Timeless Moments

Two Years Ago

It's been exactly 2 years.

It was the 22nd of the month when Itsuki 'Ikki' Kaminari, owner of Underground- the bar I am working for 2 years already, introduced his sister as the new bartender moonlighting in Underground. Underground is not called like that just for show, yes the first and second floor was really just a Disco bar but under it there is illegal gambling that many politicians even from Tokyo went there to play. Anyway, this sister of his was already wearing the ugly bartender uniform complete with black bandana and fingerless gloves. I can quite see she is not ugly at all but not that pretty also because of her ugly get-up. I was sort of daydreaming when she spoke.

"Hello everyone, I'm Minami Kaminari. I hope we got along well, please take care of me" she really needs to introduce herself because Ikki was very informative in introducing her. He just said, "Hey, she is my sister and she'll be moonlighting as of today." What a bastard... but he's a lot different around Minami, he was kind of protective and sweet, he kissed her forehead before going to his office upstairs. Since Ikki already left, all of us return to normal then.

I am a member of the number one band in the bar (I need to boast it because we really work hard for it, there is annual battle of the bands in the bar and the one who wins or the one who got the highest vote will get half a year bonus and the number one spot.). We are called Evergreen for a lame reason that we didn't think of any name and Ikki need to introduce us. Yukinoji 'Yuki' Saika, our lead guitarist was drinking some kind of fund raising water that is labeled Evergreen, Ikki came to see it because the name was like saying hello to him and he just said it- Voila! We had a very out-of-place band name.

I was leaning on the railing on the second floor one night and watching the people entering the bar (the second floor of the bar was just on the edge of the premise so you can see from there the happenings from the ground floor and besides the place that faces the door are for staffs.) when I noticed it was Minami handing mask, there is kind of ritual in the bar that from 8pm to 11pm, the patrons are suppose to wear masquerade mask, it was the theme of the bar so that people can't know each other. It was to give the patrons the atmosphere that Underground is 'trying' to be illegal. She too was wearing a glittered purple mask and everytime she moves it catches light that she seems to glow. I watched her gave mask until Yuri Oda; a waitress, came to switch place with her. I watched Minami wipe cocktail glasses and start sorting something below the counter. It was crazy for me but I was bent on looking on what she was doing that I didn't notice Yuki came beside me and slap the mask in face. "Stop daydreaming bro, let's go downstairs." He mocked. "But we are going to play by 12 midnight, what's the rush?" I asked lazily. "Yes we are but we are going to eat first. Let's go." He prodded. Yuki will really be a nuisance if I didn't obey him especially he's hungry so I descend with him.

We played when everyone was not wearing mask now and the lights are dim to complete black. I sung our routine and played two extras before descending and wait for the final song. To our surprise, the crowd still asks for encore so we played another two set of songs, this is unusual because today is a weekday so there's still work for them tomorrow. By the end of our shift, I was spent.

It was catastrophic that our cases got mixed up on the other band's cases so after we finally sort what is ours, we turned to the jack and extensions we used. We are the last band to leave and we are on the act when we saw Minami and Yuri drinking sodas. Oh, how tempting those drinks are to me! Our other members came to left us while I think of something else.