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Chapter 52: Still Circling in Tangled Thoughts
🕑 Added 2025-07-31 15:00:18 +0000 UTCThe word “again” wasn’t exactly fair.
Aoki Kei sighed inwardly but still offered a calm explanation.
But suspicions aren’t so easily erased by explanations alone—especially when there’s no hard proof to back them up.
And considering Kita Ikuyo had now bumped into him and Yamada Ryo twice while they were out together by sheer coincidence…
Even after his clarification, Kita only gave a half-believing nod, clearly still doubtful.
Aoki Kei didn’t mind too much.
After a quick explanation, he joined the two girls as they stepped into STARRY together.
Inside, Bocchi-chan and Nijika were already there, having arrived even earlier than the three of them.
With all the members of Kessoku Band feeling motivated to do well in the rock band project, their practice time had recently been extended now that they could get through most songs without mistakes.
Once everyone was present, practice began.
Since STARRY wasn’t open for business yet and manager Ijichi Seika was nowhere to be seen, the livehouse was empty—just Aoki Kei and the girls from Kessoku Band.
Practice started around 3 p.m.
They took a short break and resumed again after thirty minutes, playing straight through until about 6, when Seika finally returned.
By six, STARRY officially opened for business.
With customers starting to trickle in, the band needed to switch from practice mode to helping out.
Aoki Kei was planning to help wipe tables or maybe mop the floor, but before he could step out of the recording room, Kita Ikuyo suddenly called out to him.
The others Bocchi, Ryo, and Nijika—had already gone out to the main hall.
Now, only Aoki and Kita remained in the studio.
He paused, a bit puzzled, and turned to look at her.
There was a certain curiosity glinting in Kita Ikuyo’s eyes, like she’d finally found the perfect opportunity to be alone with him—and wasn’t about to let it go to waste.
“Aoki-senpai,” she started, then paused for a moment, seeming just a little hesitant.
But then, gathering her resolve, she asked, “I’ve been wondering about this for a while now. I didn’t want to be rude and just ask outright, but I really have to know...”
She blinked once, and then, as seriously as she could, asked:
“Are you and Ryo-senpai really not dating?”
Aoki Kei’s mouth twitched slightly.
He shook his head decisively. “We’re not.”
“I-I see...” Kita nodded, but almost immediately followed up with another question, still clearly skeptical. “Then... is it like Ryo-senpai said before? That the two of you are in a sort of... ambiguous stage?”
‘Ambiguous stage...’
Aoki Kei’s expression became even more resigned.
He honestly felt that dating someone like Yamada Ryo—quirky and unpredictable as she was—would probably be complicated.
Maybe even chaotic.
And it’s not like they’d spent a ton of time together, aside from those couple of meals out.
But... from an outsider’s perspective—especially from the other girls in Kessoku Band—it might totally look like something was going on.
He and Ryo were often on the same wavelength.
They talked the most out of everyone. And he was the only one who called her by her first name...
Still, all that could easily be explained as just being friends.
Sure, it might cause misunderstandings—but those could be cleared up.
So after a brief pause, Aoki Kei shook his head again with quiet certainty.
“No, there’s really nothing going on between me and Ryo.”
“There... isn’t?” Kita blinked again.
Despite his confident tone, the pause before his answer looked to her like hesitation—like he had something he wasn’t saying.
But just like she’d mentioned before, she knew it would be rude to push him too hard if he clearly didn’t want to talk about it.
So, despite her curiosity, she nodded and didn’t press any further.
Not that it stopped her from being curious.
To a girl just starting high school, the idea of romance was this mysterious, exciting thing.
And now, to think that the incredibly cool Ryo-senpai and her guitar mentor Aoki-senpai might be slowly becoming something more...
Just imagining it made her heart race.
So she swallowed nervously and tried another angle, asking casually,
“Then... Aoki-senpai, how do you feel about Ryo-senpai? If you don’t mind sharing.”
‘How did I feel about Yamada Ryo?’
It was a roundabout question, but clearly still fishing for signs of a possible romantic connection.
Aoki Kei wasn’t quite sure what face to make, but after a brief pause, he decided to answer honestly.
“Ryo’s... kind of a strange person,” he said with a sigh.
He thought for a moment, then continued.
“She’s not very serious most of the time. Borrows money from friends, pulls pranks with a completely straight face, and says the most sarcastic stuff like it’s the weather report. But once you get to know her, you start to realize... she’s actually really kind.”
“For example—”
He was about to give a specific example, when the studio door opened suddenly, cutting him off.
Yamada Ryo leaned in, glancing first at Aoki Kei, then at Kita Ikuyo.
An awkward silence fell over the room.
Then Ryo spoke, breaking the tension with her usual dry tone.
“Suki-san, the manager wants you to help move a table.”
“Ah... oh, right.”
Aoki Kei blinked, then quickly snapped out of it.
Kita had been hoping for more, but the conversation had been firmly shut down.
After that, Aoki Kei didn’t bring up Ryo again.
He went about his usual tasks helping at STARRY. When the livehouse closed for the night, they resumed band practice for a little while longer.
By around 8 p.m., practice wrapped up.
One by one, the girls headed home, and Aoki Kei returned to his apartment alone.
He tidied up, finished some homework, went out for a quick dinner, and by 10 p.m., was getting ready for bed.
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Meanwhile—
Upstairs from STARRY, in the Ijichi household...
In her bedroom, Nijika lay on her side, staring at her phone.
A message from Kita Ikuyo lit up the screen, and her expression was complicated.
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[Kita Kita]: Even though Aoki-senpai explained, now I just feel more suspicious...
[Kita Kita]: He and Ryo-senpai were out together again today.
[Kita Kita]: I’m just so curious!! But it’d be rude to keep prying if Aoki-senpai doesn’t want to talk about it...
————————————————————————
...
Nijika’s eyes were on the screen, but her mind wasn’t.
Her thoughts were a tangled mess.
She wanted to honor her senpai’s dream. To support her.
To live up to that unspoken plea—“Don’t give up.”
And yet... the thoughts swirling in her mind had nothing to do with any of that.
She closed her eyes for a second, feeling the chaos in her heart.
‘Maybe... I should just talk to Ryo about this and clear it up...’
She refocused on her phone, backing out of the chat with Kita Ikuyo and opening her message thread with Ryo.
Fingers hovering over the keyboard, she typed a few words—
Then froze.
After a long moment of hesitation, Nijika let out a deep breath... and slowly deleted the message.
