Chapter 10: "Fairy Tales Do Come True"

If ever there was a candidate for the human form of foot and mouth disease, it was Hihara Kazuki. He was so terribly truthful, so honestly oblivious, so simply Sagittarius, that he often paid the price for it. He wanted to be sensitive to others' feelings, but it was like a bull tiptoeing through a China shop with ballet shoes on, playing a horn. Hihara was Hihara—bright, outwardly friendly, spontaneously fun. Everybody and anybody liked Hihara—except for himself today. For all his spirit and joy, Hihara was also the type to come down hard on himself when it came to hurting others.

He never meant a single bad thing—ever! His heart was made of
sunshine and his smile a rainbow. But today, there was a decidedly
upside-down storm cloud over him in its place. It seemed nothing could be sadder than when Hihara Kazuki was sad.

He had trudged to work that day, after a sleepless, guilt filled night, only to do one wrong thing after another. Accident after accident happened at the mechanic's shop he worked part-time on Fridays,
until they had to send him home early.

So, in such a state we find him, wearing his heart on his sleeve, as he puts on his best face and decides to have a go at being 'OB' for a few hours before donning his waiter's apron at the restaurant, hopefully without further troubles, though with trepidation.

But there were no music students in sight when he arrived. He had forgotten how empty Fridays were for helpful OBs.

"I know! I'll go get my trumpet! Maybe that'll cheer me up! Playing 'Old Silver' always does!" Hihara thinks, as he goes to his locker in the teacher's lounge and picks up his old silver friend. He heads up to the roof and begins to play.

But the tune was a sad one, and all the notes came out wrong. Hihara seemed to find 'Elegy' coming from his mouth whenever he was in this state, and the music proved to depress him even more.

In his mind, he sees flashes of last night's scene replay—from tearful Ayano-chan to Hino-chan's sad retreat, to the angered 'hmph-ing' of Amou-chan, Mori-chan and Mizue-chan...

And then there was Miyabi-chan. Her particular face stood out in his memory. Were those tears behind her bright eyes when she left? Hihara could kick himself if he said something wrong to her, too,
especially.

"I am just so stupid..." He says to the cold winds, leaning against the railing on the roof, letting his sad trumpet fall at his side.

"No, you're not, Hihara-san! Don't ever say that!" A high, squeaky voice protests as a head full of bouncy, purple curls comes from
inside the stairwell, where she was silently watching the tall boy play his sad tune.

"Miyabi-chan?! What are you doing up here? It's too cold for you!" Putting his own problems aside, Hihara's instinct was to wrap the little girl just wearing her Seiso regular student uniform up in his arms, and warm her cold, red cheeks to his orange scarfed chest.

But Miyabi wasn't backing down. She had had just about enough guff from her brothers and her grandmother—she just couldn't take it
anymore from anyone else.

"It is NOT too cold for me, if it's NOT too cold for you!" Miyabi
rebelliously didn't want to be looked down as a child by anyone—
especially not by him.

If he can take it, so can I!

She was so stubborn when it came to being ordered around, and after last night's explosion at both the restaurant and her home after her brother Azuma's shocking email, she'd had had enough of words—her hands turning into shaking fists.

"But!" Hihara was going to put his foot down—Miyabi standing without a coat, without a hat, and she was beginning to tremble,
despite her protestations.

"I have three older brothers already!" She explodes. "I don't need you to be one, too!" She spits out vehemently in hot breath puffs on the school roof's cool breeze.

"I want you to be something more! Why can't you see it? I don't want you to think of me as a little sister anymore! I want you to think of me as a woman!"

There. She said it.

The truth finally came out of Yunoki Miyabi's little upturned mouth. The sixteen-year-old girl on the verge of maturity and longing to be her own woman so badly, she could almost taste it.

So in a very adult-like fashion, she puts on a pouty face, turns on her uniformed heel and turns away, storming down the stairs from the roof at dangerous speeds.

Panting, she runs, knowing he was on her tail, and not wanting him to see her in this state. Miyabi lithely ducks into a practice room and slumps on a piano bench, trying to slow her rapid breathing.

"Miyabi-chan! Miyabi-chan, wait! Miyabi-chan! I'm sorry!" Hihara was acting less like an adult nineteen-year-old graduate and OB, and more like a lovesick student. But he didn't care what he looked like. Miyabi mattered to him—she was always there for him. It was
Miyabi who always shared stories about Seiso and communications with Yunoki with him. It was Miyabi who was always there to giggle at his jokes and chat with him, as she filled in selflessly for him at the restaurant, doing whatever task was necessary, no matter how beneath her rich pampered girl status, no matter how dirty her beautiful little hands had to get.

"Miyabi...chan..." Hihara realized his mistake in calling this young woman, who took on so many responsibilities and tasks, like a little girl. She did it all for him. She wasn't doing it only out of love and duty for her big brother's friend—she was doing it because she cared for him, personally.

Me...Hihara Kazuki...Someone wants me to love them?

Hihara was not used to this new thought. He was the victim of
unrequited love of his own when he was about Miyabi's age.

But when it came to love, age was no barrier. Hihara was looking at Miyabi in a new light, as he intuitively goes right to the correct
practice room she was hiding in, somehow sensing she was inside.

"Miyabi...May I come in?" Hihara knocks, wanting to treat her like an adult and not hurt her feelings anymore and—

"NO!" It was breaking Hihara's big heart to hear her sobs and upset over him and his big dumb mouth as he leans against the door. How could he be such a clod?

She's in there crying...because of me...

"Miyabi-chan!" Hihara couldn't take it. He rushes into the room and falls to his knees. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt your feelings! I didn't realize you felt that way...about me...I've been a fool, about a lot of things." He himself was almost in tears, his voice breaking as he leans his head into her shoulder.

"No, you're not. You're not, Hihara-san. You're the most kind, most genuine, sweetest and funniest boy I've ever known! I couldn't have opened my own shop and learn how to run anything without your help and kindness! You were always there for me, like a big brother. So, it's not your fault." Miyabi bares her soul into whispers in his wet with her tears hair.

"I'm the one who wanted things to change. I just couldn't stop myself...from falling in love with you. When I first laid eyes on you, all those years ago when you and the other boys came to our home to see Onii-sama...I'm sorry..." Miyabi blurts out her tearful secrets, ashamed of herself and her loss of total control. But really, she couldn't help it—emotions were something that came to her easily, unlike her brothers' guarded ways.

In that moment, Hihara hears Miyabi's laughter in his ears, sees in his memory banks when she was up to her arms in soap bubbles, smiles and sunshine. He realizes he wouldn't be able to withstand his busy life without her to lighten the load and help him cheer it along the way, every step he took. She was the one there for him—through thick and thin. Their hearts really were so much alike.

As he looks into her teary eyes, Hihara Kazuki could see a light that burned as brightly as his, straight into his weary heart—making it happy and hopeful again. She relit that fire and purpose with the force of her belief in him. She was a girl who needed his love—who wanted his love. And the faith he lost in himself once upon a time was rekindled to try again...

"'Kazuki,' Miyabi. Call me 'Kazuki.'" He smiles as he lifts his head up, encouraged by her sparkling eyes.

"...Kazuki..." Miyabi wondered if she should pinch herself or just
believe that fairy tales do come true, like she did when she was little, as the two begin a shy embrace. A previously too bashful Hihara lifts her to her feet and gives Miyabi her first soft kiss on the cheek..

Ding dong, ding dong! Poof! Ding dong, ding dong!

Just at this tender moment, the ringing cacophony of bells start donging and dinging throughout the school grounds, as only once
before. Hihara was glad a frightened Miyabi was clinging to him in his arms. After all, she wasn't present at Seiso when last this miracle occurred and it was a bit startling.

Hihara himself wondered what was happening when...

Poof!

"Eeek!" Miyabi squeaks a shriek, scurrying behind the green-haired lad when before her eyes appears a certain reckless fairy bandying a magic golden cord about giddily.

"Hurray! Hurray! Kira Akihiko has agreed! Hurray! Hihara Kazuki! Gather everyone together, you know! We're on our way to the music capital of the world, you know—for Seiso Academy's Graduation
Ceremony! Whooopeeee! Back to the Old World, to spread music around the globe and bring Hino Kahoko and Tsukimori Len back
together with this golden cord of love! Heeeeee heeee!"

"Lili! Tone it down!" Hihara scolds the exuberant apparition as the music fairy makes so much noise, clatter, and blinding lights, that he thought poor Miyabi would be beside herself.

But instead, she was giggling at the sprightly fairy, waving to touch the Fata with open heart in hands.

"She can see me? Of course! Music lives in her heart, too, you know! Joyous day, Hihara Kazuki! Go tell the others we did it, you know! Quick!" Lili couldn't contain his joy, nor his peals of lyrical laughter at the exciting adventure set to music waiting to unfold before them, all for the love of his dear Hino Kahoko and her friends' belief in the power of fairy tales coming true…