Autumn's Feast - The first love

Part 4

"And now, genius, What did you manage to produce?" Machi pinched him with his big, variegated and beautiful eyes, a challenging smile.
Phinks impassively limited himself, neutrally, to taking out the piece of paper of the famous poem from the half-broken pocket of his jacket and handed it to him.
As he opened it, Pakunoda, Shalnark, Sarasa, Chrollo and Sheila condensed around Machi.
Uvogin and Franklin remained behind the blond friend in front of them, moving only slightly to the sides pretending to crane their necks to see better.
Uvo didn't want to admit it, but his head felt very hot, his unruly afro hair seemed to sizzle, his forehead began to moisten.
Franklin, noticing him with a glance, kicked him on the calf.
They looked at each other, he seemed beside himself with anxiety. Franklin shook his head slightly and accompanied a hint of head shaking by softly closing his eyes.
Uvo's jaws twitched nervously three times, clenching. He pursed his lips and nodded with a nudge of his head.
"What's wrong with you two? Have you already read it...?" Chrollo asked, inviting them to stand next to them.
The two tall boys stood behind the group, bending over to read.
Uvogin's green eyes twitched and without realizing it his voice frowned slightly.
"Hehe" laughed Sarasa "You didn't expect Phinks to have such a sweet and romantic soul either, did you?"
Uvogin reflexively swallowed silently in his nervousness and sketched a cocky smile, crossing his arms.
"Well, it doesn't mean anything... Yes, she's actually cute. But there's an incredible spelling mistake there. At least for the Ryuuseigai language."
"Huh?" someone asked. "Where?" others asked.
He extended a finger and pointed to an offending line.
"Don't you see?" She said.
Phinks' shaved eyebrows twitched slightly, he stretched his neck and stood on tiptoe but no one noticed.
"It's actually more of an interlayer." Paku observed studying the paper.
"Yes, it almost seems like he wanted to imitate your voice, you usually say it Uvo."
He blushed. Franklin raised his antennae in his neutral gaze. Phinks tried to remain as impassive as he could.
The young brute tried to take the chestnuts out of the fire in the way that best suited him and stretched out an irreverent smile, his fists on his hips, a macho look.
"I'm so cool that they imitate me! What a fucking honor, I never would have thought of it!"
Everyone laughed and so did Phinks, scratching his scruff and breathing a sigh of relief.
"So it's true that he wrote it!" Sheila smiled enthusiastically "Last night I saw them near the hill that goes to the forest: Uvo took courage and made that group play it! He must have liked it a lot, he even indicated it. You saw Phinks how red he was!"
"Eheh.. Maybe it was the lights, Sheila.." the blond boy played along, pretending to be embarrassed, holding on to an improvised crutch.
Little Chrollo stepped forward, lightly bumped Uvo's arm and looked him in the eyes; the other frowned slightly and bowed his head but Chrollo turned to Phinks happily.
"It's really a beautiful job, well done!" Chrollo complimented, smiling at him "I didn't know you were so good at poetry! When Paku told me yesterday, I could hardly believe it!"
The protagonist of that little fuss blushed. He wasn't used to so much attention and the benevolent gaze of the original author reassured him.
"Eh, so many stories... I just wrote what I felt, that's all!"
"But it seems dedicated to someone. Come on, tell us, is it for your girlfriend?"
"HAH??" he croaked "I don't have any..."
Franklin pinched him behind his back and jumped.
"Aaahiaa!! Eh, what do you want to do... Let's say... W-what... And – here... L- She is...."
"From another neighborhood." Franklin added.
"Ah, so you know something." Shal insinuated.
He shrugged.
"Normal, these are men's things! Stop bothering him, he's already written for a long time, let's at least give him privacy, right?"
"Well, of course..." Machi muttered.
Uvo laughed under his mustache. The matter was starting to amuse him a lot.
"Privacy does not exist at Riyuuseigai!" Sarasa joked.
"So?" Shalnark crackled, almost climbing onto Feitan. "Shall we do it the same again?"
Uvo turned proudly towards him with a hint of curiosity.
"Did you hear it too?"
Shalnark annuì.
"And she was beautiful! Wow that guitarist was so cool! Phinks seemed very satisfied!"
He smiled felinely and turned back.
"Already...!" he pointed out softly feline.
"But..." Sheila pointed out with a sad hint "There is none of us who knows how to play the guitar..."
They fell into the silence of disappointment, mulling it over.
Uvo, initially conflicted, stood up and proudly furrowed the thinly thick eyebrows of an eighteen-year-old boy.
"Well, it won't be that difficult to learn, right??" he began and puffed out his chest.
"We'll even find a guitar somewhere and I'll learn to play it! No other instrument is needed, we can all sing together!"
They smiled.
"In just nineteen days? Are you sure you can do it?"
"Pfft..." he laughed as if to mock Nobunaga who had exposed his doubt "Child's play. The hand wasn't moving that much which means they made an easy to play song that you can take inspiration from!"
"Maybe..." muttered the boy with long, straight hair. "Even if I have my doubts, you can do it."
"Do you want to shit your dick, dry?" the other point in his pride threatened him.
"I'm just saying that if you've always banged on cymbals, there's no way you'd be able to put your fingers on a guitar, you bastard!" Nobu stiffened "I have a shamisen that I strum every now and then, rather it makes it sound..."
"A shamisen?...." he interrupted him annoyed, stretching his neck and folding his lips downwards.
"And where the fuck did you get it? It's a female tool, what do you do with it?"
Nobu picked up the gauntlet of war.
"I found it, calf's head! It's mine and I'm keeping it, I might as well learn to play it, look, it's an art outside the Riyuuseigai and it's difficult!!"
"For me it's faggot or geisha stuff. Unless you know both."
"The drums, on the other hand, are smashing!"
The pupils inside his green eyes became pins and needles and he inhaled sharply through his nose before taking a menacing step forward.
"This story again...!"
"But Nobu is right, Uvo, maybe it won't be the same with the shamisen but she's the only one who..."
"NOT EVEN FOR AN IDEA!" he exploded with a broad gesture of denial with his arms, hands outstretched in front of him. "You need a guitar, not a Geisha instrument! It has a completely different sound! And – and then..."
Everyone watched him hanging on his lips.
"... And then I want to play it! I would like to be useful, my voice would be too low to be second best. Better that I play and sing the main one, you will sing the other voices."
He smiled brightly
"Trust me, a masterpiece will come!"
Knowing his stubbornness, no one dared to object. After all, he worked so hard for everyone.
It burned as quickly as it relaxed. He held out a hand towards Nobunaga who was taken aback.
"But a helping hand to learn is welcome. Could you teach me the chords?" the big boy smiled.
Nobu looked at him with that beaten look of his, smiled and shook his head.
"You would make a mess without a good one, count on me!" he replied, pointing a thumb at his chest.
They shook hands.
"Perfect!"
"But now... Where can we find the guitar?"
An awkward silence fell.
"Eh." gracchiò Phinks
"Um..." Shalnark groaned.
Pakunoda chuckled under his moustache, Machi looked at his nails.
"Uh...Boh?" echoed Frank's murmur.
Sheila took Uvogin's hand and he almost jumped.
"The Rare Item Seller's Shack!" The beaming girl began, pulling him towards her as she walked "We will definitely find something there, I saw him displaying some tools once!"
"Oh, well in that case..."
"We will meet later, come to the screening room to me! We will study the piece all together!" Chrollo offered, waving at the two who were running towards the center of the neighborhood.
Uvo nodded from afar with a wave of his hand to greet them, while his heart was pounding.