In the izakaya not far away—the one next to where Kawaragi Momoka had been street performing—Asakura was helplessly wiping Gotō Hitori's face with a wet wipe.
The girl made a >△< expression and gurgling sounds, clearly unaccustomed to it, but she obediently knelt on the tatami mat to have her face wiped.
To be precise, he was wiping her nosebleed.
Because she had run away frantically and crashed into Kawaragi Momoka, the girl's face had hit the other's guitar case hard, and she had immediately suffered a major nosebleed.
"Seriously, why are you always so clumsy...?"
Asakura sighed helplessly.
"So, so-rry..."
The girl, who was having her face wiped, mumbled.
"Are you this child's friend?"
The purple-haired bassist, who was still not sober from her drunkenness, asked curiously in that slurred voice peculiar to drunkards.
"I'm her boyfriend."
Asakura declared.
"Eh?"
The purple-haired bassist made a surprised sound.
"Eh!"
Gotō Hitori's face also turned crimson.
No, what are you surprised about?!
Kawaragi Momoka, observing, loudly complained in her heart.
"Wah, Hitori, your nose is bleeding again! Calm down quickly!"
Asakura pulled out a few more tissues and frantically helped Gotō Hitori wipe her face.
The waitress nearby also looked shocked, unsure whether to step in and help, as the amount of blood made the tatami mat seem a bit dangerous. Meanwhile, the izakaya chef behind the counter had a look of 'don't die in my shop' on his face.
After a good while of fuss, Gotō Hitori finally calmed down, stuffing tissues into her nose to barely stop the bleeding.
"Sorry..."
She then timidly bowed her head to Kawaragi Momoka and apologized: "I got your guitar case dirty."
"No, no, no, more than that, I'm more concerned if you're really okay after losing so much blood?"
Kawaragi Momoka asked with an embarrassed face. She couldn't help but reflect, 'Do I look so fierce? Do they think I'm a villain who would say, 'Your blood has defiled my guitar case, you deserve to die!'?
"No, it's okay..."
Gotō Hitori said timidly: "I can recover HP just by breathing..."
"That's a game character! Isn't your common sense a bit too skewed?!"
"Eeek, I'm sorry..."
"No, I'm not scolding you..."
Kawaragi Momoka looked at the trembling, dogeza-ing Gotō Hitori, feeling even less confident about her own appearance. She looked at Asakura beside her: "Hey, boyfriend-kun over there, your girlfriend is like this, aren't you going to comfort her?"
"Although she is a bit pathetic..." Asakura then seemed to come back to his senses, propping his cheek with his hand, a subtle smile on his face as if he had tasted something delicious, and said: "But, don't you think there's something especially cute about her trembling like that?"
Kawaragi Momoka: "..."
This won't do. As a boyfriend, this guy is completely unreliable!
Even the purple-haired bassist, who seemed to still be in a drunken stupor, instinctively and clumsily shifted her knees, subtly maintaining a social distance of nearly a meter from Asakura.
"By the way, may I ask who you two are...?"
After admiring Gotō Hitori's trembling, chihuahua-like cuteness for a moment, Asakura finally asked the other two, satisfied.
"Kawaragi Momoka, street performer."
"My name is Hiroi Kikuri, and I'm a bassist."
The purple-haired drunkard raised her hand and said: "Bass is my life! Oh, speaking of which, where's my bass...?"
"Didn't you think it was a bit troublesome just now, so you left it by the door and didn't bring it in?"
Asakura asked.
"Oh, right~ Ahahaha…"
The purple-haired drunkard let out a strange laugh.
Kawaragi Momoka: "…"
This is bad, this drunkard is completely unreliable too.
She glanced again at the pink-haired guitarist who was still sprawled on the tatami, carefully looking up at her, only to crawl back down the moment their eyes met, her entire body, except for her ahoge, slumped to the floor.
Hmm, this guy doesn't look reliable at all either.
So, among these people at the table, is she the only normal one? Perhaps it's better to find a few opportunities to just slip away…
Kawaragi Momoka gripped the strap of her guitar case, and just as she decided this in her heart, she was about to get up.
"Waiter, two assorted tempura sets, one Tatsuta fried chicken, one fried squid, one Chikuzenni, do you have stewed beef tendons? If so, one of those too, and then chawanmushi and pork miso soup. For appetizers, fukujinzuke—" Asakura said, then glanced at Hiroi Kikuri and Kawaragi Momoka: "And edamame, then two draft beers and two fruit juices. It's my treat, you don't have any dietary restrictions, do you?"
Kawaragi Momoka swallowed, her bottom, which had just lifted one centimeter from the tatami cushion, sat back down.
After all, she hadn't had much income from street performances for a while, and the meager money she earned from part-time jobs was barely enough to maintain a normal life. Every day, she ate either convenience store onigiri or discounted bean sprouts from the supermarket. She simply didn't have any spare money to come to an izakaya for a proper meal, let alone draft beer.
"No draft beer, shochu, shochu!"
Hiroi Kikuri immediately moved closer to Asakura again, pleading with him: "The Dassai at this izakaya is very famous!"
"If you want to drink, pay for it yourself."
Asakura said coldly.
"Tch…"
The purple-haired female drunkard muttered softly: "Stingy man."
Clearly, this one was also a fellow traveler with shallow pockets.
Kawaragi Momoka felt a strange sense of resonance—after all, they were both rock musicians, so it seemed quite normal to be so poor they couldn't make ends meet…
"Although it feels a bit late to ask now, what is your relationship with Hitori?"
Asakura asked the two of them kindly.
Kawaragi Momoka immediately began to wonder if she admitted to just being a passerby, would she still be able to mooch this meal, while the purple-haired female drunkard on the other side had already happily responded: "I saw Gotō's potential, so I taught her the essential skills for a rock band member early on!"
"Is that so?"
Asakura looked at Gotō Hitori, whose face was clearly screaming 'I want to go home': "What specific skills?"
Probably things like 'stay relaxed while playing,' 'don't dwell on minor mistakes, just keep playing,' or 'check your picks before going on stage,' 'treat the audience like pumpkins.' Kawaragi Momoka thought to herself.
Having attended many live shows, she knew very well that so-called small tricks were mostly unreliable. Once on stage, all you could rely on was your usual practice and your mindset on that day. Presumably, this professional bassist should be similar…
"Of course, it's drinking! Only by drinking can you forget all your anxieties and be left with only happy memories… Yes, I call it the Happiness Spiral! If Boyfriend-kun wants to learn, you can too, it's free, free~"
The purple-haired female drunkard said proudly.
Kawaragi Momoka watched Asakura's expression gradually turn into a forced smile, and began to worry whether they would even get to eat this meal.