Carried in by the Gentle Wind

CHAPTER 10

     You used a foot to push against your desk, causing your swiveling chair to spin at dizzying speeds. In the background, your speaker was playing at a considerably low volume, in accordance with the late time. As the spinning slowed to a stop, for a brief second, you allowed a stupid smile to slip through the corner of your lips. You didn't usually listen to your own songs, especially not the older ones, because you could feel the goosebumps of cringe running up your arms, but today, you made an exception. Mm, more specifically, an exception for the voice. For  softly murmured cadences, and their sweet owner. It was so odd. You knew that these were your songs. Heck, you could still recall slaving over some of their lyrics, but somehow, Kazuha had completely reformed them without changing a single note, giving them a new feel, and a new style. It was clean and smooth; pleasing to hear. Sitting up straight after your moment of pleasure, you silently thanked whoever it was that decided Kaedehara Kazuha wouldn't be debuting as a singer, at least before you made a name for yourself. Man, you'd have been left in the dust if he had debuted around the same time as you, especially with that appearance of his. 

     How does he even manage to look appealing in a simple sweater?? Wh-.... Mmph.

     You stood up abruptly to walk over to your bed. Your brain kept subconsciously jumping back to a certain person, the way their face lit up when they teased you, their adorable way of frowning, their smiles full of warmth... Their voice. You hastily reached for your phone and turned off the music, fearing that you'd drive yourself insane if you kept listening to it. You let your head fall silently on your pillow, hugging another oversized one as you allowed your mind to wander.

     .... Hold up, wasn't I supposed to do something when I got home?

     You racked your brain for an answer, rewinding the events of the day in hopes of satisfying your sudden desire for more efficient memory. Unfortunately, the day was long, and all you could really remember was the red sweater with the black tassels. And the guitar. And the face. The eyes, the smil-

     You stopped yourself there, reprimanding your surely malfunctioning consciousness.

     I mean, sure, he's attractive, but is he reeeeeeally that appealing?

     You groaned as your brain immediately responded with a mental, "Yes," slamming your face into your pillow in the process. After a moment of silence, you raised your head from the pillow, grumbling with distaste. Seriously, as much as your head tried to shove him out of your mind, all your fingers were doing was leading your outstretched hand to see if ... someone might have left you a text. As you should have known, your notification tray was clean as usual, despite the fact you hasn't touched it in the last five hours.

     ...I thought I was supposed to prepare for slews of texts per day.

     Your expression painted with evident boredom, mixed with perhaps the slightest amount of disappointment that you subconsciously denied, your finger continued to swipe up and down through your rather pathetically short list of contacts, just grazing the quick call function that showed up with the names. Once your finger was tired, you stopped, briefly remarking who your finger was on before lifting it off the screen.

     Xi...ao? AH-

     You flipped over to lie on your back, your phone screen glaring at you from above. There it was. The thing your brain was nagging you about. You were going to make a group chat that night. Quickly opening up your messaging app, you scrolled through your contacts, searching for Kazuha, and then Xiao. All that was left for you to do was to send a message to finalize the group, and after deciding what the best greeting was, you decided on a simple, "Hey! This is Stellis, by the way." In the midst of typing however, your fingers went lax, the corner of your phone headed straight for your face. Thankfully, with your amazing reflexes, you managed to catch it between your thumb and palm, heaving a sigh of relief when you had a secure grasp on your precious device. To reassure yourself that you weren't about to drop it on your face again, you sat up in your bed, turning your phone over to reveal....