A Striking Chord

When we reached backstage, the smile on her face was the biggest I have seen on anyone. She was so thrilled about the performance. However, we are confronted by Jacey before we can celebrate together.

“What was that? I knew you guys were good, but my lord, it was like you were on tour. There is no way this was your first real performance, Val, was it? That was amazing! I know why you were so confident now.” Jacey praised us.

“Of course we were gonna be great. I was not going to lie to you. C’mon Mark, let's go watch the rest of the performances.” As Valerie said this, she grabbed my arm and took the lead to the audience section. Jacey followed close behind us. “Hey Jacey, do you wanna sit with us? You’re more than welcome to.”

Before we go any further, I stop Valerie, “Actually, I’ll catch up with you later. I need to go talk to Nik real fast. I gotta thank him for watching.” As I head out, Jacey stops me to ask, “Wait, Nik was here? Did he happen to see me perform?”

“Oh my god. You like Nik. I’ll make sure to let him know.” I said jokingly.

“I swear to God Mark, if you tell him anything, I will end you. I don’t know how yet, but I will start thinking now.” Jacey says while blushing.

“Don’t worry Jacey. We both know Mark wouldn’t tell Nick. It’s none of his business, after all.” says Valerie, staring crystal clear daggers in my direction.

“Welp, I can see I have to seriously watch out for my own health here. So how about we start heading for our seats. I’m sure Nik will come too, by the way Jacey. So you can ask him yourself.”

We finally leave the backstage area to head into the audience. Along the way, we get congratulated by various audience members for our performance. This boosted both our excitement and belief that we were going to win. Once we get to our seats, Nik and Troy greet us.

“Hey, there’re the winners right there. That was awesome, guys! I couldn’t tell if y’all were really playing or just using a recording. Well you know, until Mark screwed up.” Nik and Troy laugh while saying this.

“Oh where’d I mess up? I thought I played it really well. Well, looks like we aren’t gonna win now.” I look down.

“No, we were just kidding bud. Wow, Normally you’d pick that up. Are you really still that nervous?” Troy asks.

I don’t answer. Instead, I sit down and start fiddling with my hands. The final performance is introduced as I anxiously fidget in my seat. She is a transfer student from Japan. Along with her is a strange instrument none of us have seen before. While trying to figure out how the instrument sounds and how to play it, we hear the announcer say, “Up next is Takao, playing Snowstorm on the Koto.” Introductory applause dies down as we wait with silent breath for her performance. She plucks a single string on her Koto, letting it’s sound radiate throughout the auditorium.
It catches my attention immediately.
It seems that I am the only one who noticed the fierceness in the note. Waiting in anticipation, she plays more notes just as fierce as first. I am struck by the beauty in the sound that is created by this girl. Captivated. Swept up in her Snowstorm. I focus on her hands and her sound, listening for the challenge in this piece, but the way she is performing, I am unsure of what part would be considered hard to play. I wind up on the edge of my seat, and am hit by a flurry of notes. I looked at Valerie and pointed at the girl playing.

“She’s phenomenal. We might not win after all. This is extremely impressive.” I whispered.

Valerie didn’t look at me when I said that. She didn’t need to. The look on her face told me that she was well aware of the situation we were in. Not only does she play an exotic instrument, she is extremely talented with it. Just listening to her play fueled my competitive spirit. I was ready to go back on stage, and play again, clashing head-to-head with her dazzling sound. Her music brought out something in me that I’ve tried to hide for years. I think Troy must’ve noticed what was going on with me, because he immediately asked me if I was ok.

“Mark, are you ok? You seem to have a look in your eye I have not seen in a while. I can’t tell if that’s good or not, so I just wanna check.”

“Yea, I’m fine. I just haven’t been this motivated to win for a long time. I don’t know what I am supposed to do, I just kinda hate only being able to watch right now.” I tell Troy.

Takao’s wondrous performance begins to wrap up and I stand up. heading toward backstage. I need to talk to her and ask her questions about her instrument, the mysterious koto. Before I can make it too far, Valerie grabs my arm and asks what my intentions were.

“Oh, you don’t gotta worry about me. I’m just gonna go to the bathroom real fast.” I said this thinking that I would be able to go without any one wanting to tag along, but Troy says “You know what? I kinda need to go. Nik, let's make plans later.” Troy and I walk out.

Before we can leave, Troy starts talking “Man, that Takao sure is cute. I know you wanted to congratulate her, so I came to be introduced.” He says laughing.

“What do you mean? You’re acting like we’re friends. I just wanna ask her about her instrument, and some songs that I should listen to as well.” I say softly.

“If that’s really all, then why did you lie to Valerie? You guys aren’t a couple, so there shouldn’t be any problems with you talking to another girl.” Troy pauses, then continues “Either way, since your best looking friend is here, she won’t have to worry too much about you mingling with strange women.” His laughter filled the air.

Before I could even speak to Troy, an instinct kicked in and I punched him in his arm.

“Ouchie,” He exclaims. “Why the hell did you punch me?”

“I punched you because you think you are the best looking friend. If I recall, you are the only one not actively talking to someone. That doesn’t sound too good to me.” I laugh.

We got backstage just as Takao seemed to be leaving.

“Oh, excuse me! Takao, right? I was just wondering if I could ask you a few questions about your instrument.” I say catching up to her.

“Oh, ok. What would you like to know?” She eyes me awkwardly.

“Well for starters, your instrument is called a Koto right? Is it very popular in Japan? Also that song you played was called Snowstorm right?” I may have been too hasty with my questioning as Troy realized that I might be flustering her.

“Hey there buddy, wanna slow your roll. Ask one question at a time. Sorry about him. You really sparked something in him. Oh, I’m Troy by the way. Nice to meet you!” Troy smiles at her.

“It’s fine,” Takao says. “I actually get asked a lot of questions just by being an exchange student anyways.” She begins to answer my questions, “Yes, my name is Takao and I play the Koto. It used to be an extremely popular instrument, but it’s popularity is slowly dying. The English name of the song I played is called Snowstorm, but the Japanese name is ‘Hanafubuki.’ It’s a song that’s inspired me many times, made by a wonderful man named Tadao Sawai.”

“Oh, thank you for answering my questions. I forgot to introduce myself, how rude of me. My name is Mark. Why don’t you come wait for the results with us? I’m sure the others would like to meet you!”

“If it's really ok, I wouldn’t mind.” She says softly.

We make our way back to our group and we introduce Takao to our ever-growing friend group. While the judges discuss and compare performances, Valerie and Jacey go to greet and congratulate Takao on her performance. The people around us just come up to each of us that performed to tell us each that we should all win. We laugh and see the results.

“In third place, with her amazing solo, Jacey.” They announce

We clap and cheer for her, however she does not look satisfied with her placing. In fact she looks disgusted in herself that she got the lowest position of top talent. I tell Nik to make sure she knows that she did an amazing job after the event is over.

In anticipation to hear who came in second place, Takao grabs my hand then grabs Valerie’s. The unexpected closeness from someone I just met startles me. The next judge gives the 2nd place award.

“These next two performances should both walk away as cowinners, unfortunately we could not let that be the decision. For 2nd place, the award goes to…”

All the nerves and anticipation builds up in me, and I realize my hand is shaking slightly. Takao, however, has a steady and cool grip on my hand. She was as calm as could be, despite grabbing my hand.

“... Takao with her amazing performance on the Koto. As we said, this was a tough decision. I will let the final judge explain how we came to this decision and why.”

Takao heads up to the stage to stand next to Jacey. Now it is left with me and Valerie hoping that we were indeed the winners of today’s event. But before they are able to announce it, Valerie grabs my hand and squeezes so tightly, it was as though the anticipation was killing her, and she was going to take me down with it.

“Finally, our 1st place award goes to who clearly was the crowd favorite. The duo of Mark and Valerie! Congratulations! We decided on this because as a duo, you have to be totally in sync with your partner. A single misstep and the whole performance falls apart. The technical demand on both performers was greater than every other talent here today. Not only did they play together, they played it to perfection. And that was the deciding factor for us, as judges.”

Valerie starts rushing toward the stage as if she forgot she still had a hold of my hand. We were already up on the stage by the time she realized it.

“Well Mark, you know what this means. It’s time to hear this big secret of yours. I can’t wait to hear all the juicy details!” She says sneakily. A sly smile slowly appears on her face.

“I don’t know if you are gonna like my secret, it may not be as good as you think it is. So, don’t get your hopes up too high.” I say mocking her.

We are handed our awards and take pictures with one another. I make sure to tell Jacey that the judges definitely missed out on her performance, especially if they didn’t consider her to be a choice for winner. After all the formalities are done, I change back into my everyday school clothes and go looking for Nik and Troy. When I do find them, I notice that our little afterschool group grew by 3 more numbers.

“Oh what’s up y’all? Are you guys gonna hang out with us today?”

“Well, I came here to collect my prize. After all, we did win, right?” Valerie says with a big smile on her face.

“You better not lie either, Mark. If you do, I'll tell her the truth and it will be worse coming from someone else.” Jacey says.

“Well, it’s good to see you’re doing better, Jacey. Don’t worry, I’m a man of my word. But y’all gotta remember, I only made HER this promise so cover your ears.” I say while leaning to Valerie’s ear.

“Well my secret is…”