Chapter 27: Meloruin

Yuna's POV

Monday morning, we were back in the clubroom, crammed together in yet another completely unproductive debate about the most important thing preventing us from signing up..our band name.

Noah, now miraculously back from the dead (or more accurately, his sickbed), slumped in his chair, watching the madness unfold with tired eyes.

"I was gone for one day," he muttered. "One. Day."

"We can't sign up until we settle on a name," Lena reminded us, lounging across a table like she had no part in this suffering.

"Why not just keep The Failed Notes?" Erika suggested.

"Do you want us to be publicly humiliated?" Milo shot back.

"Too late," Leo muttered under his breath, earning a laugh from Ethan.

Kai leaned back, arms crossed, nodding like he had been thinking deep thoughts all morning.

"It has to sound cool but also, you know, not embarrassing to say out loud."

"And not like we pulled it out of a hat," I added.

Erika pinched the bridge of her nose. "That's literally how they named The Failed Notes."

"Exactly," I said. "We need growth."

At that moment, Leo clapped his hands together. "Alright, hear me out. What about... Sound Punch?"

A long silence filled the room.

Kai slowly turned to him. "Do you want us to get sued by a rhythm game?"

Leo blinked. "Oh. Right."

Ethan leaned forward, looking too invested. "What about something mysterious? Like Eclipse."

Milo raised an eyebrow. "We're not a metal band."

Noah, who had remained silent up until now, sighed dramatically. "Just name us Despair because that's what I feel right now."

"I second that," Erika said, completely deadpan.

At this rate, we were never going to sign up. I sighed, staring up at the ceiling, then muttered the first thing that came to mind.

"Meloruin."

Everyone turned to look at me.

Kai tilted his head. "That... actually sounds kinda cool."

Ethan tested it out. "Meloruin…"

Leo snapped his fingers. "Like melody and ruin put together?"

I sat up. "Yeah. You know, like music but also chaos. Which is basically what we are."

A beat of silence. Then, Lena clapped her hands together. "Alright, done. Next problem."

Just like that, the debate was over. No further arguments, no unnecessary brainstorming. I should've just named us something hours ago.

Noah groaned, rubbing his temples. "Great. Now we actually have to sign up."

And then came our next major issue.

"…So who's going to be our vocalist?"

Silence.

Leo coughed. "Uh. About that."

I sighed. This was going to be a long day.

The moment the words left Leo's mouth, a heavy silence fell over the room. Then, like a switch had been flipped, the memories came rushing back.

The last time we held auditions for a vocalist… was a disaster.

Leo visibly cringed as he recalled it. Erika pressed a hand to her forehead like she was experiencing war flashbacks. Milo exhaled sharply through his nose, shaking his head in defeat. Meanwhile, Ethan, for some reason, looked deeply amused.

"Oh no," Kai muttered. "Not again."

I groaned. "Do we really have to?"

Lena, who had been sipping her juice box in complete peace, suddenly perked up. "Oh! That one guy who tried to yodel during a rock song?"

Erika looked at her with pure betrayal. "Why would you remind me?"

"Oh, oh! And the girl who thought 'singing' meant aggressive slam poetry?" Ethan added, barely containing his laughter.

"That wasn't slam poetry, Ethan. That was a curse," Noah said, his expression blank.

"She hexed us on the spot."

Kai buried his face in his hands. "And then there was the dude who showed up, looked around, said, 'Wait, this isn't the drama club?' and left."

Milo, who had been quiet this whole time, suddenly muttered, "...The screamer."

A collective shudder passed through the room.

Leo stared at the floor. "He just… kept… screaming."

"For two whole minutes," I whispered, feeling my soul leave my body just thinking about it.

Ethan wiped a fake tear from his eye.

"A truly avant-garde performance."

Lena nodded solemnly. "I saw God that day."

At that point, Erika had enough. She slammed her hands on the table.

"Okay, no more auditions. We are not doing that again."

"Agreed," Milo said instantly.

Noah crossed his arms. "So what's the plan then? Just… magically find someone who can sing?"

"Yes," I said confidently.

Noah stared at me. "That's not a plan."

"It is if you believe," I shot back.

"Belief won't get us a vocalist, Yuna."

I gasped dramatically. "Noah, I can't believe you just said that. You're crushing my dreams."

"I'm crushing our chances of failure."

Leo sighed, rubbing his temples. "Look, let's just think. There has to be someone."

Lena raised her hand lazily. "What about me?"

Every single person in the room turned to her in horror.

"NO."

She blinked, looking around. "Rude."

"Lena, do you remember what happened the last time you had a mic?" Kai asked, looking pained.

"I moved the crowd."

"You made the crowd move out of the room," I corrected.

Lena shrugged. "Cowards."

"Your voice is too powerful," Erika said, patting her shoulder as if to comfort her.

Lena sighed dramatically and leaned back. "Fine. I'll just stay the cool and lazy manager then."

Leo groaned, rubbing his temples. "So, no auditions then?"

"Absolutely not," Erika said flatly.

We all collectively sighed, the weight of our situation sinking in. We were officially out of options.

We sat there in complete and utter defeat. Our dreams of finding a singer? Gone. Our hopes of not embarrassing ourselves onstage? Also gone. At this point, the only thing left was to accept our fate as the band with the saddest downfall in school history.

"This is hopeless," Erika groaned, flopping onto a chair.

"We don't have a singer, we wasted an entire morning on this, and now we have no time to prepare."

"Maybe we should just quit while we're ahead," Kai muttered.

Leo gasped dramatically. "Ahead?! We're not ahead—we've never even left the starting line! We were called 'The Failed Notes' before we changed it! We're not exactly known for winning anything!"

Lena, our totally responsible manager, stretched lazily from the couch. "Well, it's not like I can magically create a talented vocalist out of thin air. Too much work."

Ethan groaned, rubbing his temples. "We don't even have a backup plan. What are we supposed to do?"

Milo, always the picture of motivation, just shrugged. "I accepted failure long ago."

I let out the most dramatic sigh I could muster, staring at the ceiling.

"So what now? Do we just accept our fate as the forgotten background noise of this school?"

Silence. Painful, awkward silence.

Then, from across the room, Kai suddenly sat up straight. He had this weird look on his face, like he had just remembered something important.

"…Wait."

We all turned to look at him.

"I just remembered something," he said, eyes locking onto me.

"What?" Erika asked, already suspicious.

Kai didn't answer her. Instead, he pointed straight at me.

"Yuna can sing."

The room exploded.

"WAIT, WHAT?!"

Leo looked personally offended. "You can sing?!"

"She says she can't," Ethan muttered, narrowing his eyes at me.

Milo, ever the calm one, just blinked. "Then why does Kai look like he just discovered fire?"

I shot up from the floor, waving my hands wildly. "Whoa, whoa, WHOA. No. Whatever memory you just unlocked, shove it back in the vault, Kai."

Kai ignored me, completely focused. "You can sing."

"No, I cannot," I said quickly.

"Yes, you can."

"Nope."

Kai crossed his arms. "I literally remember you singing."

I let out a nervous laugh. "Hah! That doesn't sound like me at all."

Kai didn't budge. "It was when we wrote that song together."

I froze.

Oh.

Oh no.

I could already feel the chaos brewing.

I laughed. Too loud. Too forced. Too fake.

"Nah, you must be remembering wrong," I said, waving Kai off like he had just mistaken a pigeon for a peacock.

"Maybe you're thinking of someone else."

Kai didn't look convinced. "No, it was definitely you."

I shrugged, keeping my face as neutral as possible. "Sounds fake, but okay."

"You literally hummed the melody while we were writing."

"Wow, that doesn't sound like me at all. I don't hum. I exist in silence."

Kai narrowed his eyes. "Yuna—"

"ANYWAY," I cut in, slamming my hands onto my lap.

"Even if—and this is a big if—I ever hummed something in the past, that doesn't mean I can sing."

Kai still wasn't buying it.

I could feel the suspicion growing in the air like a storm cloud.

"Wait," Leo interrupted.

"When exactly was this? When did Yuna sing?"

Kai hesitated. "I… don't remember the full lyrics or when exactly, but we wrote a song together."

A cold chill ran down my spine.

That song.

The one I wrote with Kai. The one that no longer belonged to me. The one that was now legally bound under a contract and was about to be released by one of the biggest artists in the industry.

Oh, this was bad.

I laughed again, hoping my sheer force of denial would make him stop talking. "Pfft. That really doesn't sound like me."

Kai frowned, as if something wasn't adding up in his head. "Why do I remember it being a love song?"

I nearly had a heart attack.

Nope. Absolutely not. This conversation needed to die immediately.

I waved my hands so fast they were basically a blur. "Oh wow, look at the time! We should really focus on finding a real singer, huh? Not wasting time on my totally nonexistent vocal skills."

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Why are you acting like we just caught you committing a crime?"

"I'M NOT," I said way too quickly.

"Then why do you look like you're about to bolt?" Milo asked.

I slowly sat back down. "...I have no idea what you're talking about."

Kai was still watching me, eyes sharp.

"You can sing," he muttered, like he was putting together a puzzle in real time.

"And you're hiding something."

Panic shot through me.

I forced out another laugh. "Oh Kai, you and your crazy theories. Next, you're gonna say I'm secretly a famous songwriter or something!"

Kai tilted his head. "...That's weirdly specific."

I wanted to evaporate.

To be continued. YUNA YUNAAAAAAAAA