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Chapter 46: Aoki Kei Offers a Serious Explanation
🕑 Added 2025-07-30 20:46:01 +0000 UTCAlthough it might be a bit inappropriate given her age and professional role, Hiratsuka Shizuka had, in fact, seen "Gushing Over Magical Girls."
Let’s put the anime aside for now.
After getting thoroughly scolded by Hiratsuka-sensei and being ordered to rewrite his essay, Aoki Kei finally left the staff room.
As mentioned during his time at the Service Club, there was about one week left until the exam he’d bet on with Yukinoshita Yukino.
Then, roughly a month after that, PVC Records’ "Rock Band Project" would close its submissions.
Although he wasn’t exactly overflowing with confidence for the upcoming test, Aoki Kei surprisingly felt pretty secure about the band competition.
In truth, Kessoku Band’s ensemble skills had come a long way.
Ever since a month ago, they had been practicing both as a group and individually—working on musical techniques, music theory, and coordination.
With this steady progress, their overall performance had improved significantly compared to when they first started.
With about a month left until the deadline, Aoki Kei was confident that the band could deliver a flawless performance by then.
But before that...
After his sharp-tongued clash with Yukinoshita and a lecture from Hiratsuka-sensei, Aoki Kei spent the rest of the afternoon carrying his guitar case onto a train headed to the livehouse.
The weather had been fairly nice until the end of school—warm, sunny, comfortable.
But just as he left the school building with his guitar on his back, it suddenly started to drizzle.
It almost felt like the god were out to get him.
Lost in these petty thoughts, he boarded the train.
Once he arrived in Shimokitazawa, he dashed to the livehouse under the light rain.
It was Monday, so none of the girls from the band had arrived particularly early.
Taking advantage of the fact that STARRY hadn’t opened yet, the group squeezed in a quick practice session.
At this point, their ensemble had smoothed out most of the major errors.
Minor hiccups still happened, but nothing deal-breaking.
They were steadily closing the gap between effort and perfection.
However, Aoki Kei had started to notice something odd.
Lately, whenever he taught Kita guitar or practiced alongside her, she’d sometimes give him strange looks.
Not hostile, just… odd.
And when they were alone with no one else around, she’d randomly ask questions about Ryo or subtly steer the conversation toward her.
Aoki Kei couldn’t quite figure out what she was getting at.
But whenever he asked directly, Kita would just laugh it off and change the subject.
It left him unsure of what to make of it.
Still, though a bit distracting, it wasn’t enough to throw off his focus.
After the first couple of times, he simply stopped paying much attention to it.
With those weird glances hanging in the air, practice went on.
Once STARRY opened for business, the girls shifted into their usual roles to help around the venue.
By closing time, everyone was exhausted but content.
Afterward, they spent a little more time practicing in the recording studio.
Around 8:30 PM, things had wrapped up smoothly—just like any other day.
Aoki Kei expected to head home without incident.
But just as the girls—except for Nijika left, Ijichi Seika, the manager, called out and asked Aoki Kei to stick around a moment.
Both he and Nijika were a bit puzzled.
He stopped in his tracks.
Ijichi-san turned, walked behind the bar, and pulled out an envelope before stepping up to Aoki Kei.
“You’ve been helping out a lot lately,” she said warmly. “And we can’t just make a student work for free. So... here. It’s your pay.”
Aoki Kei blinked, momentarily stunned.
Then, as he processed her words, he didn’t reach for the envelope.
He had his reasons.
First, he hadn’t negotiated any kind of pay before helping out, so suddenly getting paid now made him feel like some sort of pushy salesman foisting unwanted goods.
Second—and more importantly he didn’t feel like his contributions were worth paying for.
At most, he swept the floor or wiped down tables. Hardly worth real wages.
Besides, Nijika was his friend, and Seika-san was her older sister.
As someone with deeply ingrained Chinese values, Aoki Kei didn’t want to blur the lines between friendship and business too much.
So, after a brief pause, he firmly shook his head.
“It wasn’t anything strenuous. I really don’t need to get paid. But thank you, Manager.”
Seika raised an eyebrow, a little surprised by the refusal, but she didn’t push it.
She simply nodded and casually tossed the envelope back onto the bar.
That said, she wasn’t about to let him leave empty-handed.
After putting the envelope away, she reached under the bar and pulled out a sleek, practically new electric guitar.
“Remember how I mentioned there was a higher-quality guitar lying around?” she said.
“I finally found it while cleaning out the storage room this afternoon. It was tucked way in the corner. Go ahead—take it. It’s yours to use.”
With one hand, Seika casually lifted the guitar and held it out to Aoki Kei.
Her voice paused for a beat before she continued, “You should take this. It’s just sitting in the shop gathering dust.
Don’t give me any of that ‘I can’t accept it’ stuff... We’ve been getting a lot more customers lately thanks to you. So take it.”
Aoki Kei hesitated.
Just from the look of the guitar, he could tell it was expensive.
Even though Seika made a solid case, accepting it still felt... a bit much.
He opened his mouth to say something—but before he could, Nijika cut in cheerfully,
“You should totally take it, Aoki-senpai! You’ve brought so much business to the livehouse.
A guitar is the least we can do! My sister’s been smiling ear to ear counting the money these past few days—you really made a difference!”
“......”
Aoki Kei fell silent, then gave Seika an awkward look.
Nijika’s comment was completely valid from her perspective, and even from the angle of encouraging him to accept the gift.
But from Seika’s perspective as the older sister... well, it kinda threw her under the bus.
So after that comment landed, both Aoki Kei and Seika stood there in silence for a moment.
Then, Seika’s expression twitched ever so slightly.
She paused, let out a barely audible sigh, and nodded with practiced calm, “Yeah. Nijika’s right.”
...
Seika’s logic was hard to argue with, so Aoki Kei gave in.
In the end, he left not only with his own guitar on his back, but also with the high-quality one Seika gave him.
Carrying a backpack and two guitars was a bit of a hassle, but thankfully, neither instrument was too heavy.
Even with everything combined, the load was manageable.
After thanking Seika and Nijika, Aoki Kei turned to head toward the door.
However...
He had barely taken two steps when, just before his hand touched the door, a familiar melody rang out from behind him:
🎵 "Even after thinking it over, I still don’t get it.
Beneath the blue sky I wait for you—
The breeze of midday has passed,
But my thoughts have already drifted to the afternoon..." 🎵
Aoki Kei froze.
The guitar strumming... that voice...
It was his live performance of “So I Gave Up on Music.”
He turned back, puzzled.
Behind him—
Nijika, who had just started to relax after a long day, suddenly tensed up like a spring.
A few days ago, she’d secretly set Aoki-senpai’s song as her ringtone.
It had felt a bit embarrassing, so whenever she was around people especially people she knew, she’d make sure her phone was on silent.
But today...
She had forgotten to mute it during the afternoon rehearsal.
As Aoki Kei turned back with a questioning look, Nijika’s face went pale.
Trembling, she pulled out her phone and nervously answered the call.
“H-Hello? Ryo? W-What’s up...?”
“Ah... yeah, you did leave your bag at the shop. I—I’ll keep it safe for you...”
“V-voice? Oh, no, no problem at all...”
“R-Really, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it...”
“......”
“O-Okay, bye, Ryo...”
The last line came out with a hint of a sniffle, her voice cracking just slightly.
She ended the call and slowly lowered her phone.
Silence fell over the room.
Nijika glanced at Aoki Kei, who was still standing by the door with a mildly confused expression.
Then she looked over at her sister, who was stroking her chin, clearly deep in thought.
After a few seconds of tension, Nijika tried to explain, “L-Last time, I wanted to try it as a ringtone to see how it sounded, and... I just forgot to change it...”
Her voice wavered, clearly trying (and failing) to play it off.
Seika, meanwhile, didn’t even react to Nijika’s stammering.
Instead, she murmured her deduction aloud:
“So you liked the song enough to use it as a ringtone, but since it was sung by a guy you know, it felt kinda awkward... That’s why you keep your phone on silent when he’s around. Makes sense.”
“......”
“Uuuuugh—!”
Nijika practically collapsed, tears welling up in her eyes.
She turned her gaze to Aoki Kei, flustered and anxious.
Sure, she was embarrassed—but that wasn’t the biggest worry.
What if Aoki-senpai didn’t like that she’d used his song without asking?
What if he thought she was being weird...?
Outside the doors of STARRY, Aoki Kei stood frozen, taking just a few seconds to piece it all together.
The air was heavy after Seika’s commentary, and the silence screamed for someone to say something.
Aoki Kei blinked slowly, thought for a moment, and then finally spoke up:
“What’s there to be embarrassed about? I sang ‘So I Gave Up on Music’ for you, didn’t I? Using it as your ringtone is totally fine.”
...
Seika nodded thoughtfully. “Ahh... so it was for Nijika... I see.”
And Nijika— “Eh?”
“Eh? Eh? EHH?!”
She froze, stunned, her mind short-circuiting under the emotional overload.
Her face went bright red, and it was as if steam was rising from the top of her head.
