Afternoon.
When Toru arrived at Starry, Gotoh Hitori was still hiding inside a mango box, completely motionless.
"Kitahara-kun, since you are here, hurry up and think of something. Bocchi-chan has been like this for an hour already."
Ijichi Seika noticed Toru's arrival and hurriedly asked for help.
"What happened?"
Toru looked confused and did not understand the situation.
After a year of training, Gotoh Hitori's social anxiety had already improved a lot.
At the very least, she would not turn into Mango Mask over trivial matters. Something clearly happened that exceeded her understanding.
"Did you pressure her?"
Toru guessed.
"At noon, the manager and I chatted with Bocchi-chan about some romance-related topics, and then she became like this."
PA-san looked at Toru with her beautiful eyes, full of anticipation.
The protagonist had finally arrived.
The great battlefield has begun to set, and PA-san had been waiting for most of the day already.
Over the past half year, she had been secretly eating melons and shipping couples, watching the four members of Kessoku Band and Toru constantly pull at each other, slowly advancing their relationships.
Finally!
PA-san had waited for the day when the victor would be decided.
Who would win Toru's love and claim the crown that symbolized victory?
The special girl with social anxiety, Gotoh Hitori?
Or the blue-haired ice-cold beauty, Yamada Ryo?
Or the blonde little angel, Ijichi Nijika?
Or lastly, the bright and cheerful girl, Ikuyo Kita?
Place your bets, place your bets.
At present, the girl with the highest win rate, in PA-san's opinion, was Ijichi Nijika. When the two of them were together, there was a kind of old-married-couple tacit understanding that she especially liked.
Besides that, Gotoh Hitori could not be underestimated either. Through her meticulous observation, Toru rarely took the initiative to tease girls... with only one exception, Bocchi-chan.
It was like elementary school boys deliberately pulling on a girl's ponytail to attract her attention.
Toru had a different kind of feeling toward Gotoh Hitori.
PA-san speculated that Gotoh Hitori might be Toru's first love. Otherwise, an ordinary person would have given up long ago on this pink, socially anxious pink Tsuchinoko... was the little angel Nijika not appealing enough, or was Ryo-san's offense not strong enough?
There was only one truth!
Toru liked Gotoh Hitori, genuinely.
As for Yamada Ryo and Kita?
No need to force it.
In short.
Bocchi-chan's current situation was not bad.
PA-san's mood right now was as follows:
She was simply hoping that Yamada Ryo and Kita would force Toru to reveal his trump cards, clearing away some obstacles for Bocchi-chan. Of course, it would be even better if they won. If they lost, and Bocchi-chan won and took the championship, then that championship would still owe one-third of the credit to Yamada Ryo and Kita. As for Ijichi Seika and Ijichi Nijika, two words, go with the flow.
PA-san was a Bocchi-chan fan, a rational pick.
"What are you smiling about? Your face is full of bad intentions." Manager Seika calmly interrupted PA-san's thoughts.
Their pa worked seriously, but recently she had become addicted to eating melons.
And the melons were from their own people.
"Uh..."
PA-san restrained her smile. "Nothing at all."
In her view, Toru slowly approached the mango box in the corner, squatted down, and knocked on it.
"Hitori."
"K-Kitahara-kun-kun..."
Gotoh Hitori peeked through the gap in the box, secretly observing the outside.
This was her first meeting with Toru since they started dating.
Thinking of the grievance she had just suffered in front of Ijichi Seika and PA-san, Gotoh Hitori wanted to immediately run into her boyfriend's arms and act spoiled, asking for comfort.
Unfortunately, she could not, because Bocchi-chan did not dare expose her secret relationship with Toru right now.
Kessoku Band's dream had not yet been realized.
If the truth surfaced, the band would probably not be far from disbanding.
"Where are Nijika and the others?"
"Ah... I do not know."
Bocchi-chan cautiously stood up, trying to move the cardboard box away while keeping it as intact as possible. She might need it again next time.
This cardboard box was her eternal home.
As for why her bad members disappeared?
Half an hour ago, Nijika-chan's voice had gradually faded away, along with Ryo-san and Kita-chan.
Otherwise, Gotoh Hitori would not have stayed inside the box the entire time, hiding from the scary Manager Seika and PA-san.
"Kitahara-kun-kun, w-we should go look for them..."
As Gotoh Hitori spoke, she moved the box aside, but because she had been squatting for an hour, her legs were a bit out of control.
She stumbled, her body falling toward Toru.
"Be careful."
Toru reacted quickly and wrapped his arms around her, preventing his girlfriend from getting hurt.
"Thank you..."
Gotoh Hitori buried her face into his chest, taking advantage of the rare chance to cling to him.
At the same time.
Three girls walked in from the entrance.
"..."
Gotoh Hitori: "6?9"
It's over, Our rose-tinted life is over.
The atmosphere froze instantly.
————
A few minutes earlier.
On the streets of Shimokitazawa.
"Will Hitori-chan like this flavor?... There are so many people at the dessert shop today. Sorry everyone, for asking you to come with me, but this dessert is limited edition. One person can only buy one."
Kita held up her phone and turned on the camera to take a photo of the dessert in her hand.
After posting it to her Instagram feed, Kita-chan nodded in satisfaction.
"No one dislikes free stuff." Ryo had been a bit poor lately.
No, she had always been poor.
This time, Kita treated them, saving Yamada Ryo one meal's worth of money.
"I really did not expect it... limited desserts are actually this expensive. One costs a thousand yen."
Nijika felt reluctant to eat it. "When we get back to Starry, we still need to think about how to get Bocchi-chan out of the box."
"Bocchi's condition today is not quite right," Ryo said.
If nothing unexpected happened, it should be related to Toru.
"Mhm mhm, today's Hitori-chan is really strange."
Kita nodded.
Something that could make Hitori inflated for an entire day was probably related to that guy.
Everyone in Kessoku Band basically knew who Hitori had a crush on.
But they had not given up on the possibility of stabbing her in the back, always considering cutting in and stealing the Toru's love.
"Bocchi-chan and Toru-kun, yesterday they seemed to..."
Nijika talked about how she accompanied Toru to Bocchi-chan's house to hang out yesterday.
After hearing her account.
Ryo and Kita both fell silent.
Bocchi-chan had actually started sneaking ahead. How rare. For someone with social anxiety like her, being able to take this step was really not easy.
"L-let's hurry back."
Kita was the first to break the silence.
"Yeah, Bocchi-chan might be getting anxious waiting," Ijichi Nijika nodded.
Yamada Ryo said nothing and silently followed behind them.
And then...
They arrived at the scene just now.
————
Gotoh Hitori: "69?"
It is over.
Her sneaking a bite could not be hidden anymore.
---
Bocchi Face: x[1]
[1] https://tenor.com/view/bocchi-the-rock-anime-bocchi-hitori-gotou-karaage-gif-27127320