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

Kui helplessly covered her face with her hands. Her roommate's obsession with idols really needed to be corrected. Otherwise, what if she suddenly died in the bedroom because Yue had been praising her for more than ten days in a row and hadn't slept for more than ten days?

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

"Ugh... ugh... um..." Aoi looked at Momoko Kurosawa sitting next to her, her heart filled with worry.

During morning exercise, everything was fine, since everyone was moving around and Taozi didn't seem sleepy. But after breakfast, when it was time for her academic class, sure enough, what she had feared happened.

With almost an all-nighter and the concentrated blood flow to her stomach after breakfast, Momoko Kurosawa's ability to stay awake now is probably a testament to her exceptional love of learning.

With her last bit of strength, she hid her head behind an open book, bobbing it up and down. Her eyes were squinted into tiny slits, almost invisible, clearly struggling with drowsiness.

Her body would twitch from time to time, as if she was trying to stay awake, but drowsiness would wash over her like a tide, constantly assaulting her consciousness.

She nearly fell several times, but Taozi managed to support herself on the table with her hands to keep from collapsing on the spot. Her eyes became increasingly unfocused, her vision gradually blurred, and the pen in her hand began to draw crooked lines on the notebook.

Finally, as another wave of intense drowsiness washed over her, Momoko could no longer stay awake. Her head lurched forward, slamming heavily against the desk with a loud thud. The entire classroom fell silent instantly, all eyes fixed on Momoko. The teacher stopped lecturing, frowning as she looked in Momoko's direction, while the other students turned to look, their eyes filled with surprise and concern.

Sensing something was wrong, Aoi immediately stood up to cover for Momo. She quickly walked to Momo's desk, gently shook her shoulder, then turned to face the teacher, her voice tinged with urgency, "Excuse me, teacher, Kurosawa seems to be feeling unwell. I'll take her to the infirmary!"

The teacher's brows were still furrowed, but seeing Peach's obvious exhaustion, she nodded and waved for them to leave. "Okay, go ahead." Her tone carried a hint of displeasure, but more than anything, it was concern.

Aoi helped the semi-conscious Momo to her feet and carefully helped her out of the classroom. The other students followed them until their figures disappeared through the door.

Watching the two figures leave, Yue wondered why Taozi hadn't seemed unwell yesterday. Could she have caught a cold last night?

----------

The two slowly walked to the infirmary. Aoi knocked on the door, and after receiving permission, she helped Momo inside. The infirmary teacher, seeing Momo's condition, immediately came forward and asked with concern, "What's wrong? She looks very tired."

Kui explained briefly, "She wasn't feeling well. She was too tired from morning exercises and fell asleep in class. The teacher asked me to bring her over to rest for a bit."

The nurse in the infirmary nodded, gesturing for Aoi to help Momo to the bed, "Let her rest here for a while."

Aoi settled Peach on the bed, covered her with a blanket, and Peach quickly fell asleep.

Looking at the sleeping Momoko, Aoi sighed, "Really... I've made a fool of myself..." She covered her face and sat down helplessly on the chair next to her.

After briefly checking on Peach's condition, the teacher found that she was indeed just a little too tired. She turned to Aoi and said, "This student, you should go back to class soon. I'll keep an eye on her for you."

Aoi gently closed the door to the infirmary and walked out slowly. The corridor was quiet, with only the sound of her footsteps echoing in the empty space. She walked with her head down, thinking about Momoko, a sense of worry rising in her heart.

"Really... I've really made a fool of myself today." Aoi muttered to herself, her brows furrowed slightly, her thoughts disturbed by the events unfolding before her.

Just as she was about to push open the classroom door, her phone suddenly rang with a crisp "ding-dong~". Aoi stopped in her tracks, startled, because she clearly remembered that she had already set her phone to be off to avoid being disturbed during class.

"What?" Aoi asked, puzzled, as she took her phone out of her pocket. An unread text message notification was displayed on the screen. She tapped the screen and discovered that the phone had automatically turned on.

Even stranger, the sender of the text message was a string of gibberish, making it impossible to tell who sent it. She frowned, filled with doubt. Opening the message, she saw a bizarre message: "Do you want to become a Top Star on stage?"

Kui's brows furrowed even more; the text message looked incredibly eerie. She looked up and around; the corridor was empty, and she was the only one standing at the classroom door, even feeling a chill on the back of her neck.

"What on earth is going on?" she murmured to herself, a chill creeping into her heart.

The text message seemed to come from another world, unlike anything a normal person could send. She tried calling back the garbled number, but the phone screen displayed "Unable to connect."

"TopStar..." This word wasn't unfamiliar to Aoi. Just a few weeks ago, when she and Yue followed Momo to the underground theater, they heard this word from the mouth of that strange-looking giraffe.

The paranormal situation I'm experiencing now seems to be related to that mysterious underground theater from before. I and Yue had tried to find the elevator that led to the underground again, but it turned out to be a solid concrete wall.

"Can that giraffe even send text messages?" Aoi thought of the image of the giraffe carefully tapping on the phone with its front hooves, and couldn't help but chuckle.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm her unease, and decided to discuss it with Yue after class before making a decision.

Kui walked to the classroom door, stopped, and kept thinking about the text message she had just received. She reached out and gently knocked on the classroom door.

"Come in," came the teacher's voice from inside.

As Aoi pushed open the classroom door, the noise inside immediately filled her ears. The teacher and classmates' eyes instantly focused on her, and she felt a sudden, inexplicable tension.

She lowered her head and carefully walked into the classroom, feeling that every step was particularly heavy.

"Aoi, go back to your seat." The teacher nodded, indicating that she should hurry back to her seat.

Aoi nodded and softly replied, "Okay, teacher," before quickly walking to her seat. The students in the classroom followed her footsteps until she sat down and then gradually looked away.

Back in her seat, Kui breathed a sigh of relief. She put down her bag, took out her notebook, and pretended to diligently start taking notes on the teacher's lecture. But in reality, her thoughts had already drifted to that strange text message.

Side Story: The Prequel to Saint Sho - Side Story Twelve: The Selection That Is About to Begin

Hinasaki had just finished packing her textbooks and was about to leave the classroom when she suddenly heard Yurisaki Aoi's voice coming from behind her. She looked up and saw Aoi rushing to her desk, her face full of tension and confusion.

"Moon, did you receive any strange text messages just now?" Aoi asked impatiently, a hint of unease flickering in her eyes.

Hinasaki was slightly taken aback, put down her schoolbag, and carefully observed Aoi's expression. "A strange text message?" she repeated, her brows furrowed, as if trying to recall what had just happened.

"Yes, it's the text message with the giraffe icon!" Aoi added eagerly, taking her phone out of her pocket, quickly finding the message, and handing it to Hinasaki.

Hinasaki took the phone and frowned even more when she saw the text message on the screen. The message was brief and vague, containing only a string of strange symbols and a giraffe icon, seemingly hinting at something.

"Sorry, I didn't..." Before the band could finish speaking, her phone rang with a strange ringtone. It wasn't her usual ringtone, and she clearly remembered that she should have silenced her phone. Why was it ringing now?

Along with the ringtone came a text message notification. Yue Music had a bad feeling. She frowned and opened the message. The content was exactly the same as what Yuri Saki Aoi had shown her: a string of garbled characters, the sender's name, the message "topstar," and the giraffe icon.

"I probably didn't receive it earlier because I was in class... I received it now." Hinasaki's voice was low and serious. She showed her phone to Aoi, and after comparison, it was indeed exactly the same as the text message Aoi had received.

"What happened?" Aoi's voice was tinged with panic as she looked around, as if searching for clues. "Was it the giraffe we ​​saw at the underground theater last time?"

Hinasaki shook her head. At this moment, she was not yet able to calmly deal with everything. She was inevitably a little nervous in the face of this supernatural phenomenon. Her fingers gripped her phone tightly, and her fingertips turned white. "I don't know either, but it's probably related to that giraffe."

Hinasaki's gaze darted around anxiously, as if searching for answers but not knowing where to begin. She turned to Aoi and said, "Aoi, please take care of the matter of checking the information in the archives that I mentioned before. Please get the key from the chairman as soon as possible. I want to confirm whether the audition was actually held."

Yurisaki Aoi nodded, her eyes filled with determination. She knew this wasn't just Hinasaki Tsuki's question, but a shared confusion. "Don't worry, Tsuki, I'll find the student council president and get the key as soon as possible."

Hinasaki watched Yurisaki Aoi's hurried departure from the classroom, took a deep breath, and then headed towards the infirmary. Her steps were somewhat hurried, and the unease in her heart prevented her from relaxing.

Especially after so many strange things happened one after another during this period, she even began to suspect that the giraffe might have been behind Momoko Kurosawa's fainting that morning.

The corridor was quiet, with only Hinasaki's footsteps echoing. Most of the students should be having lunch in the classroom or elsewhere, so it was normal that there was no one heading towards the infirmary.

She arrived at the infirmary and saw through the half-open door that Momoko Kurosawa was awake and sitting on the hospital bed chatting with the school doctor.

This was the first time Yue had seen Shengxiang's school doctor. She was a kind-looking middle-aged woman who was listening to Taozi's recommendation with a helpless expression.

"Hey, hey, Sato-sensei, I have to tell you, Satsuki really is..."

"Ahem, excuse me." Seeing that Momoko Kurosawa was about to launch into a long-winded explanation to the school doctor, especially since the person she was recommending was herself, she finally couldn't help but interrupt her.

The school doctor and Momoko looked up at the same time. When they saw it was Yue, Momoko smiled and waved for her to come in, while the school doctor looked relieved.

"Since your classmate is here, I'll go have lunch first." The school doctor stood up from the stool and walked towards Yue. "Please take care of Kurosawa. I checked her and she's just a little tired. There's nothing seriously wrong. She slept for an hour and is almost fully recovered now."

"Thank you, school nurse." Hinasaki nodded gratefully.

"Momoko, how are you feeling?" Hinasaki asked with concern as she walked to the bedside.

Momoko Kurosawa nodded and said with a smile, "Yeah, I'm fine, I just didn't sleep well."

The school doctor glanced at them, smiled, and said, "You two chat. I'll go get lunch for the afternoon. Call me if you need anything."

After the school doctor left, Hinasaki sat down next to Momoko and asked in a low voice, "Momoko, have you received any strange text messages? You know, the kind with a giraffe icon?"

"A text message from a giraffe?" Peach was a little confused. "I just woke up not long ago and haven't had a chance to check my phone yet."

She picked up her phone from the bedside table, unlocked it, and handed it to Hinasaki.

Hinasaki glanced at it and, sure enough, it was a strange text message with a giraffe icon, and the content was exactly the same as the one they had received.

"It seems this matter is indeed not simple." Hinasaki Tsuki frowned and said in a low voice.

All three people who had visited the underground theater received this mysterious text message with a giraffe logo.

Momoko Kurosawa looked surprised. "I don't think I received this text message this morning, so it must have been sent while I was sleeping."

"What exactly is this text message? Why did we receive it?" Momoko Kurosawa asked, puzzled, her eyes filled with unease and doubt.

Hinasaki shook her head, her eyes filled with confusion. "I don't know either, but I guess it's related to the underground theater we went to."

BlackerIX Spirit*Dirty〖厁扒弃哟僄玲.梦泽桃子 took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay, so what should we do now?"

Hinasaki thought for a moment and said, "After Aoi-chan gets the key to the archives, let's investigate whether auditions were actually held in previous years."

"And another thing is..." Yue hesitated for a moment before saying this.

"And what else?" Peach asked, puzzled, when Yue suddenly stopped speaking halfway through her sentence.

After hesitating for a moment, Yue decided to speak up: "Also, I'm worried that more than just the three of us received this text message. I'm planning to ask the other students in the class later to see if they received it too."

A flicker of surprise crossed Momoko Kurosawa's eyes; she hadn't expected things to become so complicated. "You mean, maybe other classmates also received this text message?" Her voice held a hint of unease.

"Yes." Hinasaki Tsuki nodded, her eyes resolute. "Isn't it a bit too few for the stage audition to only have three people?"

Momoko Kurosawa pondered for a moment, then slowly nodded. "Tsuki-chan, you're right, but how exactly do we do it?"

"I'll go ask Sakura and the others later. If this stage really needs a selection process, then choosing people in order of ability should be the most likely approach," Yue said.

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

Although Hinasaki had made up her mind, things didn't go as she expected. After the afternoon classes ended, the classroom gradually quieted down, and the students left one by one, ready to enjoy their free time after school.

Hinasaki quickly packed her schoolbag, planning to find Yukimi Sakura and ask her about the text message.

Sakura Yukimi has a gentle personality and usually gets along well with everyone. If she also received the text message, she probably wouldn't hide it. Hinasaki Tsuki thought this was a good opportunity to gather information.

However, when she left the classroom, walked through the crowd, and arrived at the place where Yukimi Sakura usually frequented, she couldn't find her anywhere. Hinasaki went to the library, the playground, and even ran back to the bathroom in the Starlight Dormitory to search, but she couldn't find Yukimi Sakura anywhere.

"Is that so? Okay, thank you, teacher." Hinasaki hung up the phone, her expression still serious. The teacher on the other end of the line confirmed that Yukimi Sakura hadn't asked for leave to go anywhere else, meaning she should still be near the school.

"Sakura usually practices on her own after class and then goes back to her dorm. Why can't I find her today?"

Yue had a vague, ominous feeling. Now, she was looking for Xue Jianying not just to ask about that text message, but also for the safety of her classmate.

Hinasaki bit her lip, determined not to continue searching aimlessly like a headless fly.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, and then quickly thought of where Xuejian Ying might have gone.

Just as Hinasaki was thinking about these things, her phone suddenly vibrated.

Hinasaki was startled and immediately took out her phone to check. A new text message appeared on the screen.

The text message was almost identical to the previous ones, still featuring that eerie giraffe icon, but this time the text was much more detailed: "To become the most dazzling Top Star on stage, please dance on this stage of destiny."

Hinasaki gritted her teeth and decided to go back to the classroom to meet up with Momoko Kurosawa and see if she had made any new discoveries.

She quickly walked back to the classroom, pushed open the door, and saw Momoko Kurosawa sitting in her seat, looking at her phone with a serious expression.

"Momoko, did you receive a new text message too?" Hinasaki walked quickly to her side and asked in a low voice.