I Just Want A Single Ending!

"But sis, you're always sitting by the bar doing nothing, aren't you?"

Nijika Ijichi understood that being an adult was tough.

But the issue was, she genuinely couldn't see what her sister had to stress over.

"Do you think running this place, organizing shifts for the bands, and all that stuff is easy? It's super exhausting," Seika Ijichi sighed, feeling increasingly underestimated. "And even on weekends, livehouses are open. I don't get a day off."

Take a long period of grueling work, for instance; she'd finally have a small window of rest.

Would you choose to sleep in at home, enjoying a relaxing day with nothing to do? Or head to an amusement park first thing in the morning, riding thrilling roller coasters and drop towers?

If it were up to her, she'd definitely choose staying at home.

"Alright, alright."

Hearing all that, Nijika gave up on trying to drag her sister along.

"Amusement parks are for kids anyway. I've long since outgrown those kinds of places. Just find a friend to go with you; you've got plenty, don't you?" Seika wasn't the least bit worried her little sister wouldn't find someone to go with.

"Mhm."

With that, Nijika started thinking about whom she could invite.

A classmate from school?

Probably not.

It wasn't that she didn't have friends at school—she had too many.

If she invited just one person, it'd raise the same problem as before, making her seem biased.

Asking someone from Kessoku Band didn't seem like a great option either. It might make everyone else feel like she was playing favorites.

So, inviting the entire band might be the best idea.

After mulling it over, Nijika finally made up her mind.

Going to the amusement park as a group could count as a team-building activity.

Sure, there were only two tickets, but she could just buy two more herself, couldn't she?

With that thought, Nijika took out her phone to check the amusement park's ticket prices.

"Whoa, that's expensive…"

Seeing the price, she quickly abandoned the idea of paying for the extra tickets herself.

With her allowance plus her earnings from working at STARRY, she could technically afford two amusement park tickets.

But the thing was, she also had to put aside money for their upcoming live show, in case they didn't reach the ticket quota.

As their first live as Kessoku Band, Nijika had her doubts about meeting the target, so she'd need to cover any shortfall.

There'd be plenty of other things to spend money on in the future.

So, if it came down to choosing between the live show and a team outing...

As a band member, she had no choice but to prioritize the live show!

She sighed and resumed pondering who else she could invite.

Someone she was close with, but inviting wouldn't give others the impression she was showing favoritism…

With this in mind, Nijika suddenly thought of the perfect candidate.

Saku Kamigawa was an ideal choice!

Firstly, they were good friends.

Secondly, he wasn't in her school, so her school friends wouldn't know him.

Lastly, he was the one who'd given her the tickets, so inviting him along wouldn't make Kessoku Band feel like she was favoring anyone. They wouldn't think twice about it.

After carefully considering it, Nijika felt even more certain he was the perfect person to invite.

With her sister unwilling to go to the amusement park, no one else seemed more fitting than him.

As for when to invite him?

There was no rush—there wasn't an expiration date on the tickets, after all.

Any weekend would work.

With her choice finalized, Nijika went back to unwrapping her other birthday presents.

---

"Nijika should've unwrapped my gift by now and invited the manager along, right?"

Back at his own home, Saku did a quick mental calculation and made a guess.

Everything was going according to plan.

All he had to do was wait and rake in some affection points.

Thinking a bit about how things would unfold, Saku couldn't help but grin slightly.

The more he thought about it, the more perfect it seemed.

A classic Saku move, through and through.

Even a spur-of-the-moment plan turned out brilliantly.

After a bit of self-praise, Saku began contemplating a critical question.

Where should he use that one-hour study card?

Actually, he already had an ideal choice: to use it for learning music composition.

He was just about to start studying this, and a learning card to quickly master it was perfect.

The only issue was, one hour wasn't much time.

A three-hour study card had brought his bass skills to a professional level; an hour wouldn't get him that far.

So, it would need to be used at just the right moment.

After some serious thought, Saku had a plan.

He wouldn't use the study card yet. He'd wait until he'd learned the basics of composition.

In most cases, the beginning of any subject—math included—was the simplest part.

So, he could start by having Ryo Yamada teach him.

When he hit a bottleneck, he could then use the study card to make a breakthrough.

That would maximize the card's value.

In hindsight, that's how he should've used that three-hour study card too.

But it couldn't be helped; it had been his first time getting one.

With a solid plan in mind, Saku went upstairs to find Nagasaki Soyo and continue learning bass.

As usual, he had nothing pressing to do.

---

Time quickly flew by, and it was now Wednesday afternoon.

The typhoon had passed, and today was a rare sunny day.

Needing to grab some cosmetics from home, Saku asked Tomori Takamatsu and Chihaya Anon to head to the practice room first.

By the time he arrived, everyone was already there.

"Sorry for being late," Saku apologized while handing the cosmetics to Tomori, Taki Shiina, and Kaname Raana, who was eyeing the snacks in his bag.

"Why are you suddenly giving us this?" Taki asked, a bit suspicious. "And why not give any to Soyo or Anon?"

"Oh, I already gave some to them ages ago," Saku repeated his well-rehearsed line.

"I'm just hoping you all could help me out, please?"

Though Saku addressed all three of them, his focus was actually on Tomori.

Raana would never refuse, and as long as Tomori agreed, Taki would most likely go along with it.

"Mhm, I'll definitely use it carefully."

Tomori's answer was swift.

"Well then, since everyone's agreed,"

With that, any hint of reluctance in Taki's expression disappeared.

---

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