Lonely Rock: Love Songs Dedicated to the Stars

The three of them looked at each other. Although they were all handsome men and beautiful women from a social point of view, to these children, were they really such terrifying adults?

Yuuma, still lamenting the relentless passage of time, suddenly felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He took it out and glanced at it; it was Hongxia calling. He remembered that the band had rented a rehearsal room after the day's performance. Had something happened? He quickly answered the phone.

"Brother, who is the auntie in the shop...?"

"It's my mom, what's wrong?"

"Well... we were planning to eat at my brother's restaurant after rehearsals, but Aunt Kenzaki suddenly became incredibly enthusiastic when she saw me..."

After hearing all this, Kenzaki Yuuma probably understood the band's predicament. If he had to say, his mother's personality was quite similar to Kita's, so they should get along well. Since he had talked to his mother about the Hoshika family before, she should have recognized Nijika immediately and was probably clinging to her now. As for Pochi-chan, she'd probably melted away by now.

"Is there anything I can or cannot say next?"

"There's nothing you can't say. Just say whatever you want, my mom will just enjoy whatever you say."

"but……"

Yuzhen hung up the phone immediately. After learning about Hongxia's situation, he felt that the food court was quite nice.

"Is everything alright at home?"

After listening to the conversation between Nijika and Yuuma, Ijichi Seika put down her drink and looked at Yuuma.

"Let Hongxia worry about it herself. We're here on a date under orders, aren't we? Those things are none of our business for now."

"what about me?"

PA pointed to herself, looked at Ichika Hoshika, and waited for her to decide whether to stay or leave.

"You have the day off today. No, the renovations are going to start tomorrow morning, so you have the day off tomorrow morning too."

"Okay! I won't bother you anymore."

After obtaining permission from Ijichi Hoshika, PA prepared to leave, but then a familiar voice suddenly came from behind.

"Ah! It's Kenzaki-sensei!"

The three looked in the direction of the sound and saw Eliza Shimizu, the guitarist of SICK HACK, with Gin, the manager of Shinjuku FLOT, next to her. The two of them were carrying a lot of things.

"Oh, it's Little Silver and Eliza. What are you two doing here?"

Xiao Yin came to the neighborhood to buy discounted cosmetics and had lunch here. She then bumped into Eliza, who was there to buy collaboration merchandise, so the two of them came here to rest for a while.

Kenzaki Yuuma had met Eliza before. He'd met this foreign girl a while ago when he went to drink with Hiroi Kikuri. She was a big fan of anime, so Yuuma chatted with her for a bit. To Kenzaki Yuuma's surprise, Eliza had seen the video he'd posted online early on, a cover of a tokusatsu theme song, so he and Eliza got along quite well.

The group sat together, and Xiao Yin and Eliza were finally able to put down what they were holding.

"Xiaoyin bought so many cosmetics?"

Yuuma was completely clueless about these things; he only ever used face wash and had no idea what these bottles and jars were. PA, on the other hand, was chatting happily with Eliza, who was showing PA the audio-visual merchandise she had previously snagged from Alto.

"Kenzaki and Ijichi, you two don't look too good right now." Gin looked at the couple in front of him with concern. "You can't just come out without dressing up at all. Especially you, Kenzaki, your dark circles are so bad, and your hair hasn't been styled..."

The two listened to the man in his thirties rambling on, straws dangling from their mouths. Yuuma wasn't really listening; he was already adjusting his sleep schedule and had his own rhythm. Ijichi Hoshika initially didn't want to listen carefully either, but after hearing Gin say, "Appropriately changing your makeup can enhance the freshness in a relationship," she secretly glanced at Kenzaki Yuuma and then asked Gin some questions about cosmetics.

Kenzaki Yuuma quickly finished his drink and got up to buy another one, but after taking only a few steps, he felt his legs being hugged.

'Could I have seen a ghost in the food court in broad daylight?' Thinking this, he looked down and saw Hiroi lying on the ground, hugging his legs.

"Tell me, why are you here?"

After watching Hiroi finish the water he bought for her, and waiting for her to recover, Kenzaki Yuuma began to interrogate her.

"We had a celebration banquet last night, and we're here now after we finished drinking."

"But Xiaoju, we didn't have a performance yesterday, and there was no celebration party last night."

As soon as Eliza finished speaking, everyone looked at Hiroi with the same disdainful eyes. This guy must have gone to another band's after-party to freeload.

"I'm telling you, Xiaoyin, shouldn't you keep a closer eye on her?"

Xingge turned her head and looked at Xiaoyin with dead fish eyes.

"Well, I did try to tell her to restrain herself, but it didn't work. Besides, her fans really like her this way." Xiao Yin was also helpless with this guy.

"So what exactly happened to turn Hiroi into an alcoholic?"

"This is a long story..."

"Hiroi! We've finally found you!"

Just as Xiaoyin was about to answer Yuzhen's question, she was interrupted by a roar. After cleaning up the mess for Hiroi, Iwashita Shima finally found Hiroi Kikuri, who had just run away. She came up behind Hiroi, covered in sweat, and only when she raised her hand did she notice everyone around Hiroi, but the chop still landed on Hiroi's head.

"I'm sorry! Hiroi and Eliza have caused everyone trouble."

"Huh? I can leave Xiaoju aside, why am I involved?"

This is really making things even more lively.

Chapter 14 Friends and Family

Hiroi was asleep, slumped over the table. Several empty boxes of the Demon Slayer Sake she had just finished drinking were on the table in front of her.

"How much did she drink yesterday?" Kenzaki Yuuma pulled the straw out of the empty glass and poked Hiroi's face, but Hiroi was fast asleep and didn't react. "How could she sleep with all this noise in here?"

"We were drinking from last night until this morning. The band contacted me this morning." Shima stroked Eliza's head, having just calmed her down. "Sigh, I was thinking of relaxing today since there was no rehearsal."

Ijichi Hoshika ate her pizza while staring at Kenzaki Yuuma. She had just chatted with Gin and PA about makeup and wondered if Kenzaki Yuuma would like her with makeup on.

"Have Ijichi-senpai and Kenzaki-senpai gotten back together?"

While talking to Kenzaki Yuuma, Shima noticed the way Iji Tomoka was staring at Yuuma. She remembered her conversation with Yuuma and Hiroi at the izakaya a while ago, so she decided to ask him about it.

"Ah, it's been several days already. But it doesn't feel any different from usual," Kenzaki Yuuma replied, tossing the straw into the trash can.

"Did we interrupt your date? We're so sorry!"

"It's okay, Gin. It wasn't really a date to begin with; we just wanted to find a place to kill some time."

'Is it any different from usual?' Although Kenzaki Yuuma didn't feel anything was wrong, Ijichi Hoshika accurately caught the key words in his words. Lost in thought, she stopped listening to the conversations around her.

'Does this mean there's a lack of novelty?' That's what Ichiji Hoshika thought. Thinking this, she felt she should make some changes.

The group chatted for a long time. To those around them, the table was full of highly individualistic people: a musician who fit the stereotype, a blonde tsundere with a strange ahoge (cowlick), a delinquent girl with long, straight black hair, a strange middle-aged man with a girlish heart, a drunkard, a foreign girl who liked anime, and a girl who seemed very reliable.

The other guests didn't know how they got together; they only knew that these guys sat there for a long time, chatting idly until evening before finally leaving.

"I am back."

Although he was entering the Ijichi family's house, Kenzaki Yuuma felt as if he were returning to his own home.

"Didn't you say you weren't staying at my house tonight?"

After taking off her shoes, Ijichi Seika lifted her foot and gently kicked Kenzaki Yuuma's leg.

"I just came to mooch a meal. You won't even let me mooch a meal, will you? No way, no way?" Kenzaki Yuuma felt her leg being lightly kicked, turned around and grabbed Hoshika's ankle, while wrapping her other arm around her waist to help her maintain her balance.

"Oh, you're back."

It wasn't the familiar Nijika's voice; Kenzaki Yuuma felt like he was hearing his mother's voice. He let go of Hoshika, turned around, and sure enough, saw his mother wearing an apron, holding a spatula, and smiling at the two of them. The apron looked like the one Nijika often wore, but it seemed a little too big on his mother.

"Mom, what are you doing here?"

"Xiao Hongxia invited us over. She's such a thoughtful and good child. I had to use a lot of persuasion to get her to use the kitchen, and then I let her do her homework first."

Sure enough, Kenzaki Yuuma saw his father sitting on the sofa in the Ijichi family's living room, talking to Uncle Ijichi...

Yuuma and Hoshika awkwardly sat down on the sofa. To their left was Hoshika and Nijika's father, who usually worked out of town and had only just returned home on vacation. To their right was Kenzaki Yuuma's father, who, unlike Yuuma's memory, was smiling broadly. After finishing her homework, Nijika and Yuuma's mother were busy in the kitchen.

The two middle-aged men chatted amiably even with Yuzhen and Xingge between them, making Yuzhen feel as if she didn't exist. He wasn't nervous at all; he had met Xingge's parents years ago and received their approval. Xingge, on the other hand, seemed a little uncomfortable, as it was her first time meeting Yuzhen's parents.

'If they're ignoring us, why are they still asking us to sit here?' Yu Zhen didn't understand.

"Xiao Zhen, can you help me out?"

"Coming." Hearing her mother's call, Yuzhen got up and went into the kitchen.

"Could you please get that?"

Following the direction her mother pointed, Kenzaki Yuuma saw a small bottle of pepper powder in the cabinet above.

"Honestly, Hongxia, why did you put these things so high up? You can't even reach them yourself." He said, handing the pepper powder to his mother.

"My sister left it there. I asked her to clean the kitchen a couple of days ago, and this is what happened."

That's not surprising, that's not surprising at all.

"How was Yu-chan's date with my sister?"

"It was less of a date and more of a gathering of friends."

While chopping vegetables, Kenzaki Yuuma told Nijika and his mother about what had happened that afternoon.

"They all sound like very good kids."

Hearing her mother's words, Kenzaki Yuuma thought about Hiroi's drunken state again and began to question her mother's standards for a "good child".

Dinner didn't end quickly, but it wasn't until he was washing the dishes after dinner that Kenzaki Yuuma remembered his older brother, Kenzaki Yuuki.

"Did you tell your older brother about having dinner here?"

The group of people chatting over tea in the living room paused for a moment, then chose to skip the topic.

Later, at Kenzaki Yuuma's house.

"Remember to tell me about these things sooner next time!"

Kenzaki Yuuki was eating the pork cutlet rice with sauce that Yuuma had just made for him.

"I thought my parents had told you."

I thought your mother had told you.

"I thought your father had told you."

Kenzaki Yuuki ignored them, finished eating, and handed the empty bowl to Yuuma: "Another bowl, please."

In the living room of the Ijichi family home, Hoshika, who had just finished taking a shower, sat cross-legged on the sofa in her pajamas, with her father sitting next to her.

"Xingge, you're not young anymore. You know your own feelings, so I won't say anything more. Just do what you want."

"Ah good."

After Xingge returned to his room, he also got up and went back to his own room, sat on the edge of the bed, and looked at the family photo on the headboard.

In the middle of the night, unable to sleep, Ijichi Hoshika spent a long time scrolling through her phone. She put down her phone and lay on the bed, lost in thought. After a while, she heard someone knocking on the glass. She quietly got out of bed, drew back the curtains, and found Kenzaki Yuuma standing on the balcony outside the French windows.