Akito looked down at the paper on the park bench, tapping his pencil against it and only paying attention to the noise of it against the wood. He hummed, quickly scratching the barely sharpened pencil against the paper as the words quickly came into his mind. He smiled lightly, staring at them, though as he reread them, something felt off about them. Was it the word choice? Was it the general pacing of the lyrics? He looked down at them, completely unsure, his confidence almost immediately disappearing as soon as it had arrived. His eyes narrowed as he reread them over and over again, tightly gripping the sheet.

"I'll rewrite it later," he murmured, continuing down the sheet, yet each word he etched into the paper sounded wrong in his head. The lines didn't mix, they didn't work together, instead conflicting and turning into some sort of mush, unable to sound decent if incorporated into a song, no matter the genre. He grunted, looking at the lyrics with frustration and some sort of hatred. Akito ripped it in half, shoving it into a trash can by the bench.

He sighed, resting his head against his palm as he attempted to calm down, listening to whoever still lived in the street sing.

Singing.

Singing.

He jerked his head up as one particular voice caught his attention, one he had clearly remembered. He could recognize her voice, though slightly tilted his head to the side as he listened carefully to the other, far more high pitched voice. It reminded him of a hamster, in a way, but he brushed the thought away as he racked through foggy memories, searching for any person who could have that voice. No one. Unless it were to be someone he had only ever spoken to once, though he doubted it. He'd prefer to not admit his memory wasn't absolutely perfect regarding people had met when he was just sixteen. Sure, he was in fact just sixteen, but Akito still wanted to believe he could remember everything from back then with no faults.

He shook his head, clearing the somewhat disruptive thoughts from his head, and looked at the girl singing from afar. An. His eyes widened somewhat from surprise, having thought she moved away. He didn't understand why Toya and An still lived there. He didn't understand how he managed to encounter them. It wasn't as though it was large enough to avoid both of them, yet it was incredibly unlikely.

He couldn't figure out whether he was lucky or unlucky, he wasn't sure if he should simply run away and forget they exist.

He wanted to have the same relationships he had with them before, he- his family- had never been in one place long enough to truly befriend anyone.

Yet, did it truly matter if he stayed in the same area?

Akito was only BAD DOG.

Akito was no one else.

Akito was only a slightly famous singer.

Akito was not meant for close relationships.

Akito was not supposed to be an editor.

Akito is BAD DOG.

It would leave a bitter taste in his mouth whenever someone asked about his career, it would only bring memories of Vivid Street. He'd say he moved on, he'd lie and pretend like that street was never relevant in his life, like it never mattered to him in the slightest. But he never did, he couldn't get himself to move on. As long as his current 'name', his ex-singing partner, his writer were perfectly outlined in otherwise blurred memories, he didn't believe he'd be able to.

"Dude, are you okay?" The black and blue haired girl said, snapping her fingers in front of the ginger's face.
"Wh...yeah, An," he stuttered out, momentarily paralyzed by surprise.
"You've been staring at us for what, ten minutes?" She said, her voice laced with feigned annoyance. She crossed her arms, looking down at him as the 'hamster' girl approached, standing behind An. "Could've said hi or something."
"Sorry," Akito murmured, quickly averting both of their gazes. He could hear a quiet, short chuckle coming from the girl, and a confused squeak from the other.
"It's fine, but, dude, where's that cockiness you had back then?" She said with a slight smirk, before sitting down next to him on the wooden bench. He sighed, briefly glancing at her before looking at the other one. She looked oddly familiar despite him having never seen her before- or at least, he was certain he hadn't.

He shook his head, tightly gripping the edge of his shirt, mentally cursing the awkwardness abruptly brought upon him.

He hadn't faced this issue in months, years even, of being too nervous or uncomfortable to speak to people he already knew. He didn't even deal with this peculiar anxiety when speaking to fans or upcoming musicians, yet it forced itself full force into him the moment he had come back to his hometown.

He wasn't exactly fond of this feeling tugging at his chest.

"So, how've you been?" An said, hastily changing the topic as she leaned back, slowly inching towards the ginger.
"I've been fine, nothing's really changed," Akito shrugged, still avoiding direct eye contact. She only nodded in response, not vocally responding. Definitely not a great topic changer, he thought to himself. "And I see you've got a new singing partner?" He said, his tone a mixture of accidental harshness and flatness.
"Yeah, actually! Her name's Kohane- Kohane Azusawa- and we partnered up a few weeks after you left. Well, after Toya had told us you moved away," Akito shot her a confused glance at the mention of his writer, "and we've been doing pretty well. Not as good as you though, I guess, since I've heard some weird ass rumors that the 'this one dude's gonna revive our street' or whatever. And with your return, it'd make sense if you were that one guy," she started, clearly about to lead into a long-winded rant or monologue that Akito wasn't particularly interested in.
"Right, yeah, what do you mean Toya told you? You two were never even on speaking terms," he said, the old confidence in his voice that An remembered abruptly coming back.
"We started talking after you left."
"Oh."

Silence wedged itself between the two once more, neither acknowledging Kohane's presence. It was like a sticky liquid, attaching itself between sentences, oozing out of any awkwardness that dared to make itself present between them; Like a parasite that neither of them had an immunity towards.

"Uhm, Akito, right?" Kohane said nervously as he tilted his head towards her. "Aoyagi talked a lot about you," she spoke in a rather hushed tone, unsure how to break the building tension between the two. She was fairly certain she was only adding to it.
"He did?" The ginger raised his eyebrows, genuine surprise slipping onto his mildly flushed face even as his voice remained mostly monotonous. He didn't know what it was that he was surprised about. On any regular day, he'd fully believe it, he would've willingly be naive enough to think he was that important to Toya, but he couldn't get himself to rid of the doubt in his chest.
"Yeah!" She nodded excitedly, happy to get any other emotion other than discomfort out of him. "Akiyama did too, but we didn't really speak much."
"Mizuki?" He said, cocking his head to the side. His prior thoughts disappeared for a brief moment, instead something akin to amusement taking its place.
"Actually, have you talked to her at all? She's become decently well-known, so I'm just wondering."

Probably a poor idea to bring that up.

His face immediately dropped again, shuffling closer to the side of the bench as he looked away as though there was any other activity happening.

"I'm gonna go now," he said after a few moments of concerned silence, quickly walking away. He could faintly hear An calling out his name, yet he ignored her, instead hastening his pace.

He just needed a moment to rebuild his confidence that had nearly completely fell during those prior moments.

Just a moment.

...
...
...

After a few minutes of walking back to his apartment complex, he abruptly paused and turned around halfway, looking at the girl still sprinting towards him. After almost knocking into him, she looked at him with a combination of pride, nervousness, and embarrassment, she started speaking.

"Mind coming to my house tomorrow?"

What?

"I live at #######, #####."

What?

And that was all she had said before walking away, back towards the park they had both just left.

He stood there, dumbfounded.

Maybe he could go, he'd enjoy a less awkward catch-up, assuming his own nerves wouldn't drag him down once more.

He wasn't fond of that feeling of inferiority, of embarassment.

It had become another part of his identity long ago, though.
•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•
WORD COUNT: 1453
sorry for the absolute MESSINESS of this chapter btw. the first two or three paragraphs were written in like. June and the rest was written over the course of two weeks. and sorry for the lower quality in the ending and if he seems a bit more out of character than the other two chapters :3

also please point out any inconsistencies