In the hush corridors of Tanabe high school, a rhythmic echo flowed in the air, on the third floor room 2B the sign on the window stating it as the music room. Inside sat a boy his eyes closed and his hands moving up and down a sleek black piano each finger pressing down white and black keys, slamming hammers onto strings creating a soothing melody. Suddenly the music came to a stop, the boy grabbed his bag and walked out of the classroom as the door slid open a girl with red-pink hair can into view she stood leaning against the wall outside the boy glanced her way but walked straight past and down the stairs his face held no emotion.
Walking past groups of people whispering to their friend groups the boy walked into another classroom the sign above the door read "3-2" inside there were people sat on desks, stood next to the windows looking out and people drawing funny faces on the chalk board. The boy walked over to the right side of the class at the back grabbed the chair at the desk and pulled it out creating a scraping sound against the hard dark oak floor, he sat. A couple of minute's passed and the clock struck 9:00am the school bell rung and a person taller then the rest of the class walked in wearing a suit and tie holding a pile of paper in his hand he was the stereotypical look of a teacher. "Alright settle down and sit in your seats." The sound suddenly evaporated and the air stood still and silent, the teacher grabbed the scrub brush and rubbed off all the faces the students had drew before picking up the white chalk creating a squeal with what he wrote. "Imai Yumi". He turned around his body now facing the class his head turned too the door and smiled "You can come in now."
A figure then came through the door way and stood next to the teachers desk, whispers began, and as they did it peaked the curiosity of the boy in the back who raised his head of the desk and his eyes opened wide, their stood in front of the class was a girl her hair a pink and red tint covering her ears, with her head looking down at the floor her socks weren't even in height one was above her knee and the other was just creeping past her ankle, her skirt was just like the rest of the girls uniform a dark black just reaching down past her thighs, her shirt was tight around her skin and chest, her blazer was down on top of her bad which she had placed on the floor in front of her. Her head slowly lifted too show her pink flower eyes, the boy placed his head back on the desk. "This is Imai Yumi, she has just transferred here I expect you too help her get used to the school and enjoy her time here, is that understood?" The whole class nodded in sync.
The teacher then poked Imai on the shoulder and walked down the aisle's of chairs Imai followed, they came to a stop and Imai sat down at her desk with pairs of eyes glancing at her from each part of the room. The teacher had then started speaking again and had officially started the lesson, the boy then felt a poke on his arm as he raised his head he noticed a piece of paper on his desk folded up, he looked to his side too see Imai smiling at him he then glanced back at the paper and started unfolding it once done he read "You play the piano well!" he let out a quiet gasp and looked over at Imai, remembering that her face was the same one as the girl who he had earlier glanced at while leaving the music room. he picked up his pen and wrote on the paper "Thanks I guess." before handing it over too Imai seconds later the paper returned with a new sentence "You're welcome!" the boy let out another gasp this time a bit too loud of one, "Ryu, as you are so loud I'm guessing that means you know the answer to the question." the teacher had seemed to of heard the boy's gasp his name seemed to be called Ryu. Ryu stood beside his desk standing nervously muffled the answer to the question "It's B squared plus 1" the teacher nodded and Ryu sat back in his seat glancing at Imai who was now completely captivated in the lesson.
The bell rung and Ryu stood, quickly packing his notebooks away in his bag and walking outside the classroom quickly, Imai with her mouth slightly open like she was gonna say something just picked up all her books and in a messy hurry followed Ryu up to the third floor and watched him from around the corner walk into the music room. As Ryu slid the door closed he then walked over towards the piano and placed down his bag before sitting on the stool and placing his hands on the keys, taking a deep breath in through his nose when suddenly the door slid open his head spontaneously turned from reflex and their stood Imai, Ryu lifted his hands of the keys and placed them on his lap. "DID YOU FOLLOW ME UP HERE?!" Ryu's face turned like jelly his cheeks bloated and his eyes wide open sort of like a pout turned wrong. But Imai just stood their staring.
Ryu's face turned to confusion "Did you hear me? I asked Why you are up here." Imai walked into the classroom and closed the door behind her using her hand behind her back "huh" a slight noise came from Ryu, she then turned her back towards Ryu and placed her bag on the floor in front of the door bending over searching her bag for something. Ryu started thinking and questioning what was going on as Imai pulled out a hairband and tied her hair up before rummaging through her bag once again and this time pulling out two things both looked identical Imai turned around and faced inwards too the room looking directly at Ryu with a smile on her face and her eyes closed and her hand outwards with one finger pointed upwards indicating Ryu to wait a second as with the other hand she placed something in her right ear and then turned back to rummage through her bag and pulled out a notebook. With the click of a pen and a few scratches of the pen scraping across the paper she finally turned too face Ryu again before holding up her note book with the words. "Sorry I couldn't hear you properly could you repeat that?" Ryu tilted his face to the side before standing up and walking over to Imai with his head looking down "Why cant you just say something to me why do you keep writing stuff down?" Imai turned her head to the side and pointed at her ears Ryu took one look "A hearing aid." Imai then flipped the page of her notebook and wrote something else down, Ryu looked down toward the notebook and read "I'm partially deaf so I cant speak very well and my hearing is quite terrible." Ryu looked up at Imai his expression softening as he began to understand the situation. He took a moment before responding, "I didn't know. Sorry I was being a bit rude earlier. But were you following me?"
Imai just smiled and shook her head, indicating that it was okay. She wrote in her notebook again, "No problem, And yeah I might have followed you but for good reasons I wanted to talk to you. Your piano playing was beautiful, and I wanted to get too know you." Ryu smiled at Imai but then his expression changed and he turned away walking over too the piano picking up his bag before looking back at Imai "No, I don't wanna know you" Ryu's sudden change in tone caught Imai off guard. She looked at him with a mixture of confusion and hurt. Ryu took a deep breath and continued, "It's not about you. It's about me. I don't want to get to know anyone. I prefer being alone." Imai's smile faded, and she wrote in her notebook, "But why do you want to be alone?" Ryu hesitated before responding, "It's just easier that way, People come and go. It's less complicated if I keep to myself then no one gets hurt." Imai, wrote, "But isn't it nice to have friends? To share moments and experiences with someone?" Ryu sighed and slumped his shoulders slightly. "I've been hurt before. It's easier not to let people in. I don't want to go through that again honestly its easier to be lost and lonely cause friends aren't really meant to last you know." Imai closed her notebook and stood up, walking over to Ryu. Imai opened up her notebook again and wrote before putting In front of Ryu's face "Is it because I'm different?"
Ryu felt a pang of guilt as he read Imai's question. He shook his head. Imai looked at him with a searching gaze. "No, it's not because you're different," Ryu finally said, his voice softer than before. "It's because I'm afraid. I'm afraid of getting close to people and then losing them. It hurts too much, you know?" Imai nodded and wrote, "But I won't hurt you." before placing her hand tightly on his forearm. Ryu looked into Imai's eyes and became flustered his heart racing. Imai then took a seat at a desk and look at Ryu as he stood in shock.
