When the restaurant door closed behind them, the air smelled of browned cheese, olive oil, and warm tomato sauce.

It had a quiet brightness unlike the heat still lingering at the venue. Two long tables stood toward the back, where the organizers and members of the bands that had performed were seated, still wearing faintly businesslike expressions. Some had not yet finished exchanging cards. Others were talking about the sets they had just seen, the running order, or the sound in the room.

Food and drinks were arranged on a counter at the back. Whenever someone wanted more, they went to get it themselves.

Maki was listening to someone from the organizers’ side, nodding again and again. Even when she meant to hold it back, her happiness showed on her face.

“Good work today. Tomorrow, let’s get the four of us together and sort through the offer we were just given.”

Maki raised her glass slightly.

“First, let’s eat. I’m really hungry.”

Risa laughed, and the air around the table loosened a little.

Reina took a sip from her glass as well. The cold water passed through her throat, and for a moment, she felt some of the heat left after singing go down.

At a table a little way off sat the members of the guest band that had played last.

Toru was among them.

He listened as the member beside him spoke, nodding briefly now and then. He looked far more ordinary than he had when he had suddenly spoken to her in the hallway.

Even so, Reina could not forget what he had said.

Halfway through, your singing suddenly changed.

The fact that she had not been able to answer stayed in her chest.

As the conversation shifted from one subject to another, the glass in front of Reina gradually emptied.

She took it to the counter at the back of the restaurant.

Just as she reached for the water carafe, Toru was standing on the other side of it.

He had an empty glass and a small plate in his hands.

When their eyes met, Toru lifted the carafe.

“Want some?”

“Please.”

Toru filled Reina’s glass, then his own.

It should have ended there.

When Toru turned to return to his seat, Reina stopped him.

“Um, Shinohara-san.”

Toru looked back.

“You spoke to me earlier, and I couldn’t answer properly. I’m sorry.”

“I said it out of nowhere.”

“You said my singing changed halfway through. What did you mean?”

Toru thought for a moment.

“At first, it didn’t quite carry.”

“It didn’t carry?”

“I don’t mean it was bad. Then all at once, your voice came forward. I could hear the words.”

Reina said nothing.

“You can tell things like that?”

“When I can.”

“Didn’t you call me Reina-chan before?”

Reina smiled a little after she said it.

Toru lowered his eyes once.

“I did.”

“So you use -chan with people you know less well?”

“Back then, I didn’t really know you, Reina-san.”

Toru spoke while looking at the small plates on the counter.

“I just thought, there’s a cute girl here. So I took the liberty of using something too familiar.”

“And now?”

“Now I know you a little. I thought a name like that wasn’t right.”

Because he said it without trying to dress it up, Reina did not tease him any further.

The person who had stepped too close when they first met was now waiting for her answer. Toru had explained the reason in his own words.

For the first time, Reina thought he might be more decent than she had expected.

“I see.”

Her reply was brief, but Toru did not rush her.

Reina took her full glass and returned to her seat.

As the meal went on, someone from the organizers spoke about the project that night, and Maki looked more positive each time she listened. What VEIL would show next. How far they could turn their unease at being approached first through their appearance into something they chose to stage themselves.

Reina nodded along with Maki’s words, glancing toward the other table now and then.

Toru was talking with the other members too.

Even so, the conversation that had stopped halfway through remained with her.

When the restaurant had grown quieter, Mizuki turned toward Reina.

“What are you going to do?”

Reina looked at her phone, checked the time once, and turned off the screen without saying anything.

“I’m going to ask Maki a little more about what she said, then go.”

“Okay. Message us when you get home.”

“Yeah.”

Hiyori and Risa waved to Reina as they left. Maki was speaking with one of the organizers, but when Reina approached, she immediately looked up.

“What’s up?”

“What should we show first, if we decide to accept?”

Maki smiled a little. She did not look as though she thought uncertainty itself was a bad thing.

“You don’t have to decide right away. But if you want people to listen to your music, I think you shouldn’t hide that.”

“Some people might be drawn in by how we look.”

“They might. But then the four of you can figure out how to lead them from there to the music.”

Maki looked openly pleased by the possibility that VEIL might take a small step forward.

Hearing her, Reina let some of the tension leave her shoulders.

Before long, someone from the organizers called for Maki, and she headed toward the entrance.

“Reina, I’m going to leave first. Be careful getting home.”

“Yes.”

After watching Maki and the organizers leave, Reina turned around.

Toru was still in the restaurant.

The other members of the guest band seemed to have left ahead of him. The only sound drawing closer to where the two of them were was a server clearing empty plates.

After hesitating for a moment, Reina went back to Toru.

“Can I ask a little more about what we were talking about?”

Toru looked at her without saying anything.

“Yeah.”

“How did you feel about the kind of offer we got today?”

Toru thought for a moment.

“I still don’t know much about VEIL, so I can’t say much.”

“Right.”

“But if you do something different just to be seen, I don’t think that’s right.”

Reina smiled a little.

“I think so too.”

“It isn’t for me to decide. But I want to see the stage Reina-san and the others most want to make.”

Hearing that, Reina told Toru about what she had just been discussing with Maki.

The words in their songs. The songs where the moment Hiyori’s bass came in, even the place where Reina took her breaths changed. The way the band’s sound shifted a little whenever the four of them played together again and again. Rather than there being one finished form, each live show brought them closer to the sound the four of them had at that moment.

Toru listened without interrupting.

It was unusual for Reina to keep talking this long about the details of her band’s sound with someone outside the group. Yuto listened whenever Reina wanted to talk. It was rarer for them to work through the fine details of music together. That had never troubled her.

Every time Toru answered, another question came to Reina. Before she realized it, she was looking straight at his face while he talked about music.

“Do you remember other bands’ live shows that way too?”

“When something catches my attention.”

“Did my singing catch your attention?”

Only after asking did Reina hold her breath a little.

Toru did not smile right away.

“At the last shared-bill show too. And today. I remembered it.”

Reina lost her words.

The instant she had realized that Toru had seen her after the previous shared-bill show had left nothing but heat inside her body.

Even on the night when she had tried to soothe herself alone, as if to find out what that heat was, the memory of Toru had not faded.

Even while she had been close with Yuto, Toru’s gaze and back had slipped into her mind without warning, and her body had reacted more strongly than usual. It had happened in a place separate from loving Yuto. Reina still did not know how to make sense of it.

Even here, in a restaurant where they were only talking about music, she understood that every time she looked at Toru, her body remembered that heat first.

A server came quietly over to them.

“I’m sorry, but we’ll be closing soon.”

Reina nodded and opened her phone.

One look at the time told her that the trains were no longer running.

When she had checked the time a little earlier, Reina had closed the screen. Even so, she had not stopped the conversation.

Yuto’s face came to mind.

He had said that tomorrow would be an early day.

Reina opened her messages with Yuto.

She could not type, *I’m heading home now.*

Instead, with the notification silenced, she sent only: *You’re already asleep, right?*

Looking at the mark showing that it had been sent, Reina stood with her phone still in her hand.

Toru did not look at her screen.

“No trains now?”

“Yeah.”

“A taxi could still get you home.”

That was all Toru said.

Reina did not answer.

It was not that she could not get home.

There were still several paths open to her.

“Toru-kun.”

The moment she said it, Reina surprised herself a little.

Toru blinked once, then answered in the same tone he had been using.

“Yeah.”

“I want to talk somewhere else for a little while. Somewhere quieter.”

Toru looked at Reina as though he might say something.

“Reina-san.”

“I know.”

Reina answered him.

Her wish to continue talking about music had not been a lie, either.

As for what else she was trying to confirm, she decided not to think about it.

Even after leaving the restaurant, Reina opened her phone several times. There was still no reply from Yuto.

He had said that tomorrow would be an early day. Maybe he was already asleep.

If she thought that, she did not have to say anything about tonight yet.

They started walking without either of them naming where they were going.

When they turned the corner, a hotel still lit late into the night stood before them.

Toru stopped at the entrance.

“Is this all right?”

Reina nodded without speaking.

Toru waited for Reina to decide.

Reina put her phone into her bag and walked toward the automatic doors.

The doors opened.

Reina went inside, and Toru followed quietly after her.