"You've been coming here a lot."

Tsubaki wiped away her tears. She turned around to see Kaori standing behind her. She was holding a bouquet of red roses.

"You too, right?"

Tsubaki stepped out of the way and Kaori laid her bouquet on Kousei's grave alongside Tsubaki's flowers. Tsubaki's bouquet was larger and full of light red and pink flowers.

Tsubaki chuckled.

"His favorite flowers were always camellias. It was totally strange of him."

Red roses. A typical representation of romantic love. Tsubaki saw them as tacky and superficial compared to her camellias. Kousei and Kaori may have loved each other, but she was the one who knew him best. The thought of Kousei and Kaori together, and her only serving as a nuisance in the way of their true love, hurt Tsubaki. But what was the point of this petty rivalry? Kaori sensed the tension brewing inside Tsubaki and sought to lighten the mood.

"Strange is an understatement! And yet we're both here, honoring his memory. That's all that matters."

"It's the least I can do, even though he let me down! I was supposed to be his guardian angel, after all!"

Kaori felt let down too. The reason she had agreed to undergo the surgery in the first place was to be able to play with Kousei one last time. That jerk had to go off and ruin everything. After such a miraculous recovery from her illness, it seemed like the law of equal and opposite reactions slammed its heavy hand down on the balance and took Kousei from her. In this way, Kaori felt that she owed him her life. However, Kaori had been feeling empty in a strange way. For half of her life, the threat of death had been the impetus for everything she had done. It was why she could play the violin the way she wanted. It was why she didn't give a care about what she ate or what others thought of her. But now that she was healthy, she had the rest of her life to plan for. She wasn't doing particularly well in school. She had no friends outside of Watari and Tsubaki (kind of). She and Kousei were supposed to tackle the world as a duet, but now he was gone. The brilliance of life she had been experiencing as if she was on a drug high was suddenly muffled and monotone like the snow that smothered the graveyard. She felt no motivation or energy for anything. Even so, she believed that it was natural to feel this way after the death of a loved one and that she would go back to normal soon. How long that would take was unknown.

"I never knew you wore glasses, Kao-chan."

"Huh, oh, these? Yeah, I do."

"Do you usually wear contacts?"

"Yes, but I wasn't really feeling them today, I guess."

"I think you look cute in glasses."

"Really? Thanks."

Though she sounded alright, Kaori looked like a mess. Her long hair was all over the place, even getting in front of her glasses. Tsubaki felt twin feelings of pride and sorrow for Kaori's sloppy appearance. Tsubaki had been living like Kousei would have wanted her to, while Kaori had been sulking about like a lost spirit. Tsubaki was the clear winner here, but she felt guilty about it. Something about being happy about seeing Kaori in such a dismal state wasn't right.

"Want to go to a cafe? We can warm up there and talk," Tsubaki suggested. To Kaori, this sounded incredibly boring. They would talk about mundane things and throw thinly-veiled insults at each other. Typical, boring stuff.

"OK," she replied anyway.

"It sounds cheesy, but these recent events have really given me the motivation to study as hard as I can," Tsubaki explained.

"Mhmm."

As Tsubaki raved on and on about her revitalized spirit and newfound fascination for the upcoming entrance exams, Kaori had been sipping away at her coffee and texting Watari.

Tsubaki sure talks the talk! She hasn't even stopped talking for long enough to drink her coffee.

I'm just glad she's been studying! It's not like studying for exams is a bad thing…

I'm surprised she even knows what books are.

Ha. Ha. That's harsh, Kaori.

Perhaps she was being too mean. Nah. If anyone needed pity, it was herself. Kaori smirked and looked at Tsubaki's cup.

"So how are you liking your coffee?"

"Oh, right!" Tsubaki's eyes opened wide. "Oh no, I totally forgot! Guess I got too excited about acing my practice tests. It's an alien feeling to me, you know?" She finally took a small sip. "Dang, it's cold already. Must be the winter spirit. I forgot to ask, how are you feeling about your exams?"

Kaori figured that if Tsubaki ever stopped bragging about her new self, it would be to put Kaori on the spot. She deduced that the point of the question was twofold: to feign interest in Kaori's well-being and to drive the point home that Kaori hadn't had much time to study due to her illness.

"To be honest? Not that great. Even though a lot of the weight for these music high schools are on your performance, academics still matter quite a bit. But I'll do the best I can."

"That's good to hear. Good for you, Kao-chan," Tsubaki responded with a grin.

The slimy way that Tsubaki said "good for you" gave Kaori an unexpected urge to slap her. Never in her life had Kaori had such a spiteful thought like this before. She had slapped Watari previously, but that was out of shock. Looking at Tsubaki's snide expression made her feel things that she didn't want to feel. Kaori quickly pushed the idea to the back of her mind. Besides, thinking logically, Tsubaki could probably kick her ass anyway. Never a good idea to challenge the "gorilla."

Tsubaki had been handling Kousei's passing remarkably well. Too well, in fact. Kaori wondered if Tsubaki was just pretending to be okay, or if she was just bottling up her emotions. It hurt to think about, but Kaori didn't know if her love for Kousei could match Tsubaki's. Kaori saw the way that Tsubaki had looked at him. It was a look so indescribable and yet immediately recognizable. That was true love. However, Kaori had been doing far more grieving over his death than Tsubaki had. Kaori had been suffering for weeks now, and she wasn't getting any better. They actually hadn't talked about Kousei directly since he had died. It was topic that both of them felt they had to avoid in order to preserve each other's feelings.

"So it seems like you're holding up well, Tsubaki. That's admirable. I wish I could be as strong as you."

Tsubaki stared at her, thought for a moment, and shrugged. "I have to be strong for him. It's what he would have wanted."

While it was true that Tsubaki was doing fine now, she didn't take too kindly to Kaori's implication that Kousei's death didn't hurt her. In reality, she was absolutely devastated when she had heard the news. When she had heard that Kousei had been struck dead, she dashed to his house at demon-like speed. She climbed in through the window she knew he tended to leave unlocked and tore the place apart looking for him. He wasn't in his room. He wasn't under his piano. He wasn't anywhere. Without skipping a beat, she jumped out the window and sprinted to school. Even though it nighttime and everyone had left, she didn't lose hope. She infiltrated the school. She searched up and down the corridors. She scoured the rooms. He wasn't in his classroom. Where would he be? Of course, he had to be in the music room. She burst in.

"Kousei!" she yelled.

The room was completely empty, save the lone grand piano and the curtains billowing in the winter wind.

"Kousei…!" she yelled again, this time in pure, soul-wrenching agony.

She fell to her knees and cried as the cold air bit her away at her face. The full moon was casting its silver light into the room and onto the piano. She crawled under the piano and curled up in a ball. She wept and wailed for a long time.

"Kousei… Kousei..."

She hugged the ground and pounded away at it with her fist.

"No! No! No! No!"

In a fit of anguish, she sat up and accidentally banged her head against the bottom of the piano. She yelped in pain and cried even harder.

"Damn it! Why?"

Enraged from the affronting blow to her head, she got out from under the piano and picked up the piano bench with vengeful intent.

"WHY!?"

Tsubaki tossed it full-force at the wall. It smashed into it with a sickening crack. The board hanging on the wall shook along with the papers pinned to it. She picked up the bench again and swung it into the wall over and over again, relentlessly, using it as a giant bat.

"WHY?! WHY?! WHY?!"

Eventually, she had run out of tears and energy. She found herself lying on the ground staring at the bottom of the piano again. She had managed to leave an impressive dent in the wall. She didn't care. The cold had left her numb on the outside, and she was definitely feeling numb on the inside.

"You idiot. You complete idiot. I hope you're happy now," she said with a forced smirk. "I've gone crazy over you. I guess I'm the idiot."

"Thank you for the coffee, Tsubaki. Sorry I have to leave on such short notice."

"No problem. Feel free to talk to me whenever, Kao-chan. My door is always open!"

"Alright, see you later."

"Bye!"

Tsubaki had desperately wanted to talk to someone about Kousei and cry with, but she had to maintain her own appearance. It was only now when Kaori was so downtrodden that Tsubaki realized that Kaori had been the one injecting happiness into their little group. As a result, Tsubaki took it upon herself to take Kaori's place. She would also help Kaori through these rough times, despite Kaori's silent abrasiveness. She was just going through a phase, Tsubaki thought. She'll be back to her normal, joyful self eventually. With a renewed sense of purpose, Tsubaki pumped her fist and made her way back home.

The amount of liveliness in Tsubaki as she pranced off was enviable. After she made sure Tsubaki was out of sight, Kaori pulled out her cell phone. A new message from Watari:

I guess that's okay. My parents aren't home, just letting you know.

Good. She didn't really want anyone else hearing what she was going to say, anyway.

I'll be there in 15.