Oh, thank you...!
I'll bring the tickets over later.

No, it's my pleasure.
I promise to practice to make sure you get to see a good performance.

Huh? You'll ask your friends...?
That'd be great! Thank you so much...!

Okay, sure... I'll see you later.

(Thank goodness...!
That's a few more off our hands.)

(Dad said that he'd ask around too.
At this rate, Shiho and I should just barely make it.)

Hehe. I'm sure she feels some sense of relief too...

Wait, you sold three already?

I did! I asked someone I know and told them about how I'm in a band with my childhood friends. They seemed really interested and decided to buy a few.

I see...

That leaves twelve.
It's a lot, but I think we can do it as long as we share the load...

Right. Thanks, Honami...

You don't need to thank me. All I did was make a few calls.

But I still can't believe that you sold fifteen out of thirty all on your own, Shiho...

I know a lot of musicians so I asked the ones who I thought would be most interested first.

What about Shizuku and your family?

She'd treat it like some sort of idol concert, so that's sort of a last resort...

Oh, I see... Haha...

Also, I'm really sorry.
I can tell that you'd rather tell Ichika and Saki about this.

I would and it does bother me a little...

But it's better than letting you go through this on your own.

Honami...

Thank you.

Hehe...
This time, it'll be our little secret.

But starting next time, let's do this all together, okay?

Okay. I'll make sure things go smoother then.

This is it...

Yeah! I'm so excited!

Especially considering how much effort we put into our new song.

Yeah. It wasn't easy, but I'm glad we made it in time for this show...

I know, right? Sometimes it felt like we'd never finish...!

You would've finished eventually.

But you all did a great job getting it done...

Nice work, Ichika, Saki.
You too, Honami. Thank you...

No, I didn't do anything...
I should be the one thanking you, Shiho.

Anyway, the usual?

Yeah! Take it away, Ichi!

Okay, here we go.

Let's make sure our new song reaches and moves everyone who came to see us today...!

Let's go!

Yeah!

——♪ ——♪

(Okay, this is good...
Each verse has more depth to it and Ichika's making that clear through her singing.)

(Saki's synth is really shining right before the chorus too. Honami was right about holding back on the drums there.)

(And that's followed up by Honami's drum fill...)

(Perfect...
Ichika hit that high note right in time with that fill.)

This song's pretty good.
It's like it was made to cheer people up, you know?

Yeah, they've really upped their game too.

(The crowd seems to like it...)

(And no mistakes as far as I can tell. They're playing like they really mean it. All that practice is really paying off...)

Thanks, you guys...

That was wonderful!

Yeah, that was awesome!
And so much fun!

It really was...!
Everyone in the audience really seemed to like it too.

Seemed?
They did.

All of the work you put into it really paid off in the end. I'm sure they feel the same way too. Nice work, all of you.

Shiho...!

Alright, it's time for an after party!
I mean, after a quick debrief!

I thought you didn't like doing those.

Our show went super duper well today, including our new song, so I'm too excited not to!

Right now, I want to keep improving and give everyone better performances, so let's do a debrief before I forget that!

Saki...

Okay, let's get started.

Oh, before we do... When is our next show supposed to be?

Nothing's set in stone yet, but next month at the earliest...

Really?! I can't wait♪

We'll have to practice quite a bit, again.

That's true, but...

Starting next time, I'm thinking about having us sell tickets for our shows. Would that be okay with all of you?

*Gasp*
Shiho...

Tickets?

Yeah, we'd be gathering people to come see our show and selling tickets to them.

Until now, the owner and manager have been giving us a free pass, but if we're serious about going pro, this is something we'll have to do eventually.

I see... I didn't know that.

Finding ways to sell tickets alongside practicing won't be easy, but we can take it one step at a time...

Yeah, I wanna give it a try!

Oh...

Me too. I've never done anything like this before, but I think we'll be fine as long as we work together...

Really...?

No, you're right. We can do this as long as we're together.

I'll try calculating how much time we'll need to sell them and work that into our schedule.

Okay!

I'm glad we got to talk about it.

I mean, you were right.
It's too much for one person to handle.

However, my guess is that you'd do whatever it takes if we do ever find ourselves in a bind.

N-No, I wouldn't...

Hehe. Just a joke.

But if that ever happens...
Please, ask me for help.

Honami...