Tokyo: Who would still fall in love after being spoiled?

Chapter 18 has a full score of , so getting from to is considered progress, right?

"You have really dark circles under your eyes, Kato...what's going on?"

"It's too late to practice."

"That electronic keyboard of yours? The sound is different, right? And you have to wear headphones when you play it."

"It's just practice, it will be useful more or less..."

When I turned the corner of the corridor, I saw Kimura and Kato had already arrived early, and their casual chat could be heard intermittently from the piano classroom.

"Oh, it would be great if Igarashi-sensei wasn't sick."

"Even if Mr. Igarashi was still here, wouldn't we only be able to play the piano at school..."

"That being said... I don't understand anything that girl Sakurai brought here, the rhythm and all. I feel like I might be able to play better without her!"

As he listened, he turned around and looked at Amano behind him.

There was no change in the girl's expression. It was as if she hadn't heard anything and she pushed the door open with a calm face.

With a "creaky" sound, the piano classroom suddenly became quiet.

When he reached the door of the activity room of the piano club's interest department next door, he thought of something, stopped, and looked up at the ventilation window on top of the door.

Leaving the spare key on top of the door might be a Kitakura tradition...

Thinking this, he stood on tiptoe and swept across the door and window sill from left to right.

I only felt a handful of dust.

【Recommended products：】

[Skill: Lock Picking—5000 Points (Lv. 1)]

"..."

Ignoring the useless system recommendation, he went to the sink to wash off the dust on his hands and walked into the art classroom.

"Scumbag Inoue!"

As soon as he sat down in his seat, Saotome greeted him rudely.

"Tell me, is your third lover also a girl from Beiying High School?"

"Before that," he taped the new drawing paper to the drawing board, "you should first explain the issue of stealing other people's property without permission."

"steal?"

"painting."

"Oh..." Saotome actually felt embarrassed sometimes. "Ms. Inoue's drawings are so beautiful! That's why I couldn't help but take them away. Are you satisfied with this explanation?"

He put on the last side of tape, looked at Saotome who was sitting on the other side of Ichinose, and stretched out a hand.

Ichinose tacitly stepped back to make room.

"Stingy..." Saotome muttered, pulling the stolen drawing from her backpack and handing it to him. "You just threw your practice drawing in the classroom and didn't even let anyone see it. I haven't even bothered to ask about your stockings yet!"

"So, sock cuff glue works well?"

"It works..." Saotome replied, her face darkening. She pressed her thighs through her skirt and glared at him, "You're so concerned about girls' socks! Pervert."

"Aren't you more concerned? Saotome-san." He looked away and prepared his brushes, paints and palette.

“…” Saotome stopped talking.

He could even imagine the girl puffing up her cheeks and venting her anger on the drawing paper.

The various small items that girls carry with them are really strange and varied.

Before today, his impression of "sock fixing tools" was still stuck in the era of suspenders, but he didn't expect that advanced technology such as sock cuff glue has been invented today.

In this way, the "flesh-tightening feeling" that often appears in light novel illustrations and anime is not so unscientific in reality.

However, in some cases, pantyhose may also have the problem of slipping down. I wonder if this sock cuff glue can solve this problem... The materials of socks and sock cuffs cannot be different.

After his random thoughts ended, he looked at the blank canvas. He couldn't think of any other suitable painting to practice with, so he decided to finish the portrait Takeda wanted framed. After a moment's reflection, he chose a scene of a girl blowing paper on the grass in the park. He sketched, mixed colors, and painted layer by layer.

He hadn't tried thick painting for a long time, so he took advantage of the fact that the color distribution on the picture was still relatively simple to get a feel for it.

It can be said that thick watercolor painting can be regarded as a result of the development of the times. The innovation of pigments and techniques has made it possible for watercolor painting to try some oil painting techniques.

The final effect will highlight the so-called "heaviness" more than flat painting, and the image or emotion expressed will also be stronger.

But practicing painting is another matter. He is still puzzled as to what the various practice programs of Takeda are for.

Thick painting also consumes more paint than flat painting.

Halfway through, his palette needed cleaning, and the water in the bucket had turned murky. He breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the bucket and palette, and walked out of the classroom.

Walking in the corridor on the first floor of the club building, you can hear the slightly stiff practice sounds coming from the piano classroom.

It happened to be the Xiao Shi song that he had spent points to learn. Unlike before when he knew nothing about it, now at least in this song, he could hear some differences.

Chaotic rhythm, frequent misnotes... Although Amano's tone was harsh before, the problems he pointed out were true.

If one were to consider a Lv.3 performance level to be equivalent to that of an average high school pianist, then such proficiency would be unacceptable for participation in a competition...

He cleaned the palette, replaced it with a bucket of clean water, and stopped outside the piano classroom on his way back.

I listened to the girl in the classroom playing Xiao Shi's piece in one breath with a stumbling sound.

Let’s hear what Amano has to say.

"What?" The girl who played Xiao Shi asked with a hint of provocation in her tone.

"Just like last time."

"How can it be the same? At least there's some improvement, right?"

"On a test with a full score of 100, is there a difference between 9 and 10?"

"you……!"

"The mistakes I just pointed out are still in many of the same places this time. I don't understand why with this level of proficiency, you shouldn't continue sight-reading practice."

"..."

The sound of Xiao Shi practicing the first paragraph of the piano began to be heard again in the classroom.

He pressed the keys with much greater force, with a hint of anger.

He suddenly became curious—aside from Amano and the girl who wasn't there every day and had called Amano to Kita-Sakura High School, if there was only one piano, how did Kimura and Kato, who came every day, divide their practice time...

In the past few days when he passed by the piano classroom and heard the piano music, it seemed that most of the time it was the Xiao Shi that Kimura was practicing.

It was only four o'clock in the afternoon. When he walked into the piano classroom at six o'clock in the evening the day before, the music score on the piano stand was still Xiao Shi.

Or is it that Kimura is the only one who actually practices in school every day?

As he thought so, he listened to Kimura in the classroom practicing over and over again the passage from the second half of the first page of the music score.

The force with which he pressed the keys gradually lessened, but then increased again due to a few words of criticism from Amano.

I stood there in a daze for a long time without realizing it.

"...are you interested in piano?"

A voice that was vaguely familiar to him came from behind him.

The owner of the voice walked around to him, smiled gently, and said, "It seems you've been standing here for a long time."

She had long black hair, fluffy bangs, and some light makeup on her face that was not easy to see.

It's the girl whose last name is Sakurai.

"Probably..." He came back to his senses, and the hand holding the bucket felt a soreness as it was blocked by his thoughts.

Sakurai pointed to the sink outside the hallway and winked at him.

(End of this chapter)