Chapter 50: An Unexpected Delight (With Gratitude to the Patron "Who Is Dongshan")

A woman's nature is to say one thing and mean another, without exception.

Even if a girl rolls her eyes at you, depending on the context, it doesn't necessarily mean she dislikes you; it can be interpreted in many different ways.

"I only remembered because I saw the slice of lemon in your cup... Let's forget about ordering another one. Making the staff run back and forth is too much trouble. Just give me your slice the next time you order lemon water."

Ryuichi Sugawara could tell she was merely speechless rather than genuinely annoyed. After spreading his hands in self-defense, he took the opportunity to make a request.

"Alright, I'll give it to you then."

Since his request was perfectly ordinary, Yuki Takanashi agreed without a second thought.

Anyway, Ryuichi was asking for a fresh slice of lemon, not the one from the glass she had already drunk from, so giving it to him was no big deal.

"Thank you."

Having secured her promise, Ryuichi didn't mind that it hadn't triggered a heartbeat moment, and simply expressed his gratitude.

With that exchange, the conversation between the two temporarily paused.

"Yuki, pass the song selection remote over here."

Seeing them stop whispering and fall into a brief silence, Sakai Yoshino seized the opportunity to speak.

At the same time, Aine Ishiguro's chosen song was coming to an end.

"91 points... How did I manage to drop in score?"

After finishing the song and waiting for the score to pop up, Aine looked rather vexed.

"Clap, clap, clap!"

Having finally waited for her to finish, the rest of the group—who had each been doing their own thing and hadn't been listening very intently—shared a tacit understanding and offered enthusiastic applause to show their encouragement.

"That was just your first song, you haven't even warmed up yet. Try again later."

Yuki stood up, hurried over, and hugged Aine's arm with a playful smile.

"Yeah, yeah. Is it your turn next? What song did you pick?"

Seeing Yuki's healing smile, Aine's mood improved considerably as she asked out of curiosity.

"<i> 群青 (Blue)</i>... Are you not going to sing <i>Lemon</i>, which you're best at, this time?"

Before Yuki could answer, Aine glanced back at the screen, spotted the title of the upcoming track, and teased playfully.

During the gap between songs, the private room was relatively quiet, making their conversation crystal clear.

"I'll sing that later. Give me the microphone."

Realizing her hidden intentions had been exposed, Yuki snatched the microphone back from Aine, feeling both embarrassed and flustered.

Meanwhile, Ryuichi stood up, walked over to the side of the television, picked up another microphone, and returned to his seat.

With so few people in the private room, everyone's movements were quite conspicuous, to say the least about standing up.

However, no one paid it any mind when they saw this. Yuki simply assumed he was getting a head start since his turn was next anyway.

"It's about to start."

At that moment, Yoshino offered a reminder.

Although she had heard Yuki sing countless times before, she was still filled with anticipation right now.

Because unlike usual, Ryuichi was present this time.

She was very curious to see how Ryuichi would react once he discovered just how wonderfully Yuki could sing.

Hearing the prompt, Aine hurried back to the seating area... Before sitting down, she scanned the table, found her barley tea, and settled right in front of it.

The countdown on the television was slowly fading away.

Yuki took a deep breath to steady her emotions, and the exact moment the countdown hit zero, she began to sing:

"Ah, everything remains the same."

"A monotonous stretch of time, so tedious it makes me drowsy."

"She's good!"

As her voice rang out, Ryuichi felt goosebumps break out all over his body, his heartstrings trembling in resonance.

A person's speaking voice and singing voice are usually quite different.

This was certainly true for Yuki's voice. It was as if she had been kissed by an angel—endowed by nature, carrying a power that could heal the soul.

Furthermore, she clearly possessed some vocal techniques. While not the result of systematic training, the effect was intensely powerful thanks to her exceptional timbre.

At the same time, the other three people seated in the booth couldn't help covering their mouths and giggling when they saw his look of astonishment.

They certainly hadn't forgotten what Ryuichi had said just yesterday.

Because of that, they were genuinely eager to find out whether this super-achiever's philosophy of wanting nothing to do with romance would change after hearing Yuki sing.

"Passing through the bustling night, today's morning light descends upon the streets of Shibuya as usual."

"An inexplicable, pointless emptiness resides within my heart."

Even though she had sung and listened to this song countless times, Yuki still kept her eyes fixed on the lyrics scrolling across the screen.

Precisely because she loved it, she didn't want to make any mistakes.

"Utterly boring, but it doesn't matter."

"That is all, and that is fine."

Singing while regulating her breath, Yuki finished this line and braced herself for the first climax of the song.

"No..."

Just as she opened her mouth, another voice directly overpowered hers:

"The true feelings hidden away before I even knew it, let me hear them resound out loud!"

This was a clear, stunning male voice, resembling a sudden, towering wave that surged forth and overwhelmed everything else in its path.

The sudden accompaniment completely stunned Yuki.

She turned her head in utter astonishment to see that Ryuichi had stood up at some point, holding his microphone and singing at the top of his lungs.

Though this particular section required a chorus to display its full charm, Ryuichi's voice was deep, resonant, and powerful. Unlike the choral arrangement in the original track, it was nonetheless breathtaking.

"So the reason he grabbed the microphone earlier wasn't because his turn was next... He noticed I was going to sing <i>Blue</i> and wanted to harmonize with me?"

Watching his singing figure and listening to his wonderful voice, Yuki felt a tingling sensation ripple across her scalp, as if a gale-force wind had swept through, clearing away all her worries and leaving only pleasant surprise.

[Yuki Takanashi feels her heart flutter. Heartbeat value +2]

"Even if you turn a blind eye, it is truly right there."

Ryuichi paid no attention to the system prompt. Instead, he looked straight at Yuki and gestured toward her.

Noticing his cue, Yuki snapped out of her slight daze and hurried to look back at the screen.

Despite the sudden turn of events, she was intimately familiar with the song and quickly found her rhythm again.

"Ah, paint it with colors of your own choosing, guided by intuition."

"In a dawn shrouded in sleepiness, welcome a world dyed in indigo."

Once Yuki locked onto the tempo and pitch, her heart was still pounding wildly against her ribs. She had never imagined that hiring Ryuichi as a rental boyfriend would yield such an unexpected and delightful bonus.

Seeing her seamlessly rejoin the song, Ryuichi let out a breath of relief.

Because it had been a spur-of-the-moment decision to fill in for the chorus section, he had genuinely worried that his abrupt intrusion might throw Yuki off.

While this wasn't a competition—merely a private hangout among friends where mistakes didn't matter—the secret to truly enjoying oneself was knowing when to be earnest and when to relax.