Guitar strings. Maya doesn’t know which to choose. She’s in a music store just a street away from her dorms, trying to find the right string for her guitar. Just recently, her E2 string snapped unprovoked when she was trying a particularly hard riff. She has told the dorm mother and Nana that she was going out, and here she was.
Her eyes scour the racks for that one certain brand she always uses, gingerly pulling out of the stack when she finds it. She contemplates getting the recommended brand for a moment before ultimately deciding a string brand she’s used to would be better for her. Bounding for the cashier, she walks faster, walking back to take an extra B string before leaving the shop.
As she walks back to the dorms, she thinks about the tightly kept secret that she has.
Maya actually plays the guitar as a music instrument, aside from the violin that she was required to play as a child. Only a select few know of this, including Nana, who has run across her trying to tune her guitar during recess inside the otherwise-abandoned music room.
She wonders if she should tell the others.
Maya breathes a puff of cold air, watching as it forms into a wispy cloud of white. The red light turns green, and she starts walking.
…
“Got your E2 string?”
“Yes.”
Maya tunes her guitar, adjusting the newly bought string to her other five strings. She hums softly.
“Daiba-san.”
“Yes? Anything you need?” Nana answers, pouring two cups of ice water.
Maya chuckles, plucking the guitar strings one by one. “On second thought, it’s nothing important.”
It’s an electric guitar. Its body has a simple maroon colour, decorated with a pair of swan and banana stickers, coupled with a white pickguard. She bought this out of her own pocket just a year before she moved into Seisho and has been practising ever since. With her natural talent, she has been able to play increasingly complicated music pieces. This guitar has been with her for two years, but she cherishes it just the same.
The clink of glass against wood snaps Maya out of her thoughts. Nana had placed the glass in front of Maya, walking to sit beside her.
“If this is about a music piece you want to play with me, just say it.” Nana says. She swirls her own ice water like it’s a glass of beer. “You have to tell Mahiru about it, though. She’s the band's keyboardist.”
“Our own little band’s keyboardist, yes.” Maya muses, starting a simple riff. “We don’t have a bassist and vocalist, though.”
“You’ve been singing this whole time, huh?” Nana laughs. “What if we snagged someone who’s both a bassist and vocalist?”
Maya stops strumming. “I have a few people in mind, but I feel like I’m not ready to tell them. Imagine them going ‘You play the guitar, Tendo Maya?’”
“Oh my God. You’re thinking of Kuro-chan, aren't you?” Nana gasps theatrically. “I can’t believe THE Tendo Maya has issues about telling her rival she plays the guitar and wants her to join the secret band she made just a year ago.”
“Daiba-san!” Maya eyes her with disbelief. “I can’t believe you!”
“I mean. I could always play the bass, I can just borrow Suzu-san’s.” Nana remarks.
“We’d have nobody to play the drums if you do.” Maya answers. “I’ll…try to ask her. Later.”
Mahiru walks in the common room with a CD on hand. “Oh? Maya-chan wants to confess?”
Maya audibly gasps this time. “Tsuyuzaki-san! It’s not that!”
…
Maya has forgotten her stack of notebooks in class today. With homework for tomorrow, she is forced to run all the way back to school from her dorms to retrieve them. She pants, holding the class doorframe as she lets the tension in her muscles dissipate. She rummages under her desk to pull out two notebooks. She hears singing, and she looks in the way of the dance room as she straightens her back.
She recognises that voice, and she is reminded of the first time she’s heard that beautiful, beautiful voice. It’s a memory from a year ago, just a bit after she’s been in class.
She remembers that it was her second day in, after the last period, and she was heading for class from the showers. She hears that voice from the dance room and peeks in, seeing Saijou Claudine leaning onto the wooden railing and staring out the window of a particularly beautiful sunset, singing an excerpt from ‘Arrie’, a play Maya happened to see her future rival star in.
Maya doesn’t know she’s been staring. When Claudine moves away, Maya realises and hides behind the wall. Hand on her heart, she replays that singing voice inside her head.
Oh God. It’s pretty, she thinks, feeling a growing blush and a lightheaded feeling coming her way.
Claudine doesn’t realise she has a lone audience of one that day, and many more to count.
This time too, Maya stays to listen. Only that today, Claudine does catch her staring.
“Tendo Maya. What are you doing, staring at me from behind the wall like that? Notebook close to your heart, too. Are you okay?”
Maya chuckles, walking to the front of the door to make herself known. “You’re just breathtaking, Saijou-san.”
Maya revels in the way a growing blush creeps into the blonde’s face. Claudine squeaks. “Tendo Maya! You are infuriating!”
“Infuriatingly beautiful, perhaps?” Maya winks, further fanning the flames metaphorically emerging over Claudine’s head.
“You!” Claudine looks away and stomps her way to her bag to get her clothing change. “I’m going home.”
“I’ll wait for you.” Maya says, walking to sit down on the wooden floor of the dance room.
Both of them walk home together as the last of the sun’s rays disappear over the horizon.
…
Maya sneaks her guitar into school. She brought her guitar case to school and put it inside the music room inside the broom closet very early in the morning before her morning run. During recess, she runs over to the music room and pulls out her guitar case from inside the broom closet.
She opens it, taking out her electric guitar and connecting it to an amplifier, which she sets to a small enough volume to make sure it’s not too loud.
“Okay. Now that’s set,”
She drags a stool to her location and starts strumming when she sits comfortably. She moves from a warm-up to a full blown music piece. She starts playing riffs and licks, losing herself in the sound that she doesn’t realise Claudine is staring at her from across the window.
Claudine watches the brunette play from across the glass boundary, seeing her grin gleefully as her foot taps rhythmically to her strumming. Claudine doesn’t dare to blink, lest she loses the brief moment (moments, actually) she may never get to see again. She finally blinks, looks at the clock, and nearly jumps when she sees that she has thirty minutes left for recess. She spares one last glance at Maya before jogging to the cafeteria.
The image of Maya joyfully riffing to the sound of nothing in an otherwise-abandoned music room stays in Claudine’s head for the rest of the day.
Oh. So that’s why I can’t find her anywhere in recess.
She then finds out that Maya plays guitar every recess, five days a week, inside the music room. She spares a glance, every time. Maya doesn’t know she has a lone audience of one every single recess, and Claudine decides she’s okay with that.
…
The two have been seeing the other in secret ever since (one more secret than the other, Maya still hasn't realised her audience of one is there). Maya stays behind the wall to hear Claudine sing, Claudine stares at Maya from behind the glass window. It’s become a personal routine that even they two do not know they have.
After days and weeks pass, Maya still hasn’t found the courage to ask Claudine yet. She taps her foot against the floor repeatedly, incessantly, loud enough that even Junna stopped reading to look her way.
“You good, Tendo?” Futaba asks, throwing a toffee the brunette’s way. “You’ve been tapping your foot for at least five minutes now.”
Maya catches it with a hand, opening it as her foot stops tapping. “Apologies. I was…distracted.”
“You’re very distracted, then. Is there a problem so big that even you’d get distracted?” Junna asks, putting her book down.
“There’s no need, I think I can solve it myself–” Maya turns to speak, almost tensing when she sees Mahiru walk in the common room.
“-Is this about the Kuro-chan thing?”
Silence envelops the room, and Mahiru realises her mistake.
“Oh! Oh goodness! Please forget what I said!” Mahiru flounders.
Junna raises one inquisitive eyebrow. Futaba cocks her head to the side, slightly curious.
“The Kuroko what?” Futaba asks.
“Nothing! Nothing at all!” Mahiru dismisses, speed walking her way to the fridge to get her custard pudding.
“Mahiru, what do you and Tendo-san know that we do not? There has to be something here.” Junna says, prompting Mahiru to freeze in place, looking at Maya for confirmation.
Maya breathes. It was bound to slip sooner or later. There’s no harm in telling, anyway.
“I suppose I could tell you.” Maya starts. “It’s my secret, anyway.”
All eyes turn to Maya as she begins talking.
“I play the guitar. Daiba-san, Tsuyuzaki-san and I have a band, and we play on Tuesdays afterschool. I’m the guitarist, Tsuyuzaki-san is the keyboardist, and Daiba-san is the drummer. As you can see, we are lacking a vocalist and a bassist. I’ve been singing in the meantime.”
Junna remembers seeing a pair of drumsticks in Nana’s table before. She nods. “I assume this is where Saijou-san comes in?”
Maya nods. “Yes. I plan on asking her about this soon.”
Futaba nods too, slowly. She grins, shooting Maya a thumbs-up. “Don’t ya worry, Tendo! Me and Hoshimi are good secret keepers, unlike Kaoruko. None of this is getting out, promise!”
Maya chuckles weakly. “Thank you for the assurance, Isurugi-san, I appreciate it.”
“The problem is how you’d tell Kuroko, though. When did you think about it?”
“Er, two weeks ago? Why ask?”
Junna coughs. “You’re bound to tell her soon, you know. You can’t keep a secret forever, can you?”
“She’s been keeping this from you for at least a year, actually.” Mahiru interjects, finally opening the cup of custard pudding she has on her hands. She sits beside Junna as she spoons some of its contents into her mouth.
“Oh! Interesting.” Junna exclaims. “It’s impressive how you’ve hidden your tracks so well that none of us knew you had this. For a whole year, even!”
“Fake it till you make it, I guess? Tendo’s a very good stage actress, after all.” Futaba remarks.
“No person has really ever visited the music room after school hours, so that gives us a sort of advantage.” Maya laughs, finally relaxing her shoulders. “It’s been like that for more than a year now.”
Junna coughs. “Back to the point. I bet three hundred yen that Tendo-san just absolutely cannot say anything to Saijou-san because she loves her.”
Maya blinks in surprise and alarm. “Hoshimi-san!”
“Junna-chan!” Mahiru gasps. “Crank it up to three thousand yen! It’s too obvious that Maya-chan likes her!”
“Oh, you’re right, actually.” Junna snickers.
Maya absolutely cannot hide the blush growing on her cheeks this time. “Tsuyuzaki-san! Not you too!”
“Maybe tell her like it’s a confession or something? A dual confession? You tell Kuroko you play the guitar and all that shizz, then tell her you like her too, maybe?” Futaba suggests.
Oh wow, finally a productive statement.
“That could work. We could script it or something.” Junna adds. “On second thought, just an outline would work. Like you’re preparing for a valedictorian speech.”
Maya nods. “Thank you for the suggestion, Hoshimi-san.”
“Good luck on your confession, Tendo!” Futaba snickers, earning a light slap to her shoulder inflicted by none other than the brunette herself.
…
Since then, Futaba and Junna (Mahiru and Nana, by extension) have been pestering Maya to confess for various reasons of their own (and for Maya’s own good and happiness) for the next few days.
“Maya-chan! Do it already!” Mahiru massages her temples. “It’s been ten seconds since you said you wanted to say it!”
“Tendo-san! ‘The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.’” Junna adds. “H.P Lovecraft. You have no need to be fearful!”
“I am trying!”
Maya rubs her palms together in an attempt to stave off the nervousness she’s feeling. That tightness in her chest and the feel of her quickly beating heart says it all. She thinks it’s like that one time she watches the curtains to ‘Arrie’ open for the first time when she’s five. A nearly lost ghost of a feeling, yet it feels the same, like a scab torn open anew.
You have no need to be nervous over a trifling matter, Tendo Maya, she thinks to herself.
She shook her head vigorously and stomped off to her room, coming back out to the common room with her guitar case in hand, a newly burning fire in her eyes.
“Now that’s more like it.” Nana smiles. “Go get our girl for us!”
“You will regret this.” Maya chuckles. “Where is Saijou-san?”
“Yeah? Need me for something?”
Maya’s heart drops, fast and hard. She freezes stiffly, slowly looking towards the source of the voice, which happens to be the object of conversation herself. Maya’s heart starts beating so hard and all the plans she had formulated in the back of her head had gone to pot. Her fingers shuffle the handle of her guitar case, and she licks her lips in newfound anxiety.
Junna, Nana and Mahiru stay silent when Maya looks at them. Nana nodded subtly, small enough that Claudine didn't catch it; and Maya knew she was being left to fend for herself.
At least Hanayagi-san isn’t here. Thank Isurugi-san for the diversion.
“Saijou-san.” She manages to croak out. “We need to talk.”
Claudine stares at her inquisitively, first at her then at the guitar case on her hands. She motions for her to go on.
Maya inhales. “Alone.” She pulls Claudine away from Nana, Junna and Mahiru and out to the garden.
Once they go out, Maya slides the glass door to close, looking back at Claudine, who still had that inquisitive look on her face. It’s a much softer look now that she sees it under the evening sun. Maya’s almost terrified at the unnecessary fear she’s feeling, and she hides that all.
(Claudine could tell she’s scared, but she doesn’t mention it.)
“Okay. Saijou-san.” Maya says, voice unbearably shaky.
“...You play the guitar.” Claudine finishes, slowly. “The electric guitar.”
“...yes. I play the electric guitar.” Maya repeats.
“I just about figured that out, you see. Just two weeks ago.” Claudine continues. “I confess that I’ve been frequenting your recess guitar practices.”
The fear that Maya’s been harbouring dissipated within milliseconds, replaced by pure surprise. “You have?”
Claudine nods. “I’ve been looking at you every weekday on the same spot from the window outside the music room. You just never looked up to realise. If you did, I was probably gone by then.”
Maya releases a breath she never knew she was holding. “I see…”
The blonde smiles, and Maya almost wants to stumble over. “It’s very nice to see that you’re enjoying yourself.
You looked so happy and content there when you played, and I didn’t want to. Intrude? Interrupt? Something along the lines of that. It’s rare to see you so happy, genuinely happy, even for me. If that makes sense?”
Maya could only nod. “I…I do have something else to tell you.”
“Oh?”
Maya swallows thickly, some of that residual nervousness coming back to her. She powers through, anyway.
“I have this sort of band with Tsuyuzaki-san and Daiba-san. Tsuyuzaki-san takes the keyboard and Daiba-san plays the drums. I play the guitar.”
Maya pauses, not really wanting to say the next sentence. She decides it’s now or never, and that she has to say it.
“How do I word this…We do not have a bass player and a vocalist. I’ve been singing this whole time. So I would like you to…” She pauses again, furrowing her brows. “Join us. In the band.”
Maya spins on her heel to look away from Claudine and slaps a palm on her forehead, surprising her rival. “Oh my God. Why was I nervous?”
Claudine blinks. She looks at Maya for three whole seconds before bursting into melodious laughter.
“You were so nervous? For something as trifling as this?”
“Look! It’s you we’re talking about!” Maya whips her head back and shouts, harrowing and distressed. “I think you’re one of the two most beautiful people on earth and I love you very much! Of course I’m nervous! I’m scared of the rejection!”
Claudine was rendered speechless this time. It gave Maya a few seconds to register, process and realise what she said and what she had done.
“Saijou-san I–”
“Do not. Do not say anything else.” Claudine cuts, voice sharp. Yet, it’s soft, laced with a feeling not short of love. “Let me talk.”
Maya nods slowly, still with that fear in her eyes. It’s like she’s a little kid getting scolded at.
“One. I gladly accept your offer.” Claudine says. “Two, I absolutely do not want you to apologise for anything you have said just now.”
Maya raises a singular finger, slowly and tentatively. “...Why?”
Claudine exhales. “Why? Because I love you too, you silly goose.”
Maya retracts her finger, staring dumbfoundedly at her blonde friend(friend? More like partner, right?) who chuckles joyfully. “Sorry?”
“It’s your fault if you didn’t catch that, Tendo Maya.” Claudine walks past Maya, sliding the glass door open. “On second thought. Ma Maya would be better.”
Maya watches as her partner steps out and away from the garden, her golden locks swaying gently against the wind.
Did she just say she loves me too? I didn’t hear that wrong, right?
She blinks again when she sees Claudine smile at her from behind the glass door.
Oh!
…
Maya spots Claudine inside the music room after school on the practice Tuesday, tuning her orange bass. She spots Maya too, shooting a grin the brunette’s way.
“You set up everything already?” Maya asks.
“Just the amps.” Claudine replies. “The wires I’m not so sure how to do, since I’ve never done that here before.”
Maya finds the wire box and starts connecting the wires to wherever they need to be. “I’ll do that, then.”
Nana and Mahiru walk in shortly after, holding nothing but Nana’s drumsticks.
“Oh! Our new member is already here!” Nana exclaims, setting the keyboard up for Mahiru.
“It’s great to see our bassist hard at work, huh?” Mahiru laughs, checking the amp volumes. “Maya-chan, this hole is for your distortion machine.”
“Oh? That’s the one?” Maya moves her distortion machine wire to the designated place. She looks at Claudine, who looked just fine, already strumming notes on her bass.
Maya doesn’t even realise she’s staring until Claudine looks back at her, staring back owlishly.
“You’ve been squatting for one whole minute, Maya.”
“Have I?” She answers, grinning as if she hadn't done it.
Claudine rolls her eyes playfully. “Yes, you have. Get up, ma chére.”
Maya raises her hands up in mock disappointment as she rises to take her guitar.
“Okay! Self-practice for forty minutes! You’ve got the bass tab, Kuro-chan?” Nana asks.
Claudine nods, having said papers in front of her already. She starts strumming her bass as everyone else starts clamouring to practise. This is when she realises that sound is everywhere. Somehow, Claudine powers through the noise that had slowly faded into white noise.
That white noise no longer becomes white noise when she hears the sound of Maya’s guitar playing along to her own bass. Had Maya memorised the song already?
She spares a minute look at Maya, who locks eyes with her. The brunette smiles, playing a little improvised trill.
Showoff, Claudine chuckles. I love it when she’s happy.
Maya, on the other hand, thinks Claudine is insanely beautiful when playing the bass. When the blonde starts singing, she almost wants to lose herself in that voice. She decides that maybe, she’s sane enough to play the guitar in the middle of that. To be honest with herself, she had almost forgotten to play the guitar when Claudine started singing.
Nana and Mahiru are observant enough to spot the little details the two give each other in the span of these forty minutes, and they roll their eyes.
“They are so in love it’s crazy.” Nana whispers.
“So are you. You literally have no say.” Mahiru rebuts. “When are you going to tell them?”
“I don’t know, when I’m ready?”
“Not one person is ready until they are.”
Nana clicks her tongue. “That one was Junna’s quote, wasn’t it.”
Mahiru groans quietly, jocularly. “Sometimes I just hate you, Nana-chan.”
Nana shoots the band’s resident keyboardist a toothy grin and hits a paradiddle. “Okay! Forty minutes up! We’re playing together now!”
“Gotcha.” Claudine nods, stopping her strumming.
Maya does too, giving Nana a thumbs up.
“Good! On the count of three–”
They spend the next hour and a half rehearsing. At the end of the session, the four pack up together, restoring the music room into what it once was. They go back to their dorms together and are greeted by a very hungry pair (read: Karen and Hikari). Mahiru kisses both of them on their foreheads as she runs over to the kitchen to cook dinner.
…
“When did you get your bass?” Maya asks, idly strumming her guitar.
“Maybe little after I was thirteen. That was almost four years ago.” Claudine muses, leaning into the sofa. “Just barely a year before you started guitar, isn’t it?”
“Mm,” Maya hums in agreement, strumming a chord. E chord. “I play the violin and guitar, you play the cello and bass. If you think of it, it makes sense.”
“Have I ever told you your guitar sounds beautiful?” Claudine says, out of the blue.
“Have I ever told you your singing sounds beautiful?” Maya answers, nonchalant. She puts her guitar away, and suddenly, she doesn’t know what to do with her hands. She settles them in her lap instead.
“It’s funny to think that I’ve been the sole attendee to your little concerts during all those late practices.” Maya mentions.
“I’ve been your sole audience until you decided to tell me your supposed secret, Maya. I still watch you play during recess.” Claudine adds.
“It’s still a secret! Aijou-san, Kagura-san and Hanayagi-san still don’t know about it!” Maya exclaims, earning her partner’s giggle. “You barge in the music room every recess now, I’m basically never alone for the whole sixteen hours of my day.”
“I could make it twenty-four hours, if I drag you into my room.” Claudine remarks, getting a light slap on her shoulder. “I’m joking!”
“Mine eyes will be plagued with unparalleled brightness in every second of my life if you ever choose to do that.” Maya recites, theatrically and dramatically.
Claudine could only laugh.
“I find the fact that you play the guitar endearing. I can see that it clearly makes you happy. I can see the genuinity of your happiness. I’m happy if you’re happy.” Claudine states.
Maya can tell she’s serious, this time. She wants to say a lot of things, her thoughts too disorganised to say, and so she picks the easiest coherent sentence she can formulate. Something simple, yet the meaning is deep all the same.
“I find your singing very lovely. It’s a voice I’ll never get tired of hearing.” She starts. She has many more to say. She says it. “I have little words I can use to describe it. Heavenly, Divine. It’s a charm of yours. My heart sparks whenever you’re around.
Maybe that’s just a bonus. I like your company. I like you. Everything about you.”
Maya laughs, and Claudine feels like she just got struck by an arrow through the heart.
“Ah, I was rambling.”
“You are such a silly goose.” Claudine brushes off a stray strand of brunette hair from Maya’s forehead. Maya blushes, and she laughs softly. “My silly goose. I love you too.”
The red already in Maya’s cheeks deepen even further as she hides her face behind a pillow amidst the fluster.
“Je t'aime, Tendo Maya. I find you so endearingly cute.” Claudine leans forward, whispering in Maya’s ear as she watches the brunette hold the pillow tighter and kick her feet in the air like a schoolgirl.
“Saijou-san…” Maya squeaks out, voice tremendously small.
“Claudine, please. We’re closer than that.” Claudine scoffs lightly.
“You tease too much!” Maya wails, pretending to bite Claudine’s shoulder.
“You tease too much.” Claudine giggles, letting out a surprised gasp when her torso falls over the sofa.
“Claudine–!” Maya lets out a little gasp as she catches Claudine’s stray hand, stopping her fall.
Maya pulls Claudine back, and they stay like that for a few silent seconds, staring at each other with unfiltered surprise. The two break into gleeful laughter, smiling and grinning like a pair of little children.
“I love you!” Maya exclaims.
“You are so astonishingly delightful!” Claudine shoots back.
“I think you're a joy to be with!”
“You are someone I could stay with forever!”
“You always pull at my heartstrings and I would gladly relent any day!”
Claudine pauses at that. Maya tilts her head to the side.
“Did you try to make a declaration with. Heartstrings?”
“Did it work?”
“It sounds a bit literal, but I could take that any day.”
The two women laugh again.
“Is there a relation between Guitar strings, Bass strings, and heartstrings?”
“They both end with ‘string’?”
“Oh, Mon Dieu, you are so silly.”
“I’m your little silly now, right?” Maya grins childishly, and Claudine finally finds the courage to kiss her forehead.
“Of course you are. You are my little silly.”
Maya giggles, and they start a pillow fight. Maya’s guitar lay forgotten on the far end of the sofa.
Nana finds them asleep, a tangled heap on the comfort of the sofa just an hour later. She chuckles and walks over to the counter to make some banana bread.