| Guy | ... |
| (I guess I will do some self-training.) |
| |
| Homare | “Orin-san, will you come with me?” |
| Azuma | “Tojiro-sama...” |
| Homare | “I will cast aside my family. Please, let us become husband and wife.” |
| Guy | —— |
| Hisoka | “Hah——” |
| “Tah!” |
| Azuma | ——Oh? Guy. |
| Guy | Is everyone doing self-training...? |
| Homare | Guy-san, it appears that you are here for precisely that. |
| Azuma | How serious. |
| Hisoka | ...Tasuku’s obsession with theater is rubbing off on you. |
| Guy | Does that not apply to everyone here? |
| Homare | Things will become difficult later on if we idle around just because there is no practice. |
| Azuma | Exactly. After all, Tasuku is the leader of this performance. |
| Hisoka | ...He’ll definitely be fussy. |
| Azuma | Fufu, I can imagine it. |
| Guy | ... |
| Homare | You appear perplexed. Is something wrong? |
| Guy | No, I was just thinking that you look surprisingly relaxed, considering the situation. |
| Homare | Are you worried? |
| Guy | ...I too am a cause of it after all. |
| Azuma | ...Tasuku seems to be having doubts. |
| Guy | Having doubts? |
| Hisoka | ...It’s not Guy’s fault. |
| Guy | How do you know that? |
| Hisoka | ...If you look at his acting, you’ll understand. |
| Homare | We’ve spent quite a lot of time together, after all. I may be useless, but even I understand a bit. |
| Azuma | Acting is a dialogue, so it may be easy to tell if your companion is in turmoil. |
| Guy | In turmoil, huh... |
| Azuma | Guy-san, aren’t you also troubled? |
| Guy | ... |
| Homare | Although we haven’t been together as long as we’ve been with Tasuku-kun, we stood on stage with you in Zahra and spent a meaningful time together. |
| In a way, I can tell. |
| Guy | ...It has been several months since then. |
| During the Opera performance, I gave everything I had just to perform my role. I wasn’t looking at my surroundings at all. |
| But now I can clearly understand the shoddiness of my acting compared to Takato’s and everyone else’s. |
| I can’t give Takato, the lead, any support as the co-lead of this performance; instead I’m only dragging him down. I am inadequate. |
| Homare | Hm... |
| Azuma | You really are serious. |
| Hisoka | Too serious. |
| Azuma | Guy is more negative than I thought. |
| It’s true that the abilities and the relationship between the lead and the co-lead are important, but you don’t need to get so worked up over it. |
| Homare | Precisely. It’s not as if you two are the only ones standing on stage. |
| Hisoka | ...Being co-lead is just troublesome because you have a little more lines than other roles. |
| Homare | Did you perhaps think of it that way in the Mystery performance? |
| Guy | —— |
| Azuma | Fufu. Well Hisoka is a little too lax, but you’re serious in just the right amount. |
| Homare | You need not worry about Tasuku-kun. If needed, he will surely tell us of his own accord. |
| He does not hold back when it comes to acting, after all. |
| Hisoka | ...There’s Tsumugi too. |
| Azuma | That’s right. You don’t have to worry too much about it on your own, Guy. |
| Guy | ...I see. |
| Homare | Well then, since Kojiro is here as well, let us practice with the four—— |
| Kamekichi | Oi, gather up, Winter Troupe. |
| Azuma | Kamekichi? |
| Kamekichi | Winter Troupe meeting. The Director’s calling for you. |
| Homare | I wonder if something happened? |
| Guy | Let’s go. |
| |
| Izumi | Ah, Kamekichi, you called everyone here. Thank you. |
| Kamekichi | You can thank me with sunflower seeds. |
| Izumi | I’ll go put them in your feeder later. |
| Tsumugi | Now we’ve gathered everyone in Winter Troupe. |
| Tasuku | ... |
| Homare | What is the matter? |
| Tsumugi | The truth is, the first stage where Tasuku and I stood –– our elementary school gymnasium is getting torn down. |
| Tasuku | Eh... |
| Tsumugi | Fuyuki-kun had a talk with the school folk so that they’d let us act there one last time. |
| Tasuku | Aniki did? |
| Tsumugi | Yeah. Apparently they were already planning their final arts festival around this time, and they’ve included us in the program since we’re alumni. |
| But well, we’ll probably just be a bonus; I think they only gave us enough time for something like the opening act to the main performance. |
| Tasuku | ...I see. |
| Azuma | Really? That’s good. |
| Homare | The two of you standing once more on a stage that holds many memories –– it’s like a drama. |
| Guy | Are you performing a two-man act? |
| Tasuku | Everyone in Winter Troupe will be performing, of course. Aren’t we? |
| Hisoka | ...All of us? |
| Tsumugi | That’s the plan. |
| Homare | But what shall we do? |
| Azuma | Since it was your first stage, shouldn’t we do the program you performed in elementary? |
| Tsumugi | For the program, we’ll do a short etude based on Winter Troupe’s fifth performance. |
| Guy | But, practice is... |
| Tsumugi | The leader of this performance is Tasuku, but as the leader of Winter Troupe, I won’t allow practice to be cancelled forever. |
| I discussed it with the Director, and we’ve decided that we’ll resume practice in order to polish the performance as much as we can before the school arts festival. |
| You’re good with that, right Tasuku? |
| Tasuku | ...Yeah. Fine by me. |
| Azuma | Are you sure, Tasuku? |
| Tasuku | Cancelling practice was selfish of me anyway. Besides, what Tsumugi said was reasonable. |
| Homare | I did not expect you to agree so easily. |
| Tsumugi | Tasuku is the type to drag things out and mull over them, so if you want to get through to him, you have to push hard without hesitation. |
| Azuma | I see... |
| Guy | Tsukioka is surprisingly aggressive. |
| Izumi | I was also a little worried that it would be too pushy, but I’m glad that it seemed to turn out just fine. |
| Azuma | I guess this is where you’d say, as expected of the leader. |
| Izumi | All right, for now let’s make the school arts festival our goal and carry on with practice! |
