Carried in by the Gentle Wind

CHAPTER 1

     Soft... giggles? ...Days flashing.... No. That's not it.. Ugh. A pile of messy notes sprawled all over your desk, you released the bubbling sigh of distress that was blocking your throat. Your two month long hiatus already threatening to approach its end, you knew you couldn't stall for any longer. It was time to admit it. You were experiencing writer's block... maybe also with a side of burnout. This was ridiculous. Your deadline was making a beeline for your face, and you knew that you wouldn't be able to hand in anything solid by then.

     A few mellow notes started playing, as vibrations rippled through your desk. Of course he's calling nowwww. You groan as you reach for your phone hidden under a mass of rejected song ideas, taking a moment to prepare yourself before answering your call to impending doom.

     "Y/n..."

     You ran a hand through your hair, tightly locking your finger with the ends of it.

     "Look. I'm really sorry. I tried very hard, I really did. But I don't think I can submit anything even after the end of my hiatus, I'm sorry."

     Your caller sighed. "That's not why I'm calling."

     You tilted your head to one side. "Huh?"

     A pleasant, somewhat awkward chuckle coming from the phone immediately released a bit of your tension, and you let your finger free from its blood-flow-restricting trap.

     "I mean, well yeah it's related but uh... Now, please dun kill me but, we er, got you a new lyricist..?"

     Your relieved face vanished, quickly replaced with one of stoic murderous intent.

     "You what."

     "..Ehe...."

     "Not funny, Venti."

     "I'm sorry.."

     "If you're sorry, you wouldn't ever sign me up to work with random strangers without letting me know first!"

     You couldn't help but complain. Was it really your fault that you didn't want to work with other people? None of them were reliable enough, and you didn't even get to do a little bit of checking to make sure they would align with your work ethics.

     Venti sighed once more. "It's not by choice. You know that your fans are on a really long content drought, and they will eventually lose interest.. It's not like we can shove you into an entertainment program and call it a day either."

     You stayed silent, trying to think of ways to argue, but you were at your wit's end. Of course they couldn't use conventional methods to provide more content. You were a popular singer, whose face went unrevealed, whose real name went unrevealed. One of your concepts had to do with a bit of innocent mysterious aura, which added a slight bit to your appeal. Some personal issues also prevented you from revealing your figure to the public. Ever since you've gone on hiatus however, your fans were left with nothing much to do, and you could tell they were starting to get a little tired from the lack of communication. It seemed you'd have to accept this lyricist, or whatever.

     "Fine."

     Venti notably gasped on the other side, a little taken aback at your lack of intense protest. "For real? You don't mind?"

     You frowned, a deathly, frosty glare directed at unfortunately, the air. "Oh I mind, but there's nothing I can do about it. I can't come up with a better option right now."

     Venti cleared his throat. "Ahem, well. Least we're on the same page. Oh, you can look him up by the way.. Kaede. He's an extremely talented up and coming lyricist, who hasn't made much of a name for himself yet. If we can get him to sign a long lasting contract with our company, it'll give us an advantage in the long run."

     Kaede... Why does that sound oddly familiar?

     "Alright, I got you. I'm kinda busy now though, so..."

     "Uh huh! See you in a few days, Y/n!"

     "Few days better not be because you didn't carry around enough money to pay for your own booze."

     "Hehe~ byee!"

     You rolled your eyes jokingly as he hung up, leaving you in blissful silence. Maybe it was his attitude that a bit too positively easygoing, but he was terribly difficult to hate. Pulling up your phone's default browser, you sumered 'kaede lyricist'. A few opinion blog posts and small scale news articles peppered your search results, but not so much a single picture of him. Huh. Is this guy camerashy? You didn't think much of it though, since, well, you're quite the one to speak. You eventually managed to find a snippet of his compositions, and was pleasantly surprised to find the gentle flowing of his verses, and the catchy little rhymes. Sometimes sweet, others a little dark, mostly very flowy, fluid. Huh. You actually kinda liked them. They sounded pretty close to your songs, and if working with him meant reducing your workload, hell, who are you to say no? Then you could actually focus more of your attention on the actual singing part of the job. Glancing over at the graveyard of ideas that occupied your desk at the moment, you found yourself heaving a sigh of relief. Y'know what, maybe this isn't going to be so bad. 

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A/N: What is googling? I only know of sumering (this edit is mine.)

(Also if you're reading this, you've got some courage, especially since I already warned you about the lack of completion rates this has, and also... my writing is bad so it has less of a 'success' rate in general. I'm sorry for wasting your time, but also thank you)