Kiri sent a text message when they landed in China, as Hikaru would still be at school then. He herded film crew and band safely onto the train and through the various transfers. Finally they were all settled into the evening accommodations at the first of the dozen filming locations.

He called Hikaru at 8:30 her time, figuring even if she had a gig that night, she'd be home. When she answered hesitantly he said, "Don't hang up."

Hikaru said, "Kiri! OK, why are you calling from a strange number?"

He said, "There's no cell service in this valley, and I had to pay a ridiculous fee to make a call from the hotel phone. I can talk for an hour, but only get to dial the once, so don't hang up on me?"

"OK," she replied. "But Kiri, don't call again until you can use your phone? If even you think it's expensive, I probably don't want to know how much this call is costing."

He sighed. "OK," he agreed reluctantly. "We may be stuck here longer than the two days we were scheduled for, as it's been raining steadily since we arrived, and they say they expect it to continue."

"Instead you could take a few pictures each day and tell me about it when you get home?" she suggested.

Kiri laughed and said, "Alright, I will."

"What are you doing there?" Hikaru asked curiously.

Kiri hesitated and replied, "Shooting some video and a commercial."

"Wow!" she exclaimed. "That sounds fun, I think."

Kiri smiled at her excitement and said into the phone, "It can be. Though if we fall behind schedule due to the weather, it will be frustrating instead."

Hikaru said, "Oh, I suppose so, I hope it goes well and is fun though."

"Me too," he replied.

They talked about inconsequential things until the timer was about to go off, then Kiri said suddenly, "Hikaru I'm out of time. I ", the man at the hotel desk disconnected the call. "Love you." Kiri said too late and laid his head on the table. It was a small comfort when the man's wife smacked him with a magazine.

"Dude, I can't believe you paid a hundred to talk to your girlfriend for an hour," the tall long haired band member who was sitting nearby said with amazement.

"I'd pay that much to talk to my girlfriend if I had one," said the short haired Kei sitting on the back of the couch and staring out at the rain.

"Just make sure you guys are ready to take advantage of any break in the weather," Kiri responded irritably.

He stood and walked over to the window overlooking the mist and rain filled valley, pulled out his phone and snapped a photo. It was beautiful, but wet.

… Mirage

Hikaru lay on the grass and stared at the sky. "Are we really going to be able to do this in time for the competition?" she asked.

"Yes," Ryuske replied with confidence.

Hikaru looked at him and said, "I never realized before, but you've been in love, like really in love."

Ryuske stiffened and stared at her. "What?" he managed.

Rin looked at Hikaru curiously.

Hikaru said, "I just sang the words before, I thought I understood, but I didn't really." She added, "It's a little more embarrassing now."

Hatsuharu grinned at her and asked, "You have a boyfriend?"

Hikaru blushed. She gave a stiff nod.

He looked at Rin and Ryuske's lack of surprise and asked plaintively, "I'm the last to know?"

"Sorry," Hikaru said, "they found out the other weekday when you couldn't play with us."

Hatsuharu sighed.

...

Finally the video for the valley location was all shot and the group moved on three days later. The next section of filming was at the Great Wall.

They all had phone service again. Kiri messaged Hikaru as soon as he reconnected, but it was already Friday and Mirage was playing till 2am, so they arranged to talk on the phone Saturday evening.

Kiri told Hikaru, "I should have shown you how to share your schedule," and belatedly sent her phone the authorization to his own.

Hikaru replied, "If you look on Mirage's website, you can see our schedule."

--

That night, after a long day of coaxing and herding the crew, Kiri visited Mirage's website. The band crowded around him because they were bored and curious. Kiri ignored them at first.

"Is this a new group Inline is taking on?" Shiori asked.

"No, it's my girlfriend's band," Kiri replied.

"Dude, I didn't know you swung that way," long haired Kuhasa laughed, looking at the photos of Mirage's members.

Kei elbowed him, and said, "They look hard to market with that much age range, especially if one of them is actually a girl."

Kiri cast a flat glare backward at the band members.

The quietest member, Ginta, said softly, "They have a good publicity handler though. Read their information again, it sounds like they're being open, but they aren't. They list only their first names, position in the band, and stuff like their favourite food, a hobby, their favourite color. All personal but insignificant."

Kiri looked over the profiles again. He nodded and repeated what Hikaru had said, "It's on purpose because one member is still in school and the others have regular jobs."

The fifth profile had only a silhouette and for name said Nezumi, under position it said wizard.

The site was easy to navigate, and after he'd browsed the public portion, which included the band's calendar of future and past performances, Kiri selected the fanclub area. It brought up a page that told him about the one time membership fee, the terms, and a brief overview of the posting rights of members and extra content the band would provide in this section.

He thought the fee of fifty seemed a little steep for a small band's membership, but paid it.

He was rewarded with a short animation of chibi versions of the band members performing and assigned fan number 347.

He was then given a short profile to complete. When he set his favorite band member to Hikaru, a chibi animation of her leaned out of the side of the form and waved happily.

"Damn, that's cute," Shiori said, "choose the others."

Kiri glared at him, but tried each one.

Ryuske's chibi played a few notes on a keyboard.

Rin's blew a heart shaped kiss.

Hatsuharu's winked while his bald head twinkled with the same animated star as his wink cast.

Nezumi's chibi silhouette reacted with shock, fell over and crawled back off the screen.

Kiri set his favorite back to Hikaru, opted in for phone notifications of Mirage performances, and submitted the form.

Inside the member section were demo recordings posted by the band, additional photos, and brief surveys on things like what song do you wish Mirage would cover, or which is your favorite Mirage song? All fairly standard.

But most of the fan member section seemed to revolve around member postings. There was a sightings timeline. Kiri opened it curiously. It turned out any fan could post a sighting, with or without photo or video. And the band members could then confirm the sightings. Sightings could be sorted by confirmed or unconfirmed, location, date, or band member present.

The chibi animations of the four performing members made appearances now and then throughout the fan section. The member list of usernames and profile photos could be browsed, Miri was fan #1.

Kiri had mixed feelings. The site was excellently written and the portrayal of the band professional. It wasn't the kind of thing a small weekend band would usually maintain. Also, 347 fans, while it sounded like a small fan base, meant that more than 17k had been collected in member fees. And that was only the people willing to pay the fee.

The band he was working with were laughing and joking around. Shiori laughed and said, "Looks like they're no competition for us with less than 500 fans." His own band boasted over 20k membership in their fan club.

Ginta exchanged a look with Kiri.

Kiri reminded them, "Membership in your fanclub is only five, not fifty. Mirage only plays on weekends for the most part. I wouldn't slack off if I were you."

… K to H

"Hikaru, I miss you like crazy." Kiri said when they finally connected.

"Me too," Hikaru admitted.

They talked about random things. Kiri told her about some of the antics the film crew had gotten up to involving a basket of kittens and an irate grandmother. They'd decided the kittens would be cute to take pictures with. Not all of the kittens had agreed with the plan. The old lady had found them with a kitten ferociously attacking Shiori's ear and two more hanging off his sleeves.

Hikaru told Kiri they'd been accepted into the competition. "But Rin says we're guaranteed to lose," she added.

"Why?" Kiri asked.

"We've been assigned the first performance slot, so we're basically the warm up band," she explained.

"Ouch," he said sympathetically.

"Ryuske says it will still accomplish our purpose though," Hikaru said.

"What's the purpose?" he asked.

"To become a little better known. We're going to try to publish an album, but we'll be able to get a better contract if the companies we're applying to have already heard of us, Ryuske says," she explained.

He was silent a moment, then asked, "An album?"

"It's my fault," Hikaru replied.

"Your fault?" Kiri asked with confusion.

"I got an offer for a summer job. To play all summer at a resort. If you break it down per hour, it's less than I'm making now, but it'd be consistent." She paused then continued, "Ryuske said that if I left for a whole summer, the band would probably break up, I think we could just take a summer off, but anyway... He said if I was only considering taking it because I needed the money, we could make more money. He asked me to give him until graduation before I decided. We are already making more than we did last year, but getting the album published is part of a long term plan."

"I see," he replied.

"We're talking about doing our annual free concert in the park near the competition, right after we perform our entry," she added, " because the place where the competition is held has very limited capacity and Rin and Ryuske think we can pick up overflow from it as well as the usual audience, to sort of double our exposure."

"I see," Kiri said again. Silence fell for a moment and then suddenly he said, "It's selfish, but I'd rather you didn't go work at a resort somewhere all summer either. Hikaru would you consider moving in with me after you graduate?"

Hikaru didn't answer right away, and Kiri almost withdrew the question, but then she said, "I'd like that, if it's really OK, you said you usually wait till you've been dating six months to live with someone."

Kiri said, "I know, but... I don't want to wait that long, if you're willing."

"OK," she replied shyly.

…

Kiri's boss added an unpleasant surprise to the next update from the home office. Kiri sighed and shuffled schedules around, consulted with the crew and managed to free up a couple hours to work on the problem.

Inline Productions was going to have to make some changes soon he realized.