[Soo Yun] sit back enjoy the [r i d e]

[``fuwa kazuki]

It wasn't often that Kazuki brought his guitar to school. He had found in the past that whenever someone in the class brought an instrument in that they didn't have with them on a regular basis, they were given way too much unnecessary attention in the form of song requests and, even worse, pleads for the loan of the instrument. Well, there was no way in hell that Kazuki was going to let anyone but himself play on this prized possession. He had already had to sneak it out of homeroom amidst the cacophony of students asking him if they could "have a go". It made Kazuki's skin crawl to think of some of those people even thinking they could play this guitar. It wasn't that the guitar was anything special, but Kazuki knew for a fact, from previous experience, that some people were just an accident waiting to happen. And he couldn't afford to buy new strings now, let alone a new guitar.

A lot of them seemed to just accept that Kazuki would just lend them his guitar. In all honesty it was a fairly reasonable assumption, due to his usually laid-back and carefree attitude. Really, if it was something like a book or DVD, Kazuki would just hand it over as long as he was sure he'd get it back eventually. But not the guitar. No way.

So, upon finally managing to sneak out -- which did admittedly involve a few spurts of crawling along the floor under desks -- Kazuki wandered around for a little while, wondering where to go to get some peace and quiet. He still wasn't exactly sure why he had brought the guitar with him today, it had been one of those unthinking whims that struck him every now and then. Sometimes it was a random decision to just buy a huge loaf of bread for lunch, or to sit reading an encyclopedia, but today it was the turn of the guitar.

Kazuki had been feeling quite inspired lately. That was the one problem with the people in his homeroom asking for song requests: he didn't like playing other people's music; he liked to write his own. So when they asked him to play some popular songs, he just ended up looking at them with a blank expression and telling them he didn't know it. It was true that Kazuki wasn't all that up-to-date on recent music, but that didn't mean in the least that he couldn't write his own. So far he had yet to actually finish anything worthwhile, but he though he might get there eventually. To be honest, he didn't really care whether or not he ever finished writing a song; besides the fact that he had never physically written anything down and kept the memory of it in his head, Kazuki liked to just sit and mess around with random riffs and tunes, rather than sticking to learning one in particular.

Perhaps this nonchalance was why Kazuki had never played in a band or, really, played with anyone else before. If anyone wanted to sit and play something along with him, then fine, but he had never actively gone out to seek someone for this. It was true that he wondered what it would be like to perform on a stage with a crowd cheering on, but when he thought about the logistics of that, it just made him tired. The only thing he could work up that sort of energy for was basketball, and as it was, he had enough responsibilities hanging him down in that alley, he didn't want any more pegs stuck to his shoulders.

Without realising where his feet had been taking him, Kazuki was pushing open the thick metal door that lead onto the main building's roof. He hadn't been up here for so long. In his first year at the high school, Kazuki had spent a lot of his time up here, including lesson times. He had never been all that worried about lessons, as he never seemed to have much trouble passing the exams. Maybe that might sound arrogant, but Kazuki had always been able to read through the required material once to understand it. He wasn't sure if anyone really cared that he was one of the top pupils, as not many people payed attention to him. He had always felt like a background character, an extra to the lives of others. Which was why he had spent most of his first year on the roof; most people made their friends in the first week or two, but Kazuki really didn't bother. When people approached him to ask if he wanted to join in with whatever they were doing, he would just wave a hand and say he was busy -- usually when he obviously wasn't.

But this year, even if he was still very laid-back compared to others, Kazuki seemed to have accumulated more friends than he had ever had before. Heck, he had even become noticeable enough to become the basketball captain! But with all that ruckus, Kazuki still needed his lone-time. And, taking a seat on the edge of a raised piece of the roof, his eyes looking out through the wire fence at the edge of the roof and on to Nagai proper, Kazuki finally began to play his guitar with a little peace.

The song was, well, not really a song. Kazuki played a simple riff that he remembered playing before, then changed a few notes, adding a few more, giving the whole tune a completely haunting feel. After a few minutes, the song had progressed more so that it came to a small climax. Kazuki paused a few seconds, always having thought that silence was just another note to play, and went back to the beginning, a haunting melody that sounded strong even on the lonely rooftop.

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``kazuki's look today: H E R E

[Kim Soo Yun]

She had learned the hard way about what happens when she slacked off on training. On the days she knew that her father would check up on her progress at school and the big fat failure she had gotten in her mathematics class that morning, she knew that there was no chance she’d b e spending the afternoon to late evening in the dance studio until it closed for the evening. Thus she had prepared well as she always did on test days.
If she could not practice and stretch in the studio after class then she could practice and train on the roof during class. To her it was a brilliant tactic. No one ever noticed the girl in the back that could speak Japanese well anyway. She made her way to the cranny where she had stashed her ballet and point shoes earlier that morning and proceeded to finish climbing up the last flight of stairs, slipping through the roof door.

She wasn’t alone.

It was the melody that alerted to someone else’s presence. It was slow and to Soo Yun, almost solemn. She clutched her point shoes to her chest and spotted a boy sitting with a guitar on his lap. He was sitting in the area where she usually stretched and warmed up. He looked familiar and she searched her mind for a name. Fuwa. That was his last name wasn’ t it? Did she call him by that? Was he older? She mentally slapped herself on the forehead. Again with the confusion over terms of address. It was starting to get annoying.

Hesitating, she started to move toward him, unsure of whether to approach or not. She had to practice. If she didn’t her muscles would tighten and lose their elasticity, heightening her chances of injury at her next ballet class. About two feet away, she changed her mind, hoping he didn’t notice She’d stay out of his way and hopefully then he won’t ask her to leave. If he had a problem with her being there, he would probably tell her. Her response would depend on how he asked her to leave if he wanted her to do so.

Instead of approaching him, she went the other way, not wanting to intrude at what she perceived to be a private moment between him and the guitar although she could not help but notice the way his fingers moved across the strings as he played. She hoped she looked as beautiful dancing as he did with a guitar.

On the other side of the roof, she proceeded to dump her bag on the floor and yanked on her well worn ballet shoes, although she was tempted to slip her feet into her point shoes immediately and rehearse the choreography to the ballet she was performing that weekend. That would be asking for a broken ankle. Instead she patiently started to go through her warmup. Plies first followed by tendus before jetes and moving onto the more complicated moves. The sounds that filled the air were of the shuffling of her foot against the floor of the roof and the sweet if not solemn melody that Fuwa Kazuki was introducing to Soo Yun although he did not know it.

It was not boastful of Soo Yun to say that she had impeccable rhythm. It came from years and years of dancing to a variety of music. She could adapt to any beat and create any beat with the movement of her body whether it was arms or feet. She adapted now as she found each of her warm up positions. One strum led her into a releve and the next one led her into an assemble landing in fifth position. Spacing between her and Kazuki was quickly forgotten as she found herself lost in his music, moving with precision in time to his music. Further and further she strayed from her original spot as she danced, ignoring her surroundings until she realized that she was only a few feet from Kazuki in mid jump.

Freezing in an awkward landing, she blushed furiously and gave him a frantic bow. Mianhamnida. She blurted out and then mentally slapped herself. Good one idiot. She groaned to herself. She gave another bow. I’m sorry Fuwa-san. I didn’t mean to bother you. She corrected in broken Japanese. Why did her language skills fail her whenever she had to actually use them in a practical situation?