AN: Konnichiwa, minna-san! This is the second Bleach fic I've written, and so will hopefully be more in character. However, as it is a sequel of sorts to 'Of bicycle lessons and ice-cream', it is still AU and therefore has nothing to do with soul society. But unlike the aforementioned one-shot, this one should hopefully be a longer fic, although definitely under ten chapters long.

Age-wise, Hinamori is seventeen in this fic and Hitsugaya is around fifteen/sixteen. I'm not sure about their exact age gap, but in my little secluded world, she's not that much older. As with 'Of bicycle lessons and ice-cream', I've decided to leave out the romance for the time being. As much as I love HitsuHina, I've never written any romance before and I don't want to ruin everything with badly written kissing scenes or anything of the sort. I leave the rest up to your imagination. -wink-

This story was inspired by a Korean series called 'Winter Sonata'. When I first watched it, I gasped, pointed, and hollered, "That's SO HitsuHina!" Thus, here we are. I know it may seem really odd because piano lessons and radio club have no relation to each other whatsoever, but it's sorta two drabbles mixed in one. And they will tie in together at the end, I promise. -beams-

Before we go any further, I'm going to take the time now to explain the system of schooling that's in this fic. I'm not sure about how high schools run because I'm British, but I'm basing off what happens in China. Basically, at the end of middle school, there are regional exams that all students are required to take. But the results of these national exams affect the high school you can go to. Judging by the spread of results, a table is drawn of number the marks you have to have in order to enter a certain high school. So basically, the higher your mark, the better the high school you can go to, and the wider choice of schools you can choose from.

Hitsugaya essentially gets a really high mark, is able to go a fantastic school, and yet chooses to go to the same one as Hinamori which is not as good. Also, the high schools are numbered instead of having names, though not necessarily in order. So, number eighteen could be the best academic school for all we know.

Summary: Five years after the bicycle lesson incident, Hinamori gets to repay the favour by teaching Hitsugaya how to play the piano. And though he has no interest in media whatsoever, he decides to attend the radio broadcasting group with her just to make sure that somebody is able to keep an eye on THAT Kira and Abarai.

A first time for everything

I – Prelude

When Hitsugaya Toushiro first entered the gates of high school, (which incidentally just so happened to be the exact same one as his next door neighbour went to) it came as a shock to him that all students were required to attend some sort of school club or association as a way of socialising. Since when was he interested in being social? He had barely given his choice in high school any thought, immediately signing up for the same one that Momo had been going to even though his high exam results enabled him to attend one that was better academically. It was like a way of life, a given fact that he was going to go to the same school as she did.

"I'm not," was his reply when questioned as to which kind of activity he wanted to participate in.

"But you have to," insisted Hinamori, waving the list of clubs frantically in front of him. In his opinion, she was practically flapping her arms. Eyeing her coolly, he stubbornly folded his arms.

"I don't care. I'm not interested in extra-curricular activities."

"It's compulsory, Hitsugaya," she retorted, upholding her promise to call him by his surname once he started to attend the same school. Besides, it was more formal and therefore had more of a feeling of authority to it than 'Shiro-chan'. "The list is huge; there must be something that appeals to you on here. Sports? Football, badminton, tennis? Or something within the arts? Music? I'm part of the group who does the radio broadcasting for the school, so you can come do that with me if you're worried about being stuck in a room full of strangers."

"Radio," he raised an eyebrow, his expression plainly stating that that was the last thing he wanted to do. A man of many words, he was.

Sighing, she allowed the list of activities to fall onto the table with a little 'flop'. "Don't look at me like that. It's not that bad, honest. A lot of it is just playing some popular or significant music during breaks, and they're punctuated with perhaps some news, thoughts, things like that. It's not as if it's some sort of proper radio station that's broadcasted across the entire town. Just for the school. Kira-kun, Abarai-kun and I have a lot of fun doing it. You should join us."

Though Hinamori, as oblivious as ever, did not notice anything different in Hitsugaya's posture, it was obvious that he had tensed when she had spoken the names of those two. "Did you just say Kira and Abarai?" Well, that was something that she had conveniently forgotten to inform him about. Though he was vaguely aware of the fact that the three ended up going to the same high school, he took it for granted that the three of them, like any other group of friends, would eventually break up after a while. Most people found a best friend at the beginning of their school life, but by the end of it would barely speak to said person at all unless some sort of coincidence took place.

"Yeah, we do the broadcasting together on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fri-"

"I'll do it." There was no way that he was going to allow her to be in the same room as them. Alone, no less.

"-days-eh?"

"I'll do that whole radio thing with you." And before she could shower him with hugs and tell him how fun everything would be, he quickly added, "But I refuse to do any talking."

"Sure, sure," she grinned, giving him a little pat on his head. "Well, it's pretty much something governed by students who are interested, so I don't think there'll be any problem with you attending. Monday, first break, don't forget. You're allowed to bring food with you, but not when you're on air or inside the studio. Anyway, I'll be going home now; just wanted to make sure that you signed yourself up for something sensible. Bye bye, Shi-ro-chaaaaaan!"

Making sure that he caught every syllable, Hinamori giggled and danced out of his bedroom. She heard a thump against the door after she had closed it, meaning that she had once again successfully dodged one of his many pillows. Score. "Ten to one, Shiro-chan, ten to one!" she sang, practically feeling his scowling at the back of her head, and then wisely deciding that it would be best to run home before he unleashed his wrath upon her.

And so the next day, it was a very grumpy and disgruntled Hitsugaya that Hinamori dragged towards the so-called studio. Reminding himself that he had damn well asked for it, (after all, it was a rule that Hinamori was not allowed to be alone with those two in the same room) he decided to get a grip. What on earth was he worrying about anyway? Playing music couldn't possibly be all that hard; just stick the record in, press play, et voila! And he'd probably do perfectly well with the 'chatting' part if he had a rough script to guide him. Well, whatever; as long as it looked good on his university application, anything goes, he guessed.

Following Hinamori into the room, he noted that there weren't too many people present. Five or six, perhaps? They all seemed pretty comfortable at any rate, draped over couches, some on the floor. Obviously this activity wasn't particularly popular. A good thing, he supposed.

"Good morning, everyone!" Hinamori beamed, receiving a couple of greetings in return. Glancing around the room, she added, "We don't seem to have many newcomers, do we?"

"Dude, no idiot wants to give up their lunch hour to play music that nobody pays attention to," answered Renji, making no effort to stifle a yawn. "So, who's the new kid?"

"Ah! You know him, Abarai-kun; he's that neighbour that I talk about. This is Hitsugaya Toushiro, and he's interested in joining us this year. Seeing as we don't really have much of a change of members from last year, it'll be easy to slot him in." Still smiling, she nudged the boy in the small of his back, earning her one of his usual glares.

"Hitsugaya Toushiro. Pleased to be working with you," he added as an afterthought. And that set off a chain of whispers around the room.

"That Hitsugaya?"

"The child genius?"

"The one who came first in the high school exams? Wasn't he all over the newspapers at one point?"

"What the hell is he doing here? Shouldn't he be in Eighth or Twentieth or something?"

Well, hello to you too, he thought blandly. I was going to wave at you losers, but now I'm going to deprive you of that honour.

"Huuuuuuh?" commented Renji in what seemed to be an uninterested manner. "It's that kid? Wow, he's grown. A little bit. Still pretty damn short though. I didn't know you were the type who liked to project his voice across a several hundred metres."

If Hitsugaya was a nicer person, he might have given the elder a grateful nod. Instead, he answered with an, "I'm not."

"And I don't think you're that fond of music either."

"Nope."

"Play a musical instrument or anything? Or at least understand something about it?"

There was a pause. And then – "I don't have to answer that."

"Hahaha, good luck, Toushiro."

"It's Hitsugaya to you."

"Whatever." Stupid boy really didn't look up anything about the school before he just pranced in here, did he? Wait 'till he finds out that this is an arts-centred school.