La Corda D'Oro Terzo Passo

I deeply, deeply, more deeply than the abyss of Hades (god of the Underworld) APOLOGISE for this despicably late update. I know you all basically think me revolting as of now, but I just could not fit it in with my absolutely busy schedule!

In fact, it's so busy, I couldn't even catch up with a best friend! I reckon that's bad itself. But allow me to bore you no more and continue on...

Opus VI

~ The Yunoki Dilemma Part 1~

"Have you decided on a song for the recital, Kaho?"

The red-haired shook her head.

"I guess I haven't really thought much about it until Mr. Saotome reminded me before class yesterday," Kahoko yawned. "I'm just so tired."

"You've been working with Fuyuumi-chan for the last couple of days, haven't you?" Mio asked. Kahoko nodded.

"Just need to print out the invitations tonight," Kahoko replied. The three girls sat at one of the cafeteria tables with the violinist's eyes drooping every five seconds. Mio and Nao looked at each other in worry.

"How about we take care of the invitations and you take the time off tonight?" Nao offered.

"Yeah, Kaho," agreed Mio. "You look horrible! And remember, we have an assessment paper due this Friday and you told me you haven't started on that yet."

Kahoko smiled sleepily at her friends but her gratitude was obvious in her eyes.

"Thank you guys," she said with another more pronounced yawn. "I think I'm going to go and take a quick nap. Wake me when lunch is finished."

The rest of the day was uneventful for Kahoko. She attended her classes with the facade of a perfectly normal student. She pretended to take notes and nodded every time the teacher would glance her way when in fact, she endlessly scribbled Lili's face as she tried to imagine him.

At the end of the day while she fixed her shoelace on the already empty hallway, Len approached her, offering to take her home.

"Len-kun," she said in mild surprise. The blue-haired held his hand out.

"Thanks,' she said as she was helped up. She dusted off her skirt and grabbed her violin with Len leading the way out. They walked in a snail pace, admiring the casual atmosphere between them. Though it hadn't been long since the awkwardness and the guilt-tripping tension surrounded them both whenever they were together, the sudden contrast between then and the atmosphere now was a change they both welcomed.

Kahoko didn't need to act to impress Len anymore. He made that clear when during their first date, he grabbed her arms, turned her to him and looked her directly in the eyes. She felt his message...along with his holding of her hands which was the main catalyst for the breaking of the tension.

She surprised him in so many ways she just couldn't keep up. Often she simply just gave up and rode along. Len was new and exciting and she has him all to herself.

"Which reminds me, I haven't told him about my little chat with Amou yet," she thought. She cleared her throat.

"I uh, talked to Amou by the way," she began.

"Hm,"

"It was a very..." she paused, trying to find the right word to say. "...long conversation."

Len continued walking, his eyes, watching a bird fly past. "Was it?"

"Yep," Kahoko replied. She remembered that Friday night all too well. Amou had intercepted her before she could turn on the next intersection to go home. She was dragged halfway across suburbia in a quaint little cafe whose owner knew Amou (apparently they were family friends) who gave them discounted fries and free drinks throughout the night. It would've been a perfect chilled start to the weekend if Amou had controlled her raging emotions towards a particular subject Kahoko herself was embarrassed to have taken so long to have explained.

Amou's enraged face registered in her mind and she shook her head.

"What the bloody hell is up between you and Tsukimori, Kahoko!" she exclaimed, exasperated by not knowing for a good two days and being avoided for almost two and a half.

"And the fact that you avoided me!" Amou crossed her arms over her chest and pretended to snob her. "How rude, Kahoko! I expected so much from you."

Kahoko had apologised sincerely. Trying her hardest, she had pleaded Amou to empathise with her. After all, she was new to all of this. Amou had complied, accompanied with a devilish smirk.

"I will, if..." the long pause made Kahoko swallow in anxiousness, "...every single detail, and I mean every single detail from when you first started to have feelings for each other until finally the confessions. Of course you should also add in the explanation of why the heck you did not tell me Kahoko!"

"You didn't tell her all that now?"

Kahoko laughed at Len's slightly bewildered eyes. It's true. That was quite a handful of personal and intimate questions.

"It's been three days since I've last talked to Kaho-chan," Hihara said as he flexed his arms and threw the ball down the alley, earning him six tumbles of the pins.

Yunoki, who sat cross-legged on one of the chairs, flexed his fingers. It was his turn now.

With an effortless movement that epitomised the word grace, the ball slid down and hit all ten pins. Hihara gaped, spectators awed. Yunoki was always and will forever be just perfect.

"Why didn't you let me invite her anyway?" Hihara pouted in an effort to make his best friend empathise with him.

"Because she needs a good break once in a while Hihara-kun," the purple-haired replied with a smile.

"She hasn't mentioned how tired she was," The disco lights came on and the flashes of neon made Hihara's white jacket gleam. "Tsuchiura hasn't mentioned anything either."

"Perhaps she's never mentioned it to anyone," Yunoki replied. "You know how Hino-san can be very selfless." Hihara didn't notice the hidden roll of eyes his friend did as he recalled how Kaho was always so thoughtful.

"That she is, Yunoki!" he said with a smile as he threw another ball down.

Yunoki shook his head. He was certain that Hihara would be more than disappointed if he hears the news about Kaho's dirty little secret with that contemptuous blue-haired.

His mind started to roll. To tell or not to tell. It sounds very much like him to subtly and innocently spill the beans on the his best friend's love-struck plate, but it was also very tempting to wade out just a little bit closer to the shore and allow the two lovebirds to let the shark loose too.

Yunoki smirked. It would be even more fun if Hino was the little mischievous mermaid and would do the little talking.

Oh how he wanted to be there when that would happen. Maybe a little visit would do the trick.

The very next day, Yunoki waited for Hino at the school showgrounds. He had overheard some students who had passed him talking about the recital that took place that day with some students from the music department but also from Kaho and Tsuchiura from the General Department.

Kahoko was waving goodbye to Mio and Nao when Yunoki approached her.

"Yunoki-sama, so great to see you here!" She flashed her white teeth, offering him the best smile she could offer.

"Stop pretending Hino, I know you're not that happy to see me." Yunoki circled the girl who was trembling on the inside.

"Yunoki-sama, can't you ever be nice at least for one day?" Kaho sighed, upset by being defeated by his straight-forwardness.

"I was when we last saw each other," Yunoki replied, smiling with that evil smile Kahoko almost hated. Almost.

"Your facade is worse than mine," she muttered under her breath.

"What was that, Kahoko?" Cringing at the way he pronounced her name, she innocently waved her hand.

"I'm just wondering why you've come, Yunoki-sama,"

They walked the other way to most of the students, heading to the direction of the little neat grove she would normally practice her violin in.

"You're being dishonest with me, Hino-san," Yunoki said, upon arriving. Kahoko looked at him curiously.

"Dishonest?" she asked. Yunoki turned to her; the amusement in his eyes was replaced by serious probing.

"Don't begin to deny that something of significance had happened during the summer break that you haven't told your friends about," his cryptic words suddenly began to be clearer. Kahoko turned her head away, unable to properly handle the situation.

She hadn't expected Yunoki to come and visit for no particular purpose than to make her life miserable. But since he had finished school, she thought she was finally free from it. Unfortunately for her though, he's not so lenient with the letting go part.

"You know then, Yunoki-sama," she said, finally looking him in the eye. The purple-haired smirked.

"Of course," he replied. "But I want to hear the full story from you. If you don't mind."

'If you don't mind, he says,' she thought sarcastically.

"Tsukimori-san and I are-"

"I don't want the obvious, Kaho, I want details," he tapped his feet impatiently.

"When he came back from Vienna, I knew I had to see him," she said. "I needed him to know that I've improved my playing and it's because of him."

"Tsukimori wasn't too impressed with your playing," Kahoko looked at the ground, smiling as she remembered that time at the rooftop with him when he said the same things.

"I can never meet his standards, I can never match the way he would play," Kahoko replied. "But that's why Tsukimori is very important to me. He doesn't need me to impress him. He just wants me to be...me."

Yunoki laughed.

"How cliché,"

Kahoko watched him as he twirled his hair, ready to leave.

"I would have given you a little bit more of a storyline than that, Kahoko," he said with a wink that both chilled and disturbed her. "Too bad you chose too quickly."

Len took Kahoko to his house to have dinner with him as his parents were away. He knew something was amiss though, because of her silence and her willingness to come with him even though before, she was extremely cautious about how they interacted that she even made a 'policy' that they would only "meet alone when we're not alone." That is, they can only be together when there's at least one person who knew of their whereabouts and was "five seconds away" when an "emergency" would arise.

Len laughed to himself then became serious again when he noticed Kaho sit herself on the couch silently, looking as if she could be mummified at any time. He handed her a drink and sat across from her, waiting for her to finish.

"Yunoki-sama visited me today," she said, staring blankly ahead. Len continued to wait.

"He knows about us but I didn't tell him," she said.

"That's not what you're surprised about, are you?" he asked a little bewildered. Wasn't she there when he announced it to Ms. Gossip of the Century? But then again, she did look like how she looked now; mummified horror.

Her answer came unexpectedly.

"It's not that," she said. Then she looked up at him and smiled. "It's what he said afterwards that got me thinking."

"And what did he say?"

"'Too bad you chose quickly,'" she repeated.

His heart skipped a beat. A sudden wave of fright iced his system. Yunoki would say that? What did he mean?

Then a memory rushed, surfacing like a shark on its prey...

"This is all just a game, Tsukimori," Yunoki looked directly at Len and gave him a smile. "And we all know that Kaho-chan is the prize."

I know it's short, but there's a bigger part to this that will be continued, don't you all worry.
I believe Yunoki is such a good antagonistic character, hence, the title.

Also...
More mishaps coming up in the next chapters including Fuyuumi's birthday bash and more announcements from the lovely couple!
By the way, I ADORE YOU ALL!
Read & Review & possibly even Share ;)