The house was quieter than usual for Mei, if anything the silence would be welcoming since she was always doing work, but now all she wanted was to listen to music. Mei peaked over at Yuzu's desk who was finishing her own homework with her headphones on. The blond tapped her fingers on the wooden desk softly, almost careful enough so that it wouldn't bother Mei.
This was normal. But now Mei was curious as to what kind of music Yuzu liked. She would sometimes overhear the pop idol and newest trending type music playing when Yuzu's headphones were off, but the song that Yuzu was playing was definitely not like that. There was a swing to it.
Mei was never really good with music at least not with understanding it. She probably knew that if she went to a music concert she wouldn't feel emotional from it at all, no matter what song was played.
Yuzu looked up moving one side of head headphone behind her ear. "Good grief. Now I know how you feel when I stare at you." Yuzu smiled and winked.
Mei looked away flustered by the cute blond. "I wasn't staring, I was just zoning out"
"Oh?" Yuzu stood up and walked behind Mei wrapping her arms around her neck. "What were you thinking about?" Yuzu looked over Mei's student council work, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Mei could slightly hear the music coming from the headphones. There wasn't any lyrics, just an upbeat sound.
"What song is that?" Mei asked looking up at Yuzu's green eyes.
Yuzu tilted her head, this was probably the first time Mei had been interested in what Yuzu was listening to while she did her homework. "Huh? Why?"
"Well you're always listening to music when you do your homework, and you seem to do it fine."
"Well music helps with studying a retaining knowledge." Yuzu stated. "It reduces anxiety or stress, especially when you're studying for long periods of time, it can help in your minds endurance."
Yuzu took of her headphones and laid it against her neck. Mei looked back at the blond surprised. "But sometimes there are drawbacks. For example, studies show that when you're doing something like English homework or some sort of reading you shouldn't music to listen to is music with lyrics, otherwise you'll mix up words. And sometimes a person's brain will use music to remember certain things. Like if you study with music, you might need music during your test to recall information. But overall it depends on the person. I like to listen to music without lyrics during English type work, but for math I'll just let my iPod play whatever."
"H-How do you know all that?" Mei asked reaching for Yuzu's head phones.
"Studies are always being done about music. In my opinion they should just let it be." Yuzu smiled and took off her headphone and put it on Mei. "Dreams, by Joakim Karud."
Mei listened to the beats mix with the plucking and strums of an electric guitar? She even heard a bit of a piano playing in the background. Unknowingly she began to tap her foot. It was so upbeat but relaxing. If Mei hadn't seen Yuzu play the piano earlier she wouldn't have thought that Yuzu would be into this kind of music. In fact, at face value, Yuzu seemed to be that type of girl that would fan girl over boy bands and whatnot.
Yuzu began humming the song, even if the headphones weren't on her, she had listened to this song so many times she didn't need to follow along with the song.
Mei sat wide eyed even as the song began to end she wanted to hear more of the guitar playing. Yuzu took the headphones off of Mei. "How'd that sound?"
"I liked it a lot. Is this the kind of music you like?" Mei said turning around to face Yuzu.
"I guess. I like all kinds of music! Jazz, classical, pop, 80's, 90's, Motown, EDM, hardcore rap. I've even listened to 'scream-O' type music." Yuzu giggled and blushed. "If anything,… I guess you could say that my taste in music ranges from 'You need to listen to this' to 'I know, please don't judge me."
"What got you into music?" Mei finally inquired
Yuzu smiled her first concert that she went to with her mother. The lady was playing 'Etude Op. 25 or more popularly known as 'Wrong Note' by Chopin. Probably not the kind of music Yuzu thought she would like, but the activity of the fingers compared to how slow the song sounded had intrigued her. How all the wrong sounding notes could somehow still match
Thus, she began going to her school's music teacher to help her learn how to read music and play it. She never thought of herself as good, in fact that was the last thing that Yuzu cared about, she just wanted to always have her favorite songs at her finger tips.
"I went to a concert when I was young, and this pianist was playing this awful song!" Yuzu laughed. Mei looked on confused. "The tempo was fast, and hard to focus on, but somehow it made the song sound perfect!"
"But isn't piano music usually strict?"
Yuzu sat at the edge of the bed and thought about it. Mei wasn't completely wrong, learning to play the piano was hard for her, and she was constantly being scolded by her music teacher but if there was one thing she learned… "Music is freedom Mei." Yuzu said proud of her answer
Mei gasped softly. It was such a simple answer, but Mei couldn't wrap her head around it. "But wasn't it hard learning to play or read the music?"
"Of course!" Yuzu blushed. "But anyone can learn to play, what's hard is trying to make it more than the score or the notes. Ya know? Like… Like it's easy to speak, but to ya know… get someone to understand without saying anything… Like…." Yuzu babbled "Like… Putting your all into something so that people can understand without saying anything… I… Can't explain it…"
Mei frowned. The whole thing about music and freedom seemed prophetic, but now it just seemed like a mess. Which confused and started to even frustrate Mei that she couldn't get a logical answer.
"Here just put the headphones on again." Yuzu rushed to her iPod carefully looking for a song. Mei watched at how flustered the blond looked, how frustrated Yuzu seemed to be she couldn't get Mei to understand. "Try this out…"
A guitar played softly, it was just a guitar and then a woman began to sing. Mei didn't recognize the singer, and she probably wouldn't even if Yuzu told her the name of the person. The music was loud, and Mei could hear Yuzu singing softly despite that fact Yuzu didn't have the headphones on.
Leave your sorrow on the table
Pick up your worries and throw them out the window
You don't gotta let your friends know
There's so much trouble to get into
Let's go, let go
Let's go, let go
Mei listened carefully to the song listening to the lyrics of the song. There wasn't much to it, if anything it seemed that the singer was just trying to say to just live life regardless of what others say. The song sounded nice, but it didn't sound complicated.
Before she knew it that song was done. Yuzu sat at her desk facing Mei. "Well?"
Mei took off the headphones. "It's a nice song."
Yuzu frowned. "Did you feel anything?"
Mei shook her head. "No, not really"
"You didn't feel like dancing or letting loose or something?"
"Mmm… It sounded nice"
Yuzu sighed. Mei was always so grounded and logical, music on the other hand can be left to imagination. Something that Mei still struggled with since she lived her whole life according to rules. Yuzu hoped that maybe music would be able to help Mei feel something
"It's ok! It's just music. All you gotta do is listen." Yuzu stretched and cleaned her desk. "Let's go to bed babe, it's late and we have school."
Mei looked away. "I have some things to finished first, I'll join you in a sec."
"Mmkay suit yourself." Yuzu climbed into bed. There was a slight uneasy feeling about Mei's reaction to situation. I knew I shouldn't have played that piano. She thought as she fell asleep.
Once Yuzu fell asleep Mei grabbed Yuzu's Ipod and headphones and started listening to her music. Yuzu wasn't kidding when she said she liked all types of music. It had been hard enough for Mei to understand her feelings that she couldn't really handle it properly thus, she caused a lot of pain to her blond lover. But this time, Mei was determined and wanted to grasp this concept and show Yuzu that she's not the robot she used to be when they first met.