Since Yamada Ryō had enthusiastically invited him with a "Come play music with me," Narumi Tōru, after giving it some thought, ultimately nodded and accepted.
Before entering the second simulation, he'd been so tone-deaf that he could've gone to karaoke and been paid by the front desk to leave. But after experiencing that second simulation, while he hadn't exactly become some kind of genius singer-songwriter, he was at least a competent performer—someone who could get up on an underground live stage and show a thing or two.
Come to think of it, Yamada had accepted his transformation—from a complete musical disaster to someone who could casually play a chord progression—far faster than Narumi had expected.
"Well, it is the guitar you bought for me. If you want to roam the world with it, go right ahead."
Narumi set down the bag slung over his shoulder and took the guitar case Yamada handed him, a little curious how long she'd been waiting at the school gate.
"Even if I were going to roam the world, I'd do it with a guitarist, not with the guitar itself."
Yamada clicked her tongue lightly, though her eyes—so indifferent to almost everything—didn't show any annoyance or impatience.
"What, are you proposing we elope?"
Narumi didn't miss a beat, throwing out the line with a fake smile.
"If all my food, clothing, and shelter are covered by you, Koumi, then I guess it's not impossible. As long as you let me play bass along the way."
Yamada yawned lazily, brushing aside Narumi's nonsense with effortless ease.
Honestly, sometimes it really felt impossible to gain the upper hand in conversation with this girl. And yet, that sense of surprise—never knowing what she'd say next—was something Narumi found oddly addictive.
Just what kind of bizarre things were hidden inside Yamada Ryō's head to give her such an unconventional way of thinking? To be honest, Narumi really wanted to crack it open and inspect it thoroughly.
Of course, she'd probably clutch her head, shout "Are you trying to murder me?" and put some distance between them—so for now, it remained a purely hypothetical curiosity.
Tch. Interesting woman.
"Anyway, you're way too slow. If you keep dragging your feet like this, I might as well go roam the world with Nijika instead. At least then I'd always be the one making her wait."
Why do you sound proud of that?
"Can't be helped. I got forcibly stuffed into a club by a teacher… though most of the time it feels like we're just sitting around in the clubroom chatting nonsense—ugh."
As Narumi was explaining himself with a sigh, he suddenly felt a sharp gaze from behind that made his skin prickle.
Turning around, he saw Yukinoshita Yukino—also on her way home, bag slung over her shoulder—staring straight at him. Having overheard what he'd just said, her expression was anything but friendly.
"Oh, look. A pretty girl with a scary face."
Standing beside the curly-haired boy, Yamada rose onto her tiptoes, blinking curiously as she noticed Yukino.
"Koumi, you know girls this cute too? Feels like your luck with women's gotten kind of ridiculous lately… Did some ultra-popular extrovert possess you or something? Give me back the Koumi who had zero interest in girls, like his emotional metabolism was shot…"
"B–bye, President."
Narumi completely ignored Yamada as she went off on another imaginative tangent. Instead, he forced a smile and waved awkwardly at Yukino, a strange sense of guilt rising in his chest—as if he'd been caught talking behind someone's back.
"…Mm."
Yukino merely gave a brief nod in response, her cool demeanor suggesting she was still bothered by what he'd said earlier.
Well, that's what happens when you accidentally step on a cat's tail—it bristles up a little.
"Hmm…"
Though she hadn't gotten a response and wasn't upset in the slightest, Yamada tilted her head, her gaze lingering on Yukino, whose expression wasn't exactly welcoming.
Yukino noticed the stare and lifted her beautiful ice-blue eyes to meet Yamada's.
"And you are…?"
For some reason, Miss Yukinoshita Yukino's voice was noticeably colder than it had been back in the Service Club room.
"Yamada Ryō. Koumi's friend."
Just as Narumi was about to speak up and take control of the situation, the blue-haired girl once again—and very deliberately—threw off his rhythm. She lifted the guitar case slung across Narumi's back and smiled as she added further explanation for Yukino.
"And also, the one-and-only bass partner of this genius rookie guitarist…!"
"You're so loud."
"Oh?"
Yukinoshita Yukino curved her lips into a polite smile—one that clearly carried extra meaning—and returned it to Narumi.
"So becoming some 'genius guitarist' is what you meant by your fulfilling after-school activities, Narumi-kun?"
Uh-oh. This felt uncomfortably like a magician's trick being exposed mid-performance.
Alarm bells blared in Narumi Tōru's head, even though he himself found it a bit unfair. He'd only polished the description of what he was busy with—it wasn't like he'd deliberately lied to Yukino. So why did she look like she was mildly annoyed?
"And this would be the younger sister's classmate?"
Just as Narumi was about to smooth things over, Yamada—still completely clueless—dropped an even more easily misinterpreted comment.
As for whose younger sister she meant—naturally, it was Yukinoshita Haruno, whom Yamada had happened to run into earlier in the shopping district.
"No wonder I felt like I'd seen this 'little sister' somewhere before…"
Yamada, please, just stop talking…!
"Little… sister's classmate?"
Now it was Yukino's turn to tilt her head in confusion—and at that exact moment—
Across the street in front of Sobu High, the Yukinoshita family's sleek black luxury sedan slowly pulled up.
"Yukino~ Your big sister's here to pick you up! We're supposed to have dinner together today, so let's head out—hm?"
Rolling down the window and leaning half her head out, the black mid-length–haired woman waved brightly at Yukino by the roadside. But when she noticed Narumi and Yamada standing nearby with their various expressions, her cheerful smile faltered slightly.
"Oh my… isn't that Tōru-kun and Ryō-chan?"
She narrowed her eyes just a bit, the momentary look of contemplation quickly replaced by an even more radiant smile.
"Ryō-chan, what brings you all the way to Sobu High's gate today~?"
"Ryō-chan…?"
Her sister calling Yamada by such a familiar nickname made Yukino's frown deepen even further.
Realizing that she was, in fact, the person with the least information here was honestly frustrating. Any earlier sense of relief she'd felt about being ahead of her sister vanished in an instant.
"Oh dear, don't tell me you came all this way just to go on a date with Tōru-kun…"
Haruno, who never missed a chance to stir the pot, didn't elaborate—but the way her eyes curved looked uncannily fox-like.
At those words, the other three each reacted differently.
Yukino's surprise froze briefly on her face; Narumi, who'd already predicted Haruno would cause trouble, wore a strained smile; and Yamada—the root cause of all this—remained completely out of the loop.
The blue-haired girl looked thoughtful for a moment, then leaned closer to Narumi and whispered under her breath in this unbearably awkward situation.
"So this is what it feels like to be caught in a battlefield between two sisters… Inspiration straight from real life, huh, great novelist?"
"The culprit should really just stay quiet, Yamada."
In the end, it fell to Mr. Narumi Tōru to clean up the mess.
So this is what they mean when they say three women make a drama. Today, he'd truly learned that lesson.