I sometimes wonder whether pianos are more complex than humans.

There are eighty-eight keys on the piano, so there are eighty-eight possible first notes. There are seven thousand six hundred and fifty-six two-note combinations. Six hundred and fifty-eight thousand, four hundred and sixteen three-note chords (mind you, most of those chords would sound horrible, but I'm just talking total maximum combinations here). Add to that possible variations in rhythm and meter and tonal color, and you have virtually infinite possibilities in a single measure of music.

Then, let's take people. Let me choose one at random: Suzu Sakuma.

Okay, I admit, I didn't just choose her at random. But she proves my point: the piano has infinite musical possibilities, while she spends her entire silly lifetime on a single note.

'Kei, let's go get some ice cream!' 'Kei, let's go to Wonder Dog!' 'Kei, play something nice on the piano for me!'

Kei, Kei, Kei.

Did I ever give her permission to use my given name? I can't remember that I did. By all rights, she should be calling me Tsuchiya, but that's the least of her offenses.

She's annoying as hell. She follows me everywhere. She lives in a disgustingly pink world of 'cute' and I strongly suspect she wants to turn me into her pet.

Some of my schoolmates know about Suzu, and they are constantly giving me a hard time about her. 'Ooh, Tsuchiya, you're so lucky to have Suzu Sakuma for a girlfriend. She's such a babe!'

I'll expose the inaccuracies of that statement in reverse order. First: Suzu is not a 'babe.' I understand that there are some men who think she's attractive, but I'm not one of them. Second: she is definitely not my girlfriend. I'm not in love with her, and she's not in love with me. She treats me like a toy because she thinks it's fun to do that. Third: I'm not lucky. Not lucky at all.

If I were lucky, I would have a love of my own, not a pseudo-'girlfriend'.

No, I'm not going to talk about Miki. I know that was an infatuation and not love. I'm disgusted with myself when I think about how things were back then. I'm disgusted that I confused infatuation with love.

But I can wait. I'm sure love will come to me eventually. I just wish that annoying-as-hell Suzu would leave me alone while I wait.

Notes: Going through some old things and found this. I must have written most of this in 2003 or 2004, after having read the Marmalade Boy manga when Tokyopop published it back then.

Then, in February 2005, I cleaned it up and posted it on my LJ.

Today, over 14 years later, I fixed a couple of typos, added a title, and, hey presto! Probably the only piece of Marmalade Boy fiction I will ever write.

Upon reading it after all this time, I'm quite happy with it. Originally, this was intended to be the first part of a longer story, but I'm not very good at writing longer stories, and this actually stands up pretty well as a character piece.

I'm not sure that the word 'edgelord' existed in 2003-2005, but Kei is a pretty good example of one. Fortunately, he correctly gets called out on it in canon. In fact, Miki is kinder to him than he deserves by far.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year!