Stepping out of STARRY, Ishikawa Hayabusa and Ryo walked side by side down the streets of Shimokitazawa, neither fast nor slow.
One of them — Ryo — wore her usual cool, distant expression, practically radiating a "keep your distance" vibe.The other — Hayabusa — strolled with an easy smile on his face, as if humming a tune in his head.
They looked like two people forced to walk together, yet somehow, the sight of them side by side gave off the impression of an oddly well-matched pair.
The scenery shifted with every step they took.
Hayabusa glanced at Ryo walking calmly beside him, sensing that she had no intention of starting a conversation. So he didn't either.
The two of them just kept moving forward in silence.
As Hayabusa let his eyes wander across the streets of Shimokitazawa, glowing under the soft May afternoon sun, a voice suddenly broke the quiet.
"Hayabusa, aren't you in a hurry?"
It took him half a step before he realized the question had come from Ryo. Turning his head, he looked at her.
Even as she spoke, Ryo kept her eyes fixed ahead. Her stride and her gaze were steady as always. The deep-blue hair clip pinning her side bangs swayed slightly with every step.
Hayabusa was puzzled.In a hurry? Did she mean about how leisurely they were walking?
Perhaps sensing his stare, Ryo turned her head slightly, lifting her golden eyes to look at him. There was something about that gaze — the pressure it carried was intense.
Seeing Hayabusa's confused expression, she explained:
"The band."
Ah. So that's what she meant.
But that only made Hayabusa more curious.Was Ryo suddenly feeling anxious about their progress? She didn't seem like the type. To him, she had always seemed like someone who played music simply because she loved it.
So she must just be asking out of concern.
That was…Well, it wasn't often that Ryo openly cared about someone or something. For her to bring this up — he almost felt honored.
He smiled faintly, met her gaze for a moment, and said:
"Not at all. I learned something a while back — not taking shortcuts is actually the fastest way to get where you want to be."
He turned his head back to the street, watching a stranger pass by and disappear into the crowd almost instantly.
"Rushing toward success doesn't mean anything. Life isn't meant to be speedrun — like a good game, you're supposed to take your time and enjoy it."
Ryo nodded, seemingly satisfied with that answer."Good."
It seemed she had been wondering whether Hayabusa — who had once been so desperate to join a band, and had since learned his instrument — might lose interest and quit because of the band's slow progress.
Hayabusa caught on and gave her a teasing smile.
"Wait — Ryo, are you worried I'll leave the band?"
"Yes." Ryo met his gaze, nodding without hesitation."You're interesting."
…
That short exchange ended, and the air between them returned to calm.
But for the two of them — who seemed to instinctively grasp something about each other's nature — silence wasn't awkward.
There was no anxiety, no feeling of having to force conversation.
"We're here."
Ryo stopped in front of a modern-style mansion surrounded by a black wall. She pressed a button near the gate, and when it clicked open, she walked straight in.
Hayabusa followed without hesitation, stepping inside after her.
When the gate clanged shut behind them — closed casually by Hayabusa — Ryo turned and gave him a slightly blank look.
He played dumb, raising an eyebrow."What's wrong?"
Ryo tilted her head up slightly, giving him a proud little smile that somehow carried a trace of unease.
"Feels like I just let someone dangerous into my house."
Hayabusa grinned and walked over until he was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with her.
"Professional pervert, at your service, ma'am," he said with mock pride.
…
Meanwhile, Kita Nijika had sprinted all the way home — and hadn't even noticed the notification tone from her phone.
She went straight to her room, closed the door, and sat on the edge of her bed, staring at the practice drum nearby.
When Hayabusa had guessed what she was thinking earlier, she had panicked — she didn't even know why she had run that fast, why her heart had been pounding so hard.
Nervousness. Embarrassment.
Both emotions were still churning in her chest.
It felt like she was hiding something so small, so subtle, that even she herself hadn't fully realized it was there.
She stopped herself from taking the drum downstairs, sitting still for a moment, following the thread of that thought.
Was that "something" related to Hayabusa?
She didn't know.
So she started thinking about what she thought of Ishikawa Hayabusa.
He was… different. Among everyone she'd ever met, he definitely stood out as one of the most unusual.
And for the past month, he had come to STARRY almost every day. He was, by far, the boy around her age she interacted with the most.
Naturally, she found her eyes drawn to him more often than not.
He was—
Impulsive.Their first meeting had been completely unexpected. She hadn't even gotten the posters up yet, and he had just shown up out of nowhere, insisting on joining the band.
Still, impulsive people weren't rare in the music world. Many musicians made snap decisions like that — and stuck with them.
Hardworking.Hayabusa learned things ridiculously fast — but what was even scarier was that he never wasted a single moment once he started learning something.
Even when Ryo picked apart his mistakes in the harshest way, he'd just grin and fix them immediately.
It was like watching a cheerful RPG hero repeatedly charge the demon king, lose, then get back up smiling to try again.
Though lately, after getting a perfect evaluation from Ryo, he had finally stopped — at least outwardly — giving the impression of someone working 24/7.
Reliable.Honestly, when Kita had run away before, she had felt her heart sink.
She hadn't expected much from their next performance after that.
But Hayabusa had turned the situation around completely, piecing together what had been falling apart, creating the best outcome they could've hoped for.
Even in the past two days, he had kept the atmosphere within the band lively and cooperative.
If he weren't there, things probably would have been a lot worse.
Perverted.…
She was still zoning out when her phone — silent all this time — buzzed again.
A message? Now?
Was it from Hayabusa and the others?
She fished her phone out of her pocket.
It was a LINE message — and it looked ominous.
It was from her older sister.
"Nijika, Ryo just invited the pervert over to her house."
And below that, a second message:
"Well? What happened?"
Kita glanced at the timestamp — the first message had been sent ten minutes ago.
The "pervert" obviously referred to Hayabusa.So… he and Ryo were at her house. Just the two of them.
A bead of cold sweat formed on Nijika's forehead.
The next second, she exploded.
"Why didn't you just call me, sis?!"
Even panic couldn't erase the sweetness of her voice as it rang out in her room.
But before the sound had even faded, the door burst open with a loud slam.
…
Inside Ryo's house.
"Come in."
"My thanks."
Hayabusa said it with exaggerated seriousness.
Ryo stood across from him in her room, her eyes lingering on his face for a long moment.
Realizing how his words might have sounded, Hayabusa quickly added:
"This is my first time in a high school girl's room."
Ryo touched her chin thoughtfully, then broke into a mock businesslike smile and held out her hand.
"Then pay up — entrance fee."
"You were the one who invited me!"
Hayabusa couldn't help but snap back — but then he grinned wickedly, pulling out his wallet and showing her.
"The wallet of a pervert," he said dramatically, "is as empty as his shame."
Ryo glanced at the empty wallet, and her fake smile vanished in an instant. Silently, she turned around and walked deeper into the room.
Hayabusa followed after her.
…
"Haa… haa…"
Nijika finally reached Ryo's neighborhood — and the sight of her friend's mansion-sized house knocked the last bit of strength out of her.
She bent forward, hands on her knees, breathing hard.
But after only two seconds, the worry gnawing at her heart forced her to grab her phone and dial Ryo's number.
The wait for the call to connect felt unbearably long.
Phone pressed to her ear, she walked up to the gate.
By the time the call connected, she was ready to storm the place without even announcing herself.
"Nijika."
Ryo's voice was low, slightly husky — the phone's speaker filter making it sound even rougher.
Hearing her voice calmed Nijika somewhat, but she had come all this way — she had to see for herself what those two were doing alone together.
"Ryo, I'm outside your house," she said.
"Oh. Come in."