A/N: I'm sorry for the late update! I feel so bad towards my readers! My promise for the one month became two months. *Sigh*

I promise this story won't be abandoned by me though! I know where I'm going, just having trouble writing it out. xP

As I warned before, it was also because of my finals. But now that the finals are over, I'll try to fit in few chapters in my break! [:

GOLDEN MELODY

Chapter 4

"I'll see you guys tomorrow!"

A chorus of voices replied Eiji's words as the group of singers walked out of the house towards their modes of transportation. Oishi could see cars and motorbikes parked on the front yard of the house.

Now that everyone was gone, Eiji and he were the only two left in the big house. It had been so loud just moments before with laughter, singing and music filling in the house. The sudden silence that covered the big house would be eerie if it wasn't for Eiji's presence and the lights that filled the house.

"Oishi, do you want to retire to your room now?"

"Umm, what about you, Eiji?" Oishi asked back. In truth, he didn't want to go into his room yet, but he wanted to know what the other teen is planning first.

"I'm thinking of doing some more practice by myself, so…"

Oishi, who was just going to ask to come, paused at the red-haired's words. He wanted to be alone…of course. You're probably going to be a hindrance, Shuichiro.

He was just going to excuse himself and leave the other boy with his music when, to his surprise, Eiji himself asked him as to whether he would like to accompany him in his practice. With a smile of happiness, Oishi followed his new-found crush up the stairs and into the music room.

The practice that night was something that could be considered comfortably relaxed. Unlike the previous practices of the day; this practice where the red-haired was almost alone was quiet. The only sounds accompanying their occasional voices was the melody playing on the piano. Eiji's singing seems to be quieter, subdued; very much different from his usual more cheery-like singing earlier on the day.

Without noticing it, the pair spent hours of quiet moment together that night. They were surprised to see the time nearing midnight by the time Eiji decided to end his practice for the day.

"Oh, my. You should go and rest, Eiji. We have an early day ahead of us tomorrow," Oishi stated with not a small amount of concern in his voice. Eiji smiled at this. It seemed like the raven-haired boy was a naturally caring person; trying to look after someone that he'd barely knew for a day.

"Okay. You should rest too, Oishi. I'm sorry for dragging you away from your rest," Eiji replied guiltily.

"No! It's fine. I enjoyed listening to your singing. You have such a beautiful voice, Eiji. It was my pleasure," smiled Oishi.

Another great blush fought its way onto Eiji's cheeks and he quickly excused himself for the night with a soft 'good night.'

The pair walked off into their separate bedrooms and fell into a restful sleep.

When his alarm went off the next morning, Oishi felt strangely awake. He easily opened his eyes and got out of his bed before getting ready for the busy day ahead of him. After tidying up his bed, he walked towards the half unpacked pile of clothes that he placed in front of the wardrobe last night. He had gotten his clothes for today ready the night before, as was his habit, and it wasn't long before he stepped into the comfortable hot shower in the luxurious en-suite of Eiji's guest bedroom.

The whole bathroom itself easily defeated the size of his apartment's bedroom and living room together. He felt like he was inside a five-star hotel or magazine cover. It was no wonder though. Eiji's taste seemed to be highly sophisticated without seeming to be garish. The whole house was designed for its accessibility and space.

Sighing in comfort from a good night sleep on lush mattress and his current hot shower in such a spacious place, he couldn't help but think himself as someone pretty lucky.

It wasn't long before he realised the importance of the time though, and he quickly exited the shower and get dressed.

After ensuring that his appearance was neat and appropriate, Oishi stepped into the hallway to knock onto Eiji's bedroom door. He didn't know as to whether the singer would be awake by then, but he didn't want to take his chances.

"Eiji? Good morning, it's Oishi. Are you awake already?"

A muffled sound came from inside, followed by a louder reply,

"Morning, Oishi! Thanks for waking me up, I was still in the land of chocolates a few minutes ago. If it wasn't for your voice, I would be in a big trouble from Ryuzaki-sensei."

Eiji's laugh was infectious and Oishi couldn't help but laugh along with the gorgeous sound.

"Okay then, I'll leave you to your preparation. I'll borrow your kitchen and make us breakfast, okay?"

"Okay! Thanks, Oishi!"

Stepping away from the door, Oishi made his way towards the kitchen with ease.

Looking around the kitchen, he found all of the ingredients he needed to make the chocolate waffles that he could guess to be Eiji's idea of breakfast. The red-haired singer came into the room at the perfect timing as he was putting the plates on the kitchen bar.

Eiji's eyes widened in happiness not unlike a child in a toy store.

"Waffles! I love you, Oishi!"

With those words that brought pink onto Oishi's cheeks, the other male quickly jumped onto the stool and started on his waffles. With the amount of gusto in which Eiji devoured his breakfast; it wasn't long before he finished his meal. After another five minutes, Oishi also finished his and after a short argument about who should be washing the dishes, Oishi relented in letting the other boy cleaned. The red-haired had used the old argument you-cook-I-clean that Oishi couldn't go against.

Before long, they were ready and sat waiting for Sumire's car to appear in picking them up to Eiji's first appointment. Oishi had gone through Eiji's (and his) schedule for the day at least five times, and yet, he couldn't help but open the small, blue handbook once more. Just to make sure. It was his first day and he didn't want to screw it up.

After another few minutes of chatter from Eiji, the black sedan that Sumire always drove came into their view. Oishi stood up to walk towards the car. Eiji bounced after him and they both entered the car. Oishi seated himself next to Sumire in the front passenger seat.

"Good morning, both of you. Did you have a good night's sleep?" Sumire asked as soon as they were seated and ready to go.

"Yup! If only I didn't have to wake up so early, I would be happier," commented Eiji.

"Oh, shush you. You never want to wake up early but it's your responsibility," Replied Sumire easily before shifting her eyes sideways towards Oishi,

"What about you, Oishi? Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, of course. I felt awake this morning because my sleep was very comfortable," Oishi replied with a smile.

Soon the two front managers fell into comfortable conversation regarding today's schedule. Oishi couldn't help himself from double-checking his schedule with Sumire's once more. He swiftly caught Eiji's amused glance in his direction. It seemed like the singer noticed his perfectionist tendencies towards this particular schedule. He couldn't help but blush at knowing it; trust Eiji to notice something that Oishi didn't want him to know.

After ensuring that yes, they do have the correct times and places, Oishi felt much more at ease. Soon, Sumire's explanation about how the day was going to go started. The raven-haired young man listened in careful attention at every word that came out of the red-haired lady.

They arrived on their first destination sooner than the new assistant manager liked. He took a deep breath to calm his fraying nerves. There was a reason why he never liked performing in front of people. He should've grown out of his habit of getting nervous easily, but he never did. He was just lucky that his poker face was getting to be pretty good. It made him seem like a professional manager instead of a babbling, clumsy one.

Eiji stretched as soon as he stepped out of the car and Oishi could see several people coming out from the building to greet them. Their first schedule today was as singing recording for Eiji and despite how used he had been with the workings of a recording studio due to his past works with other singers, Oishi couldn't help but silently stare at the massive room where Eiji was to take his recordings. It should've been expected that someone as popular and important as Eiji would have the best of even recording studio.

Oishi silently sat himself down in the soft, comfortable cushions with Sumire. There were served tea and snacks, much to the raven-haired's amazement, and Oishi drank and munched on biscuits quietly while he watched Eiji getting ready for his recording.

He didn't realise the time passing until the recording producer finally clapped his hand and told Eiji that they were done for the day. Oishi realised with a jolt that it must've been two hours since they've started. And yet it felt like hardly any time passed by at all.

He thoroughly enjoyed listening to Eiji's voice and the red-haired's ability to change his persona as soon as he stepped inside the recording box. The red-haired singer had been fully concentrating on his task on hand and listened and followed the instructions that were given to him. His change in personality was clear from someone who saw first-hand just how playful Eiji could get when he was with his friends.

They stepped out of the room and Sumire told Eiji his next appointment place. This time they were going to do the modeling appointment for a cologne brand. Oishi knew just how famous and popular that brand of cologne is, not to mention how expensive, and he knew how some of the people who worked in that place was going to react towards him. Those people are usually fussy about brand and how expensive a person's clothes are, so Oishi knew they weren't going to like him much.

This had happened more than once in the past and he stilled himself for it.

True to his prediction, those people scrunitised him as soon as he stepped into the lobby with the infamous red-haired singer. Oishi felt extremely uncomfortable, but he knew the best he could do was ignore them.

Thankfully, none of them were being openly hostile about it. They pretty much left him alone and paid all of their attention towards Eiji.

Half an hour later, Eiji was appropriately dressed for the shooting. As soon as the shooting started, Oishi's breath was taken away. The grinning, cute red-haired had turned into a sexy, gorgeous male who knew how to pose and use his smile and by god, his smirks.

He felt silent embarrassment in finding himself swooning just like the rest of the female population that were currently watching the shooting in the room with him. The only female who seemed unaffected is Sumire-sensei who sat and watched with an expression that a mother would have towards he child; with pride.

The rest of the day passed by quickly. Oishi didn't realise just how late it had gotten until they were sitting in the car on their way back towards Eiji's house. It was nearing ten at night and Eiji could be found sleeping on the back seat.

"Eiji must be really tired. Is it always like this?" Oishi asked the red-haired lady driving next to him.

Sumire smiled before replying, "No. Sometimes it is this hectic and bad but some other, it's much better. Usually after a day like this, I at least made Eiji's plan for the next day to be relaxed and filled with the band practice in the studio and not much of anything else. All of them enjoyed being together and spend their time perfecting their group dynamic, so I did what I could to help them release their stress from a day like this."

"You're really kind, Sumire-sensei. They must feel really lucky to have you as their manager," Oishi replied in sincere honesty. The laugh that Sumire gave him in reply was filled with happiness.

"Why, thank you, Oishi. I tried my best. I've been looking after all of them for years, since the start of their careers; and by now, I guess I think of them as my own."

Oishi smiled and nodded his understanding. He felt so glad at this opportunity to get to know all of these people who are, even though they were people with power and popularity, down-to-earth and easily accepting. Everyone from Seigaku that he'd got to know so far are friendly people without being on the verge of fake at all.

Soon, Eiji's house –or mansion, as Oishi like to think of it due to its sheer size– came into view. Before long, Eiji and he'd stepped out of the car, thanked Sumire-sensei and went inside. Tomorrow late morning, both of them would be picked up once again by Sumire-sensei for one of Seigaku's many rehearsals. Oishi was rather worried about it due to the tense atmosphere that was present between Eiji and his smiling best friend. He still had not figured out just why the red-haired male was suddenly acting like that and he was getting worried.

They said their good-nights to each other before entering their respective bedrooms. After getting ready for bed, Oishi slipped into his bed in exhaustion. There wasn't anything he could do until tomorrow about the problem between his two new friends and with those half-comforting thought, he fell into a dreamless sleep.

TBC

Okay, how is this chapter? Tell me, please? :"D

I'm still thinking about the next chappie, and I'm hoping to put some Eiji and Fuji interaction. There will also be other yaoi pairing from PoT here and there, so bewared. I'll give warning before the chapter though, so don't worry. [:

PS: If any of my readers felt compelled to share some of their ideas, go ahead. If it caught my interest, I might very well put it into the story. *Grins*