Lonely Rock: Love Songs Dedicated to the Stars

"How could this happen?!"

"Just kidding."

At night, a private room in Kenzaki Yuuma's izakaya became the location for the band's after-party.

"Aren't you going to do any work? Are all your employees doing the work?" Xingge looked at Kenzaki Yuuma, who was sitting next to her and had just finished a beer.

“As soon as the rain stopped, I sent them back to work. I even paid them overtime.” Yuzhen poured himself another beer and clinked glasses with Hiroi. “Besides, I’m the boss now. If I still have to work, what’s the point of being a boss?” With that, he finished his beer in one gulp.

"Just a few more drinks, that's enough. Drink less." Xingge looked at Youzhen, knowing that this guy couldn't hold his liquor.

"Why? I won't be like Hiroi."

"Don't you have any self-awareness about your alcohol tolerance? I don't want to have to carry you back with Hongxia."

"I understand, I won't drink it."

Yu-zhen obediently put down her wine glass and drank juice with the four children.

"Speaking of which, who is this older sister?" Kita looked at Hiroi, who had tried to secretly take the wine that Yuma had just put down but was punished by Hoshika. She didn't know Hiroi.

"Ah, she is..."

"This is Ms. Kikuri Hiroi, bassist of Sick Hack."

Just as Yuma was about to introduce Hiroi, Ryo beat her to it.

“I often go to see your shows.” Ryo leaned closer to Hiroi. “Spraying alcohol on the audience, performing while completely drunk, and having my face stepped on by you are also wonderful memories.”

After listening to Ryo's explanation, Yuma and Hoshika felt that they should control the frequency of their contact with Hiroi.

"I feel like I don't really understand what rock and roll is at all."

After hearing this, Kita stared blankly at Hiroi, holding his cup.

"It's okay if you don't understand this kind of thing."

Hongxia quickly dismissed her strange notion of rock music.

"By the way, the atmosphere at the end of the performance was really great." Yuma quickly changed the subject. "This was a very valuable experience, so keep up the good work!"

"But there were only about ten people in the audience."

“They’re all very satisfied, aren’t they?” Yuu leaned forward slightly and gently ruffled Hongxia’s hair. “Order some more of what you want to eat, don’t be shy with me.”

"Really?! Senior, I love you to death!"

Hiroi, drunk, lunged at Yuuma, but Hoshika grabbed his face and pushed him back.

"Is there anything you want to eat, Pochi?" Yuma looked at Pochi, who hadn't spoken, and then noticed that she had turned black and white. "Pochi!"

Bochi had burned out. The thought of her improvising on stage in front of everyone made her feel like her life was over. Then Hongxia shook her awake.

"I'd like an avocado cream cheese skewer, and a Spanish omelet with hollandaise sauce," Kita said, rattling off a long string of trendy words as soon as he got the menu.

"Okay, I've written it down." The waiter wrote down every single thing she ordered.

"You guys actually have something like this here?" Hoshigo and PA looked at Yuuma with blank expressions.

“This originally belonged to the family restaurant next door, but I felt that since it’s all in my shop, I shouldn’t make such a clear distinction, so this is what happened.”

"It's quite unusual for your family restaurant to have something like this."

Bochi, standing to the side, became even more agitated. The fact that Kita could rattle off so many trendy terms made her feel immense pressure, and the fact that Kenzaki Yuuma could understand them only added to her stress.

What would you like to order, Pochi?

Yuma handed the menu to Boqi, but Boqi didn't even look at it carefully.

'I'm different today, I want something trendy too.' Pochi was full of determination.

"I want the Machu Picchu ruins, the Grand Canyon, and the San Diego platter."

"Sorry, we don't have that here."

The waitress tried to find the item on the strange menu that Yuuma had come up with, but gave up after seeing Kenzaki Yuuma shake his head at her.

"You've got the wrong person, I want fries."

'How did this get wrong?' The waiter was a little dissatisfied, but he only complained to himself. After all, it's really hard to find a job these days where you can work while dating your boss and get a high salary.

Before she left, she secretly glanced at Yuzuru and Hoshika twice.

Yuma noticed the subtle actions of her employees.

'You didn't secretly say anything bad about Pochi or me, did you?'

Yuzhen felt that the menu she had created was indeed a bit strange, and she would revise it tomorrow.

Chapter 20 Names and Trouble

At first, Pochi found the izakaya quite interesting, until she heard the guests outside the private room complaining about the hardships of life. After a while, she suddenly screamed and fell to the ground. The others could vaguely hear her muttering things like, "I need to make a living with the guitar as soon as possible, otherwise I'll have to live off my parents."

"Pochi-chan's acting up again." Yuma and Hoshika are used to this kind of thing. Pochi must be imagining some weird things again.

Does this happen frequently?

Hiroi looked at Pochi with a sense of novelty.

'You were only slightly better than her before.' Yuma and Hoshika looked at the drunk Hiroi and remembered what she used to be like.

After watching Ryo and Kita heal Bochi, Nijika said goodbye to Yuuma and Hoshika before leaving. Since Hoshika wouldn't let Yuuma drink alcohol, Nijika took a can of cola, moved to sit next to the band, and left.

"You were just saying something like 'I want to make a living with guitar,' right?" Yuma gently nudged Bochi's arm.

"I'm sorry for what I just said."

“No need to apologize.” Hiroi looked at Pochi, holding his glass, unusually showing a bit of the demeanor of a senior. “We just wanted to give you some advice: just enjoy the band for now.”

“Yes, it’s exhausting to only think about success. It’s not good to wear yourself out before you achieve results,” PA said with a smile to Pochi.

"The most important thing is to enjoy the process of realizing your dreams," Xingge also offered advice as a senior.

"The process of growing together with everyone is invaluable, so don't put too much pressure on yourself now. Just enjoy the process." Yuma said this while glancing at Kita and Ryo beside her.

"Speaking of which, Kenzaki-senpai, do you know why Ijichi-senpai left the band?" Hiroi suddenly brought it up. "Please tell me."

"Go drink your wine, even free wine can't shut you up." Since Xingge and Hongxia were unwilling to say it, Youzhen naturally refused to answer the question.

"Excuse me, I need to use the restroom."

Pochi left under the pretext of going to the restroom, and the others didn't pay much attention.

Everyone continued eating and chatting. After a while, Yuzhen finished her cola, glanced at the time, and realized that it had been some time since Hongxia and Boqi had left. Had they fallen into the toilet?

“Hongxia and Boqi haven’t come back yet, I’m going to go check on them.”

Once outside, Yuuma realized that Hongxia and Boqi had just said they were going to the restroom, but it wouldn't be convenient for him to actually go. So he just asked one of his employees to go to the restroom to check if there were any unexpected situations.

Then he thought of going outside to take a look, but as soon as he got to the door, he ran into Boqi and Hongxia coming in together.

"I'm glad you're alright. I thought you two were trapped in the toilet."

"I'm sorry to have worried everyone..."

"It's okay, go back now, don't block the door here."

Boqi hurried toward the private room, with Hongxia and Youzhen following slowly behind.

"Brother, Pochi-chan is really amazing."

“I know. You recognized her too, right? She’s the guitar hero.”

Hongxia was surprised that Youzhen also knew about this; she thought it was a little secret between her and Boqi.

“She didn’t tell me; I recognized it myself.”

"I see." Hongxia breathed a sigh of relief. This should still be considered a secret between the two of them. "No, if brother knows, then sister knows too, right?"

"Hmm, let me think... Xingge and PA should know, and you know now too."

"How could this be? I thought I was the first to know."

Noticing the two talking behind her, Pochi instinctively assumed they were discussing her, so she deliberately slowed her pace to listen to their conversation. Although Yuuma and Nijika's voices were very soft, Pochi still managed to hear quite a bit. Realizing that her disguise had long been exposed, Pochi turned around incredulously to look at the two, then let out a sharp, loud bang.

"What's going on?" Xingge and the others peeked out of the private room after hearing Boqi's shout, but Hongxia immediately pulled Boqi away and covered her mouth, explaining that nothing had happened and that everyone should not worry.

"It's okay, we won't spread it widely."

Boqi felt a little better after hearing Yuzhen's quiet assurance, but the thought that his social life comments on his homepage might have been seen by them made him automatically enter a half-dead, burnt-out state.

Everyone returned to the private room, and Boqi forced himself to forget the social incident that had just occurred.

"By the way, Yu Dai, although you've only practiced guitar for three months, your performance on stage was quite good."

Just as everyone was seated, Liang suddenly uttered this compliment.

"Who is Yudai?" Hiroi was a little confused; she hadn't remembered everyone's names to begin with.

"Yes, yes, whose name is this that sounds like an old lady's? Haha..."

Kita in front of everyone has turned into a mess of line drawings.

"Is that Kita's name?" Yuuma suddenly realized she hadn't asked Kita's full name yet. "Kita's name is Kita Ikuyo?"

"No! My name is Kita Kita."

Kita had burned out and collapsed to the ground, while Ryo, standing beside her, watched her with a gloating smile.

"Don't you dare bully Kita!"

The blue-haired bassist was ultimately punished by the blonde archangel drummer.

"It's such a cute name, why are you so annoying?" Hoshika couldn't understand Kita's behavior; in her opinion, Kita's name was indeed very cute.

“Someone with a great name like ‘Star Song’ wouldn’t understand.” Kita exited his Pochi transformation and sat up straight again. “My name sounds like a girl’s name from the Showa era, and it sounds like a lame joke. Come on, leave. It’s weird, isn’t it?”

"Oh, I didn't even realize that until you mentioned it." Yuzhen then realized it was a pun. "But it is really cute, isn't it? If it were an anime character, this would be considered a cute point. And at least your name has some meaning, unlike mine, which was drawn by my parents and doesn't have any special meaning."

"Extracted?"

All eyes were on Kenzaki Yuuma.

“Yes, my older brother and I are the same. Our names were drawn by our dad from a lottery, and he used those numbers as page numbers to look them up in the dictionary.” Yuzhen took a sip of orange juice. “Then he found it didn’t sound right, so my mom drew another lot, and that’s how our names turned out.”

"Speaking of which, after you and Kenzaki-senpai got married, did you change your name to 'Kenzaki Seika'? That sounds pretty good. So, what will your children's names be like..." Hiroi said something surprising after getting drunk.