Dragging her feet, the girl locked the door behind her, before she walked out of the building. With only her cellphone in her pocket, and her keys in the other, she wandered around the neighborhood, in hope of something to do.

Time flews by very quickly when one is concentrated on something. It has been a month since Aiko and Riko have arrived in Japan, and it’s their holiday right now.

Walking down the street, the display window of the shops has spark the interest in Aiko. Actually, every single one of them catches her attention, since she’s known as the shopaholic back in her country. Taking out her cellphone, she saw the date, and smiled to herself. Pressing on the speed dial on her keypad, she pressed 1.

The other line started to ring. She patiently waited for the other side to get picked up, as she walked over to the brown bench just not far away from her side.

The voice from the line was heard. “Hello,”

“Hiroto-kun?” Aiko answered, slight happiness from her tone. “Aiko?”

“You doing well?” Aiko asked, as she looked up to the sky. Hearing Hiroto’s voice was much more than she have ever expected for. “I’m hanging up,” the guy replied. In return, this earned the awkward silence that surfaced between them in few seconds.

“Hiroto, the pizza is here!” a voice from the background can be heard. Aiko’s eyes widened, before her hand started to tremble on its own. “Ne, Hiroto-kun, who’s that?” Aiko asked, trying to sound as though she is fine.

“As you heard it. Aiko, we won’t work. Long-distance relationship doesn’t work,” Hiroto replied. There was an urge to hurry break this up, and get it done with. That was that urge in his voice that he doesn’t want to talk to Aiko anymore. “Hiroto-kun, you’re… lying right? You said you would wait for me! You told me to realize my dream and come back proudly with the award!”

“Those are just sweet talking. Aiko, you need to know reality. Reality isn’t as kind as you think, as naïve as you think it is. Once you’ve chosen one, the other will definitely run away from you. You choose this path yourself,” Before Aiko was allowed to say anything, Hiroto have continued his “speech”. “I’m putting down. Be well, Sugihara,”

The line went dead.

Aiko dropped her phone, before her tears started to fall down from her eyes. Just then, a cold tingling sensation was felt on her face. She looked up, and realized small and white substances were falling from the sky. Snow.

Her whole body trembled, and she started to cry even louder. She didn’t really care that the passer by were all staring at her, or that her face was stained with tears, and her eyes were blood shot. She needed something to take her away from her pain, and her agony. The only thing she left was her passion.

Piano.

She stood up, and using the back of her hand, she wiped away the visible tears from her cheeks. Slowly, she strolled to the school that was now empty since it is during the holidays and the students are all probably working.

***

There was music playing from the music room and she didn’t even want to bother who was it. She walked down the familiar route down to the piano room where the piano was nicely situated there, waiting for her to go over to touch it. The black color was as though drawing her even nearer to it. Slowly, she pushed open the door, and entered the room.

Taking out the scarf around her neck, she placed it on top of the piano, and she started to place her fingers nicely onto the keys, before she pressed it down with the strength she have.

***

‘Three Four Five… or should I turn left after this step,’ Riko looked at herself in the mirror, as she swayed her body according to the music that was playing in the room. Ruffling her hair, and bended down, and grabbed all of her hair before she tied it up. Dancing sure make her perspire so much that she look like some person who have run 100 rounds around the big school compound.

Toppling down onto the floor, she grabbed her towel that was just near her, and wiped away her perspirations that were formed on her forehead and such. Looking out of the window, she realized that white snow have started to fall down, and started to pile up, creating a soft layer of blanket of the ground.

Smiling to herself, she grabbed onto her bracelet and hurriedly walked over to her bag to take out her cellphone. Dialing onto the keypad the familiar number, she waited for the other party to pick up her call.

“Hello? Riko?” the voice sounded. Riko smiled once again, before she settled down onto the floor, and started to talk to the other party. “Hayato, did you miss me?”

“When are you going to come back?” the other party asked. Riko wasn’t sure herself since the Tokyo Competition isn’t so soon yet. Riko apologized, but all she can hear was Hayato’s comfortable words. “It’s alright, don’t need to apologize. I understand,”

It was a good thing Hayato was reasonable and understanding.

***

“No good?” Yuto looked down to the older boy that had his head on his shoulders. Ryousuke had his phone held up high, and he had just sent a text to Chinen, but there was no reply.

‘Come to class all right? Me and Yuto will be waiting,’

“Takaki should explain to Chinen, rather than letting him blindly following a path that he doesn’t even know if he should be following,” Ryousuke grumbled, before he sighed, and throw his phone onto the sofa.

“Takaki have his own ways of handling things. We promised Takaki not to tell Chinen,” Yuto’s hand went towards Ryosuke’s head, and he placed it down onto there. “He’ll know what to do, Yama-chan,”

Ryosuke sighed. “Why are we so messed up now?” Without saying anything, Ryousuke got up from the sofa, and headed towards the kitchen.

Yuto, looked at the back of Ryosuke. “Yama-chan, you still don’t understand yet don’t you?”

A sense of disappointment was felt from Yuto.