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Chapter 34: A Band Full of Secrets
🕑 Added 2025-07-30 20:34:00 +0000 UTCKessoku Band passed the audition, and their performance was tentatively scheduled for next Saturday—one week from now.
Before the live show, though, each band member had to sell five tickets.
Since Aoki Kei had no intention of performing on stage, this requirement didn’t apply to him.
The weekend passed by in a flash.
The new week brought dreary weather.
Clouds hung low over the sky almost constantly.
Monday was uneventful.
Aoki Kei focused on his classes during the day and went to the livehouse afterward to rehearse with the band.
Then came Tuesday.
Cloudy skies, temperatures hovering around 20°C.
The weather had improved a little compared to the day before, but it still wasn’t anything close to sunny.
Aoki Kei felt relatively refreshed that morning as he slung his backpack and guitar case over his shoulder and started up the now-familiar slope toward school.
Unlike last time, he didn’t bump into Hikigaya Hachiman on the way.
He walked all the way to class, watched a bit of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and just before the bell rang, Hachiman finally strolled into the room at the last second.
He was probably almost late because he’d biked his little sister, Komachi, to school—that’s what he’d said the last time he barely made it to class on time, right before launching into a ten-minute monologue about how amazing she was.
Seriously, sis-cons are terrifying.
With that mildly rude thought floating in his head, Aoki Kei casually greeted him.
"Yo."
"Ah... morning," Hachiman replied.
And that was that.
Their conversation ended just as quickly as it began.
Since Hachiman arrived so close to the bell, no sooner had he sat down than the first-period chime rang out.
The first class was Japanese language with HIratsuka Shizuka —a notoriously strict teacher. No one dared slack off during her lectures.
Well... except Aoki Kei.
The material she was covering was stuff he’d already studied in advance.
Since Japanese mostly involved memorization and he had a solid grasp of it, he used the time to quietly work through some math problems at his desk while Hiratsuka lectured on Matsuo Bashō from the podium.
Despite her fiery personality, Hiratsuka-sensei was fairly flexible in her teaching philosophy.
As long as he didn’t disrupt the class, she didn’t seem to mind that her top-tier student was essentially self-studying.
He worked on some of the math topics he felt less confident about, and before he knew it, first period was over.
The next three classes went by in more or less the same fashion.
When the fourth period ended and both the class and lunch bells rang out, Aoki Kei made his way to the cafeteria.
He bought a reasonably priced lunch set and grabbed two cans of cola from a nearby vending machine.
After cracking open one for himself and taking a sip, he gave the other to Hachiman—but not before giving it a good shake in full view.
Hachiman gave him a long, deadpan glare.
Ten minutes later, after they’d both finished lunch, Hachiman left for the classroom while Aoki Kei followed a bit behind.
He planned to stop by his desk briefly before heading downstairs to teach Kita Ikuyo some more guitar.
But just as he neared the classroom door, he heard a voice call out hurriedly from the hallway.
It was Hiratsuka-sensei.
Claiming she needed to “survey transfer students about their adjustment,” she asked to borrow some of his lunch break.
Aoki Kei wasn’t particularly thrilled to be roped into this, but considering he’d basically been admitted to Shuchiin High through a backdoor route, he figured he should at least pretend to cooperate.
The biggest inconvenience was not having a way to contact Kita Ikuyo.
He couldn’t even give her a heads-up.
But seeing how urgent Hiratsuka seemed, he could only sigh internally, apologize to Kita Ikuyo in his heart, and promise to make it up to her later.
With that, he followed the teacher toward the staff room.
————————————————————————
Meanwhile...
After finishing lunch, Hachiman returned to class and slumped across his desk, staring warily at the unopened can of cola.
After some internal debate, he decided to go to the bathroom to open it—better to deal with the aftermath in a more "controlled" environment.
As expected, the can exploded in a fizzy mess.
After washing his hands, he started walking back to class—only to run into a familiar red-haired girl he’d seen a few times before.
One of Aoki Kei’s bandmates.
As for Kita Ikuyo...
Normally, after lunch, Aoki Kei would show up at her classroom with his guitar.
But today, no matter how long she waited, he didn’t come.
Growing curious, she decided to go check his classroom—Class 2-F.
She climbed the stairs to the second floor and scanned the classroom doorway.
No sign of him.
With no way to contact him and unsure if something urgent had come up, Kita Ikuyo could only turn back toward her own classroom, still puzzled.
On her way back to the classroom, Kita Ikuyo happened to run into an upperclassman she’d briefly seen before—the one who sat in front of Aoki-senpai and seemed to know him fairly well.
Without hesitation, Kita spoke up.
“Um… excuse me, senpai. Do you happen to know Aoki Kei?”
The upperclassman turned around, saw that the hallway was mostly empty, and blinked his emotionless, tired-looking eyes—the kind that gave off “dead fish” vibes.
It was clear he recognized her as someone from Aoki’s band.
“Aoki? Yeah, I know him. Why?”
“Oh! If you do—do you know where he went just now? I didn’t see him in the classroom…” she asked, hopeful.
The boy replied with a shrug, “I figured he was doing what he always does—carrying his guitar over to the first-years’ area… Didn’t go?”
“No,” Kita answered, shaking her head. Then she added, “Do you have his contact info, senpai? It’s been really difficult to reach him… Even last Thursday, I couldn’t get in touch when he was supposed to show up at work.”
“I don’t have it either,” the boy replied flatly. “Why not just ask him next time you see him? But… wait—work?”
His tone shifted slightly, confused.
“I thought he quit all his part-time jobs to focus on the band. Last Thursday, he was busy with club stuff.”
“......Huh?”
Kita blinked.
The confusion in her eyes mirrored his.
“He… quit all his jobs?” she repeated.
“Yeah,” the upperclassman confirmed. “He gave them up so he could focus on helping the band succeed. Said if he didn’t make some kind of progress within two months, he’d be living off scraps since he’d have no savings left…”
Since she seemed to be a friend of Aoki’s, the upperclassman patiently explained, despite her growing look of shock.
But as he kept talking, and saw her face freeze in disbelief, a sudden realization hit him.
“…Wait. He… never told you guys about this?”
If Aoki had hidden this from the rest of the band, it meant he didn’t want them to know.
And now, just like that, he had spilled the truth.
Oops.
But Kita Ikuyo wasn’t paying attention to the upperclassman’s panicked expression or his realization that he’d said too much.
She was too stunned by what she’d just heard.
She’d spent countless afternoons and weekends at the livehouse.
She’d chatted with the others, heard rumors about Aoki’s difficult home situation—even that he’d once sold his own guitar out of desperation.
Still, this was the first she’d heard about him quitting his jobs for the band, or the two-month deadline.
He had never mentioned any of it.
The only thing Aoki ever said was, “Don’t feel pressured when playing in a band,” or “Chasing your dream shouldn’t be about results.”
No wonder he practiced so much harder than the rest of them.
No wonder he always had time to help her with guitar practice.
He could have easily told the band about his situation and asked them to push harder—but he didn’t.
He kept everything bottled up inside.
Suddenly, Kita recalled something he’d said when he first joined Kessoku Band:
“Just focus on entering the competition. There’s no penalty for failing, so don’t stress over it.”
She had always thought of the band as a united team.
But now that she knew what Aoki was carrying alone, she felt a weight settle on her chest.
He hadn’t wanted to burden them.
He hadn’t even hinted at it.
Thoughts swirled in her head as she processed everything.
Then, after a long pause, she made up her mind.
This… This is something she had to tell the others—especially Nijika-senpai and the rest of the band.
Taking a breath to steady herself, she looked back up at the upperclassman.
Without answering his final question, Kita simply bowed her head slightly and said,
“Got it. Thank you, senpai.”
