It started with being hated by the girl in the band

"Why are you so serious, Shiina? The fries are already soft." Nakagawa Nobuyuki complained.

"Hmph, it's good enough that you can have it." Shiina Riki crossed his arms and snorted coldly.

"Rikki is really going too far. We are all customers too." Chihaya Aine also chimed in with dissatisfaction.

At this time, Miss Rinrinko, who appeared out of nowhere, suddenly patted Shiina Riki's shoulder with a serious expression.

"Lixi, can you come with me for a moment?"

"And this guest, if possible, can you come here too?"

Shiina Ritsuki probably knew what was going on. Senior Rinrinko was obviously a little angry because of his attitude just now.

She could only glare at Nakagawa Shin on the side, then lowered her head, bit her lips lightly, and said nothing like a child who had done something wrong, just following her homeroom teacher, Miss Rinrinko, step by step.

Suddenly, Shiina Riki felt Nakagawa Nobuyuki blowing twice gently into one of his ears.

Feeling a little itchy, Shiina Rikki immediately scratched Nakagawa Nobuyuki hard.

The meaning is very clear. It has come to this, do you still want to add insult to injury?

However, what Shiina Ritsuki never expected was that Nakagawa Nobuyuki did not have any gloating expression at this moment, but actually patted his chest and lip-synced to her.

"Believe me."

No, what do you believe?

Miss Rinrinko stopped, turned around and looked at Nakagawa Nobuyuki and Shiina Ritsukiri with a serious expression.

"My dear guest, I am so sorry. Li Xi may have some misunderstanding about you."

"Lixi, tell me what happened, okay?"

Miss Rinrinko usually appears to be someone who is easy to get along with, but now she has put on such a formal look. Shiina Riki doesn't know what to say and can only lower his head and prepare to be scolded.

"Um, Ms. Rinrinko, can you let me say a few words?"

After obtaining Rinrinko's consent, Nakagawa Nobuyuki said, "Rinrinko-senpai, you may not be able to tell, but Shiina and I are actually very good friends."

"This method of communication is our... uh, special method of communication."

Looking at Shiina Ritsuki who turned his face away and Nakagawa Nobuyuki who was trying hard to argue for his "good friend", Rinrinko could see that it was Nakagawa Nobuyuki who was trying to make excuses for Shiina Ritsuki.

But since the person himself doesn't care about this matter, it's not a big deal.

Oh, it’s true. It seems that Xiao Lixi has been aggressive towards others in the past two days. Many customers are unwilling to order from him.

"Shiina, is that so?"

Nakagawa Nobuyuki glanced at Shiina Riki and blinked.

"...Yes, we are...good friends."

Afterwards, Rinrinko said a few words to Shiina Riki in a nonsensical manner and went back to her own business.

On the way back, neither of them had much to say.

After walking in silence for more than ten steps, Nakagawa Nobuyuki suddenly heard the faint voice of Shiina Riki.

"Um...thank you."

Looking at Shiina Riki's awkward expression, Nakagawa Nobuyuki was actually amused.

"...Why are you laughing suddenly?" This time, when Shiina Riki saw Nakagawa Nobuyuki's smiling face, she couldn't get angry at all.

"I thought you would glare at me and say something like 'Who is good friends with a guy like you?'" Nakagawa Nobuyuki continued.

Shiina Riki did not answer Nakagawa Nobuyuki's words. He was silent for a while, then said, "Why don't you let me suffer a little?"

This time it was Nakagawa Shin who was surprised: "Do you think I am this kind of person?"

“…very similar.”

"Ms. Shiina, I have to criticize you for this. This is prejudice, pure prejudice."

"If you feel embarrassed, just think of it as me helping you out for Takamatsu-san's sake."

Nakagawa Shin waved his hand and denied what Shiina Riki said.

The two of them didn't speak again until they returned to the hall.

"Xinxin, what happened just now?"

Before Nakagawa Nobuyuki could speak, Chihaya Aine's concerned voice was heard.

Gao Songdeng also looked at him with worry and curiosity.

"Oh, just now, Ms. Rinrinko called me to be reprimanded because of Shiina's stress."

Nakagawa Nobuyuki told the truth directly.

"Huh? Can't you be more intelligent and come up with another reason?!"

Afterwards, Shiina Riki, who had just looked confused and awkward, immediately changed his expression to one of disbelief and anger.

"Tell me to have a higher EQ? To be honest, I don't want you to say that to me at all!"

"And I'm already very good that I didn't say anything bad about you in front of Miss Rinrinko!"

Nakagawa Nobuyuki immediately retreated to the other side of the table.

At this moment, Shiina Riki suddenly felt like an idiot for feeling guilty and apologetic just now.

"Ahh! I've really had enough of you!"

After a while, with the help of several other people, the two finally sat down at the table.

"Humph!"

Shiina Riki snorted coldly.

"Boring."

Nakagawa Nobuyuki shook his head.

Chihaya Aine and Takamatsu Deng were now acting as peacemakers to reconcile the two people.

Nagasaki Suyo, who usually played the role of peacemaker, was in a very different mood from everyone else at the moment. She became even more wary of Nakagawa Nobuyuki.

If she originally thought that she had overestimated Nakagawa Nobuyuki as much as possible, then the facts now tell her that she still greatly underestimated Nakagawa Nobuyuki's scheming.

She dared to guarantee that Nakagawa Nobuyuki must have said some nice words to Shiina Riki, or at least Shiina Riki must have felt really embarrassed and sorry for him just now, but just didn't know how to say it.

And then, Nakagawa Nobuyuki deliberately said something not so nice, which made Shiina Riki, who was originally in a dilemma, jump out of her dilemma.

The level of playing with people's hearts is too high...

I hope I'm just overthinking it.

After that, everyone chatted about some meaningless things until Miss Rinrinko suddenly appeared and told Shiina Ritsuki, "It's time to go home now?" Everyone then realized that it was already so late.

"Not good, not good. I wanted to talk more about the band tonight!"

"Well, everyone, how about we meet tomorrow and talk about it?"

Chihaya Aine hurriedly packed her things and prepared to go home.

"Light! I'll take you home!"

Shiina Riki quickly called out to Takamatsu Deng.

"Then I wish you all a good dream tonight?"

Nagasaki Suyo smiled and waved to everyone.

When Nakagawa Nobuyuki came, he didn't bring anything with him. Except for his school uniform in his bag, that was all he needed to bring.

"Xinxin, let's go?"

Chihaya Aine skipped and jumped in front of Nakagawa Nobuyuki, her shiny little fangs shining.

From what RiNG said, Nakagawa Nobuyuki and Chihaya Aine did share a common journey.

When they arrived at the gate of the train station, Chihaya Aine refused to go in first this time.

"Xinxin swipes the card first and I'll go in later."

Although he didn't know why, Nakagawa Nobuyuki still swiped his way in and went in first. Then Chihaya Aine entered the station with a happy look on her face.

Walking side by side in the passageway leading to the station, Nakagawa Nobu felt the joy of the girl beside him and couldn't help but complain: "Why are you so happy?"

Aiyin turned her head and looked into the distance, with her hands behind her back. “Why would I ask such a question? I was wondering the same thing!”

Chapter 24: Don't Believe in Urban Legends

"Xinxin, look quickly, is this the CryChic that Xiaodeng mentioned?"

On the train, Chihaya Aine suddenly handed over a cell phone.

On the dark green page, the name of the band is indicated by the cursive words CryChic. As for the band’s tweets, the last update has been a long time ago.

You can also see a group photo of the CryChic band members on the homepage.

Sure enough, Toyokawa Shoko was among them, and it seemed that she was still serving as the keyboard player.

From this point of view, Wakaba Mutsu should be the guitarist, Shiina Tatsuki is the drummer, and Nagasaki Motoyo is the bassist.

Xiaodeng is only holding a microphone in his hand, so he is the lead singer?

Considering that Xiaodeng said that he “can’t sing”, of course he should be the lead singer.

However, Nagasaki Motoyo's position was indeed well chosen. After all, I heard that the bassist's job is to order takeout for everyone.

...Although coming to think of it, the several bassists that Nakagawa Shin met all had distinct personalities. It seemed that except for Nagasaki Motoyo, they were the kind of guys who would steal the takeout of the entire team and still feel justified in doing so.

"That should be it. I can see Toyokawa here - oh? Is this the school uniform of Tsuki no Mori?"

Nakagawa Nobuyuki suddenly noticed the dark blue school uniform that Xiaoxiang was wearing, with a white sailor collar and a gray ribbon.

Although there are slight differences in shape, Nakagawa Nobuyuki can still tell that this is probably the school uniform of Tsuki no Mori.

In other words, Toyokawa once went to school in Tsukinomori?

I used to go to school at Tsuki-no-Mori...Now I work part-time and study at Kamihagaoka...

Nakagawa Nobuyuki immediately understood.

So, Toyokawa probably had some kind of family accident that forced him to transfer from Tsukinomori and quit the band?

Given Toyokawa's personality, it's no wonder that he was asked to keep his part-time job a secret from others.

I don't know if my guess is correct, but if Nakagawa Nobuyuki explains it according to this logical order, it makes sense.

It seems that the band's disbanding has hurt everyone deeply.

Xiaodeng has been complaining about herself till now. Shiina Riki is even more nervous when she hears that Xiaodeng is going to form a band. Even Toyokawa Shoko's eyes dim when she hears the word "band".

From this point of view, the two young ladies, Mutsu-san and Nagasaki Motoyo, are very strong. Although he did not interact with them much, Nakagawa Nobuyuki still had a very good impression of them.

I hope you’re not keeping it all in your heart. Holding it in for so long will harm the child.

As the saying goes, either perish in silence or explode in silence. Although it seems there is no problem at the moment, what if it really explodes?

"What is Xinxin thinking about? Why is she just in a daze?"

Chihaya Aine curiously waved her palm in front of Nakagawa Nobuyuki.

"Aine, if we meet at RiNG later, please pay more attention to Nagasaki-san."

Nakagawa Nobuyuki stroked his chin, thoughtfully.

"Su Shi only said a few good words for Xin Xin today, and Xin Xin was bewitched by him?"

Aiyin stared at Nakagawa Nobu's face closely, as if to say "I'll stare at you till death if you say so."

"Stop kidding, seriously."

Afterwards, Nakagawa Nobuyuki explained his reasons to Chihaya Aine.

To put it simply, if the band's disbanding hurts everyone so much, why does Nagasaki seem to be indifferent? Is he really indifferent, or is he hiding it in his heart and unwilling to say it?

"That does make some sense... Yeah!"

Suddenly the train braked slammed hard, and in an instant, Chihaya Aine fell backwards.

"...Huh? Doesn't it hurt?"