"Okay."
Asai Yu picked up the old guitar placed at the very back and began to play.
At this stage, though, he truly was still a guitar beginner, so his performance was only average. Seeing this, the teacher couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed and turned to ask the other students instead.
Just then, a quiet blonde girl stood up and said she could play the piano. She went up to the instrument and performed a piece.
It had to be said—her level was genuinely good, easily top-tier amateur.
After finishing, the girl returned to her seat, right next to Asai Yu. Perhaps buoyed by the confidence from her performance, she started chatting with him.
With the goal of farming Affinity bonus experience, Asai Yu smiled and responded politely to everything. At least in his own estimation, he'd behaved plenty like a cheerful, approachable extrovert.
The other party looked happy as well—but the final result was that the experience didn't increase at all.
So this was a purely surface-level classmate, huh.
Asai Yu even began to suspect that this blonde girl from the compulsory class was the one orchestrating his isolation. Honestly, the probability was very high—after all, system panel data didn't lie.
At that moment, seeing that no other students stepped forward with instruments, the music teacher's gaze once again settled on the pink-haired student.
Years immersed in music had honed her instincts. Those instincts told her that this Anon absolutely knew how to play the piano. That aura—she'd only ever seen it in high-level pianists.
"Anon, may I ask—besides guitar, are you proficient with any other instruments? For example, the piano?"
Before Asai Yu even answered, the Affinity bonus experience shot up rapidly, climbing straight to 20 points.
Looks like this teacher had quite a favorable impression of her—and had probably noticed something.
Asai Yu stood up, no longer bothering to hide it deliberately. "Piano… I can play a little."
It wasn't that he wanted to conceal the fact that he could play piano. It was just that once such a talent was revealed, it could greatly affect Anon's future life. After all, Anon herself could only play a bit of guitar and knew absolutely nothing about piano.
As expected!
The music teacher clasped her hands together, delighted. "Then please come up and give it a try."
Asai Yu walked forward, sat down steadily at the piano, placed both hands on the keys, and his expression gradually became serious.
Seeing this, the other students couldn't help feeling a sense of anticipation. Judging by her posture, she really did seem to know what she was doing.
Only the teacher and the blonde girl looked different—their eyes filled with surprise.
In their eyes, the moment Anon sat before the piano, her entire presence changed drastically. Someone who hadn't played piano for at least ten or twenty years could never give off that kind of transformation.
"Can you really play the piano?" Anon asked in his mind, equally curious.
"Yes," Asai Yu replied.
Then his fingers pressed down on the keys. As the music rang out, a look of astonishment surfaced on the teacher's face.
Because the piece he was playing was Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.
That's right—the Mozart Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Variations.
The music teacher felt a wave of disappointment. Had she misjudged after all?
Hearing the familiar melody, the other students found it amusing. It seemed Anon really was a piano beginner.
"Hehe, so it's this song. But you really can play it, and it actually sounds pretty good," Chihaya Anon chuckled, then praised him.
Asai Yu didn't respond. He continued playing seriously, stopping about ten seconds into the second variation before returning to his seat.
At this moment, the music teacher was frowning deeply—then suddenly her expression relaxed, shock flashing through her eyes.
The melody of the piece was simple, but to play it well was extremely difficult, especially in terms of tone control.
To amateurs, it was just something to listen to for fun. Only those truly familiar with piano music could tell: Anon's handling of tone was practically flawless.
Just then, the bell rang for the end of class.
Asai Yu was about to leave the music room when the teacher stopped him.
"Anon, your piano playing is excellent! Do you have some time right now?"
Asai Yu saw straight through her intentions. "Sorry, teacher. I don't have any plans to participate in piano competitions for now. Guitar, on the other hand, I might consider."
Guitar?
Let's… forget about that for now.
The music teacher tried persuading him earnestly for a while longer, but seeing that he wouldn't budge, she could only let him go in the end.
At this point, Chihaya Anon realized she might have seriously underestimated him.
"Ahem… actually, I noticed it too. Yu-Yu, your piano is amazing. So why don't you enter the competition?"
"That's my ability—something you absolutely can't learn. If I went and something unexpected happened, forcing you to take the stage instead, do you think you could handle it?" Asai Yu countered.
"Well… uh…" Anon was left speechless. Two seconds later, she tried to save face. "I can learn! I only studied guitar for a few days and I'm already really good. There are videos of me playing guitar on my tablet—you can watch them!"
Asai Yu shook his head. "You won't be able to. Focus on practicing guitar instead."
"But my guitar is already really good," Chihaya Anon insisted stubbornly.
Hearing this, Asai Yu said nothing more.
Teaching people directly was never as effective as letting reality teach them. He'd just use the guitar to knock her down a peg later.
At this time, it was two in the afternoon. Asai Yu extended the session by another six hours. He'd lose four hours afterward, but there was no helping it.
After returning to the classroom, that blonde girl suddenly approached him on her own initiative.
"Your piano is really impressive. Did the teacher talk to you about entering the school competition?" she asked.
Asai Yu knew she was shrewd, so he casually brushed her off. "No. We talked about something else."
Seeing his cold attitude, the blonde girl didn't ask further. She smiled and left the classroom, but her right hand was clenched tightly into a fist, as if suppressing anger.
The second class of the afternoon was the Japanese elective. For the two of them, it was completely a blow-off class.
Asai Yu spent two hours mapping out Anon's plan for the next month—vocabulary memorization, grammar study, guitar practice, regular schoolwork, everything packed tightly together, with adjustments to be made later depending on evening classes back in Japan.
It was the first time Anon had seen such a crammed schedule. "With this kind of arrangement, I'll definitely die of exhaustion!"
"The intensity is already very low. You'll adapt. This is how I went through school too," Asai Yu said, recalling his past life.
"Yu-Yu went through this too?" A spark of competitiveness instantly flared in Chihaya Anon's heart. "Then let's turn up the intensity!"
"Alright!" Asai Yu nodded immediately and reorganized an even harsher study plan.
No—she'd just said that casually…
At that moment, Anon wanted nothing more than to punch her past self and tell herself not to talk big so lightly ever again.