Akina Saegusa's Love Secretly Echoes in the After-School Music Room - The sound of a pain-in-the-ass youth, just beginning.

Sorry, I'll pass on karaoke. In the classroom after school, still slumped over his desk, he said that, and the guy from his class made a bored face. The early June sunlight streaming through the window was still a little soft, and from the hallway, he could hear someone laughing. It was all so, like, peak youth— (What a pain.) Saegusa Akina muttered in his heart. The classroom door slammed shut. After the classmates from earlier had left, it suddenly got quiet, and only the sound of the wind outside the window remained. Akina slowly raised his head and cracked his neck. His slightly long black bangs fell carelessly over his eyes. It was annoying, but getting them cut was a pain too, so he just left them. His deep brown eyes were half-closed now, probably what his childhood friend would call "dead fish eyes." "...Gotta get ready for my stream." He muttered in the empty classroom and pulled out his phone. What showed on the lock screen was the channel management page for 580,000 subscribers. Notifications were piled up. Collab requests, sponsorship deals, comments from fans. Lively, warm—his other place to belong. But at this school, only one person knew about that. Akina found himself looking down at his school uniform. The second button was undone, giving him a slightly sloppy look. His slender body was a bit hunched over, with none of the muscle you'd see on a sports club guy. (Well, whatever.) At least the three small moles lined up on the back of his neck were properly hidden by his uniform collar. The fact that he kept his neck covered even in summer to hide a scar from when he was little—again, only that one person knew about that. A sigh escaped him. He looked outside the window. Sagami Bay glittered in the distance, the same scenery as always spreading out from the Harukaze Hill Academy school building. Minatosaki City—his hometown, a port town at the edge of Kanagawa. The Shiozake-dori in front of the station had a decent number of shops, and the seaside promenade, Uminomichi, was packed with couples in the evening. (They're really living that youth life.) Not that he cared. Scrolling through his phone, his eyes suddenly caught the thumbnail of his very first channel stream from two years ago. Back then—winter of his second year of middle school. He was on the verge of becoming a shut-in. The reason was simple: his girlfriend, whom he'd just started dating, had said to him: "You stream? Isn't that kind of creepy?" Those words spread through the class the next day, and a week later, the whole grade knew. Every day, eating lunch alone in the corner of the classroom. Being snickered at every time he passed someone in the hallway. (Ah, forget it.) Real-life human relationships were nothing but a pain. If you get your hopes up, you just get betrayed anyway. Then it's better not to hope in the first place. Thinking that, he was about to run away from everything—when the one who pulled him out was— "Akina!" The classroom door burst open with force. Standing there was his childhood friend, her flashy, waist-length blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail. A big black ribbon swayed gently, and the pink inner color at the tips of her hair shone through the light. Yuuhi Ririka. A second-year high school student, same as him, and a VTuber belonging to the same agency, Nijisanji. "Hey, you. You turned down karaoke earlier, didn't you? They went out of their way to invite you!" Ririka strode over and plopped herself down on Akina's desk. The hem of her skirt fluttered, and her spirited, almond-shaped eyes glared at him. "Whatever. It's a pain." "There you go again. Haven't you been sighing nonstop lately?" Ririka's face suddenly got close, and he instinctively leaned back. She didn't wear makeup, but her eyelashes were long, and her pupils seemed unusually large. She'd taken out her colored contacts for streaming, so now her eyes were long, narrow, and dark. "Something bothering you?" Her tone dropped a little. (That's the thing about her.) Normally, on stream, she played all sorts of characters—the big-sister type, the tsundere girlfriend type. But in front of him, sometimes, she showed a straightforward kindness that hadn't changed since they were kids. "It's nothing." "Hmm. Well, fine. But when you sigh, it affects the viewer count on our collab streams, you know!" "That's your point?" "Of course it is! The great Ririka-sama, with 420,000 subscribers, is worrying about you, so be grateful!" She turned away with a huff and crossed her arms—a gesture that hadn't changed at all since they were kids. He couldn't help but laugh a little. Ririka had lived next door since third grade. They played games together, made videos together for fun. And when he nearly became distrustful of people in middle school, "You're you. No matter what anyone says, I don't care." She'd said that, bluntly dragging him into the world of streaming. (Back then, I really...) Was saved. But he'd always pretended not to notice the meaning behind the special look Ririka sometimes gave him. "...Anyway. You're going to Finale today too, right?" "How did you know—" "Because you're always drinking their coffee every single day. That's why you can't sleep at night." "It's not... it's just calming there." "...Hmm." Ririka hopped off the desk and, heading for the door, looked back. "If you're holding something in, tell me. I pride myself on being your number one understander, you know." Leaving those words behind, Ririka left the classroom. Her footsteps faded down the hallway. In the now silent classroom, Akina sighed again. (Understander, huh.) She was right. If Ririka hadn't been there, he wouldn't be coming to school now, and he wouldn't be streaming. He was grateful. Immensely. But— (I know I probably can't return her feelings.) Somehow, he had that premonition. The wind from the sea carried a faint scent of salt. Shiozake-dori Shopping Street. This street, stretching from the station toward the sea, had a fair number of people walking even on a weekday evening. Akina passed under the arcade and stood in front of a small cafe. Above the wooden door, a handwritten sign. "Cafe Finale." A bell jingled. "Welcome—ah, Akina." The face that appeared from the back of the counter belonged to a man with black hair streaked with gray, tied back with a bandana. Behind his small round sunglasses, his eyes were a gentle brown, and deep wrinkles formed at the corners when he smiled. Segawa Touji. 38 years old, the owner of this shop. "Sighing again. Youth is a sour thing." With practiced hands, Segawa placed a cup down, poured coffee, and offered it. "Youth is nothing but a pain." He sat down at the counter and stared at the steaming coffee. "That's not the face of someone who means that. Something happen?" From across the counter, Segawa glanced at an old guitar placed nearby. The paint was peeling, and the strings were starting to rust. "...When I was still young, I was in a band." "Huh, I didn't know that." "Well, I never mentioned it. We got to the point of almost making a major debut—but a bandmate betrayed me, and it all fell apart." Taking a sip of coffee, Segawa continued. "Even now, I sometimes think about it. If I'd clashed with them more back then, maybe something would have changed. There are flavors you'll never taste your whole life if you're scared and run away. Even if it's sour, that's what makes it real." Akina absently traced the rim of his coffee cup with his finger. (Real...) "...That's tough." "Haha, well, yeah. But you're still young. While you're busy saying everything's a pain, it'll be over in a flash." After a bit more casual chat, Akina left the shop. The bitterness of the coffee still lingered on his tongue. The sun was starting to set, and the sky was beginning to turn orange. "Crap." He forgot his earphones at school. His streaming ones. Without them, he couldn't do tonight's live broadcast. Akina hurried back to Harukaze Hill Academy. When he passed through the school gate, the voices from club activities were already mostly gone. He walked briskly up to the third floor of the main building, heading for his classroom— ...Or so he thought. Faintly, he heard a singing voice. (Huh?) Akina's feet stopped. It was coming from the end of the third-floor hallway, from the direction of the music room. There shouldn't be anyone here at this hour. Cautiously, he approached. Leaking through the gap in the soundproof door was a girl's voice. She was singing a ballad from a popular recent anime song, and her skill was, honestly, a little—yeah, still developing. The pitch was unsteady, and she seemed to struggle a bit with the long tones in the high notes. But. At the core of her voice, there was something—how to put it—pure, sparkling. That, strangely, stuck in his ears. The evening sun streaming through the window dyed the hallway orange. Even without any wind, he felt a restless sensation in his chest. (...Who is it?) Unconsciously, Akina reached for the doorknob. Click. The singing stopped abruptly. "Eek!?" A small shriek came from inside, followed by a crash as something fell over. "—Ah, crap." He hurriedly opened the door. In the middle of the music room, stained crimson by the setting sun, a girl was sitting on the floor in a heap.

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Episode 1

Name: Akina Saegusa's Love Secretly Echoes in the After-School Music Room
Author: Novelia

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