One moment, he was Crazy Ollie—twenty-eight years old, legendary rockstar, five-continent tour under his belt. The next, he's Oliver Crayle, a seventeen-year-old nobody waking up in a cramped high school uniform with a classroom full of strangers staring at him.
No band. No stage. No explanation.
Just a window seat, a sleepy coastal town, and hands that still remember every note he's ever played.
Determined to chase the music that got left behind in his old life, Oliver can't go five minutes
Crazy Ollie's School Rom-Com Operation! - Mio goes wild! Smash the lies, prove it with a song.
The classroom was so cold it hurt to breathe.
Outside the window, Sagami Bay glowed a dull gray beneath the clouds, and the autumn sea breeze rattled the window frames from time to time. A little over two weeks since his reincarnation. Kureijii Orii sat at his desk—the one that had been returned from the hallway—his golden eyes narrowed as he stared at the empty seat beside him. He had no friends. His textbooks still had torn pages. And yet his fingers kept tapping the edge of his desk—tap, tap-tap—quiet and steady.
(*It's quiet. The world has lost its sound.*)
As if the world itself had been recorded in silence. No one looked him in the eye. No one called his name.
That's when it happened.
*SLAM!!*
The front door of the classroom burst open.
A girl stood there, out of breath. Her milk-tea-colored short bob clung to her cheeks with sweat. Her small frame had her uniform in disarray, and both knees were trembling. Her round brown eyes were glossy, desperately holding back tears that threatened to spill. At the collar of her sailor uniform, a small trumpet pin caught the morning light. Brass band club, first-year: Mio.
She cut through the classroom air, step by step, walking toward Orii.
"Senpai!"
Orii slowly raised his head.
"Yo, kouhai."
"I—I heard! That you're being expelled...!"
Her voice was shaking. Her shoulders heaved up and down.
"Yeah. I tore it up. A scrap of paper can't stop my sound."
"But—!"
Mio pressed her lips together tightly, then leapt out into the middle of the classroom.
There, her classmates were stirring restlessly.
Girls by the window stealing glances at him. Onlookers stopping in the hallway. Before anyone knew it, a crowd of students had gathered at the classroom entrance. Everyone looked at Orii like he was something untouchable.
Mio straightened her back.
"Everyone, listen!!"
The air in the classroom froze for an instant.
Silence.
Someone shuffled a step backward.
"I'm Mio, first-year in the brass band club! I know this person! On the first day of school, I heard it in the hallway. Orii-senpai's song! At that moment, my heart truly trembled!"
Her voice, trembling as it was, reached every corner of the classroom clearly.
A girl flinched.
Murmurs spread like ripples.
"What is she saying..."
"Mio-chan, you should stop..."
"Listen! Orii-senpai never threatened Sakura-senpai! The piano in the music room—some of you know it's been playing every night, right? That was Orii-senpai playing! Sakura-senpai came to listen to that sound of her own free will!"
"Do you have proof?"
A voice cut in.
From the front door of the classroom.
Silver-tinged short hair, shaved at the sides, sharp deep-green eyes. His hair, stiffened with styling product, didn't move even when the wind blew in. Tall. The president of Namimachi East High School's student council, the "Seiritsu-kai"—Ryuuji stood with his arms crossed.
Ryuuji.
Orii stared at him.
"Senpai."
"By the Seiritsu-kai's resolution, your expulsion has been decided. Making a scene is pointless."
"I have proof!"
With trembling fingers, Mio pulled her phone from her skirt pocket.
"Look at this!"
She held it up high, showing the screen to the whole classroom.
What appeared on the small screen was—a photo of a diary.
*"Today I listened to Orii-san's piano. That sound felt like it was playing just for me. It must be fate. I want to go listen again tomorrow."*
Round, girlish handwriting.
*"The student council people say Orii-san is a bad person. That's wrong. He's just singing. I'm the one who fell in love on my own."*
The air in the classroom shifted.
"...What is this?"
"Sakura-san's diary?"
"Sakura-senpai's little sister asked me. She said, please talk to Orii-senpai about the truth about my sister."
Her voice grew heated.
"Ryuuji-senpai! The signature from Sakura-senpai that's being used as grounds for expulsion—it's fabricated!! Sakura-senpai never wrote that! Sakura-senpai has been absent from school! A discipline committee member stomped on her lunch, and then Ryuuji-senpai cornered her—"
The words poured out like a flood.
"What are you basing this on?"
His left eyebrow twitched upward slightly.
"The basis is this! Sakura-senpai's diary has a continuation! 'The student council president's face was terrifying that day.' 'If the word expulsion is brought up, I can't go to school anymore'!"
The classroom erupted in murmurs.
"No way."
"The president did..."
"Shut up!!"
Ryuuji's voice pierced through the classroom.
But Mio didn't back down a single step.
Her small frame seemed to swell even larger as she looked up at Ryuuji with tear-filled eyes.
"Sakura-senpai just wants to listen to Orii-senpai's sound! I want to listen too! Because senpai's songs make my heart tremble! What's wrong with that!? Listening to music, crying, laughing—is that against school rules!?"
That's when it happened.
Orii slowly stood up.
The chair creaked.
Every gaze in the classroom gathered on him.
"...I heard it, Mio."
His voice was low. But it carried heat.
"Your sound was ringing, clear and true. A good sound—one that shatters lies."
"Senpai..."
At last, a single tear slid down her cheek.
Orii turned to face Ryuuji.
"Ryuuji. Your documents are made of paper, and letters, and surface-level correctness."
"You understand nothing."
"I understand plenty. I can tell just by looking at your face. You're afraid of my sound. Isn't that right?"
"Nonsense."
"Nonsense or not, fine. But I'll say this much. If something's wrong with Sakura, I'm going. Expulsion or whatever—I'll walk there on my own two feet and see her."
The air in the classroom changed.
The coldness from before slowly, steadily, turned to heat.
"I'm going too!!"
Mio's voice overlapped with Orii's words.
"I won't let you go alone! Your songs made my heart tremble! So Sakura-senpai must be waiting for your song too!"
Orii's mouth curved up at the corner.
"That so? Then follow behind me."
He started walking without looking back.
His footsteps echoed down the hallway.
Mio chased after him at a quick trot.
Behind the two of them, someone in the classroom clapped softly.
*Clap, clap.*
The two-person applause became three, then four.
Before long, the whole classroom was wrapped in scattered, uneven applause.
—After school.
Sakura's house was in a quiet residential area, about a fifteen-minute walk from Namimachi Station.
The nameplate read "Sakura."
An old wooden house, with pink curtains closed over the second-floor window.
Orii stood still for a moment in front of the entrance.
(*Pressing the intercom. Such a simple thing, and yet it feels this heavy.*)
"Senpai."
Mio's small hand gently pushed against Orii's back.
"Let's go. I'm here too."
Orii pressed the intercom—*ding-dong*.
No response.
He pressed it again.
Eventually, light footsteps pattered, and an older woman with a kind face appeared at the door. Sakura's mother.
"Oh my, Teikoku-kun..."
When Orii gave a slight bow, she nodded with a pained expression.
"Sakura hasn't been coming to school. Can I see her?"
"Yes. But that girl won't come out of her room. She just keeps saying she wants to hear the song. Please. Please help her."
The two of them were let inside.
They climbed the old stairs, one step at a time.
The room at the far end of the second floor.
In front of the room with pink curtains, Mio held her breath.
The door was firmly shut.
The silence was so thick it felt tangible.
"Sakura."
Orii stood right in front of the door.
No answer.
(*Then I'll open it with sound.*)
He closed his eyes.
Then, quietly, he began to hum.
A song he hadn't released to the world yet. An unfinished new song he'd been building little by little in the music room, night after night.
"—♪"
There were no lyrics yet.
But the melody alone gently shook the air of the hallway.
Softly, a warmth nestled up beside him.
It was Mio.
"Hmm, hm-hmm..."
She mimed playing a trumpet with her lips, layering a harmony with her small, rounded mouth.
Sounds spilling from her lips.
Clumsy, like a whistle, like a trumpet—but warm.
The two sounds seeped through the closed door.
From Orii's throat, something resembling a song gradually overflowed.
"♪—You can come back. Your place is right here, waiting. ♪"
How long had they been doing that?
—*Click.*
The door moved slightly from the inside.
Mio's harmony stopped.
Orii's humming stopped too.
Silence.
The door opened, just a crack.
"...Nn... uu..."
Sobbing she couldn't hold back.
Long black hair.
Large, deep-purple eyes wet with tears.
Sakura stood there.
She had grown thin. Her cheeks were slightly hollow.
"Sakura."
"...It's true. I wanted to hear your song."
A voice that seemed about to break.
The next moment, Sakura threw herself into Orii's chest.
"...You came. You really came."
"Of course I did. The seat next to me that you're not sitting in—the sound only rings at half volume."
Orii gently wrapped his trembling hands around Sakura's back.
"If you won't smile, I'll make a song that makes you smile. That's what I decided."
"I'll go to school tomorrow."
She said it through her tears.
"Don't be late. ...I'll say good morning to you."
"...Thank you. For a song that makes my heart tremble. Thank you."
Sakura's fingers gripped the chest of Orii's uniform tightly.
Beside them, Mio was crying her eyes out, stifling her voice.
"Why are *you* crying?"
"Because, because...! You two... I'm so glad...!"
Tears and smiles were all mixed up together.
The next morning.
The sea breeze was a little gentler than yesterday.
At the entrance of Namimachi East High School.
Orii, Sakura, and Mio walked side by side.
Ahead of them.
Silver short hair.
A perfectly straight posture.
Ryuuji stood waiting, arms crossed.
"Yo."
"Sakura-kun. You're with that man too, I see."
Sakura shrank back.
"Eep..."
"There's no need to be afraid. You are not the problem."
Ryuuji stepped toward Orii.
"I'll tell you now."
"What."
"I have no intention of withdrawing your expulsion. By the Seiritsu-kai's resolution, I will denounce you before the entire school assembly as a foreign element that damages this academy's dignity."
Orii looked back at Ryuuji, completely unfazed.
"...You're going to denounce me in front of the entire student body?"
"That's right."
"And you don't get it? That means you're putting a spotlight on me in front of the whole school."
Ryuuji's left eyebrow twitched.
"What are you trying to say?"
"The stage is set, then. In that case, I'll just sing there. A sound that shatters your documents, your forged signatures—everything."
Ryuuji's expression shifted slightly.
(*This guy really is afraid.*)
(*Even though he wants my sound more than anyone.*)
That's what Orii thought.
"Senpai..."
"It's all right, Orii-san. I'll listen to your song from the closest seat."
Sakura's trembling hand gently touched Orii's back.
"If you hesitate, the two behind you are gonna cry. So I'm going."
"Do as you please."
"What's wrong with doing as I please? Stopping one girl's tears is way more rock 'n' roll than protecting this academy's dignity."
Ryuuji said nothing more.
Orii stared straight into those sharp eyes.
—The school assembly.
It wasn't the culture festival stage.
But he would definitely be standing in front of the entire student body.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
"Senpai can do it!"
"...You two are noisy."
Orii looked up at the entrance where the sea breeze blew.
The sky was still overcast.
(*On the next stage, I'll make them listen. My song.*)
(*To everyone in this academy.*)
Orii clenched his fist tightly.
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