"Ah? Hahaha! Did I? Y... You must've heard wrong!"
Ritsu hurriedly waved both hands at Mio.
With a dark expression, Mio slowly walked up to Ritsu and raised her hand high.
The next second...
Bang!
The world fell silent.
...
"Phew!"
After taking a sip of tea, everyone let out a contented sigh. Sato glanced at Ritsu, who was now crouching in the corner with her hands over her head, and asked,
"Is she really okay?"
"She's fine..."
Mio looked over at Ritsu before replying. After a brief hesitation, she added,
"...Probably."
"Forget about her for now. Let's think about how we're going to recruit new members this year."
Sato continued,
"On my way here, I saw the other clubs already putting up recruitment posters outside their clubrooms. How about we make a few posters too?"
"And besides the posters, there's the performance. There should be a freshman welcome concert this year, right? If we put on a good performance, we should be able to attract a few new students."
"All right!"
At some point, Ritsu had quietly crept back over. She suddenly sprang to her feet in front of everyone, hands on her hips and wearing a bright smile.
"Then how about we perform 'Wings Flying Side by Side'?!"
"Sounds good!"
"That's a really great song. It'll definitely attract people!"
"What do you think, Sato?"
Everyone turned to look at him.
Sato, however, shook his head.
"The work it's from hasn't been released yet, so we can't perform it publicly."
"Huh? What a shame!"
"Yeah..."
Seeing everyone's disappointment, Sato sighed inwardly.
What's so disappointing, you silly girls? I'm trying to protect you!
If the game gets released and people at school play it, then later hear you performing it, the situation would absolutely...
No matter what, we can't let them tell people about this!
Sato rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
Performing it after the game's release would be fine, but they absolutely couldn't claim to be the original performers.
The others might be okay, but Mio definitely wouldn't.
As long as it stayed a secret, everything would be fine. But if it got exposed, she'd probably shut herself away from embarrassment.
"Sigh."
Ritsu spread her hands helplessly.
"Since we can't use Sato's songs, I guess we'll have to perform Mio's."
"You have a problem with my songs?"
Mio stared at Ritsu with a dark expression, her eyes locked firmly onto her.
"Ahem."
Ritsu coughed twice and scratched her head.
"Haha, it's not the songs themselves. It's just... the song titles..."
Ah! The song titles!
Everyone around them immediately understood, their expressions turning rather subtle as they looked toward Mio.
"W... What?! What's wrong with my song titles?!"
Although she felt guilty inside, Mio stubbornly put on a defiant expression.
"Here!"
At some point, Kotobuki Tsumugi had walked over to the corner of the clubroom. Smiling sweetly, she suddenly held up a whiteboard and turned it toward everyone.
Written on it were four song titles:
"Fuwa Fuwa Time"
"Curry Nochi Rice"
"My Love Is a Stapler"
"Calligraphy Pen ~Ballpoint Pen~"
Great songs often have surprisingly simple titles.
Even someone like Sato, who learned quickly, couldn't help admiring this level of naming.
This was advanced technique beyond him.
"Pff!"
A suppressed laugh suddenly came from the corner of the clubroom.
When everyone turned to look, they saw Hikigaya Hachiman desperately covering his mouth while frantically shaking his head at Mio.
Mio narrowed her eyes.
For a brief moment, Hikigaya Hachiman experienced the same icy aura that Yukinoshita Yukino possessed.
Sure enough, every girl with long black hair carried the aura of an ice queen.
If you court death, don't blame anyone when it comes.
Sato silently complained to himself.
Even I didn't dare laugh just now. Hachiman, where did you get the courage?
Still...
Compared to Mio's usual personality, this naming style really did have an unexpectedly adorable contrast.
Just look at those cute titles. Who would ever guess they were written by the usually serious yet cool Mio?
Although...
Singing those titles during a performance would be incredibly embarrassing. Fortunately, he wasn't the one singing them. Otherwise, he'd be the one dying of embarrassment on the spot.
"Yukinoshita, are you planning to recruit new members?"
Deciding to throw Hikigaya Hachiman a lifeline, Sato called out to Yukinoshita Yukino, who was sitting by the window.
The quiet girl sat there with a book in her hands, though its title was unknown. She wasn't a particularly fast reader, but over the past year she had read an astonishing number of books.
Faced with Sato's question, she shook her head. Without looking up from her book, she calmly replied,
"I'll let nature take its course."
Let nature take its course.
Good grief.
For a split second, Sato felt as though he had just seen one of those WeChat nicknames. Had Yukinoshita Yukino already reached the same state of mind as middle-aged aunties?
Creak... creak...
The door to the clubroom slowly opened.
Because it had long since fallen into disrepair, the hinges let out a harsh, grating sound.
A woman with disheveled hair drifted into the room like a ghost, her arms hanging limply at her sides.
As everyone watched, she slowly raised her head, revealing a horrifying face hidden beneath her hair. At the same time, her eerie voice echoed through the clubroom.
"I heard... you needed some help?"
"Eek!!!"
Yui and Mio instantly turned deathly pale, letting out piercing screams before throwing themselves into each other's arms.
"A ghost!!!"
Their eyes rolled back, and both of them collapsed unconscious.
"..."
"Oh my, they actually fainted just from that?"
The newcomer sounded surprised as she removed the ghost mask from her face and looked at Yui and Mio.
"Sawako-sensei!"
Ritsu enthusiastically waved at the newcomer.
"Yo."
Yamanaka Sawako walked over and crouched beside the two unconscious girls, poking their cheeks with a worried expression.
"They're not going to be traumatized by this, are they?"
"Don't worry. Mio's very experienced by now!"
Ritsu replied with a cheerful grin.
Tsk.
Sato couldn't help clicking his tongue.
How has Mio not beaten you to death by now?
Then he turned to Yamanaka Sawako.
"Sawako-sensei, did you come here for something?"
"Oh, that. I didn't see a recruitment poster for the Light Music Club, so I thought I'd come by and check on you all."