Chapter 104: Follower (Part 1)

ーAlthough Ishikawa Hayato knew the past would catch up to him, he never expected it to come so quickly.

...On Friday evening, they finished their rehearsal and came out of the practice room together, ready to start work.

On weekends, STARRY would schedule bands carefully selected by Seika to perform.

To what extent were they carefully selected?

Ishikawa Hayato had the privilege of observing Seika auditioning sample tracks from other bands.

It could be said that she was extremely strict, leaving no room for bands that isn't up to her standard.

When there were no suitable bands, she sometimes preferred to let the place be a bar, offering the stage for free to some small bands for practice, rather than holding a live show.

This 'rather lack than be indiscriminate' approach indeed gave the shop an excellent reputation among customers.

Many people came on weekends as well.

Ishikawa Hayato meticulously wiped every corner, cleaning up some drink stains that hadn't been cleaned thoroughly last night.

If it couldn't be cleaned in one go, it was the stubborn kind that requires more effort than usual. 

Difficult for others, but for Ishikawa Hayato... don't make me take the ground with it!

He cleaned his way out from the furthest corner.

When he finally reached a spot where he could see the counter, he inadvertently looked up, his gaze lingering there.

Inside the bar, Hitori held a rag, opening the interiors of various drink machines for cleaning.

The inside of drink machines easily attracts insects.

But who was this?

Hitori! The bane of bug and ghost types!

With that said,Hitori's eyes looked extremely serious.

She meticulously cleaned with the rag.

Her seriousness seemed to go beyond what could be considered mere work.

Rather, she was protecting something she loved.

People project their feelings onto objects.

Just like a pavilion where one often use to meets a close friend, similarly like this shop.

Unbeknownst to them, it had been over a month since the band was formed.

Although they still often weren't in sync and frequently made a mess of things, the knowing smiles after that chaos were also quite fun.

Kita walked past him, dragging the floor mop.

Ishikawa Hayato remembered what PA-san did earlier.

He said to Kita, “Kita, can I smell you?”

“Ishikawa-kun, can you not be a pervert while working?”

She seemed accustomed to Ishikawa Hayato’s pervertedness, her smile undiminished, carrying a slight hint of disdain as she mopped the floor.

Ishikawa Hayato, playing up his act, grabbed his outstretched hand as if he couldn't control himself, and urgently called out, “But my Pervert energy isn’t enough! I need to do some perverted things, Kita, I can only rely on you now.”

Kita stopped mopping, leaning on the mop and looking at him, complaining, “Weren’t you already a pervert last night?”

“Not enough, I need more!”

Kita sighed helplessly.

Just as she was about to say something, her eyes turned towards the bar, but instantly retracted.

“Hayato-kun, just work honestly!”

Ishikawa Hayato dropped the act, smacking his lips.

“Tsk, Kita isn’t as cute as she used to be. Looks like I need to collect some data to make her obedient.”

Kita, seemingly immune, said with a smile in her greenish-yellow eyes, “When Ishikawa-kun collects more, I’ll call the police to have them deleted.”

Ishikawa Hayato gave a contemptuous smile, as if nothing could stop him.

“Even if the FBI comes, they can’t delete it, I said so!”

Kita gave a perfunctory reply, picked up the mop again, and started mopping.

“Yes, yes, Ishikawa-kun, don’t slack off.”

By the time Ishikawa Hayato wiped the bar wall, Nijika had also finished inventorying supplies.

She crawled out from under the bar, resting her arms on the bar, supporting her leaning upper body.

Holding a tally book and pen, she routinely warned,

“Hayato-kun, I’ve told you not to bother others while working. If I catch you next time, I’ll report you to my sister.”

“Okay~ Next time I’ll only bother Nijika.”

Nijika’s expression was blank, but she had no recourse against him.

Ishikawa Hayato laughed it off, easily getting away with it.

Although Nijika often threatened Ishikawa Hayato with reporting him, she never actually did it once.

Her gentleness made one want to take advantage.

Finally, at the front desk, Ryo had long finished and was sitting in a chair, slacking off and resting.

Logically, she must have heard the conversation between Ishikawa Hayato and Kita just now.

She, who used to strongly object to Ishikawa Hayato and Kita’s interactions, said nothing about it this time.

She sat upright in the chair, hands on her lap, and said to Ishikawa Hayato, who was checking for stains, “Tomorrow morning at 8 AM, meet at Ike-Tora Station.”

“I got it, but that early?”

“Yes.” Ryo nodded.

And Ishikawa Hayato wiped the still dusty front desk cabinet legs.

Underground spaces easily accumulate dust.

He also incidentally glanced at Ryo’s black pantyhose.

Ryo always wore pantyhose when pairing with her school uniform, even though the weather was quite hot now, she still dressed this way.

But it was noticeable that her pantyhose had become much thinner, from only showing flesh color when bending her legs, to now revealing semi-visible skin from the upper part of her calves to the rounded part of her thighs.

Her extremely slender legs were encased in pantyhose, further accentuating the beauty of her leg curves, giving off a mature 'older sister' vibe.

At this moment, Ryo moved her left leg slightly to the right, lifted her right leg, and crossed it over her left.

She asked, “Had enough looking?”

“Does that mean we can proceed to the next step?”

Ishikawa Hayato looked up at this little 'older sister' who hadn't quite shed her cuteness.

Ryo calmly reached out and pressed his face, pushing it to the side.

The cool hand and soft palm felt very nice.

Ishikawa Hayato no longer looked at her, then stood up.

Just as he was about to walk into the shop, Seika came down from upstairs.

She had gone up to change the sign.

She looked at Ishikawa Hayato in front of her and asked him, “Is the dehumidifier on?”

“Yes, it’s on.”

“Then cleaning is good enough. Customers are already complaining that you’ve wiped away the shop’s atmosphere.”

“The manager is actually worried about me, how touching.”

“Who cares about you!”

The two half-argued as they came down the stairs, and Ryo followed.

It wasn't opening time yet, and they prepared to lean against the bar and chat as usual.

However, the three below had already started a very unusual conversation.

For some reason, Hitori had hidden in the trash can again, starting to self-isolate and mumble.

And Kita's expression was awkward, clearly she had caused an incident again.

However, everyone understood that Kita's casual everyday remarks were often a critical hit for Hitori.

“What happened again?” Ishikawa Hayato asked helplessly.

He had only been away for a moment, and it was already like this.

Kita answered him naturally,

“We were just talking about skincare…”

“That, that, that!”

Hitori heard it and hurriedly crawled out of the trash can, waving her hands frantically in front of Kita, telling her not to say it.

Watching this scene, Ishikawa Hayato heard Seika muttering softly behind him, “Bocchi-chan is so cute.”

Ignoring this nearly 30-year-old 'older sister' who still liked cute things, he walked over and patted Hitori’s shoulder.

“It’s alright, it’s nothing.”

Nijika then, to prevent Hitori-chan from getting nervous, changed the subject by taking out her phone, excitedly holding it up to show, saying,

“Everyone! The video of our street performance last night has reached 4000 views!”

After saying that, she looked triumphantly at Seika, who had previously told her, ‘You’ll be playing ‘band’ all your life.’

“How about that, sister, isn’t it amazing?”

“Yes, yes.” Seika gave a perfunctory reply, then went backstage.

Her reaction made Nijika puff up her cheeks in anger.

Ishikawa Hayato was actually a little dissatisfied.

The number of views was too low.

He was used to seeing millions and tens of millions of clicks before.

Ryo walked over, glanced at him, and said to Nijika,

“I watched the video too. Our original song wasn’t recorded in it, otherwise, the views would definitely be higher.”

“Yeah!”

Nijika was also very confident in their own original songs.

She hadn't fully recovered from her excitement yet, and looking around at the four of them, she said, "Well, since all the performance tickets are sold, next we'll prepare for our first stage performance next week."

While Nijika was speaking, Hitori looked left and right, her emotions changing with the others. She suddenly responded with a faint smile, "Yes!"

All four pairs of eyes turned to her.

Realizing she had made a mistake again, her momentum instantly faltered, and she hunched her shoulders, moving sideways towards the trash can.

But Hayato her back, embracing her.

He smiled, raised his hand, and said, "Then let's get fired up for this summer."

The others also happily echoed, "Oh~"

Afterward, Kita checked her phone and found the video.

She scrolled through the comments below and, after a moment, showed a puzzled expression.

"Strange, why are there so many comments mentioning your surname, Ishikawa-kun? Are they talking about Ishikawa-kun?"

Hayato-kun was about to answer when he heard footsteps from upstairs.

He looked up.

"Hayato, you abandoned the club and my matters just to come here and play music with others?"

A beautiful long-haired girl in a school uniform that none of them recognized spoke these words, sounding like a parent lecturing a child, as she gracefully descended the stairs.