"So this is the prestigious Soubu High School, truly extraordinary."
After bidding farewell to Asakura, Yamada Ryo walked inside the Soubu High School building and nodded, saying matter-of-factly.
"If you're talking about prestigious, it should be Shuchiin Academy, right?" Ijichi Nijika, walking beside her, said helplessly: "Soubu High School just has a very high deviation value and is hard to get into… I remember, Ryo, didn't you want to get in here back then but failed the exam?"
"…I didn't fail, it just wasn't necessary."
Yamada Ryo said stubbornly after a moment of silence.
"It's the same thing."
"It's not the same. 'It's not that I couldn't do it, but that I didn't want to do it.' Recognizing this is very important."
Yamada Ryo said seriously.
"Ryo, you're surprisingly serious in inexplicable places sometimes…"
Nijika looked at Yamada Ryo with cat-like eyes.
"To abandon one's individuality is to die. This is my motto in life."
"Sounds like a famous quote someone said."
"—By Yamada Ryo."
"You said it yourself, hey!"
"This is the yakisoba from the prestigious Soubu High School, truly extraordinary (chew, chew)."
"Don't just suddenly run to a roadside stall to buy yakisoba! Besides, aren't you out of money? I won't treat you!"
Ijichi Nijika said helplessly, then she stopped looking at Yamada Ryo, whose expression was gradually becoming ingratiating, and turned to look at Gotō Hitori, who was walking behind them, timidly trying to suppress her presence: "Speaking of which, Bocchi-chan, weren't you planning to give Asakura the Live tickets today?"
"Just now… I couldn't find a suitable opportunity… to speak…"
Gotō Hitori said softly.
"Ah, I understand, I understand. Indeed, there were a lot of people just now, making it hard to talk." Ijichi Nijika also nodded in agreement: "But if we keep waiting, we don't know when Asakura will be free. Wouldn't it be better to just go over there and give them to him now?"
Gotō Hitori shook her head desperately, almost blurring her head with the motion: "M-m-m-impossible! There are too many people, I feel like I'm suffocating just walking through the crowd… If I talk to Asakura, I'll definitely be stared at by the people around me. That feeling… just imagining it…"
The girl's face began to turn pale, cold sweat beaded on her forehead, and her expression gradually became pixelated.
"Hey—! Bocchi-chan, don't have an episode at a time like this, it feels like causing a commotion would be troublesome…"
Ijichi Nijika quickly comforted her: "If you don't want to go, then don't. Let's talk about it later when Asakura is free."
"But can Bocchi not stand people's gazes?"
Yamada Ryo asked curiously while eating yakisoba: "But when you're on stage, it doesn't seem that bad."
Although Gotō Hitori did put on a ripe mango cardboard box due to stage fright her first time on stage, she gradually adapted to the stage after that. Now, even standing in the center and being watched by the audience was no big deal.
Now, the 'Ripe Mango Mask' has become an urban legend of Starry…
"I, I guess I'm just more focused when performing—" Gotō Hitori mumbled in a tiny voice, "so I don't have the extra energy to pay attention to other people's gazes…"
"My sister said that recently, many customers have been coming to Starry just to hear Bocchi-chan hum—" Ijichi Nijika said happily.
"I feel like it wouldn't be a problem to just have Bocchi-chan sing directly, even without finding a lead vocalist."
"No way."
Gotō Hitori rejected it instantly.
"Why not…?"
Ijichi Nijika's cowlick stood up high.
Because Asakura instructed her to.
Gotō Hitori thought to herself.
But she couldn't say such a thing, so she could only give a silly, slightly fawning smile, trying hard to cover it up.
"Anyway, since the band is developing quite well, why don't we just let Bocchi-chan keep humming like this…?"
Ijichi Nijika muttered in self-pity.
"Absolutely not."
This time, it was Yamada Ryo, whose mouth was stained with soy sauce, who objected: "If that's the case, I'll quit the band."
Lacking individuality was equivalent to being dead.
This statement was not a joke, but Yamada Ryo's actual belief.
In the past, she had been in a band, but after gaining a little fame, that band abandoned its original individuality and began to sing some very mainstream works to gain more popularity and fans.
So, the girl unhesitatingly left that band, even causing a small dispute over it.
Ijichi Nijika also knew about this, so she understood that her dear friend was not joking.
"I get it—" the blonde girl's cowlick drooped listlessly, and she said in a low voice, "Seriously, where did Kita go…?"
"She probably met with an unfortunate end already."
Yamada Ryo wiped away non-existent tears, only to leave a comical grease stain on her face: "I light incense for her every day."
"That's a curse, just like putting chrysanthemums on a classmate's desk…" Gotō Hitori muttered under her breath.
If someone did that to her seat, she felt she would immediately be scared into a heart attack.
"It's not easy to form a qualified band. Where can we find someone who can be a lead vocalist and preferably also play some guitar to join us?" Ijichi Nijika said dejectedly.
Just then, a pink-haired girl in a maid long dress, holding a signboard ('Want to experience British style? London Unknown Cafe, Class 1-A welcomes you!'), who had just passed by them, suddenly stopped and looked back at them.
"Um… are you a band looking for a lead vocalist?" She looked at the Kessoku Band members with sparkling eyes.
"Huh?" Ijichi Nijika didn't react.
'This is... the aura of a normie?!' Gotō Hitori trembled.
"…" Yamada Ryo, who wasn't thinking about anything, was still eating yakisoba.
"It's not to brag, but I'm quite confident in my singing!" The pink-haired girl propped up her signboard and praised herself.
"My karaoke scores always reach above 90 points! And I can play guitar, even a C chord!"
"Is, is that so…?" Ijichi Nijika blinked, responding instinctively.
"C, C chord, so amazing!" Gotō Hitori, awestruck by the other party's normie aura, said subconsciously.
"Do you have a Chupacabra in your café?" Yamada Ryo asked, pointing at the signboard in the other girl's hand.
"No, the U in UMA (Unidentified Mysterious Animal) isn't Unknown, it's Unidentified." The pink-haired girl explained very skillfully, "My name is Chihaya Anon. If you don't mind, would you like to come to our class's cafe and sit for a while?"