Home away (sakuatsu)

Part 7

"Tsumu!" I jumped at the sudden shout of my name before whipping my head around to see my manger and best friend, Shiki. "Shi-Chan? What's up?" I twirled my chair around to face her as I smiled. "Someone by the name of 'Sunarin' is calling you." She passed me my phone and walked back to the stage manager to discuss somethings. I stared at the screen that was lit by the bold white words and green call button for a second before snapping out of my daze and picking up.

"Suna? Hey! What's up! It's been so long since I last heard from you!" I greeted excitedly as I leaned back in my chair. "Hey Tsumu. Are you free next week, Saturday?" Suna asked. My eyebrow quirked up at the sudden question as I asked why. "You remember our old class chair?" "Yea, Kio right?" I responded, surprised that I still remember his name. "Yea. Him. He wanted to have a class reunion next Saturday at ### restaurant." Suna explained as I checked my schedule. "Yea I should be free. See you and the rest of the class on Saturday!" We said bye and hung up before I was called to start the show.

...

"Bye guys! Have a nice Christmas! Love y'all!" I shouted as I waved and walked off stage to the back. Even after 6 years, I still enjoyed going on stage and performing. It never got old. Shiki handed me a bottle of water as I drank it in one gulp since my throat was getting dry from all the singing and talking. "So how was it?" She asked as she took the bottle from my hands, watching me walk over to my dressing room and plopping down onto the couch that sat next to the table. "As fun as always! Just really tired right now." I replied before hearing an airy chuckle from Shiki. She sat next to me and we talk for a bit. I was never really uncomfortable with Shiki and never had to worry about falling for each other since she was lesbian and I was gay, so we were both comfortable with being alone with each other. We continued talking for about an hour before she shoved me into the bathroom telling me to take a shower before going home to rest.

I sighed when the door closed and laughed a bit. She was like a substitute mother to me since she was doing what my mother would always have to do for example, telling me to go take a shower, reminding me to have proper meals, keeping track of my busy schedule and forcing me to go rest or sleep so I didn't overwork myself. It was not half bad too and I was glad Shiki and my mother got along but not that part where they would complain to each other about me and then gang up on me while Samu just laughed at my misery.

After I took my shower, I took a taxi back to the hotel with Shiki and we parted ways when we went back to our rooms. To my own surprise, I knocked out the moment my face met the soft, warm, cotton pillow, only then realising how worn out and tired I really was. It felt nice to finally get a proper break after working my ass off for the past 2 months leading up to the performance. Extra practices, more vocal training, memorising all the lyrics for the songs I was gong to perform, planing out the aesthetics of the stage, setting the location and accommodations, so on so forth had been flooding my already packed days and so it was only natural for me to be as tired as I was. And hence, it felt like a dream I never wanted to wake up from when I could actually get proper rest. Before sleeping, I had cleared out the next week or so as I wanted to go back to Hyogo and spend time with my family and also since the class gathering would be held in Hyogo too. I couldn't wait for this well deserved break that I would have.