"Ah, Sato, you're here, come look, come look!"
When Sato arrived at the light music club, Ritsu was already waving at him from a distance, her entire face brimming with uncontrollable excitement.
She was holding a sheet of white paper, with something written on it.
Mio was trying, flustered and embarrassed, to snatch the paper from her hands. When she saw Sato arrive, her movements became even faster.
"Ritsu!"
"Sato, come look! I can't hold on anymore!"
Sato couldn't help but quicken his pace. What exactly was written on that paper to make Mio so anxious?
With Ritsu's "help," Sato easily obtained the sheet of paper.
"N-no! Don't look! It's too embarrassing!"
Seeing Sato get the paper, Mio let out a soft cry, her entire face turning a vivid, dripping red.
Sato focused on the paper in his hands and was somewhat surprised to find that it was lyrics written by Mio. The song was titled "Fuwa Fuwa Time."
…
"When I look at your smile, I can feel my heart goes up and down."
"Feeling giddy like a white marshmallow."
"When I look at your profile, you always seem so hardworking."
"…"
"Ah, God, please."
"Grant me a dreamy moment alone with you."
"But then I woke up,holding my doll tight, without him in my arm. So I guess now, I bit you good night."
"…"
…
Sato fell silent for a long time…
"Pfft, hahaha!"
Unable to hold it in, Sato burst out laughing while holding the lyrics.
Th-this… these lyrics were incredibly cute, cheesy, and sweet. If it weren't for this moment, he would never have believed Mio wrote them.
"Haha! Well? They're great, right?!"
Ritsu shook off the now completely defeated Mio and stood beside Sato, laughing loudly.
"They're indeed great!"
Sato answered against his conscience. Honestly, these lyrics were really too cheesy!
Turning to look at Mio again, he saw the black-haired girl already crouched in the corner, hugging her knees, sinking into gloom.
Seeing this, Ritsu grinned and walked over, crouching beside her. She placed a hand on Mio's shoulder and said reassuringly, "Actually, for your first time writing lyrics, this is already pretty good. Once we compose music for it, it might become a nice song!"
"Not only that, we're going to perform it on stage at the school festival for the whole school!"
The… whole school?!
Mio's body stiffened instantly upon hearing that. W-wouldn't that just be an even larger-scale public execution?!
Scenes began to play in her mind…
On the school festival stage, when the light music club went up to perform, when they introduced the song, they would definitely say it was written by Mio, right?!
Thinking of this, Mio's face turned bright red at a visible speed, and after reaching its limit, her mind went completely blank…
"Hey?! Mio! She fainted?!"
"Ritsu, maybe stop tormenting Mio."
Seeing this, Sato couldn't help but say it. Mio really had bad luck with friends, ending up with someone like Ritsu.
She clearly knew Mio was extremely shy, yet she still brought up performing in front of the entire school…
Huh?!
Wait!
Sato suddenly fell into silence. Had he forgotten something?
Suddenly, his eyes widened, and his whole body froze stiff.
Th-this… wouldn't he also have to sing this song together with everyone at the school festival?!
Singing lyrics with this level of embarrassment, just looking at them gave him goosebumps, there was no way he could do it!
He could already imagine the looks he'd get afterward from the devil woman Kasumigaoka Utaha, the tsundere Eriri, and the gossip queen Isshiki Iroha.
Not to mention them, even that idiot Takanashi Rikka would probably look at him differently, right?!
And then there was Kirito, Kusuo, and the others…
"Huh?"
The refined girl holding tea blinked in front of the stiff Sato, letting out a cute sound of confusion.
What suddenly happened?
Sato gradually came back to his senses. After taking a cup of tea from Kotobuki Tsumugi, he sat down and took a sip, saying weakly, "Thanks."
Kotobuki Tsumugi leaned forward slightly, her thick eyebrows knitting together in concern as she asked, "Sato-kun, your complexion suddenly looks so bad. Are you feeling sick?"
Sick?
Probably… but this was a sickness of the heart!
He suddenly looked at Ritsu, who was in front of Mio, and said, "Ritsu, come here for a moment."
Ritsu turned back and blinked in confusion, then got up and walked over, still seemingly unaware of the seriousness of the situation.
On the way, she even said with mock helplessness, "Mio's shy personality really can't be helped."
Though she said that, she secretly glanced back at Mio and laughed even more.
"Ritsu…"
Sato rolled his eyes weakly at her.
"What's wrong? Sato, you look like you're about to die!"
Ritsu stood in front of him, hands on her hips, full of energy.
This won't do!
You definitely didn't hug the sun this morning!
"What do you think about letting you be the lead vocalist?"
"Huh? Lead vocalist…"
Ritsu's face froze. Then her expression suddenly turned pale, and she trembled as she said, "R-right… we still have to sing this on stage! These cheesy lyrics…"
"Sato!"
Ritsu suddenly grabbed his arm in panic and said frantically, "Let's rewrite it! You write it instead, okay?!"
"Heh heh…"
"What kind of laugh is that?!"
Startled, Ritsu looked up at him.
Sato looked at her calmly and said, "That wasn't my voice."
Huh?
Ritsu's eyes widened, a chill running down her back.
"Smack!"
Mio's hand suddenly landed on Ritsu's shoulder. When Ritsu turned her head, she saw a gentle yet radiant smile on Mio's face.
"Ritsu, I suddenly think Sato's suggestion just now is a really good one!"
Ah!!!
Treacherous villagers are out to get me!!
Ritsu let out a miserable scream…