"What? Erina can sing?"
Alice asked excitedly. She had been separated from her cousin Erina since childhood and had only recently returned, so she was unaware of the joke about Erina's singing.
"Yeah, she sometimes sings in the bath," Sui nodded.
"I never thought that the usually serious Erina could sing with such a girlish heart."
Megumi and the others looked at her in surprise.
"No... no way! Don't listen to his nonsense!" Erina's face turned crimson with embarrassment, her anxious voice almost tearful. She wished she could sink into the floor.
"In that case, let 'me' sing!" Alice declared confidently.
"Miss, aren't you tone-deaf?" Ryō commented dryly.
"What did you say, Ryo-kun!?" Alice smacked his shoulder in annoyance.
Afterward, everyone returned to the hotel. Erina flatly refused to sing, and Sui was left with no other option.
Actually, Tsundere's singing is pretty good, he thought. If Erina would sing, it would definitely be far better than Kawashima Rei's.
"We could find another feature that doesn't involve singing," Erina muttered, kneeling on the floor with a flushed face, her head lowered in embarrassment.
Sui sighed. It really was too much to expect the proud Erina to sing.
"But it seems the other senpais are struggling too," Sōma noted. "This kind of thing isn't really their forte."
Sui and the others imagined what it would be like if Rindō, Nene, or Momo sang—and shuddered. The thought was terrifying!
"Looks like the senpai are stepping up," someone remarked, noticing a shift in the atmosphere.
"Really? Is Nene-senpai about to sing?" The group rushed outside in surprise, only to see it was Eizan preparing to perform.
Eishi and the others joined in to watch the spectacle unfold. In front of the hotel, there was a speaker. Eizan stood in the cold, wearing only a thin white shirt with a leopard-print vest underneath, his hair slicked back and a gold chain hanging around his neck—looking like some delinquent.
"By the way, Eizan, can you really sing?" Kuga asked, somewhat skeptical.
"It's just singing. How hard could it be?" Eizan responded arrogantly. "I sing all the time with my buddies at karaoke."
"Wow, I didn't expect you to have such a hidden talent, Eizan," Eishi said, genuinely surprised.
Eizan's song was... unique. He belted out the anthem of Kitajima Saburo—a favorite of the yakuza. But as soon as he started, a cold chill ran down everyone's spine.
Eishi's expression froze, as if he had just swallowed a bug.
"Um, Eizan, maybe you should stop singing," he forced a smile.
"What? I think I was pretty good?" Eizan looked genuinely confused.
"If you keep going, the few customers we have will flee in terror," Nene added with a pained expression.
"It seems I'll have to step in and save the day," Kuga declared.
"Wait, you can sing too?" Eishi asked, bewildered.
"Of course. With looks, money, and talent like mine, singing is just a minor skill," Kuga said, puffing his chest out in narcissism.
"This must be a late-stage symptom of delusional self-importance," Alice whispered to the group.
Everyone nodded in silent agreement.
Kuga began to sing, but compared to Eizan's wolf-like howls, Kuga's voice resembled the croaking of a toad. Eishi, initially filled with anticipation, now looked as if he'd eaten something rotten.
Halfway through Kuga's performance, Rindō gave up, stormed back into the hotel, grabbed a kitchen knife, and shouted, "Kuga, if you don't stop right now, I'll kill you!"
"Looks like using singing as our selling point is a lost cause," Sui sighed. No one could sing. And the only one who could—Erina—was too shy to admit it. They had to think of something else.
"Actually, I could give it a shot," Sōma offered, raising his hand. "I'm pretty confident in my singing voice. Maybe we could form a men's singing group with Ryo and Hayama—it might just work."
The group collectively envisioned a rock band made up of Soma, Ryo, and Akira. The thought alone was frightening enough to give them all goosebumps.
"Is this supposed to be the 'Hell Rock Band'?" Alice muttered sarcastically.
"Sōma-kun, maybe we should skip this idea," Megumi suggested gently. She forced a smile, trying to dissuade him. She had heard Soma sing before—it was as painful as Kuga's.
It was like comparing the croaks of toads and bullfrogs.
"How about we catch some monkeys? A hot spring experience with monkeys could be a big attraction, right?" Kuga suggested, raising a finger as inspiration struck.
"Kuga, you could just play the part of the monkey yourself. No one would notice the difference," Nene said with a sharp tongue.
"What did you say, you yellow-faced woman!? Even if you sacrifice your looks, no one would show up!" Kuga retorted furiously.
"This is giving me such a headache," Eishi groaned, massaging his temples. "If it were about cooking, I'd have no problem. But this... I've got no talent for any of it."
"Maybe Tōsuke could do a chest-breaking rock demonstration? He's got the build for it," Rindō suggested, with a mischievous glint in her eye.
As the conversation got more and more ridiculous, Sui and the others had no choice but to retreat to their hotel.
"Well, let's leave it at that for today and think of something tomorrow," Sui said finally.
With no better ideas in sight, everyone agreed, heading back to the Totsuki Hotel together.
"I'll sneak over later," Alice whispered stealthily to Sui as they walked.
Sui looked at her, speechless.
That night, Alice quietly slipped into Sui's room once again.