La Corda D'Oro Terzo Passo

With the fondest gratitude to my first FOUR (it was three last time and I slapped myself stupid afterwards) reviewers who I shall recognise by name: Thyst17, Hercolanium and my two anonymous Guests, I present to you all...

Opus II

~Stay~

He signed the approval notice with a flourish of his pen, noting that the documents were very much legalised as much as the appointment of the president of Japan.

Len Tsukimori was definitely staying. Upon arriving in Vienna a few days prior to seeing Kahoko again, he wasn't entirely sure whether just seeing her was incentive enough for him to stay.

What a joke, he thought to himself with a slight shake of the head. Of course just seeing her would have done the nuts and bolts of the fickle construction of his thinking. Seeing Kahoko was more than enough, whether she almost gave up on him and even with herself.

Len sighed and briefly closed his eyes, allowing a small smile to form on his lips. Kahoko would never have given up. He knew it then and he knew it now. She may say the most idiotic things at times, but who can blame her?

Even he had said several rash and unforgiving words not just to her but the entire faculty of people he had come across in his lifetime and by no means did he not think about them much and would non-admittedly wallow in his guilt from time to time. Human nature. And Kahoko wasn't exempted from that either.

That as a reason also attracted Len profoundly. Kahoko was kind, she was sweet and very caring, and though she may be naive, she doesn't allow people to get the better of her. She may be pressured to think otherwise and would, at some point, almost give up on herself – the famous incident after the second selection was proof of such – but it was still not enough to fully destroy what she values the most.

Kahoko Hino was someone special. She loved like no other, cared like no other. No one really deserved her. Tsuchiura, Hihara, Yunoki and even Shimizu may in a way deserve her. After all, they all treat her with such kindness and such respect, and that was ever since the Concours even began, and possibly even before that; that was true for Tsuchiura at least.

And yet he, Len Tsukimori, managed to win her heart, her affection, her love. Oftentimes he thought he may just be really in some sort of lucid dream where the most maniacal of fantasies came true. However, he knew, that the way she would glance at him whenever they would meet in the school grounds and sometimes out, told a completely different story.

Hino Kahoko was truly his. No matter how bad he had treated her in the beginning, how hurtful and angry he had been towards her, she never said nor shown a shred of anger and justification for herself with deserving someone better, whenever she was with him.

She only showed him love and love, really, was all that he needed from the very beginning.

Len did a final scan over all the papers before deciding to rid of them as soon as possible. The sooner the board knew of his decision, the ample time he had with the explanations and the congratulatory greetings, not that he really cared anyway.

Seisou may be of a very high standard as a music school, but sometimes the exposure can be pretty suffocating. They better accept his terms, especially since they (and its dastardly snooping Journalism Club) were the ones responsible for all the chaos in his current high school life.

An abrupt knock came shortly after, diverting his thoughts from a certain blonde-haired nuisance. His mother entered then, dressed in prim formal attire, freshly ironed and as crisp as autumn's first fallen leaf.

"Ah, Len, so glad that you're here," Misa Hamai said with a smile. "Your father and I thought that we should talk about your stay here in Japan tonight after the concert. We were supposed to do it yesterday, howev-"

"Everything's all arranged, mother," Len interrupted. "You don't need to worry about anything."

"Oh?" Misa Hamai glanced at her son curiously. Len sure looked too content for her usual knowing.

"I spoke to father earlier on the phone just before you came in," Len continued. "He told me to do what I think is best. And I believe that staying in Japan is. Everything's finalised. I'm finishing high school in Seisou."

Misa Hamai smiled. She was more than happy to know that her son really was going through with his plans of staying. The papers on his desk were most likely the documents that the school sent him about his continuation. She was also almost too certain that one of those opened folders contained the signature of approval from the coordinator of the Vienna Institute of Music, regarding the sudden cancellation of his studies abroad.

It didn't matter. Len was extremely talented and she was positive that more and more extravagant doors will open for him, especially now that his music spoke not just through his sheer, perfect talent, but through his warm, loving heart.

Misa Hamai smiled. It was all too obvious that her son's stay had nothing to do with what the Music Department in Seisou offered, as harsh as it sounded, or even the limited albeit astounding offers that Japan's Music Industry offered. And though all parents are obliged to make sure that their children's futures would be a bright one, she was more than willing to accept the real reason behind it all, since she was really, more concerned with Len's happiness.

And she knew unequivocally and without a shadow of a doubt that it was all because of a very favoured former Concours participant by the name of Hino Kahoko, whom she herself, had grown very fond of.

Since the last chapter was more about Hino, of course Len needed to have his time as well.

In the next chapter, the musicalities and trivialities of the lives of our musical geniuses shall begin!

Onward we march!