Disclaimer: 'La Corda D'Oro Primo Passo' is not mine and sadly, shall never be.

--

Hino Kahoko has never been speechless in her life.

That is, not until now.

Words seem like foreign objects in the commotion of her mind, as she attempts to comprehend the meaning of her and Len's state, and Tsuchiura's reaction. Eyes impossibly wide, her mouth slightly open, she stares at the door. And then at Len.

Which turns out to be a big mistake, because seeing Len turn a bright red makes her blush in turn. Len immediately turns away, muttering under his breath as he awkwardly rubs his hands. Hino manages to catch drifting sentences like, "...obviously misunderstood...", "annoying...".

Len. Cold, rather condescending, prodigious Len. Len leaning towards her, Len's warm breath on her face, Len calling her by her real name. And then, Tsuchiura coming in and seeing them together like that.

Hino pinches herself hard, and the sharp jab of pain dispels her doubts of being in a dream.

She has never, ever felt so embarrassed in her life. Her eyes deliberately avoid Len, staring at the interesting pattern on the carpet under her feet. Her mind is in a whirlwind, hands feeling the heat on her face. Hino wants to shake her head uncontrollably, and try to make sense of the events that have happened.

Her mind can't take the pressure, and she jumps onto her feet, wanting to escape more than anything else.

"I-I," Even talking to Len seems so difficult. "I'll...go and explain everything to Tsuchiura," The door shuts.

Hino lets out a sigh, her back leaning against the door. An unusual feeling in her stomach, and varied emotions coursing through her body, she closes her eyes in disbelief and thinks back. Everything that happened today...

Len. She shakes her head in incredulity. "What in the hell is wrong with the world?" She asks aloud, not to anyone in particular, but just to let the feeling out. The feeling of being shocked, of being embarrassed, of being uncomfortable, of being so, so... she can't find words to describe her state.

"Hino?" Hearing the familiar voice, Hino opens her eyes. Tsuchiura, standing a few feet away, looks worriedly, and a bit strangely at her.

Her thoughts waver. She stands undecided for a moment, her mouth opening and closing, before she decides to get on with it.

"Look, Tsuchiura-kun, whatever you saw-"

Their eyes meet accidentally. It's something in his eyes, a defiant kind of anger, which wills her to stop. She does, rather frightened by his look.

To Hino, it seems like a figment of her imagination. The long silence makes her uncomfortable, but she doesn't speak a word, scared by the sudden change in Tsuchiura. Something, she knows, is wrong. Tsuchiura is not his usual calm, steady, thoughtful self.

The silence is almost deafening.

"Do you like him?"

One single question is uttered, and it's so sudden that it catches Hino off-guard. She blinks, the meaning of his question still to dawn on her. It does, finally.

"Why did you ask me that?" She asks slowly, her mind repeating each word.

"Your violin." Both musicians turn around to see Len standing at the door, Hino's violin held out. Hino does nothing but blink at him, her face turning a bright red. Finally, Len is forced to shove it at her.

The atmosphere is intense, the tension palpable.

Hino mutters a soft thanks, a quick glance at Tsuchiura. All the three of them stay there, none looking at the other.

Not that it stays for long.

The silence is quickly disrupted. Len demands an explanation from Tsuchiura for his interruption but quickly dismisses the excuse. It evolves into a heated exchange, and not wanting to hear anymore, Hino announces her leave and quickly hurries away.

But as she closes her eyes momentarily, waiting along with other commuters to cross the road, she worries.

Tsuchiura's strange behaviour? It doesn't make sense to Hino. But then again, Len forgetting himself and getting that close to her, or his acting so nice with her doesn't make any sense either.

iAnd the way she acted?/i

"Ah!" Her bag just slips off her shoulder, without any reason that Hino can think of, and her practice books fall down. She kneels down, hurriedly gathering the papers as she realizes that the signal for pedestrians has turned green.

iHer actually thinking, no, fantasizing about his face./i

It's just because he's attractive, admits Hino in an attempt to defends her self. It's not all her fault, she thinks, trying to steer away embarrassing thoughts she does not want to face.

Instead, she chooses to concentrate on the things originally bothering her.

Namely, Len's sudden gentleness with her. Did something happen to him? She wonders. And him calling her by her real name; it still generates that element of shock in her. Did he let it slip that out by mistake?

The questions pour into her confused mind. But a devastating thought crosses her mind, hoping to answer these questions:

Is he, by any chance, in love with her?

Wait, she realizes. What on earth am I thinking?

Her eyes suddenly focus on the sheets of music lying beneath her. They're all in a mess. Letting out a forced laugh for the benefit of curious onlookers, she quickly gathers all the papers and stuffs them into her bag.

In love with me? She asks herself. That can't be true, she knows, her mind must really need some rest. Hino can't believe her mind's attempts at humoring herself.

Yet, a familiar blush arises on her face, although for different reasons than before, and Hino cups a hand to her mouth. She tries to remove the embarrassed look from her face.

Len Tsukimori is in love. With her?

She tries hard to ignore the feeling that courses through her at the upward turn of her lips.

--

Exams -- are they even a valid excuse for not updating regularly? Not promising that I'll be fast next time, what with my 10th grade board exams coming up (imp. exams - i'm being forced to study here, okay? D;) and the rest of the RL stuff.

So I know this chapter was a bit fast-paced and rather useless, but I'm hopefully clearing up most of the characterization stuff and clearing up for the mistakes in the last chapter. Which was, okay, a real mistake to write. Guess I'll find some way to deal with the other huge holes in it in the next chapters... (Moral of the story: THINK before, after and when you write)

And this staying a humour fic? If you haven't guessed by now -- sorry, but I can't really write humour D: I always knew that, but I still wanted to try. And I failed (not much of a surprise, that. I can't write ANYTHING but angst :cries:). So to everyone's who's actually reading this fic: you can forget about me now. I can't say that this fic will be angsty and all, but it's sure to be deep and all fluffy fluff/boring.

I KNOW. I do need help with my formatting and other stuff D: (yesh i talk too much forgive me plz? ..)