Hello everyone! This is Saruki. It's been a while since I last wrote something. I have been so busy but I really wante to write something related to this great series, Nodame Cantabile. This manga means a lot to me, so please, enjoy!

I love the Piano

My name is Noda Megumi, but everybody just call me Nodame. I'm an eleven-year-old pianist who is studying at the nearest conservatory. It was the first day of the new year, so I was quite excited about it. After the incident I had with my former piano teacher some years ago, I finally got a new teacher to choose me. It was a female one this time, and she seemed to be very gentle. She said I had talent, but unlike the others, she treated me like a normal person and not as if I were some kind of trophy. I'd rather live as a fool girl instead of being the prodigy child my former teacher said I was. It wasn't like I took playing piano seriously anyway. I didn't want to be a pro.

However, despite that fact I just mentioned, people around me didn't seem to understand that. By that time, I just had to attend three subjects: Main Instrument, Musical Theory and Choir. I used to like Musical Theory very much, since it was a subject very easy to pass. In fact, I didn't understand why could someone fail and even to the point to repeat a year. It was too easy.

The first day of Musical Theory, I was glad to see an old friend of mine. We were together last year. Her name was Sonoko. When the other classmates arrived, we realised that we both were the youngest of the class. That class was full of people who had repeated a year or two. There was even a sixteen-year-old boy! Regarding the teacher, she was very strict hence she would give us a hard time. I liked that kind of teacher tho.

Like always, I didn't have the slightest intention to study this year either. I would pass the subject with top marks again and live peacefully. Since first year, I got used to not to be talked so much by other classmates. But I didn't care at all. However, I wouldn't possibly know by that time, which kind of fate awaited me in that class.

As time passed, I realised little by little that none of my classmates talked to me. Not only that. They would even criticise me if I did well in class. Like I said before I didn't care about those kind of matters... But I started to think that something was fishy when even Sonoko stopped talking to me too.

One day, I saw her talking with the girl who seemed to be the leader of the class. Their eyes told me that I definitely wasn't welcomed there. However, the leader girl told me "you are a nerd, you like studying that much?". Sonoko, on the other hand, didn't say a word. Then I understood something weird I had notice at home: my class book was gone. I just thought it was lost somewhere, but the fact was that Sonoko had it. She stole it from me when I wasn't looking around last time.

I remember clearly who I felt when I realised that. Even though I was only eleven, I confirmed once again how untruthful people could become. Human beings are weak.

As I was thinking that, I picked up my lost book. They were happy because it was completely impossible that I would have studied for that lesson. However, only me knew I wouldn't have opened the book to study anyway, and that was almost my end. When I started to execute the lessons without any mistakes, the faces of my classmates became as red as tomatoes. The sixteen-year-old boy stood up suddenly and came to me saying "how the Hell did you do that, damn!". Well, he was referring to how I got full marks in a musical dictation. "It's because the note names come to my head..." I used to say. I didn't know how it worked exactly but that ability sure were so powerful. It could even awake the beast that boy had.

That day I was about to receive a beating. My teacher stopped it from happening but I still remember the fear I felt. Sonoko cut all contact with me since I ended up taking revenge by telling her mother she had failed all the exams. And it was also the first day in my life I really wanted to stop being a musician.

TEN YEARS LATER...

Gyaboooooo! Nodame speaking! As I was reading what I wrote before I was thinking... How serious you are, mukyaa! I'm not like that anymore. I didn't even remember that I used to write such things, but since I found this diary I just thought that I should answer myself!

Dear eleven-year-old Nodame:

I'm your twenty one-year-old you. It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm doing okay! Well, first of all, since you sounded like you were to drop the piano, I must tell you that... I'm currently in my third year of my Piano Degree. At the end, that hateful year, you were the only one who passed the Entrance Examinations, don't you remember? I have become such a cheerful person, and I'm always saying stupid things such as gyabooo and mukyaaaa, and from other people's eyes I must be such a childish girl... But who cares? It's not good for your health to think about others. Let them be! You know... I even found a man I love: Chiaki-senpai! Mukyaaaaaa! He 's so handsome... In ten years you will meet him. ;)

Should I tell you a secret? Well... The thing is that I still suffer a lot sometimes. I wanna be a pro now. And that's why I regret not to have studied seriously when I was you. And don't think people hate you or something! Soon or later, you will get to know other people who will treat you well, so please be patient, gyaboo... :)

In another ten years I will remember to read this. I hope to have changed for the better... I'm not still as good pianist as I would want to. T.T

P.D: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh! Another thing... What you have is called Perfect Hearing, and it's not a disease or something! You hear everything in your head but it's not the same for others, so don't go telling you have it. I understood why that brute boy got angry at us, but don't worry. It wasn't really your fault since you didn't know!

Please, hang in there, because now, I LOVE THE PIANO, mukyaa! :D

From Nodame to Nodame.

I know this is a kind of weird story but I wanted to show how merciless this word is sometimes. If you are a musician or another kind of artist and you have felt like this, please hang in there, because people end up finding their way :) See you!