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

"In my opinion, you are the butterfly, only now you have just emerged from your cocoon. Once you adapt, you will definitely be able to fly in the sunlight."

"moon……?"

The lamp looked at the notebook, which had been slightly modified by the moon. The original image of the butterfly and pill bug hiding from the sunlight together had been changed to a pill bug watching the butterfly emerge from its cocoon and spread its wings to prepare to fly.

--------------

The monotonous morning of classes quickly came to an end, and Deng and Yue picked up their lunches and went to the Astronomy Club's activity room together.

The lamp was turned on, and a box was placed on the table. Several penguin-patterned bandages were taken out of the pocket and placed inside.

"Deng, did you buy new band-aids again?"

Noticing the lamp's movement, Yue walked over to it and saw the newly added penguin-patterned band-aids in the box.

"So cute! Hey, lamp, what kind of penguin is that?"

"The Emperor Penguin is the largest of all penguins."

The lamp showed the picture on the band-aid to the moon, and its speech quickened, revealing the joy in the other person's heart.

"When it comes to topics she's familiar with, Akari really acts like a normal, lively high school girl."

"But I'm just an ordinary high school girl, so why do I always have this weird motherly mentality? I guess I really do feel off-stage."

"Moon, this is for you."

The lamp handed the Emperor Penguin-patterned band-aid that had just been introduced to the moon.

"Ah... I'm not injured yet..."

Upon hearing Yue's words, Deng visibly sank into a slump once again.

"But we might run into some trouble someday, so I'll accept it for now. Thank you, lamp."

Seeing that Yue had accepted the band-aids he had given her, Deng's mood returned to normal.

------------

The afternoon classes were as boring as ever. Compared to the tedious math, Yue was more interested in speculating about the thoughts and ideas of characters in various literary books and drama scripts.

"Phew~ Math class is about to burn out." Yue put away the notebook she had been writing down in her half-asleep state, words she didn't even recognize.

"Hinasaki-san! Want to go to a show together? There's a Poppin'party performance today."

"I'm sorry about the performance, I have a club activity today and can't go with you guys."

"Is that so? That's a real shame. Well then, Hinasaki-san, we'll take our leave now."

After thinking for a while, Yue politely declined her classmate's invitation. When Deng, who was sitting behind her, heard Yue mention a club activity, he looked up at Yue.

After the two classmates left, Deng slowly spoke up, "Yue, why did you lie? Today wasn't a good day for weather observation, and there were no club activities at all."

"Little Lamp, you're wrong about that. Sometimes you don't need to look at the stars in the sky to see them."

"Aren't you going to look at the stars in the sky?"

"Come on, Deng, I'll take you somewhere!"

--------------

"A planetarium?"

The lamp looked up at the familiar building in front of it.

"You can see the stars here even without good weather. I heard about this from a junior idol of mine."

After buying the tickets, Yue returned and handed one of them to Deng.

"Moon... I'm a regular here and have an annual pass, so I don't need to buy a ticket."

The lamp took a small card out of its bag.

Yue's expression froze for a moment. She had been thinking that she had finally learned about a great place to stargaze from her junior and was going to give Deng a surprise. But she didn't expect that Deng already knew about it.

His past stage career came in handy at this time.

"The lamp's annual pass can be used again next time. Today, I'm treating the lamp to stargazing."

Before the lamp could react, Yue grabbed its hand and passed through the ticket check, entering the venue.

"Moon, I know a few great viewing spots."

Once inside the venue, it was Deng who took Yue's hand and led her to two empty seats.

Watching Deng skillfully lower the seat back, Yue stared blankly at the buttons on the armrest.

"This is the knob for adjusting the chair angle, and this is the knob for adjusting the height."

The lamp reached out and grasped the moon's hand again, guiding it to the knob on the chair's armrest.

When Yue's hand was grasped by the lamp again, she realized that she had been a bit too bold to run in holding the lamp's hand.

Looking at Deng, who was leaning back in his chair with an expectant expression, waiting for the astronomical performance to begin, he was completely unaware of the fact that the two of them had just been holding hands.

"Never mind, no one else saw it, and they probably won't care."

As the lights inside the venue gradually dimmed, a projection of the starry sky appeared on the semi-circular dome.

Yue also temporarily put aside her wild thoughts and focused on the performance in front of her.

Before the stage opening: Chapter 4 Shiina Tatsuki

As Yue gazed at the starry sky projected onto the dome, darkened by a projection device, a gentle female voice introduced the various constellations and the names of the stars.

Turning her head to look at the lamp, she was intently gazing at the stars in the artificial night sky.

To be honest, she didn't find it boring at all. Exploring the starry sky is indeed a human romance. Before, when she was at Seisho, the essential program at the Seisho Festival, Starlight, also told the story of picking stars. She praised the story of Starlight and even discussed with her classmates which star Starlight was most likely to exist.

However, she wasn't interested in the names of constellations and stars.

These planets that already exist here have had their outlines sketched out by human imagination, with lines drawn to depict planets light-years away, and given a constellation or some other name.

She wouldn't be offended by that alone; what she hates most is when people combine zodiac signs with vague notions of fortune and personality, creating superstitious products called zodiac fortune or something else.

This behavior of attributing one's own problems and insurmountable difficulties to astrology or something else makes Yue feel unhappy.

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"Thank you for watching the film. Please watch your step when you leave..."

A gentle, refined female voice came from the radio, announcing the end of the performance.

Yue rubbed her slightly sore eyes, as looking at things in the dark for a long time is not good for the eyes.

I took out my phone and checked the time. Two hours had passed since school ended at 3:30. Although the sky was full of stars, the sun was just beginning to set outside.

"Deng, would you like to get some dessert? There's a new live house nearby that makes pretty good desserts."

Although eating desserts in a live house might seem like putting the cart before the horse, according to a mobile app recommendation, the highest-rated live house in the area is indeed Ring.

"Yes, I have no problem."

Lamp has never had a strong opinion on this matter, which makes Yue feel that one day someone will be able to easily steal Lamp away.

The seventh wizard, Qiyue, was utterly oblivious to his own limitations.

The two walked out of the planetarium. Just as Yue had predicted, it was dusk, and the moon was already hanging in the sky. Even at this time, the faint moonlight could not compare with the sun that had already set below the horizon.

The two walked side by side, and night gradually enveloped the sky as they moved. When the sun had completely disappeared, the streetlights on both sides of the street turned on and continued to illuminate the world along with the moonlight. The light of the night belonged to the moon and the lights.

The two entered the Ring. Unlike the world outside, which was dominated by adults, the Ring was filled with all sorts of female high school students from various high schools. They were all chatting happily in groups of three or five.

Yue and Deng found two empty seats and sat down. A waiter with long, straight black hair came over with menus and two glasses of water.

"This is the menu, and we need... a light?!"

Yue was startled by the sudden shout from the waiter, who looked like a part-time worker.

"Lixi..."

Upon hearing the name called out by the lamp, Yue began searching her mind. She first ruled out classmates, so it could only be someone the lamp knew before.

After carefully examining Li Xi, Yue noticed her standard long, straight black hair, delicate face, and the beauty mark at the corner of her eye that paired with her purple eyes, which made her look extremely alluring. Yue felt like she had seen her somewhere before, but she should be able to recognize such a beauty if she had seen her before, rather than having this vague impression.

Finally, Yue remembered that the beautiful girl whom Deng called Lixi was the drummer of Crychic. Because the drummer's position was always too far back in both rehearsal videos and live performances, Yue had never been able to see Lixi's face clearly.

"Deng, so you went to Haneoka? How have you been since Crychic disbanded? If I had known you were in Haneoka, I wouldn't have gone back to Hana-no-Girl."

Seeing the lamp, Lixi looked very happy and asked a series of caring questions.

"Lixi, thank you... I've been doing well lately."

"Hello, Riki! I'm Hinasaki, a new friend that Akari made in Haneoka, and also a fan of Crychic. Kasuga Kage is really a great song, and Riki, your drumming is also fantastic."

Tsukimi Ritsuki wanted to say something more, but quickly went up to interrupt her.

When Lixi heard Yue talk about Crychic and praise her drumming skills, a blush appeared on her face. It was rare for her to be praised by an outsider.

"Shiina Tatsuki, from Hana-chan, thank you for your likes."

"Lixi, is it okay if we don't go back to the bar? You should still be on duty, right? There seem to be quite a lot of people here."

Yue pointed to the increasing number of guests around her.

"Ah! Toki, Hinasaki-san, could you please wait for me? I'll come over after I finish my shift."

After putting down the menu and two glasses of iced water, Lixi immediately returned to the bar to get the next menu and water and handed them to the guests at other tables.

----------

While waiting for Riki to get off work, Yue and Akari finished their respective cakes. It has to be said that there is a reason why this shop can get high scores on mobile platforms. For a few hundred yen but less than a thousand yen, you can eat cakes that can be called delicious.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Akari, Hinasaki-san."

Lixi changed out of her work clothes and put on the school uniform of the Flower Girls before walking over from behind the bar.

"It's alright, it's alright. I actually have some questions I want to ask Riki-chan."

"I just went straight to the point and asked why Crychic disbanded. As a fan, I was very curious about this question."