Yamada Ryo carried back an armful of matcha sweets the souvenirs that Aoki Kei had bought for her and Nijika and returned to her hotel room.
The spacious two-person suite felt unusually quiet with Nijika still out.
She took a quick shower by herself, changing out of her rain-soaked hoodie, and flopped down onto her bed.
With nothing pressing to do, she let herself relax, eyes drifting toward the ceiling.
Unbidden, Aoki Kei's words from earlier floated into her mind—
"So it really did rain, huh."
And from there, her own reply followed—
"Wait until winter."
…
"If I confessed to you right now, how would you react?"
It was such a simple question. One that should have needed nothing more than a "yes" or "no."
So why wouldn't Aoki give her an answer?
'I'm just want to teased him a little….'
But why was she — the one so desperate for the answer — too hesitant to ask directly?
Why was she taking such a long detour around it?
Expressionless, she kept staring at the plain white ceiling, then pressed both hands against her cheeks.
Her palms felt slightly cool.
…She could think about all of this later.
———————————————————————
October 28th, Afternoon
With nothing better to do, Aoki Kei wandered aimlessly around the hotel for a bit before heading back.
For him, just visiting a single matcha café had made the whole trip worth it.
The only regret? If it hadn't rained in the morning, he would've visited a few more to decide once and for all which place had the best sweets.
But… it was only a passing thought. Without the chance, he couldn't be bothered to go out of his way.
Back in his room, he read until evening, then went out for dinner with Hikigaya.
Afterward, Hikigaya lingered in Kei's room until 9:30 p.m., complaining as he had before — that his own room was unbearably noisy.
When Hikigaya finally left, Kei washed up and went straight to bed.
———————————————————————
The Next Day — Friday, October 29th
The school had technically given students "two days of free activity," but in reality, only yesterday had been truly free.
After breakfast at 8:00 sharp, Hiratsuka-sensei started shepherding everyone onto the buses.
They'd taken buses for the trip to Kyoto, but for the return journey, the school had arranged buses to the station, then trains back to school.
That "second day of free time" ended up being nothing more than about half an hour of waiting around at Kyoto Station.
Kei didn't care much, but plenty of classmates grumbled.
Not that they'd dare say it out loud, everyone in Class 2-F knew Hiratsuka-sensei's temper all too well.
After a brief half-hour of milling about in the station, the students regrouped, boarded the train under Hiratsuka's watchful eye, and that was the end of the second-year trip to Kyoto.
The trip ended on a Friday.
By the time they returned to school, it was already the weekend — meaning two full days for the students to rest and adjust.
Some decided to squeeze in more fun, while the more diligent ones took the chance to catch up on the week of lessons they'd missed.
As for Aoki Kei—
Once he was back in Tokyo, his life quickly fell back into its old, busy rhythm.
———————————————————————
Saturday, 7:00 a.m.
The alarm dragged him out of bed.
Kei got up at once, washed up, and got ready.
Back in Kyoto, he had already arranged with Niijima Yusuke and the KL Company's representative to meet over the weekend to discuss an NDA and an original anime script.
Which meant that, even though he'd just gotten home, he was already on the move again — heading for Chiyoda Ward first thing in the morning.
This was work, so he couldn't exactly complain.
The meeting was set for 9:00 a.m.
After a quick breakfast and some last-minute grooming, he set out.
By 8:40, after a bumpy train ride, he arrived at KL Company's headquarters.
Despite being one of the industry's biggest names, KL's offices were surprisingly modest — just a single floor in a Chiyoda office building, not some sprawling corporate complex.
As the elevator doors opened, he unexpectedly ran into Niijima Yusuke himself.
"Oh! What a coincidence, Aoki-san!" Niijima greeted him warmly.
Kei was a little surprised to meet him there, but returned the greeting with a polite, "What a small world, Niijima-sensei."
And that was the end of their small talk.
Niijima had already told him about KL's representative their personality, their quirks — but since Kei was only handling the music, none of it was particularly relevant.
As a go-between, Niijima had already done more than enough just by making the introduction.
With Niijima leading the way, Kei bypassed all the usual reception formalities and was soon seated in a meeting room.
A few minutes later, Niijima returned with a man who looked to be in his early thirties.
"Aoki-san, this is Fujita-san — he's the lead on this KL project," Niijima introduced. "Fujita-san, this is Aoki-san, the talented composer I told you about."
After the introductions, they immediately moved into the inevitable round of polite flattery.
Fujita said things like, "I've heard your name for a long time" and "Your music is wonderful."
Kei replied that he'd been a huge fan of KL's anime for years — though in truth, he hadn't seen a single one.
Still, that wasn't important.
Once the mutual pleasantries were done, they got down to business.
First up was the NDA.
Fujita pulled a contract from his bag and handed it over. Kei read it through carefully.
The terms were simple:
The agreement would remain in effect until KL's anniversary anime aired.
If Kei leaked any part of the script, he would owe KL a one-time penalty of sixty million yen, along with any other damages.
Having read plenty of law-related books, Kei found no obvious loopholes.
After a brief discussion and confirmation with Niijima, he signed without hesitation.
Next came the script.
As stated in the contract, KL would send the full script to his email later that day — no paper copies provided.
Kei didn't mind.
Whether he got it now or a bit later didn't really make much difference.
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