Soyo-chan, Version 2.0—Courtesy of Me! [143]

Nagasaki Soyo noticed that Tsuzuki Chihiro was looking at her with an odd expression.

Even though Chihiro was talking to Taki on the phone, Soyo couldn’t shake the feeling that she was, once again, being kept in the dark about something.

And this time… Taki was the one behind the drum set.

"What about the rest? That’s all you heard?"

Chihiro wasn’t particularly concerned about Taki’s dream, but since it was a nightmare—and about Soyo—she couldn’t help but pry a little further.

Unfortunately, the problem was that even Taki herself wasn’t too sure what had happened in the dream.

After a brief silence, she half-guessed, half-confirmed:

"I don’t remember what I said to Soyo, just that I was angry at her. And Soyo… she looked really down, like she was completely hopeless."

"I think… maybe I did something to betray her trust. Maybe I caused the band to fall apart.

"Maybe that’s why she gave up on me."

"Eh?"

Chihiro hadn’t expected Taki to make such a connection. Looked like this girl still hadn’t gotten over her split personality incident.

"It’s just a dream. Doesn’t mean anything," Chihiro shrugged, deciding to steer the conversation toward something more important. "Speaking of which… how’s the band doing?"

"The band…"

The moment Taki heard that word, something in her reaction felt off.

Maybe it was because of the dream she’d just mentioned.

"Sakuyo… am I a failure? I can’t do anything right…"

Hearing this rare moment of self-doubt—something Taki would probably only say to her—Chihiro smirked and asked gently,

"Why do you think that? You’ve been trying your best, haven’t you?"

"Tomori said… she doesn’t want to sing anymore."

"Huh." That actually caught Chihiro off guard. But after a moment, she realized it wasn’t that surprising. "She probably just got caught up in bad memories. She always felt like she wasn’t working hard enough, after all."

"That day… our performance was a disaster."

Shiina Taki had no idea that both the "Sakuyo" she was talking to and the real Soyo standing nearby already knew how that LIVE had gone down. She was just speaking from her own perspective, finally voicing what she hadn’t dared to tell Soyo before.

"Sakuyo, you worked so hard to practice bass, even recorded a track last-minute… but we ruined everything."

"None of us were ready. As soon as we got on stage, Anon panicked. She messed up three times before she finally calmed down and played properly."

"And then… Tomori broke down."

That disastrous LIVE had shaken the entire band. But in truth, only two of them had been truly affected—Taki and Tomori.

The very next Monday, Taki had sent a message in their group chat, saying that they were taking a break "to rest after the LIVE."

No one had questioned it.

But Taki herself knew the truth:

Would this break ever end? Could it?

"After the show, I actually saw Sakiko in the audience…"

In the past, Taki probably wouldn’t have mentioned that name, knowing Soyo would take Sakiko’s side. But now, she was talking to Sakuyo—someone who didn’t seem to care about Sakiko as much.

"Sakiko?"

"Yeah… I don’t know why she was there. Maybe someone told her we were performing," Taki hesitated, then said, "Soyo, I’m sorry… I failed to lead everyone past Sakiko."

"So, none of them have been to RiNG these past two days?"

"Not exactly."

Since Taki worked part-time at RiNG, she was aware of who had shown up—even if she had no idea RiNG was actually owned by the person she was talking to.

"Tomori hasn’t come at all. Raana dropped by once, but only to mooch a parfait… and then she just left after saying something weird."

"What’d she say?"

"She said… ‘Onee-chan isn’t here either.’"

"…And Anon?"

Chihiro wasn’t surprised about little Raana, who seemed to have made it her life’s mission to "hunt her down," but she was curious about Anon’s situation.

"Uh, Anon came by once, but… she’s probably the only one who actually thinks we’re just taking a break."

"…Hah?"

Alright, alright… Classic Anon.

Chihiro wasn’t sure if she was playing dumb or just genuinely not worried about the failed LIVE.

But if Anon really didn’t see a problem, then maybe she hadn’t realized that Taki and Tomori were already thinking about quitting.

"Let’s get everyone together later this week and talk things out."

This needed to be dealt with. But before hanging up, Chihiro added,

"Oh, right—Taki. If Sakiko asks whether I’m doing band stuff with you guys… I want you to keep it a secret."

"Soyo’s situation is a bit complicated right now, and I don’t want her getting dragged into anything with Sakiko."

"Mm… Got it. I won’t tell her."

"Alright, I’m hanging up."

The call had lasted over 20 minutes, and by the time it ended, Soyo—who had been waiting the whole time—was getting impatient.

The moment Chihiro put her phone down, the tea-haired girl blurted out,

"What was that at the end? Sakiko? Dragging me into things?"

Wasn’t that a good thing?!

"Ignore it," Chihiro rolled her eyes, already exhausted by Soyo’s knee-jerk reactions to Sakiko’s name. "Anyway, it doesn’t seem too serious. Taki and Tomori are struggling, but Anon and Raana don’t seem affected."

"I have a question."

Soyo’s face turned serious.

She hadn’t been able to hear what Taki had said, but just from Chihiro’s side of the conversation, she had already figured some things out.

"What is it?"

"The dream you two were talking about… what was it? Why did you talk about it for so long?"

For some reason, Soyo had a deep, unsettling feeling.

Like something terrible was about to happen.

In fact, she had been feeling this way for days—ever since making up with Chihiro. She had been stuck between guilt and fear, unsure of how to move forward.

Last time, things had turned out to be Chihiro’s scheme.

But this time…

This time felt different.

Her heart was pounding even faster.

"It’s nothing much. Taki just dreamed about you."

"Dreamed about me?"

"Yeah. She dreamed she was outside a concert hall and grabbed you by the collar. She was yelling at you, asking you something… And after arguing for a while, you said, ‘That's right.’"

"That’s it."

"…WHAT?! Y-YOU, WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!"

---

T/N: oooh Im guessing it was from the first timeline... Sodayo is what she said but i translated it to that's right... however im not sure if 'thats right' hehe get it

This is a fan translation of 素世同学，恭喜你被我优化了 by 杰克喵. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!