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Chapter 49: Income, Planning, and the Band as a Shared Destiny
🕑 Added 2025-07-30 20:49:01 +0000 UTCUnder Hikigaya Hachiman’s stunned gaze, Aoki Kei and Yukinoshita Yukino agreed on a new wager.
This time, however, instead of betting on next month’s end-of-month test, they set the stakes on the upcoming semester finals—deciding not only the winner of the bet, but also whether Aoki Kei could secure that substantial scholarship.
Despite being the one who proposed the bet, Aoki Kei wasn’t overly confident about winning. After all, his opponent was Yukinoshita Yukino.
Their scores in the recent exam had been incredibly close.
If he underperformed even slightly in the finals, there was a real chance she’d surpass him.
Still, it wasn’t like he was anxious.
The gap between them, while narrow, still existed.
Given equal effort, Aoki Kei believed his natural talent wasn’t inferior to hers.
So, after finalizing the bet in the Service Club room, Aoki left with Hikigaya thirty minutes later.
With his guitar case and school bag slung over his shoulders, he headed straight to the live house.
After a solid practice session and helping clean up after closing, he finally returned to his small rented apartment.
He climbed the stairs, unlocked the door, and tossed his guitar and school bag aside.
During the rainy season, his cramped room always reeked faintly of mildew.
The poor ventilation and small space made this a constant reality.
Breathing in that damp smell only reinforced his resolve—he had to earn enough to move out.
As those thoughts drifted through his mind, he changed out of his school uniform and into something more comfortable.
Then, with a blank stare at the ceiling, he suddenly remembered—he hadn’t yet checked the revenue for his recent video, “So I Gave Up on Music.”
Pulling his phone from his pocket, Aoki Kei quickly opened the Yutube app and navigated to his creator dashboard.
The internet was sluggish for some reason, so it took a moment to load.
The first video on the dashboard wasn’t “So I Gave Up on Music”—it was his earlier upload of “Lemon”, which had now amassed around 5 million views, significantly more than before.
The second video, however, was the one he was curious about.
“So I Gave Up on Music”—once a globally in his previous life beloved song by Yorushika, with emotional depth, poetic lyrics, and a haunting melody.
Backed by a modest but growing fanbase, Aoki Kei’s acoustic cover had exploded on Yutube.
It had racked up over 4 million views—in just two weeks.
Considering this was only his second upload, the numbers were staggering.
Two videos, two weeks, and already a viral hit.
He blinked in mild disbelief.
He had expected the views to be high, but not this high.
The like count was insane.
The number of saves and comments had skyrocketed.
His DMs were overflowing.
Compared to the response to “Lemon”, which mostly included messages from indie creators asking for paid commissions or casual fan comments, this time several actual music companies had reached out with offers.
But after looking into them, Aoki Kei realized none of them were particularly high-tier.
Since he wasn’t interested in signing with a label just yet, he simply ignored them.
Still, the fact that some companies were already eyeing the account “suki-san” meant something.
His name was starting to get out there.
If Aoki Kei really wanted to earn money through this channel and escape his not-so-comfortable living situation, it wouldn’t be hard anymore.
But as he’d always told himself—his goal was much bigger.
This was just the beginning.
Making a name for himself was step one.
The real challenge and the real opportunity—was making a splash with Kessoku Band in the upcoming PVC music project.
He shook himself free of that distant daydream and returned his focus to the current topic: income.
Opening his earnings dashboard, he saw his available withdrawal balance.
Between the current video and the still-unclaimed earnings from “Lemon”, he had a total of 480,000 yen.
That was more than enough to cover next month’s rent and his living expenses.
No need to worry about surviving on grass for food anymore.
With the basics covered, he could shift his focus back to studying—without pressure.
What he really needed now was to sharpen Kessoku Band’s performance level, gain visibility in PVC, and turn that recognition into real revenue.
Dreams, solidarity, carrying each other’s burdens as a band—it all sounded so romantic in theory.
But in practice?
Reality was heavier than any anime fantasy.
In the real world, unexpected things happened—family emergencies, financial collapse, sudden responsibilities.
Any one of them could scatter a band forever.
Aoki Kei wanted to make sure that never happened.
He wanted to make sure that Kessoku Band could become a livelihood—a shared future.
And right now...
A top rank in the official record label’s PVC project would mean far more than Yutube views.
It could put them in the public eye for real.
But that goal was still a ways off.
The PVC rock band project was still a month away.
Letting out a breath, Aoki Kei tapped the withdraw button on the screen.
Because the amount was sizable, the transaction would take a while.
With some free time now, he considered going downstairs to find something to eat.
But just as he stood up before he even took a step, his phone buzzed.
Curious, he looked down and saw a new message.
It was from “The Weird Bassist.”
He unlocked his phone and opened Line.
A fresh message blinked at the bottom:
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[The Weird Bassist]: suki-san, tomorrow’s Saturday. Want to grab lunch together? My treat.
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