Most people have this uncanny penchant for correlating one thing with another. My late father did that all the time, the most I could remember was him telling me how the guitar’s strato is shaped like a woman’s body. When I was in high school, I had the tendency to associate the current Oricon or Billboard topper with the happenings in my teenaged life. I cherish seasonal things. How does one think I got “Ayu” as a name for my beloved cat?

“Yuuwaku” had, for some reason, always been associated as a song for my relationship with Teru, or so TeruxHisa fans think. It’s funny, really. Strange, too, in more ways than one. Sometimes, when I think about it, I wonder how the fans could have come to that conclusion. True, it is one of our most rocking and seductive songs to boot. The title alone speaks for itself. Even the video was sort of a tease to the slightly perverted mind with the presence of the Caucasian what’s-her-face. Teru and I never did anything provocative in that video, or even when we perform it in lives. So
why does everyone equate that song with TeruxHisa? Was it because Teru and I are most showy of what everyone wants to see from us? Perhaps. Teru had kissed me more than once, always during lives right in the middle of other
songs, because that’s when fans wanted to see us do so. It’s crazy, but we do it anyway…to please them, I say. But I’m not gonna fool myself and neither would I fool you: ‘Yuuwaku’ strikes me differently than it does most people.

‘Yuuwaku’ reminds me of you.

It starts out strong, with the drums lording over and leading. It’s nice, isn’t it, when Toshi’s instrument reigns over? ‘Feels like we’re following one beat, like we’re both following the same feeling. Then amid Takuro’s rhythms, you and I ; the bass and the lead ; take over from then on, your lines and my riffs giving character to the entire number. Then Teru’s vocals come in, altogether making the song what it is. That’s when people start to jump around, sing, scream over my rather overt relationship with Teru which was born out of speculation and over-reading between the lines anyway. I think it is exactly why fans say it was the TeruxHisa song of Glay.

The song goes on, we play more aggressively, Teru whips out a few more bars and then we go into the brief instrumental before the words come in again, this time pouring out along with our fans’ meek voices joining us. We start to wrap up, the lyrics regressing at the beat, the drums’ pounding getting heavier, the guitars’ strains becoming more ardent. Then the song ends and everyone rejoices. Another number done as marvelously as can only be expected of the band that put Hakodate on the map of Japan.

But like I said earlier, ‘Yuuwaku’ holds a different significance for me as it does our bandmates and our fans. Because in the middle of the piece, right in that short instrumental most people overlook, when the words had died down for a moment and the rhythms and the beat had been played down to a certain low level, we soar. Because at that certain time somewhere within, you bellow out your basslines just as I fly my riffs off into the statosphere and for those few seconds, we become the song.

I’ve been noticing, as of late, especially, that whenever the instrumental part comes in a live, we always find ourselves standing next to each other, if not facing each other, as we wow everyone with whatever it is we’ve got to show. And the response is overwhelming, like they’d never get tired of hearing the song or seeing us perform with vials of adrenaline
injected into it. We start off playing fiercely and passionately, each of us concentrating on our notes until they intertwine and make one great melody.

Yet much more than the centering we pour on our parts, we devote half of our selves to each other. Because we have to melt together, we have to soar together, we have to be together. And for just a brief moment, during those
last few notes we play during the instrumental, we look deeply into each other’s eyes and without words, we understand. The smiles we give each other in secret, one so fleeting that nobody else could notice, confirm that. On a more subdued, romantic-erotic level, we feel as though we’ve consummated everything we have, every tad we could offer. We know we did great. We had one beat. We moved in one tempo. We harmonized. We united. We became one.

Because we are the song.

We are Yuuwaku.

Owari
5 March 2002
1:35AM

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Authors Notes
This is my first ficlet [sankyuu April-san for the term] and it doesn’t have much plot really. I just thought I’d write this out of, well, Hisashi’s thoughts. The idea came into me while I was watching Glay perform “Yuuwaku” in the Makuhari Live in 1999. Because at that moment, when I saw Hisashi and Jiro playing together, the words Hisashi said in this fic were what
ran through my mind.

As always, feedbacks in whatever form are always appreciated. Thank you for reading.