downstairs.

"Hey! I was singing for Yume! Stop being a butthole!" she shouted in protest before being nudged downstairs and eventually out of the building. "I take back calling you a nice guy!" she shouted out loud as she was escorted out of the building. "You should join us out here!" The urge to use the word that Hakuren taught her continued to rise. However, in the presence of Yume, that would probably be a bad idea. She took a deep breath in and slowly released it to cool off from being so rudely ejected from the building with Yume. After settling down, she looked towards the idol and smiled at her.

"I hope my song wasn't bad, heh," she said as a blush came over her face, turning to look the other way as if embarrassed talking about the song she just sang. After getting over the embarrassment, she stamped her feet and huffed. "But Manager would've heard it if his head wasn't so far up his butt!"​

 

[Yume]

Yume stayed attentive, even with Kaori's eyes closed while singing. The sound wasn't bad. Unpolished and lacked control, but it was a good start. The door opened in the middle of her song, with the manager staring blankly at the pair. Yume put a finger to her lips, in a silent cue to hush him, then soon put a pair of thumbs up along with a dumb looking questioning, hopeful... something face.

She has potential, no? the face seemed to say. He only rolled his eyes in response, uninterested and unwilling to cater to Yume's whims. Besides, it's not like Kaori gets a voice heard and immediately gets offered an idol position; doesn't work like that at all, unfortunately. Unless she was exceptional, she had to audition and train... real hard.

Well, if Manager had no interest in this, then that meant Yume was free to sway the situation in any direction she wanted! She wasn't blind to see the way Kaori behaved was somehow restrictive. Though she wouldn't pry to confirm, and perhaps it was her ego reasoning, Kaori reminded Yume... of herself. Cheerful, yet restrained. Focused to the point of overworking.

Yeah. Kaori could be an idol successor in the making if she wanted to.

When the manager cleared his throat and Kaori started complaining of the interruption, Yume tried to calm the storm with a pet of her purple hair. "That wasn't bad at all, Kaori-chan!" she smiled, as they exited the building. "I bet with some practice and control of your voice, you'd just might become an idol yourself!"

A certain equine noise from in front of the pair caused the idol to freeze in her steps. Manager was already standing next to it, a carriage lead by a horse and its rider. While she wasn't sure how Kaori would react to a fancy carriage like that, be it giddy, in awe, or afraid, Yume was sure as hell unimpressed and apprehensive. She stared at her manager with a deadpan, and shook her head.

"Why are we going in that?" she asked.

He only raised a brow in return. "Somebody made us behind schedule. We have to catch up on time somehow. Do you really want to keep your fans waiting."

"No... But..." With a glance down at the younger girl, who probably housed a lot of questions in her mind now, Yume sighed and took a few steps forward towards the carriage. The horse grew more agitated with each step she took, until it reached a point where it whinnied loudly and backed up on its rear legs--almost in aim to trample her if she hadn't hopped a few steps backwards.

"How many times do I have to tell you animals don't like me," she pouted.

"Well you had to ride in a carriage before when we were travelling out. Maybe enter the carriage from behind so it doesn't see your face."

"You implying I'm ugly?!" she gasped in mock hurt. With her hands thrown in the air in surrender, as she now couldn't be bothered to argue, Yume went the long way around to enter the carriage. Poking her head out from the curtained window, she grinned at Kaori. "I'm going to a promotional event. You know, promoting tours, promoting albums, signing albums, some shirts and stuff. Do you still wanna come along and help, Kaori-chan?"

If her sense of duty began to overtake her, then Yume wouldn't stop her from leaving. But it'd be nice if she agreed and kept her company. This carriage was awfully big for one person.

Topic left to here

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

A cat-like grin came over her face as Yume had pet her. This was the best feeling, receiving this kind of attention from Yume. Not only was she pet by the person she adored the most, she also received a direct compliment about her singing as well as a bit of constructive feedback. The feedback was welcome as she never actually sang for anyone before and to have someone as talented as Yume tell her what needed to be improved went along a similar vein as being instructed on how to do a technique properly. She took the criticism and placed it in the back of her mind, remembering that, however without proper tutelage she won't know how to fix her errors. More in due time.

"Thanks, Yume!" she said enthusiastically before a loud sound could be heard, jolting Kaori a bit. The noise took her by surprise. She turned her eyes towards the creature that made the noise and hid behind Yume for a moment. "Monster!" she shouted out, keeping distance from the creature. She had never seen a horse before so seeing one so suddenly didn't sit too well with her. It was then that Yume mentioned that she'd be riding in that. While it's assumed she would be riding in the carriage being pulled by those monsters, she backed off a bit as Yume had approached the coach.

"So you're saying that's not a monster?" she asked in reference to Yume saying that animals didn't like her. Strange. It did look a little bit like a deer, if not bigger and with a more whippy tail than one. Yume had jumped into the coach and offered to take her to the promotion. With a smile, while staying away from the creature, she declined. "I'll have to meet you there, Yume. I have a few things I need to do at the Shrine, but I'll be sure to pay you a visit though," she said with the same big smile upon her face. As much time as she could spend with Yume, she would. Well, within reason and to not get on her nerves anyway.

"Don't worry, I'll be there. It won't be hard to find because I'll see fans everywhere. I'll meet you there, okay!" she said as she waved to Yume. As she moved away from Yume, she looked at Manager for a moment and threw her nose into the air before running back towards the Shrine.​

[I'll be sure to join ^^]
[Topic Left]