The Final Performance

……

……

“Ah—”

“Ah~”

“Ah?”

“Ahhh, ohhh, ahhh!”

“What are you even ah-ing about? You’re so loud.” In the clubroom, Tang Keke was staring at Anshi Yi, who was standing some distance away and yelling into a microphone. It seemed that Anshi Yi had been fiddling with the equipment for a while now, making strange fish-like noises in the process.

“Oh? I’m just testing the equipment.” Anshi Yi waved the microphone in her hand, then blew into it. The resulting burst of noise immediately made Tang Keke cover her ears.

“Hmph. I’m leaving.” Tang Keke puffed out her cheeks and stood up.

At the moment, the only people in the clubroom were Tang Keke and Anshi Yi. The others had yet to arrive. After seeing Anshi Yi messing around with the equipment, Tang Keke only wanted to flee and save her ears.

When Anshi Yi saw that Tang Keke was about to run away, her wrist suddenly went limp, and the microphone drooped in her hand. She poked one cheek with a finger and gazed at the ceiling as if sighing wistfully.

“Oh, speaking of which, Ducky seems to have mailed me a whole bunch of merch from Akihabara. Figurines, badges, that sort of thing.”

“Shipping packages from overseas is such a hassle. It’s really painful. I don’t even have anywhere to put them.”

“Though, I think most of them are pretty expensive.”

Those few words were enough to stop the suspicious Big Backpack in her tracks.

Tang Keke froze mid-step and turned around to look. Although she felt certain Anshi Yi was saying all that on purpose, still—

What if it was true?

“Oh my? Weren’t you leaving?” Anshi Yi looked at Tang Keke, who had stopped in place. “Did you get up too quickly and pop a button off your uniform? What a sinful Big Lailei you are.”

“There aren’t any buttons on what I’m wearing,” Tang Keke replied. “Besides, I stopped wearing buttoned clothes ages ago!”

“Oh? Have you popped one off before?”

“So what if I have?” Tang Keke lifted her chin, completely unfazed.

After all, it really had happened to her before. She had once been so self-conscious that she didn’t dare walk with her head held high. But Tang Keke no longer had that problem. Instead, she could now use it to launch a dimensionality-reducing attack against An Shiyu.

Unfortunately, An Shiyu wasn’t here today. Anshi Yi had a decent figure too, but she hadn’t reached the level where Keke could completely crush her.

Tang Keke slowly made her way over until she was standing beside Anshi Yi.

“You really do have all those figurines Ducky sent you? They’re imported, right?”

“Ducky’s from Japan in the first place, isn’t she? Why would she send knockoffs?” Anshi Yi replied. Her eyes, hidden beneath her bangs, seemed to be smiling faintly, as if she had some mischievous idea in mind.

“That wouldn’t be surprising, okay? Maybe they’re Made in China.” Tang Keke said it like she still didn’t believe her, but there was no doubt that her interest had already been piqued.

“Let me have a look?” Tang Keke asked, curious to see whether there was anything she liked.

“Ehh—no. Weren’t you just complaining that I was annoying? No.” Anshi Yi put both hands behind her head. “You’re such a strange person. If you find me so annoying, why are you asking about my stuff?”

“Cheapstake!” Tang Keke said. “I bet you’re lying to me! Hmph, I’m not falling for it again.”

With that, Tang Keke immediately turned around.

“Really? I distinctly remember there being a Crayon Shin-chan, some Clow Cards, and…” Anshi Yi drawled. “Oh well, I’ll just leave them buried in the warehouse. Oh, right—there might even be some manga. Something about BL…”

Tang Keke’s feet seemed to have been glued to the floor.

……

A while later, Ye Shuang entered the clubroom with Bai Yuyou and the others.

The moment they stepped inside, everyone froze. Some distance away, Anshi Yi was sitting with her legs crossed and holding a guitar, while Tang Keke stood behind her, massaging her shoulders.

“Hm? What kind of wind is blowing today?” Ye Shuang asked, unable to hide his curiosity at the sight of Tang Keke willingly giving Anshi Yi a shoulder massage.

Could Anshi Yi have gotten some kind of leverage over her?

“Most likely, there’s some sort of benefit involved,” Bai Yuyou said softly. She understood Tang Keke far better than Ye Shuang did.

“Oh?”

“Probably because of the gifts Ducky sent recently. Little figurines and things like that,” An Shiyu said expressionlessly. She didn’t know Tang Keke all that well, but she knew Anshi Yi very well. This was probably the sort of trick she had used.

“Keke is sacrificing far too much,” Ye Shuang sighed.

Poor Little Keke had fallen into Xiaoyi’s clutches, being toyed with and kneaded beneath her fishy palm.

The newcomer, Wei Xi, watched curiously. She didn’t know enough about their history and simply assumed that Tang Keke and Anshi Yi had a very good relationship.

In a certain sense, Anshi Yi really did have a good relationship with Tang Keke.

At the very least, they often played games together.

Although Anshi Yi frequently complained that Keke was terrible at them, she never left her behind.

Their relationship was more like the way boys interacted with each other—the sort of unmistakable dynamic shared by close friends who constantly roasted one another.

“All right, Keke, Xiaoyi, come over here for a moment.” Ye Shuang clapped his hands, signaling for Tang Keke and Anshi Yi to stop what they were doing.

“Hm?” Tang Keke stopped moving. Anshi Yi, meanwhile, stood up with a little “heave-ho.”

“What’s going on? Is it finally time for the club’s group appreciation festival?”

“What are you even talking about?” Ye Shuang had a feeling Anshi Yi was saying something he very much did not want to understand, but he continued anyway. “You should still remember what happened at Aunt Xian’s concert last time, right? Aunt Xian felt terrible about it, so she’s planning to make it up to you with another concert.”

“Hm? A concert?” The girls exchanged glances.

“More precisely, it’s a music festival—and a large-scale one at that. A lot of celebrities will be performing too.” Ye Shuang continued, “You’ll be participating as special guests. Since the performances will run on a rotation, you only need to perform for half an hour.”

“Special guests…” Tang Keke pointed at herself.

Me?

“Yes. The After-School Tea Party’s followers across all platforms have already surpassed one million. You really don’t need to underestimate yourselves. At the very least, there are plenty of fans who like you,” Ye Shuang continued.

Although he suspected that most of them were simply fans of their looks, a following of that size was more than enough to justify performing at a music festival. Plenty of bands had far fewer fans than they did.

“This will probably be your last large-scale performance before graduation, so prepare well. Once you graduate, you might not keep playing music,” Ye Shuang said with a faint smile.

When they heard that it would be their final major performance, Bai Yuyou and the others exchanged glances.

For some reason, a sudden sadness welled up inside them.

So the endpoint of every girls’ band really was graduation.