"Ah?"
Ritsu looked at Yui in surprise.
"Yui, you still haven't paid it off yet?"
Come to think of it, it had already been almost an entire school year, hadn't it?
"Mm!"
Yui puffed up her cheeks and nodded pitifully.
"Okaa-san and the others said they'd deduct a little from my allowance every month until I finished paying back the advance."
After all, she had borrowed fifty thousand yen. For students like them, that was already a huge amount of money.
Fortunately, she could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Hearing this, Mio patted Yui's shoulder from the side and comforted her.
"But even though your allowance got smaller, Yui, you gained Gitah!"
"Exactly!"
Ritsu looked at Yui enviously.
"Originally, Gitah was super expensive. It only got discounted by half because of Mugi!"
After all, even the drum set she was currently using had been bought secondhand.
Thinking of this, Ritsu suddenly lunged toward Tsumugi, burying her face in Tsumugi's chest while tightly hugging her.
Looking up at her with teary eyes, she shouted:
"Mugi, please support me! I don't want to work hard anymore!"
At first, Tsumugi looked slightly confused by Ritsu's sudden actions, but after hearing her words, a gentle smile immediately appeared on her face as she patted Ritsu's head.
"Yes yes, what a good child."
At that moment, everyone felt the maternal aura radiating from Tsumugi's face was especially dazzling.
Oh!
An Ojou-sama's charm really is terrifying!
"Alright, stop embarrassing yourself here."
"Once we finish this project, you might be able to buy a new drum."
Sato shook his head while looking at Ritsu.
As the president of the Light Music Club, you seriously have no shame at all.
"How is that possible?! Good drum sets are really expensive!"
"Ahem, I said one drum, not an entire set."
Ritsu blinked at Sato, then pouted.
"What's the point of buying just one?"
"You can put it in your room and look at it! Maybe staring at it every day will motivate you to work harder!"
"Think about it. If you could perform at the Tokyo Dome someday, wouldn't you be able to buy whatever drum set you wanted?"
Sato smiled as he tempted her.
For a brief instant, a trace of longing really did appear in Ritsu's eyes.
The Tokyo Dome!
Standing in the center of the stage, surrounded by countless spotlights, while the audience seats all around were filled with cheering crowds.
That feeling would definitely be incredible!
But!
Ritsu quickly came back to reality. She sighed discouragingly and said:
"Compared to performing at the Tokyo Dome, it's probably more realistic to think about playing at underground live houses first."
Mio looked at Ritsu with relief in her eyes.
"Ritsu, you've finally become a little more realistic."
Sato, however, neither agreed nor disagreed. He simply smiled and asked:
"And why is that impossible?"
Swish!
The girls all turned to look at him, their eyes filled with surprise.
"Um... Sato, you're not actually serious, are you?"
Ritsu asked cautiously.
"If one year isn't enough, then two years. If two years aren't enough, then three."
"Maybe one day it really will happen."
"The moment when every member of our Light Music Club stands on the stage of the Tokyo Dome."
Looking at the girls exchanging glances, Sato smiled, then suddenly changed the subject.
"Forget it. Maybe it's still too early to talk about that now. Let's focus on finishing what's right in front of us first."
...
Late January.
For Japanese students, this was an unusual month, because January was the month of the national college entrance exams. The unified exams would take place in late January.
But this was not the end.
If students wanted to enter top-ranked universities, then besides taking the unified exam, they also had to participate in each university's independently administered entrance exam in February.
Generally speaking, after the unified exam results came out, students would roughly know their ranking and use it as the basis for choosing which universities to apply to.
However, this was not absolute. There were always students with unimpressive rankings who still chose to challenge more prestigious universities, and this was determined by Japan's admissions system.
Japanese university admissions were based on both unified exam scores and independent exam scores, with the latter carrying even greater weight. Therefore, students aiming for elite schools would usually participate in the independent exams after the unified exam, while even those with poor unified exam rankings still had a chance to make a comeback.
...
Narita International Airport.
Sato sat in the waiting area scrolling through his phone while browsing the Gensokyo website. As time passed, every section of the site had gradually become more active.
Especially the video section, where many new uploaders had appeared.
The impact brought by the danmaku system had exceeded even his expectations. Not only newcomers, but many famous uploaders from other video websites had also created accounts on Gensokyo.
They seemed to have foreseen the popularity of the danmaku system.
As a result, the video section had become the fastest-growing category on the site.
Just then, a soft body suddenly pounced onto Sato's back, and a pair of hands covered his eyes.
"Guess who I am?"
A deliberately lowered and muffled voice sounded from behind him. Although the voice sounded strange, the girlish softness in it was still obvious.
Sato helplessly removed the soft hands covering his eyes.
"Alright, Konomi, stop messing around."
Turning around, he saw the familiar girl behind him, Fujimiya Konomi.
She wore a brown knitted scarf, while her long brown hair was tied into a large ponytail that draped over her left shoulder. Hearing his words, she glared at him with puffed cheeks.
"Come on! You came here to pick me up!"
"If my eyesight hadn't been sharp enough, a guy like you who's busy staring at his phone would've ended up getting left behind at the airport!"
"Alright, alright, my fault! How about I treat you to a big dinner tonight as an apology?"
"Hmph! That depends on what kind of feast it is!"