Lonely Rock: Love Songs Dedicated to the Stars

"I know."

The large classroom next to Class 3-7's classroom is where Tokita-senpai and Umino-senpai are located. Their class borrowed this unused large classroom to build a haunted house, which is considered a classic event of the school festival. According to Hoshika, Tokita-senpai and Umino-senpai will be greeting guests at the entrance in the afternoon.

However, Yuma and Hoshika only saw Umino-senpai at the entrance, while Tokita-senpai was nowhere to be found.

"Tokita? That guy went to be with his girlfriend."

Senior Umino sat at the entrance of the haunted house, a Pokey stick dangling from her mouth.

"Wait, he has a girlfriend? I've never heard him mention it before." Xingge was also hearing about this for the first time.

Tokita-senpai never mentioned this. He was all muscle and had a rather peculiar way of thinking. During holidays, he would hang out with Omori-senpai at the gym. The only girls he usually interacted with were Hoshika and Umino-senpai, so Hoshika and Yuuma both assumed he was single.

"Of course, it's his childhood sweetheart." Senior Umino looked at the two people staring at her curiously. "They're neighbors and have known each other since they were very young. His girlfriend is very cute. She seems to be two years younger than him and goes to an all-girls school. When she came here to see him earlier, she called him Tokita-nii. She came here today specifically to visit him."

"incredible."

"incredible."

"You two are just hoping for something better," Senior Haiye said helplessly to her two juniors. "By the way, would you two like to experience our class's haunted house? I can let you two play for free once."

Chapter 27 (This is the title)

Following the principle that "if there's a bargain, don't miss it," Yuzhen went straight into the haunted house. Xingge followed him inside.

'Damn it, I got carried away when I heard this guy wanted to play, and followed him in.' Ijichi Hoshika looked around the entrance with a serious expression.

The two continued walking in together. At first, there was nothing that scared them, but as they went further in, they started to feel uneasy. Seeing the ambient lighting and the eerie surroundings, Hoshigo unconsciously grabbed Yuuma's sleeve.

"Ijichi-senpai, are you scared?" Yuuma stopped and asked, feeling his sleeve being grabbed.

"I... why would I be afraid of something like that?" Xingge wiped the sweat from her forehead, still stubbornly insisting, "I'm just afraid you'll get lost. After all, as a senior, I have to take care of the junior. Let's go, there's no fun here, let's get out of here."

"Ok."

After Xingge finished speaking, she took a few steps to prove herself, but as soon as she took those few steps, a spider doll hanging from the ceiling by a rope was smeared on her face.

Yuma saw her freeze for a moment, then she punched the doll, which wobbled in mid-air before hitting her in the face. Yuma quickly caught up with her and stopped her, not wanting her to break the props.

"I'll go first; let me, the junior, do the clearing."

“You’re right.” Xingge said as she moved behind Youzhen. “As expected of my junior, you know how to be considerate of your senior.”

Yuma reluctantly picked up the bag that Yuma had thrown to the ground and put on her back, then turned around and grabbed Yuma's right wrist.

"Let's go, let's get out of here quickly."

"..."

Yuzhen didn't hear her response, and looked at the dazed Xingge with a puzzled expression, asking her, "What's wrong?"

"Ah, no, it's nothing." Xingge came back to her senses. "Let's go."

On the way to the exit, Yuuma kept blocking Hoshika's path, but she was still startled by two upperclassmen dressed as zombies who suddenly jumped out. If Yuuma hadn't stopped her, she probably would have kicked the two upperclassmen directly. Hoshika was thus pulled by Yuuma to the end.

"You're finally out! You two have been inside for quite a while."

Senior Umino was waiting for the two of them at the exit. When she saw Yuuma holding Hoshika's wrist and carrying Hoshika's bag, she smiled teasingly and waved to them.

"Hurry up, hurry up, don't block the exit of our haunted house."

As Yuuma and Hoshika were leaving, Umino-senpai patted Yuuma on the shoulder and whispered "Good luck." Yuuma realized she had misunderstood. He tried to explain, but Umino-senpai simply pushed him and Hoshika out of the room.

"I said, can you let go now?"

When Xingge's voice reached Youzhen's ears, he realized that he was still holding Xingge's wrist.

"Sorry, I forgot." He quickly let go and returned the bag to Xingge.

Xingge didn't say anything more, rubbed her wrist, and took the backpack he handed over.

The two went to the club activity room first. Xingge put her bag on the table, and then they heard a commotion downstairs. Looking out the window, they saw a lot of people gathered downstairs staring at the roof. They went downstairs together to the front of the activity building.

Yuma asked around and found out that someone had just confessed to their crush on the rooftop. This was a long-standing rumor in the school that shouting out what you want to do on the rooftop of the event building during the school festival would likely make it come true later.

"This kind of thing sounds unreliable." Yuzhen looked up at the girl on the roof who seemed to want to say something but was mentally preparing herself.

"Since such rumors have spread, someone must have succeeded before, right? Do you think that girl above might succeed?" Xingge seemed quite interested in this kind of thing.

"How should I know? Let's hear what she has to say first."

The girl above seemed to have made up her mind. She took a deep breath and shouted, "Kenzaki Yuuma from Class 4, Grade 1, I like you!"

Yuzhen never expected that he would encounter such a coincidence just by joining in the fun, especially since he had only transferred schools a little over a month ago and didn't even know the girl in the picture.

"Sorry, I'm not thinking about dating right now."

He directly rejected the girl's confession. He couldn't pretend he didn't hear it; he had to be direct and refuse, otherwise it could cause problems later. Besides, there's a railing around the roof, so there's no need to worry about students jumping off after making their wishes.

Yuzhen didn't want to stay there any longer either, because all eyes were on him after he shouted, so he grabbed Xingge and ran away quickly.

"Why are you pulling me along? I want to keep watching the show."

"Sorry, sorry, I just pulled you over without thinking."

Yuma bought two drinks from an outdoor stall belonging to another class, and then the two of them sat on a bench under the shade of a tree.

"Is what you just said true?" Xingge released the straw she had just bitten flat. "It's what you just said, that I don't have any thoughts about dating for the time being."

"I don't really have any ideas right now," Yuma replied. "But maybe one day I'll meet someone I like, and then my thoughts will change."

"Oh, I see." She bit the straw again and slowly sipped the apple juice from the glass.

"What about Ijichi-senpai? Does he have someone he likes?"

Yuzhen looked at her and then asked her a question.

"As for me... I probably don't."

"That's pretty much what I guessed."

Yuzhen looked at her and couldn't help but laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"I just think you're a very interesting person, senpai." Yuuma looked at the juice in her glass. "Your words are completely opposite to your true thoughts, senpai. What's that called again? Ah... right, it's tsundere."

"Hmph, say what you will."

"That's rare. I was wondering why such a senior wouldn't care?"

"Do you have masochistic tendencies? Do you just want me to yell at you?"

……

It was drizzling outside that evening. Yuzhen sat cross-legged on her bed in her room, gazing out the window, lost in thought.

Kenzaki Yuuma really liked this kind of weather; he loved the smell of earth in the air after the rain. He checked the weather forecast, and it seemed the temperature would drop after the rain.

He thought back to his conversation with Xingge that afternoon. He had indeed felt relieved when he learned that Xingge didn't have anyone she liked. He couldn't understand why he felt this way. Could he really fall for a girl he'd only known for less than two months? It made him feel like he was a very casual person when it came to relationships. If he were to start a relationship so casually, it certainly wouldn't be a good thing.

Do I really like her?

"Could it be that I really like that guy?"

Ijichi Seika sat on the sofa and muttered to herself.

She was watching a TV drama, but she couldn't concentrate on it at all. She kept involuntarily thinking about the guy who gave her the bunny doll earlier that day and the one who grabbed her wrist and protected her in the haunted house. Knowing that guy didn't have anyone he liked, she even felt a moment of relief.

"It's just the suspension bridge effect, I don't want to think about it anymore." She came to her senses, patted her face, turned off the TV, and got up to walk towards the bathroom.

"Xingge, aren't you going to continue watching the TV series?"

Her mother had just put Hongxia to sleep when she noticed her eldest daughter blushing as she turned off the TV and headed to the bathroom.

"I'm tired today, so I'm going to bed early. I'm going to take a shower."

Seeing Xingge's expression, she smiled and said, "It seems you and Youzhen had a great time today."

Xingge paused for a moment, then fled into the bathroom and closed the door.

On the second morning of the school festival, Yuuma continued to work as a waiter in their class's butler café. He was busy until noon when his seniors from the light music club called him away.

"Remember this, you said you'd agree to my request after this is over." Yuuma pulled a maid outfit from her bag in the activity room. "You'd better wash your necks and wait for my revenge!"

"You really hold a grudge."

"Exactly, when the two of us wore this on stage back then, we didn't have this many problems."

Upon hearing Tokita and Omori's words, Yuuma paused for a moment.

"You two wore this thing on stage too?"

Yuma imagined the scene back then. Although, according to Umino-senpai, Tokita-senpai's muscles weren't that big back then, and Omori-senpai hadn't started working out yet, it's true that it's hard for people to imagine things they haven't seen before. His mind was filled with images of those two muscular men in maid outfits.

"You two have polluted my brain, your crime is compounded."

Yuzhen muttered to herself, shaking her head, trying to shake that image out of her mind.

"What is this guy saying now?"

"I didn't hear you clearly, I don't know."

Yuma changed into the maid outfit. The skirt, which had dragged on the ground when Hoshika wore it, didn't even reach his ankles on him. The chilly feeling between his legs made him feel very insecure. After he took out the hair accessory and put it on, apart from being too tall, he actually looked quite convincing.

After Yuuma changed his clothes, Hoshika and Umino-senpai entered the activity room. Umino-senpai was quite surprised to see him like this, and Yuuma felt that her eyes were already shining.

"Put on your stockings too." Senior Tokita took out the black stockings he had prepared.

“Yeah, otherwise it wouldn’t be able to cover your leg hair.” Senior Omori chimed in.

"Don't try to fool me again, you two." Yuzhen looked at the two guys with the eyes of someone looking at trash. "I'm wearing my own stockings, and the skirt is so long that you can't see my legs above the stockings at all. It doesn't matter how long my leg hair is."

"You have absolutely no respect for this outfit!"

"What reason do I have to respect it! I want to tear it up right now!"

Watching Yuuma bickering with Omori, Tokita sensed something was off. He fell into thought, then a flash of inspiration struck him, and he separated the two of them.

"Kenzaki, the stockings don't matter anymore. What you lack now is something else. With that, you'll definitely win the championship."

"So, what am I lacking?"

Everyone looked at Shi Tian after hearing his words. He took out a magazine, pointed to the model on the cover, and said, "Your chest has absolutely no curve!"

The activity room fell silent. Everyone looked at Yuuma; he was indeed completely flat-chested. Wait, this guy's a boy; this seems more normal.