Now then, Chika.

Huh? I thought we had cookies, but I guess I ate them.

Riko, you fine with sweet natto for a snack?

Oh, I'm fine with anything.

Wait! Chika, let's get back on track. We were talking about the new song today, right? You were stuck with the lyrics?

Urgh. Y-Yeah, as you can probably tell.

Wow, just look at your lyric notebook. There's scribbles all over these pages.

Hm? Wait, these are all just single words. “Time,” “friends,” “seasons.”

I was trying to write out any word that came to mind and connect them, but it didn't actually work out.

Oh.

Hey, Riko, how do you make songs?

Me? Well…

I guess I read your lyrics, then play out the melody that comes to mind and write that in the score.

Whoa! That's some unfairly good intuition!

Unfair? Hey, come on, I can't do it perfectly in one go.

But I put a lot of weight in the inspiration I get out of the gate. I think those are my most genuine feelings.

So, the start is the most genuine, huh?

Like, you ever think so long and so hard that you just forget why you're thinking in the first place? Or think about totally different stuff from what you started with?

Yeah, definitely! Especially when I have a test the next day!

All right, you really want to take your time and think about your tests.

Basically, when you're thinking for a long time, all sorts of different things come to mind, and you lose sight of what you should do, you know?

I suppose you're right. So I guess if I focus on the first word I thought up when I'm writing lyrics, it'll work out?

Give it a try. So, which one did you write first?

Uh. Ok, let's see… Ah, here it is! “Fried shrimp”!

Wait, what? Fried shrimp?!