Green plums cannot become lovers.

"but,"

Then, he changed the subject, his tone becoming serious, "Considering that Shizuka, Marina, and Ai all have studies and other things to do, I don't want this club activity to become an extra burden for you. Therefore, we need to recruit more like-minded members, especially people to share the pressure in terms of art and programming."

He looked at Kasumigaoka Utaha: "The script is the core, so you'll need to put in a lot of effort, senior. I'll take care of the music and project management. But if Marina is the only one handling the key animation, coloring, backgrounds, and UI art, the workload will be enormous. As for programming, I can learn it gradually."

So, the next day, a simply designed recruitment poster appeared on the club bulletin board of Toyonosaki Academy:*

[Game Development Department - Recruitment Notice]

Direction: Development of original romance adventure games

Urgently needed: Concept art/coloring/background art, programmers

We welcome students who are passionate about game creation and have a strong sense of responsibility to join us!

Activity Room: Laboratory Building 305

After the recruitment posters were put up, they did attract the attention of some curious students.

The next day after school, An and Asuka, along with Kasumigaoka Utaha, were discussing the initial world-building of the game in the activity room. The door was pushed open somewhat abruptly, and Aki Tomoya appeared in the doorway, panting, still clutching the copy of the recruitment notice torn from the bulletin board.

His gaze first fell on Kasumigaoka Utaha, and he was clearly taken aback for a moment. A blush quickly rose on his face, a mixture of surprise and excitement: "Kasumigaoka Utaha-sensei?! You're here too? Did you join the game development department as well?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha frowned slightly, feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the form of address and the other person's overly excited reaction. She nodded curtly in response.

Aki Tomoya, however, seemed greatly encouraged. He turned to Anwa Asuka, his eyes shining: "Anwa-kun! I saw the recruitment notice! You guys are really making games? Or Galgames? That's amazing! This is a club tailor-made for me! Please let me join!"

I have an unparalleled passion and profound understanding of bishoujo games! I can handle planning, scriptwriting, and even market analysis! I've played the vast majority of top-tier titles on the market and have unique insights into how to create compelling characters and design gripping storylines!

He spoke at lightning speed, and before An and Asuka could answer, he began to eloquently describe the various elements that a "masterpiece Galgame" should have, from "a fateful encounter" to "a choice that touches the soul," his emotions running high, almost to the point of dancing.

Kasumigaoka Utaha's brows furrowed more and more. She was extremely annoyed by the feeling of being forced to accept opinions that were empty and exaggerated.

She put down her pen, looked at An and Asuka, and her eyes clearly conveyed the message of "resolving this as soon as possible."

After a brief pause in Aki Tomoya's "speech," An and Asuka calmly interrupted, "Aki-kun, thank you for your enthusiasm. However, we are currently mainly recruiting members in art and programming. Regarding the planning and script, we already have clear leaders and directions."

Aki Tomoya's enthusiasm was dampened, but he didn't give up: "Art? I can learn it! I've also studied anime aesthetics! Programming... I can look at tutorials too! The most important thing is the concept! Aki-kun, what we need is the same love and pursuit for our work! I think we can definitely create amazing sparks!"

“Anki,” An and Asuka’s tone remained calm, yet carried an undeniable refusal, “joining a club requires specific skills or a clear study plan, and the ability to make tangible contributions to the project. Currently, you don’t meet our urgent needs, and…”

He paused, looking directly into Aki Tomoya's eyes, "I think your way of doing things and your pace may not be a good fit for the efficient, pragmatic, and execution-oriented team atmosphere we need."

These words were quite blunt, and the excitement on Aki Tomoya's face gradually faded, replaced by embarrassment, confusion, and accumulating resentment and anger after being repeatedly rejected.

He gripped the paper tightly in his hand, his voice trembling with excitement:

“Anhe...you clearly rejected my invitation, saying I lacked planning and execution...but then you started your own club, and it's all about games! Are you playing me? You think my dream is ridiculous, so you're here to prove you're better than me?”

His voice grew louder and louder, accusing him: "I trusted you so much! I thought you were different! But you...you went too far!"

The air in the activity room seemed to freeze. Kasumigaoka Utaha watched coldly, her wine-red eyes filled with indifference.

Anwa Asuka frowned slightly as he looked at the emotionally distraught Aki Tomoya. He wasn't incapable of understanding the other's disappointment, but this attitude of completely blaming others and attempting moral blackmail made him uncomfortable.

“An Yi,” his voice turned colder, “how I choose my club activities doesn’t seem to require your approval or guidance. My rejection of you is based on an objective judgment of what you’ve presented. I founded the club based on my own plans and abilities. There’s no playful relationship between the two, as you claim, nor do I need to prove anything to you.”

He took a step forward, and the slight sense of pressure from his height made Aki Tomo unconsciously take a half step back.

Instead of blaming others for not choosing you, you should seriously reflect on why you weren't chosen. Improving your abilities and producing tangible results is the best way to gain recognition.

Anwa Asuka's tone was clear and forceful, each word like a hammer blow to Aki Tomoya's heart: "If you don't want to be looked down upon, then achieve something to prove yourself. Otherwise, anger and complaints are meaningless."

"you......!"

Aki Tomoya's face flushed crimson, his eyes also reddening slightly, whether from anger or grievance, it was hard to tell. Aki and Asuka's words pierced his fragile pride, which was wrapped in enthusiasm, like needles. He abruptly raised his head, like a small animal finally cornered, and roared:

"Then let's have a match! Anwa Asuka!"

He was panting heavily, his eyes fixed stubbornly on An and Asuka: "One year! Let's make it a one-year deadline! Let's see who can create a more popular and amazing game! I'll definitely make you look at me in a new light! No... I'll make you admit that you're wrong!"

Faced with this childish challenge, An and Asuka remained calm. He looked calmly at the excited Aki Tomoya and shook his head.

“You are not yet qualified to be my opponent,” he said calmly.

"You—you?! You're so angry you could explode!" Aki Tomoya felt like his lungs were about to burst.

“However,” An and Asuka changed the subject, a faint, almost sigh-like smile playing at the corners of their lips, “since you’ve put it this way, I have no reason to back down. Let’s see who has the better work. Let the works speak for themselves.”

"Fine! You just wait!" Aki Tomoya seemed to have finally found an outlet for his frustration and a goal to strive for. He wiped his eyes hard, gave An and Asuka a deep look, and then glanced complicatedly at Kasumigaoka Utaha, who had remained silent and indifferent throughout. He then turned and rushed out of the activity room.

The door slammed shut with a thud.

The activity room returned to silence, with only the faint sounds of the playground coming from outside the window.

“What a…” Kasumigaoka Utaha finally spoke, breaking the silence. She picked up her pen and casually drew a line in her notebook, her voice filled with undisguised annoyance, “…an annoying and troublesome person.”

An and Asuka walked back to the whiteboard, looked at the unfinished world view sketch on it, and let out a soft sigh.

"It is indeed very troublesome. But in a sense, his reckless enthusiasm is also a kind of quality."

However, this trait often does more harm than good in team projects that require close collaboration.

Anyway, he doesn't really like it.

"Are you planning to take that 'competition' seriously?" Kasumigaoka Utaha looked up at him.

“Games are meant to be made.” An and Asuka picked up the eraser, wiped away the words they had written before, and rewrote “Core Elements of the Project”.

"As for the competition... if it can actually help him focus and achieve something, that wouldn't be a bad thing. At least I won't be bothered anymore. And our focus should always be on our own project."

Kasumigaoka Utaha gazed at his composed profile, a hint of approval flashing in her wine-red eyes. Focusing on the task at hand, excluding irrelevant emotions and distractions, was precisely the attitude she admired.

"So," she steered the conversation back on track, "does our junior have any specific ideas about our 'unlucky' male protagonist?"

An and Asuka turned their heads to meet her gaze, their eyes regaining a focused light.

"I was just about to discuss this with my senior. I think perhaps he shouldn't be a typical 'kind' all-around male protagonist..."

The setting sun outside the window cast long shadows of the two people onto the whiteboard covered with writing.

As expected, Aki Tomoya did not bother him again in the following days. Perhaps the conflict and the "challenge" that day had exhausted his impulsive enthusiasm, or perhaps he was really holding back a lot of energy, wanting to do something on his own to prove himself.

In any case, An and Asuka's ears were temporarily at peace.

However, the price of this quiet was that the recruitment notice for the game development department seemed to sink without a trace. Occasionally, curious glances would linger at the bulletin board, but no one actually knocked on the door of room 305 in the experimental building. Several days passed, and apart from the initial farce involving Aki Tomoya, no new applicants showed up.

"It seems that my junior's personal charm and network of connections are not quite enough." In the empty activity room in the afternoon, Kasumigaoka Utaha sat elegantly in a chair by the window, one hand supporting her chin, the other hand tapping lightly on the open notebook pages.

Today she was wearing a summer school uniform shirt, and beneath her dark blue pleated skirt, her long legs were crossed, their curves creating a pleasing sight in the afternoon sunlight. Her tone carried her usual slightly sarcastic teasing, but her wine-red eyes held a hint of amusement as she looked at An and Asuka, who were standing in front of the whiteboard, frowning in thought.

Upon hearing this, An and Asuka subconsciously glanced at her striking figure before quickly looking away and returning their gaze to the blank whiteboard. They sighed helplessly, "There's nothing I can do. It seems like I'm just born with this 'can't recruit' physique. It's been like this since junior high."

"Oh?" Kasumigaoka Utaha raised an eyebrow, intrigued. She knew very little about An and Asuka's past. This boy was always shrouded in a calmness that was incongruous with his age, and an elusive sense of detachment that occasionally shone through, making one want to explore the undercurrents beneath the calm surface.

"If you don't mind, junior, could you tell me more?" She lowered her hand from her chin, leaned forward slightly, and adopted a listening posture with focused eyes.

An and Asuka stood with their backs to her, silent for a moment. The faint chirping of cicadas drifted in from outside the window, carrying the languid air unique to early summer. He turned around, leaned against the edge of the whiteboard, his gaze fixed on the lush shadows of the trees outside the window, and spoke in a calm voice, as if narrating something distant and unrelated to himself.

"When I was in junior high school, because I loved music and also to help... some friends, I started a light music club."

His tone was somewhat helpless.

"As a result, apart from the original partners around us, we didn't recruit a single new member during the recruitment period. It was the same during the school anniversary celebration. Even though we rehearsed diligently, made promotional videos, and released original music, we had very few followers, and the number of views was less than that of someone else's casually filmed video posted online."

People don't dislike me; they greet me when we bump into each other on the street, and we can cooperate in class activities, but... they just don't seem to want to get too close to me, or rather, to our small group. There's an invisible sense of distance.

His tone softened, carrying a clear warmth, "But thankfully, I had good friends who would support me no matter what. Whether it was music or fooling around, they were willing to be with me."

"Are they Kuze-kun and the others?" Kasumigaoka Utaha asked naturally. She had always assumed that the three inseparable girls were an important part of her past.

“No.” An and Asuka shook their heads, their gaze still distant. “It’s three other people, who are also… my childhood friends.”

“You…” Kasumigaoka Utaha froze, her crossed legs unconsciously straightening, her body slightly tensing. Her wine-red eyes widened, clearly reflecting surprise.

Are there three more?

This realization was like a pebble thrown into a still lake, creating ripples larger than she had anticipated. The boy before her already had three childhood friends, each with a distinct style, yet equally outstanding and closely connected to him.

Now tell her that in the distant past, in another place, there were three other people who also had the identity of "childhood sweethearts".

Hachiko, what kind of magnetic body do you have? Or are you born with the ability to attract and protect the light of special beings?

A strange feeling, a mixture of surprise, a little stuffiness, and an even stronger curiosity, welled up in her heart, and it took Kasumigaoka Utaha a while to slowly exhale and lean back in her chair.

She picked up the slightly cool water on the table and took a sip, trying to make her tone sound calm as usual: "So... are they in Tokyo now?"

An and Asuka turned their gaze from the window to her, shook their heads, and smiled gently yet somewhat distantly: "Two are still in Aichi, the place where we grew up together. And one..."

He paused, a faint, almost imperceptible trace of melancholy flashing across his eyes. "In some... place I don't know exactly where. Maybe in Tokyo, maybe not."

Kasumigaoka Utaha keenly caught the fleeting, complex emotion in his eyes—longing, and perhaps a lingering attachment. She didn't press for the reason why he "didn't know exactly where," as that clearly touched upon a more personal matter.

But these few words were enough for her to glimpse that this seemingly calm and composed junior had a much richer past than she had imagined, and might even have carried untold stories of separation and loss.

When will she be able to sit beside him and listen to him willingly and in detail recount those past moments? This thought arose unexpectedly, causing Kasumigaoka Utaha's heartstrings to tremble slightly.

She suddenly realized that she not only liked and admired his talent and composure, but also began to have a desire to understand him as a person and everything he had experienced.

The activity room fell silent again, save for the rustling of leaves in the wind outside the window. Neither of them spoke; a subtle sense of intimacy, born from sharing a moment of private memories, quietly permeated the air.

Meanwhile, in the art club activity room of another building on campus, Marina Mitsuzaka was resting her chin on her hand, staring at the easel, but her mind was not on the still life sketch in front of her.

Her blonde ponytail swayed gently as her head moved unconsciously. She bit her lower lip, her violet eyes filled with conflict.

"Looking for new members for the birds... Sigh!" The little voice in her head was stamping its feet.

If she could, she wouldn't want to do this! The game development department was Asuka's club, a space where they could create new things together, and of course she wanted to participate fully and draw the best characters and scenes! But...

An and Asuka are right; she's been incredibly busy lately. Akane Akasaka's company occasionally gets illustration commissions, with high requirements and tight deadlines.

Her own submitted comic has just passed the initial selection, and she needs to prepare more detailed storyboards and settings for the final review; she also can't neglect her schoolwork... She's stretched too thin. If she were to take on most of the art work for the game project, she would probably collapse from exhaustion, and might not do a good job on either side.

"I can't cause trouble for Asuka, and I can't drag down the project..." Marina muttered to herself, her eyes scanning the art club's activity room.

The afternoon sun shone through the tall windows, illuminating the space filled with paints, art supplies, and various artworks. Members were scattered in twos and threes, some sketching, some discussing composition, and some simply leisurely flipping through art books.

The Toyosaki Art Club has a great atmosphere; most members are like-minded people who come together out of interest. The truly skilled members, those who can be called "professionals," are mostly high school seniors who are about to graduate and are preparing for their further education or career paths. However, due to academic pressure, they are already in a semi-retired state and rarely participate in daily activities.

So, among the remaining second-grade and first-grade students

Marina's gaze finally settled on the figure by the window in another corner of the activity room.

It was a girl with equally dazzling blonde hair, styled into neat twin ponytails with naturally wavy ends. She wore a standard school uniform, but her presence was exceptionally striking: fair skin, jewel-like blue eyes, and a beautiful profile. She was completely absorbed in drawing something on a graphics tablet.

Even from a distance, Marina could see the fluidity and precision of her lines, and her control over color was also quite skillful.

Eriri Sawamura Spencer.

A first-year student in the art club, but already renowned. She is said to come from a prestigious family, the eldest daughter of a prominent clan, and has received professional training since childhood. Her drawing skills are recognized as top-notch in the club, especially in character design and anime-style illustration.

What's even more remarkable is that although she seems a bit arrogant, she's not inherently bad-tempered and patiently guides juniors who ask her questions, making her well-liked within the department.

"That's her!" Marina's eyes lit up.

He has excellent drawing skills, his style is a good fit, and as a fellow first-year student, we might be able to coordinate our schedules better. Plus, he doesn't seem like a difficult person to get along with.

The problem is... how can I "lure" myself into Asuka's club?

Going straight up to her and saying, "My childhood friend's club needs an artist, can you help out?" would be too abrupt and she'd definitely be rejected. Eriri seems to be a person with her own pride and principles; she wouldn't just casually join a strange club, especially one that makes games.

"I need to think of a way to get her interested on her own..." Marina blinked her big eyes, her mind racing.

She stood up, pretended to stretch, and slowly walked to a short distance behind Eriri, pretending to admire the artwork on the wall, but actually observing Eriri's screen out of the corner of her eye.

The image being drawn on the screen is of a blonde girl with twin ponytails, dressed in a gorgeous dress and with a slightly arrogant expression. The details are rich, the lighting is handled very delicately, and it is full of vitality.

"It's so well drawn..." Marina couldn't help but whisper her praise, this time from the bottom of her heart.

Eriri seemed to hear her, her pen paused for a moment, but she didn't turn around. Her ears turned slightly red, and she continued to draw intently.

Marina hesitated for a moment, then decided not to approach her immediately. She returned to her seat, took out her sketchbook, and began sketching rapidly. Instead of drawing a still life, she drew a silhouette of a girl with long, straight black hair and a somewhat aloof demeanor, wearing a school uniform, against a backdrop of hazy cherry blossom rain. This was a rough outline of a female protagonist that had vaguely formed in her mind when she overheard Asuka and Utaha discussing the game's setting.

When she had almost finished drawing, she deliberately "accidentally" knocked her sketchbook to the ground, and the page that was turned up happened to be the girl she had just drawn.

"Oh dear!" she exclaimed softly, bending down to pick it up.

Almost simultaneously, another hand reached out and helped her pick up her sketchbook. It was Eriri. She seemed to have just finished a section of her drawing, got up to stretch, and witnessed this scene.

"Thank you..." Marina took the notebook and smiled gratefully.

Eriri's gaze was involuntarily drawn to the drawing in her sketchbook. Although the lines were simple, the expression of the figure was captured accurately, and the atmosphere was well-created.

"This... you drew it?" Eriri asked, her voice clear and crisp, with a hint of barely perceptible curiosity.

"Hmm! Just some random doodles." Marina scratched her head, smiling innocently. "Lately, I've become quite interested in drawing characters with a bit of a 'story' feel. Sawamura-kun's drawings are truly amazing; I just secretly saw them, they're incredibly detailed!"

Hearing the praise, Eriri slightly raised her chin, a hint of pride flashing across her face, but she quickly coughed lightly to cover it up: "It's... alright. Is there some kind of setting for this drawing? It doesn't feel like a normal practice piece."