After dropping out of school, I chose to join a girls' band.

Arisa Ichigaya, who was obviously out looking for Kasumi, reluctantly approached Kasumi after seeing her and Tsuki empathizing with each other, intending to take Kasumi back with her.

"Kasumi, hurry back. Don't disturb them. They're about to go on stage, and we need to get ready too."

"When we see Aine and Xiaoyue later, let's have a celebration party together!"

Even as Arisa dragged her away, Kasumi didn't forget to extend an invitation to Tsuki.

"Haha... We'll go if we have time then."

At this moment, Yue had lost the passion she had just felt.

Nagasaki Motoyo said that the image of leaving the band after this performance is still vivid in her mind. She is afraid that the band will disband after the performance, and there will probably be no celebration party.

"Alright, Aine-chan, let's go back first. The seniors from Afterglow are almost done performing."

Hearing that Afterglow's performance outside was coming to an end, Yue said to Aine.

"Oh right, we also need to go and bring Lena back."

Yue led Aine to look over at Rakuna, only to find that Rakuna was eating a matcha bread snail with one hand in each.

"But wasn't this matcha flavor here before? When was it placed here?"

"Lenai-chan...where did these matcha bread snails come from? You didn't eat them all by yourself, did you?"

A bead of sweat trickled down Yue's face; this thing should have been taken by the seniors first.

Although there weren't many senior-junior relationships in their girl band before, it wouldn't be a problem if they took the food first, but... the premise is that you don't let others finish it.

"Miss Rinrinko just gave it to me, there's more here."

Lena pointed to several matcha bread snails placed in the distance and said.

Seeing that Lena hadn't finished all the snacks, Yue breathed a sigh of relief.

To prevent Lena from eating too many snacks outside, she felt it was necessary to bring her back to the lounge.

----------

This image is from episode 5 of the original manga, showing a ten-minute gap before Popipa.

Of course, in the original seventh episode, Ririko might have changed the setting and used Mygo to warm up the audience, but here we're still using the setting from the fifth episode.

When the performance begins: Chapter 85 A Few Things About the Audience

"Phew... I'm back."

Lixi looked at Yue, who was returning with Aine and Lena at the door.

"Everyone, I also brought back some desserts!"

Ai Yin took out several boxes of pastries she had just taken from the dessert section and placed them on the table.

"Dumplings? They taste pretty good."

Su Shi casually picked up a string of skewers, put it in her mouth, and praised it.

"These must be snacks for our well-being, right? Shouldn't the senior have taken these first?"

Lixi frowned as she looked at the pastries on the table.

"It's alright. Senior Yamabuki and Ms. Rinrin just said we can take it."

"Is that right?"

Lixi looked at the matcha dumplings on the table, then at Lena, who showed no interest in making any, and felt a little strange.

Normally, when Lena sees matcha-related food, she should be eager to grab it and eat it. Why is she acting so strangely today?

"Stray cat, don't you want to eat this? There are matcha dumplings in it."

"I've already eaten."

Lena touched her stomach, shook her head, and said.

Li hope now understood where the somewhat helpless expression on Yue's face came from when she entered the room.

"Click~"

The sound of the door hinges turning rang out, and Rinrinko pushed the door open and walked in, saying to Tsuki and the others, "It's almost time to start!"

----------

The group arrived at the backstage door. Yue took a deep breath. Although it wasn't her first time on stage, it was her first time performing as part of a band, so she was inevitably a little nervous.

"Hey, hey, shall we do a little cheering-up ceremony before everyone goes on stage?"

Ai Yin, holding her guitar, enthusiastically asked for everyone's opinions.

"Like A~A~O!?"

Upon hearing Aine's words, Riki immediately thought of the puffing ritual that Hishiri-senpai often liked to perform in Afterglow.

Although it seems that Senior Hime-Mari has hardly ever succeeded.

"Yes, it's important to have a little ritual before the performance."

Aine looked at everyone excitedly, hoping to get their response.

"It seems... there's nothing wrong with it. I used to do this often, and it's very effective at relieving stage fright."

Tsuki agreed with Aine's suggestion.

"I also think...it's great."

After Xiaodeng agreed, the number of "yes" votes in the band reached 4.

"Then... let's all put our hands together."

The six members of the band placed their hands together.

"Ah!"

"Ah!"

"O!!!"

--------

Below the stage, Momoko stood next to the senior members of Group 99.

After seeing her, Nana Oba warmly invited her to come and watch the show together.

Moreover, before the performance began, she could sense that Nana Ohba was subtly asking her about Seisho, and often steer the conversation toward the audition.

She knew almost without thinking that the senior Nana Ohba in front of her must have also participated in the Giraffe Audition, and most likely was even a former winner.

"I'm completely being targeted by my senior..."

Peach had no idea where she had gone wrong to pique the other person's interest in her; she shouldn't have made any mistakes.

What Momoko never expected was that the reason she caught the attention of Nana Oba was the stage play performance she had used to attract Motoyo Nagasaki.

The content of that stage play was so similar to things that Nana Ohba had done before that it was hard for her not to think about it.

If she knew the reason, she would quickly realize that it was all the giraffe's fault, as the other party had told her that the winner's wish could be fulfilled even if it meant turning back time.

Furthermore, the giraffe emphasized this sentence by placing it at the end, which led her to quickly combine it with the script of mygo to write the script for the stage play, which was then noticed by Nana Ohba.

Just as Momoko Kurosawa was feeling uncomfortable under the attention of her seniors, Shoko Toyokawa, who had just entered the performance hall, also had a rather unpleasant expression when she saw the blonde girl wearing a baseball cap in front of the stage.

"Chuhua..."

Xiangzi had imagined many scenarios of seeing the other person again, but he never expected it to be such a coincidence... no, it doesn't really seem like a coincidence.

The other party's manager and Yue both invited him to join the band that was in preparation, and it was not impossible that the other party would come to see Yue's performance.

"Xiang?"

If Ye Mu noticed that Xiangzi's expression was off, she had seen her childhood friend's embarrassed expression appear several times in just over ten minutes.

"Do you want to go?"

Xiangzi shook his head.

"Do not……"

"If I keep running away now... I'm afraid I'll never be able to take a new step."

What Toyokawa Shoko didn't know was that her decision would truly change the course of her life.

--------

"Chu Hua, is it really necessary to be so excited about Yue's band's performance?"

At the front of the stage, Sakura Sakura looked at Mitsumi Hatsuka, who was looking on with anticipation, and said while fanning herself with her hand.

There were too many people in front of the stage, and she didn't know why Chu Hua had deliberately squeezed to the very front.

Although she didn't object to people coming to support Yue's performance, she felt it was unnecessary for someone like Chu Hua to rush over half an hour earlier to secure a front-row position.

Moreover, from the perspective of Sakura Sakura's professional manager, she didn't think the band's performance would be particularly exciting.

Sakura had no doubt about Light's vocal prowess, but Light wasn't actually the lead vocalist in the band right now.

Compared to her vocal prowess, her keyboard skills are probably only about the same as those of Ichigaya Arisa from Popipa.

As for the other members of the band, their skill levels varied greatly. The lead guitarist was very strong, but unfortunately, he was a bit too unconventional.

The rhythm guitarist is a complete newcomer, the bassist and drummer are skilled but only average, and there's not much detailed information about the lead singer.

She really didn't understand why the band would choose a complete amateur lead singer instead of someone like Yue as their lead singer.

Based on the information she collected, the band's performance level was probably not very high from any perspective.

Leaving aside comparisons with fellow student bands Roselia and RAS, their performances are probably inferior even to those of Afterglow and Popipa, who were also performing at the same event.

"Miss Sakura, don't you think highly of Senior Tsuki?"

Misaki looked at Sakura Sakura with some surprise, as Sakura had often praised Hinasaki for her excellence as an idol.

"Although Yue is very strong, that was when she was an idol and the lead singer. I have no confidence in her as a keyboardist in the band now."

"Really? I think Senior Yue might be able to surprise us."

Chu Hua turned her gaze back to the stage.