Lonely Rock: Love Songs Dedicated to the Stars

"Sure. But why give it to me?"

"You have to come with me again."

"what?"

She unfolded the folded note, and Aikawa and Ueshiro also came closer. The note read, "The most lovable person."

"You actually got this kind of Easter egg!"

Aikawa looked at the words on the note and scratched his head. Was his mouth really that accurate?

"Enough of that, senior, it's time to go."

……

Yuuki looked at Hoshika being carried by Yuuma again, and wasn't surprised at all.

He took the note Xingge handed him and looked at the words on it with the other referees.

"The most lovable person?"

"Yes."

Yuuki looked at Yuuma's serious expression, exchanged glances with the other teachers sitting on the referee's table, and then they nodded and let Yuuma pass.

Why would such a subjective element be included?

Xingge stood next to Youxing and asked him a question.

"It was just put there as an Easter egg," Yu Xing replied helplessly. "I wasn't surprised at all when that kid brought you over again."

'You talk as if we're usually very close.'

Xingge's ears turned a little red. She stopped talking to Youxing and turned to look at Youzhen, who had just crossed the finish line.

Kenzaki Yuuma came in first place in his group again, advancing to the afternoon's finals. He returned to the class rest area and took the towel that Ueshiro handed him to wipe his sweat.

"I hope I don't draw anything weird this afternoon?"

Xingge has just returned.

"It's unlikely, the probability is too low."

The probability of this happening repeatedly is probably not very high, and Yuzhen actually hopes he won't draw anything like this again. He's been carrying Xingge around these past two days; although Xingge isn't heavy, it still has weight compared to those small items, and he's feeling a bit tired.

……

They ate lunch together in the classroom with Youxing.

Yuuki didn't go to the teacher's office; he still wanted to talk to Yuuki about some things that happened at the bar.

Yuzhen listened to his explanation, nodded, and noted down the points he mentioned that required attention.

"Don't you need to familiarize yourself with your speech?"

Xingge couldn't understand what the two of them were saying. All she knew was that Youxing had been busy since morning and hadn't had time to look at the manuscript at all.

What if I stumble and fall during the presentation?

"It's okay, I wrote the first half, I'm very familiar with it." Youxing put on an indifferent expression, "Besides, I've done this kind of thing a lot before, I'm very familiar with it, there won't be any problems."

Seeing his confidence, Yuzhen and Xingge didn't say anything more.

Chapter 54 Sports Meet (End)

The six finalists for the afternoon's borrowing race were already standing at the starting line. Yuma looked at the lottery box in the distance, silently praying that she wouldn't draw anything strange again.

With a gunshot, everyone rushed out. Yuzhen was the first to reach the lottery box. He reached in, pulled out a slip of paper, glanced at it, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

This time, what he wanted to borrow was very ordinary—just a thermos. He started running towards their class's rest area again; he remembered he had one of those in his bag.

"Hey, Ijichi, Kenzaki's back again." Aikawa saw Yuuma running back again. "You're not going to get carried away again, are you?"

"How could that be? Such a coincidence wouldn't happen that many times."

Xingge watched Yuzhen run this way again and thought of the previous two times.

'It feels pretty good to be held in that guy's arms,' she thought, then snapped back to reality. 'What am I thinking? Wake up.'

"Senior! Give me the thermos!"

Upon hearing Yuzhen's voice, Xingge quickly took out a thermos from his bag and gave it to him.

"What a pity, I thought something interesting was going to happen again."

Aikawa looked at Yuuma leaving with a regretful expression.

"That's right, I didn't expect it to become so boring in the end."

Shangcheng chimed in beside him.

"You two are good enough for now." Xingge looked at the two guys who looked disappointed because they hadn't had any fun. "Honestly, what are you thinking about all day?"

Yuzhen had already crossed the finish line in the distance, winning the class's first and only championship.

"Our class is so weak. And the school won't even give us a medal? So stingy."

Looking at the certificate in her hand, Yuzhen realized the weakness of her class in sports and the school's frugality.

……

After all the events were completed, the closing ceremony of the sports meet began. As always, there were speeches from school leaders and class rankings, which was probably the most boring part of the entire sports meet.

Yu-chan's class didn't achieve any rankings in any of the events, so their scores weren't particularly high, and they ended up in fourth place from the bottom.

The students sitting on the playground were all drowsy as they listened to the leader's speech. These people used almost the same rhetoric every year, but they always managed to ramble on for a long time.

However, the temperature was quite high that afternoon, and the principal probably felt hot too, so he shortened his speech considerably. After that, it was Yuuki's speech, which Yuuma had been looking forward to.

After Kenzaki Yuuki took the stage, he calmly unfolded his folded speech manuscript and began to read it aloud with great expression. Since it was a last-minute decision to give him the speech yesterday, he certainly couldn't speak without a script.

The first half of the manuscript was written by Yuuki himself, and the second half was written by Yuuma. Yuuki was fine when he read the first half, but the more he read the second half, the more something seemed off to him.

Yuzhen sat on the playground, listening to him read the script. He was about to get to the part she was most satisfied with.

'No, you can't laugh yet, you have to hold it in.'

Xingge looked at Youzhen, who was trying not to laugh, with increasing curiosity about what this guy had written in the manuscript.

"Here, I would also like to thank several friends... Reimu Hakurei... Gamu Takayama... Eimu Hosho..." Yuuki looked at the manuscript in his hand, pretending his throat was dry, and paused for a moment, "In short, thank you to my friends for giving me a lot of help..."

Kenzaki Yuuma couldn't hold back any longer and laughed, but he still tried his best to control his voice.

"What did you write for him?"

Xingge listened to Youxing's impromptu performance on stage, then glanced at Youzhen sitting next to her, bent over, covering her mouth and snickering. These two were both incredibly childish.

Fortunately, Yuuma only wrote this part rather casually; the rest was serious content. However, this did not prevent Yuuki from reading the manuscript very carefully, as if suffering from paranoia.

"Are you sure it's okay for you to write it like this?"

Xingge leaned closer to Youzhen's ear and asked him.

“It’s okay, he’ll improvise.” Yuzhen laughed enough. “Besides, I only wrote these names in that small section; the rest is normal content, so it’s fine.”

As expected, Yuuki's speech ended smoothly. Yuuma and Hoshika could clearly see Yuuki breathe a sigh of relief as she stepped off the stage.

……

"What kind of manuscript did you give me?!"

After school, Yuuki, Yuuma, and Hoshika sat in a coffee shop.

“I don’t know who your friends are.” Yuzhen sipped her orange juice, biting the straw, looking nonchalant. “Besides, you could have just changed the names yourself after seeing them, right? I didn’t expect you to read them out right away.”

"Fine, I give up."

Yu Xing reluctantly picked up her cup of coffee and drank it all in one gulp.

"I'm leaving the day after tomorrow, so I'll have you look after the bar for me. Also, I'll have your keyboard delivered to my music store by courier, and I'll let you know when it arrives."

Yuuma thought about it carefully. He had been staying at the Ijichi family's house for a while, and his parents were often not at home. Yuuki was going to Hokkaido, so it was no wonder that he had to be sent to the music store.

"I understand, you can go without worry."

"That sounds a bit ominous."

After parting ways with Yuuki at the coffee shop entrance, Yuuma and Hoshika returned to Ichichi's house. Yuuma was excited that he could still sleep with Hoshika tonight.

What are you laughing at?

Xingge noticed Youzhen was secretly laughing and subconsciously moved a little further away from him.

"No, it's nothing."

Yuma suppressed the smile that had unconsciously appeared on her face.

"By the way, I'll be going to work every day starting tomorrow." Xingge and Youzhen sat together on the sofa. "I won't be home with you after school this afternoon."

When did you start working?

This was the first time Yuuma had heard about this.

“It started a long time ago. I used to only work on weekends, and I never told you about it.”

After listening to Xingge's words, Youzhen recalled that he usually spent Saturdays with Xingge, and on weekends he would go to the library by himself, thus avoiding Xingge's work hours. Xingge had actually kept this from him.

"I see." Yuuma nodded. "Then can I come to see you at your workplace, senior?"

"No," Xingge shook her head. "Don't interfere with my work."

"Ok."

Yu-ma felt it was a pity that she wouldn't be able to see Hoshiga working so diligently.

……

The holiday following the sports meet arrived. On the first day of his holiday, Yuuma didn't go to the library; instead, he went to Yuuki's bar to check things out and make sure everything was alright. Then he planned to pick up the tomahawk keyboard that had been ordered.

He had his eye on the Roland AX-Edge-W keyboard before. Regardless of whether it was good or not, he thought the black one looked great and fell in love with it at first sight.

He found the music store at the address Yuuki had given him. Yuuki had invested in the store after making money from her bar. As for why it was a music store, it was probably because Yuuki played rock music.

Yuuki had already spoken to the store manager beforehand, so Yuuma only needed to come and pick up the keyboard that Yuuki had prepared.

"Hello, I'm Kenzaki Yuuma, I'm here to pick up the keyboard."