Music for the Silence

First Joint Practice

After the bands' meet-and-greet, the next day, Shizuka was cleaning up around CiRCLE's cafe, as per usual. It was a morning, and almost time for the live house to open up.

As she cleaned up around the counter, the mute looked to the

The mute looked at her sketchbook she had set on the counter, specifically at the page it was on, featuring what seemed to be a daily schedule for the next few days.

'After school today, around late noon, PoPiPa and PasuPare will come for that joint practice...' she thought.

The other day, when Marina returned with the owner's permission for the smaller show, the manager had asked for each band's schedule so they could get some nice practice in for the events. At first, majority didn't find it necessary, until Marina pointed out that, as they were all going to be doing the two shows together, the bands should collaborate together during their practice sessions for a better chance of success for the events. After they were given the schedules, Shizuka drew out the date and time on her sketchbook, indicating which pair of bands would be practicing on which date and time. Soon, PoPiPa and PasuPare, short for Pastel*Palettes, were to report to their joint session first.

'Should I prepare drinks for them?' Shizuka wondered.

"I'm first~!" came a cheery voice.

"Second!" followed another voice.

The mute turned and saw all of PoPiPa arriving at CiRCLE. Two of the five, though, seemed exhausted.

Shizuka was surprised to see the group so early in the morning and wrote, "You girls are early today."

"Ah haha... Kasumi said she couldn't wait much longer and woke us all up. Even made us all run all the way here," Saya noticed and explained.

"Shizu-chan~! Is CiRCLE open right now?" the cat-eared hair-style girl asked.

"You made us all run here without knowing if it's open or not?!" Arisa shouted, before falling on her knees and trying to catch her breath once more.

"Kasumi-chan is really looking forward to the event, isn't she?" Rimi said, recovered from the run.

"I know I am," Tae said. "I want to hurry up and play!"

A stomach growl was then heard, and eyes turned to Kasumi, who let out a weak chuckle.

"Kasumi... You had three bowls of rice for breakfast at my place! How can you be hungry again?!" Arisa demanded.

"B-But... we ran all the way here," Kasumi reasoned.

"You're the one who made us run!"

"Now, now. Calm down, you two," Saya spoke, getting between the pair before turning to Shizuka. "Sorry, but is the cafe open? As you can see, one of us is hungry."

The mute nodded and pulled out a menu behind the counter.

"Whoa! There's even a breakfast menu here?" Tae asked, looking through the booklet with Saya.

"I'm kind of hungry, too," Rimi spoke.

"Is there anything with rice on the menu?" Kasumi asked.

"Wait a second, do you even have the money?" Arisa questioned.

Kasumi held back a flinch, in which Shizuka and the rest of the band noticed.

"I'm not paying for you," the twin-tailed quickly said.

"B-But, Arisa~!" the vocalist whined.

"Don't go begging for me to pay! Besides, I didn't bring any money, either."