The Quirky Senior Who Plays the Piano

Tuesday's events were like a pebble thrown into water; after the ripples spread, the surface returned to calm.

Summer ended and school life remained largely unchanged. Classes started, classes ended, I ate alone, and I was still the last one left out of PE class.

He sat in the last row by the window in the classroom, sometimes glancing up at the sky outside, thinking about the piano, thinking about next Tuesday. Other than that, everything was normal.

Saturday.

At 7:30 in the morning, Xia Mo left home carrying his black sheet music bag.

The November wind was already chilly. He zipped his school uniform jacket all the way up, crossed two traffic lights, and entered a quiet residential street.

The gray-white building on the street corner is the piano teacher's house. There is a loquat tree in the yard, and the leaves rustle in the wind.

He rang the doorbell, and the door opened quickly.

"Xia-kun! You're here before me again!"

A round face peeked out from behind, with bright, sparkling eyes and a naturally upturned smile, making the person look like a freshly peeled fruit candy.

Erika Ikuta, a fourth-year student, is one year older than him and is also a student learning the koto under the teacher.

"Good morning, Ikuta-senpai." Natsumi changed her shoes in the entryway, her tone indifferent.

"What's wrong with you? You always have that expression," Erika said in a low voice as she followed him into the living room. "The teacher isn't ready yet. Let's go to the music room and wait."

The music room is located at the far end of the first floor. It is a room with light wood flooring, two upright pianos placed side by side against the wall, and the window is half open. The wind blows the white curtains, making them billow like a gentle sail.

Xia Mo sat down at his zither and opened the sheet music. Erika sat down next to him, but instead of playing, she rested her chin on her hand and watched him.

"Xia-kun, have you been having something on your mind this week?"

Xia Mo's fingers paused above the piano keys, and she said after a moment, "No."

"You're lying." Erika's eyes narrowed, like a cat smelling fish. "You haven't said a single complete sentence since you came in. Although you're not usually very talkative, your 'Good morning, Ikuta-senpai' was 0.5 seconds shorter than last week."

"You didn't keep a timer."

"I've already made up my mind."

Xia Mo sighed, ignored her, and began her routine Hanon exercise.

The monotonous finger exercises flowed from his fingers like water, even and steady, but devoid of emotion. Erika pursed her lips, opened her sheet music, and joined him.

All morning, the only sounds in the practice room were the sound of the piano and the teacher's occasional comments. The teacher's surname was Sato, and her name was Sato Mika. She was a thin woman in her thirties who didn't talk much, but every word she said hit the nail on the head.

When it was Xia Mo's turn to play Chopin, she stood by the violin and listened for a while, nodding in agreement, which was quite unusual for her.

"The touch in this section is better than before, and the control of the tone has improved."

Erika let out an exaggerated sigh from the side.

Teacher Sato glanced at her: "Ikuta, your arpeggios are still not even enough. Practice for another half hour."

"Yes—" Erika's voice trailed off, like a stretched-out piece of gummy candy.

The class ended at 11:30. Teacher Sato went to the kitchen to make tea, leaving two students in the practice room to pack up their sheet music.

Erika tossed the sheet music onto the piano lid, leaned back in her chair, and looked up at the ceiling.

"It's not fair, it's so unfair."

Xia Mo packed the sheet music into her bag one by one: "What's unfair?"

"You get praised for playing Chopin, but I get scolded for practicing arpeggios. I've tried my best too, you know?" Erika turned her head to look at him, deliberately making a wronged expression, but the smile in her eyes was impossible to hide.

"Xia Jun, tell the truth, have you been secretly practicing at home? One hour or two hours every day?"

"Four hours each way after school."

"You're lying!"

"Really, it's just a mix of piano and cello."

Erika sat up straight, stared at him intently for a few seconds, then slumped down, her whole body limply resting on the piano lid, her chin on the music stand, her voice muffled.

"You're so talented and hardworking, it's something everyone envies. Your teacher said you 'have a natural talent for singing' when you touch the keys, do you know how much I want to punch you?"

Xia Mo didn't know how to respond to such a thing, so she silently zipped up the sheet music bag.

The music room was quiet for a while. The curtains were blown up and down by the wind, then down and up again.

Erika lay on the lid of the koto, her eyes darting around, before suddenly perking up again.

"Hey, Xia-kun, have you written any new songs lately?"

Xia Mo's hand paused for a moment.

"I wrote it," he said.

Erika sat bolt upright, a dangerous glint in her eyes: "Really? Let me hear it! Quickly, quickly!"

"I'm going home now, Ikuta-senpai. Maybe next time."

"Then just flick your head, flick your head!"

Xia Mo hesitated for a moment, then placed his hands back on the keys. He took a deep breath and then played a short passage—softly, carefully, as if afraid of disturbing something.

The pear blossoms fell silent.

She wasn't the type of person who could calm down easily, but when those few notes fell, she truly became quiet.

When summer finally ended, she let out a long breath, her eyes shining like two small lanterns.

"That sounds beautiful," her voice unusually soft. "What's your name?"

Xia Mo lowered her eyes, looking at the black and white piano keys.

"Secret".

"A secret?" Erika blinked, then laughed. "Natsu-kun, you're really strange. Even the song title is so mysterious. You wrote it yourself, right? When did you write it?"

"Last week."

"Last week? You wrote this at school last week? You secretly used the school's piano?"

Xia Mo nodded. He knew that with Erika's personality, she wouldn't give up until she got to the bottom of things.

Sure enough, she leaned forward, lowered her voice, and spoke with an excitement of sharing a secret.

"You're so bold! You'll get scolded if the teacher finds out. But—it's worth it, this piece is worth it. Hey, did something happen when you wrote this piece?"

Xia Mo's fingers unconsciously touched a chord on the piano keys, and she remained silent for a long time.

Then he said, "When I was playing the piano in the music room, someone heard me."

Erika's eyes instantly magnified two times.

"Who?!"

"One... from our school," Xia Mo said slowly, as if each word had to be carefully selected, "a girl from the class next door."

"A girl?!" Erika's voice rose half a tone, then she quickly covered her mouth, her eyes wide, and she squeezed out a suppressed scream from behind her fingers.

"Xia Jun, you actually—a girl listened to you play the piano? When did you meet her? What happened? Tell me from the beginning, from the beginning, don't miss a single word!"

Xia Mo was a little stunned by the barrage of questions and reached out to rub her ears.

"Ikuta-senpai, please keep your voice down."

"I'm speaking very softly! Hurry up and tell me!"

Summer ended and shifted her gaze from Eri-ka's face, which was filled with gossip and excitement, to the loquat tree outside the window, swaying in the wind.

The wind turned the leaves over, revealing their greyish-green undersides. His voice was soft, as if he wasn't sure whether he should say these words.

"Her name is Saito Asuka. That day during PE class, she couldn't find anyone to team up with, so she was wandering around the school building. She passed by the music room and was attracted by the sound of me playing the piano."

He paused for a moment, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

"She ran away at first. Later... I talked to her for a bit. She's the kind of person who doesn't really fit in with the class."

Erika's smile slowly faded. She looked at Xia Mo's profile, and the excitement in her eyes gradually subsided, transforming into something gentler.

"Xia Jun," her voice suddenly became very soft and serious, "you've made friends."

It's not a question, it's a statement.

Xia Mo didn't answer. His fingers were still tracing the chord on the piano keys, one note at a time, as if confirming something.

"Did you play it for her?" Erika asked.

"Only part of it was played."

"What did she say?"

Xia Mo thought for a moment, and the smile on her lips reappeared, slightly wider than before.

"She said it sounded beautiful."

Erika, seeing his expression, suddenly clapped her hands, startling Natsume.

She stood up, hands on her hips, her face once again beaming with that candy-like smile.

"It's decided! I want to meet this Saito Asuka too!"

"no."

"Why!"

"You'll scare her."

"What's so scary about me? Everyone loves me, okay!"

Xia Mo didn't reply. She lowered her head, unzipped and zipped up the sheet music bag, pretending to be tidying it up.

But the tips of his ears were already red, and the light filtering through the curtains made them look like two ripe cherries.

Erika saw it, but didn't expose him.

She simply sat back down in her chair, crossed her legs, and began humming a melody—

It was the tune Xia Mo had just played, which she hummed with a lot of twists and turns, as if she was deliberately teasing someone.

The leaves of the loquat tree outside the window were still rustling, as if laughing, or as if keeping a small secret that someone couldn't yet tell.