Under The Cherry Blossom Tree

Chapter 8 - Book of Romance & Imagination

Keita's POV

In manga, romance movies, love stories, and song lyrics, romance is always fluttering. It's as colorful as a rainbow, and everything always ends happily.

Yet in reality, love feels nothing but endless pain and jealousy.

In love stories, they confess, they become a couple, and they live happily ever after.

In reality, they confess and get rejected in the most painful way possible.

"Tsuki atte kudasai!! (Go out with me, please!)"

I'm always watching... rooting for something I thought was possible.

"Toshiro, I'm sorry..." Behind those trees, I witnessed how a man who's always with her got rejected like that.

"About your confession."

"Zephyr... you're a sister to me."

Everything I root for always gets ruined.

Like I said, I'm always watching.

Sitting in the corner while listening to her confession to her childhood friend.

She's good with her words, though. That rejection was something I've never heard before.

Just like that, those books of romance are nothing but imaginations.

"Keita-kun! Let's go!" My bandmate shouted before he ran away, and without saying anything, I followed them.

Nothing seems to go my way.

I hate it, but I have to accept it.

"Good afternoon, Keita-kun!" Some girls from our band greeted me nicely. I greeted them back with a flirty wink, which caused them to squeal.

"Good afternoon, guys!" Our coach finally arrived and greeted us. We greeted him back.

"I would like to inform each one of you that we will be having an event for the 50th Foundation Day of this school in a month. The school council president and the principal himself decided that our club will participate, so I would like you guys to brainstorm and think of at least 10 songs that we could use for the event. Our mission is to make the event livelier and more fun. Can we do that?"

Ten songs... and we have to practice each one of them in a month.

I don't think that's possible.

"Have faith in us, Algard-sensei. We can do it." And of course, our leader slash teacher's pet Chander is here to make us suffer.

"For today, let's brainstorm and decide what songs we could play."

Our hours that were supposed to be used for practicing are now wasted on brainstorming. They ended up with random songs from different countries.

After that, our little club time got dismissed.

I walked up to my car, yet something, or rather someone, made me stop.

A voice of a woman and a man caught my attention. Their voices were familiar, but I still hid and took a little peek at who they were.

And there they are.

Those two hopeless people I've known, walking side by side with Toshiro-kun carrying her bag.

"I can't believe we have to dance for the upcoming event... we're fighters, not dancers," she complained with an irritated sigh.

"Let them... at least they let us participate," Toshiro-kun, who tried to look at the good side of the event, managed to convince the not-so-popular delinquent Zephyr.