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We had those infuriating stage mics put on our faces and we walked out onto the stage.

Holy shit there's more people than we could see on the live TV connected to our waiting room.

Shit.

I don't know if I can do this.

"Just imagine it's a concert," Zen whispered, "don't get to unsettled or nervous. If you do your nervousness will spread and make people uncomfortable and our message won't be conveyed properly. Don't worry, if you need it, we're here to back you up."

I nodded to him and we lined up at the back of the stage while we waited for Cloudia to arrive.

He arrived a few minutes later and exchanged a few words with us before I took a deep breath in and walked to the front of the stage.

Alright. Here we go.

"Hello, everyone, we are Zodiac, I'm the co leader, f/n l/n, or as I'm known in the group: Leo," I spoke up.

"I'm the bassist, Zen Reishi, or Sagittarius," Zen stepped up beside me and shot me a small smile.

"I'm Chika Kotaro, the pianist and Taurus," Chika said with a blank expression, just lingering slightly behind me.

"And I'm Nanan Iko, the Capricorn and drummer of the group!" Nanan exclaimed loudly and way too cheerfully for what we were here to actually announce.

"And over there is our manager, Cloudia," I pointed to Cloudia who just did a small bow of the head before I took over again, "Zodiac has had a rocky few months recently and the first thing your probably wondering is: where is the fifth member? Where is Rein Kazuto? And that is why we're making this announcement so we can explain to you all what happened to Zodiac and why we disbanded for the past months."

My hands are shaking.

I shoved them in my pockets so no one could see and stood up straight.

Confidence.

"As most of you may already know from our social medias, we had a really bad cyber bullying problem from haters," I started, "we dealt with it pretty swiftly, however, Rein was subjected to a second wave of cyber bullying and it lead to him taking his own life five months ago. We, his friends, had no idea what was going through his head during the weeks leading up to his death, thinking back now there were subtle hints, really subtle and I know I wouldn't have been able to spot them during the time that they were dropped. Like the 'if something happened to me, promise me you'll...' hint. It was painful to watch. I had to watch my best friend die in front of me and until it was happening I had no idea what was going on and..."

Zen placed a hand on my shoulder and gave me a motion similar to 'breathe'.

I took a breath in and levelled out my thoughts.

Come on, y/n, you went through this will Haruhi last night. Don't mess this up or it will have been a waste of her time.

"After Rein died, I decided to leave the band. I stopped playing music, I didn't even listen to it for a while. My guitars were pushed away out of sight and I really abandoned music because it hurt me to even think about it," I confessed and sighed, "it was a stupid act on my part. So stupid that Zen, Chika, Nanan and my new school friends had to devise a plan to make me sing and play music again. They looked pretty pitiful so I just gave in."

"Well that was kind of harsh," Nanan pouted.

"Anyway, we decided that we'll regroup and continue playing music because we love it and we want to keep playing," I said, "Rein always wanted me to keep singing. Until recently, I had totally forgotten the promise I'd made with him. So I guess I broke it, but he also broke a promise to me so I guess we're even. But I'm going to reforge that promise and fulfil it. I'll sing for two people, no I'll sing for everyone who decided to join in on teasing and bullying our friend. We don't hate them, nor do we wish any ill will on them. We just wish that they revise what they think and think about how the words they're saying affect others. This time we lost a close friend and someone we all looked up to a lot, tomorrow it could be someone different, someone we just passed by on the street or spoke to casually in the line in a shop or a café. We'll never know what another person is hiding deep down..."

I looked around the area. Everyone was so silent that you could probably hear a pin drop.

"So the future of Zodiac is clear. We'll join up again and we'll sing and play music. Not just for us this time, but for everyone," I announced, "our first goal to get back into the swing of this is to attend the big music competition: the global bands competition. So anyone else going there, watch out because Zodiac is back and we're not going to give up. We're going to win this for Rein, for our family, our fans and ourselves."

Yeah... As if... Why did Cloudia force me to spout such nonsense?

"That's a promise!" Nanan exclaimed.

"We'll see you on the stage," Zen added on.

"Thank you for listening," Chika nodded his head.

"We've got a whole bunch of new songs for you! So keep yourselves notified," Nanan grinned, "We'll be at the top in no time!"

"Calm down," I sighed, "Thank you for taking your time out of your busy days to come and listen to us. We hope you continue to support us."

With that, we turned and began walking away as the crowd suddenly exploded in a mess of screams, shouts and questions. Thankfully, they could get no where near us so we weren't in any danger of being swamped or anything.

Reporters and fangirls/boys are damn scary.

"Good work, y/n," Cloudia praised me once we were safely in our waiting room again, "you did great."

"Yeah well I was doing internal back flips out of nervousness," I replied, "next time I refuse to do any public speaking like that."

"Good luck trying not to draw the short straw," Zen replied, patting my shoulder as we gathered our stuff up and walked out of the entrance, once we got out we noticed there were people on both sides of the door held back by barricades and big muscly men who looked like they could probably crush me in their hands.

"Y/n!" someone shouted from behind once we reached our van, the other guys had gotten in but I was still outside, I turned to see Reijin.

"Thank you," he smiled as he walked over and then dragged me into a hug, "you let him go. You can finally move on with your life."

Suddenly I felt my stupid tears bubbling up and hugged him back, not really wanting to be seen by others while I cried like a damn baby. Though there were photos being taken from all angles.

Well this is going to be quite the scandal, I guess.

He stepped back away from me and I wiped my eyes.

"Damn I really hate you, you know?" I hissed, "why do you and Rein always make me face my stupid emotions."

"Because you are a stubborn guy and someone has to do it," he ruffled my hair, "remember, you're also my little brother, even if we're not directly related, we're still brothers and I'll always look out for you."

"I'm not seven anymore, you don't need to," I shook my head, "but thanks, Reijin."

He smiled and then sighed.

"Go before this crowd pushes through," he told me before turning and walking away, "you should stop by the Scorpio base to visit him. Our parents too. They miss you a lot. You've been quite mean to run away like that."

Well I couldn't exactly face them.

"Right," I nodded, "I will when I get the chance to."

"Good," he replied before disappearing from sight.

I stayed put for a couple seconds before turning and getting into the van, closing the door behind me.

"Aw was y/n crying~" Nanan instantly started teasing so I shot him a glare.

"Don't you remember what happened with the coffee table?" I threatened innocently.

"I understand," he quickly shut up after that and I melted into my seat just relaxing now that I wasn't exactly the centre of attention.

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