Band members, girls with fermented bean curd, step forward!

"Okay, I'll join Chihaya-san's band. Nice to meet you!"

"Okay~ then we're members of the same band now, nice to meet you all!"

Modification complete

Chapter 3 Successfully Becoming Friends with Poch

After having lunch with Miss Aine at the convenience store, Chen embarked on his journey to find Yili.

He wanted to talk to her in the morning, but felt that the classroom environment would trigger her cyberbullying, so he decided to postpone it until noon.

Pochi usually stays in his secret little base at noon, at least that's how it is in the anime.

Holding the bread in his hand, he searched for that conspicuous pink hair in the shadows of the various staircases of the teaching building.

Persistence pays off; finally, in a narrow space surrounded by walls on three sides, Chen found his classmate Yili, who was about to have lunch.

"Ah, my deskmate, hello there!" Chen Xian didn't know Boqi's name yet, so he addressed his classmate Yili as such.

Yili, who was sitting against the wall, was startled by the sudden sound, and his stiff neck slowly turned towards the only source of light.

"Wait, wait, wait, it's Chen?! Why, why is he here and even talking to me?!"

From the start of class, Boqi could sense the subtle, almost imperceptible, gaze of the new student, Chen.

She couldn't understand why she, with her gloomy and old-fashioned personality, had caught the eye of Chen, who seemed like a modern, up-and-coming guy.

"Could it be...?"

Faced with an aura that could be described as that of a apex predator at school, Ichiri finally managed a weak reply.

"Oh, hello Chen."

"Miss, may I have the honor of knowing your name?"

He slowly stepped into Pochi's territory, shrinking her living space.

With each step Chen took, Yi Li's body trembled more and more. Faced with this predator that had invaded her territory, she was utterly helpless.

"Ah, ah... My name is Goto Ichiri, nice to meet you."

Yili had become extremely weak, her body softened like jelly, ready to melt at any moment.

"Hello, I'm Chen Chen. It's nice to meet you, Goto-kun. (The rest of the text appears to be unrelated and possibly machine-generated gibberish.)"

Chen planned to use music as a topic to deliver a fatal blow to this Miss Yili.

"I saw a big guitar case next to Goto's desk. Is Goto really good at playing the guitar?"

"A guitar?!" Tears welled up in Yili's heart. She had been bringing her guitar to class for so long, and finally a classmate was talking to her about it!

"Yes, yes! I practice guitar at home!" Yili recalled Chen's self-introduction.

"Well, that!" she mustered her courage to continue the conversation with Chen. "Ah, when you were introducing yourself earlier, I, I heard you say that you really like music."

Pochi successfully took the bait Chen threw out; she truly is the easiest woman to handle.

"Yes, I really like music. Although I'm the kind of person who listens to all kinds of songs, I still like rock music the most."

Seeing that Poch had become extremely agitated, he continued to drop bombshells.

"By the way, I've also learned a little bit of guitar. Goto-kun must be really good at guitar, right? If I have the chance, may I ask Goto-kun for some pointers?"

Pochi was pinching himself hard with one hand on his thigh. Could such a blissful scene really happen to someone like him?

This is reality! Goto Ichiri, just say yes!

Feeling the tangible sensation on her body, Miss Ichiri's brain frantically urged her vocal cords to respond.

"Ah, yes, yes! My guitar skills are pretty good, so please feel free to ask me if you have any questions!"

Her rapid-fire words exhausted all her strength.

However, she finally seized this hard-won opportunity.

"Okay! Then I'll thank Goto-san in advance. I'll be looking forward to it."

"No, no problem! I'll be waiting for Mr. Chen's arrival!" Miss Pochi stood at attention.

"You're the teacher! I'm the one who should be calling you 'Master'!"

Chen pulled Yili, who had jumped up from the ground, to sit down.

"Hurry up and eat lunch, or it'll get cold."

"Ah, yes!" Boqi blushed as Chen led him to sit down again.

"Just now, did Chen grab my arm?"

Miss Ichiri, who had never experienced anything like this before, felt like she was about to faint.

As Yili opened her lunchbox, Chen started chatting with her about everyday things.

"Does Goto-kun eat lunch here every day?"

This setup seems to be settled for now, after all, Pochi is a genius who can play the piano in such a small space as a closet, so a mere staircase is no problem for her.

"Yes, yes! Because in this kind of environment, I feel more at ease."

Boqi answered Chen's question in a low voice, but his heart was filled with unease because of the answer he had given.

"I like this kind of environment. In other people's eyes, I must be a clueless, gloomy woman!"

Pochi looked utterly dejected at her thoughtless answer, as if a dark cloud was flashing and thundering overhead.

"I understand, Goto-kun. A place with three walls and only one entrance/exit in front of you really makes you feel safe, like a castle."

Upon hearing the unexpected answer, Boqi, who had been keeping his head down, suddenly looked at Chen beside him with extreme shock.

"Huh?! Chen likes this kind of environment too?!"

"Yeah, I like this kind of environment too." He loves rainy days, preferably with a bit of thunder and lightning, and the sense of security he feels lying in bed, covered up with a blanket.

Taking out his lunch, Chen looked at the delicious-smelling bento box from Pochi and, enjoying the aroma, chewed and swallowed the bread.

"Chen, is this all you ate for lunch?"

Boqi hadn't expected that the tall Chen would only have such a simple lunch.

"Well, I asked Chihaya, who sits in front of me, to buy this for me." He said with a touch of emotion, wondering if he was now living off a woman.

This absurd idea made him laugh.

"Ah, yes, is that so?" Pochi still looked puzzled.

"It's already pretty good. I forgot to exchange currency when I came here to study, and now I'm penniless."

Chen couldn't help but sigh, realizing he was now dirt poor and had to depend on others for his livelihood.

"Hey?!"

Ichiri was very surprised by this.

"Think, think about what you should say now? Goto Ichiri! Seize this opportunity!"

"If you can offer him help in his time of need, you'll definitely be able to become friends with this classmate whose interests are perfectly aligned with yours!"

Mustering his courage, Pochi handed Chen his bento box.

"Well, if you don't mind, Chen, you can come with me."

With a humble tone that bordered on pleading, Pochi shared his lunch with Chen.

"Ah, no need."

Upon hearing just the first three words of that sentence, Pochi's world began to spin.

She had finally mustered up her courage

As expected, it was still too much for a lowly being like her to share food with her classmates.

Seeing Boqi's face darken instantly, Chen realized she had misunderstood something.

"It's not that I'm disgusted by Goto-kun, it's just that as a boy, I definitely eat more, and it wouldn't be good if Goto-kun didn't get enough to eat because of me."

He quickly explained to Pochi, who had misunderstood his meaning.

"Besides, we don't have any extra cutlery right now, so I can't use Goto-kun's. How about this, I'll bring my own cutlery tomorrow, and Goto-kun can share your bento with me?"

"Ju, so you weren't rejected after all?" Tears welled in Ichiri's eyes as she looked on in disbelief at this unexpected turn of events.

"Chen is thinking of me! Could it be that Chen is the one destined for me?!"

"Okay, okay! I'll make sure you're satisfied with tomorrow's lunchbox!"

Suddenly, he knelt down, bent over, and clasped his hands together above his head. He bowed in gratitude, reversing the celestial order.

"No, there's no need for such a grand gesture, Goto-kun!" Chen was caught off guard by Pochi's sudden greeting and quickly pulled up the pink-haired, socially awkward girl.

She is now a social terrorist for engaging in such behavior.

"Whatever Goto-kun brings tomorrow, I'll eat it with gratitude!" Chen assured Boqi.

"In that case, may we have the honor of becoming your friends, Goto-san? You can just call me Chen."

"Ah, let's add each other as friends." He pulled out his phone, which he'd downloaded LINE with during class, and invited Pochi to...

In a panic, Ichiri quickly pulled out her phone and added Chen's Line account.

Seeing the only new friend added to her friend list, she couldn't help but laugh, letting out a strange laugh.

"Oh my god, oh my god, your daughter has finally made friends! Could it be that the long-awaited life of being a popular girl has finally opened its doors to me?!"

Once Li came to her senses and realized her lapse in composure, she quickly tried to make amends to Chen.

"Ah, Chen... oh no, no, no." Realizing her mistake, she shook her head vigorously.

"Chen, please, please give me your guidance!"

An unprecedented volume swept through the small space.

"Yes, nice to meet you. Goto-kun, may I call you Ichiri?"

Chen, with a somewhat wicked sense of humor, wanted to know how Miss Ichiri would react to such an intimate address.

"One, one mile?!" This was the third bombshell dropped on Bochi today.

"This is too intimate! Can I really be called that? But if they don't agree, what will happen to the friend I finally got?!"

A fierce internal struggle raged within Poch's mind, but ultimately, the desire for friendship prevailed.

"No, no problem, Chen is fine with it," Boqi-chan replied softly.

"Ah, in Sakura Empire, is it only very close friends who can call each other by name? If Ichiri feels uncomfortable, I can change it back."

"No, no need! It's fine!" Pochi reacted strongly to Chen's words.

She had finally made up her mind to accept this difficult challenge, and she was determined not to leave herself any way out!

After the two finished their respective lunches, the preparatory bell rang soon after. To avoid unnecessary gossip, Chen decided to return to the classroom early.

"Ah, I had lunch with Chen today and we even became friends, calling each other by our first names!"

Chen, who left first, gave Boqi time to think alone. It seemed that she had accomplished in one afternoon what she hadn't been able to do in the past fifteen years.

She pinched her thigh again, the intense pain making her wince, and at the same time confirming that she was indeed in reality.

"No, no, no, I can't be so smug, Goto Ichiri. Tonight, I'll ask Mother to cook extra food and put it in the bento boxes! I have to make sure Chen is satisfied!"

Miss Ichiri decided to seize this opportunity.

Around 3 PM, a time when school would never end for Chinese students of any grade level, the dismissal bell rang at Haneoka School.

"Chenchen! Do you have time today? I want to go to a place called Ring to look for our teammates."

"I'm sorry, Chihaya-san, I need to go and tidy up my rented place today, so I can't come with you."

Chen politely declined the invitation from Miss Aine, finding her manner of address rather baffling.

"Speaking of which, what's with this weird nickname 'Chen Chen'?" he couldn't help but complain to Ai Yin.

"Isn't this cute? Don't worry about it so much!" Aine was quite satisfied with the nickname she had chosen for herself.

"Alright, since Chihaya is my owner now, of course I'll do whatever you like~" Chen said helplessly, shrugging.

"What a mean 'owner'!"

两片