LESSON THIRTY-SIX

Just before the intermission ended, Chiaki rushed back to his seat at the Birmingham Symphony Hall. He was panting and he felt sweat trickling down his forehead, but it did not matter to him at that moment how tired he was.

At least I got this, he thought, glancing down at the bundle of flowers in his hand.

While he was watching the first half of Nodame and Jean's performance, a thought suddenly struck him that going backstage to meet Nodame afterwards would be incomplete without a bouquet of flowers. At first, he believed that it was a rather silly notion. He had never given her flowers during any of her performances in the past, after all. However, something inside of Chiaki told him that he had to bring her even just a simple bouquet. His conscience eventually won him over and the instant a thirty-minute intermission was announced, he hurried out of the theater and looked for the closest shop which sold flowers. When he finally found a florist nearby, he didn't even bother to think about what sort of flowers he would get. All he did was grab a bouquet from one of racks, toss several pound notes onto the cashier's counter, and run back to the concert hall as fast as his legs could take him.

As he took his seat and looked more closely at the flowers in his hand, he realized that it wasn't a very nice bouquet after all. It turned out to be a bundle of pale mauve-colored roses but even though the color was quite pretty, its petals were already shriveled up and appeared to be drooping.

Dammit, he told himself in frustration. If I hadn't bought it at the last minute, I could have gotten a better bouquet.

He sighed heavily as he lifted his eyes from the flowers and looked up at the stage. He saw that Jean was already walking up to the conductor's podium with Nodame following him closely behind. Chiaki noticed a light streak of pink across her cheeks and an odd sort of smile on her lips.

She looks different in comparison to the way she looked earlier. She seems to be happier. . . Did something happen during the intermission?

Chiaki gulped and hoped that Lucas did not plan on popping the question to Nodame that night. He had not run into Lucas yet, but he was certain that the young man whom he now considered as something of a renewed rival was also sitting somewhere in that theater. To even his own surprise, Chiaki found himself staring intently at Nodame's hands as she placed them on the piano keys. He could not see anything glittering on her ring finger. This calmed him a little.

In a second, his anxious thoughts were momentarily forgotten as Nodame and the City of Birmingham Symphony started playing the first passages of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat Major, which was regarded as one of the composer's masterpieces. Its bouncy and cheerful melody made it sound like a typical Mozart piece, though its unpredictable and innovative features set it apart from Mozart's other works. At the time of its first performance, Piano Concerto No. 9 was met with some controversy because it was a unique piece that made a stark contrast to other concertos of that period.

It's a whimsical, even almost capricious, piece that reflects the personality of the pianist herself. It suits her, thought Chiaki as he watched Nodame's head bobbing up and down in time to the brisk rhythm. He couldn't resist smiling upon watching Nodame playfully protruding her lips whenever she played a series of trills.

You better hope that she'll accept your wilted flowers over Lucas's diamond ring, a voice suddenly spoke inside of his head.

Chiaki flinched.

Damn voice, he thought tiredly. And I was just beginning to enjoy the music.

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Chiaki tried not to make himself appear too nervous when he made his way backstage after the performance. He had been thinking too deeply of what he would say to Nodame when he would meet her after the concert that he really did not pay that much attention the music.

And Elize told me she gave me the ticket so I'd actually get to enjoy the music, he said to himself regretfully. Dammit.

He glanced down at the shriveled bouquet in his hand and let out an anxious sigh.

What if she doesn't accept the flowers? he thought, his face wrought with worry as he was walking down a long corridor leading to the dressing rooms.

No! Chiaki contradicted himself. She has to accept these flowers. Damn that hentai if she doesn't.

Chiaki was completely unaware that he was running his fingers through his hair in an effort to make it look a bit neater.

What am I actually supposed to say to her? "I'm sorry for not keeping in touch" or "I missed you" –

"No, no, I can't say that," he muttered hastily.

What about "You did great tonight?"

Chiaki paused for a moment before saying aloud to himself, "That sounds all right. I'll start with that, then."

Should I tell her about how I feel? he thought. Should I try to bring up that subject concerning our relationship again? But how exactly would she react to that? Will she be angry or indifferent?

"Dammit," he said under his breath furiously.

At that moment, he saw a familiar Japanese woman coming out of one of the dressing rooms at the far end of the hallway. When she saw Chiaki walking in her direction, she let out a shriek and ran over to him.

"Chiaki-kun! I can't believe you're actually here!"

Chiaki's eyes widened.

"Ah, Yuko-san," he began, unsure of what to say.

"What did you think of the performance?" Yuko asked enthusiastically. "Jean was brilliant, wasn't he?"

Chiaki made a rather hesitant nod.

"You didn't think Jean was brilliant?!" demanded Yuko.

"I did," Chiaki said at once. "He performed. . . wonderfully."

He hoped his tone of voice didn't betray his impatience to get away from Yuko.

"You have to see him!" Yuko went on. "He's going to be so glad that you came!"

"Who?"

"Jean, of course!" said Yuko, taking hold of Chiaki somewhat forcefully by the arm and dragging him into the dressing room with the words "Jean Donnadieu" written on a piece of paper tacked to the door.

Before Chiaki was pulled into Jean's dressing room, he caught a glimpse of the next dressing room door. Another piece of paper was pinned onto it and it bore the words "Megumi Noda."

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"Have you got all your things ready?" asked Elize.

"Yes, just wait a minute," Nodame murmured. She hurriedly threw all of her belongings into her large black tote bag.

"Hurry up, you'll be late for your flight," Elize went on as she opened Nodame's dressing room door.

"I'll just say goodbye to Jean and Yuko-san," said Nodame, spotting her Gorota hand puppet lying on the table and stuffing it into her already full bag.

"Make it quick," Elize reminded her. "I'll go ahead and find a taxi for you," she added before going out of the dressing room.

A moment later, Nodame also went out of the room. Just as she was about to close the door behind her, she felt somebody lay a hand on her shoulder.

"Hagya!" she gasped, turning around to see who it was.

It turned out to be Lucas, who seemed to be fidgeting with something in his coat pocket.

"Nodame, can I have a word with you?" he asked in a somewhat uneasy manner.

"It's not a really good time," said Nodame quickly as she walked over to Jean's dressing room door.

"Wait!" Lucas pleaded, grabbing the sleeve of Nodame's green plaid jacket. "It will only take a second."

Nodame turned to look at Lucas again and asked, "What is it?"

"I. . ." began Lucas in a shaky sort of voice. He avoided Nodame's gaze.

"Lucas, what is it?" Nodame said. "I need to go now. I have a plane to catch – "

"Marry me, Nodame," interrupted Lucas, this time staring at her straight in the eyes. He slowly pulled out the thing he had been fiddling with in his pocket and showed it to Nodame. It was a small dark blue velvet box.

Nodame's mouth fell open.

"EH?!"

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"How long will you be staying in Birmingham, Chiaki-kun?" inquired Yuko, who was sitting next to Jean on the dressing room couch. "What do you think of having lunch with us tomorrow?"

"Yes, it would be nice to catch up on things," Jean put in with a smile.

Chiaki hesitated before answering, "It would be wonderful to have lunch with the two of you."

"Great!" said Yuko, beaming. "I heard there's a really good seafood restaurant at the Bullring shopping center. . ."

"I'll call you later to talk about the details," Chiaki said hurriedly, standing up from his place on one of the chairs placed in front of the huge dressing room mirror.

"You're leaving already?" asked Yuko incredulously. "You only just got here!"

"I wanted to. . . see Nodame," Chiaki explained, averting his eyes. "I've been meaning to talk to her for some time now."

"Oh," said Yuko quite simply. After a moment, she continued, "Well, she's probably gone already."

"Huh?" Chiaki asked, startled.

"She told us earlier that she was going to catch a plane right after the concert," explained Jean. "The flight's at 1:30 AM."

Chiaki immediately jerked his head in the direction of the wall clock and read "12:24."

"Where is she going?" he asked.

"She's going to attend a wedding in Tokyo," Yuko replied. "I heard the bride's your ex-girlfriend."

"'Ex-girlfriend?'" repeated Chiaki in the same bewildered tone. It certainly can't be Nodame, right? he added to himself, feeling a hint of worry.

Shinichi, you idiot, he argued in his mind. Nodame isn't the only ex-girlfriend that you have.

"Do you mean Tagaya Saiko?" he inquired.

"Nodame didn't mention any names," answered Yuko. "Actually, I thought she would say goodbye to us before she left. . . but she must have been in a hurry."

"Why don't you go and check if she's still in her dressing room, Chiaki?" Jean suggested.

Chiaki nodded and opened the door without another word. However, he instantly closed it again the moment he saw who was standing outside. There were two people standing just a few feet away from Jean's dressing room door. One of them was a woman with a very familiar head of unkempt reddish brown hair whose back was turned to him. The other one was a young man with shoulder-length blond hair who was facing Chiaki, but was too engrossed in his conversation with the woman to take notice of anybody else's presence.

Maybe he's already asking for her hand in marriage right now, he thought.

"Chiaki-kun, are you all right?" asked Yuko.

"Yes," Chiaki replied without looking at her.

After some time, he heard Jean and Yuko talking about their plans for lunch the following day. Knowing that neither of them was paying any attention to him, Chiaki decided to do a bit of his own version of espionage. He slowly opened the door once again, but this time he only opened it partway so that he would only be able to see what was going on outside through a narrow gap. He would certainly not admit it to anyone, but what he saw made him feel as though a dagger had pierced his heart.

"Yes, Lucas!" said Nodame. "Of course!" With that, she threw her arms around Lucas's neck and embraced him tightly.

"If this is what makes you happy. . ." Lucas said, his voice trailing off as he buried his face in Nodame's shoulder.

"Nodame is the happiest person in the world right now!" Nodame put in. Her voice seemed to be choked up in tears, though Chiaki could not tell whether they were indeed tears of joy or sadness.

Chiaki found that he could not take what he was seeing any longer and he shut the door as quietly as he could. He turned around to face Jean and Yuko again.

"Yuko-san, tell me more about that seafood restaurant you mentioned," he said, trying to appear as unruffled as possible even though he was being swallowed up in anguish on the inside.

"Sure, I looked it up on the Internet earlier today," said Yuko. "But are you seriously okay, Chiaki-kun?" she added, seeing a faint glimmer of pain in Chiaki's eyes.

"I'm. . . fine," Chiaki answered in a lifeless tone as he returned to his chair in front of the mirror.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter is quite short, although I tried to fit in as many events as I possibly could. I hope it wasn't that short.

For now, I will only add these two latest chapters to my very long fic because this is all that I was able to write this week. At the moment, I'm only typing this on my mum's laptop (which I "stole" from her just for the time being) and I have to wait another week until I get my new one, so it'll be quite some time before I'm able to get back to working on this story again. Please give me another week or so. Until then, I hope you can wait! ;-)

Your comments are very welcome, as always.