April 1st is here again. It's not April Fool's Day, but Charlie Vice's birthday, a day that any frequent visitor to Isetan Men's Building will have heard of.
Charlie, who runs a salon on the 8th floor of Isetan Men's Building, planned a birthday party for his salon enthusiasts and close friends. Everyone received an invitation featuring a guitar, which stated that he wanted to invite everyone to a "special venue normally reserved for professional guitarists" for the party. Apparently, this was made possible by the kind arrangement of Edward Cole, president of Fender Music Corporation, the global guitar brand featured in the salon recently.
On the day itself, everyone gathered at the venue to celebrate Charlie's birthday. Under the dress code of "a style appropriate for a night of music," the venue was filled with a wide variety of outfits, from stylish suits to wild leather jackets. Everyone was complaining about getting lost, but that's no surprise: the venue, FENDER MUSIC BACKSTAGE, is a special place with a completely confidential address and phone number. Searching on a smartphone map only yielded vague results. There was nothing we could do.

The party started, leaving the main character behind, even though he hadn't shown up on time. As Charlie travels around the world, not showing up on time is a common occurrence, and everyone seemed to be used to it. Joe Yokomizo, the host and Charlie's friend, apparently even took time off from his regular radio show on InterFM897 to come and celebrate.

Next up was President Cole, who kindly provided the venue. "April 1st marks the first anniversary of FENDER MUSIC CORPORATION, and I'm thrilled to be able to celebrate this day with all of you who love Charlie," he commented. Special FENDER MUSIC BACKSTAGE passes were also issued at the venue. Normally, only professional guitarists are allowed inside, and passes are only issued without an introduction. However, Charlie's signature was cleverly included in the introduction section of the application form. Perhaps this was another surprise only Charlie could pull off. Numerous guitars were on display at the venue, and while President Cole urged everyone to touch them, most guests seemed a little intimidated as they gazed intently at the instruments, admiring them with a sense of awe. Among the guests were several who had once formed bands with dreams of becoming artists, and their earnest gazes as they looked at the guitars seemed to evoke memories of their younger days. Charlie's surprises continued, even though he still hadn't appeared. The invitation said, "I'm also inviting some surprise artists I know well," but the person who appeared was musician Yuya Ozaki. He hadn't met Charlie yet, and only vaguely recalled, "I think I heard my father (Yutaka Ozaki) met him in New York a long time ago." Host Joe Yokomizo then suggested that Charlie himself was a big fan of Yuya, which may have been why he was invited. Yuya, who usually doesn't focus on his father's songs at live shows, sang four songs, including his signature song "I LOVE YOU," perhaps out of consideration for the age of Charlie's friends in attendance. The audience was captivated by his father's beautiful voice. At the party, congratulatory messages for Charlie were read aloud, and guests all wrote message cards, but the main attraction remained absent. Just as the party was reaching its climax, someone announced that Charlie had contacted them! Host Joe Yokomizo then announced, "Charlie isn't coming." He fell asleep at the airport on the way to the venue. "I was thinking of telling a cool lie, since it was April Fool's Day," Charlie said, exuding regret, but it seems Charlie is exhausted from all his travels around the world.

To make Charlie regret not being able to attend, a lavish cake was brought to him by Joji Kanaya, owner of the Ebisu chocolate shop "JOHN KANAYA," whose grandfathers were friends with Charlie's. Charlie has fond childhood memories of celebrating his birthdays at the legendary restaurant "JOHN KANAYA Azabu," run by Kanaya's grandfather, John Kanaya Senji. This time, he requested a unique cake modeled after a world map made from the cicada seals of bonbons from JOHN KANAYA, which has since reopened as a chocolate shop. Paris, where their grandfathers met, New York, where Kanaya met Charlie, and Tokyo, where the party venue was located, were highlighted in red. The guests had hoped to finally find out Charlie's age, which had yet to be revealed, and were disappointed when they heard that Charlie had not yet arrived. However, they enjoyed the delicious food and were delighted by the many surprises the main character himself had planned, and left the venue with satisfied looks on their faces, as if to say, "It all turned out fine after all!"