It had been a week since he had given his name for the orchestra club. He was now standing in the campus' music hall with the rest of the members of the orchestra club staring at him curiously. He had been called by a second year business student, Shiromeguri Meguri to attend the audition to join the group of musicians.
Yukinoshita Haruno was to be the judge of whether he would replace the current pianist of the orchestra who given by everyone's gazes was the small, nervous looking girl sitting alone in front of the group. Her barely touched the ground from her large chair.
How does she even play the piano with that height?
Yukinoshita did not recognize him as the winner of the raffle which meant that her parents also did not tell her about him. She was a very strict judge. All the previous 4 auditionees were rejected. She didn't care if there were less members in the orchestra after the seniors left, she wanted only quality and would sacrifice nothing for it.
The way the auditions were conducted was that, the person auditioning had to play his or her instrument along with all the all the other members of the orchestra who were all highly skilled musicians. Yukinoshita-senpai would then stand in the front, leading everyone as the conductor's role required. This allowed for her to discern any out of tune notes, which would if found lead to a rejection.
The piano was present at the back of the second set of violins which was to the left end for the conductor. When he went to to the piano, he already found a music sheet for his role in the symphony they were going to play. Normal symphonies were anywhere between ninety minutes to two hours long. For the audition they were going to play a short thirty-minute melody with all the instruments at the same time.
He sat down and took a look at the music sheet flipping through its pages, playing it out in his mind. It was an original by Yukinoshita-senpai and was very impressive.
He had been observing Yukinoshita-senpai the past week. She normally seemed to be always smiling and laughing with her friends but whenever she entered the music hall, her posture and facial expressions changed. She began to show more emotion, whether it was when she was scolding someone or helping someone.
It was like, she showed passion in doing what she liked and wasn't afraid to give a negative reaction there whereas, in her social life outside of the club she was always smiling and was basically a people's pleaser. Smart and cautious in whatever she said and did, was this part of the training she had gotten to succeed her parent's company?
This gave rise to the biggest question yet, does she even want to succeed her parents' company?
Having memorized his part in the symphony they were going to play, he closed the booklet and set it on top the piano. Haruno who had a clear view of him, raised an eyebrow at him when he set the booklet completely aside as if saying that he had memorized his entire part. 'Cocky', she thought, 'or maybe a genius.'
The conductor lifted her baton signifying that the ensemble of musicians to get ready to start. Kiyotaka cracked his fingers, and got ready as he closed his eyes remembering the notes he was going to play. The moment he heard the tap of the baton on the wooden pedestal, the orchestra roared to life. Every musician playing their instruments beautifully. Perfection which was not expected from college students. His fingers were gliding over the keys as he played not missing a beat, in perfect cohesion with everyone else.
He played the full thirty minutes and was not stopped like all the others. Thirty was nothing to him compared to the sleepless nights where he played the piano blind in the dark unable to sleep in that place.
When he finished, everyone looked satisfied having finally gotten to play the whole symphony. Yukinoshita-senpai was beaming down at him from her pedestal. She came running up to him with a large smile on her face.
"Neh, what is your name?", she asked. Some snickered but she glared at them making them quiet down instantly.
"Ayanakouji Kiyotaka", he replied nonchalantly.
"Well Ayanakouji-kun, you are selected as the new pianist for my orchestra. Congratulations!". Again, her expressions when concerned with music seemed more genuine. He also did not miss that she called the orchestra her's. Did she own it or something?
"Thank you Yukinoshita-senpai.", her smile faltered at his words for a second, just a second.
She then regained her smile which was a little different to the one before, "Call me Haruno-senpai, I don't like it when people call me by my last name. Or you can even remove the senpai." , she winked with a playful grin on her face.
To others it may have looked like a humble gesture of not getting to much attention due to her famousness or just an overfriendly senpai but that was definitely not the case and he was sure of it.
She doesn't like her family name or rather her family itself.
Haruno then turned to the turned the small girl who sitting in the the large chair as she made a sad and apologetic look, "Megumi, you were watching him right? He memorized the sheets and played them without looking at them. I'm sorry but we'll have to replace you. Thank you for all your hard work till now."
The girl called Megumi had a sad smile but she seemed to have understood that Kiyotaka was leagues above her. Ultimately the person with better skills could almost single-handedly change the way a composition is written and he was that person. She conceded her position gracefully but there were tears in her eyes. Haruno went up to her and hugged her, thanking her for being there with her since the beginning.
Shiromeguri-senpai came up to him with a small smile on her face.
"Haruno told me to tell that we have practice every Tuesday and Thursday from 6 to 8 with a few breaks in the middle. The orchestra gets to perform at the college's culture fest and at a few high class events in which Haruno-senpai's parents are involved. We even get paid for those events by her parents."
So that's why she called it her orchestra. Most of the instruments were probably sponsored by the company too.
"Yes senpai. Thank you. ", he responded politely.
▢▢▢
"AIIIII! One tonkatsu ramen, large bowl!", Kiyotaka shouted into the kitchen.
He heard the faint female voice of his boss shouting 'OK!' from the kitchen. He sighed. He had just told Ai that he would come to work an hour and half late on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She said she could manage but he would get less pay for it. There was nothing he could do about it.
It was five-past-ten and they would close the cafe in another 25 minutes. There was a a couple and a lonely office worker left. In a minute, Ai brought out the ramen which he took filling in a large bowl adding the condiments on top and went to serve it to the man.
The man was a regular of their cafe and common courtesy dictated that he greet him otherwise he would be a little disappointed. How bothering.
"Your coming from work a little late these days Akimasa-san. Here's your tonkatsu ramen."
"Ahh yes, there's a really big contract between our company and some famous school that happened recently, we're going to even more busy for the next 3 months."
"Oh where do you happen to work sir?"
"Oh, I never told you did I? I work at Yukinoshita Constructions as an assistant executive engineer."
Ho? My luck I guess.
"What was the name of the school? Must be a prestigious school to make a deal with such a big company."
He slurped on his ramen noodles and with a satisfied expression confirmed his suspicions.
"Advanced Nurturing High School."
Director Sakayanagi was trying to do something before he could escape from his grasp.
He ran through multiple scenarios in his head even ones where the man's daughter was involved, none of them could prove to be effective unless he made contact with his current guardians who are Kei's parents but this was very unlikely. He wouldn't stoop that low, he wasn't Ryuuen. On the off chance that he did try though, Kei's whole family was going to be virtually missing.
Ai came out of the kitchen, wiping the sweat off of her forehead. He took a cooled water bottle and threw it at her. She caught it and placed it between her chin and sweaty neck with a satisfied sigh.
It was 10:15 p.m. when all the customers had finished eating and left. His thoughts shifted to what the director had told him in their last phone call.
Why is it empty? I've been thinking about it for more than a week. I just don't have enough information. It is unlikely I'll be getting more anytime soon.
Lost in his thoughts, he didn't realise it was almost closing time. He helped Ai close the place down and bid goodbye as he started walked towards his apartment. His days were getting busier but he didn't mind it.
After all he was free.
Author's Note:
So, you like?
This chapter was mainly to look at Haruno's as a character. Her whole life she spent trying to protect her younger sister from her duties towards her mother but Yukino wanted to be prove to her that she is capable too. She couldn't see the suffering her older sister faced as she took everything onto herself trying to protect her. Now she was at Harvard with Hayama as a business major trying to prove that she can also do what her sister does much to Haruno's horror.
(lmao horikita was a carbon copy of her)
Well, here's the seating chart,
That's it y'all. See you next time.
Peace.