"Sing for me then,
since you like it so much."
Chapter 3
-a clichéd image
After her bizarre encounter, Haruka stood there, just inside the doorway, looking around. It was a very dark room, except for a few shafts of light coming from very high windows. She wondered why the light couldn't penetrate the darkness, but finally decided nothing at this school was exactly normal. She then spotted a piano in the center of the room.
Without thought, Haruka sat down on the bench and ran her hands along the smooth black lacquer. Her finger hit one key; the sound permeated the dark room. Two keys, a triad, a melody, a harmony. She played.
It was a simple piece, one she had often played while thinking. It had been a long time since Haruka had really played. Suddenly she stopped, and began anew, this time playing a more difficult piece, but slowing it down, dragging out the chords, adding little flourishes here and there, relishing in the rich sound. She repeated sections that caught her fancy and manipulated the sound, changing major chords to minor, then resolving only after a grueling pause, or not resolving at all, filling a person with the sense of imperfection, of longing.
Michiru stopped looking for new music and looked to the door she had left ajar, struck at the raw, cold, emotion coming from the next room. She hadn't heard anyone enter the music room. Slightly confused, and overwhelmed by the music, she leaned up against the door jam leading into the main room. Her eyes closed involuntarily as wondrously dark diminished chord was resolved into the tonal center. "Such a sweetly depressing sound," she murmured to herself. "Who are you to make such a sound? Who…" She turned her head and looked out into the large room.
A beautiful man seated at the grand piano, blond locks whipping around his closed eyes as he bent over the keys fully taken in by the sound.
Michiru didn't know which captured her more just then, the music, or the figure. She stepped into the room slowly, approaching from behind, not wanting to disturb him. She stopped just out of a shaft of light, not five paces away from Haruka.
Haruka let the final notes die out, not letting up on the foot pedal. She sighed and sat up straight, letting her head hang back. That's when she noticed Michiru's presence. She turned slightly on the bench to look at her voyeur. There eyes locked in silent understanding. Then they heard clapping.
"Bravo! Well, my Michiru, it seems you've made a new friend." A man dressed in the white uniform of the student council walked into the room. Haruka said nothing. She just turned her attention now to the man.
My Michiru, she thought. Michiru…
"But come now," he gestured to the aqua haired woman. "There's a student council meeting in the tower." The man wasn't looking at Michiru, however. He was looking at Haruka, with a peculiar expression on his face. Only when Michiru was almost out of the room did he smile and turn to leave also, a long pony tail swinging in his wake. He stopped just inside the door. "My name is Seiya." He half turned back towards Haruka looking at her sideways.
"Haruka," she stated without thinking.
"Haruka…" he thought for a moment, then laughed a bit and left.
Haruka absently hit a key, lost in thought.
to continue
AN: resubmitted this, found some errors and I had ranted a bit in the previous version...