On the day of Tsukasa's graduation ceremony his Knights kouhais had cried. Even though several months had passed since his graduation and he was a 'real' idol working for a production company now, Tsukasa still thought about that memorable moment a lot.
The gentle rhythm of the late night train he was sitting in on his way back from work made it easy to get lost in thoughts.
He wondered what his kouhais were doing right now. Of course he was still in touch with them, but were they really okay without him; without their leader?
Tsukasa shook his head. He was sure he had trained them well. They had all grown into excellent Knights, just as skilled as himself and perfectly capable of managing the unit on their own. He was proud of them and believed in them. A part of him knew that he was being a little too over-protective. He should rather worry about himself more.
His manager had already pointed out three times that his singing voice wasn’t reaching its full capacity lately. His songs came across as emotionless and sounded irritated, very much unlike the way he had sung when he was still a member of Knights. Arashi suspected it was probably a mental issue. His blonde senpai was the only one of his fellow Knights from before Tsukasa became the unit’s leader that he still talked to on a regular basis.
He missed them all a lot, but adult life had them all working busily day in day out, without much time to see each other. He didn't want to appear spoiled, but life back then had been so much easier. He had friends to sing along with and their everyday life had been fun and exciting. Now he sang alone. The lyrics were made by some guy from the company he had never met; he didn't relate to the lyrics at all but still he had to sing full of emotions and bring his voice to perfection in time for the concert. How was he supposed to sing a convincing love song in the first place? He had never experienced anything relatable. Still he had to sing the lyrics that were given to him, without much of a choice.
His whole life lately had been nothing but dull, without a spark, without inspiration.
Inspiration.
A face appeared in his mind’s eye; eyebrows knit together in concentration, fluffy and messy orange hair paired with eyes green like morning grass. "Ghh!! Don't say anything! Inspiration! Why is there no inspiration?!"
A smile appeared on Tsukasa's lips. That's what he would say for sure. Leo Tsukinaga. Knights' leader when Tsukasa was still only a first year at Yumenosaki. What a weird one he was, but still the redhead had looked up at him a lot. He was wild and after his graduation he had vanished as quickly as he had vanished from school the year before. But he had taught Tsukasa what it meant to be Knights’ leader and when he appointed Tsukasa as his successor he had never felt as proud in his life before. He wondered if his senpai was okay?
Just as he had finished the thought, his phone vibrated in his pocket, tearing him from his thoughts. A mail from his manager:
"Changes in your schedule have been made. The date for your joint life performance has been brought forward to next Sunday, since the other idol unit has to depart overseas earlier. Sorry for the circumstances."
A small sigh escaped his mouth as he let his phone slide back into his pocket. Three days left to practice. Tsukasa mentally prepared himself for a sleepless night full of extra practice. But he wanted to bring this song to perfection and finally produce some good results he could be proud of. The redhead knew he still had many weaknesses, but a lack of ambition certainly wasn't one of them!
