Hello! It's been a while. I had time to write this.

MYABY Chapter 15

~Len's POV~

And so I am here. I frowned at the red and white heart-shaped balloons that were floating at the ceilings of the large ballroom. I got a partner. Guess who.

"M-Mr. Tsukimori?" my partner called me nervously.

When I said I'll procrastinate then drag whoever I see, I meant it. I actually dragged my old personal assistant here. It's been years since I last saw her and I'm not really close to her but I know she has changed. She's more confident, though she fears me for some reasons I don't know. I actually saw her walking down the streets my hotel is at then the next thing I knew, she's my partner. I don't even remember how it all happened but I remember her face turning pale after seeing me.

"Yes?"

"N-nothing," she replied. I looked at the teal haired girl I snatched by the streets. She's cute in her yellow cocktail dress. Not my type though. She looks like a kid. And too innocent. You'll fear she'll crumble if you try touching her. Up until now I only managed to hold her wrist and I'm still being very cautious with the way I hold her still. Fortunately she doesn't go screaming and pulling away. She just nods and agrees to everything I say. Honestly it is disturbing. But I'm lucky she agreed and now I have someone to show. Even for only a brief moment I want to be the guy everyone thought of as… not gay.

I scanned the room for familiar faces. Surely I see some people I work with. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and took it.

"Len Tsukimori," I answered.

"I see you brought someone, partner."

"I don't see you around," I answered back, still scanning the room for familiar faces. I felt my heart skip a beat when I saw a red headed woman by the entrance with a blond male who looked like the person I'm talking to. The male is holding his phone too and is looking at me.

This is disturbing.

"I think I just saw you."

The male smirked at me. "Sure you do. Come over. I'll introduce you to my date. Introduce yours to me."

I looked beside me and found my dear partner fiddling with her dress.

"Do I get to leave after that?"

"No," the caller replied then ended the call. He started motioning at me to come over.

"Follow me," I told Shouko Fuyuumi and started walking towards Damon.

I met Damon when my father took me with him to business trips four years ago. He was training me so I could take over the company. I was with my father to represent my family's company, which aims to support talented musicians across the world, when I met Damon and his friend, representing another company.

Damon has two personalities. You could identify his personality based on his appearance, as far as I can tell. The first one is the side everyone knows and are comfortable with. The type who looked innocent, playful and kind. He's got blond hair for this side of him. Some people tagged him as an angel for this side.

It seems he's going to be like this for a while. He smiled at me then motioned to his date to look at me.

I felt the air leave my lungs immediately as I locked eyes with who he was with.

Kahoko Hino.

She looks good wearing a short, black, cocktail dress and her red hair tied up to a bun. She looked much mature compared to the last time I saw her. Her mouth fell open in her surprise to see me. I guess I'm not the only one surprised here.

I tried to maintain my composure and shot a glare at Damon.

It seems despite his appearance he's being his other self. The mischievous guy who only a few knows of. He knew I wasn't gay. He also knows my story with Kahoko Hino, a.k.a. Kano. Four years ago his friend made me drunk to the point of making me tell something I don't want to be reminded of.

"This is Kahoko Hino," Damon introduced her even though he knew I already know.

I nodded at Kano and extended a hand to shake her hand like how I usually do when meeting someone at work. I saw Damon smirk and raise an eyebrow from the corner of my eye.

There I realized I can actually touch her again after four years. And she took it. I could feel her warm hand as she shook my hand. Something about the touch makes me feel electrocuted but I ignored it.

"This is Len Tsukimori," Damon told Kahoko as he points at me. His smile tells me he's enjoying how speechless I've become. I resisted to roll my eyes.

Kano let go of my hand and I slipped it inside my pocket.

"And this is?" Damon asked, looking at Shouko Fuyuumi. He gave her a smile making the girl blush.

"Shouko Fuyuumi," I answered.

"Your date." He nodded then extended a hand towards the teal haired girl. "I'm Damon," he introduced himself. I noticed he did not mention his last name as usual. I'm not sure why he does that.

'My date' shook his hand briefly then looked down the floor.

"Would you like some tea?" he asked Kano but she shook her head. Before anyone of us could say anything he held Shouko's hand then led her away leaving me and Kano alone. What is he scheming? I glared at Damon's back.

"So… you're here," I heard Kano say.

"Yes," I replied. What do I say? I stood there feeling awkward.

"Do you still play the violin?" she asked me quietly.

I glanced at her and answered, "No."

"Why?" she asked, looking shocked at my answer.

I sighed. What to say? I feel annoyed. "I've been busy," I replied.

"Oh," she simply said, looking down.

I honestly didn't think I'll meet her again even though I know mother has been contacting her ever since she met her. I didn't even bother to open my account as Retsu after breaking the engagement with her. It's not like I have hard feelings for her.

I frowned at the reminder of my dream last night.

Maybe I do have hard feelings. My last memory of her was her sticking her tongue out to me then skipping in Shinobu Ousaki's arms. I didn't know what to expect but that move made me want to break something. Luckily when I went back in my room I didn't break my violin. I did not feel any better smelling her scent on my bed.

I remember her wanting to become a violinist. "You?" I asked her. She looked up to me. "Do you still play the violin?"

Kano nodded slowly. "Yeah, I still do. But… I'm reaching nothing. It's as if whatever I do won't be enough." She sighed. "I've been practicing but I can't seem to do any better. Everyone's been doing great. And here I am doing badly. Maybe I'm not supposed to be a violinist…" she ended up mumbling to herself and I couldn't catch everything she said.

But I didn't like her answer. One of the reasons why I left her alone was because I wanted her to be able to achieve becoming a violinist. She used to say she'll do what she can to become a violinist. Now she sounds as if she's giving up. What happened to the Kano I knew?

On her other hand I noticed her violin case. "Play for me."

"What?"

I scowled at her. Do I have to repeat things? "I said play for me. Your violin. Play it."

She frowned at me. "Keep your hair on," she told me. "Why?"

"I just want to hear how bad you are," I answered back. I inwardly winced at my choice of words.

Her face flushed red in anger. "Too bad that's not convincing enough to make me play for you!" she said then stomped her way away from me.

I followed her. I wanted to know why she said those words earlier. She's not that bad, is she? Last time I heard her she wasn't the best but she's okay. For a moment I wondered how my standards have dropped to finding Kano's playing okay. She just needs some help. As far as I know she started playing the violin in middle school and didn't have proper lessons.

Noticing she quickened he pace I decided to end this chase and grab her wrist. I pulled her along with me out the venue, which is one of the hall rooms of a five star hotel. I took her to where I last saw the hotel's garden despite her attempts to free from me.

"Stop struggling!"

"Why should I?!"

"I'm not going to hurt you!"

"Yeah, right! You might start bitch slapping me for not doing what you want!"

Holy goddess of music. Seriously? I glared at Kano then let her go. We're already surrounded by trees and the stone pathway only contains me and her. We're alone which is a relief for me.

"I am not doing that." I crossed my arms. "Why won't you play now? You used to ask for my advice."

"Well, excuse me, but before, I didn't know you were a jerk who has high standards in performances," Kano replied making me wince.

Jerk?

"You played the last time we met," I pointed out the time back when I asked her to play what she wanted to play at the auditions.

"I just realized you were an overbearing jerk," Kano replied.

I sighed. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ask you to play to actually hear you play bad."

Kano glared at me. "Then why?"

I kept my mouth shut before I end up saying something bad.

She didn't do anything for a while but later on she moved to play her violin. "Look, don't you dare say my playing is horrible. You asked for this and I already know that. I'll play so you can tell me if you think I can pass my exam and also for you to tell me if I need improvement on something, which is I know, a lot."

"Okay." I watched her position herself then I held my hand up to stop her. "Do you usually play like that?"

"What?" she asked, looking annoyed. "Changed your mind?"

Why the hell is she so angry? I rubbed my forehead. I can feel a headache coming. Was she this difficult? "Just answer the question, please?"

She looked at herself. "I haven't even started yet!"

I sighed then moved close to her to correct where she was wrong. "Don't your body ache after playing for hours?" I asked as I held her hand which held her violin and placed my other hand at the small of her back, applying pressure to urge her to straighten her back. She complied only to blush. I frowned at her. Is she sick?

"What are you doing?" she asked, sounding out of breath.

"Correcting your posture."

She looked away from me but remained still in her position. "Do you usually correct people's posture this way?" she asked.

Then I realized how close I was with her. With how we looked, we seem like we're dancing a tango if you disregard the violin. I quickly moved away. "Fix your posture. Look in a mirror while practicing if you have to. It helps playing easier."

"Is that so? Thanks." She genuinely smiled at me making my heart beat fast.

What is wrong with me?

And they meet again :))

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