Volume 1 - CH 24

The summer of Haruta’s freshmen year has passed.

Haruta passed his first semester final exam without a hitch, and he had his summer holiday.

In addition to his three times a week part time job at Lucita, he started another part time job because he had nothing to do during summer holiday.

He started working for a moving company.

Physical labor during summer was quite challenging.

Haruta is confident of his physical strength, but he was really tired.

On the days he worked for the moving company, he couldn’t even play CS64 when he got home, he was too tired.

At summer holiday, he also started to play some CS64 with Minami who is his senpai at Lucita.

For someone who claims to be a gamer, Minami was not very good at it, and every time she lost, she cursed Haruta over voice chat.

“I will win this time! I was just warming up!”

Minami was on a lose streak and she hasn’t won a single game that day.

“If you lose again, please show me your panty.”

Haruta jokingly said so.

“You little, just wait, I’ll crush your team.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure.”

Then of course, Haruta did his best to crush Minami’s team.

Haruta is no saint, of course he wanted to see the panty of a beautiful college girl.

‘Pervert Saku!’

A panty image was sent along with the childish message.

It was an image of a black panty lying flat on the floor.

Then as soon as summer holiday was over, a sports festival was held. Haruta was able to win the short distance running competition, which he excels at.

And then—

The wind starts feel colder, summer uniforms were put away in the closet, and winter uniforms were taken out.

There are midterm tests in October, but there are no special events.

Even at Yurinkan high school, which is a preparatory school, it’s a good time to relax before the test.

“Hey, Tsukuyomi Akiho-san. What is your bra colour today?”

“Red.”

“…you didn’t even hesitate to answer me.”

After school—in the light music club room.

About one-third of the room has carpeted floors.

Haruta is sitting on a cushion, staring blankly at his smartphone screen.

Akiho is sitting at a desk by the window, strumming her guitar lightly.

“W-What are you asking about…B-Baka! I-It’s red today…”

“But you still end up answering.”

“It’s not something that I need to hide. I’ll even tell you the colour of my nipples if you give me some money.”

“Depends on how much the money is, huh?”

Haruta is swiping through his phone lazily.

It wasn’t a serious question, Haruta was just joking.

Haruta was looking at a picture of a girl in underwear when he asked Akiho what colour her bra is today.

He just asked it casually.

But he didn’t expect such a straightforward answer though.

“By the way, you’re not going home yet?”

“I’m off work today, I’m going out for dinner tonight. You can go home if you want.”

“Ehh, it’s too bad you don’t get to meet that beautiful college girl today.”

“Yeah, I’ve confirmed that Minami-san has no boyfriend.”

“You’re too naïve. She can get picked up anytime. Right at this very time, she could be having a party somewhere. Then she would go home with a boy, and have a baby seed implanted inside her.”

“Hey, you should choose your words wiser…”

“That kind of women are usually sloppy about s*x.”

“Don’t just prejudice someone.”

“But well, it seems that Minami-san hasn’t had a boyfriend before.”

“Hmm, a beautiful virgin college girl? That’s very erotic.”

“You’ll get her in your dreams. She must’ve been really popular at her high school. If she didn’t lose her virginity at high school, then that means she must be obsessed about something.”

“Minami-san claims to be a gamer, but games are games, boyfriends are boyfriends, they are not the same.”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? I like music too, but I wouldn’t say my guitar is my lover. I mean, you can say that my guitar is my lover, but how can I ‘play’ with a guitar neck!?”

“You’re thinking about it too much.”

“I don’t want to be too vulgar.”

It is a pointless conversation.

This light music room is now reserved to Haruta and Ahiko.

After summer holiday, the senpais from the light music club graduated, and now, only Akiho remained.

Akiho was going to leave the club too…

But her senpais asked her to keep the registration of the club open, even if only formally, because it would be sad to see the light music club disbanded.

Haruta is also allowed to use this club room whenever he wants. He usually comes here when he doesn’t have a part time job.

There are several instruments, amplifiers, and even a drum set.

There is enough space for three to four people here, and it has carpeted floor as well. Thanks to this room, Haruta and Akiho can lie down and relax whenever they feel tired.

It’s nice to have a free and comfortable room in school.

Haruta finds it relaxing to listen to the sound of Akiho’s guitar.

In addition, Haruta can look at the large, ample b*****s of the most popular and beautiful girl in school as long as he likes.

It costs a lot of money to spend time at AIR, and Haruta who doesn’t feel like going home early, is glad to be able to spend his time here.

“So, what are you doing to ease your sorrow of not being able to see that beautiful college girl? Hmm? What’s that?”

“Free gravure photo collection. (e-book)”

“…she is wearing a sailor suit, but she is definitely not a high school girl. She’s 30 at least.”

Akiho looks at Haruta’s phone and says so in disgust.

When Haruta was looking at these gravure photos, he suddenly became curious about the colour of Akiho’s underwear.

“Does that turn you on?”

“I think I’m going to aim for girls 15 years older than me.”

“I know they use image processing software to enhance their skin tone, it doesn’t look natural. The skin of a real high school girl looks like this.”

Akiho takes her hand off her guitar and waves at Haruta.

Indeed, you can tell at a glance that Akiho’s hand is really smooth.

“There are a lot of beautiful girls on U Cube who don’t show their face, but if you look at their hands and neck, you can guess their age to some extent. The gravure photos you’re looking at are just too perfect, that’s unnatural. There are some fake high school girls on U Cube as well.”

“You’re just envy of their skin.”

Of course, Haruta doesn’t want to believe that U Cubers who sing and dance in school uniforms are not real high school girls.

Haruta thinks it would be too risky to post videos in their actual uniform.

“Well, a fake high school girl with 300,000 subscribers is worth much more than a real high school girl with 300 subscribers.”

“I’ll kick your a*s.”

“You’re threatening me!”

“I have more than 300 subscribers, my channel has grown, I have 500 subscribers now!”

“You only have 300 subscribers this spring, that doesn’t make much difference”

You can almost tell that it’s Akiho’s videos when you see the thumbnails. She often shows her b*****s and cleavage on her thumbnail.

Even so, the number her subscribers haven’t increased much, so that means even s*x appeal is not enough to go viral nowadays.

“Ha…true art will never be recognized. Even Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime.”

“If you’re finding excuses to comfort yourself, you’re done.”

“No, I know I’m not good enough at singing. I’m not good enough at composing, and I’m not even good enough at playing guitar.”

“…that is not completely true.”

Haruta isn’t trying to flutter Akiho.

But Haruta truly thinks that Akiho’s guitar and singing isn’t bad at all.

“It is the truth, I’m really bad at music. I try to cover the truth by having a nice face and big b***s, but it seems that it isn’t enough at all, and it’s really frustrating.”

“So why don’t you try harder instead of relying on your looks.”

“I’m just using what I have.”

“Is that so?”

Haruta is not particularly opposed to the idea as well.

Putting aside exposing herself in the Internet, there is no problem in doing that.

“You should help me shoot a video again, you’re much better at it than I am.”

“The last time I shot a video of you at the beach got a bit of a buzz. It got about ten times more views than usual, but still, the number of your subscribers unexpectedly didn’t increase.”

“I’ll kick your a*s.”

“Stop it, it’s kind of scary.”

The video of Akiho singing while setting off some fireworks on a sandy beach was quite popular.

Haruta took that video with his smartphone and Akiho’s. It unexpectedly turned out to be a really cool video.

“If you’re asking me to shoot a video of you, does that mean you’ve got a new song?”

Akiho has been working on a new song for about a month now.

It’s strange to Haruta because Akiho didn’t even ask him to listen to her new song…

“Hmm, I just want to make a good song and make it go viral. If it goes viral, no matter what song I post next, my channel will grow steadily.”

“That’s not true at all, a single viral song won’t guarantee your channel to grow steadily. Even a U Cuber with one million subscribers only have about ten thousand regular viewers.”

“Let’s wait until we get a million subscribers before we start thinking about that, or maybe you hate helping me shoot videos?”

“I don’t want to have anyone else to shoot you.”

“…hmm.”

Akiho is a bit surprised at Haruta’s words.

“You are so possessive, aren’t you? You even monopolized Fuyu-chan.”

“Well, I’m sorry about that.”

Haruta laughs.

It has been about four months since Fuyu left.

Regardless of that much time has passed, Haruta is still depressed about it.

“I was so possessive of Fuyu that she must’ve become dependent on me.”

“And vice versa, Fuyu was also so possessive of you that you have become dependent on her.”

“…so when will we start shooting?”

“I’ll finish the song in a week or two, so listen to it and come up with a production plan.”

“You’re throwing all the burden to me.”

Haruta actually wants to complain about it, but he kept his mouth shut.

He isn’t busy anyway.

He only needs to work part time three times a week at Lucita.

Of course, he has to study as well, but at least he has time to help Akiho.

“Then, as my thanks in advance, I’ll treat you to dinner at AIR tonight.”

“Thanks.”

Haruta doesn’t help Akiho because he wants a reward.

But working for free is not fun either.

“Well, let’s go now Akiho.”

“Yeah let’s go—Haru.”

Akiho has been calling Haruta ‘Haru’ for some time now.

Haru, Akiho.

They call each other Haru and Akiho in the classroom that their classmates think they have started dating.

Haruta and Akiho have never denied it either.

It seems Haruta’s classmates from his middle school forgot that he is a siscon.