Encounter

~~~🎸~~~

"S. ..u r..lly c.m..."

Frozen. Confused. Paralyzed. As if every negative status effect from an RPG had been inflicted on me at once. That was how I felt after he directed those... words at me.

"Huh?" I barely managed to vocalize.

I still couldn't make out his figure clearly, but I noticed that he closed his eyes in resignation for a moment before beginning to walk toward me.

And in that instant, when I finally saw his face, I was even more astonished.

"I said... so you really came."

"Oh, yeah..."

Even today, I wouldn't know how to explain my state at that moment. There was something about him that made it impossible to look away. I remember scanning his face, never once breaking eye contact.

"Good. I'm glad," he said, offering a smile that made me feel unexpectedly warm inside.

It was then that I noticed something I hadn't before, something that left me caught between fascination and unease.

There was something wrong with his voice.

It wasn’t hoarse or broken, but the volume was so low it seemed to evaporate before reaching me. As if the sound itself was struggling to exist. There was a faint roughness to it, a slight unevenness in his words, and sometimes, his syllables were barely whispers.

"Are you... LC_TheEcho?"

"I'd prefer if you called me Lucio." I barely heard him. "Chiaro, Lucio. And you, SprinkleStar8383?"

My face instantly turned bright red with embarrassment, rejecting the fact that I had just heard those words.

"Wah! Don't say that! I made that name when I was eight!"

I noticed a small chuckle escape Lucio, as he moved past me toward a large stack of music CDs. But his laughter felt more like a soft breeze than an actual laugh.

"Do you prefer 'The Flower of Miyakojima'?"

Now my whole body felt like it was on fire.

"Shut up! Just Aurora! Kurozumi, Aurora!"

Lucio shot me a playful smirk, tilting his head in amusement.

"Nice name. It reminds me of the last breeze of spring before summer consumes everything."

Clearly, Lucio had left quite the first impression on me. His reddish-brown, tousled yet not unkempt hair crowned a pair of striking electric blue eyes, so intense they seemed to glow under the dim light of the classroom. He wore a worn black leather jacket, a dark gray t-shirt with a barely visible logo, and ripped jeans at the knees. A pair of black boots completed his wandering musician look.

I scowled, crossing my arms.

"God, I came all the way here to meet you, and you turned out to be a jerk."

Lucio shrugged nonchalantly and walked over to his guitar, picking it up effortlessly before slinging it over his back.

"You're right. But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk."

He strummed a chord that crackled in the air like static electricity, making my skin prickle. Then, he turned toward me, wearing that same enigmatic smile.

"Do you want to hear my song?"

I was stuck, mesmerized by his expression for a few seconds, caught in something I couldn't quite decipher.

"Yeah," I answered.

~~~🎶~~~

The room filled with music, and life seemed to take on a forgotten color, like a shadow dissipating with each note Lucio played on his guitar. The sound wasn't perfect; there was a rawness to it, but within that imperfection, something alive resonated in every corner of the empty classroom.

A lump formed in my throat. I wasn’t sure if it was the melody itself or the fact that, for a moment, the music wrapped me in a sense of nostalgia and longing. When the last note hung in the air and finally faded, I found myself searching for words.

"That was... an incredible song," I said, with more sincerity than I had expected.

Lucio glanced at me and nodded slightly, his pride evident. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a honey candy, offering it to him.

"Do you want one? It’s good for your throat."

Lucio shook his head, a weary smile on his lips.

"Thanks, but it won’t help. I wish it were that simple."

I frowned but didn’t push. Instead, I leaned against a desk and crossed my arms. But, being myself, I still pushed.

"So, I take it there’s more to your voice problem?"

Lucio nodded.

"Are you some kind of detective?" he teased.

"Hmmm, sometimes. Only when something piques my curiosity," I shot back, intrigued by his previous attitude. "Why do you play? No one else does anymore, and from what I can see, no one wants to listen either."

Lucio took his time to answer. He ran his fingers lightly over the guitar strings without pressing them, letting the sound die before looking up at me.

"I want to leave something behind. A legacy. Today, it's live videos. Tomorrow, maybe a public gig. If things go well, maybe a concert hall. Who knows."

I let out a dry laugh, devoid of humor.

"A bit late for that, Mr. Echo. You know it's all coming to an end, right?"

His gaze hardened at the remark.

"And?" His tone sharpened. "Don’t you think it’s noble to try to build something in the face of destruction?"

"Well..." I hesitated, but Lucio cut me off with a scoff, clearly annoyed.

"You’re just like the others. You all sold your souls to a space rock that tells you what you can and can’t desire."

A surge of anger burned in my chest at his words.

"Hey! I’m sorry that we’re all about to suffer a tragic and horrible fate."

Lucio didn’t hesitate.

"Just because you think your life doesn’t matter anymore doesn’t mean we all feel the same way."

Fury surged through me, and before I knew it, I was shouting.

"Shut up! You have no idea what I’ve been through! You don’t—"

Lucio opened his mouth to retort but stopped. His expression changed in an instant, shifting his gaze away uncomfortably. Then, in a barely audible voice, he said:

"I’m sorry. That wasn’t my intention."

I clenched my fists. I wanted to stay mad, to throw everything I felt at him, but something about the way he said it made me realize what I had just done.

I had thrown the first stone, and I didn’t even know why. I swear I wasn’t usually like this, but my anger at fate and a strange sense of envy had surfaced.

Regret and pain quickly replaced my fury. I took a step back.

"N... no... I... I’m sorry," I muttered, collapsing onto a chair and staring at the floor.

Silence fell between us, heavy and awkward. I hated that I had ruined this encounter with my words. And at the same time, the darkness crept over me again.

Then, suddenly—

"Do you play any instruments?" Lucio asked, as if nothing had happened.

I lifted my gaze, a salty drop still clinging to my burning cheeks. Why…

"No," I replied, feeling once again how that musician was pulling me back from the depths.

"Do you sing, maybe?"

I hesitated. For a moment, I thought about saying yes, but shame struck me before I could form a response. I didn’t want to admit it. I didn’t want to expose myself.

But my fingers were still clutching my necklace. What kind of daughter would I be if I failed her?

"A little."

Lucio gave a faint smile—surprisingly soon, given what had just happened.

"Good." He tapped his guitar lightly, never having let go of it. "This song has lyrics, you know? It’s just that… well, you can imagine why I don’t sing." His voice faded almost to silence on that last part.

I nodded, understanding. Lucio took a little longer to reveal his true intentions.

"I’m sorry, but after all this, I lost the mood to play." Only now did he stand from his chair and carefully place his guitar back on its stand. "But I'll be here tomorrow to practice. And if you want, we could make music together."

I stood there in shock at his proposal. Was this really the same guy I had just yelled at minutes ago?

"Why…?"

I couldn't say anything else, because I knew that if I did, the guilt would crush me even more. Lucio, his back to me, turned slowly.

"Earlier, you asked me why I played if no one listened anymore. But you came in here out of curiosity, by your own words. I sparked something in you. And that’s what I want to do with the rest of the world, even if, in a year, none of this will matter."

"But Lucio…"

I barely managed to say his name for the first time before he spoke the words that would leave the deepest mark on me in a long time.

"I have a purpose before everything ends, but I have no voice. You have the voice, but you also have doubt and fear. If you want to see if life still has meaning, just come back here. And maybe we can make ‘stardust from the ashes.’"

Without another word, leaving me completely frozen, Lucio walked toward the door leading to the adjacent classroom and disappeared, leaving me alone with a storm of thoughts.