Lonely Rock: Love Songs Dedicated to the Stars

"By the way, Hongxia, there's something I want to ask you."

Yuuma suddenly remembered something that puzzled him. He took out his phone, opened Line, and showed it to Hongxia.

"I appreciate your continued support for my band and your concern for me, but how did you get my contact information and keep sending me these messages?"

The chat interface with Nijika was full of very short messages. When Kenzaki Yuuma opened them, they immediately became read messages. These messages were mostly things like, "The performance was great this time." "It's raining heavily in Kawasaki, are you home yet?" "When can you come back to visit?" They were sent almost every time a video of the band's performance was uploaded.

"I have indeed seen Yu-chan's performance, but only once, and it was for Liang to see."

Yamada Ryo, who was standing next to him, nodded in agreement with Nijika's words.

"Also, although this is the profile picture I'm using and the nickname is mine, I really don't have Yuzhen-nii's contact information."

"Huh?"

The lounge suddenly fell silent.

Chapter 5 A New Beginning

"Hongxia, why is he here?"

At the Ijichi family home, Ijichi Seika saw Nijika finally come out of the kitchen, stopped staring at Kenzaki Yuuma, and pulled Nijika into the room.

"Yuzhen-ge is finally back, so I thought I'd invite him over for a meal."

Why didn't you tell me beforehand?

"I want to give my sister a surprise."

Looking at Nijika's sunny smile, how could she not know what her younger sister was thinking? However, she could only sigh helplessly and flick Nijika's forehead with her finger.

"Ouch! Sister, what are you doing?"

"We broke up a long time ago, don't waste your time."

"But didn't my sister often impersonate me to send messages to Yu-chan?"

When Ichika heard that things had been exposed, she quickly covered Nijika's mouth.

"Don't talk nonsense! When did I ever do such a thing!"

She paused for a moment, then blushed and let go of her hand.

"He found out? What did he say?"

"Yu-chan was very touched. But he wouldn't let me tell my sister that he knew about it."

"Then why did you say it?"

"If I don't tell you, you two will probably keep dragging this out for a long time. Sister, be frank, you were the one who suddenly dumped Yu-chan, and you haven't even told him why."

"..."

Seeing that her older sister remained silent, Hongxia ignored her. She understood Xingge's personality; getting this proud and arrogant older sister to explain things clearly would require considerable effort.

Kenzaki Yuuma didn't know why Hoshika had dragged Nijika back to her room for so long. He looked around the Ijichi house; it hadn't changed at all compared to a few years ago. He suddenly remembered that he had a key to this place, but it should be in a small compartment inside his keyboard bag, where Kenzaki Yuuma usually kept important things.

The key was given to him by Hoshika's mother. Hoshika had been living away from home for a while, and Kenzaki Yuuma was often asked to help take care of Nijika. However, Yuuma hadn't seen that gentle and virtuous aunt for a long time, and it seemed she wasn't home this time either. He had wanted to say hello, but unfortunately, he couldn't.

Dinner was made by Nijika. Yuuma wanted to help, but Nijika pushed him out of the kitchen. Kenzaki Yuuma felt that Nijika had grown up and was no longer the somewhat willful child she used to be, and that she had also become stronger.

"Hongxia's cooking is delicious too, she's really grown up."

"It's because Yu-zhen taught me well in the past."

After dinner, Nijika followed Yuuma to his new house, which was right next to Ijichi's house.

Why would Yuuma-nii decide to stay here?

"Because this is the only empty house around here."

"Even Yu-chan isn't very frank."

Nijika has indeed grown up; she can now easily read other people's minds. Kenzaki Yuuma thought to himself, and gently flicked Nijika's forehead.

"Ouch! Yu-chan, you're so mean!"

"I didn't use any force."

"Never mind, since Yu-chan is going to make it up to me, just answer one question for me."

"Don't make decisions for others without their permission."

Although Kenzaki Yuuma was verbally avoiding the question, he genuinely didn't intend to refuse Nijika's. Nijika could indeed cook, take care of others, and had quite a few clever ideas, but in Kenzaki Yuuma's eyes, she was still a child, and he was willing to tolerate his little sister's occasional whims. Kenzaki Yuuma took a sip of water, waiting for Nijika to ask her question.

"Does Yu-zhen still have feelings for my sister?"

Yuuma choked on his water; he hadn't expected Nijika to be so direct. He coughed for a while, then put down the bottled water. He had no choice; he'd already promised Nijika, so he had to answer. Kenzaki Yuuma wasn't going to lie.

Yes. I like her.

"Really?! You're not kidding me, are you?"

"I won't lie to you."

After hearing Yuzhen's answer, Hongxia felt relieved. She sat down next to Yuzhen and looked at him with a smile.

Kenzaki Yuuma felt that Nijika's expression was familiar, and he began to try hard to recall where he had seen that expression before. He remembered that Nijika's mother had looked at him with the same expression when she found out that he was dating Hoshika.

Why are you looking at me like that?

Yuma reached out and gently pinched Hongxia's cheek, ruining the expression on her face that Yuma saw as full of maternal glow.

"Hehe, because my sister also likes Yu-chan. But Yu-chan probably already knew, otherwise he wouldn't have moved here."

Hongxia rubbed her face, which had been pinched by Youzhen.

"So when does Yu-ma plan to get back together with his sister?"

"Well... I want to find out why she broke up with me back then."

After hearing what Yuuma said, Hongxia wanted to say something, but Yuuma covered her mouth.

“Hongxia, don’t tell me. I want to find out the truth myself and let her tell me herself. On one hand, if I did anything that made her feel bad, I want to change it before I hold her back. On the other hand, I’m very unhappy that she dumped me for no reason back then.”

After the conversation, Hongxia went home. She knocked on Ijichi Seika's door, and after receiving permission, she turned the doorknob and opened the door to enter. The lights were off inside, and Ijichi Seika was lying on the bed, wrapped tightly in the blanket.

"Yuzhen still likes his sister."

Hongxia turned on the light and sat down on the edge of Xingge's bed. She had been acting as a go-between all evening, but she didn't mind.

"It seems that Yu-zhen thinks that his sister broke up with him because he did something wrong, and that his sister dumped him back then without explaining why, which made him very unhappy."

Ichika Hoshika wrapped herself in the blanket, so Nijika couldn't see her expression. But Hoshika knew that when she heard Nijika say that Yuuma still liked her, she was relieved. She touched her face; it was a little hot. But when she heard Yuuma blame himself for the breakup, she immediately crawled out from under the blanket.

"Did he really say that?"

"Hmm. Yuzhen thinks it was his fault for breaking up with you, so he wants to change before getting back together with you. And if you don't tell him the truth about what happened back then, he probably won't take the initiative."

"That idiot."

"In the end, when will you tell him, sister? Tell him the real reason?"

The two sisters fell silent. The events involved in this topic still cause them distress to this day.

"I'll tell him in a while."

Hongxia didn't say anything more, walked out of Xingge's room, and turned off the light. It was already late, and she had school tomorrow, so she needed to go to sleep.

The night passed quietly, and a new beginning followed the sunrise.

"Hmm... there's a lot of room for improvement."

Inside the performance hall the next day, Kenzaki Yuuma watched the recording of Nijika and the others' performance and commented as follows. However, there were just too many flaws, and he didn't even know where to begin criticizing them.

"Then... what is this?"

After thinking for a few minutes, Kenzaki Yuuma pointed to the cardboard box on the screen where Nijika and Ryo were performing together, and decided to start from there.

When Pochi saw Kenzaki Yuuma turn his attention to him, he unconsciously began to imagine a scene where Kenzaki Yuuma, after learning that the mango box belonged to her, would throw down his phone, grab her by the collar, and, in a condescending senior manner, say that she had no rock spirit at all, then belittle her guitar playing and finally throw her out of the performance hall.

"Oh, I see. It's Pochi."

After hearing Yuuma's question, Hongxia immediately provided an answer, including why Boqi crawled inside the cardboard box to perform.

"Then kick that guitarist out of the band. I know a lot of great guitarists who can definitely make your band a hit."

Goto Ichiri was thrown out of the performance hall, ending her band career.

Of course, the above is just Goto Ichiri's imagination.

Kenzaki Yuuma has seen many new bands, and quite a few have failed their first performance due to stage fright. However, he never denies the hard work these bands put in; it's an essential part of growth.

"You, go to the lounge. We're about to open for business, don't scare the customers away with your gloomy face."

Ijichi Hoshika walked over to Kenzaki Yuuma, looking at him with disdain. Yuuma had indeed been quite busy lately, dealing with things like shop renovations and obtaining business licenses, so he hadn't been sleeping well. The only time he was able to slack off at the exhibition hall was because he had managed to squeeze out some time after finishing most of his tasks.

"The manager means you should go to the lounge and take a nap."

The PA next to it is translated like this.

"Wordy."

Kenzaki Yuuma looked at the stubborn Iji Tomoka and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

"There are blankets in the closet, so you don't catch a cold and cause us trouble."

"Okay, okay, I understand."

Chapter 6 Casual Chat

It was another morning, and after waking up, Ichiji Hoshika walked out of her bedroom as usual and sat down at the dining table.

Good morning, you're up quite early.

"Good morning... wait, why are you here?"

Ijichi Seika didn't hear the familiar voice of Nijika; instead, she heard the voice of a man she knew very well. Today, it wasn't Nijika who greeted Ijichi Seika, but Kenzaki Yuuma.

“Hongxia came to see me this morning. She said she had something to take care of at school. She had to go early and asked me to make you breakfast today.”

Ijichi Seika looked at the breakfast that Kenzaki Yuuma had brought to the table, lost in thought.

"What's wrong? Is it not to your liking?"