Story: Of Eternal Loves
Author: Annalisemarie99
Prompt: Audition
Rating: K+
Character(s):H. Kahoko, E. Kiriya
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Not many people were aware that Hino Kahoko had a rather tempestuous hobby before she discovered her love for music. Dance.
Of course, her gait, her posture could almost be classified as unrefined, and her subtle attempt to keep the grace years of dancing had gifted her off her self had worked so far. Until recently, when her closest friends began to notice the lightness in her walk, the almost-beautiful lilt it had adopted. All after that damn outing to the discotheque.
"18th birthday, Kaho-chan! Not always do you turn 18," screeched Mio, causing Kahoko and Nio to wince, and people to notice the rather loud trio in the café.
"And I thought she would know how to behave coming to a high-end place like this," murmured Nao, glaring at her drink, her wince turning her expression something akin to a hollowed out Halloween pumpkin.
Kahoko let out an exasperated sigh. "Look," she tried, "turning 18 is no big deal. We can always get the chance to go another time. I doubt I will be having any energy left at the end of the day. Seriously! Two auditions that day— "
"And only one to really focus upon, isn't it? Tokyo might sound flashy and nice, but hey, graduate from here, sweetie! You want to stay here as well, don't you?" completed Mio.
Nao let out a grunt.
Kahoko's eyes resembled bullions. "That is suicidal, and you know it!"
Mio answering expression had her re-thinking.
"Late in the night then? Maybe after 10? Kaa-chan wouldn't mind me out so late one day, I guess," Kahoko replied, her voice almost a whisper, her shoulders hunched in defeat.
"Whoa, this place is more up than I thought," Kahoko said, through her teeth, while scanning the crowd on the dance floor. Dog-tired she was, from travelling to Geidai and then back to audition for Seisou's music college's freshman year course to major in the violin. She suddenly craved her warm bed, or her couch, or anywhere that shouted HOME, anywhere except being stuck in a pair of strappy six-inches.
'Ah, well, better make the best use of the opportunity,'Kahoko mused.
'And that was what probably gave me away!'She gritted her teeth on the thought presently, as she entered the empty mirrored studio.
Dance was of course, not at all a tempestuous hobby, normally. Many people pursue dance and music together. But after having trained in ballet, she had moved onto free-style dance, something that had made her realize her true potential and given her a sort of unclassified freedom.
It was what her fellow classmates as Seisou would think, the music majors rather, if they were to find out about her dance styles. They would be nothing short of horrified.
Her first audition had been for dance, not music.
And she had realized that it had given her a lot more guts than she presumed she possessed. It was possibly because of that that she had been able to go and perform in her first concourse in high school. When she performed, she thought of nothing else but the music and tried not to let her shaking legs and newly-formed stage-fright get to her. She had scraped through, somehow.
And had driven to give a better performance next time around.
The moment the club-house feel of the song hit her in the disco, it was an automated reaction. She wanted to dance her heart out.
No hiding it, and for once, she didn't want to think about what other people would think. Especially the fact that free-style involved a lot of hip-hop dancing.
That was the unraveling. And of course, Amou had made full use of such an unwarranted opportunity. As her last article for the school paper, she had put up Kahoko's dancing genius for public scrutiny.
Murphy made a universal law: When something can go wrong, it will.
She had danced that night with Etou Kiriya of all people, who didn't bother to answer her question of him being underage, and pulled her around for a round of sensuous dancing.
"You are good," he admitted, as he twirled them to the smoother beat of the music,"better at this than you are at your feeble attempt to make music."
She opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind, when he silenced her and continued, ignoring her attempt to break their dance, "This is you. I can feel it. With music, you want to emulate someone else or to rise to a level too quickly. It is not good to try too hard and forget your own style while you're at it."
She was dumbfounded. Etou of all people to comment on her style of music…
The rest of her thoughts were cut off by a soft, sensuous pair of lips descending on hers. After what seemed like eternity, feeling more light-headed than any amount of alcohol imbibed earlier could account for, Etou whispered in her ear, "Happy 18th, Kahoko. See you soon."
She had managed to give him a smile, and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't reason with herself for the sudden bleary sight she had when he left.
Yes, that damn dancing had pulled to the surface the grace her walk had been naturally gifted with; unnaturally suppressed for long.
" Ten years of dancing, huh? Wow…Uhm, I, uh, mm, wow…" Kiriya was lost for words, when she met up with him again, taking a walk along the cold beach. Or been forced to meet after he turned up at an ungodly hour one morning a couple of months later, "returning something she had left with him."
"It looks beautiful on you," he said, moving onto another part of their conversation. Kahoko looked at him to find his violet gaze on her, albeit soft. She was wearing his 'Gift' from his earlier visit: an ornate hair clip.
His apparently shameless gaze, which veered into leering, had her cowering and punching his arm. In response, he grabbed said arm and trailed a finger down it, reaching the end to intertwine her fingers with his.
He had been her dance partner since then.
Sometimes he wanted to go out dancing, rarely she, even though she had been a lot more open about her abilities since the discotheque incident.
Sometimes she wanted to classify their relationship. Were they dating? If two people meet each other frequently and like, or atleast bear the other's company, in her case, and grow on to become close and continue on the routine, was that definite criteria?
Kiriya had better thoughts when she had voiced her thoughts to him. "Look, it's not like you and I are old enough to get married or something, so why categorize it as something? I like your company, though love your dancing skills more, and am sure you don't detest me as much, do ya?"
She reciprocated his grin and answered, "No, not as much as before. But…"
"No classification," he interrupted. "Enjoy life for what it's worth, and now be with me, so that one day, some fifteen or twenty years later when you're happily married, or just married, you can think back on this and smile, and know that you have not missed out on anything."
"That's…quite some food for thought."
"Indeed. Ethan Hawke's dialogue, from Before Sunrise."
"Mm. Will catch it sometime."
"You should, it's great. Filled with memorable poetry and excellent dialogues."
Kahoko had no answer after that and pondered over and over her thoughts . After walking for a while, Kiriya gave their intertwined fingers a kiss, and grinned her favourite crinkled-eyed smile. Sometimes he reminded her of Hihara-senpai, especially when he was being nice.
"Seems like I have finally rendered you speechless," he said through muffled laughter. And all thoughts of him being nice were carried away by the autumn breeze.
"Never one for straight answers," she grumbled.
"Silence is rewarding in many ways," he prophesied. His face mocking, his eyes sincere, giving her her awaited answer.
Her next birthday, he had given her a DVD filled with dance tracks, hip-hop, pop, rock, club, French house, and classical greats. It made way to the music system currently, and she pressed the play button, readying herself for some unwinding.
A twirl around. Folding her arms around herself, keeping Physics in her mind unconsciously, getting her pose right and then another one. The singer's music wasn't enough to be classified as relaxing, but perfect for 'danxing', as she called it.
She let out a breath and shutting off the system, Kahoko jumped up to grab her dress bag and violin case and run out to the changing room. Seisou's University's inter college music concourse was due in another hour.
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Note: The music at the disco is Justin Bieber's Somebody to Love. Weird choice maybe, but that boy makes me wanna dance, the one with two left feet. Finally rid myself of exams, I am having a nice time relaxing and enjoying the World Cup. Go Germany! :D
I have an unpaid but more or less satisfying job right now: baby-sitting my cat Phi, and her child Pi. (Yes, Greek symbols; Dad's idea. ;D)
I can tell she prefers me to everyone else in a way because she is sitting beside my woofer right now, drowsy from baby duties. :P
This fic is the entry for this month's contest at the LJ contest comm la_corda_fics. Check out the other fics and entries there. :)