The four-member group, experiencing a profound sense of shame for the first time, felt powerless.

It seemed as though everyone passing by on the street was laughing at them.

This continued for two months.

In front of Susukino Station, there was a band performing live.

People were actually performing live in a place like this...

Despite going to the music room every day, nobody felt like touching their instruments.

Even when they occasionally talked about music, they only received lukewarm responses... Yes, everyone was dead inside.

In walked Mr. Arai, their advisor, with a shout of "Hey!" He pulled out a road usage permit and exclaimed, "Check this out! We're going to do a live performance!"

They listened hesitantly. "Where?"

"At Sapporo Station!"

Performing live at Sapporo Station... That would just be adding insult to injury...

"No, thank you! We don't want to face any more shame!"

"Enough with the noise! You're coming with me now!"

They were half forcibly "abducted" and driven to Sapporo Station Plaza.

In the plaza, many bands were performing live, and there were even people singing and playing guitar alone.

Most of them were being ignored by passersby.

It was harder to find a band that had managed to attract any attention...

"This is where you'll perform!"

"But we don't want to face any more shame!"

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Are you misunderstanding something?

Listen, why did you feel ashamed?

Why do you think you felt ashamed?"

"Because we thought we could do well, but it ended up as a disastrous result."

Mr. Arai spoke quietly.

"Listen, nobody starts off being good at something.

You felt ashamed because you set up an ideal of doing well and felt ashamed when it didn't turn out as planned, amidst the accidents!"

"If you feel ashamed, then do better next time! Adding insult to injury?

That's fine! Everyone here thinks that way and overcomes it to stand on stage!"

"So, one more time, just one more time, give it your all! You can do it!"

"...We'll give it our all one more time..."

In the music room,

they picked up their instruments, covered in dust from neglect.

"The strings are rusted..." It felt like they would snap easily when strummed with a pick.

"We need to change the strings..." rummaging through their bags, but there were no strings...

"Let's go buy some tomorrow. That's it for today. See you later,"

Ryosuke left the music room.

"Ryosuke!" To the surprise of Ryosuke, Tohru's voice echoed down the hallway.

Stopping in his tracks, Ryosuke received new strings from Tohru.

"I'll do it."

Returning to the music room, Ryosuke and Tohru linked arms.

"Shall we do it?"

"Let's do it!"

Mr. Arai was in the music room.

"For the street live, we'll perform the same songs as we did at the cultural festival!"

Seeing the stunned faces of the four, he must have guessed.

"I understand. Overcome it. Don't worry!"

Until the street live, one week later, the four and Mr. Arai began another training camp.

On the day of the street live...

There were fewer bands than expected, as there seemed to be an event today, with more people than usual.

"Are we going to perform here..."

Mr. Arai reassured the anxious four.

"The songs we'll perform today should be a bit more polished than those at the cultural festival.

Aim for a cohesive performance, don't cling to false hopes, be prepared to be pelted with stones!"

1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4. Koji struck the sticks.

Passersby continued as if they didn't care.

Occasionally, people laughed as they walked past, perhaps because of the poor performance.

Our voices were drowned out by the crowd...

"I guess it's over," crossed my mind...

But...

A woman stopped to listen to us.

She clapped along to our performance.

After we finished two songs, she said, "Keep it up," for the first time.

New Arai grinned and said, "How was it? Did you erase the shame?"

"Yes! We'll do our best!" We shouted!

＊＊＊＊

＊＊＊

＊＊

＊

"Oh, you managed to bounce back quite well."

"Indeed, considering how down we were, having this lady in the audience was the most heartening thing that could have happened."

"So, are you going to continue with your live performances smoothly from now on?"

"No, it's not going smoothly at all."

"That was our first time and the biggest crisis we've faced yet."