“Hello, we are the Cherry Boys!”
“““Ooooooooooooh!!!”””
When Hazama, who had stepped onto the stage, declared the start of the live performance, the venue responded in kind.
Even so, this band has a lot of fans. Well, I guess I’m one of them too. Ooooooooooooh!
Hazama nodded with satisfaction at the excited audience.
“Then, please listen right away! The song is—?”
Hazama said that and pointed the microphone toward us.
Eh, what, is this the pattern where he asks the audience?
“““‘Cherry’ by Spitz!”””
As everyone shouted that, “Cherry” began with a drum phrase.
No, I mean, the coordination of the fans is insane? When did they practice this?
The “Cherry” being performed there was definitely leveled up from the last time, and in particular, Ando's guitar had become significantly better.
I was lost in admiration while listening for a while, but eventually, a question began to sprout.
“How are those guys going to last for twenty-five minutes...?”
Then, Ichikawa, who was standing next to me, answered.
“Ah, well, Hazama-kun asked me to let them have a fifteen-minute slot instead, so I did.”
“Hooo... eh? Then, wouldn't it have been better if we did that too...?”
I thought we were talking about making a new song specifically to fill twenty-five minutes...
“Listen, Konuma-kun. The President's band can't afford to do something like that, right?”
The Angel President looked at me with her hands on her hips and a frown on her face.
“I guess that’s how it is...”
Well, in the end, it gave us a reason to create a new song, so it’s fine.
“No but, even so, what are they going to do for fifteen minutes?”
“I wonder?”
As the two of us tilted our heads, the performance of “Cherry” ended.
““““Hyahhooooooooooo!!!””””
Amidst cheers that were incomparable to last year's school festival or the previous Rock-On, Sako breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’m glad nothing happened today...”
Ah, Sako-san, you did have that public confession at the last Rock-On, didn't you...?
Even so, I think it's admirable of Sako that she didn't leave the venue and stayed to see it through properly.
...Just then, I noticed something.
“Wait, isn't Erina-san missing?”
“Erina-chan? You're right...”
Could something have happened, since she's not watching the live performance of the band she worked so diligently for as a manager?
I looked around, but I couldn't find her.
While I was searching, Hazama resumed his MC on stage.
“At this point, I’m calling out a guest vocalist!”
Hoo, so the Cherry Boys are calling a guest too, just like Taira-chan.
...Wait, could it be...!?
“The guest is the manager of our Cherry Boys! It’s Erina—!”
““““Eh!?””””
The voices of the four amane members overlapped.
““““Oooooooooooooooooo!!””””
Welcomed by an unusually masculine cheer, Erina-san emerged from the side of the stage.
“Ehehe, I’m Erina! I’m going to sing one song!”
““““Oooooooooooooooooo!!””””
She was speaking to the venue through the microphone. I mean, Erina-hime really is incredibly popular with the guys...
But well, if someone smiles at you without discrimination and uses natural physical contact like that, most men would fall in seconds. By the way, I fell in an instant.
“I see, those were throat lozenges...”
Sako muttered as if it all made sense, even while her mouth was hanging open.
Throat lozenges...?
I tilted my head for a moment, and then it clicked.
Ah, the ones she was licking so much after summer vacation ended! It means she was taking care of her throat because she was going to sing! No, wouldn't it be better to just wear a mask instead?
“Well, Erina is confident in her face after all...”
Azuma-neesan, using her Mind Reading skill, gave a wry smile.
“I wonder what Erina-chan is going to sing?”
As Ichikawa tilted her head, Hazama, who had a guitar over his shoulder before I knew it, spoke into the microphone.
The name of that song was.
“‘CHE.R.RY’ by YUI!!”
““So that was an option!””
Azuma and I harmonized.
“Ah, a YUI cover...!”
Ichikawa looked up at the stage as if caught off guard, and also a little sulky.
My, my, Ichikawa-san, did you think that YUI covers were your exclusive specialty?
The song began with Ando's guitar phrase, and furthermore.
“Kenji, you actually practiced...”
Hazama, who had only been holding a guitar during the training camp, was now playing backing guitar properly, though it was a bit awkward.
The intro ended, and Erina-san began to sing.
“Wow...!”
Ichikawa let out a voice of admiration.
“Isn't she too moe?” “Isn't she too cute?” “Isn't she an angel?” “Isn't she a little devil?” “IKR” “IKR” “IKR” “IKR”
The group of four in white clothes were lined up in front, getting excited. Ah, so you guys were here for this stage too...
It was my first time hearing Erina-san sing.
“Erina is good.”
Just as Sako said with a smug face of 0.something millimeters as if she saw through me, it was better than I expected.
Was it because she had learned piano when she was young? She had a good sense of pitch, and her voice suited the song perfectly.
And above all.
This song is about an unrevealed unrequited love.
Erina-san's emotions rode directly onto the slightly painful yet bittersweet melody, reaching the floor as a brilliant resonance.
While listening and feeling once again the cliché that the driving force of music is emotion, the song progressed through the first chorus, the second verse, bridge, and chorus, and then the C-melody ended.
After becoming a bit quiet and singing one round of the phrase with the chorus melody.
While singing the ‘first line of the final chorus’—
“Oh...!?”
Erina-san took a step and stood in front of Hazama.
She grabbed the tie around his neck and pulled him right in front of her, so close they could almost touch.
And then, she said with the face of a little devil.
“You’ve probably noticed by now, right?”
That extraordinarily sultry and bewitching smile was so exceptionally charming that it even captivated my eyes as I watched from the very back of the venue.
Hazama, who was seeing it from point-blank range...
“Au, au, a, a...”
His face turned bright red, and he could only let out sounds that resembled the pre-chorus melody from his mouth.
The audience started teasing them with sounds like “Hyoooooooooooo!” and “Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaao!”
The guitar he had presumably practiced so hard for became neglected. Then, Ando played the backing guitar as if to cover for him while laughing cheerfully.
The next moment, Erina-san, who had let go of Hazama with a snap, faced forward again and sang the rest.
‘Erina will become Kenji's special someone, no matter what.’
‘If it’s a situation like this, wouldn't it be the strongest if Kenji falls for Erina, whether as “romance” or “love”!?’
‘Everyone has to be happy, right?’
Erina-san looks like that, but surely, she thinks about various things more than anyone else.
At her once-in-a-lifetime “confession,” I—
“That’s just too cool...!”
I felt more than just admiration or being impressed; I felt almost proud.
The love song sung by a devil who is earnest about romance and love gradually captivated the entire venue.
“Ahaha, Erina, you're the best!”
When I looked to the side at the unfamiliar tone of a familiar voice, Sako was there, laughing while holding her stomach.
“Erina-chan, I see, so that’s how it is...”
Ichikawa nodded solemnly.
“Erina is really strong...”
Azuma smiled.
In such an atmosphere enveloped in euphoria, the Cherry Boys' live performance ended.
“Thank you—!!”
A dazzling, mischievous smile signaled the end in place of Hazama, who was still dazed and completely out of it.
I also sent applause with all my might.
“...I’ll do my best too.”
Next to me, such a voice of determination was heard.
In that way, feelings riding on sound intersected, collided, burst, and shone.
Our school festival increases its speed and temperature.
“...Alright, then, shall we do it?”
And so, the final act of that school festival, amane’s live performance, was finally about to begin.