[I don't want Taki taking care of me.]
Soyo had spent ages playing pitiful just to get her new-old friend Noshiro Chiose to feed her cookies—how could Shiina Taki go and ruin it all like this?
Sure, she'd said earlier that she wanted to see her former bandmates, but she hadn't said now.
"Taki, don't come over here—I've only just come to my senses."
"Huh? Soyo, you—you look perfectly fine to me!"
Soyo pushing back, Taki gritting her teeth, and Tomori's little hand tugging at the hem of Chiose's clothes.
Everyone had such a bright future ahead.
Retreating back to the doorway, Chiose took Tomori by the wrist, savoring the delicious emotion of the little penguin too shy to make a sound.
Time seemed to freeze; even the butterflies fluttering past outside the window beat their wings in slow motion.
The little room had never been this lively before, and even Kyoumoto poked her small head over.
She actually couldn't see a thing, but Chiose figured the lively atmosphere must have drawn her in all the same.
"Little Tomo, I've really flopped today. I invited you all over to my place, but it feels like I haven't done anything for you."
"Eh? Not at all, Chiose."
"Really?"
"Really. I hadn't seen Soyo in so long either. Soyo's always been the one among us who couldn't let go of Crychic the most…"
Tomori glanced uncertainly at Nagasaki Soyo—lips clamped shut, refusing Taki's attempts to feed her a cookie—and swallowed the words rising to her lips.
"But she seems to have moved past it now. That's strange."
"Eh? Is that how it feels to you, Tomori?"
Tomori's words made Chiose realize something was very off.
[It can't be that dying a few times made Soyo stop clinging to Crychic—that doesn't fit Soyo's life story at all.]
Add in Soyo's sudden emotional instability, and a bold idea took shape in Noshiro Chiose's mind.
[Could it be that Soyo caught a glimpse of something she was never meant to see?]
Suspicious but far from dismissive, the fine woman Noshiro Chiose quickly composed herself and kept up her innocent, harmless smile.
"Little Tomo, could you tell me more about it? I'm still so curious about Soyo-chan. You can understand how surreal it felt to run into a drenched high-school girl in the middle of the night, right?"
"Soyo? Um…"
The two nearby had stopped bickering too. Hearing Chiose's question to Tomori, Taki's lips moved on reflex:
"Soyo? She's a real handful, but she's a good person."
"Taki, you—eh?" Soyo wanted to snap back, but she realized Taki's assessment was perfectly fair.
There was no denying it—she was troublesome, sensitive, stubborn, and starved for love. And yet, even though she was such a rotten person, Chiose still didn't push her away.
At that thought, Soyo's affection for Chiose—already at its ceiling—crept up a few more notches.
"You two, honestly," Noshiro Chiose said in a what-am-I-going-to-do-with-you tone, wiping the cookie crumbs from the corner of Soyo's mouth and from between Taki's fingers. "You were all in the same band—get along a little for me, okay!"
"Mm… but, can I ask something? How do Tomori and Taki know Chiose?"
Nagasaki Soyo had woken up to the alarming discovery that the information advantage she'd been so proud of was, in certain respects, utterly useless.
Like right now.
She couldn't fathom how the two old friends in front of her had gotten tangled up with Chiose—and had come over to Chiose's house as guests, no less? Huh? Was this for real?
She'd cried so many times, begged for so long, just to get to know Chiose—so what on earth had they given up to earn an invitation to Chiose's home?
"Chiose and I are classmates… Taki got to know Chiose later. Are you feeling any better now, Soyo?"
"I'm much better. Thanks for caring, Tomori…"
Soyo wondered whether she should explain anything, then decided against it.
She couldn't be bothered to spin any more lies—say too much and it'd all fall apart.
The mood in the guest room eased, barely. Chiose sat at the edge of Soyo's bed, with Shiina Taki and Takamatsu Tomori flanking her on either side.
No one spoke; the noisy warmth vanished all at once, leaving behind a dreadful silence.
And that wasn't all—the gazes of all three had converged on Noshiro Chiose, and a spine-chilling sensation welled up.
[What a terrifying feeling… why am I suddenly… surrounded like this?]
Chiose narrowed her eyes to hold onto her calm, but inside she was still panicking beyond words.
One girl, two girls—those she could handle.
But she was ringed by three emotionally overloaded girls. Naive as they more or less all were, having them fix her with such burning stares was genuinely terrifying.
"Ahem—who'd have thought that three of the mere five friends I've made would be from the same band."
In truth, Shiina Taki, Takamatsu Tomori, Nagasaki Soyo, and Togawa Sakiko had all been in the same band, but no one really brought up Togawa Sakiko in their usual conversations.
Chiose had a rough idea of the reason, so this time she instinctively skipped over Sakiko without mentioning her.
Otherwise the whole thing would blow up, wouldn't it.
"I'm so glad to have met you all, so—Soyo-chan, come be friends with us for life. Little Tomo and the others and I have already promised each other forever."
Chiose clapped her hands together, deflecting the conflict clean away.
Temporarily, at least…
She could tell Soyo's affection for her ran pretty high right now. Chiose had a guess as to why but wasn't certain—she'd go ask The System a question later—but for the moment, that was exactly what she could put to use!
Forgive me, my adorable daughter!
"Huh? They promised you forever?"
Bundled in the blanket, Nagasaki Soyo felt the covers turn feverishly hot, like Little Chiose burning up with a temperature—and only now did she realize how cruel it was that those nearest reap the moon first.
"That's right. Are you going to turn us down, Soyo?"
"No… let me join! Please."
"Great—then, actually, I've got another question. I've really been wanting to put together a band, so do you band Seniors have any experience you could share?"
Just find some topic, anything—ideally one that could warm up the bonds between them a little at the same time.
Noshiro Chiose kept working hard to steer the room.
"Soyo knows more about this kind of thing. Back when we formed the band, she was the keenest one of all."
Knowing she couldn't offer a good answer herself, Taki quickly tossed the topic away.
"Me? I… I'm actually not that into bands, but I do know a few things…"
Girls, an afternoon, a discussion.
[All this noisy chatter—it's really nice.]
Settling into a life this noisy and lively seemed like it wouldn't be a bad life at all.
But there's always something that shatters all the peace.
Knock, knock—
The door not far off rattled, and the brisk knocking gathered up the girls' wandering thoughts.
No one ever came knocking on ordinary days. That was probably because the neighbors on either side were down-and-out wage workers who only got home in the dead of night after overtime; during the day, even on their days off, they'd just hole up at home and sleep.
So, who on earth could it be…
"Little Tomo, go get the door!"
____
________________________________________
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉