In her gloom, Hitori Gotoh saw famous rock superstars standing before her, patting her on the shoulder and giving her a thumbs-up, revealing neat, sparkling white teeth as they nodded in agreement with her thoughts: "Young lady, it's alright. If it were us, we couldn't refuse either."
"Thank you for your approval, I-I'll definitely do my best to have Jhin keep me for the rest of my life!"
"Hey! Bocchi-chan, what kind of strange things are you saying? Aren't you Jhin's girlfriend?" Seika Ijichi, seeing Hitori Gotoh suddenly clasp her hands and start muttering nonsense, was afraid something she said had triggered her.
"Ah, yes, what about it?"
Seika Ijichi breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed. "Generally, 'kept woman' is a term used for a third party or a mistress. You're the official girlfriend, how can you use that word?"
"Huh, is my sister actually chatting with Bocchi-chan?"
"How rare."
"What are you guys talking about?" Nijika asked as she took the yellow backpack off her back and hugged it in front of her.
The sound engineer sister straightened up and said with a mischievous smile, "They're talking about official girlfriends and mistresses."
"M-Mistress?!" Nijika's eyes went wide, and she clutched the backpack in her arms tightly. "Wh-who's the mistress?"
"Why are you reacting so strongly?" Ryo felt that this was a reaction she'd expect from Hitori Gotoh.
"Don't listen to her nonsense," Seika Ijichi glared at the sound engineer sister, who was laughing uncontrollably, and explained, "Bocchi-chan is actually worried about the cultural festival."
"So it's the cultural festival..." Nijika finally relaxed her arms around her backpack.
She had thought she'd been talking in her sleep about that dream and her sister had overheard.
"Bocchi-chan is wondering if Kessoku Band can perform at the cultural festival."
"Eh! But I haven't even turned in the application form yet?"
Hitori Gotoh was so horrified her little pigtail bobbed up and down, a stark contrast to the ahoge on Nijika's head, which was spinning wildly.
"A cultural festival performance sounds great, we should definitely do it!"
"B-But…" Just the thought of an audience with more than a double-digit number of people made Hitori Gotoh's legs go weak.
"There's a kind of fun there that you won't find at a live house, you know."
"Nijika, have you ever participated in one?"
"Mhm! Back in middle school." Nijika's cheerful smile made Hitori Gotoh secretly envious.
As expected of Nijika, who's overflowing with youthful maiden vibes. It's no surprise she's had an experience like that, how wonderful~
Ryo crossed her arms and said quite proudly, "Actually, I've participated too!"
"Eh? I've never heard you mention that."
Ryo smugly gave a thumbs-up, a smile appearing on her aloof face. "I played a super niche song and made the venue as cold as a funeral hall."
"That's not something to be proud of at all, you weirdo!"
"Ehehehe." Ryo was quite pleased, scratching her head with a chuckle.
Nijika plopped her backpack on the table with a grunt, pulled out the chair from underneath, and sat down.
Ryo went and got herself a glass of orange juice with ice and sat next to her.
"Speaking of which, I don't think I've ever participated in an event like this with Ryo, have I?"
"Huh? Is that so?" Hitori Gotoh thought that since they were at the same school, they would have performed together long ago.
"Well, Kessoku Band was only formed recently."
Ryo was eager to try. "I want to perform our original songs somewhere other than here, too."
Nijika snapped her fingers. "Isn't this a great opportunity for everyone to get to know Kessoku Band?"
As soon as she said that, everyone looked at Hitori Gotoh. Now, all it would take was her nod for the matter to be decided.
"But a high school cultural festival... isn't it the kind of thing where if you don't hype up the crowd with youth rock, you get expelled?" Hitori Gotoh could already picture the expulsion notice with her name on it in black and white, posted on the Shuka High School notice board.
"How could there be a school rule like that!" Nijika was starting to wonder if Kita Ikuyo and Hitori Gotoh even went to the same school.
"But, I can understand Bocchi-chan's worries," Ryo said, holding the cold glass cup and watching the ice melt bit by bit. "It's possible, no, it's certain that we'll have to perform in front of way more people than here."
"So you don't have to make a decision in such a hurry. Think it over carefully."
"Ryo…"
"To be honest…" A glint of tears appeared in the corner of Ryo's eyes. "I still have nightmares about that funeral hall-like performance sometimes."
Seika Ijichi narrowed her eyes and retorted, "So you were just putting on a brave face earlier."
Having been exposed, Ryo's defenses crumbled in an instant. She collapsed onto the table and refused to lift her head, no matter what was said.
"In any case, the most important thing is that Bocchi-chan has no regrets!"
The sound engineer sister agreed with Nijika. "That's right, rock is all about having no regrets."
"I... I get it. I'll think about it some more..." Hitori Gotoh lowered her head again, staring at her uniform skirt, lost in thought.
"Sorry, I'm late!" Kita Ikuyo hurriedly pushed open the door to STARRY, her fair forehead covered in fine beads of sweat.
"I had to help out with a school club."
"Kita, you're just in time!" Nijika walked over and thoughtfully handed Kita Ikuyo a wet wipe.
"Thank you, Ijichi-senpai." Kita Ikuyo took the wipe and dabbed her forehead, curious as to why Nijika had said that. "Did something good happen?"
"Isn't your school having a cultural festival?"
"Yes."
"Bocchi-chan is planning to have Kessoku Band perform!"
"That's wonderful! Miss Gotoh, you've turned in the application form, right?"
"Bocchi-chan is still thinking about it. It seems she hasn't yet."
"Eh?" Kita Ikuyo froze, the hand wiping her sweat stopping on her forehead.
This isn't what we agreed on!
Only then did Hitori Gotoh remember the application form.
She was about to take it out to show everyone, but after rummaging through her bag, she couldn't find the completed form, breaking out into a sweat from anxiety.
"What's going on? I'm sure I put it in my bag?"
Hitori Gotoh dumped everything out of her bag and searched through it all, but there was still no sign of the application form.
"Bocchi-chan, you didn't leave it in your desk at school, did you?"
Hitori Gotoh was a little unsure, she had clearly stuffed it in her bag before. "Ah, that's possible. I'll go look for it at school tomorrow."
Kita Ikuyo timidly raised her right hand. "Th-that is, I remember Jhin saying he already turned it in for Miss Gotoh."
Seika Ijichi watched as Hitori Gotoh's little face turned into an abstract Picasso painting, her features distorted with varying sizes and strangeness. She cupped her cheeks with both hands and let out a twisted scream.
"Ahhhhhh!!!!!"
"Bocchi-chan, she's not going to break up with Jhin over this, is she?"
Seika Ijichi thought to herself as she sent a text to Jhin.
Seika Ijichi: "Everything went just as you said."
___
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