I have pure love with them

Ijichi Hongxia looked at the boy standing in front of the entrance stairs of 'STARRY'. After turning his head, he looked at her with a look of surprise. Thinking that he was frightened by her sudden voice, she quickly apologized to him.

"Sorry, did I scare you?"

Quan was a little surprised that the person he thought would be hard to meet appeared in front of him. Looking at the girl in front of him, a gentle smile appeared on his face.

"Just a little bit, what can I do for you?"

"Ah~ Sorry to scare you. I was just a little surprised to see you standing at the door. Are you here to watch the live show?"

The girl exudes youthfulness and the warmth of spring sunshine. When she heard that Quan was scared by her, her expression became more apologetic. She clasped her hands in front of her, and her sincere attitude made it difficult for people to blame her.

Quan had no intention of blaming the other party. He did notice the footsteps of the other party approaching behind him at first, but he did not expect that the person behind him was Ijichi Hongxia. He admitted that he was frightened, but he was just following the other party's words to facilitate subsequent communication.

"Well, I saw on social media that there would be a band performing here tonight. Since I just started learning guitar recently, I was curious and wanted to see what a real band performance is like. However... I didn't expect that this place was not open for business."

He looked back at the stairs hidden in the darkness behind him, and then looked at Ijichi Hongxia in front of him. He shrugged his shoulders slightly, looking quite helpless.

"Eh? Are you learning guitar? I see... um—"

Ijichi Hongxia looked at the boy in front of her, and after learning that he was learning guitar and that this was his first time to participate in a live performance, her expression became a little conflicted.

Originally, 'STARRY' was not open at this time. Her sister was currently outside, restocking the drinks in the store. She would be back in a while. But when she thought about how she had just scared her, and that it was her first time to participate in a live show, if she disappointed her, she would probably not come here again...

"Although it's not open for business yet, if you don't mind, I can take you in to have a look. Anyway, it's almost time for opening."

After hearing what Ijichi Kouka said, Izumi showed appropriate surprise and confusion.

"Actually, my sister is the store manager here, and she's away at the moment."

"Is it okay? Letting a stranger like me into the store?"

"It doesn't matter. My sister will be here soon anyway. She doesn't care about these details."

After explaining her identity to Quan and making sure there would be no problem, Ijichi Hongxia stepped over the chain at the entrance and walked towards the dark stairs below.

The entrance itself is located between two apartment buildings. The apartments on both sides make it difficult for ordinary sunlight to reach this corner. Even though it is daytime, Izumi, who is walking down with Ijichi Hongxia, has to look carefully at the stairs under his feet to avoid stumbling and dying young here.

"Um, you are Xiuhua's student, right?"

"Huh? Yes, I just enrolled this year, a freshman."

Ijichi Kouka took out the key from her body, opened the door of 'STARRY', and invited Izumi to go into the store together. When turning on the lights, she started chatting with Izumi.

"Ah~ I'm a sophomore at Shimokitazawa High School. From my height, I thought..."

"Chihaya Izumi, just call me Izumi."

"Ijichi Nijinaka, I'll just call you Chihaya-kun. Chihaya-kun's height makes you look more like a third-year student who's about to go on to higher education."

Facing someone she met for the first time, Ijichi Kouka did not call Izumi by her name directly. Instead, she smiled and called her "Chihaya-kun".

The entire 'STARRY' space is not very large, and the interior decoration style is rather rough. Even with the lights on, the black soundproofing all around still gives off a gloomy feeling, which makes people feel heavy in their hearts.

It fits Quan's imagination of rock space very well.

"Before the show starts, it feels a bit dull, but after the show starts, the lights will be turned on, and with the interweaving of those gorgeous lights, it will feel really good!"

Noticing that Quan was observing the environment here, Ijichi Hongxia hurriedly introduced it to him.

'STAARY' is a livehouse, and livehouses that have obtained business licenses as restaurants are generally called 'boxes', and those with a small space like 'STARRY' are called 'small boxes'.

Due to the small space, popular bands generally do not come here to perform, and unpopular bands do not attract many audiences and customers.

Therefore, when facing Quan, a potential customer who is learning guitar and wants to see a band performance, Ijichi Hongxia appears to be very proactive and enthusiastic.

When the girl introduced it, Quan could hear her love for this place from her tone.

"Ichichi-senpai, you really love this place."

"Eh?"

Being addressed as a senior surprised Ijichi Hongxia, but Quan's evaluation of her made her smile from the bottom of her heart.

"Of course!"

"Can I buy tickets now? After hearing what Ijichi-senpai said about this place, I'm already looking forward to the live show tonight."

"did not ask--"

"Hongxia, are we here yet?"

Just as Ichichi Hongxia was answering Quan, the sound of the door opening was heard, interrupting what Ichichi Hongxia was about to say.

Hearing the noise at the door, Ichichi Hongxia turned around and looked towards the door.

"elder sister?"

"Help me move those materials at the door—"

Ijichi Hoshika entered the store holding a cardboard box and saw her sister standing in the store with a strange boy. The words she wanted to say were choked back in her mouth. Countless thoughts emerged in her mind and turned into one sentence.

"Who is this kid?"

A lot of emotions arose in his mind, but in front of his sister, Ijichi Xingge remained very calm, with his usual lazy attitude, without any abnormality.

Quan, who was being watched, remained quiet at this moment. Facing Ijichi Xingge's gaze, he even nodded to the other party politely.

"Chihaya-kun is a guest who came to see the show. It's his first time here, so he didn't know the opening hours. I just happened to be back from school, so I brought him in first. Did he leave today's ticket at the bar?"

After hearing her sister's answer, Ichichi Xingge's wildly beating heartbeat finally calmed down.

8. She likes me?

"This is my sister, Ijichi Hoshika, and the store manager of this 'STARRY'."

Ijichi Hoshika, who was holding the cardboard box, glanced at Izumi. After learning that the other party was not her sister's boyfriend, she simply nodded as a response, and then went to the bar in the store with the cardboard box.

"Please help move the goods at the door first. We can talk about the rest after we finish moving them... Oh, tickets, right?"

Looking at Izumi who was standing in the store, Ijichi Hoshige put down the cardboard box, took a ticket from the bar and placed it on the bar table.

"1,500 yen. In addition, we have a one-drink system here. In addition to the ticket fee, you must order a drink here. The price of the drink is 500 yen."

Ichichi Hoshige took out another object that looked like a guitar pick and placed it next to the ticket.

"It's 2,000 yen in total."

After buying a guitar yesterday and renting a recording studio to familiarize himself with it, Izumi didn't have much money left. He took out some banknotes from his wallet and handed them to the bar. Ichichi Xingge and Izumi took the ticket and banknotes respectively.

"Although it's not open yet and it's still early for the band's performance, you can wait here or go out for a walk and come back when the time comes."

After receiving the ticket, Quan thought for a while after hearing what Ichichi Xingge said, and decided to leave for a while to take care of dinner and come back later.

"Well, I'll wait until the band starts playing."

"Entrance time is 19:19, and the show starts at 30:."

"Ah."

After noting the start time of the performance, Izumi, who had nothing to do left, said goodbye to Ichichi Kouka and left this somewhat depressing environment for the time being.

Watching Quan's back as he left, Ichichi Hoshige looked at her sister, Ichichi Hongxia. Noticing that her sister had no reaction to the boy's departure, she felt completely relieved and told her sister to accompany her to move the goods at the door...

After leaving 'STARRY', Quan looked at the time and decided to go back to his home first. It was still early anyway, and his residence was less than half an hour away from Shimokitazawa, so he went home first.

"Am I alone today?"

Yesterday, when he returned home and his mother was already at home, it was apparently just an exception. Today, when he returned home, all he was faced with was an empty living room.

He went back to his room first, changed out of his school uniform, put on neat and comfortable casual clothes, took out his mobile phone and looked at the messages on it. In addition to the text message from Xiaodou Sendo asking him to play games together, there was also a message from his mother.

The general content is that he will be home very late tonight, and Quan will have to figure out the dinner issue on his own.

It seems that there are no text messages to reply.

He cleared all the red dots on the text messages, put them back into the pocket, and prepared to go out.

……

I went to McDonald's, but there wasn't any food that I liked there. After leaving McDonald's, I went to a ramen restaurant, solved my dinner problem with ramen, and then I saw that it was almost time to enter the performance.

"It's about time."

It didn't take long to get to 'STARRY'. I found the entrance to a different world, opened the door and entered the store. I felt the dazzling lights and the bustling atmosphere that was completely different from the daytime. The heat hit me.

The person checking tickets at the door was the store manager, Ijichi Hoshika. Izumi entered the store, took the ticket out of his pocket and handed it to the manager, who just glanced at it and, after taking the ticket, let Izumi enter the store and started checking the tickets of the people behind him.

After a quick glance at the venue, there were about a hundred people, 8% of whom were female spectators, 1.5% were male, and the remaining 0.5% were people that Quan did not dare to jump to conclusions.

Ichichi Hongxia was sitting behind the bar at the moment, preparing drinks for the guests. Quan looked at her busy appearance and did not go up to disturb her. He looked around the venue and found a place near the entrance and waited quietly.

"Come to the show?"

After rejecting one woman after another who came up to him to chat up, Quandu began to doubt whether these women were here to see the show or to date, when the voice of someone trying to chat him up was heard behind him again.

"Sorry, I just want to be alone...is it you?"

Looking back, he saw a girl wearing a black leather jacket, a collar and a necklace, with a bass on her back, staring at him. She was the girl he met at the door of the music store yesterday.

“It’s very popular.”

When the other party spoke, the tone he used when talking to Quan didn't sound like a stranger, but more like a friend he knew. He felt somewhat close, but not abrupt.

"If possible, I'd rather be alone for a while. Are you a member of the band that's performing today?"

Looking at the bass carried by the girl in front of him, Quan's gaze lingered on her bass for a moment, then he looked away and asked her softly.

Hachiman Kailing looked at the boy in front of her and nodded slightly.

"I'll cheer you on."

"Thank you."

The two fell into a brief silence.

"Goodbye."

"Ah."

The two of them had nothing to talk about, so they ended their conversation.

Hachiman Kailing turned and walked towards the recording studio. She had to make some preparations before the band she was supporting came on stage.

Looking at Hachiman Kailing's leaving back, Quan felt a little weird. This was the second time they met, and he didn't expect that the other party would take the initiative to say hello to him.