"Nijika ran away."
Ryo explained it to Ishikawa Hayato with a calm expression.
Ishikawa Hayato could not tell whether there was dissatisfaction in Ryo's tone or whether she was simply stating a fact.
He casually asked, "What about you, Ryo?"
Ryo looked at Ishikawa Hayato and said,
"Your song just gave me some inspiration. Come to my house."
"Sure."
Ishikawa Hayato nodded.
At the same time, he began to wonder how Nijika would react once it truly became a finished song.
"Then let's go."
Ryo turned around and took the lead in leaving.
Their calm exchange made Seika, who had been eavesdropping at the bar, widen her eyes and turn toward them in horror.
The two of them completely ignored her and walked out of STARRY one after the other.
Seika froze for a moment, then immediately sent Nijika a message at lightning speed.
Unchanged
After leaving STARRY, Ishikawa Hayato and Ryo strolled unhurriedly along the streets of Shimokitazawa.
One of them wore a calm, aloof expression that seemed to say strangers should keep away, while the other smiled as lightly as if humming a little tune.
They looked like they had been forcibly thrown together, yet walking side by side, they gave off the impression that they got along quite well.
As they walked, the scenery before them shifted.
Ishikawa Hayato glanced at Ryo, who was calmly walking beside him. Sensing that she had no intention of talking, he did not take the initiative to speak.
The two of them continued onward in silence.
As Ishikawa Hayato casually looked around at Shimokitazawa on that May afternoon,
he suddenly heard a voice from beside him.
"Hayato, aren't you in a hurry?"
It took him a beat to realize that Ryo had said it. He turned to look at her.
Even as she spoke, Ryo continued looking straight ahead. Her steps and gaze were as steady as ever, and the deep-blue side hair held by a hairpin swayed faintly with each step.
Ishikawa Hayato was puzzled.
In a hurry? Did she mean walking this slowly?
As if noticing his gaze, Ryo tilted her head and looked up at him slightly. Her golden eyes carried an intense sense of pressure.
Seeing his confused expression, she explained,
"The band."
Ishikawa Hayato understood, though he was still puzzled.
Had Ryo started getting anxious? But she did not seem like it. She seemed more like the kind of person who enjoyed the feeling of playing music.
Then she was simply asking.
That was really...
There were not many people or things Ryo cared about, yet he had the honor of being one of them. He was truly flattered.
He smiled, met Ryo's eyes for a moment, and said,
"Not at all. I learned somewhere else that not taking shortcuts is the real shortest route."
He turned to look ahead, watching pedestrians approach and then vanish in the blink of an eye after passing them.
"There's no point rushing toward success. Life isn't something to speedrun. Like a game, it's more fun when you take your time."
Ryo nodded as if she understood.
"That's good."
It seemed she had considered whether Ishikawa Hayato, who had previously been so eager to join a band and had now learned an instrument, might leave because of the band's slow progress.
Hearing that, Ishikawa Hayato smiled teasingly and asked in return,
"Were you worried I'd leave the band, Ryo?"
"Mm." Ryo looked at him and nodded without hesitation.
"You're interesting."
Their brief exchange ended, and calm returned between them.
For the two of them, who vaguely sensed each other's true nature, there was no worry that the other would start overthinking things even without conversation.
Nor was there any awkwardness where they wanted to say something but could not bring themselves to speak.
"We're here."
Ryo stopped in front of a modern mansion surrounded by black walls. She casually pressed something beside the gate, and when it opened, she walked inside.
Ishikawa Hayato naturally followed her into the mansion, then casually shut the courtyard gate for her under her stunned gaze.
Looking at the dazed Ryo, Ishikawa Hayato pretended not to understand and asked,
"What's wrong?"
Ryo tilted her head up slightly, wearing a proud smile as she said to Ishikawa Hayato with seeming unease,
"It feels like I brought a very dangerous person inside."
Ishikawa Hayato smiled and walked toward her. When he reached a position level with her shoulder, he introduced himself with the pride of an expert.
"A professional pervert, ma'am."
Nijika, who had rushed home in a hurry, did not notice her phone's notification.
She returned to her room, closed the door, and sat beside her bed, staring at the practice pad nearby.
When Ishikawa Hayato had guessed her thoughts just now, she did not know why she had run away so quickly or why her heart had pounded so hard.
Nervousness. Embarrassment.
Those two emotions surfaced in her chest.
She always felt as though she was hiding something extremely subtle that even she herself did not understand.
She temporarily stopped preparing to take the practice pad downstairs and, somewhat concerned, followed that train of thought.
Was that thing related to Hayato-kun?
She did not know.
She thought about her impression of Ishikawa Hayato.
He was special. Among the people she had met, he could be ranked among the most extraordinary.
And over the past month, he had come to STARRY almost every day. Among boys around her age, he was the one she had interacted with most often.
Naturally, her gaze lingered more often on this boy who was a year younger than her.
He was...
Reckless.
Their first meeting had been completely unexpected. Before the poster had even been put up, Hayato-kun had suddenly appeared and said he wanted to join.
But there was no shortage of reckless people like that in bands. Many musicians had made a sudden choice and set foot on this path.
Hardworking.
Although Hayato-kun learned things absurdly quickly, what was even more frightening was how he never wasted a single second when he studied.
And no matter how harshly Ryo picked apart his mistakes, he would happily correct them at once.
He was like a hero who kept charging at the Demon Lord with a smile, only to be defeated again and again.
However, after receiving a perfect evaluation recently, he had immediately stopped studying with that tireless effort that made it seem as though he was working every moment.
Reliable.
To be honest, when Kita ran away, Nijika felt her heart turn cold.
She had not held much hope for the performance afterward, either.
But what happened next surpassed her expectations. Hayato-kun's actions pieced the shattered story together into the best possible ending.
The past two days had been the same. He had constantly helped her keep conversations within the band lively.
If he had not been there, everything would probably have been much worse.
Pervert.
As she sat there absentmindedly, her phone, seemingly having gone too long without a response from her, sounded another notification.
A message now?
Did something happen with Hayato-kun and the others?
She pulled her phone from her pocket and looked at it.
There was a message in LINE that looked extremely bad.
It was from her sister.
"Nijika, Ryo invited the pervert to her house."
There was another message below it.
"What happened?"
Nijika looked upward and saw that the previous message had been sent ten minutes ago.
The pervert meant Hayato-kun... They went to Ryo's house... the two of them...
A drop of cold sweat appeared on Nijika's forehead.
The next instant, she complained desperately at the top of her lungs.
"Why didn't you call me, Sis?!"
The girl's sweet voice rang through the room, unable to conceal her panic. Yet before the echoes faded, the sound of the door being shoved open urgently and then slammed shut cut everything off.
Inside Ryo's home.
"Come in."
"I'm deeply grateful."
Ishikawa Hayato said with a serious expression.
Across from him, Ryo stood in her own room, her gaze lingering on Ishikawa Hayato's face for quite a while.
Realizing that his words had sounded somewhat ambiguous, Ishikawa Hayato explained,
"This is my first time entering a high school girl's room."
Ryo rested a hand against her chin and thought for a moment. Then she put on a businesslike smile and held out her hand.
"Then pay up. Admission fee."
"You invited me here!"
Ishikawa Hayato could not help retorting.
But then he wore a sly grin and directly took out his wallet, showing its contents to her.
Before you continue