Kota had a strong grip on my hand as he lead me out the door into the backyard of the house. The backyard was small, fenced in with rusted chain link, but I realized immediately why he wanted to show me the view. Just on the other side of the fence was the edge of a park, a span of greenery that stretched all the way to the water of the bay. On the other side of the water, the half-circle of the top if the Ferris wheel was in view.

"Hey." Kota said from beside me. He still had a grip on my hand, but I had been distracted by the scene that laid out in front of me. "I heard you crying last night."

"Did you hear anything else?" I shot my attention toward him, afraid of what he might want to say.

"What? No." To my pleasant surprise, he seemed genuinely clueless. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, unsure of why he had felt the need to separate me to ask. "I'm fine. You know how I cry when we leave home, it's nothing new. I just get overwhelmed."

"That's okay, we all used to as well. We got used to it though because we do it all the time with tours." His smile as he looked at me was soft, like a big brother looking out for me. "Aki didn't make you cry, did he?"

I laughed as he finally revealed the question he had really wanted to ask me. "No, of course not."

He gathered me in a hug, quickly and tightly, and let me go. "Just making sure. I'm going to go get coffee, do you want me to bring you another?"

"No, I'm coming in too. I'll go get washed up with Aki."

The house was equipped with two bathrooms, and although I didn't see which one Aki had chosen, I was lucky enough that only one was occupied, and I could hear the shower running as I pressed my ear to the door. I let myself in and navigated my way to the sink through the thick steam, gathering my hair in a bun atop my head to begin washing my face. As I pat my skin dry, the shower turned off.

"What did Kota want?" Aki's voice came from behind the sliding glass door. He opened one side of it to reach for his towel hanging up at arm's length.

I looked at him behind me through the mirror. "He wanted to make sure it wasn't you that made me cry last night."

"Fuji asked me the same thing." He chuckled, wrapping the towel around his waist without bothering to dry off.

"Your friends don't trust you lately."

Aki had placed his cup of coffee on the counter space at the sink, and he seemed desperate for another sip. "I'm glad that they look out for you." He said. "It's annoying when they accuse me, but it also keeps me humble, so I can't be mad at them. They're making sure I continue to be a good man, and they love you, so I'm happy."

He took the bottle of serum that I had ready in my hand and shook it gently before pumping a small amount onto his fingertips. He began to pat my face to distribute it, and I closed my eyes to enjoy the feeling of his light touch. "I feel bad for making them worry about me." I said. "But I feel worse for making them accuse you."

"It's not your fault." He held my face with both hands, and I opened my eyes to look at him. He had leaned in close, and for a moment, the features of him were blurry. "They don't see the whole story, and that's fine. They heard you crying, and you were crying for a long time. But they didn't see me holding you the whole time giving you a safe place to cry." He used the hold he had on me to pull me forward slightly so he could kiss me quickly before moving away to retrieve the bottle of moisturizer. "They don't need to see everything, and they don't need to know everything."

Yokohama was more sparse than Tokyo, which meant there was less of a crowd to blend into, and walking down the main streets with Guardian drew a lot of attention. The four of them were fully dressed in ripped jeans, combat boots, t-shirts with small holes in them under various coloured flannel shirts. They had done their makeup, their nails, and they had adorned themselves with thick silver jewelry and chains. Aki was sporting his signature shiny black manicure. They were completely at ease as we traveled to the studio for the first audition, stopping in a coffee shop and arguing in line over who's turn it was to pay for the order, grounded in who they were and unconcerned with what anyone thought about it.

The first studio of the day was a building close by the center of Minato Mirai, and I found myself taking in the surroundings enough to subconsciously judge whether it was a place I would want to relocate to or not. The studio, like the ones in Tokyo and Kamakura, was nondescript on the outside with a small logo on the glass lobby doors, to protect the anonymity of the artists who worked there.

"We auditioned here twelve years ago." Aki told me as we found the room. A few other bands were waiting in the hallway, alongside a hand-written sign posted to let us know we were in the right place. "They offered us a contract, but the studio in Kamakura did as well, and we weren't ready to relocate and be a big success at that time."

"Do you think they'll remember you?"

"I don't think the same people would be here. But they might know us already."

We waited until Guardian was called into the room. Three representatives of the label were standing at the door, each of them ready to bow and shake hands with every member, myself included. One of the representatives launched into the customary introductions without hesitation, and I assumed they were expecting to see many more bands after we left. "We've heard a lot of your music already, and we've seen a lot of you." He said. "We're very familiar with the success you've had, so consider this demo just a complimentary performance for us, if you would be so inclined." He motioned to his colleague standing just behind him. "We already have an offer prepared."

I felt my eyes widen as I looked at Aki, not fully believing that the accomplishment would have been so easy. He bowed deeply. "Thank you very much. We would like to play one of our popular songs for you, so please sing along if you know it." He said.

Exiting his bow, he turned to the rest of Guardian, busy plugging cords into the available amplifiers. He tested the height of the microphone, and Kota strummed a guitar chord to be sure the sound was to his liking. Fuji sat at the drum set and nodded to them before holding a symbol between his fingers to dampen the sound, and hitting it to count them into the start of the song. I was sure the other bands waiting in the hall could hear Aki's screams and shouts through the verses of the song, and I hoped they appreciated the smoothness of his singing tone during the chorus. I stole glances at the representatives to see them tapping their toes and nodding along as the song progressed.

They collected a folder with the contract offer, and we were on our way to the next studio. It was over after one song, a few bows, and it had seemed so practiced and scripted. Guardian was not new to the industry, and they understood every aspect, and had experienced everything.

"One more like that today." Fuji said as we exited the studio. "Nice and easy, with another offer in hand, sound good?"

Kota clapped loudly. "Sounds good to me! Put Yokohama on the table."

"Would you guys like to live here?" Aki asked over his shoulder. He and I were walking ahead of the pack by a few paces. "It's somewhere between Kamakura and Tokyo as far as the lifestyle, isn't it?"

"I feel like this is a place where we wouldn't have normal lives anymore if we relocated." Fuji said from the back of the line. "We would get bothered if we went to the convenience store at midnight and got recognized."

Aki nodded in agreement, but he seemed undeterred about the idea. "I like Kamakura for that reason. People leave us alone, admire us from afar."

"We don't need to put too much thought into it until we decide which label is best for us." Kota said. "And we can't decide that until we get all the offers at the end of this two weeks."