...
The closer she got to the piano sound, the lighter Tokai Teio's footsteps became.
She stood at the door, peering through the not-too-big, not-too-small gap, perfectly able to see Lucian's elegant appearance as he played the piano.
The piano melody dyed her emotions; in that instant, she seemed to see the male protagonist from an anime—like the scene where the male and female leads meet.
The warm atmosphere seemed to silently invite her.
Tokai Teio involuntarily stepped toward the door, until another standing figure appeared in that doorframe...
That gap framed them like a painting, perfectly fitting Seiun Sky and Lucian.
Tokai Teio stopped in her tracks immediately.
...
Seiun Sky swayed her head to the music's rhythm, like grass swaying in the wind.
She wanted to clap and cheer, but feared disturbing Lucian who was playing.
So she waited until Lucian looked up at her with a smile, then returned a sweet smile.
...
"Teio, why are you standing here?" Special Week patted Tokai Teio's shoulder, also snapping the latter back to reality.
Behind Special Week, Silence Suzuka, Haru Urara, and Rice Shower arrived one after another.
"Spe-chan?" Tokai Teio pointed inside, "Trainer is playing piano in there... with Sky."
"Eh?" An unnatural expression flashed across Special Week's face as she peered inside, "It really is Trainer-san and Sky."
"Onii-sama can play piano too." Rice Shower murmured.
"Yeah, Trainer knows how to do everything." Haru Urara loved watching these moments when Lucian exuded charm.
In her eyes, there was only Lucian; whether Seiun Sky was beside him or not didn't matter.
...
Soon, the piano sound abruptly stopped.
Lucian's peripheral vision also noticed the crowd at the door.
Good thing; he had almost casually pinched Seiun Sky's cheek just now.
"Why are you all here?" Lucian smoothly closed the piano cover.
Seiun Sky felt smug inside; didn't this mean Trainer had really only played for her?
"Trainer, so amawing!" Haru Urara spoke in broken Chinese, but it sounded quite cute.
"Stumbled several times; haven't played in too long." Lucian smiled embarrassedly.
Silence Suzuka's voice was faint, "Lucian-kun is quite leisurely, playing piano (flirting) with Sky here; is the cleaning done?"
"Just saw the piano in the storage room, then tried playing with Sky's encouragement."
"Then is the cleaning done?" Silence Suzuka pressed.
"Not not~" He knew Silence Suzuka was jealous again, "How was it? The piece just now nice, right?"
"Don't know, didn't hear all of it, and it wasn't played for me; you should ask Sky."
Seiun Sky seemed to smell the sourness too, but this time it wasn't the bitterness in her heart, "Suzuka, I heard the whole thing; Trainer playing piano (flirting) is indeed amazing."
"Oh~" Silence Suzuka responded indifferently.
Little green tea; let you be arrogant a few more days.
Actually, after each noticing the clues, Silence Suzuka and Seiun Sky had been gradually accepting each other's existence.
"Suzuka, if you really want to hear it, I can have Trainer play it again for you~" Seiun Sky grew more arrogant; she'd loved seeing Silence Suzuka deflated from the start.
"No need; I still have to go water the flowers downstairs. You listen more; after all, cleaning the storage room is tiring."
Piano pieces or whatever, she wasn't that interested.
If anything, she preferred Lucian's unconscious humming.
Seiun Sky "kindly" narrowed her eyes into a smile, "I think cleaning the storage room is fine. If it wasn't the storage room, there wouldn't be a chance to hear Trainer play piano."
Lucian watched the two chattering nonstop and automatically distanced himself.
Special Week saw him approach and quietly complained, "Trainer, didn't you say you came upstairs to check the situation? How'd you end up playing piano for Sky?"
She'd finally drawn lots to work with Lucian; she should be the luckiest... though they did kiss earlier, but where was that enough?
"Doto slipped while mopping earlier, then I happened to see the piano in the storage room and played a bit."
At this point, Lucian also noticed Tokai Teio silently standing to the side.
What was up with Teio today? She seemed a bit inactive.
"Teio, what are you thinking?" Lucian waved his hand in front of Tokai Teio's eyes, "So absorbed; got drawn in by my piano playing, huh."
Tokai Teio snapped back.
She didn't know what she'd been thinking just now; anyway, that state was: staring blankly at some unrelated spot.
"No way!?"
"But Trainer, what's the name of that piece just now? It was really nice."
When it came to music, Tokai Teio still viewed it objectively.
"Mm... 'Anohana,' you probably haven't heard it."
Tokai Teio searched her mind but found no related music.
But she felt such a nice melody shouldn't be too obscure.
"Indeed haven't heard it; could it be Trainer wrote it himself?"
"More accurately, I hummed a little tune myself, then played it." Lucian had to lie.
"So that's it; then it's something Trainer thought up."
Trainer thought up the tune himself, then played it for Sky...
"If you put it that way, sure, but it's still incomplete."
Lucian felt Tokai Teio was asking questions especially seriously today; was it because it involved music? If so, that made sense.
Tokai Teio nodded, "Feels like this piece has a lot of story. What inspired Trainer to come up with it?"
"This..." Lucian scratched his cheek; for something copied, what inspiration could he have, "Just casually hummed this bit, then tried writing it down."
"Was it... just improvised now?" Tokai Teio probed again.
This was her last question.
"Of course not." Lucian was still thinking how to round the lie, "Wrote this bit long ago, so even after not touching piano for so long, the first piece I played was this one."
"Oh~ So Trainer's a composing genius."
At least she knew this piece wasn't specially made for Sky.
Tokai Teio had to console herself.
"Not that proficient."
"Hope Trainer completes this piece someday. If there's a chance, I can choreograph a dance for it." Tokai Teio said.
"Sure." Lucian casually agreed.
He looked at Silence Suzuka and Seiun Sky still arguing, "Stop fighting; you're practically kissing already... Cleaning isn't done; hurry and finish cleaning."
...