Iruma-san wants to win the Akutagawa Prize

Then Iruma Hibiki spoke in a casual manner.

In fact, although he trusted Toyokawa Shoko about such things, after all, Toyokawa Shoko was the one among them who knew best how to deal with troublesome things, but he also had his own concerns.

After all, the emotions expressed by Toyokawa Shoko at this moment were indeed a bit bad.

"ring."

At this moment, Wakaba Mutsu suddenly called out to Iruma Hibiki, and then stared at him closely. In Wakaba Mutsu's pupils, Iruma Hibiki could see his own reflection.

"Didn't Xiangzi say anything to Xiang?"

Then, Ruoye Mu asked this.

Yes, underneath Wakaba Mutsu's calm expression, he actually hid his true concern for Toyokawa Shoko from the very beginning.

"Well, nothing was said."

"Did Hibiki ask?"

"I……"

Iruma Hibiki was silent for a moment, not knowing what to say.

Perhaps it was because he himself didn't know how to answer this question.

"Because Xiangzi is very resistant to such things... She doesn't want us to know what happened to her. She asked you to keep it a secret before, and she also said that to me later..."

Could this be one of the reasons why Toyokawa Shoko doesn't contact Sankaku Hatsuka?

Iruma Hibiki pondered.

Of course, the two people actually stopped contacting each other even earlier.

Perhaps these two things have nothing to do with each other.

"I think it would be bad to force Xiangzi to ask, and..."

Iruma Hibiki lowered his head.

In fact, he didn't know how to describe this matter, it was full of dark emotions.

Shoko Toyokawa is special.

She is an absolutely special person to Hibiki Iruma.

Because of this, there are some things he can't do.

If Wakaba Mutsuki was in the same situation, Hibiki Iruma would definitely question Wakaba Mutsuki's concealment with passionate words like "We are friends, aren't we?"

Let her know that at least he is on her side.

He wished he could share her misfortune.

But Shoko Toyokawa and Mutsu Wakaba are different.

Iruma Hibiki took a deep breath and confessed when Wakaba Mutsu was about to say something.

He didn't want to hide anything from anyone, especially not from Ruoye Mu.

"As for me, I'm worried... that if I do something Xiangzi doesn't want me to do, he will hate me."

Iruma Hibiki said in a deep voice.

……

Yes.

Isn’t that actually what happened with the phone call just now?

He did the wrong thing on his own initiative, so Shoko Toyokawa got angry.

For Hibiki Iruma, it was too easy for him to attribute his mistakes to the current situation.

"..."

Wakaba Mutsu showed a slightly surprised expression.

Then her silence continued.

I couldn't finish what I wanted to say.

"Hibiki is right."

She just said it softly.

"Mu?"

"Before--"

Wakaba Mu lowered his head, looking very sad.

"When I asked Xiangzi, I was disliked..."

Then, in front of Iruma Hibiki, he saw Wakaba Mutsu holding her skirt tightly.

Looking at Wakaba Mutsu, who was just as worried about Toyokawa Shoko as he was but was powerless to do anything, Hibiki Iruma suddenly felt some empathy and some more complicated emotions.

He came to Wakaba Mu in a brave manner.

"Anyway, Mu, let's enjoy our trip today and keep working hard for next week's performance. I'll keep working hard on Xiangzi's matter—"

"Why don't you apologize properly afterwards?"

Iruma Hibiki smiled and tried to reassure Wakaba Mutsu.

"Xiang, treat Xiangzi's affairs as your own."

"Yes."

Iruma Hibiki responded to what Wakaba Mutsu said.

"Because Xiangzi and I are lovers."

Then he said this.

"Even if Xiangzi didn't tell me and didn't want me to ask, I would still be worried about her."

Iruma Hibiki gave a bitter smile.

It is about the subtle distance between himself and Shoko Toyokawa in this matter.

Maybe this is the dilemma of falling in love suddenly.

If they don't understand each other very well and encounter difficulties, the unbridgeable sense of distance will always become a terrifying dilemma.

"So this is what happened..."

"Hey, let's go."

At the hotel entrance, on the other side, Shiina Riki looked embarrassed and wanted to pull Nagasaki Motoyo away.

After Ye Mu left with a sentence "I'm going to see Xiang", the game could not continue.

Although Nagasaki Suyo was a little curious, she couldn't go and find out what Iruma Hibiki brought on the trip because Shiina Riki was there.

So while waiting, Nagasaki Suyo suddenly said:

"I'm going to check on Hibiki and the others. I felt like Hibiki was a little distracted when he left."

"Ah, that's true. I'll go with you then."

In this way, Nagasaki Motoyo and Shiina Tachikyu set off with Takamatsu Touma.

However, Shiina Riki never expected to hear such a conversation.

When she first wanted to say hello, she was stopped by Nagasaki Suyo.

"Xiangzi..."

Gao Songdeng showed an obvious look of concern, and his face was full of worry.

"Hey, I say, don't you feel like you've overheard someone else's secret? "

Shiina Riki finally lost his patience.

The matter of the Nature Band is very important to her.

But Tatsuki Shiina is a person with a bottom line.

The bitterness and curiosity in her heart could not overcome her most basic sense of morality after all, so much so that when she looked at Nagasaki Suyo who was listening intently, she even showed a look of disgust for a moment.

"But this is about all of us in the band, isn't it? Hibiki, Mu, and Shoko have been hiding this from us..."

Nagasaki Suyo said with a frown.

"Why don't you discuss it with us?"

"As I just said, Xiangzi hopes to keep this secret."

Shiina Riki continued to emphasize.

"But even so——such an important matter——"

"I want to hear you, Lantern, let's go."

Shiina Riki finally became impatient, so he picked up the lamp on the other side and prepared to leave.

53 Out of service phone

Nagasaki Suyo returned to the room a few minutes later, and soon after, Iruma Hibiki also came back. Shiina Riki didn't know how much she heard.

but--

Ever since he heard from Hibiki Iruma that Hibiki Iruma was planning to suspend the band's activities, Shiina Riki felt a little sad...

Completely sad.

After everyone prepared for the performance for so long, is this actually a pause in the band’s activities?

So what about the summary afterwards?

What are the next arrangements?

To what extent will the band activities be suspended?

If they stopped practicing and seeing each other because of Toyokawa Shoko, what was the reason? Was it because Iruma Hibiki liked Toyokawa Shoko?

Shiina Riki probably has this kind of distress - having overheard the conversation, she cannot at all hope to reveal her emotions at this moment.

But she is also someone who can't hide her feelings.

On the other side, only Nagasaki Motoyo could still keep smiling in such an occasion and continue the game that had become boring at this moment.

It wasn't until the evening that everyone finished the game and returned to their rooms absent-mindedly.

Iruma Hibiki tried to call Toyokawa Shoko again after a long time, but the reply he got was that the other party's phone was turned off.

So in order to make sure that Shoko Toyokawa was not too angry.

Iruma Hibiki secretly sent a message to Wakaba Mutsu.

About 20 minutes later, Ruoye Mu finally replied. The girl seemed to be taking a shower, so Ruoye Mu spent some more time.

【I'll ring this.】

Suddenly Wakaba Mu said this.

【it is good. 】

Hearing her say this, Rujian Xiang did not refuse and agreed to chat with Erlingba (five) 4 Lin.

【What should we do with Su Shi? 】

【Su Shi has fallen asleep.】

Wakaba Mu turned her head and looked in the direction of Nagasaki Suyo, who had used the bathroom earlier than her.

And Iruma Hibiki looked at the time.

Indeed, it was almost the time when Nagasaki Suyo went to bed early.

After waiting for a while, Iruma Hibiki heard Wakaba Mu knocking on the door.

When he opened the door, he saw Wakaba Mutsu, who had changed into white pajamas and a coat, waiting at the door in his own slippers.

"Cold?"

Hibiki Iruma turned up the air conditioner in the room by two degrees.