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V4 Chapter 11: Brotherhood Is in the Heart.
🕑 Added 2025-05-27 06:40:47 +0000 UTCIn a moment of panic, Shiina Taki grabbed Kazami Haru by the wrist.
Under her sister Shiina Maki's shocked gaze, she yanked Haru into the room and slammed the door shut behind them. Haru swore he heard the faint click of a lock turning.
Wait a second, she definitely locked it just now, didn't she?
Sure, this wasn't Haru's first time in a girl's room, but… something about this time felt off.
Shiina Taki stared sharply at the now-locked door before turning around to face Haru. Her soft, violet eyes—like butterfly wings caught in twilight—locked intensely onto his.
She stood there, brow furrowed, tense for several seconds before letting out a weary sigh.
"…Sit."
"So fast?"
"…Huh?"
Taki looked confused for a moment, but before she could say anything, Haru was already seated at the edge of her bed.
Unlike the luxurious room of their rich bandmate Chihaya Anon, Taki's was small and modest—just a plain single bed, a desk, and a computer. Other than a Mr. Panda keychain hanging here and there, there wasn't much else.
It didn't feel like a girl's room at all.
"...How did you even find my house, Kazami?"
Taki, in her loose loungewear, didn't sit down. She leaned against the wooden door, arms crossed. Her usually cold expression looked more tired than harsh today, and even her voice had lost some of its usual steel.
"Special intel network, of course."
There was no way Haru was going to rat out Umiri. He might need to rely on that good bro again for more info in the future.
"…Hah?"
"If you hadn't been ignoring your messages, I wouldn't have had to come all the way here."
He added the reason for his visit as if stating the obvious.
He'd sent her several messages yesterday and today. She didn't even read them. What else was he supposed to do, wait forever?
"Tch…"
Taki went quiet. Her violet eyes, usually sharp and cool, now looked dim and lifeless.
She hadn't answered because she'd been running away.
She'd spent the last two days working non-stop and still couldn't finish the track.
Rushing the composition had left her completely sleep-deprived. Just before Maki knocked earlier, she'd passed out on her desk. Even now, she was exhausted, and it showed in the drop in her voice.
"…There's a problem with the composition, isn't there?"
Haru got up and walked to her desk, casually asking the question.
It had been the first thing he noticed when he entered—the scattered sheet music, crumpled drafts, and empty cans of coffee and energy drinks.
One glance at the chaos was enough for him to guess what her last two days had looked like.
Taki had shouldered the full burden of the arrangement and had pushed herself too hard trying to meet expectations.
And clearly, it hadn't gone well.
"…So what if there is?"
Her tone stiffened, and she squeezed her arms tighter across her chest.
Frustration and guilt were eating away at her, like a black hole swallowing her thoughts.
She could hide here in her small room, shut herself off. But now, Kazami Haru had chased her all the way home. She had no escape left, nothing but to stand here and take it.
She couldn't write a melody worthy of his work.
"No big deal. Just wasn't expecting it."
Haru picked up a draft of her sheet music, scanning the lines of melody she'd written. His dark eyes, deep and strangely calm, studied every note.
That blank, unsurprised expression—like he'd expected this all along—tightened something in Taki's chest like a vice.
That face said: Of course you failed.
As if he never even expected anything from her.
Then why the hell did he say he trusted her?!
"You're here to laugh at me, aren't you?!"
Fury flared on Taki's pale, worn-out face. She grabbed Haru by the collar and, before he could react, slammed him down onto the bed. Her violet eyes burned with frustration, swirling with fire.
One hand fisted his shirt. The other dug into the mattress beside him.
The stress, the sleep deprivation, the emotional build-up, it all boiled over at once. Her already tense personality snapped under pressure. But in those vivid eyes, rimmed with unshed tears, was something else too.
A fragile shimmer.
Shiina Taki bit her lip hard, doing everything she could to keep from breaking down.
"…"
Haru didn't react. He just looked up at her, calm and steady, as she let it all out.
Why wasn't he scolding her?
Taki had been ready for it. She was prepared to see disappointment in his eyes, to see him give up on her, to lose hope.
But he didn't say a word.
The silence only made the knot in her chest twist tighter. That unbearable, gnawing self-doubt and helplessness surged up again.
"I can't do it…"
In the dim light of the room, her deep violet eyes stayed locked on his face.
What looked like a furious expression was layered with something heavier. Sorrow. Weight. Tears threatened to spill, and in that moment, her normally unshakable image seemed delicate and defenseless.
"I'm nothing like you!"
Her voice cracked, raw and frayed like a kite with its string cut, on the verge of collapse.
What came naturally to a genius like Kazami Haru. What was "normal," what was "easy" was utterly impossible for her.
Her whole life, she'd lived under the blinding shadow of a prodigy older sister. Even when she formed CRYCHIC and met Togawa Sakiko, Taki could only look up to people like them from below.
And now, Kazami Haru too.
He had a gift she couldn't even imagine.
Even his rough drafts blew her carefully learned composition skills to pieces.
She'd been breaking herself trying to write a melody that could stand next to his intro. No matter how hard she worked, no matter how many sleepless nights she spent, she couldn't make it.
Sure, she could slap together something "passable" just to get by…
But she'd never forgive herself for that.
It'd be an insult to Haru's music. Worse, it'd be a betrayal of Anon's lyrics, written with everything she had.
"Hah…"
Watching Shiina Taki silently stare at him with those beautiful eyes, Kazami Haru finally let out a long, quiet sigh.
Her emotional outburst earlier seemed to have released a lot of the negativity she'd been bottling up, but even so, those sparkling little pearls in her eyes—her tears—kept falling, dripping onto his face.
In the end, this was his fault too.
He'd put too much faith in Taki-bro.
Growing up in a household that only saw her as "the genius's little sister," no one had ever expected anything of her. No one even bothered comparing her to her sister, Shiina Maki. They just… ignored her.
Invisible from the start.
And yet, Taki—so weighed down by inferiority—had a pride that was impossible to shake. She couldn't stand being dismissed. She desperately wanted recognition. She wanted to prove herself. All because she couldn't bear being invisible.
And Haru, who'd always understood her character and her talent, had believed in her from the very beginning.
So for once, Shiina Taki had accepted someone's trust.
She'd poured herself into her work, stayed up night after night, fighting through exhaustion, just to live up to that trust. She didn't want to turn his expectations into disappointment.
But in trying to meet that trust, she'd locked herself into a one-way street, lost in a darkness of her own making.
"…Taki, you're running in circles."
Haru, feeling the weight of her against him, furrowed his brow in quiet frustration.
It was the first time Taki had seen him look so stern.
"You're trying to please me, composing in my style just to meet my standards, but you never let go and wrote something that's yours. Sure, you could've just handed it off to me like before, but could you really live with that?"
"This song… we're creating it together!"
As the wise grass-eating sage Yamada Ryou once said—
Losing your individuality is the same as death.
Haru had once told Taki her compositions were a little too "safe." It wasn't just about holding back, it was that her melodies lacked her own voice.
And that voice is the soul of a band.
Taki hadn't even put her true self into it and was already giving up on herself.
"Do it again! Write what you want to write!"
"I told you, I can't—"
"I said you can! And that's final!"
Something shifted quietly between them.
The usually laid-back Haru was now being uncharacteristically firm. And Taki—usually stubborn, proud, and unyielding—stood there weary and shaken.
Scolded like that, Taki was momentarily at a loss.
Of course she didn't want to give up.
Of course she couldn't accept just compromising.
"…So annoying."
She snapped her head up, those violet eyes now brimming with tears.
Their faces were only inches apart.
"Fine! I'll do it, okay?!"
Her voice was fierce, like a last-ditch effort. Then, with a growl, she let go of Haru's collar and spun around, stomping over to her desk chair and flopping down into it.
That fire still smoldered inside her.
Haru let out a small breath of relief as she finally let him go. He watched her slip on her headphones, her fingers flying over the keyboard with determined tap-tap-taps. His lips curled up into a faint smile.
His faith in Taki-bro had never wavered.
"…"
He took a deep breath.
His gaze landed on her profile, so delicate and striking in the sunlight.
The way her lips were pressed into a tight line, those still-reddened eyes with a glassy haze… that small beauty mark beneath her left eye… and those pale, slender legs peeking out—
Nope. Nope nope.
Haru yanked the curtain open in a flash, flooding the room with sunlight and redirecting his gaze.
Can't look anymore. Gotta protect the brotherhood…
Haru ended up staying in Taki's room for quite a while.
The opened curtains let golden sunlight spill into the once dim space. At some point, Maki came in with tea and snacks. But after that, her gaze on him grew weirdly suspicious.
After all, Taki had pulled him in and yanked the door shut so forcefully she locked it.
Not to mention the yelling earlier had definitely not been quiet. Maki, being the gossip-loving type, had almost certainly been eavesdropping.
So yeah, Haru being misunderstood was pretty much guaranteed.
Just think about it—
Your precious little sister argues behind closed doors with a handsome teenage boy. A while later, you walk in and the bedsheets are rumpled, the guy's shirt is wrinkled…
Who wouldn't jump to conclusions?
Click.
The tapping at the keyboard suddenly stopped.
"…Haru."
Taki's voice was calm again. She'd clearly cooled down over the past while. Her expression was composed now, but her eyes stared directly at him.
Haru knew exactly what that meant.
"Already done?"
He popped the last cookie in his mouth and took a sip of tea.
"…Just listen."
She tilted her head and scooted aside, making room for him.
"Alright, I'm giving it a shot."
Haru moved next to her, took the headphones from her hands, and put them on.
Then, Taki hit play.
The music filled his ears.
It began with a graceful, flowing melody—light and soothing. Then, right in the middle, a sudden shift. After a moment of silence, the song surged forward with a main melody that hit hard, like a wave crashing through calm seas.
It was abrupt, yet seamless—like a slingshot reversal.
Even Haru blinked in surprise.
This composition was nothing like before.
For the first time, he heard Taki's voice in the music. It was brilliant. Raw. And unexpectedly beautiful.
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"…Well?" Taki asked, trying to sound as cool as ever. But the faint wrinkle in her brow betrayed her nervousness.
Haru didn't answer right away.
Instead, he took off the headphones slowly and gave her a meaningful, quiet smile.
No words.
But it said everything.
"…Still need to finish the outro. Should be done tonight."
Clearly flustered, Taki turned her head. She'd never felt truly acknowledged before, not like this. There was a weird, unfamiliar warmth in her chest.
And that feeling… came from Haru.
She could live as herself. On her own terms.
"See? Easy peasy."
Haru grinned with just a bit of smugness. And for once, Taki didn't snap at him.
She just looked at him like he was an idiot.
Maybe she was starting to get used to him.
"Well, since you're doing better now, I guess I'll head home."
Haru stood and grabbed another cookie on his way out.
With Taki-bro's situation sorted, it was time to throw himself into live rehearsals full force.
The show was just around the corner.
Taki had almost finished their second song, but Haru still had to write the third. The daily grind of band practice wouldn't leave him time to think about anything else.
"…Haru."
She hesitated. Looked like she wanted to say something.
Her sharp eyes softened.
Just as he turned to leave, she finally called out—
"…Thanks. For this."
What?!
Haru froze.
Did… did Taki-bro just thank him? In a soft voice?
Was that really Taki and not her sister Maki in disguise?
The hell—if she's saying thanks now, what's next? Secretly falling for him?
"If you ghost us again tomorrow, I'm bringing everyone here to box you."
"Shut up!"
Taki yelled after him, but her face had relaxed.
Kazami Haru, that idiot—
Aside from his annoyingly pretty face, he actually had some decent qualities too.
