Naomi: Hey—

About to open the back entrance to the Smile, hidden away in a back alley just wide enough for the small trucks transporting the equipments of touring bands, or the booze that fuels them and their audiences, to park there, Alice jumps when her newest bandmate calls out to her, seemingly out of nowhere.

Alice: Oh—geez, you nearly gave me a heart attack.

Naomi: Is Yui okay?

Alice: (she flashes Naomi a frown) … Yeah. Nothing wrong with her. She’s just got—

Naomi: Oh no, it’s just that the two of you’re usually inseparable, especially when we’re this close to a gig—

Alice: She’s not skipping— 

Naomi: Skipping? No, gosh, no, I just got a sorta, like vibe that something’d happened.

Alice: Probably check that vibe, then. Yui’s fine, she’s just… unavailable. It’ll be fine, okay? She’s only sitting this one out because she knows we can get stuff done even when she’s not there. We will be able to count on her when it really does matter, trust me.

Naomi: I don’t doubt that, I don’t doubt that at all, I just — y’know — wouldn’t want her to—

Alice: And she recorded all of her parts, too, in case anything like this’d ever happen. So don’t fret, ‘kay? We’re mostly here to make sure you and Kiyoshi are up to our rigorous standards.

Kiyoshi: (he scoffs) If that’s what you want outta this, we might as well practice ‘till the crows come home, Rinju. 

With a hastily rolled cigarette in his mouth, Kiyoshi trudges into the alleyway, his hair disheveled and looking as if he hasn’t been awake for longer than fifteen minutes. Seeing as it is only late in the afternoon, Alice figured her instincts might as well be correct. 

Picking the cigarette from between his lips like a piece of spinach stuck to his teeth, he drops it and extinguishes it underneath his booth before greeting his bandmates, half-assing a secret handshake with Naomi and giving Alice a comparatively lousy nod.

Alice: You too look like you’re getting along.

Kiyoshi: Eh, we’ve been hangin’. Only when he decides to be a dude for the day, though.

Naomi: I give him the sitch every morning.

Alice: Christ. No girls allowed in the secret clubhouse, huh?

Kiyoshi: Unless you get creative. Sneak ‘em in hidden inside of a huge cake or something—

Alice: (she sighs) This is gonna be a long afternoon, isn’t it?

Kiyoshi: You know I don’t bite, Rinju. I’m just enjoyin’ the gentlemen being in the majority for once.

Alice: Not seeing any gentlemen here.

Kiyoshi: Speakin’ of which, w—

Alice: (she sighs again, exasperated) If you’re gonna say “where’s the missus”, I am so going to deck you in the face.

Kiyoshi: (he guffaws) Now that’s something I’d like to see.

Alice: (with a sly glare, she tilts her head) You do know I broke a guy’s arm back in high school, right? You’d better be careful.

Naomi: Perhaps you’ll be so taken aback that’ll make you fall in love with her.

Alice: Well, you joke, but… (she turns to Naomi) … You are joking, right?

Kiyoshi: (he yawns) So, I’m takin’ it our bassist’s not here, then? Could’ve let me know in advance, chief. I’ve got a busy schedule.

Alice: We’re not cancelling the rehearsal. I have all of Yui’s parts on tape, so we can just—

Kiyoshi: Nah, man. Drummers ‘n bassists, we’re the backbone of the band, y’know? We need to feel each other, and I ain’t feelin’ shit when she ain’t there. Can’t build a house on shaky foundations. If I wanted to do karaoke, I’d have gotten a job as a salaryman.

Alice: I thought you said you were gonna give it your all for this band.

Kioyshi: Yeah, but that band ain’t here. Three fourths of a band ain’t no band. Sorry, folks. (he throws up one of his hands in a wave before stuffing it into his pocket as he turns and walks off)

Naomi: … Now that’s a hangover if I’ve ever seen one.

Alice: … Or a very convenient excuse. (she nudges her head toward the bicycle parked not too far from the entrance, a beaten down specimen given a new lease on life with a coat of bright orange paint and a range of stickers of Midori’s favourite bands and mascots)

Naomi: (he whistles) … You do have my permission to deck him in the face, just so you know.

Alice: I’ll figure something out. He’s— It’s complicated. But he’s a decent guy. Needs to be reminded of it once in a while, though. (she sighs) Sorry, Naomi.

Naomi: Eh, it’s not like I’ve got anything better to do. I guess you do, though.

Alice: I told you, Yui’s fine. She can take care of herself. I mean, she grew up patching herself up after getting her ass kicked, so—

Naomi: What happened?

Alice: Big fight with that lady who’s in cahoots with the Incubators. Looks like her mask finally dropped. She took Aoi, and—Wait.

It seems so natural talking to Naomi about all this. But Alice can’t remember ever bringing him up to speed about what she and Yui are truly up to.

Naomi: Hmm?

Alice: I’m… talking gibberish, right? Sorry, I— I think I got things mixed up with this fantasy show Yui and I are watching at the moment. That was total nonsense, ignore it.

Naomi: (he chuckles) Maybe you’d better get back to bed, too.

Alice: No, I’m—just— brain fart, I guess. Sorry.

Naomi doesn’t ask about Yui anymore as they wander back to their respective train stations, chatting about the few things in Alice’s life that don’t seem very important right now. Hopefully, he is buying her terrible excuse. Hopefully, he won’t text her tonight, asking what the heck she was talking about, who “the Incubators” are, or why Yui is going around getting into fights.

Then again, Alice can’t shake the feeling that when she briefly ran her mouth about all this, — somehow, in that moment, convinced that she was well within her right to do so — Naomi didn’t look surprised. He looked like he knew exactly what she was talking about.