Accompaniment

"Please accompany me!"

Yoichi, Koutarou, and Danzo are stunned by the bowing girl in front of them.

"H-Hey, Danzo my friend," Koutarou whispers. "Could we possibly be witnessing a love confession?"

"I think so, too, Kotarou my friend. I already knew that lots of girls are asking Yoichi out, but this is my first time seeing one up close."

"She also did not hesitate at all. What a brave girl."

"Getting confessed by a transfer student on her first day. Damn you, Yoichi."

Koutarou and Danzo continue to whisper back and forth behind Yoichi.

"Uhm," Yoichi touches his nape. "Accompany? What do you mean?"

"You dense, sea turd!" Koutarou yells at him. "She's obviously confessing to you!"

"Why don't you use your head a little bit, you lucky bastard!" Danzo adds.

The girl lifts her head up. "I'm not confessing. I'm just asking Shirosaki Yoichi-san to accompany my violin with his piano."

Koutarou and Danzo freeze on their spots.

Yoichi smiles and walks into the room. "Oh is that so? You scared me. What's your name, by the way?"

"My bad for not introducing myself first. My name is Kujou Akari, a third-year transfer student."

Yoichi and Akari continue to chat inside the music room while Koutarou and Danzo are sitting on the floor outside. Completely embarrassed by their misunderstanding, and reflecting on their action.

"Danzo, could it be that this is why no girl has ever confessed to us?"

"We are the sea turds, after all, Koutarou."

"We still got a long way to go."

"We do."

"...."

"...."

"Akari-chan, huh? That's a nice name."

"It is. She got nice breasts, too."

"...."

-----

Meanwhile, inside the music room.

"A competition?!"

"Yes," Akari answers.

"There's no way! I'm far from that level."

"No, Shirosaki-san. The piece you were playing earlier during lunch time. I want us to play that in the competition! Please!" Akari insists.

Yoichi is in deep thought. He has never participated in such things like competitions. To him, as long as he can play the piano, he's satisfied.

"Please? Shirosaki-san," Akari bows down again.

The door slams open. Danzo and Koutarou enter the room with such a serious aura and teary eyes.

"Yo, Yoichi," Koutarou glares at him. "You can call us sea turds or whatever you want..."

"I never called you that," Yoichi quickly retorts.

"But we will never leave a damsel in distress!!"

"I'm not in distress," Akari follows up.

"Yoichi!" Danzo yells. "This cute Akari-chan just wants you to play the piano and you can't say yes to that?! Shame on you!"

"Yeah, shame on you! Mister too-good-for-Akari-chan!"

"You lucky bastard!"

Danzo and Koutarou throw insults to Yoichi back and forth.

"Okay! Okay! I get it. I'll do it," The annoyed Yoichi stops them.

"Really?!" Akari's face beams with joy.

"I just have to play, right? I can do that much. But you need to understand, I don't have a lot of free time to practice."

Koutarou quietly chuckles and turns around to wipe his manly tears away. "This is for the best."

"It is," Danzo answers, also wiping his manly tears.

"Excuse me, Danzo-san, Koutarou-san," Just as they were about to head to the door, Akari calls for them. "Thank you very much!" She bows.

The two gives her a thumbs up and quickly runs out of the room.

"Oooooo! She knows my name!"
"What a nice girl, Akari-chan!"
"Ah! Kou-chan! I was looking for you!"
Their shouts can be faintly heard from the music room.

Yoichi sighs. "Those two..."

"Well then, Shirosaki-san, I'll be in your care."

"You said you wanted to play the piece from earlier, right? I hope you're aware that it was just something I composed."

"I'm aware. It had such a beautiful tune. I strongly believe that we can win the competition with that."

Yoichi is still hesitant, but he already said yes to her. He looks around for a piece of paper. "Let me just write down the notes for you."

"It's okay. I'll improvise."

"Is that so?" Yoichi is even more hesitant. Does she intend to enter the competition with a whatever-goes attitude?

He lifts up the piano's keylid and Akari gets her violin ready. She closed her eyes keenly listening to the melody. As Yoichi is about to finish the introductory bars, she raises the bow close to the violin. She starts playing with Yoichi's piano.

Yoichi's jaw drops from hearing it for the first time. The piano piece that he composed and has gotten used to hearing sounds very different. The long, soothing violin notes fit the piece so well. It's almost impossible to think that she is improvising right now.

Yoichi has a lot of questions he wants to ask right away, but at the same time, he doesn't want to stop the music from playing. It makes him both relaxed and excited. Until he hits the last note and the music ends.

There is a long silence.

"I'm sorry, Shirosaki-san," Akari is bowing down again. "It was cocky of me to improvise such a piece. In return, I did a lot of mistakes." She raises her head. "But your piece is really really good! I will improve my part to be worthy of your accompaniment."

Still amazed, Yoichi can't find the words to express how wrong she is on thinking she did any less than perfect.

"I will surely practice a lot tonight. I hope I can see you here tomorrow at lunchtime. I'll do my best!" She quickly wraps up her equipment ready and heads out. She turns back and bows again before closing the door.

"Did a lot of mistakes", huh? Yoichi scoffs. I guess I better try improving my part as well.

He doesn't even try to remember what mistakes she was talking about. All he knows is that Akari has such a talent and he can't wait for the supposedly improved version tomorrow.

"Competition... This is going to be fun," he smiles from ear to ear as he folds down the keylid.