People in Zongman are masters of copying romance novels

The title of the book is:

Chapter 34: A few things about the band

After the band passed the review, the performance time was tentatively scheduled for Saturday a week later.

Before the performance, each member of the band was required to sell five tickets. Since Aoki Jie had no intention of going on stage, this matter naturally had nothing to do with him.

The weekend passed quickly.

The weather was really bad this new week, with gloomy clouds hanging in the sky almost all the time.

Nothing happened on Monday. Aokisuke attended classes seriously all day and went to a livehouse to practice ensemble after school.

Then came Tuesday.

The weather is cloudy and the outdoor temperature is around 20 degrees.

The weather was much better than yesterday, but not much better than the previous sunny day.

He was still full of energy in the early morning. Carrying his schoolbag and guitar bag, Aoki Jie walked up the long slope that he had already started to get used to.

This time I didn't run into Hachiman Hikigaya by chance. It wasn't until I walked into the classroom and watched "The Suzumiya Haruhi" for a while, and then just before the bell rang, that Hachiman Hikigaya entered the classroom.

He was probably almost late because he was riding his bicycle to take his sister Hikigaya Komachi to school. Last time, he entered the classroom on time, and Hikigaya Hachiman used the topic of being late as an excuse to praise his sister to Aoki Suke for a full ten minutes.

This creature called sister control is really scary.

While thinking about random things in an impolite manner, Aokisuke greeted Hikigaya Hachiman.

"Ah... Good morning." Hikigaya Hachiman replied.

Aoki Jie didn't say anything, and the conversation between the two of them simply stopped.

Because he entered the classroom on time, Hikigaya Hachiman had just sat down for a few seconds when the class bell rang in his ears.

The first class was Shizuka Hiratsuka's Chinese class. Since Teacher Hiratsuka was known for her hot temper, no one dared to do anything in her class.

Except Aokisuke.

Most of the knowledge in Chinese language can be understood by rote memorization. What Mr. Hiratsuka was talking about now were all the knowledge he had learned in advance, so taking advantage of this gap, Shizuka Hiratsuka was talking about Matsuo Basho on the podium while Aoki Suke was studying math problems in the audience.

Although her temper is not very good, Shizuka Hiratsuka's teaching philosophy is quite relaxed. As long as it does not disturb her classmates, she has no objection to what her student with a very high deviation value learns on her own in class.

I briefly supplemented the knowledge points that I thought I was weak in, and the first class passed quickly.

The remaining three classes were spent in a similar manner until the end of the fourth class, when the bell for the end of get out of class and the bell for lunch rang one after another.

After buying a not-too-expensive set meal in the school cafeteria, Aokisuke went to the vending machine nearby and bought two cans of Coke.

He opened the pull tab of his own can in advance and took a sip, and shook the other can vigorously in front of Hikigaya before handing it to him.

With Hikigaya looking gloomy, the two finished their lunch in the cafeteria in about ten minutes.

Hikigaya Hachiman returned to the classroom alone first. He originally planned to go back to the classroom to pack up and then go to the first floor to find Kita Ikudai to teach guitar. However, before he reached the classroom door, Shizuka Hiratsuka hurriedly called him at the end of the corridor.

Citing the school committee's need to investigate the transfer student's wishes, Shizuka Hiratsuka said she would take up some of Aoki's lunch break.

Aokiji actually didn't really want to get involved in this kind of thing, but considering that he was a student who entered Shuka High School through the backdoor, Aokiji decided to cooperate with Hiratsuka Shizuka's work.

It is very troublesome to have no contact information, and I cannot tell Kita Ikuyo in advance when encountering such an emergency. However, seeing that Shizuka Hiratsuka looks very anxious, Aoki Suke can only silently apologize to Kita Ikuyo in his heart, and decided to admit his mistake this afternoon.

Following Hiratsuka Shizuka's steps, Aokisuke walked towards the teacher's office.

......

And on the other side-

After returning from the cafeteria after dinner, Hikigaya Hachiman lay alone on the desk, staring at the unopened can of Coke in front of him, feeling hesitant.

After some ideological work, he decided to go to the bathroom and open the can of Coke that Aokisuke had shaken several times.

So, he walked out of the classroom with a Coke, went to the toilet to open it, got splashed all over himself, and then washed his hands. On the way back to the classroom, he ran into the red-haired girl who had met a few times before and was in the same band as Aoki.

......

As usual, after Kita Ikuyo finished her meal and waited for a while, Senior Aoki would come to the classroom to find her with his guitar.

But after waiting for a long time today, Senior Aoki still didn't come. She was a little confused, so she decided to go to Class F of the second grade to find Aoki Jie.

However, after going up to the second floor and looking around at the door of Class F of the second grade, the girl still couldn't find her senior.

Without any contact information, she didn't know whether Senior Aoki had encountered any urgent matter, so Kita Ikuyo had to prepare to return to her classroom with a little doubt.

However, on the way back to the classroom, she happened to run into a senior classmate whom she had met before, who was sitting in front of Senior Aoki and was probably quite familiar with Senior Aoki.

Therefore, Kita Ikuyo decisively asked,

"Hello, Senior. Do you know Aoki-suke?"

After turning his head and confirming that there were not many people in the corridor and that the girl in the same band as Aoki Suke was indeed talking to him, Hikigaya Hachiman blinked his emotionless dead eyes.

"Aoki? I know him, what's the matter?" he answered briefly.

"Ah - if you know him, senior, do you know where Aoki-senpai is now? I don't see him in the classroom..." asked Kita Ikuyo.

Hikigaya Hachiman responded, "I thought he was going to the first grade with his guitar like usual... didn't he?"

"No." Kita Ikuyo shook her head, but soon continued to ask questions.

"Then, senior, do you have Aoki-senpai's contact information? It's really troublesome not having his contact information. I couldn't get in touch with Aoki-senpai last Thursday afternoon when he went to work..."

"I don't have his contact information either. Why don't you just ask him for it next time you see him? But...part-time job?"

Hikigaya Hachiman first responded, then became slightly puzzled.

"Didn't he quit all his jobs to join the band? He was busy with club stuff on Thursday afternoon."

"..."

"Ugh?"

Kita Ikuyo blinked.

With doubt in her eyes, she looked at the senior classmate in front of her.

"Quit...all your jobs?"

"I gave up my part-time job to achieve success with the band. If I don't achieve anything within two months, I'll have to eat grass or something like that because I don't have any money left..."

Considering that he was a friend of Aokisuke's, Hikigaya Hachiman patiently explained to Kita Ikuyo's doubts.

But halfway through his words, looking at Kita Ikuyo's increasingly stunned look, he suddenly realized——

"Didn't he... tell you about it?"

Aoki hadn't mentioned this matter in front of his bandmates, probably because he didn't want them to know about it, and now...

I seem to have said too much.

But at this moment, Kita Ikuyo didn't care at all about Hikigaya Hachiman's expression that said, "Oh no, I said the wrong thing."

After hearing the words of the senior in front of her, Kita Ikuyo was completely stunned.

Every afternoon after school and every weekend, she spent a lot of time at the livehouse, chatting with the band members who had left. She had heard rumors that Aoki-senpai's family was not well off and that he had even sold his guitar because of it...

So after hearing what Hikigaya Hachiman said, she was somewhat surprised.

In order to achieve success with the band, I gave up my day job and was determined to achieve success in two months...

Senior Aoki never mentioned these things to other members of the band.

She had only heard Aoki-senpai say that playing in a band shouldn't be stressful, and that when pursuing dreams, one shouldn't worry about grades...

No wonder I am several times more serious during training than usual, and no wonder I have plenty of time to teach myself guitar.

......

He could have told the band directly about his difficulties and asked his bandmates to work harder, but Aoki chose to keep these words in his heart.

She suddenly thought of what Aoki Jie said a few days ago when he was about to join the band.

"Just participate in the competition. There's no penalty for failure, so there's no need to feel any pressure."

Kita Ikuyo has always treated everyone in the band as a whole. When she learned about the difficulties Aoki Suke was facing, she suddenly felt a little pressure.

Aoki-senpai wanted to keep these things to himself, not wanting to share the pressure with the others who had left the band. Even if he just mentioned his own situation, he never...

After a while of thinking about the sudden information, Kita Ikuyo made a decision in her heart.

We must tell Senior Hongxia and the others about this!

Taking a deep breath, she turned her gaze back to Hikigaya Hachiman. Without answering Hikigaya Hachiman's question, Kita Ikuyo spoke directly.

"I understand. Thank you, senior."

————————————————Dividing line————————————————

P.S. I caught a cold from using the air conditioner too much. Everyone should take care of their health and be careful not to catch a cold in the summer...

Chapter 35 About the Band

After school in the afternoon, Kita Ikuyo went to [STARRY] in Shimokitazawa alone.

Except for Hongxia, the rest of the band members had not arrived yet. After arriving at the livehouse, Kita hesitated for a while, then told Hongxia the news about Aokisuke that he had learned from Hikigaya Hachiman at noon.

After hearing the news, Hongxia was silent for a long time. Finally, after hesitating for a long time, she spoke up to persuade Kita not to tell anyone else about this for the time being.

"Aoki-senpai doesn't want to tell everyone in the band, Kita-chan... let's just pretend we don't know for now and just work hard quietly during training."

Kita Ikuyo was also silent for a while and chose to listen to Hongxia's opinion.

but--

Although she told Kita Ikuyo to pretend to be ignorant for the time being, Hongxia was actually still a little uneasy after learning that Aoki Suke had taken the plunge and given up his part-time job to devote all his free time to the band.

......

The air is very humid during the rainy season, and the weather station did not give a wrong forecast this time. Tokyo has been in a gray state since last weekend.

Thursday was two days after Aoki Jie went to fill out the school committee's transfer student willingness survey at noon.

Since about six in the morning, light raindrops have been falling from the sky. After noon, the frequency of the dripping raindrops suddenly increased, and the light rain suddenly turned into heavy rain.

Summer rain is mostly like this, erratic, sometimes gentle and sometimes violent, which is somewhat similar to Teacher Shizuka Hiratsuka's mood.

Fortunately, Aokisuke has been carrying an umbrella with him these days, so he didn't end up soaked when school was over.

Because it was Thursday, after school in the afternoon, Aokisuke went to the service club first. He read a book for thirty minutes in the cold atmosphere of the service club, and then he left the service club.

By the way, the book that Aoki Suke was reading at the Service Club was "Advanced Mathematical Analysis", while the book that Yukinoshita Yukino was reading was "I Am a Cat" by Natsume Soseki.

It's not that there's anything wrong with "I Am a Cat." In fact, Aokisuke also reads some of his favorite literary works in his free time. However, when he thinks about Yukinoshita Yukino reading extracurricular books that have nothing to do with her studies while he's studying, he inexplicably feels a perverse sense of accomplishment, as if he's secretly made some progress...

With some random thoughts in his mind, Aokijie took out the umbrella he brought to school from the shoe cabinet and stood at the door of the teaching building for a while. After making sure that the heavy rain would definitely not stop in a short time, he opened the umbrella and walked out of the teaching building.

The rain was so heavy that even with an umbrella, Aokisuke was half soaked. He walked all the way to the tram stop in the rain and waited for the tram for about five minutes. Then Aokisuke rushed to Shimokitazawa.

I was jolted on the train for a while until I got off at Shimokitazawa Station.

The tram ride didn't take too long, so after exiting the station the heavy rain outside still showed no signs of abating.

Although Aokisuke didn't really want to get wet in the rain, he really had no other choice at the moment, so after hesitating for a moment, he walked out onto the street with an umbrella.

Because of the rain, even in Shimokitazawa, which usually has a lot of pedestrians, there are only a few people left, and most of them are in a hurry.

Aoki Jie was not in a hurry. Because he was holding an umbrella, the more anxious he was, the more likely he would be splashed with rain.

While walking slowly towards the livehouse, halfway there, Aoki Jie suddenly noticed a familiar figure not far away through the rain.

The blond girl seemed to be holding something in her arms. She was jogging down the street without an umbrella even in the heavy rain.

"Hongxia?"

After a moment of hesitation, Aokijie quickened his pace a little, took a few steps forward and shouted,

"Hey—Ijichi-kun!"

Because they were not far away, even though the sound of raindrops falling was loud, Hongxia, who was being drenched in the rain, could hear Aokisuke's shout.

The girl stopped and looked back.

Aokisuke trotted a few steps with an umbrella in his hand until he came to Ijichi Hongxia's side and tilted the umbrella towards her.