I've heard the song thousands of times before. Some days it would play at the café on repeat. But this time. . . it was different. The sound was inexplainably beautiful. Even more so than when I hear at the café. But I could swear, that the next thing I saw was a world full of color and him sitting right there in the middle of it all, playing the piano. Everything else had disappeared entirely as he poured his heart out in song.

'Wow. . .'

"Sawabe-san?"

The world of color disappeared and I was back in the piano room. Kousei was standing now and Takeda was placing her sheet music on the piano. Before I knew it Kousei was coming my way. For some reason I stood up straight and cleared my throat. I could feel my face burning. "Oh, hi, Ari— I mean, Kousei. . ." I looked at him and saw he'd been dressed nicely in a light blue button-up shirt and brown khaki pants. He adjusted the black-framed glasses sitting on his face.

"What are you doing here? Did you want to sign up for classes?"

I almost couldn't believe how calm he'd sounded. As if it'd been no surprise at all to him that I'd been there coincidentally. "Oh, no, I'm here with my sister today.."

"Oh, Sawabe-chan is your younger sister? You two do look alike," Kousei chuckled.

"Sensei, are we beginning soon? I want to show my sister how good I can play!" Takeda was sitting at the piano looking back at us both.

"Oh, yes. One moment, Sawabe-chan." Kousei looked back to me and smiled again though it seemed almost. . formally polite. Automatic. "You may take a seat anywhere you'd like, Sawabe-san." He turned and started walking back to Takeda.

"'Tsubaki.'"

Kousei stopped and looked back at me. "Huh?"

"You can call me 'Tsubaki'." I averted my eyes from him, feeling awkward as I stood there.

It was quiet before he spoke again. Had I been too forward?

"Okay."

I looked up expecting to see him appear confused or annoyed even, but instead I saw him smiling at me again. This time it was friendly.

I smiled in return, my heart jumping in my chest. "..Okay."

Time seemed to pass by so quickly and before I knew it the lesson was already almost over. Despite the fact that Kousei and I had met again I had absolutely no idea what to do with the opportunity. I'd been sitting there on the couch in the room for the past two hours thinking of what I could say to him with no luck. I sighed. I wished Kashiwagi was here to give me advice.

'Wait a minute, Tsubaki. Why are you even thinking this way? You don't even want to date right now!' I groaned, leaning over and hiding my face in my legs. I was so confused. Just the sight of Kousei was enough to throw me off balance.

"Tsubaki?" I looked up when I heard my sister call my name.

"Yes?"

"A friend just texted me and said she wanted to meet me for lunch. I'll see you at home. Bye!"

"Huh? Wait, Takeda—" Before I knew it my sister was already gone. I sighed. I couldn't believe that girl sometimes.

"She's quite spirited, no?"

I jumped, having forgotten Kousei was still there in the room with me. I blushed faintly before forcing it away quickly. "I suppose, but is it really okay for her to leave so early like that? There were thirty minutes left in the lesson, right?"

I watched as Kousei put Takeda's sheet music away in her file. "I told her it was okay for today. She can already play half the song perfectly and it isn't very easy to learn, trust me."

"..Oh." I smiled softly. My parents had started taking Takeda to lessons ever since she was able to write and even then she seemed like a professional. I could swear she was a child prodigy that had yet to be discovered. After our parents died I took up the responsibility to encourage Takeda to continue taking classes. When they died she was old enough to acknowledge the fact that she'd lost people who were supposed to leave the biggest impression on her. It hadn't affected her playing much but her personality did take a slight turn. I remembered her being this bright and bubbly child with the greatest spirit I'd ever seen, but after our parents' deaths her behavior would seem almost forced. At times she would even sound lost. As if she was missing something. Which of course she was. I would try to talk to her about it at times but I would never know what to say to her. I wondered if I could live up to be the impression my parents would have been.

"She's really good at the piano. Does she plan on entering any piano competitions?" Kousei sat down at the piano.

"Huh? You don't know about that? But you're her teacher,"

Kousei smiled. "I encourage my students to take advantage of their talent. But I don't tend to make their talent a big responsibility if it's not something they want to do with their future."

"I see." Wow. I could admire him for his views.

"You should be surprised with how many students I've had who weren't passionate about the piano. Some parents even consider bringing their children to lessons simply to teach them discipline. It's a bit of a shame, really. But what can you do, I suppose. I mean in the end my goal is to teach my students that the piano can be fun without always being serious."

"You seem to be really passionate about the piano. When did you start playing yourself?"

"I was about the same age as most of my primary school students. Younger, maybe." Kousei ran his fingers across the keys of the piano lightly. Whenever he was near the piano it always seemed like the two were connected by soul. There would never be one without the other. I wondered what had made him so connected to the piano.

"Oh, so young. Did you want to play?"

Kousei seemed to look at the keys with a sort of pain yet unconditional love in his eyes. I wondered if my question had been too personal. "You could say that."

"What do you mean?" I was scared I was digging too deep into his personal life, but I wasn't going to stop now unless he preferred it that way.

He paused before answering again. "You know how you do things for others?"

I thought back to when Aaren left Tokyo. How I stayed home to take care of Takeda. How I made it my responsibility to encourage her to keep playing the piano. I nodded.

Kousei stood and went to the window. "It was kind of like that for me at first. I was playing for someone else, to make them proud of me. But after a long time I learned that in the end, it was my own feelings being translated through the piano. That it all wasn't simply notes being played through. The person who showed me that inspired me to keep playing."

As someone who didn't play the piano, I couldn't exactly picture what he'd been talking about. But still, I could put it into perspective. If I was doing something as time consuming as playing the piano whether it be playing a sport or painting, even, I'd want to put all my own feelings and thoughts into it. If I had only been doing it at the obligation of others, I'd think that there wouldn't really be a point to it, in the end. Looking at Kousei there in front of me, I could see that he was a huge jigsaw puzzle waiting to be put together. "I see."

"Anyway," I watched him disappear into his office for a moment before returning. The mahogany scarf I'd given to him the other day was in his hands. "luckily we saw each other again by chance. I wouldn't have known where to look for you otherwise to return this. Thank you, Tsubaki."

I stared at the scarf in his hands before taking it from him. "..It was no problem." I cracked a smile. "It must have sucked to be out in the cold, huh? What were you doing there, anyway?"

"Waiting for an idiot friend of mine," he chuckled. "I was dragged out of work yesterday and only ended up being the third wheel."

"Agh, that sucks. I'm sorry about that."

Kousei sat next to me on the couch. "Well, what can you do, right?"

"Right, right."

The room was filled with an awkward silence before Kousei spoke again. "Well, my next student should be arriving soon."

I took it as my cue to leave. "Oh, right, um, I guess I'll be going now." I stood from the couch and started heading to the foyer.

"Right, I'll see you later, I guess."

"I'll see you later, Kousei." I was about to walk out.

"Tsubaki?"

"Yeah?" I turned and looked at him.

"..It was nice to see you again," he smiled to me.

I felt my heartbeat speed up just a bit. I stepped over to him and placed the red scarf back in his hands as he stared at me with slight confusion, holding his hands in mine. I smiled. "..Same to you." I released his hands before turning and walking away before looking back and waving.

I left the building smiling like a complete idiot.

Bonjour~! I am sincerely sorry for the delay for this chapter to be posted. I am currently busy with keeping up with school and studying but I am keeping hard at work to continue posting! I thank anyone who has read my story and is enjoying it, and I hope that soon there will be a lot of people who will have seen and read "Love and Heartbreak"^^

Disclaimer: I do not own Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (Your Lie in April) nor do I own any of the original characters from the anime or manga itself.

~ShortAzn