Hearing the startled cry, Bocchi quickly came down the stairs and walked towards the living room.
As soon as she reached the living room entrance, her first sight was Hayato, looking calm, sitting politely on the small sofa.
On the long sofa next to him were her father, leaning forward in surprise, and her mother, holding him back.
She frantically wondered how to mediate.
"Ah, I really was surprised. Is it true, Bocchi's friend?"
Her father sat back on the sofa, seemingly unconcerned, and asked again with a smile.
Hayato, with a smile that felt like a spring breeze, said to the relaxed couple.
"Yes, Uncle and Auntie's reaction was really too interesting, I couldn't resist playing a trick. My apologies."
Her mother seemed very happy, but with a hint of apology in her tone, she said.
"No, it's us. We arbitrarily assumed you were Bocchi's rented boyfriend."
After the awkwardness subsided, Gotou Naoki sat up straight and casually asked Hayato.
"Hayato-kun, how did you and Bocchi meet?"
Hayato didn't prolong the joke and answered directly.
"Bocchi and I are classmates in the same grade, and also friends in the same Band."
"A Band?"
The Gotou couple exchanged surprised glances.
At this moment, Bocchi quickly walked in, flustered and hurried, trying to stop her parents, saying to them.
"Dad, Mom, don't keep questioning Hayato!"
"Hayato!"
The Gotou couple exclaimed in surprise again.
And then...
"So that's it, so that's it."
Gotou Naoki nodded happily with a smile.
Bocchi, feeling teased, yelled out in embarrassment and anger.
"Dad!"
...Hayato and Bocchi didn't stay long at Bocchi's house before leaving.
Although there was still plenty of time before the Band's meeting, Bocchi seemed a bit uncomfortable with her family interacting with Hayato.
Seeing them chatting so happily, and occasionally revealing some of her embarrassing past, she felt a pang of jealousy and unease.
But she didn't dare to say anything to Hayato, so she just kept looking towards her parents.
However, her parents, seeing their daughter bring a friend home for once, and a male friend at that, completely ignored her increasingly pitiful glances and chatted more and more happily with Hayato.
Finally, Hayato, unable to bear it any longer, stood up and announced that it was time for the Band to meet, then bid farewell to her parents and left.
As they walked to the door, put on their shoes, and prepared to leave...
"You can come play anytime!"
The Gotou couple bid farewell to Hayato at the door.
"Yes, I will."
Hayato smiled and nodded... Walking on the way to the station, Bocchi understood what a 'normie' was.
To be able to get along with someone else's parents so quickly, and even chat animatedly.
According to the social ability analysis chart:
The lowest level is being able to talk to toddlers, then being able to talk to timid young children, then ordinary young children, ordinary peers, arrogant young children... moving up step by step. And being able to chat happily with a friend's elders is on the tenth level of existence!
That's a level close to a god.
Incidentally, she was at the level where she could barely reach the lowest tier.
The difference in combat power between them was like heaven and earth!
Bocchi glanced at the young man beside her, humming a song casually, and regarded him with immense reverence... Taking the train, the two headed directly to STARRY.
Walking down the sunken stairs in front of STARRY, Hayato saw the half-open door. He said to Bocchi beside him.
"It seems everyone has arrived."
Bocchi, who had somehow become reserved, answered a beat late.
"Ah... yes."
Hayato didn't pay too much attention. He pulled open the door, thinking about how to make a dramatic entrance, and walked in.
Bocchi followed behind him.
But as soon as the two entered, they coincidentally heard Kita's voice.
"Ryo-senpai, I'm so sorry, I lied about my favorite music genre that day."
Hayato heard the voice, a satisfied smile on his face. He walked around the corner, flipped over the railing, and jumped down.
After landing steadily, he spread his arms and, with a proud expression, as if congratulating Kita, said.
"Excellent, Kita, you've grown!"
"Whose fault is that?!"
Kita, hearing the voice of the culprit, turned her head without a word and complained to him.
Hayato showed a thoughtful expression, pinching his chin, and said.
"That's a good question."
"It's you, Hayato-kun!" Kita cried out, on the verge of tears.
Hayato, whose joke had been ruined, chuckled, then greeted the others in the room.
"Good day, everyone~"
He said, taking note of the people present. Nijika was sitting at the table, wearing a sailor-style dress with a wool cardigan today, looking cute and even more childlike.
But... 16 is already a very young age, why dress like that?
Could it be because he said last time that she "would become a good mother in the future"?
Ryo-senpai was still wearing neutral dark clothing. She and the fashionably dressed Kita were standing at the side of the table, while Seika sat by the bar, seemingly oblivious to the goings-on.
"Hayato-kun, good afternoon." Nijika turned from her chair and greeted him.
"Mm."
Ryo-senpai simply responded.
But for some reason, her gaze held some dissatisfaction.
Hayato looked at her, then saw Kita sighing, and immediately understood.
He picked up his phone, quickly took a screenshot, and sent the picture to Ryo-senpai's Line.
At this moment, Nijika stood up and said to the group with a smile.
"So, Hayato-kun is also here..."
Before she could finish, Ryo-senpai, holding her phone next to her, chuckled as if clearing her throat.
Then she said to Hayato, "That's wonderful, but don't run off on your own next time."
Nijika's eyes became wary as she glanced at these two conniving individuals.
Compared to the lamb-like Kita and Bocchi, these two, who occasionally revealed their mischievous nature, were the most troublesome exist in the Band.
For the sake of the Band, she had to take on the responsibility of supervising these two... Just then, Bocchi also came down, maintaining a faint presence, and quietly greeted everyone.
Nijika and Kita responded to her with enthusiasm, and Ryo-senpai also gave a calm greeting.
In this scene, Bocchi's bright eyes showed a bewildered expression, and then, as if happy, she quickened her steps towards the four.
Seeing Bocchi come down, Hayato smiled slightly, looked at Kita, who was carrying a Guitar, and said to the group.
"Let's take a look at Kita's Guitar first."
Ryo-senpai, who had already reined in her smile, calmly glanced at Hayato. Her gaze, which showed little emotion, seemed to carry a hint of admiration.
Kita heard the teasing in Hayato's tone. As if to prove herself, she immediately put down her Guitar bag and unzipped it.
"Alright."
She was very confident in her Guitar, which she had checked several times.
Opening the Guitar bag, revealing the Guitar inside, she turned to the group with a smile and said.
"See? This one has six strings, right?"
Bocchi listened to Kita's voice and looked forward. From her perspective, she could clearly see what kind of instrument it was.
As a Guitar player, seeing this scene made her heart tremble, and she looked at Kita with a complicated expression.
Thinking that she might have to teach Kita Guitar later, she said softly and tactfully.
"There are also six-string basses."
"That's a multi-string bass," Ryo-senpai reminded with a more professional name.
Kita still had a smile on her face, glanced at the two who spoke, and then looked at her 'Guitar' again.
She inexplicably felt a chill in her heart, the smile on her face vanished like lightning, and she looked at her Band friends again, uncertainly.
Amidst their expressions of either lament, calmness, uneasiness, and one of schadenfreude, she looked again at her 'Guitar' that only made a 'boing-boing' sound.
Suddenly, she understood everything.
"Gulp..."
Kita seemed to be petrified, falling heavily to the side.
The four stared at her blankly, only to see a soul float out from her crying mouth, lamenting in a pitiful and mournful voice.
"I bought this with two years' worth of pocket money and New Year's money I advanced from my dad!"
"Kita-chan! —"
Nijika desperately called out loudly, trying to call back Kita, who was starting to drift away.