Piano Master (Semi Eita x Reader)

II: Old Hobby

The second half of the day went by slowly. None of my teachers were making us do a ton of work, so I spent most of the periods looking out the window. It started to rain, and I could hear the light droplets of water bouncing off the roof. The rain put me at a peace of mind, it was calming.

I walked straight to my dorm after the last bell, and plopped myself down on my bed. I was pretty tired, and wanted to find a way to relax myself. Rikka and I always binged anime on rainy days, curled up in blankets on our small couch. We always made popcorn to eat while we were watching. She almost burned it on a regular basis, if not every time.

I picked up my phone and started to scroll through my old photos of us together. I went through them by year, eventually making it way back to middle school. I found a video of us at a waterpark. Rikka slipped and fell, and I was standing there laughing at her. Despite being independent, she was also fairly clumsy.

I found a few other videos that made me laugh at how stupid we were together. I also saw another picture of her when our middle school volleyball team won the finals. I never really played sports, but volleyball was Rikka's life. I was more music and art oriented, and never had interest in playing sports.

That was it.

I found a video of me playing the piano for my class in middle school. I replayed it over and over again. Did I really used to be that good? I went to grab my laptop that had more photos and videos on it. My dad organized different flash drives for me, because he knew I would always go back and look at them. I dug through my drawer to find it. All the flash drives had a piece of tape on them, that basically said what was stored on it. I kept looking until I found one named Piano. It was pretty dusty, just like the rest of the flash drives in that drawer.

I moved the protective cap on it, and plugged it into my laptop. I opened my photos app, and saw everything starting to load. I found videos from when I first started playing. I watched a few of them, and started criticizing my 9 year old self. I definitely wasn't amazing when I first started.

I was a lot better in middle school. I played a lot of complicated songs, and always pushed myself to go farther. I recognized a few of the songs I played, a lot of them being anime openings. My dad always thought I was strange because of how obsessive I got over certain anime's, especially My Hero Academia and Attack on Titan.

I'm going to play the piano again! I'm going to pick up where I left off in middle school, and maybe become even better than I was before!

I grabbed my rain jacket and some boots. I made sure I had my phone and the dorm keys for when I got back. I was leaving the Shiratorizawa campus and going into town, so I could buy a keyboard to practice on.

Town wasn't raining as much as it was at Shiratorizawa, it was only sprinkling. I started walking down the fairly empty sidewalks, until I found what I was looking for. The sun was starting to go down, which meant I had to be fast if I wanted to get back to the campus before dark.

I went into the music store, looking for a full size keyboard to take back to my dorm with me. I tried to pick out something lighter, so I could carry it back to my dorm without inconvenience. I got the one I wanted, and started to head back.

Crap.

The sun was down a lot lower than it was before, and it was now pouring rain. I slung the large rectangular box over my shoulder and started running as fast as I could, while carrying sixty pounds. I turned the corner and the box slipped right off my shoulder, I dropped it.

"Gosh darn it!" I exclaimed, while bending down to grab the box again.

"Do you need some help?" a voice said.

"No, I got it!" I increased the pitch in my voice, like my grandma whenever she was talking to a stranger on the phone. I waved at the man to keep going, and continued my walk back to Shiratorizawa.

"Finally." I sighed when I walked through my front door. I set the box down, while I went to change into something more comfortable.

I started boiling water on the stove in my small kitchen, so I could make some rice to eat for dinner instead of having to go down to the cafeteria. I sat down on my carpet with some scissors trying to open the box. I struggled a little bit at first, but managed to get it open.

Putting together the keyboard was a little hard at first, but once I understood everything it was a piece of cake. I had to put the legs together, and then attach them to the main keyboard part. Then I checked inside all the keys to make sure the hammers were in good shape, because I wouldn't be able to play if the keys were damaged. I finished adding the additional parts, like the pedals that plug into the back, and setting up my headphones to the keyboard.

After 2 hours, I was done! I put my headphones on, and played my first note. Then I positioned my hand correctly and played notes C through G from the middle to the end of the piano. I kept repeating a few patterns, before I did more digging.

I went into my room to find all my piano books and sheets from middle school. I found some really easy ones that were years old to start off with. A couple basic songs my dad wanted me to learn, like Silent Night and Auld Lang Syne. My taste in music is a lot different to the other people here. I do listen to a lot of J-Pop, but because of my dad I also listen to a lot of American and English songs.

My dad decided to move to Japan with me when I was three, because he didn't want to live in America forever. My dad learned Japanese and taught me everything before I went into elementary school, so I would be able to communicate with other people better. Being bilingual did have its advantages sometimes.

I practiced for about 10 minutes before I decided I needed to try something a bit harder. I went back to the box full of sheet music, and started moving along the levels I set for myself. Being reunited with the piano was like being able to see my dad again. Even if I couldn't physically see him, I knew he was there. He would always be.

"I'm progressing quickly!" I told myself. "This is a lot easier than I thought!"

But I just jinxed myself. After a couple of hours, I moved onto the song Kokai no Uta. I would have been able to play it no problem, but reading it off a sheet was kind of difficult. I was kind of a freestyle player, and learned how to play songs off the internet. My dad told me that I should learn how to read sheets, since it was taking me hours just to learn one song and even more to perfect it.

I have to admit now, that he was right. As I started becoming more advanced, sheets were definitely the way to go. I learned all the notes by memorizing the charts and learning about different chords. My dad would buy me some sheets online and print them out for me, so I could practice off them as I got better. I guess I was kind of self-taught.

Looking back now, I realized that giving up something I spent so much time on was a waste. But honestly, I'm kind of glad I gave it up for a while in the first place. Now I can feel reunited with it, and distract myself from the loneliness of having Rikka gone. I was overwhelmed with a lot of emotions while playing- It just brought back so many memories of my dad, middle school, Rikka, and just my life in general.

While playing Polaris, I started crying, but with a smile on my face. I didn't feel sad at all, but happy. I could feel the vibrations of the keyboard shaking through my fingers as I pressed each key. The sound pouring into my headphones made it seem like I was in a movie. I kept playing for hours, until it was 11:00 at night. I called it a day and went to sleep.