The next day, Weiss passed me a squarish light-gray thing from her bag after she came into the classroom. It's pretty well wrapped—what is it?
"This…"
"Eh? What?"
She shoved the thing into my hands. I looked at it from all sides several times.
"That thing, it's… my fault. I bought this for you."
I had no idea what was going on. Weiss bought something for me? What sort of joke is that?
"But, you absolutely cannot open it here."
I nodded despite my brain being in a mess. However, those classmates of mine who don't listen to a single word others have to say, came leaning close to me excitedly as usual. Kiba snatched the package away from my hands.
"What? A present from Princess to his servant? Oi oi, is this for real? Haruto, can I open it?"
"Eh, ah, wait Kiba…"
The packaging was torn open before Weiss and I could even stop them. It's a CD. On its cover is a zombie with a blood-stained axe in its hands, and it was giving off a nasty grin. It's titled 'IRON MAIDEN Killers'.
"Didn't I say not to open it!? Don't show it to me, you disgusting!" Weiss turned away, and her voice sounded like she was close to tears.
"She said I'm disgusting yet again. My sole hope of living is gone."
"Don't worry, she's not talking about you Kiba. But this zombie looks slightly similar to you, don't you think?"
"Damn you Haruto!"
I snatched the CD back from Kiba.
"Umm… you bought the CD for me just because of the cover?" I had thrown away the cover which I found behind the cabinet, and it was all thanks to Weiss spraying a load of the insecticide on it.
Weiss nodded with her back still facing me, and murmured, "Hurry up and put it away."
It's just a cover, so why was she so concerned about it? I thought of Weiss, who was disgusted just by the image of the zombie. Then I thought of her going to the heavy metal section, and flipping through the CDs—all filled with covers of extreme designs and images—while desperately trying to locate the album of Iron Maiden hidden within. I no longer knew what I should say to her. Moreover…
"What?" Weiss noticed I had something to say. She shot a glance at me.
"No… it's nothing."
"Say it!"
"Mmm… it may be a little too much for me to be saying this, since you specially bought it for me, but this is actually their second album. The cover that you ruined is actually from their first album."
I couldn't blame her for confusing things, since the styles of both covers are extremely similar. After hearing that, Weiss's face turned red immediately.
Bang!
Weiss slammed her palms against her desk, and stood up. "I'll go buy it right now."
"Nah, lessons are about to begin."
"I'll buy it!"
"It just so happens that my second album's in pretty bad shape, so I'm really grateful to you for buying this album for me."
Just as I was consoling Weiss, the preparatory bells rang. And because our teacher came into class earlier than usual, Weiss finally removed the idea from her head. I really don't get girls at all!
After returning home, I found Mom watching a DVD concert of Weiss Schnee in the living room.
"Mom, you know Weiss?" I threw my mother question
"Hmm? Yeah, I do. Weiss Schnee, huh, Bach still suits her the best. There are some parts that don't flow smoothly in nearly all of his partita, but that's the fascinating point about them. Occasionally, there's the emergence of a few youngsters who can play Bach's music amazingly well. Take for example—"
"Enough, I don't want to listen to your views on those things."
"But I heard that she transferred to your school?"
"How did you know?" I turned around in surprise, and nearly fell after kicking the pot.
"Her father and I are old classmates from your school. And since her father is the school's director, he would definitely force her to study there unreasonably."
"Ah… right, she's his daughter."
Senju Tobirama is one of the greatest composers the world ever had who is well known. He also used to be a full-time conductor for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and is a famous musician as well. One of the topics that were widely discussed during Weiss's debut, was that her father is 'the world renowned Senju Tobirama.' There should be some who have tried to get the father and daughter pair to perform on the same stage, but Weiss disappeared from the music scene before any such performance became a reality.
"The thing is, our school no longer has music as a core subject, so why did she still transfer here?"
"I heard it was due to the constant complaints from his daughter. It had already been decided that she would be enrolling into the College of Music, but the daughter said she didn't want to. He was left with no choice but to allow her to study at a normal high school, and thus she transferred to your school. She no longer plays the piano, right? I felt she was one of those destructive types of pianists after listening to her pieces for the very first time. Her counter melody sounds like a quarrel among family members."
Hmm? But… I heard her playing the piano that day at The Department Store of Hearts' Desires. She… no longer plays the piano? Why? the strange time of her transfer. Still, why did she give up on the piano? I shook my head and no longer wished to think deeper into it.
Later in the night, I was practicing on my bass after having dinner in the living room. Just then, came a loud sound of avalanching items from the direction of the main door.
"Oohhh it's the ultimate bliss to die while buried amid all this great music from different eras…"
At the door, was Mom in her rare dress, buried within a heap of collapsed CDs. She was staring at the ceiling and murmuring to herself in a daze.
"Mom, what hell are you doing? Are you drunk!?" As I dug Mom out of the mess.
"Haruto, after I die you'll have to place Stravinsky's Firebird into my coffin. Don't go about playing Requiem Mass in D minor or something, just play St Matthew Passion! I'll then rewrite the record held by Jesus Christ, and revive myself within two days."
"There's no need for that, Mom!"
"Ah, mhmm. Been a long while since I met up with my fellow classmates from the College of Music… Urgg…"
"Ahhhh. I'll have to send this for cleaning."
After vomiting in the toilet, Mom returned with a pale face. In any case, I'll fix her a cup of hot lemon juice to fix her stupor.
"It's Weiss Schnee, right? You mentioned her before. She's a good girl, yeah. You know, there's a silly saying in music circles… see, in the case of the covers for the albums of female musicians, the picture's taken from their side profile—and it's especially so for the pianists. If she's prettier, the image will be a slanted profile of her face; if she is gorgeous, they'll take the picture from the front. And Weiss's the first I've seen who had her picture taken from bottoms up—Eh? What's wrong,Haruto? I've hit the spot?"
"Shut up Mom!"
"I actually came back from Tobirama's concert performance in Japan. I originally asked him to join us for a drink, but he said he'll be appearing on a live TV show, so it was expected that he would reject us. We did talk during the banquet though—seems like he'll be in Japan for this month, but he'll be traveling to a faraway place come November. Probably back to America."
"Weiss's father is back in Japan?'
He'll be returning to America in November. The three month Weiss's referring to… is that?
"… Then what about Weiss? You heard anything related to her?"
"Hah?"
"Nothing. So… she'll be following him back to America too?"
Somewhere around this time last year, Weiss would probably be with her father flying to multiple places all over Europe and America due to the world tour? However, she couldn't have done something pointless like transferring to our school for a few months, right?
"She's probably not returning back to piano, I think. I just heard about it today as well. Seems like the critics there have written some really nasty stuff about her. She had even participated in a competition that is not related to Tobirama, and obtained victory as well. But even then, she is still tied down by the fame of her father."
"Ah…"
"Her playing styles do invite attacks though. Like how she was not lively enough; how it was too calm; how horrible her presentation of the parts were; how her music was like crawling insects; or how she was overly reliant on her techniques… even I can think up of quite a bit of nasty critiques on the spot, and if I really want to, I can probably write about thirty pages on it. But it would be quite stupid of me if I were to really write them out—it's not like all the pieces you play will be considered good just because you played them all vibrantly."
"So that's the reason Weiss doesn't play the piano?"
"I don't think so. Well, it seems like they had written things about her private life even though it is not related to music, just because she is the daughter of a famous musician. You see… her mother, Willow Schnee, is Norwegian, and they're divorced now."
"Ah… " I suddenly remembered the day when I fixed her recorder for her. Norwegian.
"Ah, you mean you don't know about that? Well, we should stop talking about the topic. I feel like I'm a paparazzi who's hounding for some news."
Just when I was a junior high school student thinking of living my life leisurely back in Japan, Weiss was already on the other side of the seas under the scrutiny of the curious and hostile stares around her, and living a fearful life while grabbing her piano tightly. What sort of life is that? I can't imagine it at all. However, it's back to the initial problem once again. If she has really given up on the piano, then why is she playing the guitar?