𝙼𝚊𝚍𝚎 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝙰 𝙼𝚒𝚡𝚝𝚊𝚙𝚎 - 𝙷. 𝚈𝚊𝚖𝚊𝚍𝚊 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

Chapter Three

Yamada wandered into the radio station's break room around ten-thirty that night to put on a pot of coffee. When he walked over to the fridge to grab coffee creamer, his lips pulled up into a huge grin. Why? Because stuck underneath that cute little black treble clef magnet was a lined sheet of notebook paper with a new playlist written on it.

After fixing his coffee the way he liked it, the blond brought his mug along with the new paper to the table and began to create a playlist in his music library to compile the songs before pressing play on the first one. Yamada kicked his feet up onto the table as the music played off of his device, nodding his head along with the beat of the first tune - one that he'd never heard before.

While to most, this wouldn't be an unusual occurrence, to Yamada, it most definitely wasn't something that happened often. He immersed himself in the music scene as much as possible and especially enjoyed songs in English. He even encourages his students to listen to music in that language to help them get a better grasp of it. He listened to many different American radio stations and constantly sought out new music and up-and-coming artists, so for him, this was a real treat.

Aoki rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand as she made her way into the building, pausing only when she heard the beat from track six on her playlist floating out of the break room. Oh god. He's here? It's only eleven... I have to prep...

The brunette's shoulders slumped as she came to the conclusion that she was so not ready to meet Present Mic yet and that meant that she couldn't go to the break room to make a much-needed cup of coffee. Aoki's feet dragged as she shuffled over to the production room and slid into the familiar squeaky chair she occupied most days, pulling up a browser window in the station's server to find Ito's folder with the prep work.

After a few minutes of perusing the information, she pulled her earbuds out of her hooded sweatshirt's pocket and plugged them into her phone to listen to music while she absorbed the information necessary for tonight's show. In her state of concentration, Aoki didn't keep track of the time and so she was unaware of the pair of amused eyes studying her from the doorway.

Yamada crossed his arms as he leaned against the frame of the production room door, a smirk pulling up his lips as he watched this stranger lip-synch to a song while tapping their foot and scrolling through a document on the computer. He watched as she ran a hand through her wavy brown hair to keep the shorter layers at bay while her head bobbed to the tempo of whatever she was listening to. After a minute or two, Yamada realized she was too absorbed in the task at hand to take notice of his presence and he walked over to the desk and leaned against it.

The female's body jolted from being startled, her cheeks immediately flushing a deep red as she quickly pulled out her earbuds. "Oh, hah, sorry...guess I lost track of time."

"No harm done," Yamada chuckled and held out a friendly hand for her to shake. "Hizashi Yamada."

"Aika Aoki," she replied as she timidly shook his hand, gazing up at him from her chair and noting that he looked quite different out of his hero costume. His blond hair was relaxed and loosely pulled up into a bun at the back of his head, his glasses weren't huge and gaudy, just simple black plastic frames, and his outfit was simple - straight-leg jeans and a fitted navy sweater. Her cheeks flushed further as one thought crossed her mind: he's even more handsome in person.

"Aoki?" He questioned with a slight tilt of his head. "I was told someone named Ito would be working with me."

"Yeah, Reiji called me earlier and asked me to cover for tonight," her hand made its way to the back of her neck as she glanced away. "He um, wasn't feeling well."