After the movie ended.
Toru noticed that a light rain had fallen in the afternoon.
Before they went into the theater, the sunlight had been bright and the sky perfectly clear.
On the way home.
Toru began talking about the movie.
"The movie we just watched was pretty good."
He had known from the start that the film was going to stab the audience in the heart, so he had prepared himself.
Still, when the final scene came and the hero faded into a soft trail of light after embracing the heroine, Toru felt a twist in his stomach anyway.
"Yeah, it was decent."
Ryo calmly took out the stomach medicine she always carried.
After the last simulator session, most of Ryo-san's stomach issues had gotten better, and she hadn't taken medicine in a long time.
Unless Toru pulled some stunt on her again.
Thinking back.
Ryo-san had always been the one getting tormented by others.
Now, she had finally risen to the top.
Not to mention anything else, but among the women around him, how many would invite Toru on a date and actually get him to agree?
Either way, that one red haired woman certainly couldn't do it.
Ahem.
The role of being tormented never disappears, it only shifts.
"The hero is really pitiful. He clearly fell in love with the heroine, but as a yokai, he couldn't even hold her."
Because in the movie's setting, a yokai would die if they touched a human.
"As long as they don't hug, they won't die."
Ryo-san replied.
"But a couple in love not being able to hug or kiss, that's too cruel."
"..."
Ryo rolled her eyes in a cute little arc.
This was the same Toru who once refused to even kiss her during their pretend Platonic romance, yet now he could say something like that?
While they talked.
The two walked toward the street outside the mall.
Ten minutes later.
Toru and Ryo entered the train station.
Inside the gently swaying train car, they sat side by side, shoulder to shoulder.
Ryo-san seemed a little sleepy, leaning her weight against him as she drifted into dreams.
He adjusted his position slightly.
After making sure Ryo was sleeping comfortably.
Toru picked up his phone, put on his Bluetooth earphones, and listened to Guitar Hero's new release.
Along the way, he chatted casually with Nijika about family matters.
At the end, he went to like Kita's new posts on social media.
After checking in on the lives of his 2D wives.
The train arrived at their stop.
Holding the half asleep Ryo by the hand.
Toru got ready to take her home.
————
An hour later.
Inside the dim little room.
"Wanna do it?" Toru asked.
Ryo nodded. "Yeah."
An hour later.
They were done, and Toru set down the controller.
Cooking was such a pain.
This game called Confused Kitchen was really hard.
No wonder people online kept saying couples shouldn't play it.
Halfway through, they'd start complaining about each other's controls and end up hurting their relationship.
Watching the result screen pop up.
Ryo put down her controller too.
She wasn't invested in the game, winning or losing didn't matter to her.
This was just a pretext, the point wasn't the game at all, but the time spent together.
Ryo-san had come today to deepen her bond with Toru, to close the distance between their hearts.
There was no need to rush.
Ryo wasn't anxious.
She was confident in her own charm. Ryo-san believed that as long as they spent more time together, Toru would naturally fall for her.
If all else failed, she could always use the foolproof final tactic of making things irreversible.
A cute girl throwing herself at him, he wouldn't refuse that, right?
Then they could marry with a baby on the way and everything would be settled.
————
After that.
They played games for a little longer.
Until dinner time.
Since there were no ingredients at home, Toru ordered from an upscale sushi place. They happened to have gotten a fresh bluefin tuna today, so they were lucky.
After enjoying the meal.
Toru needed to do his daily piano practice.
Ryo listened quietly in the piano room.
For someone who loved music like Ryo-san, listening to someone she liked play piano was far more enjoyable than playing games.
Later that night.
Ryo didn't stay over and took the train home.
Toru had thought he would be hit with her fierce, storm like romantic advances that evening. Instead, it ended up being all thunder and almost no rain.
She was truly a mysterious woman.
He could never guess what she was thinking.
————
One week later.
Inside the STARRY practice room.
Nijika noticed that Kita wasn't herself today. Her eyes kept drifting to the floor, as if something was weighing on her mind.
'The holiday is almost over.'
Hitori felt a sadness she couldn't describe.
She had planned to make progress with Toru.
But the plan had died before it even began.
She couldn't even bring herself to ask him out.
How could she ever get closer to him?
"Kita-chan, do you want to go out together tomorrow?"
Nijika wanted to use this chance to take Kita out for some fresh air, and maybe ask her privately what was bothering her.
However.
Before Kita could answer.
Ryo looked over at Kita and cut in. She had also noticed that Ikuyo had been distracted today.
"Ikuyo, do you need us to help you with anything?"
"…Yeah."
Kita snapped out of it for a moment, then realized everyone was looking at her.
Not wanting to worry her friends, she waved her hands and smiled. "I- I'm fine, really. Just a small problem, I'll handle it myself."
But her words didn't reassure anyone.
They only made everyone more worried.
"Kita-chan, don't bottle your troubles inside, okay?" Nijika said gently.
"K-Kita classmate…"
Hitori tried to comfort her, but couldn't think of any comforting words.
After hesitating for a long time, she copied what hot blooded manga heroes would say. "We're partners, r-right?"
"Ikuyo, we're bandmates. There's no need to hide things."
"Ryo-senpai…"
Kita felt touched.
After taking a moment to gather herself.
She lowered her head and said in a small voice, "I'm sorry. My family found out that I joined a rock band."
When the words fell.
Their reactions varied.
Hitori had thought it was something serious, and once she realized the truth, she let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Ryo showed a thoughtful expression.
Among the girls present, Nijika was the most normal, and she quickly figured it out.
"Kita-chan, your parents don't want you to join the band, do they?"
Dreams not being supported by one's family was pretty common.
Teenagers always had idealistic thoughts about their dreams, and they would crash hard into the wall of reality.
Parents didn't want their kids to get hurt, so they tried to limit them.
On top of that.
The word rock didn't have a very good image among most people.
Especially for girls.
If an average parent heard their daughter say "I want to be a rock musician," maybe not one hundred percent, but at least ninety percent would oppose it.
But what if the job were different?
I want to be a teacher, I want to be a lawyer, I want to become a doctor…
Those three would get far fewer objections, maybe even support.