The Students' Third Truth
Hiroki hadn't played piano in years. Most of those classes he took as a kid, the ones he had been so determined not to quit, had waned and disappeared by the time he left high school. The only things he actively kept up with were calligraphy and his Kanji levels; they just seemed like things he should know, being a literature professor.
So, he could honestly say he had no idea why he felt compelled to sit down at a piano in the university music lab and start playing, but he did. Even though it had been years, Hiroki still had the muscle memory, and before he knew it, he was playing all those classical songs that his piano teachers had pounded into his head. It relaxed him, in a way, because it had nothing to do with the lessons that he should've been planning, or the annoying students who had no appreciation for Japanese literature. He had never once questioned being a literature major, but it had been Nowaki who told him he'd be a good teacher, after he had passed both the proficiency exam and the college entrance exams with flying colors.
Hiroki didn't have any classes after that, though, and Nowaki had the evening shift at the hospital, so he just stayed there. The lab was empty; not even a staff supervisor was there. Hiroki briefly wondered why the place was unlocked if there was no one there to watch the equipment, but the music flowing from his fingers distracted him from those thoughts soon enough.
In the middle of the fifth piece, though, his cell phone went off where he had set it on top of the piano, so he stopped and looked. It was a text from Nowaki, telling him he could go home early since the hospital was overstaffed for the evening. Just as Hiroki put away his phone, he glanced over to the entrance of the music lab.
A group of students were standing there, some looking amazed, some looking terrified, and some a combination of the two. At least half the group were students Hiroki recognized from his classes.
"What?" he demanded of them when they wouldn't leave the doorway. Seeing their professor go back to his default mode of 'pissed at the world' seemed to snap them out of it, because they scattered. Hiroki hmphed and picked up his coat and bag.
He'd have to see about getting a keyboard for his and Nowaki's apartment. He'd prefer a piano, but those things were way too big.
For Berry's request. I actually just got JR number four (buying up physical copies with TokyoPop going out of business, you see), which has the first Junjo Minimum chapter so I've been thinking about this, too XD