Loneliness and Rock and Roll with Band Observer

“…How annoying.”

Qiu Hui shook her head.

"Am I just thinking about some stupid things again?"

I unconsciously reached into the pocket of my casual clothes and touched the earphones. I probably forgot to take them out when I changed them. Fortunately, I didn't put the casual clothes into the washing machine.

Plug in your headphones and open your streaming app.

"Is there any song with a fast tempo and exciting passages..."

After browsing through the list, Qiu Hui finally chose a metal song with decades of history.

The violent and intense rhythm and music invaded her brain through her ear canal without any explanation, and forcefully drove out all the unnecessary thoughts and sentiments.

So be it.

Just forget all these boring things.

After all, whether it's novels or the band, I have countless things to do.

Next, I have to buy the ingredients I will need for the next few days.

I wonder if I can buy suitable expiring products before the supermarket closes...

……

The experience during this period gave Qiu Hui an unrealistic idea.

"I feel like I'm like the protagonist of a galgame lately. Wherever I go, I always meet NPCs and trigger plots?"

But this time her expectations were dashed. She didn't meet anyone in the supermarket who could "trigger the plot."

If I have to say, the only things I encountered were 70% off near-expiry frozen chicken breasts and sterilized eggs.

After browsing for a long time, I couldn't find any suitable vegetables, so I bought a bottle of dietary supplements to avoid vitamin deficiency. In addition, I also bought some daily necessities such as toilet paper.

In addition to family planning items, there were also some popular animation or entertainment group merchandise near the cash register. Although the prices were very cheap, I gave up the idea of ​​buying some after considering the relationship between my balance and expenses.

It would be more cost-effective to buy second-hand goods sold by others online, Qiu Hui thought.

Carrying a bunch of fresh products, she started her return journey.

She felt extremely annoyed at the thought of having to go out to the bathhouse again after taking all this stuff home.

Last night, she overslept and didn't pay attention to her personal hygiene. If she doesn't wash herself properly today, the situation will deteriorate to an unmanageable level for the high school girl.

In a sense, I now have a fixed social circle... I can no longer ignore my appearance as I did before, Qiu Hui thought.

But even so, the thought of the extra distance I had to walk to and from the bathhouse, as well as the various inconveniences of using a public bath, continued to make me feel uncontrollably irritated.

"When I have money, I must rent an apartment with a bathroom!" she decided secretly.

Under the shadow of the intensive high-rise residential buildings, the back of the girl carrying the plastic bag looks particularly thin.

Chapter 33 Composition

The next day, in the morning.

Togawa Aie was writing and drawing in the notebook in front of her.

The content was varied and all-encompassing, but it had nothing to do with the Chinese class she was currently taking.

"What kind of lyrics should I write?"

Not knowing what to do, Qiu Hui simply put down her pen and temporarily shifted her attention to the blackboard.

Although theoretically you can write anything, "anything" and "whatever" are always the most troublesome multiple-choice questions.

Most of her ideas were shot down by her own inhumane review mechanism before they were put into writing. The few inspirations that could be turned into drafts would also be rejected in the subsequent development process due to lack of completion.

The result was that even after spending most of the morning, no suitable alternative plan was found.

"What a headache." Qiu Hui thought.

I'll go talk to Goto-san after school today. I wonder if she has any ideas.

After reaching this conclusion, she focused on the course at hand.

Although I don't care much about issues like further studies, I can't take the courses too lightly.

At present, my family has adopted a nonchalant attitude towards my behavior and has not mobilized their energy to impose coercive measures on me. This tolerance depends on the delicate balance of my positive and negative behaviors.

How to put it, this kind of evaluation criteria is like the regulations on changing majors in some universities.

A student who believes that he or she is unable to meet the requirements of a certain major and wants to change his or her major needs to achieve certain grades in the major that he or she hates in order to have a chance of having his or her application approved.

If I want my family to tolerate my lack of ambition, I must at least keep my results at the bottom line of being neither good nor bad.

In other words, only the winner has the right to escape.

This really doesn't make sense, but this is the current situation.

No matter which road you take, it's equally difficult.

Therefore, there is not much time left for sentimentality.

Driven by this idea, Qiu Hui began to listen to the lectures seriously.

The Chinese class soon came to an end, and Mr. Hikigaya picked up the pointer and tapped the blackboard lightly.

"In recent classes, we have focused on the aspect of 'self-expression' in Japanese literature. However, I think that even if you cannot create masterpieces that are passed down from generation to generation like these famous masters in literary history, you who are at a special stage in your life must also have your own 'self' that you want to express. Therefore, I have specially assigned an assignment that must be submitted by next week..."

He picked up a piece of chalk and wrote a few big words on the blackboard in a flamboyant manner.

"What is youth?"

"Although this is an old topic... Actually, when I was your age, I also wrote an essay on a similar topic." Hikigaya said with a smile, "I'm not afraid of being laughed at. I wrote some hilarious things in that essay, and my former teacher even called me to his office for a talk."

There was a burst of laughter in the classroom.

"In fact, I am now looking forward to someone here writing something that would be good enough for me to call her to my office for a chat."

"However, I will not make any special requirements for this assignment. Students who feel like they have something to say can speak freely; students who feel that it is meaningless can also just say something casually to get by - I will strictly adhere to an open and inclusive, value-neutral attitude, and will definitely not make you feel too troubled."

As soon as he finished speaking, the bell for the end of get out of class rang.

"It seems that I have a pretty good grasp of time." Hikigaya waved his hand, "get out of class dismissed!"

The students immediately scattered like birds and beasts, and even the teacher himself left the classroom impatiently.

Togawa Aie sat there, staring at the composition title written on the blackboard.

What is youth...?

Yes, since it is a band composed of high school students, it would be a good idea to use content praising youth as the first song... or follow the recent popular trend and criticize the stereotypes behind the word youth.

School homework must be completed; so, if you use the same theme as the composition when writing lyrics, then in a sense you are killing two birds with one stone, saving a lot of energy and time.

Although I have had a bad relationship with the word "youth" since junior high school...but to be honest, reality and creation are actually two completely different dimensions.

Even a guy who has never touched a girl's hand since childhood can write a fascinating romance novel - in a sense, the charm of some romance novels can only be perfectly reflected through the fantasies of people who have never been in love in real life.

"That being said, we have made some progress," Akie thought. "To celebrate, let's go out and stretch our muscles."

Walking down from the second-year floor, Akie arrived at the courtyard of Yugaoka.

Thanks to the well-constructed green belts, the air here is quite fresh and refreshing.

The weather is clear at the moment. Although the early summer sun makes the air seem hot, the high temperature is reduced to a barely acceptable level by the shady green plants and the cross-building breezes. The only remaining advantage is dryness and freshness.

If it rains, the air will become moist and sticky. Although the temperature will drop somewhat, it is still unpleasant after all.

"It would be nice if the weather could stay sunny like this forever... But that would have a negative impact on agriculture."

Akie sighed in a way that was not typical of a high school girl.

She walked aimlessly in the courtyard, stopped aimlessly at one place, and then looked around aimlessly...

"Yeah."

She suddenly discovered that there seemed to be someone squatting in a bush in the corner.

"What are you doing squatting there?"

Qiu Hui, who had no purpose in mind, noticed something strange in the bushes and decided to go around to the squatting person to see what she was doing.

Peeking in from the edge of the green belt, she could see the other person's movements.

The other person squatted at the edge of the bushes, stretched out his hands to peel off the thin branches of the bushes, and concentrated on observing the soil covered by the leaves of the bushes.

Not caring about the sticky texture of the soil that had just been watered, nor caring whether it would dirty her school uniform, she spotted a patch of soil, freed one hand, and started digging at it.

She dug out several small stones of various shapes from the soil, lined them up in a row, and placed them aside neatly.

As if she was satisfied with the existing number of stones, she turned around, took out a tissue, and wiped the ordinary stones dug out of the soil carefully with the same vigor as if she were handling cultural relics.

After completing this meaningless task, she smiled with satisfaction, then put most of the stones into her left pocket and took out another stone from her right pocket that she had brought with her beforehand, rather than dug out on the spot.

She placed the two stones side by side in front of her eyes, as if she was carefully comparing their shapes, colors, and textures. She would occasionally pick them up and touch them together like toys.

She was so focused on playing with the stones that she didn't even notice Qiu Hui's arrival.

This momentum actually aroused the latter's interest. Qiu Hui also squatted down and observed the other party's expression.

No. Rather than his demeanor, the main problem is that this guy looks very familiar...

...Rather than saying she looks familiar, isn't she the Takamatsu classmate I met yesterday?

Chapter 34: Lightspeed Retreat

"Takamatsu-san, what are you doing?"

Although Akie was only asking a normal question, the other party suddenly stepped back like a cat seeing a stranger for the first time.

"Senior, it's… nothing!"

Deng stepped back quickly and sheepishly, as if he had been caught doing something bad.

"This, that... Goodbye!"

Gao Songdeng's face turned red and he ran away like a frightened cat.

"Hey! Don't run!"

When Qiu Hui stood up, she had already run some distance.

...You ran away shouting "Sayunara" right after we met. Are you a ninja from somewhere?

"It's just picking up rocks. It's not a crime."

Qiu Hui took two steps forward and noticed a few small stones on the ground.

Because I ran so fast, I didn't even notice that the stone I picked up fell.

Qiu Hui bent down and collected the scattered stones.

"This one is a dry and smooth pebble, and this one is rougher and has a little dirt on it. We must have just found it." She counted the stones she picked up.

A closer look reveals that these stones are all different. Although they are all stones, they seem to have more or less differences in shape, color, size, and texture.

Although I don't know what these stones are used for, since Takamatsu is deliberately collecting them, they must have special meaning to her.

Anyway, I have nothing to do now, so I might as well return the stone to her.

Although Qiu Hui had such an idea, she found that during the time she was picking up stones, the other party had already run far away and disappeared.

It happened in karaoke before, too, and he suddenly ran away for no apparent reason.

"Forget it. No matter where she goes, she has to go back to class when the bell rings. I might as well go directly to Class A of Grade 1 and wait for her." Qiu Hui thought.

I brought the stone to the 1-A classroom. Although Takamatsu Deng was nowhere to be found, Chihaya Aine was still there, chatting with her classmates.

"What a coincidence." Qiu Hui walked into the classroom.

“Ah, Senpai!” Aine who noticed the former greeted.

"Oh, it's the senior who asked Aine to join the band!" One of Aine's friends seemed to recognize Akie, "What's going on?"

"Takamatsu from your class just dropped something." Akie took a small stone from her pocket and placed it on the table. "If you meet her later, please give these to her."

“So, did you meet Deng just now?” Aine’s friend B asked in surprise.