After school, as promised yesterday, Hitori Gotoh had no choice but to come to STARRY. She lingered anxiously at the entrance, slightly regretting that she hadn't asked Jhin to come with her.
It was just a small gathering for the band, but there wouldn't be a problem if she brought her boyfriend along, right?
The late-arriving Nijika Ijichi and Ryo Yamada stood at the top of the stairs, watching Hitori Gotoh spin around in circles.
"What is she doing?" A puzzled Nijika was about to go and greet her but was stopped by Ryo's outstretched hand. She frowned in confusion, looking at Ryo who had held her back.
"Let's watch for a bit. This looks pretty interesting," Ryo said, looking like she wanted to enjoy the show.
"Can you stop trying to get a kick out of this?" Although Nijika said that, she didn't make a move either.
Hitori Gotoh sensed the gazes, looked up, and saw the two of them looking down at her from the top of the stairs. The three of them made eye contact.
Nijika and Ryo: "Ah..."
The three band members sat around a small table inside STARRY. After preparing a glass of juice for everyone, Nijika raised her right hand: "Alright, the first official Kessoku Band members' meeting is now in session!"
"Applause! Clap, clap." Her usual energetic, youthful, pretty-girl demeanor filled Bocchi-chan with envy as she watched.
"I wanted to just chat about whatever, but now that I think about it, we don't really know each other that well yet, so I'm not sure what to talk about," Nijika said with an awkward smile, having started the meeting.
Ryo, who had come prepared, pulled out a large die with words written on all six sides from under the table. "I knew this would happen, so I brought this."
"Ooh, that's a great idea," Nijika praised. Deciding topics this way was indeed a useful method when everyone was still unfamiliar with each other.
"It looks like something dangerous got mixed in. Is this really okay?" Hitori Gotoh said, sweat trickling down her forehead as she looked at the words "Bungee Jumping" written on one side of the die.
The other two started rolling the die, unfazed.
"I wonder what topic will come up. I'm so excited!"
After rolling on the floor for a bit, the die landed with the "School Topics" side facing up.
"School topics! Let's talk about school!" Nijika announced happily, holding the die high.
"Why don't you start?" Ryo said, staring intently at Hitori Gotoh.
"Eh?! Me first? Well... in that case, do you two go to the same school?" Hitori Gotoh asked, noticing that their uniforms looked similar.
"We do. Shimokitazawa High School."
"We both chose it because it's close to home."
"I remember, Bocchi-chan, you go to Shuka High School, right? Don't you live near the school?" Nijika asked curiously.
"Ah... I live outside the prefecture. It's a two-hour trip one way." Hitori Gotoh turned her head away as if she'd been asked about something she didn't want to discuss.
"Two hours..." Both Nijika and Ryo were shocked by the unimaginable amount of time.
"But why?" Nijika simply couldn't imagine why Hitori Gotoh would choose Shuka High School, which was a two-hour journey from her home.
"Because I wanted to go to a high school where no one knew my past."
"That's enough, don't say any more," Nijika quickly interrupted as Hitori Gotoh's face darkened and her words grew heavier.
The three of them chatted for a while longer based on the topics on the die. After snapping Hitori Gotoh out of her own little world, which she had retreated into after being asked about her favorite music genre, Nijika suggested that the band write their own songs once they found a vocalist. Ryo would compose the music, and since Bocchi-chan was self-conscious about lyrics, she would be in charge of writing them.
"Then what will you be in charge of?"
"Heh!" Caught off guard by Ryo's question, Nijika cutely tossed the die and held up the side facing up. "Alright, next let's talk about the ticket quota."
"You're just going to dodge the question like that...?"
From the other two's explanation, Hitori Gotoh came to understand what Nijika meant by quota. When a band performs at a live house, there's a pre-set ticket quota. If the audience turnout exceeds the sales amount for that quota, the profits are shared between the band and the venue. Conversely, if the band fails to meet the quota, the members have to pay the difference out of their own pockets.
"In other words, you have to pay out of pocket to build up a reputation," Ryo summarized simply and clearly.
Although many people showed up for the band's first performance, they were all school friends Nijika had gone to great lengths to drag along. As it turned out, their debut performance wasn't very good; in fact, it was quite terrible. Those friends probably wouldn't come back to waste their money again.
Next time, they would need to have enough money ready to put on a show. Ryo didn't have many friends, and they couldn't count on Bocchi-chan at all. So, Nijika proposed a plan.
"To earn money for the quota, equipment, and other expenses, let's get part-time jobs together!"
"Okay." Hitori Gotoh agreed subconsciously before she could even process it. When she came to her senses, she let out the loudest scream of her life in horror: "A part-time job?!"
The thought of a part-time job meant facing all sorts of people, having to interact with them, and even the possibility of her panicked expression being uploaded to the internet for people to laugh at. Hitori Gotoh pulled out her piggy bank, pushed it towards Nijika, and said with a tearful voice, "This is the marriage fund my mom saved for me. Please use it. I'm begging you, don't make me get a job."
"How could I possibly take such important money?" Nijika smacked away Ryo's greedy, outstretched hand. After some comforting from Nijika, Hitori Gotoh, who was bad at refusing people, agreed to work part-time with them at STARRY.
As Hitori Gotoh put the piggy bank back in her bag, her elbow accidentally bumped the die. It rolled onto the floor, landing with the side that read "Love Topics" facing up.
"Oh my... this topic..." Nijika looked troubled. "It seems like none of us have anything to talk about in this area."
"Hmph, I've been single my whole life!"
"Is that something to be proud of?" Nijika retorted to the inexplicably smug Ryo.
"Ah... um," Hitori Gotoh raised her hand and said timidly, "Actually... I have a boyfriend."
Crack. Nijika and Ryo instantly turned to stone, their wide eyes filled with disbelief.
The two of them looked Hitori Gotoh up and down as if she were an alien, making her feel completely uncomfortable. After a long moment, Nijika said earnestly, "Bocchi-chan, you can't get lost in a fantasy world."
"Mhm, mhm." Ryo, at her side, nodded vigorously in agreement.
"He's n-not an imaginary boyfriend!" Hitori Gotoh, showing a rare burst of assertiveness, had to set the record straight. "It's Jhin! Didn't you see him? That guy from yesterday."
"Now that you mention it..." Nijika did have a rather strong impression of the guy who came specifically to support Hitori Gotoh yesterday. Recalling their interaction, it did seem, maybe, a little bit like how a couple would act... right?
"I can't believe it. Bocchi-chan actually has a boyfriend," Ryo said, still finding it hard to believe.
"Tell us about you two!" Nijika urged, her interest piqued.
"Hehe." With a hint of showing off, Hitori Gotoh told her two bandmates the story of her and Jhin. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder; she described him saving the damsel in distress then confessing, his superb cooking skills, his gentle and considerate nature—she piled all sorts of positive traits onto Jhin.
As Hitori Gotoh, a completely different person from her usual self, gushed on and on about her boyfriend, Nijika and Ryo could only sigh and think that perhaps this was the power of love.
"So, how far have you two gone?" Ryo's question was like a magic spell. One second, Hitori Gotoh was speaking eloquently; the next, she was blushing beet-red as if choked, stammering and unable to get a single word out.
"Have you held hands?"
Hitori Gotoh thought for a moment. The close-quarters lesson she had with Jhin in the Problem Child Countermeasures Club should count as holding hands, right? So she nodded.
"Ooh~" Nijika let out a teasing sound.
"Have you kissed?" Ryo pressed on.
Hitori Gotoh immediately shook her head like a rattle drum.
"Aww~" Nijika was suddenly a bit disappointed. It was rare for someone in the band to have a boyfriend, but they hadn't even kissed.
"There are people watching at school, and I go straight home after classes," Hitori Gotoh explained shyly. She was too embarrassed to get close to Jhin during breaks and just holed up in the library as usual. During lunch break, Gabriel was always there in the Countermeasures Club. After school, she went straight home. She never contacted him on weekends either. Jhin had asked her out, but she refused because she didn't want to go outside. Thinking about it, she realized she rarely had any time alone with Jhin.
"Whoa, Bocchi-chan, your poor boyfriend." Nijika even shed a tear of sympathy for Jhin. Having a girlfriend who was socially anxious, not affectionate, and had never even been on a date with him... he was just too pitiful.
"Achoo!" At home, playing on his phone, Jhin let out a big sneeze, nearly losing his grip and flinging the phone away.
"There's a love rival, too?" Ryo was more focused on the girl who always came over during lunch break to bother Hitori Gotoh and Jhin.
"Huh? I don't think Gabriel is. Jhin said her biggest hobby is playing video games." Hitori Gotoh hadn't thought of it that way. After learning that Gabriel also didn't have many friends and spent all day at home gaming, she felt even more like they were kindred spirits.
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