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

What's going on? Why am I feeling so much pressure? What's with this feeling of being questioned by my wife after going out to meet with my mistress? I clearly don't have that kind of relationship with them, and I have absolutely no romantic feelings for them.

Yue took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down and contemplate the art of language.

"Got it!"

"Deng, do you remember when I went to the drama department to direct performances for a while before Golden Week?" Yue said with a sigh of relief after realizing the answer.

"Yes, the performance was excellent, and Yue's direction was superb," ​​Deng said.

“Thank you for the compliment… No, this isn’t the time to talk about that. Because the drama club’s performances require some music and sound effects, I’ve gone to the band to borrow instruments and manpower. One time I went there quite early, and I happened to see Xiangzi playing the piano inside. It was around this time,” Yue explained.

"Luckily, before the holiday I impulsively decided to get back into the swing of things and went to work as a technical advisor in the drama department, otherwise things might have been different today."

"I see... Does Xiangzi often play the piano at school?"

After Deng said that, Yue also realized that something was wrong.

That night at Deng's house, Deng told her and Lixi about the scene of her first meeting with Xiangzi, and how Xiangzi had taken her to his house.

Yue clearly remembered that, according to Deng's description, Xiangzi's family did indeed have a piano. Why would he specifically go to the music room to play the piano after school, before the band members started their activities?

It can't be because Xiangzi has some kind of illness that will kill him if he doesn't play the piano for more than four hours. Playing at home would be the most suitable option in terms of both comfort and privacy.

I'm increasingly feeling that my initial fictional deductions are gradually becoming reality.

Although Yue still had some doubts about Xiangzi's sudden change, she felt that those things should be put aside for the time being. After all, a noble student who could study at Yuezhi Forest suddenly had to transfer to a high school for further education and had to do his best to win a scholarship. He was so down on his luck that he had to borrow the school's piano to play.

Based on the clues above, one of the more obvious possibilities is that Xiangzi's family went bankrupt and was liquidated. As an ordinary high school girl, Yue felt that she had no way to solve the problem of family bankruptcy.

"No...it seems like there might be a way?"

If Giraffe suddenly announces that the audition is reopening, and only students from Haneoka Girls' Academy can participate, she is confident that she can win the competition in one fell swoop, and then she can make a wish to resolve the issue.

"What are you thinking... There's no such thing as a free lunch."

Yue shook her head, clearing the jumbled thoughts, along with the image of the giraffe, from her mind.

She continued the conversation and answered the question about the road lamp, "Xiangzi usually comes over every afternoon and leaves before the band members arrive."

"Xiangzi..."

------

While Yue and Deng were chatting downstairs, Ai Yin had already followed the sound of the piano to the door of the music classroom. She first pressed her ear against the door to confirm that the sound was coming from there.

She slowly pushed open the music room door, trying her best not to make any noise that might disturb the other person's playing, and carefully stepped into the music room.

Inside the music classroom, a girl in light blue sat gracefully on the piano bench, her slender fingers dancing across the black and white keys. Her movements were fluid and powerful, and with each stroke of her fingers, melodious music flowed from the piano, filled with a beautiful and graceful tune.

As the piece ended, Ai Yin couldn't help but applaud, "You played so well, student!"

When Xiangzi heard Aiyin's applause, he looked up and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the person who came was not someone he knew. A standard social smile appeared on Xiangzi's face.

"Are you a member of the band?" Xiangzi asked.

Ai Yin shook her head and said, "No, I came here following the sound of the piano."

When Xiangzi realized that the other person was not a member of the band, she felt relieved. As she reached out to close the piano lid, Aine's words made her hand stop in mid-air.

"I'm Chihaya from Class 1-A. It's a bit of a surprise, but would you like to form a band together?"

Qi Qiu ~ Dam - Four (Six) Ba Qi Qi Ai Yin smiled and extended an invitation to Xiang Zi to form a band together.

When the Stage Opens: Chapter Three - Aine and Crychic

"I'm Chihaya from Class 1-A. It's a bit of a surprise, but would you like to form a band together?"

Xiangzi looked at Aine's outstretched hand and felt a sense of familiarity, as if she had said the same thing to others in the past.

That was when I was in junior high school in Tsukimori. After listening to the brass band's performance, I followed Nagasaki Motoyo into the corridor.

"Nagasaki-kun?"

Su Shi turned around and saw Xiangzi displaying a captivating smile.

Sunlight streamed through the shop window, falling on Xiangzi as if enveloping her in a golden halo.

"Nagasaki Motoyo-san?"

"Excuse me...?" Nagasaki Motoyo asked, looking at the classmate she had never met before.

"I'm Toyokawa Shoko from Class C. May I ask you something? Are you interested in forming a band?"

At that moment, at this moment.

Toyokawa Shoko never expected that one day she would be asked this question.

Xiangzi chuckled self-deprecatingly and closed the piano key cover. "Chihaya-kun."

"Just call me Aine."

"I'm sorry, I'm not interested in the band at the moment." Xiangzi stood up, picked up his schoolbag, and prepared to leave.

"Huh? You've already formed a band?" Ai Yin asked.

“No.” Xiangzi continued walking outside, then suddenly remembered something and turned back to Aine, saying, “It’s almost time for the band practice, Aine, you should leave as soon as possible.”

As Xiangzi walked to the stairs, he bumped into Yue Deng, who was coming up.

Xiangzi initially wanted to greet Yue, but upon seeing the lamp behind her, a conflicted expression crossed his face. In the end, he straightened his face and walked straight past the two of them.

“Xiang…”

Deng reached out her hand, trying to stop him, but Xiangzi didn't stop walking and disappeared from her sight as he went down the stairs.

"Deng, it's not your fault, don't be sad." Yue looked at Deng's dejected expression and went to comfort her.

"Hinasaki-san? Takamatsu-san?"

Without giving Akari time to grieve, Chihaya Aine went to the stairwell and saw Tsuki comforting Akari. This reminded her of the gossip her classmates had told her about pets and their owners.

"Sorry to bother you! I'll leave now!" Aine thought she could read the room and felt she shouldn't be a third wheel.

"Chihaya-kun! You've misunderstood."

Yue realized that the other party might have misunderstood something.

Considering the rumors circulating at school that he had made the lights cry on the first day of school, if he didn't go up and explain, the rumors about him might just multiply.

------

Inside the astronomy club, Aine listened as Yue explained to her what had just happened between them and Shoko.

"Oh, I see. So the person playing the piano in the Astronomy Club just now was Toyokawa Shoko from Class 1-B next door. She's also the keyboardist for the Little Light Band. Just now, because Shoko ignored Little Light, Tsuki-chan was comforting her, right?"

After listening to Yue's words, Ai Yin summarized the situation that had just occurred.

"That's right." Yue took a sip of water to moisten her mouth.

“If that’s the case, there’s no need for you to be so nervous, senpai. The expression on your face when you pulled me to the Astronomy Club just now made me feel like I was about to kidnap you,” Aine said.

“If I don’t explain it to you clearly in time, but instead come to explain it tomorrow, I always feel that there will be another strange rumor about me.”

Yue felt a headache coming on when she thought about the rumors circulating in her class that she had made Deng cry during the start of the semester and added him to her harem.

She had previously considered finding the source of the rumors and asking the other party to help stop them.

However, because the rumors changed so quickly, the day before it was circulating that she cried because of emotional reasons.

The next day, she heard the version that was because she had neglected the lamp, which caused the lamp to cry at the classroom door.

Yue is now incredibly grateful that Haneoka is an all-girls academy; otherwise, news would have spread sooner or later that Touka was pregnant with her child, but Yue's initial infidelity ultimately led to Touka's tears.

"What? What? Is there any interesting rumor about Hinasaki at school? Is it the strange relationship between you and Koyuki that was circulating in the class before?" Aine asked curiously after hearing Yue's words.

"Aine, there are some things you shouldn't ask," Yue said, somewhat annoyed.

Seeing Yue's reaction, Aine remembered what her classmates had talked about about the relationship between owners and pets.

She looked back at the lamp, which was obediently writing and drawing in its notebook, and then at the moon in front of her, recalling how the moon had comforted the lamp earlier.

"It seems that their relationship can't be considered a rumor after all?"

However, seeing Yue's increasingly pale face, Aine felt it was better not to bring this up.

Although Aine is very interested in gossip as a female high school student, the Astronomy Club is, after all, their territory, and it wouldn't be fun if she couldn't get out.

Aiyin put her clever little brain to work and came to the conclusion that she should stop talking about this topic and needed to change the subject.

"By the way, Senior Yue mentioned earlier that Xiaodeng and Xiangzi were in the same band before. May I ask what the band's name was?"

Yue glanced at the lamp. "Lamp, is that alright?"

“Crychic,” the lamp whispered.

"Huh? Cry...what?" The lamp was quite far from Aine, and the lamp's sound was extremely faint, so Aine could only make out the first word.

“Crychic, that’s our band’s name.” Deng walked over carrying a notebook and placed it on the table.

"What is this?" Ai Yin looked at the notebook on the table. The page that was turned by the lamp had lyrics on one half and sheet music that Ai Yin could not understand on the other half.

"Is this Haruhi Kage's original manuscript?" Tsuki asked, looking at the notebook.

"Mm." The lamp nodded.

"Little Lamp, do you have any rehearsal videos I can listen to? I'm really curious, please." Aine looked at the lamp with both hands, pleading with it.

“Well… I don’t have any video recordings. All of this was done by Su Shi before,” Deng said.

"Okay, Aiyin, I have an account that follows Crychic. They have their rehearsal videos on it. You can take a look." Yue took out her phone, opened her favorites list, found Crychic, and placed it on her home screen.

Aine leaned close to Yue's phone, her eyes shining as she looked at it.

The slightly awkward and immature singing voice rang out from the Astronomy Department through the cell phone.

"悴んだ心ふるえる灶目色し (The heart is full of haggard and the eyes are trembling)"

"The world's servants (I'm alone in this world)"

When the Performance Begins: Chapter Four - Conditions for Forming a Band

"どうかこのまま (Please keep doing this)"

"はなさないでいて(Don't let go)"