♪♪♪
I spent my last middle school summer vacation indulging in leisurely activities. Midori ended up staying in Japan until the end of August and dragged me all over the place with her. Theme parks, art galleries, museums, and fireworks displays punctuated my vacation.
Meanwhile, Midori experienced her first taste of fast food with me. My insistence that we hang out within the means of my allowance resulted in Midori and Kon carrying trays with hamburgers and soda to the plastic table and chairs, where they hesitantly sat.
The girls stood out like super stars, walking into a fast-food joint wearing what anyone could tell was brand-name clothing at a glance. The people around us stared hard.
On a side note, the flavor was too much for the girls and their acquired tastes.
“Is it really okay for us to play around so much? I’m starting to feel guilty because I’m supposed to be drowning in exams like my friends,” I muttered.
“Why not?” Midori puffed out her cheeks. “This might be the last year the three of us get to play to our heart’s content, you know?”
“Why would it be the last?”
“Because if you start going steady with a boy in high school, you’ll prioritize him over us. I fear the consequences from said boyfriend when we get in the way of your dates.”
“You don’t have to hold back on the account of a hypothetical boyfriend,” I laughed.
Midori sent a meaningful look Kon’s way.
“I agree with Midori. Whoever you pick will end up monopolizing your time, Mashiro.”
“Ha! Monopolize is too cute of a word! She’ll be under complete lockdown!”
…Uh, they’re so not making me want a boyfriend. Their whispers sent chills crawling down my spine.
✦ ✦ ✦
♪♪♪
FALL came peacefully.
The days were packed with the final school events of middle school: the sports festival and culture festival. Everyone took the events super seriously as if it was their only outlet from the daily test stress.
“Go, go, class 3!” My classmates huddled together during the sports festival and shouted cheers from the sidelines with overwhelming intensity. Well, it’s obviously more fun to put your heart and soul into the things you have to do, whatever they may be—especially when taking brain-numbing tests is the alternative.
The girls changed into cheerleading outfits and cheered on the boys playing capture the flag. Many students came to school at six in the morning to practice for the choral competition. Every day felt like what you’d expect from adolescence.
Following the events of last year, I was asked to play the piano at the culture festival again, but the teachers had specific requests of me this year, turning it into a showcase of Chopin’s “Grande Polonaise Brillante” and Liszt’s “Un Sospiro”.
My worries over whether it was okay to just perform classical pieces ended up being for naught. Only the sound of the Shiroyama piano I played rose up in the quiet gymnasium. My mini recital concluded with loud applause.
✦ ✦ ✦
♪♪♪
WINTER arrived even faster than fall.
Days immersed in testing came back in full fury, thrusting the entire school into a one-note testing mood. I also decided to participate in more solfèges in preparation for my interview with Seio in January.
Tobi told me it was going to be a simple interview, but it couldn’t hurt to be perfectly prepared for it. I mean, it was Tobi who told me that. I absolutely couldn’t do such a dangerously stupid thing as take him at his word. I doubled down on practicing sight-reading as well. It was practically a given that a music school test would include sight-reading.
Sight-reading started by checking the tonality, rhythm, steady beat, and tempo, before quickly glancing over the note arrangement. Growing accustomed to sight-reading helps musicians think on the spot. A song none of the test takers knew was required to assess their skill, which was why they normally consisted of handwritten music scores by the teachers.
The student would be placed in front of a row of interviewers, given a short score of music and several minutes to read it, and then they would be asked to play. Not only was the skill to quickly pick up on a score being tested, but also how the student performed under pressure.
Fortunately, I didn’t have trouble with sight-reading or memorizing music.
✦ ✦ ✦
♪♪♪
I had plans to spend Christmas on a lunch cruise with Kon. Didn’t the name Christmas cruise have an incredible ring to it? Even better, a string quartet was going to perform live onboard! No one could blame me for getting excited, right?
By the hands of my pumped-up sister, I was transformed into the replica of a noble family’s proper young daughter. I met up with Kon in her shiny cream dress and we boarded the ship holding hands.
The lunch was prepared in a spacious dining hall, and guests, dressed up in fancy gowns and suits, shared in pleasant conversation under the bright chandeliers.
A porter, decked out in a white uniform, pulled out my chair for me. The string quartet waiting on standby at the front of the dining hall began playing their elegant melody when the porter placed the aperitifs on top of the starched tablecloth.
We were underage, so the glasses we lifted to toast were filled with sparkling soda.
“Getting to listen to Schubert while eating delicious food is the greatest thing ever!”
“Hehe. It sure is.” Kon looked more beautiful by the day. She smoothly brushed her cascading brown hair behind her ear and gracefully cut her steak. “By the way, Mashiro, are you going to perform in a concerto?”
“Miss Ayumi said she would have one arranged for me by next year. How about you, Kon?”
“I’ve already played several times with Seio University’s orchestra.”
“Oh my gosh! Lucky! I wish I could’ve been there!”
A small smile graced Kon’s lips as she watched me blissfully imagine her performance. She intently locked her eyes on me as if trying to sear my expression into her memory.
“…Um, it’s kinda embarrassing for me when you stare,” I surrendered, unable to withstand it any longer.
It hurts being picked apart by a beautiful woman’s gaze. I don’t have a zit, do I? When did I last pluck my eyebrows?
Kon pressed her napkin to her mouth and laughed. “Silly, Mashiro. You’re usually so aloof, but shy when it comes to the oddest things.” After she finished her laughing fit, Kon talked to me about Seio with a sunny smile.
According to her, Kou had stopped entertaining the fanclub. She said he turned down their date invitations using his status as a busy third year as an excuse. Lately, he had increased the frequency with which he asked them to leave him alone at school as well.
“Has it finally gotten around campus that you two are twins even though you have different last names?” I checked with her.
“Yeah, our relationship finally clicked in everyone’s heads after three years of pounding it through the gossip circles. There’s no one who doesn’t know about us now,” she cheerfully relieved my fears.
Thank goodness!
While we were filling each other in on our lives, we polished off the last dessert.
The time to disembark came all too soon.
“…I don’t want to go home,” Kon muttered, suddenly stopping.
“What’s wrong?” I walked over to the wall to avoid being swept up in the wave of people leaving and looked back at Kon who had stopped behind me.
Kon clutched her coat in front of her chest with her right hand and shrunk in on herself like she was freezing. She was framed in the ephemeral aura of someone who could disappear at any moment. Opening and closing her mouth several times, she finally managed to squeeze out, “Because I’m having so much fun… I wish time would just stop here and now.”
“I don’t hear you say stuff like that often, Kon. Are you feeling lonely? I had a blast too. And I feel the same way about not wanting it to be over. But, you know, it’s practically guaranteed lots of fun things are ahead of us. We get to attend the same school in April and we can always go out like this again. Right?”
“…Yeah. You’re…right.”
Not knowing any better, I offered her clichéd words of comfort, and gently rubbed her back. Thinking back on it now, that was the first and last time Kon ever voiced her tormented feelings.