25

"You're finally awake?"

"…Woke up from hunger."

Tsuzuki Chihiro emerged from the bedroom, rolling her eyes at Soyo's teasing tone before plopping herself down on the couch like she owned the place.

"I only have instant noodles. You'll have to make do."

"Instant noodles?"

Chihiro frowned in disbelief. "You live in a place this big, and you don't even have real food? You're seriously feeding me instant noodles?

"And wait, aren't you loaded? You live alone? No maids or anything?"

"You are the maid."

"Hey! You trying to piss me off?" Chihiro shot up from the couch and marched over to the dining table, where Soyo sat typing on her laptop. Leaning in with a smirk, she taunted, "What's with your voice all of a sudden? Where's that fake cutesy tone? Let me think… how did it go again?"

"Ahem… 'I'm Nagasaki Soyo~'"

"..."

Soyo wordlessly glanced up at her, unimpressed. Instead of responding, she hit the enter key on her keyboard.

From the study, the sound of a printer whirring filled the air.

Chihiro, now looking genuinely puzzled, watched as Soyo retrieved two freshly printed sheets of A4 paper and walked back over.

"Here. Read the contract."

"Contract?"

Chihiro's eyelid twitched. She hadn't expected Soyo to be this thorough—she actually went and drafted a full-on contract?

But Soyo's expression was dead serious. Realizing this wasn't a joke, Chihiro picked up one of the copies and began reading through it.

"Party A: Nagasaki Soyo. Party B: Tsuzuki Chihiro… Wait, why are you Party A?"

"Because I have money."

"…Fair."

Having no counterargument, Chihiro begrudgingly continued reading.

"Party A shall provide Party B with housing and three meals a day, but is not responsible for cooking."

"In addition, Party A will pay Party B a daily wage of 5,000 yen, settled weekly."

Chihiro nodded in approval. This arrangement seemed pretty decent. Then again… this did make it look like she was being kept by a rich girl.

No way to argue against that.

"Keep reading," Soyo said, arms crossed, a smirk tugging at her lips.

"…Party B must unconditionally comply with Party A's requests, provided they fall within Party B's capabilities, are reasonable, and do not violate any laws of Japan."

"Party A holds the authority to determine what qualifies as reasonable, though Party B has the right to dispute or negotiate."

"If Party B refuses a request that falls within these conditions, the contract is automatically terminated. Additionally, if Party B voluntarily quits before the contract's completion, they must compensate Party A with a penalty fee of 500,000 yen—"

"Something wrong?"

"Not really. Seems fair enough." Chihiro clicked her tongue but kept reading.

"During the contract period, neither party may disclose the existence or details of this contract to any third party. Any violation will result in a 500,000 yen penalty paid to the other party—"

"Don't give me that look," Soyo teased. "Besides, I think this is just common sense, isn't it?"

"More importantly, this clause actually protects you more than me."

"After all, you wouldn't want Anon or Nina to find out that you're a two-faced liar, now would you?"

"…Fine, you win."

Chihiro was briefly surprised when Soyo mentioned Nina. But thinking about it, this was probably the only way Soyo could have figured out her real name.

Speaking of which, she actually kind of wanted to see Nina.

…But if she did, would Nina try to strangle her on sight?

"So? Signing or not? I've got a stamp pad ready. Two copies, one for each of us."

"Of course I'm signing."

A grin tugged at Chihiro's lips.

She didn't feel like Soyo had gotten the upper hand on her at all. No matter how mature and composed this girl pretended to be, at the end of the day, she was just a high school student living in her own little bubble.

Turning the tables on her would be too easy.

Without hesitation, Chihiro pressed her fingerprint onto both copies of the contract. Soyo did the same with hers.

Whether or not this contract held actual legal weight…

Chihiro had no idea.

But that didn't matter.

She had no intention of breaking any of these conditions anyway.

"Alright, then it's official."

Soyo carefully put her copy away before sitting back down, looking far more serious than before.

"First off, I think we should exchange the information we already have—wait here, I'll grab something."

"Huh?"

Before Chihiro could ask, Soyo disappeared into another room and returned with a mobile whiteboard. With a marker in hand, she wrote down five names.

"Let me start by introducing the members of CRYCHIC, along with their personalities and what I know about them."

"Got it."

"First, there's me—Nagasaki Soyo, the bassist of the band."

She paused for a second, glancing at Chihiro to see if she was about to make another bassist joke.

Seeing that she didn't, Soyo continued.

"Next up, Wakaba Mutsumi. She's our guitarist. Quiet, introverted, doesn't talk much."

"Her father is a famous comedian, and her mother's a well-known actress, so she definitely comes from money."

"Alright. Next?"

"Our drummer—Shiina Taki. She goes to Hanekawa High right now."

At the mention of Taki, Soyo's expression turned a little complicated.

"Personality-wise… she's a handful. Short temper, easily emotional."

"Actually, people like that are the easiest to deal with. Who's next?"

"Huh?" Soyo blinked in surprise but didn't argue.

"The next one is our vocalist, Takamatsu Tomori. She's at Haneoka now."

"She's a bit of an odd one—what's the word? Oh, 'denpa-kei.' Basically, she's got a delicate and sensitive personality."

"She also wrote our lyrics. People like her, with rich inner worlds, tend to write the most moving songs."

Back in the day, Soyo had never really cared much for Tomori's lyrics.

But before her last life had ended, she had finally come to realize something—when she had been at her lowest, Tomori's words had made her see that CRYCHIC could never truly be replaced.

"Then there's Togawa Sakiko, right?"

"Yeah… Sakiko went to Tsukinomori for middle school, but for high school, she transferred to Haneoka. Probably just to avoid us."

Soyo sighed.

"She used to be really cheerful. She played piano beautifully, and we all loved the songs she wrote."

"I just… I just don't understand why it all had to end."

For a moment, her expression darkened.

But she quickly shook it off and moved on, writing two more names on the board.

Chihiro had no reaction to Chihaya Anon.

But the moment Soyo wrote down Kaname Raana, Chihiro suddenly stood up.

"You know Raana?!"

"Uh… why the reaction?"

"Do you even know who she is?" Chihiro's eyes were deadly serious. For the first time, Soyo saw her looking genuinely serious.

"Who?"

"She's my sister."

"…Come again?"

Soyo felt like she had royally screwed up.

How the hell had she managed to bring in a key enemy's family member as an ally?!

"Wait, does this mean… you're gonna break the contract? Because that's 500,000—"

"But Raana is my dearest family, my own flesh and blood… which means…"

Chihiro grinned.

"You're gonna have to pay me more."

---

T/N: mo moneyy