My name is Yui Nakamura, and today is my first day at Sakura Valley High. Starting at a new school as a junior is tough—I don't know any of my classmates, but I'm hopeful that I'll make lots of friends!

I set my alarm and got up early. I brushed and pinned my hair and buckled on my shoes. I was about to head into my new class when someone bumped into me! "Ah!" I gasped.

The student who had crashed into me looked like a delinquent. He was tall and had orange hair poufed up in a pompadour. His trousers was scuffed at the knees, and he wore a leather jacket over his uniform. "Watch your step," he said carelessly—not angrily or harshly, he simply didn't care.

He didn't even look at me.

Just because I'm from the countryside, doesn't mean I'm unimportant! I moved to the city last month to live with my aunt and uncle, and I knew there'd be challenges getting adjusted, but I'm not about to take that guy's attitude lying down! "You're the one who crashed into me," I snapped back.

He actually looked at me then, and half his mouth turned up in a little sneer. He'd be cute if he weren't so darn smug! All he said was "Whatever," and it made me so mad. I stomped all the way to class.

My pretty classmate came to talk to me right away. "Hello, I'm class president Aimi Kobayashi," she said. "Your clothes are all rumpled. Are you alright?"

"Fine," I replied. "Just had a run-in with a tall delinquent with orange hair."

Aimi laughed. "Ah, Ashley-san does look like a delinquent, doesn't he? But he's studious, and his grades are good."

"Oh," I said. "He's mean though! He ran into me and just sneered at me."

"Well, Ashley-san can be full of himself. He's student council president. His father is the CEO of Tokyo Energy Management, and he's the heir to the company."

I gaped. "I thought he'd be a rich kid, but that smug jerk is student council president too? Unbelievable."

Aimi laughed. "He's not so bad once you get to know him." But I had my doubts.

After school, I went to look for the band club. I've always dreamed of playing an instrument. To my shock, there was Ashley-san rocking out on guitar! He smirked when he saw me, and I turned to march off. I'll find some other club to join.

"Hey! Wait!" Ashley-san was in the doorway in a flash, leaning on the frame and blocking my way. "I'm sorry. My friends tell me I tease too much. I'm Rich Ashley, by the way. what's your name?"

"Yui..." I mumbled. He was way too close. I took a step back.

He chuckled. "Well, Yui-kun, as it turns out, we're needing a drummer. Ours graduated last year. Think you'd like to learn?"

"Ah, sure," I answered. He guided me over to the drum set with a hand on my back. I sat numbly and picked up the drumsticks. My face felt warm.

"Here." Ashley-san's warm, calloused hands covered my own. "Here's how you hold the drumstick. Keep your wrist loose and try to follow the metronome." My heart was beating so fast that I kept speeding up.

The bass guitar player sighed at me. "She's hopeless," she said. "Why can't you recruit someone with rhythm?"

"I'm sorry," I mumbled. "I'll find a different club." I was determined not to cry in front of these seniors, and I didn't, only my eyes teared up a little.

"That's enough, Makoto," Ashley unexpectedly said. "I have a feeling she's going to be a fine drummer. Don't mind Yoshino-san's pessimistic words, right, Yui-kun?" When he smiled at me, his eyes was unexpectedly soft. "Practice hard, because I'm never gonna give you up!"

- O -

I wasn't going to let the band down. I practiced day and night until my hands were blistered. Our first concert was coming closer, and I'd moved on to more intricate rhythms.

"I was wrong about you. You're doing ok, kiddo," Yoshino-san said.

"Thanks! Ow!" A sharp pain shot through my hand, and I dropped my drumstick.

"Let me see." Rich-senpai's hand looked big holding mine, and I held my breath. I'd covered the blisters with band-aids but they'd slipped during practice. The skin was torn and bleeding.

Rich-senpai shook his head. "No, that won't do at all," he said. Then he turned and walked out without another word!

Had I upset him? "Oh no, I'm sorry!" I wailed to Yoshino-san.

She just shrugged. "Don't worry, kiddo" she said with a rare smile. "He'll be back in time for the concert. He always is."

I hoped that was true! As the hours passed, and the concert drew closer, I grew more anxious. Before I knew it, we were backstage in the auditorium with the whole school waiting.

All my life I'd wanted a chance to perform with a band, and be part of that group that lived and breathed the same dream, with the loud, lively music thrumming through my veins. I'd gotten so close and tried so hard, but now I've ruined everything. I looked down so no one would see my eyes welling up. "I've really disappointed senpai," I murmured.

"Not at all." A calm voice suddenly spoke up behind me, and a large hand landed on my shoulder. I gasped, hardly daring to look. Rich-senpai was there, holding out a pair of soft black gloves. "Here," he said quietly. "Put these on."

The gloves slid over my band-aids and held them in place. They fit perfectly. "Thank you," I sniffled.

"Hey, what's the matter?" he asked.

"I thought you'd gotten mad and walked out on us. On me," I said. I wiped my eyes and blinked hard.

"And leave you in a tight spot right before your first concert? Would I do that to you?" Rich-senpai flashed a grin and a wink. "Yui-kun, I'm never gonna let you down."


I never dreamed my first visit to a music festival would be as a performer! The venue was packed full of little stages, each featuring a different school's band. They all seemed to know Rich-senpai, Yoshino-san, and Mitsurugi-san the keyboardist. I trailed along behind them, starstruck, stopping to listen at every stage.

"Are you coming, kiddo?" Yoshino-san called to me. "Don't dawdle!"

"Ah! Sorry!" Part of me wanted to protest. Just because I'm their junior, and new to the city, that doesn't mean I'm a little kid! But it was also my first time at the venue. I hurried to catch up, pulling my equipment behind me. My duffel bag dragged along the ground.

Rich-senpai doubled back and took the duffle bag from me with a shake of his head. My face flushed with embarrassment. What kind of musician am I if I couldn't handle my own equipment? I'd have to do better.

Being on that stage was a dream come true! It runs in my blood, I think. There's a photo of Mother and Father taped to the inside of my notebook, from before she got sick. They're standing together on the stage, him conducting, and her wearing a sparkling, midnight-blue dress, flushed and radiant with a microphone in her hand. The stage loved her too. I carry it everywhere I go.

The performance was over far too quickly. All too soon, we were packing up our gear and carrying it out to the van. One last speaker sat on the stage. I grunted as I struggled to lift it.

I could do it! I wouldn't hold them back! I took a deep breath and hoisted the speaker onto my shoulder. It was unexpectedly heavy! I stumbled coming down from the stage and crashed to my knees at the bottom.

"Yui!" Rich-senpai was there in an instant. He easily picked me up and carried me to the van.

I avoided making eye contact while he bandaged my knee. "I'm sorry you had to miss the reception on my behalf," I whispered. I hated how often I was out of my depth and ill at ease around these cool and confident seniors. All I wanted was to be part of a group of friends, swept up a in shared purpose with the loud, lively music thundering through my veins. Instead, I was this bumbling kid tagging along at their heels, snotty-faced and on the verge of tears. I buried my face in my arms. "I'll be okay, so please go back to the reception," I mumbled.

"And leave my cute junior all alone? Nah," he teased. He poked at my head until I looked up at him with puffy eyes. "You take as much time as you need, I'll be here. I'm never gonna run around and desert you."


Senpai became more protective after that, almost as if he were looking out for me.

"Don't practice more than an hour at a time," he told me. "You'll hurt your wrists."

Another time, he called out to me in the hall. "Slow down! That section's wet, you'll slip!"

I lost my patience after he ordered for me at the ramen stand. "I'm not a child, senpai," I said frostily.

"Well, pardon me for being responsible," he snapped back.

And the way he said it... It sent shivers down my spine. It called a scene, unbidden, from the depths of my memory: Aiko-chan inviting me to play, when I was a child, and Mother saying no. No, no, always no. We'd have to invite her over in return, Yui-chan, and I'm not strong enough for it. I'd begged and pleaded. You have to think of your mother's health, Father had said. Please be responsible.

More and more memories came flooding through my mind, like a pot boiling over: It's not safe. We want the best for you. The yearning and the loneliness and the miserable ache came pouring out, scalding me and enraging me.

"I am responsible," I gritted out. "I've been responsible all my life. I've been safe and responsible, a good little girl, and look at me now! I can't order at a ramen stand without getting flustered and confused. If you want to help me, please, please let me live!"

I sounded petulant even to my own ears, but these was the only words I had. I know I seemed horribly immature bursting into tears and running away. Childish. The child I couldn't stop being.

Senpai found me far too easily.

"Guess even my hiding place is childish," I sniffled from the corner of the band room.

"Well, it's cute that this is where your heart takes you," he said quietly, sitting next to me. We sat side by side, a stillness settling between us.

"Sorry," I said after a while. "I shouldn't be so rebellious. You're just trying to help me."

"No, rebellious is good," he said. "Why else would you have taken notice of someone who looks like a delinquent?" He winked, and I flushed again.

"I'm the delinquent," I admitted. "I ran away from home. I stole from Father's wallet for the train ticket, and came to find my aunt and uncle. I was so unhappy that they let me stay. That's all I can do: run from my problems. I'm a coward."

Senpai was silent for a long time. "You know what I think?" he finally said. "I think they let you stay because they admired your resolve."

I turned to him, suddenly hopeful. "You think so, Senpai?"

"I know so, and I'll remember it. Starting today, I'm never gonna make you cry."

- O -

He broke that promise the very next day!

I received the call in the afternoon, during practice. "Please come home," Father said. "Your mother is worried sick."

"Father..."

"Don't make excuses, Yui. You'll kill your mother if you stay."

It seemed so unfair! I wanted to plead my case, or at least explain, but what could I say? This is what I care about more than Mother's life?

It all sounded callous in my head. I would always be the villain no matter what. Furious tears sprang to my eyes. I threw the phone across the room and shattered it.

"What's the matter—" Senpai started to say, and as usual, I didn't let him finish. I stood quickly and fled blindly down the hall, and went straight to the station and took the next train back to my hometown.

I hadn't even said good-bye.

I was, and always will be, a coward. A callous, crying coward.

I hadn't been home two full hours when Rich-senpai turned up, disheveled and out of breath. He had a bouquet of daffodils in his hands, and his guitar slung to his back. He stood outside our house throwing rocks at the windows, of all things.

"What are you doing here?" I asked from the doorway. I couldn't bear to look at him, standing there like the reminder of the life I couldn't have.

"You didn't say good-bye," he replied.

I tried to say it then, and the words stuck in my throat.

He smiled, an odd, happy little gleam in his eye. "Perhaps it will help if I say it first," he suggested. "But first, I want you to hear a song."

Without waiting for an answer, he handed me the bouquet. He slung the guitar off his back and quickly tuned it. He struck a chord and began to sing. "It must have been cold there in my shadow, to never have sunlight on your face..." His lovely voice drifted through the air and wrapped around me, smooth and melancholy. I thought of my classmates running by in the sun while I watched from a darkened window, Mother's shadow standing guard over me. I hoped that Mother was hearing Rich-senpai's song.

"Did you ever know that you're my hero? You're everything I wish I could be. I could fly higher than an eagle. For you are the wind beneath my wings."

As he sang, the scenes in my mind began to change. I closed my eyes and remembered: Her gentle hands turning the pages as she read to me. Her figure at the oven and the smell of cinnamon bread in the air. Her laughter and her warmth. The photo of her, beautiful and triumphant, up there on that stage.

I was crying by the time he finished, and when I opened my eyes, she was there in the doorway, her own eyes bright. "How did you know?" she breathed.

"Yui's photo," Senpai answered.

It was Father who unraveled this strange conversation for me. "That was the song your mother sang, the night I conducted her at Tokyo Symphony Hall," he explained.

The symphony hall... the photo... suddenly it clicked. "You found that performance," I gasped in amazement. "You chose this song... for her."

Senpai nodded. He turned to Mother and bowed down, pressing his forehead to the dirt, and my chest was filled to bursting. "Please allow Nakamura-san to return to Sakura Valley High School," he said formally. "She is an indispensable member of our band."

She seemed to be remembering something herself: her face was happy like she'd been in that photograph. I held my breath, hardly daring to hope.

At last, she nodded. "I see you've found some dear friends, Yui-chan," she said with a rare smile.

"What would you have done if they'd said no?" I asked Rich-senpai on the train ride back.

"I would have tried again," he answered. "I'm never gonna say good-bye."


I couldn't get Senpai out of my mind after that! He'd followed me to my hometown and serenaded me before my parents, so surely it had to mean something?

"Oh yeah," Yoshino-san said. "He's crazy about you."

But why would he be? He's got everything in the world, and I'm, well, I'm me.

I flinched when an eraser bounced off my face. "Stop overthinking it," Yoshino-san told me firmly. "Just tell him."

"Tell me what?" Senpai asked, walking into the room at the worst time.

"Go on," Yoshino-san said to me, prodding me forwards.

"Ah, I, umm," I stammered.

When Senpai looked at me, his eyes were kind. Slowly, quietly, he began to pluck out a rhythmic melody on the guitar. He paused to hand me a microphone. "Try singing it," he said gently. "It's easier if you sing."

Hesitantly, I took the microphone. The quiet melody resumed. "Do you think about me when I'm far away?" I sang. "Do you dream about me? Can I find a way to make you want me the way that I want you? 'Cause I think I love you. Could you love me too?"

He smiled then and took the microphone from me. "Take me to your heart. Never let me go. For your love... for your love is all I need to know."

When the last note trailed off, he took my hands and pulled me into a sweet, shy kiss. I was lost staring into Senpai's eyes until a slow clap startled me back to the present. Yoshino-san was grinning widely, and even Mitsurugi-san looked pleased.

"Good work, kiddo! This song will be a big hit," Yoshino-san said.

"Where would we be without Yui?" Senpai said, throwing an arm around me.

There was just one more thing I needed to know. "Is it true? Did you mean any of what you sang?"

Senpai's eyes sparkled. "Every word of it," he answered. "After all, I'm never gonna tell a lie and hurt you."