Iruma-san wants to win the Akutagawa Prize

But I just couldn't say it.

After all, the two of them weren't very familiar with each other, and they only connected because of Iruma Hibiki.

It's not really appropriate to say it's a connection, it's just—

There are some reasons to talk.

"Does Ijichi-san have his wallet with him?"

"Eh?"

Ijichi Hongxia was a little at a loss when faced with Toyokawa Shoko's questions.

"there is."

But she still reacted immediately and took out her cute little pocket for money. It was an exquisite little wallet in the same goose yellow color. It was divided into two layers. One layer contained a few thousand-yen bills, and the other layer contained about a dozen coins.

This is all the pocket money that Ijichi Hongxia has.

"Hmm... this is fine—"

Shoko Toyokawa pinched out a 1-yen coin from it.

"Here, Ijichi-san, I'll transfer the arrangement and composition rights of this song to you."

"Huh? Copyright?"

Ijichi Hongxia still didn't realize why the situation had turned out like this until she saw the handwriting on the wrinkled piece of printed paper with a strange red mark on the edge. She realized -

This is a song.

A song that she was very, very familiar with.

And it's the kind that you will never forget.

That is--

The lyrics were written by Hibiki Iruma, a song that the old band didn't have time to finish singing. Ijichi Hongka's last impression of it was that day when everyone gathered in this rehearsal room, at the table next to her, and spent several irreversible hours to finalize the initial idea.

【Hibiki, are you done? 】

When thinking of this, Ijichi Hongxia felt a little happy in her heart.

Because of the name [Xiang].

Then comes a sour feeling, just like iced lemonade in midsummer. While making people feel comfortable and refreshed, the sour feeling stimulates the taste buds all the time.

It makes people want to cry a little.

"Well, copyright, this is the song that ended the band, right? I'm sorry I took the liberty of writing the song because I loved the lyrics so much, but after seeing today's performance and recognizing Hibiki's feelings, I think that this song should be returned to its original owner no matter what."

Toyokawa Shoko smiled brightly in front of Ijichi Hongka. She was very happy, or rather, she was happy from the moment she walked in.

"These two should be Yamada-san and Goto-san, right? Hello, I'm Toyokawa Shoko from Crychic, and—"

"Hibiki's lover."

"Eh?!"

In fact, there were two such exclamations.

The loudest one was Ijichi Kouka's, which was loud enough to attract everyone's attention. The next louder one was Goto Ichiri's.

Her exclamation was heard by no one except Yamada Ryo who was beside her.

but--

This exclamation was all she could do at the moment. She then lowered her head and no longer looked at the onlookers Ijichi Hongxia and Toyokawa Shoko with curiosity.

In fact, she—

I really care about the song by Hibiki Iruma.

but now……

【That's true.】

Goto Ichiri thought quietly in his heart.

"Looking forward to Iruma-san breaking up with you is disgusting, Goto Ichiri, how could you possibly think that?"

【but……】

Soon, Goto Ichiri was troubled by his own self-blame and fell into a black vortex.

"Do you need to sign a contract, Ijichi-kun?"

"Ah... no thanks, but is it really okay? This song?"

"Because I've already received payment, it doesn't matter."

Toyokawa Shoko waved the silver one-yen coin in her hand.

"Then my purpose for coming here is complete. I won't bother you any more. If it rings, I should be back soon."

"Toyokawa-san, is your hand okay?"

When Toyokawa Shoko flipped her wrist and shook the one-yen coin, Ijichi Kouka was startled when she saw something red.

"Hmm? This? It's okay, it's just my first time using ink, so it got a little messy and I can't wash it off at all..."

Toyokawa Shoko spread out her hands in front of Ichichi Hongka.

At this moment, her fair hands were covered with traces of red ink. Only after seeing that Toyokawa Shoko was not injured did Ijichi Hongxia breathe a sigh of relief.

"Um...thank you, Toyokawa-san, for letting us arrange and compose this song...it's really important to me."

"It's ok."

Toyokawa Shoko leaned slightly sideways.

"I'm just returning the property to its original owner."

Then she nodded slightly to Ichichi Hongxia.

"Then I'll take my leave."

After saying goodbye to the band using the cute honorific "young lady" (young lady's name), Ichichi Hongxia was left holding the music sheet in her hand, slightly dazed.

"I'm back, Hongxia, Pochi-chan, and Ryo-senpai, can you help me?"

Not long after Toyokawa Shoko left, Chihaya Aine pushed the door open and walked in carrying a lot of bags.

“Lots of drinks and snacks!”

Ijichi Nijika sighed in surprise at the snacks and drinks in Chihaya Aine's hands. Then she quickly folded the song sheet that Toyokawa Shoko gave her into small pieces and tucked it into her yellow and black sketchbook. Finally, she quickly came to Chihaya Aine's side to help.

Although Ijichi Nikka thought so, the things in Chihaya Aine's hand had reached their limit, and a lot of them fell to the ground immediately after Ijichi Nikka touched them lightly.

"I can't hold it anymore!"

Following Chihaya Aine's exclamation, the deformed low-quality convenience store bag completely broke, and the snacks and drinks inside scattered all over the floor.

"Haha...so the servings for six are still a bit tight, right?"

With a sigh, Chihaya Aine immediately bent over and helped Ijichi Kouka to tidy it up.

As for Yamada Ryo, even though she had just walked over, she had already opened a bag of potato chips and was happily eating them. Goto Ichiri was holding a bottle of Nijigao and was daydreaming in an empty corner. Only when he occasionally realized the gazes of Chihaya Aine and Ijichi Nijigao would he hurriedly move to pick up some things.

"If Chihaya-san wants to buy these things, just tell us! We'll go help!"

"Since Ijichi-kun and the others had something important to do earlier, I went alone. But as expected, it's a bit of a stretch—for six people…"

"Six people are teasing your wine spirit Wu Ba Qi Yi Umbrella?"

It was not until the second time that Ijichi Hongxia began to have some doubts about the number of people.

Of course, it wasn't some old-fashioned, idiotic joke where someone counted the people but didn't count themselves, and then asked with a weird look on their face, "Do you mean I'm still human?" It was, rather—

She, Goto Ichiri, Yamada Ryo, Iruma Hibiki, Chihaya Aine, is there anyone else besides them?

Kita?

impossible.

Toyokawa Shoko?

It couldn't be her. After all, if she wanted to stay, she wouldn't have said goodbye just now.

So--

In fact, when they were on the stage, Ijichi Hongxia saw Nagasaki Suyo with a pitiful look on her face in the audience.

44 Nagasaki Suyo is still crying and making a fuss

"Aha?"

Chihaya Aine let out a loud, strange cry at Ijichi Nikka, her face wide open with a hint of surprise and disbelief, which was very cute.

"Toyokawa-san said she's Iruma-san's lover?!"

In disbelief, Chihaya Aine repeated what Ijichi Kouka had said.

"Oh, that's what Toyokawa-san said when he came over just now. It really scared me."

"Eh? Chihaya-san? What's wrong?"

"I go out for a while!"

Chihaya Aine threw down the drink in her hand and hurried out the door.

"what happens!"

Ijichi Hongka, who was equally anxious, chased to the door, but by this time Chihaya Aine had already run away. After hesitating for a while, she finally chose to stay in the rehearsal room.

"Ryo, Pochi..."

Faced with the rehearsal room falling into silence again, Ijichi Hongka's mood became slightly depressed.

"Today's performance was terrible."

At this time, it was Yamada Ryo who stepped forward to ease the atmosphere on the field.

"Ah, haha——"

Ijichi Hongxia smiled a little embarrassedly, and then temporarily suppressed some of the uneasiness in her heart.

After all, she couldn't do anything now as she had no idea about the situation.

not to mention--

Ijichi Nichina noticed that Goto Ichiri had been eating air from the bag of potato chips that had long been empty.

On the other side, at the door of Fanxing, standing in front of Iruma Hibiki was Toyokawa Shoko.

"Hibiki, I'll be leaving now. Ijichi-san seems to be waiting for you, so you'd better go over there quickly. We'll see you later..."

With a blushing face, Toyokawa Shoko trotted to open the door of the stars, then opened the automatically closing door and ran out, leaving behind Iruma Hibiki and Nagasaki Soyo, who was still a little at a loss.

"Su Shi..."

Iruma Hibiki called out Nagasaki Suyo's name.

But there was no response from Nagasaki Suyo.

"Do you want to go to... Wait's band's party together..."

Then he once again invited Nagasaki Suyo.

"ring……"

Then, in front of Iruma Hibiki, Nagasaki Soyo, who was still a little bit unbelievable about the reality, raised her head and looked at Iruma Hibiki.

"Is Xiang pretending to pity me?"

Almost instantly, Nagasaki Suyo's voice lost its sweet disguise and became cold and icy.

She stood stubbornly in front of Iruma Hibiki, just to confirm the fact that had long been undeniable and established, but now that the fact was established, self-deception was of no use.

-

Iruma Hibiki was also a little at a loss at this moment.

Toyokawa Shoko's confession.

Nagasaki Suyo's confession.

To be honest, no matter what happened, it was beyond his expectations and cognition, but at this moment, these things became parts that he had to face and had to solve.