Azusa Nakano awoke the next morning with the
dream still clear in her memory. Though most dreams
would fade quickly and become only hazy ideas, every
detail of the hospital, and the friends around her,
remained, as if she had created the story within her
conscious mind.
"Who were those girls?" she thought.
She went through the usual routine: she ate
breakfast, brushed her teeth, changed out of her
pajamas into her school uniform and tied her hair into
their neat twin-tails. With a 'good-bye' to her mother
and father, she picked up her guitar and book bag,
and started her walk to school.
"Jun," she asked during their lunch break, "do we
have a 'Light-Music Club?'"
"A what?"
"A Light-Music Club. Light, as in 'not heavy.'"
Jun sipped continuously through the straw in her
juice-box while staring at her friend intently; waiting
for the punch-line of the joke.
"I guess we don't."
"Are you feeling alright today?"
Azusa batted away Jun's attempt to feel her
forehead.
Later, while practicing in the Jazz Club room after
school, Azusa started playing a few chords that were
somehow familiar.
"When did you come up with that?" Jun asked in a
shocked tone.
"Yui-senpai taught me last…" her sentence trailed off
when she realized what she had just said.
"Yui-senpai? Who's she? Does she go here?"
Azusa shook her head, "No…forget it."
"Well, it doesn't really sound jazzy, but I'm sure
there's a song there. I wonder what we could call it-"
"Fuwa Fuwa Time," Azusa stated, matter-of-factly.
"Oh…okay," she hesitantly agreed, "I guess that could
work."
Azusa spent the next few minutes teaching Jun the
chord progression to the tune that was so readily in
her head. They played a little together as the bass
player slowly figured out a good accompanying part.
"No, that's not how Mio-sen–…I mean...that might
sound better as a more driving bass line."
Azusa played the part that she knew by memory and
Jun followed along.
On her way home that day, the girl caught a fleeting
glimpse out of the corner of her eye. It was the image
of a girl with long, blonde hair and wearing a
Sakuragaoka school uniform about to board a train.
She turned to look, but it was gone.