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

"rehearse?"

Yue stopped what she was doing and frowned. She then noticed that compared to her usual Revue, the stage setup didn't seem to respond much to her brilliance this time. Moreover, they hadn't even mentioned the background music or lyrics.

"That's right, Hinasaki Tsuki-san, the stage has not recognized your 2V2 revue, so the stage has not responded to you. This can only be considered as a rehearsal between the stage girls."

The giraffe, who had somehow teleported from the stage to the audience to watch the show, added.

She initially thought this was a side effect of her coming from another revue, but now it seems that this 2V2 revue was not well received by the stage.

"That's right, it's just a rehearsal, so Suze-chan doesn't need to worry too much. We can win it back in the next audition performance."

Peach walked over to Su Shi and picked up the cloak that had fallen to the ground, placing it in her hands.

"Um……"

Su Shi nodded, but didn't say anything more.

When the Stage Opens: Chapter Seventy-Four - The Story of the Problematic Girl Band

"See you another day then~"

Emerging from the underground theater, Momoko greeted Yue, Lixi, and Sushi as if nothing had happened.

"See you another day..."

Yue didn't know why Momoko was in the mood to say such things, but out of politeness and friendship, she still replied to her.

"This guy..."

Shiina Tatsuki was clearly annoyed with Momoko as well, referring to her as "this girl." Her brows furrowed slightly, her expression showing displeasure, and her eyes revealed a hint of dissatisfaction and impatience.

"I'm leaving now too..."

Seeing that Momoko Kurosawa had easily escaped from the center of public opinion, Nagasaki Momoyo decisively spoke up and said that she would also leave first.

"Wait for the Lu Liu Er III Si Ba Si Ling - Dream..."

Li Xi wanted to speak up to stop Nagasaki Motoyo, but Yue quickly reached out and pressed down on her arm.

She felt the warmth from Yue's palm and frowned as she looked at Yue.

Yue shook her head at her, her azure eyes conveying a sense of reassurance and dissuasion.

Lixi sensed what Yue wanted to express, stopped what he was about to say, frowned slightly, and showed a hint of confusion in his eyes, but still chose to follow her wishes.

"Su Shi...you go first...see you at practice tomorrow."

Yue tried her best to show a gentle smile to Su Shi, even though Li hope could see the forced expression on her face. Too much had happened tonight, and even Yue couldn't maintain her usual acting skills.

"..."

Nagasaki Motoyo noticed the unusual expression on Tsuki's face, and she knew the reason behind it.

Silence hung between them. She lowered her head, her mind filled with various thoughts as she pondered how to answer the other person's question.

Finally, she nodded, without saying much, simply replying, "See you tomorrow..."

Then Nagasaki Motoyo started walking away into the distance, but her steps were heavy, as if the pent-up emotions in her heart were pressing down on her like a mountain.

However, a shout from Peach in the distance soon broke the heavy atmosphere in this space.

A familiar figure rushed back, Peach's face covered in sweat, panting heavily.

Taozi ran to Su Shi's side, panting, and said in a broken voice, "Su Shi, wait a minute, there's something..."

Her words revealed anxiety and unease, as if she were implying that she had some important news to tell Su Shi.

Su Shi looked up and saw Tao Zi's anxious expression. Thinking that Tao Zi had something important to say, she asked, "Is there anything else?"

Peach's answer surprised everyone present.

“…Su Shi, I forgot to change my clothes back with you.”

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

After Taozi and Su Shi went to the Starlight Pavilion again, Li hope finally couldn't help but ask Yue.

"Moon...why did you do that just now?"

She raised her head and looked at the sky tonight. It happened to be a clear day, and even at night there were not many clouds in the sky, so she could clearly see the bright moon in the sky.

"Lixi, are you referring to why I stopped you?"

"Hmm...shouldn't we clarify the issue now? What if it affects the performance the day after tomorrow?"

Even now, Shiina Tatsuki is still thinking about her band's performance.

Yue shook her head, frowned slightly, and said to Lixi, "Lixi, sometimes it's better not to pry too much."

"But now... what if Su Shi suddenly leaves the band... what will we do then...?"

What Shiina Riki said wasn't without reason. After what happened tonight, everyone except Momoko was basically in an awkward situation.

These things weren't unheard of before; a three-foot layer of ice doesn't form in a day. In fact, Riki and Yue had already guessed Nagasaki Motoyo's purpose in wanting to revive Crychic.

But as mentioned before, all Lixi needs is a light, and Yue and Su Shi weren't very familiar with each other before, so she couldn't interfere in their affairs. She could only come in and protect Aine as much as possible.

Unexpectedly, someone stepped on the landmine, and now the two of them are caught in a dilemma: whether to remove their feet or not.

If they were to make things clear to Su Shi directly, the entire band might be thrown into chaos before the performance. If they didn't make things clear, it would mean that the two of them would be confined here by Su Shi, or even tied to a united front.

Yue offered Lixi a temporary compromise and expedient solution: "Let's deal with these things after the performance."

Li hope had of course thought of this method before, but this method seemed to have a high success rate, as it took into account the performance a few days later and allowed him to make things clear with Su Shi after the performance.

But she didn't want to use this method: "I don't want to give Xiaodeng hope again, and then tell her this hopeless thing again."

"Furthermore... given Su Shi's current state and... the awkward relationship between us, is it even possible to successfully complete the performance...?"

Li Xi's words silenced Yue. Her expression was extremely solemn and worried. She knew just how difficult the problem they were facing was. The band was now facing only three possibilities: they would explode on the spot, they would explode during a performance a few days later, or they would explode after the performance.

Various solutions flashed through her mind, only to be rejected one by one. Finally, she sighed deeply and admitted that she had no way to deal with the matter.

If it were just her alone, she would naturally choose to make a clean break, just like when she chose to drop out of school and leave Shengxiang. But now she also has to take care of the other members of the band, so the choices she can make are much more limited.

And the source of all this is Momoko. No... in fact, even without Momoko, Nagasaki Motoyo, this bomb, still exists here. It's just a matter of whether she exposes it sooner or later.

"To be precise... Momoko was just the fuse that ignited Nagasaki Motoyo's problem, but the timing of the ignition was rather unfortunate."

Yue's mind raced, her expression weary and heavy. She had always thought playing in a band should be a happy thing, so why hadn't she felt happy since joining the band?

"Where exactly did things go wrong? There's definitely something wrong with My Girl Band Story."

When the performance begins: Chapter Seventy-Five, The Renai Family

Finally, after Yue and Lixi parted ways that evening, she returned home and lay in bed, unable to come up with a good solution to the problem. In the end, she suffered from insomnia because of thinking about it.

The same dilemma was also affecting Lixi and Sushi. Lixi was worried about the future of the band, while Sushi was torn between his own reformation of Crychic and how to get along with everyone in the next few days.

The next day at school, Aine looked at Tsuki, who had dark circles under her eyes, with a puzzled expression.

Curious, she moved closer to Yue and asked softly, "Yue, what's wrong? Your dark circles are so bad. Didn't you and Lixi go to track Taozi and Sushi yesterday? What happened?"

Aine's voice sounded very concerned, revealing her interest and curiosity about what happened last night; she longed to know what had transpired.

When Aine asked about what happened last night, Yue stammered and replied, "Um... last night... um... Lixi and I lost track of them, and we have no idea what Momoko and Suze did."

Her voice was somewhat muffled, giving Ai Yin a feeling of embarrassment. She lowered her eyes, avoiding Ai Yin's gaze, and dared not look directly at her.

Looking at Yue's head turned away and her vague answer, Aine quickly understood that Yue probably had something difficult to say, so she gave up asking any further questions.

Aine, seeing Takamatsu Akari walk in from the classroom door, changed the subject: "Hey, Tsukimi, Akari and I met Ryuna-chan's grandma yesterday!"

Xiaodeng originally wanted to ask about Su Shi's situation yesterday, but when she heard Aine bring up her topic, she nodded and said, "Hmm... Rakuna-chan's grandma is a very impressive person just by her demeanor."

"After all, she's the woman who once made Roselia cry and caused Popipa's lead singer to lose her voice... How could she not be terrifying?"

When Yue heard what Xiaodeng said, she remembered some interesting things that had happened in Space that she had heard from Rinrin-senpai when she was chatting with Kasumi-senpai.

However, she understood what Aine meant and what her purpose was, so she followed up by asking, "Eh? What exactly happened?"

"The story begins after you left yesterday."

———————The dividing line of looking back——————

"Lanna-chan, are you feeling better?"

As the doctor removed the IV drip from Renai's hand, Aine stepped forward with concern to inquire about Renai's condition.

Lena's face had almost regained its color after the injection, and the distorted expression of pain she had just displayed was gone.

It was obvious that the prolonged abdominal pain had some aftereffects. Even though the medication had started to take effect, Le Nai still didn't have her usual quirky expression. She looked completely drained, as if she had stayed up all night.

"Rakuna-chan..."

Xiao Deng looked at Le Nai's dejected expression, her face filled with worry.

"Lanna-chan, where do you live? You can't possibly go home alone like this. Let me and Xiaodeng take you home."

“Yes…” Lena took out her phone from her pocket, tapped a few times, opened a chat interface, and handed it to Aine.

Ai-yin took Rakuna's phone, skipped the chat messages between Rakuna and her mother, and went straight to the location sent by the other party.

Considering that Lena probably wouldn't be so clueless as to not know where her own home is, and based on the chat history I just glanced at, it's highly likely that Lena had wandered off somewhere before and didn't know how to use map software, so she asked her mother for help to send her location and enable navigation.

"But... does Rakuna-chan really know how to read a map?"

As Ai Yin muttered to herself, she opened her location and memorized the location of Le Nai's house.

"It doesn't seem to be very far from here. It should only take a few tens of minutes by tram."

"Then... Aine, let's go."

Aine and Akari each supported Rakuna on one side, gently supporting her body to ensure she could stand steadily before slowly walking outside.

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

"This should be it..."

Ai looked at the location on the map, then looked up at the street sign in front of her, confirming that she should have arrived near Renai's house.

Xiao Deng asked Renai, "Renna-chan...where should we go next?"

"Over here!"