Lonely Rock: Love Songs Dedicated to the Stars

Why are you biting me!

Kenzaki Yuuma jolted and quickly released her. He stuck out his tongue, hoping the coolness he felt when it first appeared in his mouth would ease the pain.

"You were the one who pushed your luck first. Tell me, what are you here for?"

"I've said it before, I want to make things clear. Ichiji Hoshika, I still like you even now."

Kenzaki Yuuma had been pondering how to say it, and in the end, his choice was simple: to be direct. No need for convoluted, high-sounding rhetoric, no need for any romantic atmosphere. To put it bluntly, their problem was simply that Ijichi Hoshika had closed up the misunderstanding she'd previously revealed after their breakup.

"Of course I know this is obvious, but didn't you say before that you wouldn't take the initiative if I didn't tell you?"

“Hongxia told you, right? She clearly said she would keep it a secret for me. Anyway, I have a guess, so I came to ask you. Although I might offend someone if I guess wrong, please tell me, where is Auntie now? I haven’t seen her since.”

After Kenzaki Yuuma asked that question, both of them fell silent. Ijichi Hoshika lowered her head, and Kenzaki Yuuma, seeing her expression, knew that he had guessed correctly.

"I'm sorry I brought this up."

"It wasn't your fault. We were bound to bring this up sooner or later. You knew it was impossible to do nothing if you knew this was going to happen. I didn't want to bother you back then, so..."

Kenzaki Yuuma pinned her against the wall. He was very strong, but he instinctively placed his hand behind her head. Realizing he had acted impulsively, he quickly composed himself.

"So you're overthinking it. Do you not trust me?"

"No! I just don't want to burden you with my family's affairs."

"Doesn't that still mean they don't trust me?"

Ijichi Hoshika remained silent. She genuinely didn't want to burden Kenzaki Yuuma, but her actions had burdened Yuuma with pressure for so many years.

So, do we want to start over?

Upon hearing Kenzaki Yuuma's words, she took a deep breath and then wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Who wants to start over with you!"

The strategies for offense and defense differ.

"I've had quite a bit to drink, I'm going to brush my teeth." Kenzaki Yuuma quickly pushed her away.

"Stop talking nonsense! You didn't mention anything like that just now!"

Although she spoke harshly, she wasn't very strong, so in the end, Kenzaki Yuuma still had the upper hand.

"Sister, we're back. Kita and the others will miss the train tonight and will have to stay here overnight..."

The two didn't hear the door open at all. When they came in after the band finished, they saw two adults hugging and kissing each other in the entryway.

Realizing the immeasurable impact their actions would have on the teenagers' development, Kenzaki Yuuma and Ijichi Seika stopped. Seika turned and walked towards the living room, ignoring the four children at the door. However, Kenzaki Yuuma, still somewhat intoxicated, looked at them with a mischievous grin, then pulled out his house key from his pocket and tossed it to Nijika.

"Please feel free to use any of the food in my refrigerator."

After saying that, he made a gesture to shoo them away. Hongxia caught the key, and before she could recover from the visual shock, she was pulled away by Xiduo, Liang, and Boqi, and the door closed.

"They've all left."

After locking the door to the Ijichi house, Kenzaki Yuuma noticed that Ijichi Seika had already left the entrance hall and was sitting on the sofa in the living room. He sat down next to Seika and then put his arm around her.

What do you want to do?

"miss you!"

"?"

……

The next afternoon, Kenzaki Yuuma, wearing a turtleneck coat, sat on a stool next to the STARRY bar, listening to music on his laptop with headphones on.

"Isn't my sister here?"

After school, Nijika found Kenzaki Yuuma at work. Looking around, she noticed her older sister wasn't there, which was unusual. She also remembered that Kenzaki Yuuma disliked high-necked tops, saying that wearing them made his neck feel stuffy and itchy.

"The store manager messaged me saying she was too tired and asked Kenzaki to cover for her today."

PA put the bento box on top of the speaker, and Kenzaki Yuuma turned a blind eye to it, as long as the equipment wasn't broken.

"Does Yu-zhen know? My sister can only fall asleep when she's holding the plush toy you gave her before."

"I saw her last night. But she didn't seem to be holding those two dolls yesterday."

"Ah?"

Kenzaki Yuuma took off his headphones and looked at Nijika, who was still confused. This child was too innocent, and Yuuma couldn't help but want to tease her.

"I didn't sleep well last night, your sister is so fierce. I have to cover for you here today, I'm so tired."

Nijika's face instantly turned red, and Kenzaki Yuuma felt as if he could see steam rising from the top of her head.

Hongxia understood why Kenzaki Yuuma was wearing a turtleneck coat today. She asked Kenzaki Yuuma to unzip the coat a little and saw the marks on his neck and a scratch on his shoulder, which could only be covered by a turtleneck.

Chapter 11 Uniform

"From now on, please...please don't bully your sister."

Nijika looked pitifully at Kenzaki Yuuma sitting next to her.

"What do you mean I bullied her?" Kenzaki Yuuma looked away from the computer screen and stared at Nijika. "She bit me really hard last night. Didn't you see the teeth marks on my neck?"

"That's definitely because my sister is feeling unwell..."

"Probably. Although it hurts a lot, it still feels pretty good."

Kenzaki Yuuma's shoulder was suddenly patted. Ijichi Seika had arrived at some point and was now standing behind him.

"What are you saying to Hongxia?!"

"Are you feeling alright? Are you still experiencing any discomfort?"

Kenzaki Yuuma wasn't angry at being suddenly hit, after all, he was the one who couldn't control his mouth first. After recognizing it was Ijichi Hoshika, he subconsciously got up, pulled her over to sit in his previous seat, and gave her a glass of warm water.

"What problem could there be? It's not the first time."

"What do you mean by that?!"

Hearing Nijika's exclamation, Ijichi Seika finally woke up with Kenzaki Yuuma's concern and realized that she had just said something terrible in front of Nijika.

"Just...literal meaning."

Hoshika and Yuuma exchanged a glance and decided to give up. Anyway, Hongxia would find out sooner or later.

With whom?

“Who else could it be? Of course it’s this guy.” Ijichi Seika pointed at Kenzaki Yuuma.

"When?"

"We should have been around twenty, right? That should be fine, shouldn't it? We were both adults back then."

Hongxia, who was completely unaware, finally realized that she had been kept in the dark for many years. She suddenly remembered what Yuzhen and her sister were doing after Yuzhen had put her to sleep. Thinking about it this way, she felt like she was actually involved.

Seeing the changing expressions on Nijika's face, Kenzaki Yuuma felt that she was thinking something not so good, so he decided to dispel the rumors: "We only dated twice from the beginning to the end, so don't overthink it."

"Besides, how old were you back then? We certainly couldn't let you know so much."

Afterwards, Hongxia was sent to the rehearsal room by Xingge, as their band still needed to rehearse for the performance hall's review.

PA, who was sitting behind the speakers, had been enjoying the gossip during the conversation, but he didn't expect to hear such exciting news today.

If you dare tell anyone, I'll fire you.

"Okay, I got it."

……

Aside from Kenzaki Yuuma visiting the performance hall more often, his life after getting back together with Iji Tomoko doesn't seem to be much different from before.

That afternoon, the band members hadn't finished school yet, and the performance hall hadn't opened for business. Ijichi Seika was listening to music with headphones on, PA seemed to have stayed up all night and was taking a nap on the bar, and Kenzaki Yuuma had a handheld game console on the table in front of him, and he was using a stylus to draw bangs on the little figure on the screen.

"good afternoon!"

The sudden sound made Kenzaki Yuuma drop his pen, ruining the little figure he had just drawn on the screen. The person who had just entered and greeted him loudly was Hiroi Kikuri, carrying a large bottle of sake and two bags.

Where did you get this bottle of wine?

Kenzaki Yuuma temporarily saved the destroyed figurine and turned off the handheld console. He looked up at Hiroi and noticed the large bottle of alcohol in her hand. Yuuma remembered that Hiroi had mentioned a few days ago when they were drinking that she had accidentally broken the equipment and lost her performance fee. Where did she get the money to buy alcohol?

"Gurgle gurgle... Ha! I just got this from your izakaya, Kenzaki-senpai! I paid off the debt with my own bass."

"I remember you clearly said that your bass was your life, and that your life was only worth a bottle of wine?"

"It's okay, I can just redeem it again. Kenzaki-senpai will definitely return it to me, right?"

Kenzaki Yuuma was exasperated with his junior. Before he went to Kawasaki, this girl wasn't so troublesome. How did she turn into an alcoholic now?

"Alright, this bottle is on me. What brings you here today?"

"Really?! Senior, don't go back on your word." After saying that, Hiroi took a few more gulps of wine. "I only remember the celebration party last night, and then when I woke up I found myself lying in the park. So I just wandered around for a bit and ended up here, hehe."

After hearing what she said, Hoshika and Yuma both looked at her like she was trash, but PA noticed the two bags that Hiroi was carrying.

"What's in here? Is it also wine?"

Hiroi himself had forgotten what was inside, so everyone opened the two bags with curiosity. Inside were two JK uniforms, but the styles were completely different: one was a very common ordinary JK uniform, but the other looked like clothes that would only appear in a manga, with a pink top and a super short pleated skirt, looking like an outfit for a gyaru (a Japanese girl with a flamboyant personality).

Upon seeing the two outfits, Hiroi remembered what had happened yesterday. Eliza had asked her and Shima to help sell doujinshi (fan-made comics) at the comic convention, and these were the two outfits she'd asked them to wear. Although Shima didn't want to wear a miniskirt, Hiroi took off her jacket and wrapped it around Shima's waist, using it as a skirt. With Eliza's coaxing and cuteness, Shima finally agreed, and Eliza's doujinshi sold quite a few. As for the two outfits, Eliza kept them for Hiroi and Shima as souvenirs; Shima didn't want them, so Hiroi took them, intending to sell them at a secondhand clothing store.

"Later, the three of us had a celebration banquet, and you all know what happened after that."

Hoshika and Yuuma thought it was already an extraordinary feat for this girl to remember so many things after drinking so much, so they didn't ask any more questions. But why didn't she use the two pieces of clothing to pay off the debt instead of the bass? Were those two pieces of clothing more important to her than the bass? Kenzaki Yuuma couldn't understand Hiroi Kikuri's thought process at all.

"Speaking of which, I've never seen Ichichi-senpai in a uniform before. And PA-san's too, I'm very curious."

Hiroi's sudden remark caught Yuuma's attention. He frantically searched his memory for images of Ijichi Hoshika in her school uniform, but since uniforms weren't mandatory in their high school, he found nothing. PA didn't have any photos of herself in her uniform either; she dropped out in her second year of high school and barely attended school in her first year, so she hadn't had any pictures taken.

"Does anyone have photos? I want to see Xingge wearing a JK uniform."

Kenzaki Yu is very straightforward; he really wanted to see it, so he just said it outright, knowing that Hoshika wouldn't do anything to him anyway.

Hiroi shook her head; she had just said she didn't have any. Besides, even Kenzaki Yuuma didn't have any photos, so how could she possibly have any? Iji Tomoka didn't have any photos either, because she basically never wore her high school uniform; that outfit should be sitting in the corner of her closet right now.

"Since we've never worn them, how about we make up for the missing moments of our youth now?"

Hiroi held up the two uniforms, wanting PA and Ijichi Seika to try them on.

Surprisingly, both of them were very interested and did not refuse. They picked up the two pieces of clothing and went to the dressing room.

"Oh! Miss PA is wearing a pure black uniform and has a graceful demeanor, but her earrings and lip piercing reveal that she is a delinquent girl! Senior Ijichi's pink JK uniform and miniskirt make her look like a delinquent gyaru, but her shy eyes after seeing Senior Kenzaki betray her. She is just a pure high school girl who deliberately dresses maturely to attract the attention of the boy she likes!"