Serialized Novel | Spring, A Sonata for Two #2

This work is an entry for #CreativeAward2024.

《Previous Chapter》

“Ah, so close! Let’s do it again.”
As Chikage held up her smartphone, Yamachan, Himeko, and I made our fingers walk like dancers on the desk, forming inverted peace signs in time with the music. It’s called a finger dance, and it’s trending right now. It’s fun and easy to do since you only need your fingers, so it’s become quite popular in our class. If we get a good take, we’ll upload it to social media.

A week has passed since the new semester started, and I’ve become close enough with my classmates to film videos with them. The cherry blossoms outside the window are starting to turn into leaves.
Every morning since then, I’ve been facing my novel in the classroom, but I keep writing a little and deleting it, writing a little and deleting it. It’s painful not being able to write, but there’s also a part of me that keeps going because I look forward to hearing Tsukishiro-san’s piano.

“Kyohei-kun is so cool~”
During lunch break, Yamachan is swooning while watching a video on her phone. Kyohei-kun, the protagonist of the romance web drama she’s currently obsessed with, is a delinquent and rough, but apparently, he’s gentle with the heroine.
“Hey, look, check out this scene!”
“You’re so noisy~”
I wasn’t interested, but since Yamachan was being loud, I stopped eating my lunch and peeked at her phone. It was a scene where Kyohei-kun presses his forehead against the heroine’s to check her temperature.
“I want someone to do that to me too!”
I don’t know if I’d want that in real life…
“I get it, it’s a dream, isn’t it?”
“I can kind of see it.”
Chikage and Himeko, who were watching with us, apparently “get it.”
“You two are lucky. You have boyfriends who would do that for you.”
Yamachan said, sounding sulky. Chikage and Himeko have had boyfriends since middle school.
“Well, I’d be too embarrassed to actually ask for that, though.”
Chikage replied, pushing up her intellectual red glasses.
“Nice, nice, you guys are so lovey-dovey.”
Yamachan sighed enviously. Himeko asked,
“Is your type like Kyohei-kun, Yamachan?”
“Let’s see, I like them kind, cool, and lean-muscular, I guess.”
“What about you, Mana?” Chikage asked.
“Eh, hmm. I’ve never really thought about it…”
“You’re still such a kid, Mana.”
Yamachan said with a strangely triumphant look.
“I don’t want to hear that from you…”

Honestly, I’m not good at these kinds of conversations…
Yamachan and the others talk about love or boys at least once a day, so it gets a little tiring sometimes.
…Maybe it was more fun talking to Tsukishiro-san.

The back door opened, and our homeroom teacher poked her head in.
“Everyone, it’s almost time to leave. Grab your bags and meet in front of the gate.”
“Oh, that’s right! We’re heading to the hall next!”
Everyone started hurriedly putting away their lunch boxes.
The fifth period wasn’t a class; we were holding a 100th-anniversary event at the memorial hall.

Komachi Girls’ High School is located in Komachi, on the east side of Kamakura Station. The memorial hall is a five-minute walk from the school, and right behind the building is a lush, green valley. We use it for events like our choir competition, but since it’s a grand hall that seats 500, they sometimes invite celebrities for lectures or use it for concerts by professional musicians.
Tsukishiro-san was standing on that amazing stage.
Apparently, she was chosen as the representative for the entire student body to perform at the opening of the memorial ceremony.
From my seat in the darkened hall, I looked up at Tsukishiro-san, who was bathed in the spotlight on stage.
Tsukishiro-san looked straight at the audience and bowed. When she lifted her head, her dignified and somewhat cold expression lacked the cute traces of the girl I had spoken to the other day; she felt like a completely different person.
Chikage, sitting next to me, whispered to me.
“I heard the Tsukishiro family is a musical family. Especially her mother, who is apparently a world-famous pianist. Tsukishiro-san herself came in third at the All-Japan Competition last year, even though she was only a first-year. It’s talent, isn’t it…”
“Huh…”
I looked at the program written in the pamphlet.

Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 17 in D Minor, Op. 31, No. 2, “Tempest” - 3rd Movement

The sound of the piano rang out.
Tsukishiro-san’s back was perfectly straight, and she radiated an aura that felt intimidating. She produced fast, delicate high-note melodies one after another. It was gorgeous and light, yet the melody felt somewhat desperate. Then, just as quickly, a violent, low-pitched melody rang out as if a demon had descended and was rampaging. Tsukishiro-san, playing with total abandon, might have been possessed by that demon. I was so captivated by her performance, which bordered on madness, that I didn’t even blink the entire time.
I see, music is a story. It was the first time I realized that.
I felt the entire venue being drawn into the world of the story that Tsukishiro-san was weaving.

The piece ended. As Tsukishiro-san stood up from the chair and bowed, a storm of applause erupted throughout the venue. When she lifted her head, the smile on Tsukishiro-san’s face looked a little exhausted.

After the ceremony ended, when I went out into the hallway with my friends, Tsukishiro-san was surrounded by several female students.
“Wow, that’s amazing. She has so many fans.”
Yamachan said, watching them intently.
“Well, of course she does, that performance just now was incredible.”
Chikage said, impressed, and Himeko nodded along next to her.
“Yeah.”
I felt a little uneasy. Does that mean I’m one of her fans, too?
It was just as we were about to pass by the group of Tsukishiro-san and her fans.
“Oh, Mana-san.”
When I looked to the side, Tsukishiro-san was looking at me with a beaming smile and waving. It was the cute smile she had when we first spoke. At the same time, I felt the cold glares of the fans all at once.
“H-hey.”
I managed to force a smile and waved back. As if that was enough, Tsukishiro-san smiled back. My friends’ eyes were all on me.
“Mana…? What’s going on?”
“Since when did you get so close?”
I didn’t know how to explain it, so I replied with a bitter smile,
“Um… it’s a secret…?”

“Tempest”
Tempest means “storm.” There are various theories, but it is said to be based on Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest.” That night, I spent the whole time in my room reading the paperback “The Complete Works of Shakespeare: The Tempest” that I had borrowed from the library. Besides that, I borrowed books on “How to Write Novels” and novels by famous authors like Natsume Soseki and Ryunosuke Akutagawa, stacking them all on my desk.
Seeing Tsukishiro-san on stage, I thought, “What am I doing?” I don’t know how long she’s been playing the piano. But the distance between her and me felt as vast as the moon and a lonely star shining beside it, and it felt like we would never get closer in our entire lives.

Even so, the next day, my feet headed toward the classroom early in the morning.
I could hear the piano as usual. I gazed at the cherry blossoms from the window and, as always, lost myself in the plot of my novel.
“Mana-san.”
Hearing that voice, my heart leaped. Tsukishiro-san was leaning out of the second-floor window, looking at me.
“Morning! Tsukishiro-san.”
“Good morning. The cherry blossoms have already fallen, haven’t they?”
“Yeah, time flies, doesn’t it?”
“But I like the season of fresh green that’s coming next.”
“I get it! The green is so lush and sparkling, it’s wonderful, isn’t it?”
Tsukishiro-san smiled back at me, and after a while, she said this:
“Hey, if you’d like, why don’t you come talk in this room?”
It was an invitation I hadn’t expected. I hurriedly put away my writing tools and ran down to the second floor.

The second music preparation room was, as always, a bit dim and dusty, but only the area in front of the piano where Tsukishiro-san sat was bathed in light and felt warm.
Tsukishiro-san prepared a slightly rusty folding chair, which she must have pulled out from the back, and wiped the dust off the seat with her own handkerchief.
“Thank you,” I said, and sat down.
“You’re welcome. Welcome, though it’s not my house, is it?”
“If anything, it’s more like a secret base.”
We both burst into laughter.
“I felt like we hadn’t talked properly since that day. You don’t really have time to talk slowly at school, do you? But I wonder if I’ve interrupted your writing.”
I couldn’t believe she had been thinking about that. I suppressed the excitement in my chest and replied,
“Not at all, I was hoping to talk to you too, so I’m really happy.”
“I’m glad…”
Tsukishiro-san said, clasping her hands in front of her face elegantly, looking delighted.
“How is the writing going? What kind of story are you writing?”
I was hit in a sore spot right from the start.
“Ah, haha… well, not at all.”
“Oh, why is that?”
“Um, I wonder why…”
Why, really? Being asked that, I started to feel like there was some fundamental reason why I hadn’t been able to write for so long.
As I was pondering, “Hmm…,” Tsukishiro-san said, looking a bit flustered.
“I’m sorry for making you worry… I said something unnecessary, didn’t I?”
“No, that’s not it… you know, I think the reason I can’t write is… I think I’m trying too hard… I’ve been unconsciously nervous about having to win the competition. I realized it just now when you asked.”
Tsukishiro-san listened, nodding as I struggled to put my thoughts into words.
“The judge is an author I admire, so I feel like I have to write something amazing, that I have to live up to expectations. When I think about it, it’s strange, because there’s no way they’d have expectations for someone like me…”
“That’s not true.”
Tsukishiro-san said clearly. Then, after a pause, she continued.
“……I really understand how you feel, Mana-san. I don’t like entering competitions.”
“Eh?”
“Oh, it’s not that I don’t like it, but I think I’m bad at it. Like you said, I get nervous. And then, one day I realized. Oh, I can’t be myself. I have to wear armor. So, I decided to play as if I were wearing armor when I perform at competitions. And then, I started getting good results…”
Hearing Tsukishiro-san’s story, I remembered her performance at the ceremony the other day. Was the exhaustion I saw then because she was pushing herself?
“So that’s why you looked so tired.”
“Eh?”
Tsukishiro-san looked at me with a surprised expression.
“Oh, no. You looked a little tired during your performance at the ceremony the other day.”
“……Fufu. Mana-san, you really watch me closely.”
Tsukishiro-san was looking at me with a strangely happy expression. My heart began to race, wondering if she could see right through my feelings.
“That’s why, it’s a secret, but…”
Without noticing my agitation, Tsukishiro-san turned around and took a file from an old bookshelf along the wall. As I let out a sigh of relief, Tsukishiro-san opened the file for me.
It was sheet music. Dozens of pages were filled with notes that had clearly been handwritten.
“This is…”
“I wrote it.”
“You mean Tsukishiro-san composed this?”
“Yes. I compose music.”
“Eh!”
Seeing my surprised face, Tsukishiro-san looked satisfied. I thought this before, but Tsukishiro-san has a slightly childish side.
“At home, it’s just competition practice, and I feel suffocated. So, I come here every morning and compose however I like.”
Saying that, Tsukishiro-san played the piano gently.
“……Amazing. You even compose music. Tsukishiro-san, you really are an amazing person.”
“Thank you…”
Tsukishiro-san smiled, looking a little shy.
Then, it suddenly hit me.
“The song you were playing that time… when we first met, did you compose that too?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Wow, really… I love that song.”
“……You praised me like that that day, too.”
Tsukishiro-san continued, looking at me with soft eyes.
“I was so happy.”
I felt like my heart was going to be grabbed by those eyes. Perhaps Tsukishiro-san is much closer than I think. It made me feel like I might be misinterpreting things.
“Um, I saw you at the entrance ceremony, too. You were singing in front of the cherry blossoms, right?”
Tsukishiro-san’s smile stiffened.
“……You saw that?”
“Eh, yeah…”
“……How embarrassing.”
Tsukishiro-san covered her flushed face with both hands.
“Oh, sorry… it’s just, you stood out.”
“No. ……That’s right. The cherry blossoms were beautiful that day, weren’t they? So I was just looking at them, but then the notes started falling down… and I thought I had to turn it into a song quickly.”
“Notes falling down…?”
“Yes. Doesn’t that happen to you, Mana-san?”
“I…”
Ah, it’s true, there were times when I was listening to Tsukishiro-san’s music that I found myself writing a story without realizing it. Is that what it means to have them fall down?
“Maybe it does…?”
“Right? When that happens, I get so focused that I can’t see anything around me.”
“Ah, I understand that.”
“Fufu. Then we’re the same.”
I feel unworthy to be the same as Tsukishiro-san, but…
“And you know, I really enjoy making music here. I think it’s because I’m making it just for myself.”
“Just for yourself?”
“Yes. When I think about the competition, I inevitably worry about someone else’s gaze, but when I try to think of it as just for myself, I feel like it’s okay to fail, and if that’s the case, I can just do whatever I like. Doesn’t that make you excited when you think about it?”
“Excited… maybe it does.”
“Yes. So, Mana-san, you should try writing a story just for yourself, too.”
“Can I really do that?”
“You can. Because you just have to write what you want to read.”

Hearing her say that, I gained a lot of courage from Tsukishiro-san’s childlike, sparkling gaze. I felt like she had given a powerful push to my back, as I had been hesitating and unable to move forward from the same spot.

《To be continued》

《Next Chapter》