After entering the warehouse, Kotomi Izumi realized that it was divided into several sections, each corresponding to a different type of instrument.

In the guitar section, the shop assistant quickly located a brand-new Gibson Les Paul Standard Plain Top by matching the model number.

The packaging was still sealed, but through the transparent part of the wrapping, you could vaguely make out the guitar inside—

The same model as Yui Hirasawa's guitar!

Awesome!

When Kotomi saw the guitar, the excitement in her eyes was unmistakable, and the shop assistant happened to catch it, smiling knowingly. Every kid who loved guitars had the same look of excitement and thrill when buying one with their own money. She wondered if this girl would end up hugging the guitar in bed tonight, too excited to sleep.

"As for the guitar bag, you can pick one out inside the shop later. What kind of material are you looking for, little miss?"

"Do you have any made of Oxford cloth?" Kotomi asked after a moment of thought.

"Yes, we have a lot of Oxford cloth guitar bags. You can choose whichever color you like once we're back inside."

"Onee-san, have you worked at this music store for a long time?" Kotomi asked. From the assistant's casual movements and relaxed demeanor, she didn't seem like someone just doing a job. It was more like she was at home.

The shop assistant smiled and explained:

"I've been working here for almost twenty years. After I graduated high school, I didn't go to college. My grades were never good, so I couldn't get into a decent university anyway, so I decided to start working here right away. You might not know this, but this music store has been around for a long time. When I was in middle school, I saved up my allowance to buy my first guitar right here. I remember standing in front of the shelves, totally lost, not knowing which accessories I needed or what kind of guitar suited me."

"Hehe…"

Kotomi laughed sheepishly. She had been acting like she knew her stuff, but this shop assistant had seen right through her—she really was a complete newbie. Oh well, no point pretending anymore. It wasn't a big deal.

"Back then, the shop wasn't as big as it is now. There weren't any employees either—just the owner himself. He saw me standing there alone looking confused, came over and asked which one I liked. Then, based on my budget and playing habits, he helped me choose the most suitable guitar. I still keep that guitar in my bedroom and maintain it regularly."

"I guess a first guitar must be really meaningful."

"Haha, absolutely. That guitar holds a lot of sentimental value—it was also how I met my husband for the first time." When she mentioned her husband, the shop assistant smiled warmly.

"Onee-san, you're married? And since that guitar was how you first met, your husband must be…"

"You guessed it—he's the owner of this store. Back in middle and high school, whenever I ran into trouble with guitar stuff, I'd come here to ask him for advice. Even though my school was far from here, I never got tired of making the trip. It wasn't until my second year of high school that I realized I had fallen for this man who was fifteen years older than me."

"That's right—I was seventeen, and he was thirty-two."

"So I marched right in and confessed to him. But he kept rejecting me. After graduating, I didn't apply to college—I came straight here to work. He scolded me for being immature and inconsiderate toward my parents. That was the angriest I'd ever seen him."

"But I had already made up my mind to be with him. I insisted on working here, chasing after him for a whole ten years—and he rejected me for a whole ten years. During that time, he kept trying to get me to go back to school. Through all the ups and downs, I ended up growing alongside him, witnessing this little music store turn into the large shop it is today."

"Feelings developed over time. From the very first day I started working at the store, I treated myself as his wife—helping him handle little chores around the shop, cooking and cleaning like a proper spouse. Heh heh, who would've thought—eight years ago, he finally proposed to me. He told me that he had already fallen for me back when I used to constantly drop by the shop asking him about guitars.

"It was just that the age gap made it hard for him to overcome his own mental barrier. But look at us now—he got over it in the end."

"Came in to buy a guitar and got a touching love story to go with it—totally worth it," Kotomi said with a smile.

There was no denying it—the romance between this shop assistant and the music store owner was one incredibly long marathon.

Fortunately, they both persevered to the finish line, and the lovers ended up together.

"Thank you, little miss," the shop assistant—no, the shop owner's wife—nodded and said happily.

Back in the store, Kotomi paid the 250,000 yen, then headed over to the guitar bag display to pick one out.

She ultimately chose an ivory-white Oxford cloth guitar bag. The shop owner's wife also gave her a few guitar accessories as a gift—free of charge.

A spare 1st and 2nd string, twelve gradient cloud-blue guitar picks, a bamboo charcoal deodorizing pouch, and a guitar-cleaning cloth. All commonly used essentials for guitar players.

"Thank you, ma'am."

She had thought she was just a regular store clerk, but it turned out she was the boss's wife.

"No worries. If you ever need to buy accessories or get tuning work done, we hope you'll continue to support our store."

"Definitely."

Kotomi didn't open the guitar packaging. She planned to unwrap it at home. For now, she hugged the guitar in one arm, carried her schoolbag in the other, slung the guitar bag over her back, and left the music shop to head home.

Hiiragi Apartments.

After finishing dinner and washing the dishes, Yukino Yukinoshita sat on the sofa in the living room. She didn't pick up a book, but instead hesitated for a few moments before dialing her mother's number.

"Good evening, Mom."

"Mm. What is it?" On the other end, Chiaki Yukinoshita didn't ask if her daughter had eaten or how she was doing—she went straight to the point, like she didn't want to waste any time.

"Could you have my piano... sent over?"

"You can just hire a moving company for something that trivial. But didn't you move out precisely because you were tired of being forced to play piano every day at home? Why the sudden urge to bring it back now?"

Chiaki Yukinoshita's voice was calm.

Even for her, it was a surprise that Yukino would call just to ask for her piano.

"I feel like playing again—is that not allowed?"

"Heh... Of course it's allowed. I just hope it's not another fleeting interest this time. Do you have any plans for the weekend? Come home for dinner, how about it?"

"I've got a lot of homework this weekend. I don't want to go back," Yukino replied.

Completely different from what she had said at school when she declined Kotomi and Yui's KTV invitation.

"Hm. Suit yourself."

With that, Chiaki Yukinoshita hung up immediately.

Her mother always hung up quickly, as if she didn't want to waste a single second—even when the caller was her own daughter. Yukino Yukinoshita had already gotten used to it. She didn't even feel like complaining anymore.

As a child, she couldn't understand it. But as she grew older, she slowly began to see why her sister and mother had such a terrible relationship.

"I never wanted to chat with her anyway—I just called to have the piano delivered."

Yukino didn't say that just to sound tough. She knew very well that even if she took the initiative to say, Mom, I'd like to talk for a bit,

Chiaki Yukinoshita would only respond with: Don't waste my time. Don't bother me with such trivial nonsense. And then hang up.

She walked over to the living room's floor-to-ceiling windows. Since she lived alone, a large portion of the living room remained unused. After school, the only places she really frequented were the kitchen, the bathroom, and the bedroom. She rarely spent any time in the living room.

The space by the windows in the living room had been sitting empty all this time. Initially, she considered placing a bookshelf there—but then thought it would be inconvenient to walk out of the bedroom every time she wanted a book. So she moved the bookshelf to her bedroom instead.

All her bookshelves had wheels, so moving them by herself was easy.

And so, the window-side space in the living room remained empty. But now, unintentionally, it had found its purpose—once the piano arrived, she would place it there.

Originally, Yukino hadn't even planned to buy a TV. One of the walls looked too bare, which was the only reason she changed her mind. After all, with bookshelves in her bedroom and a laptop on her desk, she already had everything she needed.

She couldn't even remember the last time she voluntarily watched TV. These days, whether it was anime, dramas, movies, or variety shows, all it took was a phone or a computer.

"Time to read."

Yukino stood up from the sofa, turned around, and returned to her bedroom. She grabbed a book randomly from the shelf. Usually, she would stand there carefully deciding what to read, but today, she had no enthusiasm for it.

She opened the book and sat on the bed, but her thoughts weren't on the pages at all. She didn't even flip a single page in thirty minutes.

No good... I can't focus at all... Every time my mind goes quiet, all I can see is Kotomi playing guitar.

Feeling restless, Yukino ran her fingers through her hair in frustration—even though she had just taken a bath.

"After Yui agreed to be the vocalist, Kotomi's expression while playing guitar... That was the first time I saw her smile so happily," Yukino murmured. She hadn't absorbed a word from her book. All she could see was the joy on Kotomi's face during the trio's performance.

"Was she that happy because of Yui? Why does it have to be a three-person band..."

Yukino wasn't sure if she was asking Kotomi or herself. The band finally had enough members. She should've been as happy as Kotomi. The three of them performing together on stage would surely become one of their most unforgettable high school memories.

Yet, for some reason... she couldn't feel happy about it.

...

Meanwhile, Kotomi had no idea that her actions today had unknowingly left a mark on Yukino Yukinoshita's heart.

Originally, she had planned to flirt a bit with Megumi Kato after returning from the music store. But even with her Queen of All Females constitution, Kotomi could clearly feel that she was carrying too much stuff.

She could have unboxed the guitar at the store and placed it directly in the guitar bag—it would've made things a lot easier. But Kotomi had a habit of collecting packaging. Just like with her desktop PC—she had saved the boxes for every component. Even the boxes for her figurines were still stored neatly at home.

Of course, for a guitar that cost a full 250,000 yen—the same model as Yui Hirasawa's—Kotomi intended to carefully preserve the packaging box.

Besides heading to Megumi Kato's house to spend some flirty time together, Kotomi had also planned to go to the bookstore and buy Mai Sakurajima's winter photobook. Having grown up watching Mai, Kotomi made sure to collect every single one of her photobooks.

When she was younger, she would ask her parents to buy them for her. But now that she was older, she was too embarrassed to ask them to do that anymore.

She had planned to drop off her guitar and schoolbag at home first, then head to the bookstore. But after glancing at the darkening sky, she decided to put it off until tomorrow.

Holding the guitar in one arm and her schoolbag in the other, it was a bit much to manage taking out the keys to unlock the door.

Kotomi took a deep breath and pressed the doorbell with the hand holding her schoolbag. She spoke into the intercom, "Aimi, it's me."

Rushed footsteps soon sounded from behind the door. Kotomi quickly took a few steps back—the front door opened outward, and that brat Aimi always flung it open with too much force.

There had been several times when Kotomi stood too close, and Aimi smacked her with the door. Lesson learned. This time, she kept her distance.

When Aimi opened the door and saw Kotomi in her current state, she gasped. "Onee-chan, what kind of look is this?"

Then she quickly took the guitar and schoolbag from Kotomi.

"Ugh—it's heavy. Is this... a guitar?"

With a tight grip of her little hands and gritted teeth, Aimi barely managed to hold it steady.

The Gibson Les Paul Standard Plain Top was known for its hefty weight.

Most girls new to guitar wouldn't choose it, but Kotomi, relying on her Queen of All Females constitution and music proficiency, picked it purely by appearance.

"Just carry the guitar bag and my schoolbag. I'll take the guitar," Kotomi said as she quickly retrieved the guitar from her sister's arms. Once she had a firm grip, she let out a small breath of relief.

Still holding the guitar bag and schoolbag, Aimi asked, "Where did you even get this guitar, Onee-chan?"

"Didn't I tell you? I'm going to perform at the cultural festival. I'll be on stage with two classmates—one's singing, one's playing piano, and I'm on guitar. But I didn't own one, so after school today, I went to the music store and bought it."

"Even though I already knew... it's still hard to believe you suddenly know how to play guitar. You never took any guitar classes before."

"I learned on YouTube. Is that a problem?" Kotomi said with a grin.

"Do you really know how to play, Onee-chan?"

"What kind of question is that? As the saying goes—if the heavens hadn't birthed Kotomi, the guitar world would be shrouded in eternal darkness!"

Aimi kept smiling. She was always the one to give Kotomi face. Her sister had a habit of speaking in overly dramatic, chuunibyou-style lines. Even if Aimi didn't quite follow Kotomi's logic, she never made fun of her. Instead, she just smiled to keep her sister from feeling awkward.

"Oh right—where are Mom and Dad?" Kotomi asked, realizing she hadn't seen them since coming home.

Out for a walk?

"Onee-chan, did you forget what Mom told you this morning? Mom and Dad are attending an engagement banquet in Tokyo for one of Dad's college friend's daughters. The banquet will probably run late, and they'll likely miss the last train, so they're staying in Tokyo for the night and will come back tomorrow morning."

"Ah... right. I've had so much going on today, I totally forgot. So it's just the two of us at home tonight. First order of business—dinner. Do you want takeout, or should I cook something for you?"

"I want to eat... something my sister cooks!"

"That weird pause just now—wasn't that on purpose?"

"Not at all~ So, Onee-chan, what are we having for dinner?"

"Let me check the fridge first. I can't think of anything off the top of my head."

With that, Kotomi carried the guitar upstairs, planning to put everything away in her room.

Aimi watched Kotomi's back as she climbed the stairs. The thought of having the house to themselves tonight got her little wheels turning.

But before any devious plans could take shape...

"Aimi," Kotomi called from upstairs.

"Yeah, Onee-chan? What's up?"

"Tonight... let's sleep together."

With that, Kotomi continued up to her room, still holding the heavy guitar—just wanting to put it down already.

"Yay!"

Aimi jumped up in joy. She had been thinking of ways to convince Kotomi to sleep together tonight—only for Kotomi to suggest it first!

Her scheming didn't even need to hatch—because the result had already come true!

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