Momoi Taro wants to form a "don" brother duo, but it's a music anime.

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Normally, Takamatsu Takamori, who was sitting in front of me and should have been engrossed in her own world, heard my voice and immediately looked up to greet me: "Good morning, Ai."

Ai-yin was momentarily stunned upon hearing this, but she quickly recovered, smiled, and waved, "Good morning, Deng-deng—"

Gao Songdeng, who sat in front of me. I met her once when we entered school, and I was very impressed with her. After that, we became good friends and went through a lot together.

However, Aine's understanding of her is still shallow. If she had to describe her, she would probably just say that she's an introverted, sensitive, and collecting friend. She likes penguins, collecting stones, and astronomy. She used to have a band that disbanded for some reason, but it seems she recently formed another band.

That's all Aine had of Takamatsu Lantern.

"What is Takamatsu writing?" Aine looked curiously at Takamatsu's notebook. The girl, who was like a little animal, generously pushed the notebook towards Aine. Aine leaned down slightly and looked at what Takamatsu was writing.

Takamatsu's gaze slid from Aine's lower abdomen up her smooth chest and then lingered on her sweet face. He asked softly, "How do you feel?"

"These are... lyrics?" Ai Yin looked at them seriously, then smiled and praised, "Deng Deng, you're amazing."

"Hmm... well, I think this is probably a personal summary of the first half of my life..." Gao Songdeng said somewhat uncertainly, then her gaze became a little more determined: "Now, having decided to move forward, I must embrace my past, weak self..."

“That sounds so profound—” Aine handed the notebook back to Takamatsu, smiling but with a very serious tone: “But good luck, I will do my best to support Takamatsu.”

"Mmm!" Takamatsu held her hands to her chest, looking intently at Aine: "Thank you... Ai, thanks to you and Master Taro, I was able to break free from the past."

"I didn't do anything." Aine touched her temples a little shyly, chuckled, and then suddenly seemed to remember something, asking, "This is just the lyrics, right? I remember Akari told me before that the band's arrangement was done by Toyokawa-kun, right?"

“Well, Xiao Lixi said she’s learning music composition…” Deng said softly, her voice revealing a hint of determination: “I believe her.”

Shiina Tatsuki was the waitress who didn't look too well. She seemed alright when we first met, but for some reason, ever since that day she came with that young lady from the Moon Forest named Suze, we've seen each other much less often, and every time we do, she seems unwell. Lately, she's even more... she looks a bit weak.

"I see. Well, then she shouldn't try too hard." Aine smiled and returned to her seat. After that, she spent her school days as usual. Then, as usual, she ate lunch together in the Astronomy Club during lunch break and then taught Takamatsu Akari to play the guitar.

This happened not long ago. One day, Gao Songdeng suddenly asked Ai Yin to teach her guitar. Gao Songdeng learned very quickly, and it was worth all the effort I put into teaching her.

After that, just like any other day, I waited patiently until school was over.

Meanwhile, Pochi spent the rest of the day in class feeling anxious, as she felt unusually nervous and was very afraid that her classmates would notice her nervousness.

However, because she was always this nervous, her classmates just thought that Pochi was a very cool rock girl, and assumed that was her true nature. They didn't pay any attention to her unusual behavior today.

As for why she was so scared... it's very simple. Because, until now, she hadn't told her bandmates that Chihaya Aine was coming to the practice room.

She had already filled in the blanks in her mind.

"Nijika: Pochi brought an outsider into the practice room without the team's permission."

"Kita: This is leaking the band's secrets!" (This appears to be a fragment of a larger text, possibly a news article or advertisement. A direct translation isn't possible without further context.)

Liang slammed down his gavel and said coldly, "Pochi has betrayed the band by leaking their secrets. He is now sentenced to death."

No...no, not this one thing. Pochi closed his eyes and trembled in his seat.

Under inner torment and questioning, Pochi endured the morning's classes with great difficulty. Even Pochi felt she couldn't continue like this under such torture. So, during her lunch break, she secretly practiced with Kita, intending to discuss with her what to do.

Kita is a red-haired girl and the lead singer and guitarist of her own band, which ended in disbandment. She's undeniably a very outgoing person with countless friends. She attends the same high school as Pochi, and as mentioned before, Kita was invited by Pochi to be the lead singer.

So, Kita and Pochi are alumni of the same school, which made it easy for Pochi to invite Kita to lunch... Well, after all, Pochi can communicate normally with people online... I guess?

"It's rare for Goto-kun to actually ask me out for dinner," Kita tilted his head, looking at the trembling Pochi with confusion, secretly wondering why Pochi had called him over.

Kita is quite a character. There are plenty of people in this world who form bands, but it's very rare for someone to run away with a band. Kita is one of them.

For some reason, she impulsively joined the End of the Band, but since she knew absolutely no guitar, she figured she could manage with some practice... after all, she had three whole months. She found some tutorials online, but no matter how much she practiced, her guitar just wouldn't produce a proper sound.

It wasn't until Golden Week that a kind deliveryman saw his instrument by chance. Only then did he realize that what he had bought was a bass. Thanks to the deliveryman's generosity, he was able to afford a guitar and finally had the courage to talk to Goto.

However, she never expected that Goto would invite her to join the band, and even more unexpectedly, Goto was also the one who had ended the band. Such a coincidence must be an arrangement of fate.

Goto seemed quite troubled. She should take the initiative, so she squeezed Pochi's hand and said with a smile, "Goto, you can talk to me about anything. We're bandmates."

“Companion…” Pochi, who was trying to figure out how to start the conversation, suddenly felt elated.

“Yes! We’re comrades!” Kita gripped Pochi’s hand even tighter and said with a smile, “You can tell us anything!”

Under Kita's (sweet) influence, she smugly poured out her troubles. Kita patted his chest and said with a smile, "Oh, is that all? You can leave it to me, I'll talk to Ryo-senpai and the others!"

The quick-thinking Kita immediately sent a message in the chat group. Nijika quickly replied "ok". Kita then reminded her to send her location.

On the other side, after school, Aine apologized to Takamatsu Akari, saying she couldn't accompany her to practice guitar in the astronomy club. Takamatsu Akari expressed her understanding and then made a declaration:

"Xiao Ai, go ahead and do your own thing. I will continue to move forward on my own."

Although Ai Yin didn't understand much, she was really cool. Ai Yin encouraged her for a bit, then put on her guitar bag and went to the station to wait for the train.

After all... it takes a long time to get to Shimokitazawa from here. On her way to Shimokitazawa, Aine waited at the station for a while.

“Aine!”

She heard a familiar male voice calling her name, and she quickly turned around to look. Sure enough, it was the handsome man.

Momoi Taro, a freak and genius from who-knows-where. Aine's impression of him was that he was handsome, all-around talented, and honest. He sang incredibly well; after hearing his songs, she was willing to give up her guitar and vocals to form a band with him.

By the way, the other three members of their band are the internet celebrity Miaomeng, the very cute Le Nai, and the super cool girl Hailing.

Recently, her impression of him has changed slightly. Although Taro is very strict in practice, he is actually a very gentle person. Despite being wrapped in a stern exterior, his gentleness is very difficult to detect.

The relationship between Taro and her now is hard to describe in words. Simply put, Taro gave her the courage to face her past. If she had to use one word to describe it, it would be "companion".

"Taro! What are you doing here?" Aine exclaimed in surprise at first, then asked with a hint of confusion. In her memory, Taro's life was extremely monotonous, revolving around work and the band—it seemed to be his entire life. His sudden appearance surprised and delighted her.

"I saw you on the way. You said you weren't going to practice this morning. I saw you, so I was a little curious about what you were doing there," Taro said in his characteristic style.

Ah, I see… Aine’s gaze shifted slightly. Dong Brothers was their band. But Dong Brothers’ group chat was very quiet. Lena rarely sent messages, and Hailing would only post about the band and casually reply with some emojis.

Taro rarely replies unless it's something important. The only person I chat with regularly is my favorite blogger, Meow Dream.

Unexpectedly, Taro had seen it all. Aine smiled slightly; "Nothing special, just..."

She briefly explained Pochi's invitation, and Taro nodded slightly: "I see, then let's go together."

"Huh? Going together?" Taro's words made Aine's pupils widen slightly, clearly she was a little taken aback, but she quickly recovered and smiled, saying, "Then I'll go tell Dudu."

Then she sent a message.

At that moment, Pochi, who was heading to the stars with Kita, felt a vibration in her pocket. She quickly took out her phone and looked at it. Her eyes widened, and she involuntarily let out a scream: "Ahhhhhh!!!"

Seeing Pochi's shocked expression, Kita quickly leaned over to look at the phone. The phone showed the LINE interface, and the message was from a girl with a flower profile picture and the nickname "Aine." She said, "Our lead singer wants to go too, Dudu, is that okay?"

"Dudu? Hitorin? What a terrible nickname." Kita silently complained to herself, but she wouldn't say it aloud, as it could easily cause an argument. So, was the reason Goto-kun was like this because, after just agreeing with Nijika-senpai, there was suddenly another person involved?

As Goto's companion, it was only natural that she had to help Goto solve her problems, so she took out her phone without hesitation and sent messages to Nijika-senpai and Ryo-senpai.

However, what she didn't know was that what Poch was worried about wasn't that. It was the identity of the person coming.

If we're talking about the lead singer of Aine's group, isn't that Momoi Taro?! She couldn't help but shudder when she remembered Taro's brutal solution during that street performance.

Although I successfully performed a live show on the street that day, it was only once. After that, I became that paramecium again. I couldn't socialize properly. If Momoi Taro knew, he would definitely put me through grueling training again to get used to it.

No, we have to find a way to stop them from coming.

When Pochi came to his senses, he saw the chat history between Nijika and Kita in the band's group chat. Kita was unaware that he had sent an "OK" message to Aine using his own phone.

Pochi rolled his eyes and died peacefully.

"Goto-kun!" The last thing we heard was Kita's anxious exclamation.

Aine raised her phone, shook it slightly, and said to Taro, "Dodo said it's okay."

"Hmm!" Taro responded softly, his calm face showing no sign of wavering. He crossed his arms and smiled, "I haven't seen Goto lately. He must have been completely transformed after that street performance."

"Yeah, that street live performance... I watched the video on Twitter. It was really nerve-wracking when Tsubaki didn't sing at the beginning." Aine nervously recalled the video she watched after practicing that day. Her performance on that stage was truly amazing.

She smiled, genuinely happy for her friend. Taro was right; after that amazing street performance, it was definitely...

Huh? Aine suddenly recalled her encounter with Pochi these past few days, and cold sweat broke out on her forehead. Wait a minute, this situation can't be described as a complete transformation, it's more like nothing has changed at all, right?

Aine instinctively clutched her head, inwardly screaming: It's over!!!

Episode 3 of "Dong": Hope for Survival (?)

While waiting for the tram, Aine tries to make amends for her mistake.

"Taro, the weather doesn't seem very good today." Aine looked up slightly at the gray sky and raised her voice a little: "If it rains when we get to Shimokitazawa Station, it will be troublesome. Maybe we should go another day."

Taro looked at Aine's sudden performance with some confusion. He also looked up at the sky. The sky was indeed a bit overcast, but it was far from raining. However, what Aine said was not impossible.

He then looked at Aine with a strange expression and gave her a very oddly reliable smile: "Ah, it's not impossible for such a thing to happen."

"Huh? Could it be?" Aine looked at Taro with hopeful eyes, only to see Taro take a red folding umbrella out of his pocket: "Just in case, I brought this with me. You can use it when the time comes."

Like a bolt from the blue, Aine froze instantly, then awkwardly laughed and said, "Haha, Taro is really reliable."

Undeterred, she continued to subtly and overtly hint to Taro to return. However, to Aine's despair, Taro, whether indifferent to her hints or failing to understand them, responded sincerely with similar words.

It's over, completely over. The moment Aine saw the train arrive, she gave up completely. "I'm sorry! Dudu! I'm so sorry! From now on, I'll burn paper money for you every year!"

As Aine silently prayed for her best friend, her phone vibrated. She took it out and glanced at it. Huh? Only the reply was "ok". So she must have a way to deal with Taro?

Although she had a vague feeling that something was wrong, Aine could only stuff her phone into her skirt pocket. Right now, all she could do was pray.

The girl is praying...

On her way back to the starry sky, Pochi received a message from Aine. While she was thinking about how to refuse, Kita saw the message in Pochi's hand. So she volunteered to message her senior to ask for help in getting Pochi out of the predicament.

"Goto-san, the seniors all say it's ready! That's wonderful!" Kita excitedly boasted to Pochi, and seeing Pochi's lack of reaction, she smiled and said, "Goto-san? Are you just too happy?"

She leaned closer, smiled slightly, and said, "Goto-san, it's rude not to reply to your friends' messages, isn't it? Let me see... OK, send."

She smiled brightly, as if she had done a great deed. What happened next shocked her. When Pochi came to her senses and saw the messages she had sent and the replies from her seniors, she suddenly fainted.

Kita then realized the trouble he had caused and quickly carried Pochi to the stars. Fortunately, Pochi didn't remain unconscious for long and woke up shortly after arriving on the stars.

Kita brought Pochi to the practice room. Seeing Pochi's weak appearance, Nijika asked him with great concern what had happened.

　"If Master Taro comes, I'll definitely die!" Upon hearing Nijika's question, Pochi's expression turned ashen, like a scene from a famous painting: "He thought I wasn't so socially awkward anymore, so he was relieved. But if he's discovered, those hellish training sessions will definitely continue—"

"Taro?" Kita had a vague memory of this overused name. She shook her head and asked, "Hellish training...? What exactly is it?"

Recalling his memories of the practice room, Pochi's face paled even more. His voice trembled as he said, "Do sit-ups until you pass out."

Of course, Pochi was exaggerating. Perhaps, in her heart, what Taro did was no different.

"How terrifying!" Hongxia's eyes widened slightly as she looked at Boqi with pity. "How about we reject him now?"

"I've already said 'ok' for Goto-kun... I'm sorry," Kita bowed again in apology.