August 23rd — the third day of summer vacation.
Once things get busy, it's easy to lose track of time. In what felt like the blink of an eye, two whole days of break had already flown by.
As for Aoki's healthy sleep schedule? That had lasted exactly two days.
He went to bed at 1 a.m. last night and, for some reason, woke up unusually early this morning.
Needless to say, he wasn't feeling very energetic.
His alarm had gone off around 6 a.m. He lay in bed for a while, debating whether to fall back asleep. By the time he'd given up on the idea, the drowsiness was gone.
Groggy and disheveled, he dragged himself out of bed, changed clothes, and stumbled into the bathroom to wash up.
Just as he was splashing cold water on his face, his phone buzzed on the edge of the sink.
Still half-asleep, his brain took a moment to process what that meant—someone had sent him a message this early in the morning.
He tapped the screen to check the time.
A little past 7 a.m. Then, he glanced at the sender.
It was from Nijika.
Puzzled—since they weren't supposed to meet until 10, he unlocked the phone to read the message.
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[Nijika]: Aoki-senpai, is there anything you want to eat for lunch?
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Toothbrush dangling from his mouth, Aoki blinked at the message, visibly confused.
Wasn't today's plan just to help her carry some electronic drum equipment?
Lunch wasn't the point.
And besides, if they met up at 10, they might even be done shopping and back at the live house before noon.
So why was she texting him this early asking about lunch?
It wasn't just odd. It was downright suspicious.
Staring at the message, he mulled over it but couldn't figure out her intention.
Eventually, he decided to just be honest.
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[Aoki]: If it's just picking out the drums and bringing them back to the live house, it might not even take an hour. We can figure out lunch later.
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The message was marked as "Read" almost immediately.
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Back in Nijika's bedroom...
She had sent that message after psyching herself up for a good while, hoping to pin down where they'd eat lunch.
But the moment she saw Aoki's reply—which, in essence, said "there might not be any lunch"—her heart sank.
Still, she quickly forced herself to push that disappointment down.
'If he thinks it'll only take an hour, I'll just pretend to hesitate when we're picking the drum kit...'
After all, the real purpose of today's outing wasn't to buy drums.
Using that logic to console herself, she blinked at the screen, then typed a simple response to keep things from getting awkward:
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[Nijika]: Mm-hmm, okay, Aoki-senpai.
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The read receipt showed up, but there was no further reply from Aoki.
He probably figured the conversation was over.
She stared at the chat for a while longer, making sure she hadn't missed any messages, and then finally turned the screen off.
Even though the meetup was still hours away, her nerves were already getting the better of her.
'It's my first time doing anything like this...'
'What if I'm late? What if he realizes I didn't even buy the drums? What if he really doesn't want to eat lunch with me?'
All kinds of anxious thoughts swirled in her head.
She was so distracted that she could barely focus as she washed up.
That is, until she ran into her older sister in the living room—
Normally, Ijichi Seika would still be asleep at this hour.
But for some reason, she was already sitting on the couch, looking down at her phone.
As soon as she heard Nijika finish getting ready, Seika looked up.
She yawned lazily, then gave her little sister a once-over—up and down, slow and deliberate.
Her gaze was so intense that Nijika squirmed under it.
Then Seika spoke, deadpan:
"Going on a date? You might wanna put a little effort into your look. This won't cut it."
Already feeling self-conscious, Nijika completely froze at the word "date."
She opened her mouth to protest, stammering, "It's—it's not a date! We're just grabbing lunch, that's all. You said it yourself—friends eating lunch together is totally normal, right...?"
But her voice only grew quieter with every word.
Seika ignored the weak denial and continued casually:
"Maybe put on some light makeup? Even just a bit of lip gloss is fine. But seriously, you can't go out dressed like that. Tracksuit's a no."
"..."
"Ah, and one more thing. I forgot to mention this the other day—if you really want to get closer to him, maybe start by getting him to call you by your name, not just 'Ijichi-san.'"
She raised an eyebrow thoughtfully.
"Aoki calls Gotou 'Bocchi-chan,' uses Ryo's name casually, and calls Kita just 'Kita.' You're the only one he refers to so formally.
So here's an idea—tell him it's confusing to have two Ijichis around and get him to call you 'Nijika.' What do you think?"
"O—Onee-chan!!"
The blush that had been lightly dusting her cheeks immediately bloomed into full-on red, all the way to her ears.
Already a nervous wreck, Nijika couldn't take any more of this.
Flustered and embarrassed, she shouted out and bolted for her bedroom, face burning, slippers smacking loudly on the floor.
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Meanwhile, over on Aoki's side...
After sending his last message, he put his phone down and went back to his morning routine.
He finished brushing his teeth, looked in the mirror, and did his best to tame the messy hair he'd slept on.
His bangs were long—long enough to cover his eyes when straightened.
He'd thought about getting it cut or maybe even shaving it down to a buzzcut, but a buzzcut didn't exactly scream "rock band."
Plus, his current style kinda worked with the band's image. And honestly, he was just too lazy to bother.
Once he'd gotten his hair presentable, he looked at the clock. It was only 7:30.
Plenty of time left.
He picked up the paperback novel he'd left face-down on the table the night before and started reading.
Time passed quietly until 9:20.
Even though the place they were meeting wasn't far from his apartment, he figured it was better to be early.
Following his principle of not causing trouble for others, he left 40 minutes ahead of schedule.
He rode the train to Shibuya, got off, and walked toward their meeting spot—the music store "ToneColor", right near the famous crossing.
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