[You decide to switch targets.]
[Since the professional refuses to help you, you go look for Hitori.]
[Your first meeting happens in the classroom after school.]
[With the sunset fading, Hitori turns into a puddle of mush before you.]
[You are far too enthusiastic. As someone with severe social anxiety, Hitori does not dare come near you.]
["Gotoh-san, can you play guitar?"]
["Ah… y-yes, y-yes!" The girl's answer is clumsy, but you can feel her kindness.]
[Hitori fears communication yet longs for friends.]
["Then can you be my guitar teacher? I joined a band, but I can't play, so I have to rely on you!"]
[The words rely on you echo in Hitori's mind, and she soon scratches the back of her head with a silly smile.]
["O-okay."]
[With the sunset behind you, you gather the pink haired girl into your arms and spin her around a few times.]
[Just like that.]
[Under your passionate advance, you and Hitori become good friends.]
Uu… Gotoh-san.
In the end, you really are the best.
[After making a friend who can play guitar and practicing diligently for a week, you finally manage simple songs.]
[But to your disappointment...]
[This level is far from good enough to go onstage.]
[You are not a guitar prodigy. Learning in a week, even performing, is nothing more than fantasy.]
[What should you do?]
[Give up and confess your mistakes to Ryo-senpai?]
[Ask Hitori to take your place on stage?]
[Run away and disappear from your senpai's eyes?]
That is way too negative.
Come on, other me~
[In the end, you beg Hitori to take your place on stage.]
[Hearing that, Hitori freezes. She never expected it. Never.]
Sorry, Gotoh-san…
[Inside, Hitori is overjoyed. She has always wanted to join a band, but never had someone to rely on. You are helping her immensely!]
…Huh?
Kita Ikuyo tilted her head.
[She accepts your request shyly, but Hitori does not dare go to Shimokitazawa alone to meet Nijika and the others. She begs you to come along.]
[You agree.]
[This mess is your fault, and since Hitori is willing to clean it up for you, you certainly do not refuse.]
[So, on the day of the first performance, you accompany Hitori to Shimokitazawa.]
[Using a full prostration, you sincerely apologize and earn the senpai's forgiveness.]
[After some twists and turns, the first performance manages to end.]
[Afterward, Ryo and Nijika approach you and ask if you want to join the band.]
[You say——]
[1. "I want to chase dreams with my senpai! Let's make Kessoku Band the number one band in Japan!"]
[2. "A sinner like me does not deserve forgiveness. Allow me to atone with death." (takes out seppuku knife)]
[3. "S-sorry, I have a boy I need to win over, I can't waste time on useless things."]
[4. "Ryo-senpai, if I join the band, can I call you Mom?"]
[5. Simulate personally.]
"I really want to pick number 4."
Kita Ikuyo had always carried one dream—
She wanted to become Ryo's daughter.
Unfortunately, in the last simulation, Kita Ikuyo lost due to reckless choices.
As the saying goes, once bitten by a snake, you fear ropes for ten years. She did not dare act rashly again.
"I pick 1. It's the only normal choice."
The simulation continued scrolling.
[You agree to Ryo's invitation and join Kessoku Band.]
[For the next month, after school, you go to the live house and practice with everyone.]
[During this time,]
[you and Toru have zero romantic progress.]
[In class, he still sits by the window, staring at distant clouds and sky, lost in thought.]
[No one tries to talk to him. It would only bring trouble.]
[Before long, a new nickname spreads through school——"The Black Prince."]
[In fairy tales, gentle and kind princes ride white horses and are called White Princes.]
[By extension, someone cold and unwilling to interact must be a Black Prince.]
[Kitahara does not like studying. He never listens in class.]
[But whenever a teacher calls on him, he answers instantly.]
[Eventually, teachers stop paying attention to him.]
[Isolated personality, unwilling to interact, never showing warmth. Two months into school, this is all you know of Toru.]
['Someone like that, I'll never have anything to do with him, right?']
[One day after school, you tidy the classroom.]
[The sunset casts warm light through the windows.]
[You finish cleaning.]
[You begin arranging the chairs.]
[First row, second row, third row…]
[Until the last row, when you look up and find a black notebook on Kitahara-kun's desk.]
A diary?
Kita Ikuyo felt a strong urge to read it.
[Thinking you should help him put it in his desk, you pick it up.]
[At that moment, the back door opens.]
[Toru, who had just been scolded in the office, his short black hair messy, sees you pick up the notebook. In two quick steps, he snatches it from your hands——]
["Kita-san, did your mother never teach you not to touch other people's things?"]
[His tone is harsh. He seems angry.]
[You freeze.]
[You only wanted to tidy things up for him, but he got furious.]
["I-I was just trying to help."]
["Help? …Don't bother."]
[Kitahara lifts his bag and walks out.]
["Ridiculous, who wants to read your diary anyway." you mutter angrily.]
[Indeed, just as everyone says, this personality is terrible. Besides his face, there is nothing good about this Black Prince.]
[You do not dwell on it.]
[After school, you go to the live house to work. Aside from performance expenses, you still have thirty installments left on the guitar loan.]
[During this time,]
[you consider whether there is a job that pays well without selling your looks.]
[Sadly, nothing suitable appears.]
————