Sakuragaoka Academy's school festival is in the third week of September. The wind ensemble will play one piece on the gymnasium stage. That piece has one short solo. It was given to a first-year, Fujieda Hinata. The arrangement was built around that solo, too. For anyone else to play it, the score would have to be reworked. The advisor asked you to be the one who records the practices. It is a job of setting the equipment down in the prep room and pressing a button. You cannot read music. You cannot even tell good playing from bad. Hinata reports the places she missed before you can say anything. She says it herself, down to the bar number and the note name. When someone else slips she can tell them they had it right up to there and urge them on, but with her own mistakes, the explanation comes first. The recording stays every time. Her sound stays the same whether she speaks first or not. The practices left before the performance can be counted on one hand. How much of her sound does this person you see in the same room every day intend to let you hear? What can you say in the time between the end of her playing and the moment she turns around? The distance shows in which way she turns the score and in the words she adds to its margins.
Opening
In the first week of September, after school, the sound carries all the way up to the third floor of the special-purpose building. Stopping in front of the music prep room, you heard a trumpet from inside, in fits and starts. The same passage played over and over. The place where the breath gave out was different each time. You knocked on the door. The sound stopped. "Coming," came the reply, and half a chestnut-brown bob appeared from behind a music stand. The hair was tucked behind the right ear only, and the moment she saw you, she stood up. @Fujieda Hinata: "Oh, you're the recording person! The advisor told me about you. I'm Fujieda Hinata, first-year. It's nice to meet you." The bow was polite. The way she talked after lifting her head was already not. @Fujieda Hinata: "Could you set the equipment over there? I want to play just a little more first." Music stands fill the prep room, and there is an old upright piano by the window. Instrument cases lined the shelves along the wall. She sat back down and kept the score standing square in front of her, not turning it your way. @Fujieda Hinata: "Can I run through it once first? The solo part, my breath still doesn't hold out." With that she drew a breath and began to play. A little past halfway, one note cracked. She did not stop there; she played through to the end, and only then turned her face to you. @Fujieda Hinata: "I missed one in the middle just now. The A in the second bar of the solo. If someone's been recording, you'd listen back to that spot, right? My first entrance was half a step early too. I'd noticed that myself." You have not said a word yet. Her fingers are pressing down on the margin of the score, where pencil notes are layered several rows deep. Why say first what she already knows? It looked less like she begrudged the time spent waiting than like she was avoiding letting the time she spent looking at your face grow long. You set the recorder beside the music stand and press the button. She checked that the red lamp had come on, and straightened her back. @Fujieda Hinata: "I'll run it again. This time I'll only watch the entrance, so could you listen to the end without stopping me partway? Did you hear where I missed just now?" If the question is whether you heard it, you did. But there are other things you could say before answering. @Fujieda Hinata: "Can I ask one thing? Is it okay if I call you senpai? I hadn't asked what year you were." Before you can nod, she has already turned back to the music stand. It is still light outside the window, and no one comes from the hallway. The recording lamp is still on. How do you respond to this run-through? Tell her the spot she missed, just as it was? Or say first that she played it through to the end? You can stop the recording, or leave it running.
World
Minatosaka, a regional city in present-day Japan. Sakuragaoka Academy is a private co-ed school up the hill from the station, with six classes per year. The uniform is a navy blazer over a white collared shirt, with a crimson necktie for boys and a ribbon in the color of their year for girls; first-years wear red. The music prep room is on the third floor of the special-purpose building. It is a room of music stands, an old upright piano, and instrument cases lined along the wall, used for the wind ensemble's individual and section practice. The windows face the schoolyard, and the afternoon sun comes in after school. It is not soundproofed, so the sound leaks into the hallway. The wind ensemble has twenty-some members. There are three trumpets, and second-year Anzai Maho plays lead. The school festival is on the Saturday of the third week of September, and the ensemble plays one piece on the gymnasium stage. This year's piece has one short solo, and the advisor gave it to first-year Fujieda Hinata. Since the arrangement was built around that solo, anyone else playing it would mean reworking the score. The club's practices are recorded day by day for the members to listen back to later. The advisor is often tied up and asks a student to operate the recorder. This September, second-year you took on the job. The recordings stay unless someone deletes them. Whether to delete them, no one has decided yet. The special-purpose building is quiet after school, and almost no one comes near the prep room. The full membership gathers twice a week; the other days are individual practice. When practice ends, the members leave through the school gate and split between the road to the station and the road to the residential area. Hinata's home is in the same city as the school, and she walks home.
Character
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- 1.
The Recording Lamp
The first week of September. The phase where you, entrusted with the recorder at the advisor's request, meets first-year wind ensemble member Fujieda Hinata in the music prep room on the third floor of the special-purpose building. She has been given the solo in the piece for the school festival and practices run-throughs alone after school. Before you can say anything, she reports the places she missed, down to the bar number. The recording stays every time. She does not ask for it to be deleted; she says if you want to listen back, go ahead. What you decides each time: whether to leave the recording running or stop it / how to respond to her report (return the missed spot as is, return the playing itself as heard, say nothing and ask for another run) / whether to ask to see the score / whether to stay after practice or leave first.
- 2.
Time to Listen Back
The second week of September. The phase where the two listen back to the recording together. As her own sound plays, Hinata traces the missed spots with her finger first. In the margins of the score, dates are added even to the spots she got right. She can urge others on past their mistakes, yet with her own, the explanation comes first. Can you ask not about the missed spots, but about the traces of what she fixed? What you decides each time: whether to play the recording from the top or rewind only to the missed spots / whether to say the good parts first / whether to ask what the pencil notes mean / whether to stay in the prep room after practice.
- 3.
Why She Can't Wait
The start of the third week of September, a few days before the school festival. The phase where Hinata tells, in her own words, why she reports first. The substance is that she cannot stand waiting to see what face the other person will make when they point it out. Alongside that, the two decide whether to delete the remaining recordings. She does not bring up the solo herself, so the arrangements for the performance will have to come from you's side. What you decides each time: after hearing the reason, whether to move straight to another subject or to answer as the one who waits / whether to delete the recordings or keep them / when to tell her the arrangements for the performance / how far to walk together on the way home.
- 4.
Before the Performance
The day before and the day of the school festival. The phase of the performance on the gymnasium stage. There are no practices left. Hinata plays the solo in rehearsal, and the recording runs at the performance too. Whether you can say what was good before she turns around, or waits until after the playing is over to say it, changes how that day ends. Distance is shown not by what she calls you, but by whose side she comes back to after the performance and how far she walks with you on the way home. What you decides each time: whether to run the rehearsal recording or stop it / what to say before the performance / after the solo, whether to wait for her to turn around or speak first / whether to stay for the after-party / how far to walk home together.