Loneliness and Rock and Roll with Band Observer

"In fact, you are not asking for our forgiveness, but we are asking for your approval. If you think about it from this perspective, maybe the psychological burden will be less, right?"

Kita stared at her in silence for a while before speaking: "Togawa-san, you are so cunning. Now that things have come to this, the lines I prepared are useless..."

She gently wiped away the tears that had quietly welled up in her eyes. The Yangjiao aura gathered around her again as always.

"Kita-san!" Goto on the side spoke impatiently, "Well, although I'm too dumb to understand what's going on... but, you said before that you wanted to learn guitar from me, right? Although, although I don't think I'm the type who can teach others, but since Kita-san has followed me all the way here... then..."

“That’s exactly what happened!”

Ijichi Hongxia stretched out her hand to Kita with a smile as bright as the sun.

"The most important thing about playing in a band is to have fun! If you always have a heavy heart and can't let go of all kinds of worries, what's the point of playing in such a band?"

She turned her head with a smile and gave Qiu Hui beside her an affirmative look.

"Just like what Akie said just now! We are ending the band and we just need a lead singer! There is no point in worrying about the past. What is more important is the future we can spend happily together, right?"

"……Um!"

Kita stretched out his hand and held Hongxia's hand tightly.

"Ijichi-san... no, Nijika! Please give me your guidance!"

Just then, there was a sound of someone coming down the stairs behind me.

"Oh, sorry everyone, I was busy and didn't have time to check the news..."

Yamada Ryo walked into the store and happened to witness the scene inside.

"...Isn't this the guitarist who escaped? Why did he suddenly appear here?"

She looked at everyone in complete surprise.

"…Did I miss something?"

"Yamada-san..." Akie looked at her with a smile on her face, "You just missed the touching scene of the new member joining the team."

“That’s what happened.”

Ryo walked up to Kita and held out his hand with his usual easygoing attitude.

"We are all good brothers now that we have joined the group. Let's shake hands, shall we?"

"Ryo-senpai!" Kita stretched out his hands with shining eyes and held Ryo's outstretched right hand, "Senior's hands are so rough! Is this proof of your hard work?"

"Who knows? Maybe."

"I'm really happy that you can forgive my previous inappropriate behavior!"

"Actually, I'm pretty happy too." Liang nodded, "Because, I thought I would never see you again, Kita. I thought you were gone before, and I kept praying that you could live in peace and happiness in another world..."

"Hey, Ryo, you bastard!" Hong Xia shouted angrily, "You are so rude to Xiao Xiduo!"

"Senior, are you still thinking about me?" Kita's eyes lit up, "I'm so happy!"

"This isn't the right time to be happy! If this continues, Ryo will become even more unscrupulous!"

"..."

Togawa Akie looked at the three people who were making a lively scene together, smiled and shook her head.

That's great. "The most important thing about playing in a band is to have fun"... huh.

At this moment, Goto Ichiri, who had been subtly unable to fit in with the joyful atmosphere since a while ago, gently touched the corner of Akie's clothes.

"Togawa...-san?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing..." Goto lowered his head, trying to hide his expression.

But Qiu Hui still noticed that she seemed to be smiling slightly.

"It feels like, ever since I met Ijichi-san on the street that day, a series of good things have happened. Ijichi-san, Yamada-san, Kita, and you... you're all kind people, it's great."

"A closing band composed of such kind people... Even someone like me feels a little bit excited."

"That would be great." Akie responded gently.

A gentle person?

…Please don't include me in this list without permission. She thought helplessly.

I'm not a gentle person.

Feeling the vibration in her pocket, Qiu Hui took out her phone and found that it was a message from her editor.

"Sorry, I'll reply."

She walked to a corner away from the four people who were finishing the band.

"The band has been formed, but it will probably take some time to get used to each other."

After I replied, the editor quickly responded again: "Isn't that great? You should start preparing for your new work. Try to hand me the first draft around the time of your first LIVE."

"I'll try my best," Akie replied.

It's time to get busy, whether it's with the band or with my job as a light novel author.

Chapter 16 Preparations for a New Work

After this, it should theoretically be time for practice.

But given that new members had just arrived, the already chaotic coordination was made even worse.

In desperation, everyone had to put aside the attempt at playing together for the time being and shift their energy to their own practice.

The afternoon passed quickly and evening came quickly.

In other words, the free time available for them to practice will soon be over.

After saying goodbye to everyone who had finished the band, Qiu Hui came to the station and prepared to return to her own residence.

Standing on the platform, she couldn't help but shake her head as she recalled the mess they had just made during the ensemble in the store. With their current level, they were still a long way from being able to perform a LIVE.

Leaving Goto and Ryo aside, the remaining three can only be called amateurs when it comes to musical instruments.

Although the lack of level is one of the key points of a high school band...but if the level is really too bad, even using the excuse of being a high school student will not work.

"Ah, business operations..."

The train slowly stopped with a sharp beep. Qiu Hui got on the train and found an empty seat to sit down.

Tomorrow is a holiday, I wonder if everyone in the band has plans for training.

Qiu Hui took out her cell phone and passed the time on the tram.

She swiped aimlessly on the screen while thinking about her next arrangements.

Although I stayed up late to write a lot of character settings and plot summaries, to be honest, most of them are completely useless in formal writing.

Qiu Hui remembered that she seemed to have read this sentence somewhere: "Eighty percent of inspiration will become garbage after forty-eight hours."

She thinks this is very true. Most of the "brilliant" ideas that suddenly appear in your mind actually cannot withstand subsequent scrutiny. Just wait for a day or two, and when the impulse cools down, you can fully realize its worthless nature.

"What should I do..." Akiie felt distressed.

I must come up with a plot outline for the first volume of my new work this weekend, and it would be best if I could also write part of the finished product.

For a newcomer like me who has just gained a little fame in the library, if the time gap between the old work and the new work is too long and the enthusiasm cools down, it will be a disaster.

The attention brought by the completion of the first work is the most important weapon for new authors, just like the first stage of a staged rocket. Only by continuously starting the engine and accelerating stage by stage can you reach orbit before being recaptured by gravity and become a famous author who will never fall.

Summer vacation is a good time to publish a new book. If you plan to finish writing the first volume of a new work and go through a series of procedures for publishing and selling it before the summer vacation in August, then there is really not much time left for Qiu Hui to worry about gains and losses.

"I have to make sure I get good sleep tonight. I'll think about the novel tomorrow," Qiu Hui thought.

The outline of the first volume must be finalized by tomorrow. She has given herself a death order.

If the band plans to practice tomorrow, I'm afraid I'll have to miss it.

"Just let us know in the group beforehand."

Qiu Hui explained her plans for tomorrow in the group chat after the band ended. Of course, she only used vague explanations like "I have something to do".

"It's still a few stops from where I live... what should I see?"

When Qiu Hui was scrolling through her phone out of boredom, she suddenly received a new message.

"Hey, senpai, have you found new band members?"

It was sent by Chihaya Aine, and followed by a picture emoticon.

Above this message was the message that Qiu Hui had hastily sent to the other party: "I'm sorry! I said a lot of weird things in the excitement before..."

Although she hadn’t noticed before, she discovered that Aine did in fact reply to the message.

"Well, I'll forget it!"

The picture was followed by an emoticon. She really loves posting emoticons, Qiu Hui thought.

In any case, Qiu Hui was relieved that the other party took the initiative to send her a message this time.

This means that your image in the other person's mind is not too bad anyway.

"Indeed, I found it. Now we have all the members, from the lead singer to the keyboardist."

Qiu Hui replied to the message like this.

"That's great! I still haven't found a suitable band yet, so sad."

"It's okay, we'll find it soon. After all, aren't there a lot of bands in Haneda?"

“If only it were that easy.” Aine replied on the other side of the screen, “Maybe you don’t understand because you haven’t had the experience of transferring here. The first semester is almost over, so those who want to form a band must have found the members they like, right?”

"That's true. After all, it's almost July before he transfers here. It's really weird no matter how you think about it."

“That’s right! It’s because of family reasons. It’s really troubling!”

Akihime and Aine were chatting with each other.

Starting with the topic of "transferring schools", the conversation unknowingly turned to things that happened in junior high school.

If we don’t count the writing of light novels, then Togawa Aie’s junior high school years were really poor. Therefore, on this topic, she was actually just receiving messages from Aine unilaterally.

“…So Aine was once the student council president in junior high school? That’s amazing!”

Qiu Hui replied. She really thought it was amazing.

When the word "student union" is mentioned, one can almost feel the invisible pressure from successful people looming over us.

"Oh, it's not a big deal. I played in a band when I was the student council president, right? So I'm actually pretty confident with the guitar, though not as exaggerated as Goto-san, haha."

"As for Goto, that's another topic altogether," Akie commented. "That kid is horribly different from the average high school student. In both a good and bad sense."

"That's right, Goto-san is really a strange person. She can be the center of attention as long as she stands on the stage, but she seems to be afraid of being stared at."

Qiu Hui was about to continue replying along this topic, but Aine on the other side of the screen sent a new message.

"Perhaps she lost her confidence because she experienced a terrible failure. It may sound a bit arrogant to say this directly, but I feel like I can understand her."

“I see. So, has Aine ever experienced a terrible failure?”

As soon as she sent this message, Qiu Hui felt a little regretful. Was it inappropriate to ask directly like this?

I wanted to withdraw the message, but the other party had already seen it, and withdrawing it would seem like I was being too clever.

Some time later, while she was hesitating, Akie saw Aine's belated reply to the message.

"How could that be? Of course not."

"That's good." Qiu Hui replied with relief.

It looks like we didn't accidentally step on the opponent's minefield. That's great.

Chapter 17: Just One Person

The two continued chatting about some irrelevant topics.

However, Aine on the other side of the screen seemed to have lost interest at this moment. Not long after, she sent a message saying "I have something else to do, so I'll leave first" and ended the conversation with an emoticon.

"Is this the end?"