"Then is Yuigahama-san helping out here?"
Sato suddenly turned to look at Yuigahama Yui, who was standing nearby.
Yuigahama Yui awkwardly scratched her cheek with a finger and said a little embarrassedly, "I just heard that Nohara-kun wrote a new song, so I got curious and came over to listen."
"Hahaha!"
Yui suddenly laughed awkwardly and scratched her head.
"Sorry, we're still not very familiar with it either."
"Take it slowly."
Sato turned back toward the girls of the Light Music Club. A faint smile appeared on his face as he said, "Now then, play it one more time. Oh right, can anyone sing it yet?"
"Nope, none of us can. We've only heard you sing it a few times, there's no way we could learn it that fast!"
Ritsu rolled her eyes.
The girls of the Light Music Club took their places in the performance area. Once everyone was ready, Sato raised an eyebrow slightly and gave the signal to begin.
Very quickly, the familiar rhythm and melody of "Wings Flying Side by Side" began echoing throughout the clubroom.
Not far away, Yukinoshita Yukino and Hikigaya Hachiman also temporarily stopped what they were doing and listened to the Light Music Club's performance.
Sato sat down in his seat, closed his eyes, and quietly listened while lightly tapping the rhythm on the tabletop with his fingers.
There was a special sense of distance and etherealness within this song.
Perhaps because he had seen the original work, whenever he listened to this song, he always experienced a strange feeling.
It was as though he had placed himself beneath a clear summer sky, atop a grassy hill.
At the top of that hill stood a giant oak tree, its branches lush and sprawling, casting a large patch of shade. Fine sunlight filtered through the canopy, scattering countless tiny flecks of light.
He lay beneath that enormous oak tree, able to see the azure sky and the slowly drifting white clouds, while the occasional breeze carried faint coolness with it.
But not long after the prelude ended, their performance clearly began to fall into disorder.
Sato frowned slightly, then let out a sigh.
They still hadn't practiced enough. Not only was their coordination far from flawless, but their grasp of the song as a whole also fell short.
After stumbling through the rest of the performance, everyone stood in the performance area looking at one another awkwardly.
It could not exactly be called terrible, but... in the end, it still really wasn't very good enough.
There was an overall feeling of it being kinda hard to watch.
"Hahaha! Definitely not up to standard!"
Ritsu scratched her head and laughed loudly. She did not seem to mind too much, since she had always been that carefree type of person.
"I couldn't keep up with everyone's rhythm again."
Yui (K-ON) stuck out her tongue a little embarrassedly. She gave off a somewhat absent-minded feeling, though she herself also had a rather shameless personality and was best at acting cute and muddling through situations.
Mio glanced at Yui. Although she did feel that Yui had fallen behind the rhythm in many places and disrupted everyone's tempo, not all the mistakes had been caused by her alone.
Reflecting on herself somewhat, she said, "We're still not very familiar with the later parts of the melody."
"Let's all do our best!"
Kotobuki Tsumugi finally smiled warmly and encouraged everyone. Among the group, she was the only one who had basically mastered the song completely.
Although the rich girl looked soft and gentle, she could actually be considered something of a genius.
Her learning ability was extremely strong, and apparently she had even won many rankings in piano competitions before.
Well, she was a rich girl after all.
Naturally, she had to possess many impressive talents.
"Sato?"
Mio suddenly noticed Sato sitting there frowning as though deep in thought. Her heart stirred slightly, assuming that everyone's performance had disappointed him.
So she walked in front of him with a somewhat apologetic expression and said gloomily, "Sorry, we let down your trust in us."
Hm?
Only after hearing Mio's voice did Sato return to his senses.
Looking at the girl standing before him with her body slightly bent forward, he froze for a moment.
The girl's black hair cascaded down like a waterfall, complementing her fair and delicate face beautifully.
Yet the gloom in her expression made her seem like a lily enduring wind and rain in the middle of a stormy night, unusually fragile and delicate.
Sato quickly reacted and looked at Mio with a somewhat strange expression.
"I wasn't thinking about your performance. Honestly, being able to practice to this level in just a few days is already very impressive."
Mio raised her head and blankly looked at him.
"Really?"
"Of course it's true!"
Hearing that, Mio's face immediately turned red.
Was it all just a misunderstanding?
A faint sense of embarrassment welled up inside her. Then didn't her earlier serious apology just make her look a bit...
Ridiculous?
"Then what was Sato thinking about?"
The other girls from the Light Music Club had also gathered over.
Kotobuki Tsumugi curiously asked Sato, while Ritsu, as usual, went over teasing Mio with a grin.
In the end, Mio responded by punching her twice with a thump-thump, causing Ritsu to squat on the ground clutching her head.
Yui curiously poked at her with a finger. Ritsu's expression immediately twisted in pain, though nobody knew whether it actually hurt that much.
The scene startled Yuigahama Yui, who was watching nearby. Her face instantly turned pale.
Akiyama-san (Mio) is terrifying!
Sato answered, "I was thinking about whether there's still anything that could be improved in the arrangement."
If he remembered correctly, the prelude of "Wings Flying Side by Side" seemed to use a violin. That distant, lingering sound had been drawn out through the strings.
He could not remember it too clearly. Although he was familiar with the lyrics and melody, he did not know much about the background arrangement itself. Unfortunately, nobody here knew how to play the violin, so there was no way to verify it.
"What arrangement?"
Suddenly, a somewhat familiar voice came from behind Sato.
Sato slowly turned around.
The moment he saw who it was, he was immediately surprised and could not help asking:
"Kasumigaoka Utaha? Why are you here?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha smiled brightly and replied with a question of her own:
"And why can't I be here?"