17 After the two of them finished filling out the club registration forms and handed them over to Fūju, Fūju went back to playing the song from Yosuga no Sora he had just performed earlier, Tooi Sora e, due to Tsumugi Kotobuki’s passionate insistence.
The moment the final note faded, Tsumugi Kotobuki clapped enthusiastically.
She was completely captivated by Fūju’s remarkably beautiful piano playing.
“You’re amazing, Club President!
That song sounded absolutely gorgeous!” “If you uploaded this to the internet, I honestly don’t know how many people would fall in love with it!” Tsumugi Kotobuki gushed.
“Though, looking at Akira-kun’s attitude, it doesn’t seem like he has any intention of uploading it online,” Megumi Kato chimed in from the side.
Fūju nodded in agreement without saying a word.
For the time being, he really didn’t have any desire to spread his music or seek fame using the songs from his past life that remained in his memory.
After finishing the song, he looked over at Tsumugi Kotobuki and Megumi Kato, then said, “I’m going to finish the work I have on hand first.
You two can chat for now.
If you have other things to attend to, you’re also free to head home early.” With that out of the way, he sat back down in his chair and resumed checking his draft manuscript for Your Name.
“Got it!” Tsumugi Kotobuki nodded.
She then shifted the direction of her chair and immediately struck up a conversation with Megumi Kato.
The slight awkwardness from earlier vanished as if it had never existed in the first place.
On top of that, Tsumugi Kotobuki possessed a naturally bright, open personality and was incredibly skilled at finding topics to talk about, allowing the two of them to have a rather delightful chat.
By the time Fūju finished reviewing his Your Name manuscript, the sky had begun to darken.
It was time for him to head home.
He tidied up his belongings and prepared to leave the Light Music Club room.
“I’m heading home now.
Do you two want to stay here or leave with me?
If you choose to stay, just remember to lock the door when you leave later,” Fūju said.
“Wow, it’s already dark out.
We should probably leave together too,” Tsumugi Kotobuki remarked, checking her phone and only just realizing the time.
The day had indeed slipped away, and she really needed to get home.
“Alright then!” “Let’s all leave together.
Make sure you don’t leave any of your things behind!” Fūju said with a nod.
After gathering their respective bags, the three of them left the Light Music Club room together.
Fūju then locked the classroom door behind them.
“Well then, Club President, Megumi, see you tomorrow!” Tsumugi Kotobuki said, giving a cheerful wave as a farewell.
“See you tomorrow!” “See you tomorrow!” Fūju and Megumi Kato also said their goodbyes to Tsumugi Kotobuki.
Once Tsumugi Kotobuki’s figure vanished from their sight, Fūju looked at Megumi Kato beside him with a slightly puzzled expression.
“Since when did the two of you get so close?” Fūju asked, genuinely a bit surprised.
He had noticed that the way Tsumugi Kotobuki and Megumi Kato addressed each other had already reached the point where they used their first names directly.
In Japan, if a relationship between individuals was still casual, they would call each other by their surnames.
Even if they did use first names, they would usually append honorifics like kun, san, or other suffixes.
Only people who shared a deeply familiar bond would drop the formalities and use first names directly to show how close they were.
“That happened while the Club President’s attention was completely glued to his laptop screen.” “If the Club President had spared just a tiny bit of attention to listen, the Club President definitely would have heard it.” “However, since the Club President didn’t hear it, it seems the Club President was indeed working very seriously,” Megumi Kato said in a flat voice.
Even though her tone and facial expression didn’t change at all, her eyes blinked rapidly as she uttered those words.
It was impossible to tell whether she did that intentionally or unintentionally.
If it was intentional, then the most fitting way to describe it would be that she was acting like a mischievous little girl.
Club President?
Hearing Megumi Kato suddenly change the way she addressed him like that made Fūju feel a bit out of his element.
But then again, thinking about it, there was nothing wrong with that title.
He just wasn’t used to it yet.
After exchanging a few more casual sentences, the two of them split up to leave the school grounds and head to their respective homes.
On his way back, Fūju made sure to drop by the supermarket.
If he didn’t restock his completely bare refrigerator right away, he was worried his dinner menu tonight would consist of nothing but plain white rice.
Even for lunch tomorrow, he might be forced to choke down that school bread which tasted almost too dry to swallow.
Pork, beef, chicken, duck, fish, seasonings, vegetables, fruits, and various other groceries were bought by Fūju.
Inside the supermarket, Fūju gathered a massive amount of different ingredients to replenish his supplies.
Initially, he also wanted to buy a large leg of lamb and some lamb shanks to cook a roasted lamb leg and lamb soup once he got home.
However, people in Japan didn’t seem very accustomed to eating lamb.
After searching all over the place, he couldn’t find any at all.
To buy lamb, it seemed he would have to travel much further to a large traditional market to stand a chance of finding it.
Should he take a detour to a major market just to buy it?
That felt like a bit too much trouble.
Fūju didn’t feel an absolute urge to eat lamb right this moment anyway, so there was no reason to go that far out of his way.
Furthermore, at an hour like this, the large traditional markets had most likely closed a long time ago.
After carrying the various groceries he selected to the checkout counter to be scanned, Fūju prepared to pay.
“Good evening, your total comes to 35,438 yen.
Would you like to pay with cash or card?” Hearing the price stated by the cashier, the corner of Fūju’s mouth twitched slightly.
Even though the figure was in yen, it still felt incredibly expensive.
If converted into RMB, it would amount to well over two thousand yuan.
Come to think of it, the price of goods in Japan was indeed very high, especially for vegetables and fruits, which could cost several times more than they did inland.
Out of all the items he bought today, he estimated that the vegetables and fruits alone accounted for more than half of the total expenditure.
Of course, this was also tied to the fact that all the ingredients he picked out tended to be of premium quality, causing the price to automatically shoot up.
“Card, please,” Fūju said.
He didn’t have the habit of carrying large amounts of cash in his pockets, so he directly handed a bank card to the cashier standing in front of him.
“Certainly,” the cashier accepted the bank card from Fūju’s hand, then pulled out the electronic payment terminal to process the transaction.
Once the card payment went through and the bank card was tucked away, the cashier finished packing all of Fūju’s groceries into bags.
Fūju then picked up the heavy bags lined up before him and got ready to leave.
“Boss?” Right at that moment, a voice carrying a hint of surprise called out, causing Fūju to halt his steps.
The call was directed at him, there was no mistaking it.
Fūju also found the voice, which carried a subtle Kansai accent, rather familiar.
The person calling out to Fūju was a supermarket cashier.
However, it wasn’t the cashier who had just served him, but rather the cashier working at the counter directly opposite.
Fūju turned around to look, and just as he suspected, it was someone he knew.
Their relationship could be considered quite close.
“Nanami, your Kansai accent slipped out again,” Fūju said with a faint smile toward the girl who was staring at him with a thoroughly surprised expression.
The girl was a teenager with brown hair and dark golden eyes, and her name was Aoyama Nanami.
Aoyama Nanami was a main heroine from the series The Pet Girl of Sakurasou.
She was a girl who appeared strong on the outside but possessed a fragile heart, held a bit of a stubborn streak, and had willingly left her hometown to fight hard to achieve her dream of becoming a voice actress.
As for how Fūju and Aoyama Nanami came to know each other in this world, it actually happened entirely by chance.
The event was tied to the Chinese restaurant, Shōchiku, which Fūju used to run.
Aoyama Nanami was one of the two waitresses Fūju had hired to work at Shōchiku back then.
The other waitress was a girl with red hair.
Because Fūju later focused his efforts on learning other fields of knowledge and closed down Shōchiku, Aoyama Nanami and the other waitress were naturally forced to lose their jobs.
However, when laying them off, out of a sense of guilt and as a token of appreciation, Fūju had secretly given both of them an envelope filled with a large sum of money as severance pay.
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS FaaanzKun — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —