Part 1

The Mountain Concerto Competition. 

Apparently, Mother was going to watch to see my younger brother, Lukyus, win against me. 

There was no way I was gonna let that happen, no way, not in a million years. I will never give them the satisfaction they want after they ruined my life. 

I switched up my priorities, placing the Competition as the first thing on my mind. With that said, Charlotte and I discussed this once before, the piece we were going to play. 

It was going to be: Mozart's Sonata Allegro Molto.

But, I've decided otherwise, a Sonata like that is far too simple to win a competition with a wide-variety of musicians joining the fray. 

Composed in 1772, it was during this time that duets by Mozart were pretty wild. Allegro Molto was a pretty comical piece, it had call and response phrases with bright bold chords being complimented with fluttering triplets.

But this snappy and childish technique won't do much for the competition though. 

Charlotte was pretty naive to suggest something like that, and I was definitely not in the right mind to agree with that. 

"I'm going to change the piece we're playing for the Competition." 

"Eh? Why?! Isn't the one I suggested not good enough?" 

Charlotte raised her brow and questioned.

"That's exactly it. You know, that piece was made for the Harpsichord¹The main difference that can be seen between the piano and harpsichord is in the use of their strings. While hammers are used to strike the strings of the piano, the strings are plucked in a harpsichord. , not a Piano. Although they're practically the same thing (in a sense that it looks like a piano), the piece made for the Harpsichord didn't take into account Dynamics, so it'd severely limit our chances of winning." 

Simple Explanation: You know when you hit a piano key softly, the sound is low? And when you hit the a piano key hard, it's loud? The Harpsichord was completely different, when you hit a key the volume was completely the same whether you hit it hard or softly.

Allegro Molto was made for such an instrument, not the piano.

I was explaining to Charlotte how that would be severely limiting. 

"Ugh, fine! Then, what piece will we play?" 

"Chopin's Second Sonata (0:00-11:11), the first two movements." 

"Nuh-uh, no way, we're not playing that depressive trash."

Immediately hearing my thoughts, Charlotte stood up from the couch and sat on the piano stool. 

It should be noted that just before we were both sitting on my brown leather comforting couch. 

I wonder how the depressed Chopin would react to a Piano calling his work "depressive trash".

I stood up with her and sat beside her, and we both faced the piano but still in conversation. 

"Why not?" 

I questioned Charlotte.

Chopin's Second Sonata was the perfect choice for a piece to play in the Competition. The technique required was amazingly substantial, only a true professional pianist playing for at least over a decade would be able to manage to play it well. 

Such as, me and Charlotte.

Everyone knows Chopin, he had quite the introverted life. To put him into perspective, replace Lucy's logicalness with sheer emotionalness, and turn Lucy into a boy: boom, it's a Chopin. 

He was depressed for the majority of his life, and he died depressed. His Second Sonata was an extension of this depressive mood, creating it out of sheer negative feelings. 

To put a cherry on top, critics, including the famous Robert Schuman made fun of his work, making Chopin even more insecure.

"-Cause that piece is depressing as hell, it's also really angry! I don't want your parents to be satisfied with knowing that they've affected you so much, and left their imprints into you to play something so negative!" 

Charlotte brought up a subjective point. 

"Then, what do you prefer?"

"Something happier! Let's go to your musical sheet music shelf, let's find something!" 

Charlotte grabbed my hand and we stood up, pulling me to my shelf full of musical scores. 

It looked like your normal bookshelf, but each block was a folder containing a full stack of musical scores from various composers. I had an entire shelf. 

Without hesitiation, Charlotte began browsing.

"Chopin's Wrong Note, No.... Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C Sharp Minor... Hungarian Rhas..." 

Charlotte muttered on and on as she went through the folders, skiing through pages and pages.

I stood beside her and pulled out a folder. 

The folder had the name: "Elementary Level: Nostalgia."

Hm? Nostalgia? What kind of pieces can evoke Nostalgia-

Gustav Holst, Jupiter.
River Flows In You 
Can Can Can 
Canon In D 
Minute In G 
Heart And Soul 

To stop myself from reminiscing about the past, I immediately but the Nostalgia Folder back into the shelf and pulled out another one. 

Moritz Moszkowsky - Spanish Dances 
Gustav Holst - Mars 
Gustav Holst - Saturn 
Chopin's Etude No. 4
Vivaldi - Summer 

Ah, I think I see something good. 

I pulled out one of the scores. 

"Did you find something?" 

Charlotte looked beside me and noticed I was holding a single musical score. 

"The Spanish Dances will do nicely." 

I said as I read over the music sheet. 

"Spanish Dances... Oh! I remember!" 

Charlotte's eyes glistened brightly with sparks as she recalled how it sounded. 

Created by the profound Moritz Moszkowski, a German Composer. It was quite satirical, a German composer taking reference of Spanish musical culture for his pieces. But Moritz Moszkowski was a Satirist along with being a Composer of the Romantic Era. 

The Romantic Era, introducing Moszkowski's Spanish Dances ... I admire Moszkowski, I consider him the second Chopin of his generation. His Spanish Dance piece jumps with serene joyfulness with hints of Spanish influence. 

"Arthur! Can we play it now! Can we play it, please?!" 

Charlotte seemed really excited to play it, recalling how joyful the piece sounded along with its childish jump as accompaniment. 

"Now now, rallentando there, Charlotte. No need to Crescendo into a random Fortissimo." 

"Stop using italian musical terms to describe me!" 

Charlotte grabbed me in a sforzando and dragged me toward the piano. 

"Let's play, can I be the right hand, please?!" 

"Of course you can." 

I sat on the left side while Charlotte sat on the right. 

I set up the sheet music against the sheet-holder platform of Charlotte, who was the girl. 

"Ready when you are." 

I said, and in response, Charlotte nodded. 

With that, we began to sight-read Moszkowski's Spanish Dances. . (Its recommend that you listen to it as your read the next dozen or so lines)

Starting off with a marching swing, an energy bloomed immediately into the sky with the first few chords striking the keys. 

The marching of the chords simulated the light-weighed march of drunken soldiers on a silly playful march, tapping their boots to whatever rhythm they could get ahold of, drinking booze gleefully as their faces turned red from the drunkness. 

From the softness of each note, to the sudden BANG of the chords, it was like a dance. 

Both of us closed our eyes, and a scene of a dance played out. Charlotte in front of me, holding our hands together and dancing to the march. It created an imaginary scene. 

The Composer truly captured the heart of a Spanish dance and its bright culture through this piece, all four hands combined danced along to the tune as it created the tune. 

I looked after to my side and noticed Charlotte's head and body moving around to its jumpy tune, her eyes centred toward the score as her hands played the exciting melody. 

But she suddenly muttered: 

"It's always so good with your strong virile hands... Bang it harder, please..."  

I heard some lewd mutterings, but I ignored it. 

But for the sake of Charlotte, who had gotten pissed off this morning, I ignored the dynamic markings of the score (which told you how hard or soft you should hit) and banged each note as hard as I could without any restraint. 

"Aaaaaah...!" 

Charlotte began to breathe heavily, her playing beginning to become sluggish. 

We continued playing around like this until the piece was over. 

Part 2 

Before we knew it, we blew past all Six of the Spanish Dances, even though we had only planned to play one. 

"That was amazing! It sounds so nice! " 

Charlotte hearted out an ear to ear grin.

"You're right, but this won't win us the competition either." 

"Eh-? Then why did you pick it?" 

Charlotte raised her brow, confused. 

We had just picked a piece out of thousands of possibilities on my shelf, smiled about it and played it and a bit extra belonging to its series. Charlotte was pretty much right to be confused. 

The piece wasn't technical enough, sure, it sounded great. It was better than Allegro Molto, but still lacked Professional difficulty. 

"Cause I'm gonna smash all six dances into one piece, and while I'm doing it, make it sound even more amazing." 

So, if it's not professionally difficult enough to play, I'm gonna make it into Professional difficulty 

I opened my phone and went on a Music-Sheet software app and created a new Score, titled "A-C-C-S-D". ACCSD stood for "Arthur and Charlotte's Compressed Spanish Dances". 

"Ooh! I see! But... That's kind hard, isn't it?" 

"I can handle it." 

I kept my eyes on the brand new created score, staring at the clear black lines thinking about where the notes would be placed, of course, I wouldn't make this on my phone, the app is directly connected to my laptop so I would go on my laptop to create ACCSD. 

Something like this was akin to a major school or work project, but could be done easily if I focused. 

I noticed that the message app had over 2k notifications, so I opened it and forgot that I was multiple group chats.

I tapped on the Orchestra group chat:

"[Oi oi guys, she got really mad yesterday!]" 

"[Where the hell did Arthur go? ... I feel bad for him, he's gonna get a lashing at today's rehearsal.]"

Ah right, I had missed out on rehearsal. 

Yeah, I'm fucked. 

I looked at the clock, and realised that it was almost 12:00pm, rehearsal starts at 2:00. Since the Concert Practise hall was around an hour or so's bus drive away, I had to go now. 

Charlotte looked at me as if she knew what was going to happen.

Her eyes beamed into me. 

I knew exactly what she wanted to say, so I replied before she could even ask it. 

"...Yes, you can come." 

"Good!" 

Part 3

I took a deep breath before entering the Concerto Hall, immediately after walking in, I noticed a man shoot his gaze toward me, standing from the receptionist table. 

It was our Concertmaster, William Schubert. 

He seemed to be reading over the score of the piece we were rehearsing, but the moment he saw me he immediately walked up toward me. 

"Arthur you fool! Where have you been?! Scarlet got really mad yesterday because you didn't attend." 

William spoke in a light German accent, slowly getting used to living in an english-speaking country. 

"Sorry, I slept in for the entire day." 

"Is that so? No matter, friend. Rehearsal begins in 30 minutes or less, just prepare yourself for a verbal lashing." 

William said before he noticed Charlotte standing beside me. 

"Is this beautiful lady going to listen again?" 

William warmly smiled as he looked at Charlotte in her eyes. 

"Why yes I am!" 

Charlotte cheekily smiled back. 

"I'll do my best to not disappoint you, madam."

William said before he turned back and walked away, presumably to the Concert Hall. 

"Now... Let's go to a practise room."

"Nope." 

I prepared myself to walk into a practise room, but Charlotte halted me before I could even decide.

"What?" 

"So-cial-lise." 

Charlotte spoke in syllabus, emphasising her point. 

She pointed in the direction where everyone was hanging out just before having to rehearse and practise, kinda like the behind-the-stage vibe but for Orchestral Musicians. 

"I... Uh..." 

I tried to think of an excuse. 

Unfortunately, nothing came into mind. 

I didn't want to talk to anyone. 

Taking advantage of her initiative, Charlotte grabbed my hand and opened the door to where everyone from the Orchestra was hanging out. 

When Charlotte opened the door while leading me in, I was met with the familiar large hall filled with musicians. 

It was like a school playground, there were seperate groups of at minimum 4 people to groups reaching 20 people huddling up together chatting. 

They had their instruments in hand, some of them tuning them before going into rehearse. 

The moment I walked in, all eyes were on me. 

"-Aw.... Arthur's fucked." 

"-He's dead, he's so dead. 

"-God help him. 

Those were the audible mutterings from what I could hear, there was probably more sounds of pity that was simply too far away from me to hear. 

I know I know... Scarlet is gonna murder me. 

Scarlet, the Conductor was really ruthless. 

I felt a shudder go down my spine before a sick feeling in my gut nauseated me, just by thinking about seeing Scarlet. 

"Are you okay?" 

"I-I'm fine."

No I wasn't.

I'm very scared. 

Especially because the piece rehearsed is piano-based, trying to rehearse without the piano in a piano-based piece is like rehearsing a main-lead actor scene without the main-lead actor. 

From the distance, Chad noticed me. 

When our eyes met, he pointed toward me with a smirk before walking up to me. 

Chad detached from a large group of people he was chatting to and made his way to me. 

His muscular frame through his tight black T-Shirt, tanned skin and short blonde hair made him look like an intimidating guy, but knowing his personality only made me feel reassured as I watched him walk toward me. 

This feeling of reassurance and reliability seemed to ooze onto Charlotte as well, since she looked much more relaxed the same as I. 

"Yo, you ready to get smacked?" 

Chad joked, hinting about Scarlet. 

"I'm not looking forward to it." 

"She's gonna beat the shit out of you." 

"I know." 

Chad said these scary things with a warm tone. 

From behind Chad, his group of buddies didn't follow him, but they did watch in interest as their main source of chatter had left them to talk to me. 

Scarlet was a pretty short girl, even shorter than Charlotte. She wouldn't "beat the shit out of me", but I would certainly feel like it after I see her. 

"-Anyways, how was 'Clean up'?" 

I asked Chad about yesterday and those men. 

Since he was around 15cm taller than me at a height of 195, he nodded his head down a bit and whispered: 

"Pffft, don't worry about it. My buddies handled it, those guys won't bother you ever again."

"Okay, understood." 

It was pretty obvious Chad was getting himself into some sus business, or had very good connections to them, but for the sake of my life I won't dig deeper than the hints already shown to me. 

As long as I'm not hurt, I'm not involving myself in suspicious business: Such as Chad's buddies. So I immediately agreed. 

Then suddenly, a girl of the same stature of Charlotte appeared. 

"Hey Lucy!" 

Charlotte greeted the approaching Lucy. 

"Yo."

"Hello." 

Chad and I did too. 

When Chad said "Yo", Lucy seemed to become flustered as she put her hands behind her back, going on her toes and back down to her heels repeatedly like an immature child. 

"H-Hey, Chad." 

And she only responded to Chad's greeting. 

Does she... Like him? 

Charlotte and I shared a smug look with devious grins. 

Let's leave them alone.

We also shared the same thought, we nodded before silently walking away. 

"Hey, where are you guys going?" 

Chad said as he reached out his hand to us who were walking away, but his attention was soon snatched from Lucy, who started talking about medical articles. 

I walked toward the wall with Charlotte. 

Then, a group of girls approached us. 

"Hey~" 

One of the girls with her hands behind her back bent over and looked up with a flirty greeting. 

"Hello." 

"How are ya? Only Pianist of this Orchestra."

This girl had long blonde hair and dressed pretty lewdly, her chest clearly visible through a short shirt, short enough to show her belly button and tight jeans. 

For some reason, I could hear Charlotte from behind me gritting her teeth. I'm sure if I turned around, I'd see a sour expression oozing from her. 

"I don't think I'm gonna do well after seeing Scarlet today." 

"Hahahaha! Yeah, you're dead!" 

The Blonde Girl went closer and stood to my right, grabbing my arm and hugging it while laughing. 

"...!" 

In response, Charlotte grabbed my other arm, and glared at the blonde girl deep into her eyes. 

"-Hey Arthur, are you free this Saturday? The girls and I are thinking of watching the top-hit-movie Morbius, it's an amazing movie if you wanna watch?" 

The Blonde girl put her hand on my chest as she looked up. 

I took a peek at Charlotte. 

She looked, pretty angry. Her brows were knitted and expression contorted into silent rage, I could feel my arms being tightly gripped by her harder than usual. 

She's... Acting kinda cute.

"Are you listening?" 

The blonde girl asserted her presence and got my attention. 

"Sorry, I can't make it on Saturday."

I pushed her off of me. 

But she immediately grabbed my arm again, this time putting my forearm between her chest. 

"What about Sunday then?" 

"-He's busy on Sunday too! So get off of him!" 

Charlotte's voice from the other side answered for me, she growled in an annoyed tone, demanding the blonde girl to get off of me. 

I pulled my arm out of the Blonde girl's grasp. 

"Aww... That's too bad. Then, see ya, Arthur." 

The blonde girl ran back to her friends, and they walked away giggling. 

That reminds me, wasn't I invited to an all-girls group chat for this orchestra? Why would they invite me as the only guy, beside Chad, to an all-girls chat? 

I throw that topic to the back of my brain as Charlotte snuggled onto me, being more touchier than usual. 

"What's the matter, Charlotte?" 

"I dunno, I just feel like hugging you a bit more now." 

Charlotte then came to my front and pressed her forehead against my lower chest.

She's jealous... 

"Hahahaha..."

I giggled silently, but it was still loud enough for Charlotte to hear. 

"Stop laughing, dumbass." 

"Hahahahaha." 

Then suddenly, the doors leading into the Concerto Hall was smacked open with a bang. 

"Oi Oi! I heard Arthur is here, where the fuck is he?!" 

A voice of a high pitched woman. 

Ah....

It was Scarlet. 

"-Haa...?"

My laughing had ceased.