"The new semester is about to start."
"When I really think about it, we have known each other for almost a year now. Time really flies, huh."
Kita took a sip of water to moisten her throat.
Today's work went pretty smoothly and did not take much time.
They finished the recording work in a single morning, saving a large sum from the already limited funds of Kessoku Band.
Although Toru was rich, his personal stash of money and the band's funds were calculated separately.
Originally, the person in charge of managing the band's expenses was Nijika-senpai. But after Toru became the band's manager, this part of the work was handed over to him. Although little angel Nijika was still the band leader, her actual authority had been hollowed out by more than half. To give a not very appropriate example… political interference from the harem?
"Yeah."
"Want a sip?"
Kita handed over the water bottle she had already drunk from halfway.
Toru took the bottle and examined the lipstick mark on it. "Is this the legendary indirect kiss… many thanks. I will savor it properly."
Hearing his exaggerated words, Kita first rolled her eyes prettily, then leaned in slightly, closed her eyes, and made a pose asking for a kiss. "You can be more direct. I do not mind."
Toru did want to taste her soft pink lips.
However, his cute official girlfriend was playing the guitar not far away, giving him a sense of guilt like being caught by a wife on the spot.
After waiting a few seconds and realizing that Toru was not leaning in to kiss her, Kita pretended nothing had happened, opened her eyes, and continued chatting with him about the previous topic.
"The new semester, Toru-kun, have you set any goals?"
"Goals… I do not really have any clear ideas yet. If I had to say something, probably to manage Kessoku Band well and get you all onto a bigger stage?"
Toru was not very sure.
He was not the kind of person who drifted with the flow, but the real world felt like easy mode to him. The difficulty of Earth Online was still too low.
"That is a goal for everyone, right? What about others, like… personal feelings or something?"
After Kita asked that, she quickly noticed that Toru's expression stiffened slightly. That was a sign of guilt.
Eh.
Could it be that he was dating some girl without me knowing?
"Kita san, after I answer this question, can you promise not to get angry?"
"Mm, I will not get angry."
Kita showed an extremely gentle smile.
'She is already angry, right?'
The reason Toru could calmly tell Nijika about his relationship with Gotoh Hitori was because he believed that Nijika, as a cute angel, would not lose her temper.
But now…
The Kita san sitting in front of him was famously impulsive and reckless.
"I…"
"Toru-kun, who are you dating? Can you tell me?"
Kita had more or less guessed something. "Ryo-senpai, or Nijika-senpai?"
Why did you not say Hitori's name?
"Neither."
"Ohtsuki-senpai?"
"Not her either."
At this point, even Kita was getting confused. "Then could it be Hiroi san?"
"I have always seen her as an older sister. Those feelings have not changed yet."
"No way, you…"
Kita san widened her eyes and said in disbelief, "You are dating Manager Seika? She is already thirty this year. That is totally an old cow eating young grass, so shameless. Someone in their thirties competing with teenage girls for a man? An old woman like her should be dating some forty-year-old uncle, that would be normal, right?"
Seika nee-san is not as bad as you make her sound, right?
"No."
"This is not right and that is not right either, then could it be PA-san…?"
Isn't she some kind of unromanceable hidden character?
"How could I possibly make a move on her?"
"That's true~ PA-san doesn't look like a good woman anyway. Toru-kun, you should stay a bit farther away from her."
"Why?"
Kita was unusually aggressive today. "PA-san is basically a bitch, right? Tattoos and lip piercings and all that. Normal girls would never get holes like that, right? Hitori-chan does not even have ear piercings. Look at PA-san, six ear holes, one lip hole, and tattoos."
"I think it is better not to judge people by their appearance."
Miss Kita, your character setting is about to collapse. This is serious OOC. (Out of Character)
No, actually, this kid has always had the problem of speaking without thinking.
"Alright, maybe I am overthinking it. I really have not seen PA-san together with any men normally."
Could it be that PA-san is a lesbian?
Putting away that thought, Kita returned to the original question.
Who is Toru-kun dating?
She had already named every girl around who might be dating him. No one was left out.
How strange.
At this moment, Gotoh Hitori, who had just finished recording, walked over. Kita happened to notice this scene. She stared at Bocchi chan's face for a long time, then glanced a few more times at the extremely unfashionable pink tracksuit she was wearing. A tiny possibility flashed through her mind, then was quickly ruled out.
Almost misunderstood a good person.
With Hitori-san's level of social anxiety… how could she possibly be dating Toru-kun?
Believing something like that would be less reliable than believing in the Qin Shi Huang on the internet.
I must be worrying too much.
"Hitori-chan, come explain it for me, about my girlfriend."
"Ah… ah?"
Gotoh Hitori had just come over and had not even had time to think before her boyfriend assigned her a difficult task.
"Making it so mysterious, Toru-kun, you're really boring. Alright then, Hitori-chan, hurry up and tell me who that mysterious girlfriend is."
Kita was radiating blazing normie energy, making Bocchi chan unable to open her eyes for a moment.
"I really want to know who it is that secretly confessed and snatched away the prize while everyone else was defaulting to not confessing first."
"Ah… defaulting to not confessing?"
What kind of rule was that?
Bocchi chan's clumsy little brain could not understand it at all.
"Because no matter who it is in the band, as long as they confessed, Toru-kun would not reject them. So for fairness, it is only right to wait for him to confess first, right?"
Kita continued explaining. "Just sneaking ahead and feeling smug, thinking you beat everyone else in the band. A woman like that should hurry up and kneel down to apologize properly."
"Is… is that how it is?"
Gotoh Hitori had never considered something like that. For her, just the difficulty of confessing was already off the charts.
She did not have the courage to sit calmly and wait for the fish to bite.
"Of course. Could it be that Hitori-chan does not think that way?"
As soon as Kita finished speaking, she saw Bocchi chan's legs go weak. She dropped to her knees on the ground and sincerely said in a dogeza posture—
"I am sorry!!!!"
"Hitori-chan, why are you suddenly apologizing…"
Kita did not react at first, until she recalled what she had just said.
The mystery was solved.
It was just that the answer was a bit strange.