College, Chapter 4

College, Chapter 4 is a chapter of the fifth volume of the K-ON! Manga by Kakifly.

Summary
After almost four years of playing guitar, Yui has finally managed to pass Akira's quiz on the parts of the guitar with flying colours. Up until just then, Yui never really bothered to learn any of the technical terms, so Mio is actually really proud that Yui can remember them now.

With that out of the way, they're about to start practice. Ritsu complains that it's too hot to, even though there's working air-con. Then all of a sudden she remembers she has something urgent to take care of and bolts off. No one's quite sure what Ritsu's up to. Yui thinks she might be plotting something. Tsumugi suspects she has a boyfriend, like a certain last time.

Ritsu doesn't show up to dinner either, though Megumi claims that Ritsu already had dinner and went back to her dorm. Maybe her 'urgent business' was just being hungry. Mio knocks on her dorm room door to check up on her, but Ritsu says that she's already gone to bed. However, when Ritsu slowly opens the door to check if Mio's gone, she's standing right there ready to pounce.

Mio instinctively knows that something's up, but Ritsu tries to joke it off that five people confessed their love to her that day. They both sit down on the bed and try to work through why Ritsu's been skipping practice lately. Ritsu thinks that everyone else in the band is actually getting better at their music, even Yui, who's starting to take an interest in learning about the theory and technical aspects. Only Ritsu hasn't progressed or grown in any way.

To try to prove to Ritsu that she doesn't have to worry, Mio drags her right down to the club room to jam with the band, with Akira, Sachi, and Ayame watching. Those three girls unanimously agreed that the drums were being rushed. That didn't do wonders for Ritsu's self esteem. However, the audience seemed to also agree that even with the rushing drums, the band knew exactly when Ritsu would speed up, and they would still play in unison. Still, even though playing as a team is well and good, everyone agreed that nothing beats actually keeping the right tempo.