"Alright, that was better. Flutes, make sure your second note…"

An unmistakable sound cut through the band room, interrupting Taki-sensei. It was a sound that had resulted in scapegoating since elementary school, came with an unfortunate smell, and everyone tried desperately to suppress. (Unless you're the kind of annoying person that does it on purpose, of course.)

Someone had farted.

Kumiko by default looked at Reina, and was surprised to see her sitting very stiffly with her knuckles white against her trumpet. Everyone else in the trumpet section was looking at her too, and a few people were suppressing snickers.

Kumiko's eyes widened. Reina looked really uncomfortable, and something needed to be done about it.

"As I was saying…"

*Crash!*

Taki-sensei looked appropriately annoyed when he saw the source of the second interruption.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, are you okay?" Kumiko frantically grabbed at her stand, trying to get it off of the bassoon player in front of her. She succeeded… in knocking her euphonium over.

"Ah…"

Once practice was over, Reina walked over to Kumiko, who was standing up and heading towards the instrument room.

"Kumiko."

The aforementioned girl jumped about a foot into the air before turning around.

"Reina! Hehe, you're so quiet, you know that?"

"Thank you."

"Huh?"

Reina raised an eyebrow. "You're telling me you knocked your stand over on accident? You're not that clumsy."

Kumiko scratched the back of her neck and grinned sheepishly. "No, you're right, the stand was on purpose, although I didn't mean to hit that girl with it." She winced. "My euph was a complete accident." She held it up for a moment, inspecting it for dents. "And, actually, I am that clumsy…"

"Mm." Reina smirked. "Remember when you face planted in front of me?"

Kumiko pouted, and Reina had to resist the urge to squish her cheeks. There were too many people around.

"Hazuki pushed me, you know."

"Right, right." Reina paused. "Really though Kumiko, thank you for earlier. That was a situation where I was very uncomfortable being the center of attention."

Kumiko beamed. "Yeah, anytime, Reina."

Reina was fairly sure she meant it.