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Eugene had never thought very deeply about love. Romantic love, that is. He had thought plenty about his love for his parents, his grandmother, for reading a good book as rain beat against his window. He felt pretty content with all the love he had in his life currently, so he never found himself wanting for much more. Even when his classmates started yearning—more so for the idea of a boyfriend or girlfriend than the actual people they claimed to have crushes on—he found himself too preoccupied with schoolwork or, well, anything else really.
Not to say that he hadn’t heard whisperings of what people called soulmates .
He wouldn’t entirely deny the idea. It seemed absurd obviously, especially as a phenomena that had only begun being reported a few hundred years or so ago. But there were just too many witnesses to these meetings between “soulmates” to deny that there was something going on.
It was enough to pique his interest in a distant sort of way, but not enough to spend time obsessing over it the way his particularly hopeless romantic peers did. If any more information came out he would read up on it, but until that day it was irrelevant to his life. There was no way he would be one among hundreds of thousands to possess one of these “soulmates”.
All that to say, he was trying not to think too deeply about the music he could hear, dull and muted like it was coming from another room. It might have been easy to convince himself that it was just coming from one of the other classrooms—if he hadn’t been hearing it since he woke up this morning.
When he had first come into consciousness this morning he was immediately struck by the out-of-place sound, unsure if he had left a video playing on his phone or if his mom just decided to find some way to add some spirit to her morning routine. But upon finding out that neither of those things were the case, a thought immediately sprung into the back of Eugene’s mind.
But no. There was definitely no way.
Hallucinations weren’t that uncommon in healthy individuals. Especially in the mornings, sometimes people’s minds just played tricks on them.
So he had knocked himself out of his bewildered daze and gotten on with his morning routine, ignoring the very faint, almost non-existent sound of orchestral strings.
The fact that it still remained as he sat in his classroom a few hours later was…slightly more concerning, but not exactly proof that his original theory was incorrect.
He tried desperately to focus on the lecture, knowing that there were only a few more minutes left of this period before lunch hour. At the very least, he would be able to distract himself with the loud ruckus that Kanzaki and Tamon were prone to causing, bickering about one thing or the other depending on the day. He thought it might not be a good idea to tell either of them, though.
When he had mentioned hopelessly romantic peers, Kanzaki and Tamon were definitely the first to come to mind. Kanzaki read too much manga, and those shoujo romances (which Kanzaki always denied reading) were far too keen on using soulmates as a plot device. Tamon was just the type who was into that stuff, his love of music making it not entirely unsurprising.
When Eugene had finally broken and decided to ask, Tamon answered him by talking about how excited he was to hear his soul song. No matter how slim the chances were.
Eugene thought that was great for the both of them. It’s good to dream. He, on the other hand, had no desire to wish for this particular dream. There was no idea less appealing than the universe (or God or who knows what) telling him who to love.
So no, he decided. He would keep the strange events from this morning to himself. Because, as he kept repeating like a mantra, that was not what was happening right now.
At long last, the clock ticked to the final minute and everyone began to chatter amongst themselves and pull out their lunchboxes while others packed up and prepared to leave for other classrooms. Before they could get too loud or too far though, their teacher interrupted them with a shout.
“Hold on a second! You’re not dismissed until I say so.” She called out, gesturing for everyone to sit back down. They all groaned, but were quickly shut up by her glare. Finally, as the chatter quieted, she was able to continue. “Just as a warning: we’ll be getting a new student and he’ll be coming here right after lunch. So when you see him, be nice. Now you’re dismissed.”
If Eugene had his way, the ever-present music would begin playing something extremely ominous. Instead, it continued to play a chorus of strings, and brass, and a whole lot of unfittingly bright melodies. Well jokes on you Universe, he could still feel perfect foreboding no matter what kind of sappy soundtrack was playing in the background.
A new student. That was definitely unrelated to this sudden auditory hallucination and the way it ticked up a couple notches after the teacher’s announcement.
He heard a muttered conversation between two of his classmates across the room. “ Hey, do you hear that music? ”
Eugene packed his lunch quite quickly after that, desperate for the reprieve his friends would provide. He cursed the world the whole way.
♡♡♡
The whole of the lunch period was spent dodging concerned looks and prodding questions, trying to maintain a state of normalcy. If they didn’t ask and he didn’t tell, then he wouldn’t have to admit to the way that the music just kept getting louder. Still, he couldn’t help the jittery bounce of his leg as he routinely glanced at the clock, dreading what happened after lunch.
He wasn’t stupid. However, smart people are still capable of living in denial.
He brushed off some final pointed remarks from Kanzaki and Tamon, undoubtedly trying to figure out what was wrong and possibly catching on to the fact that the music they had been hearing muted in the background may not have been what it first appeared. As he was walking back to his classroom—as slow as possible without risking being late—he found himself unintentionally walking to the beat of the music. Out of spite, he walked the rest of the way purposefully off-beat.
When he got weird looks from those in the hallway, he was uncertain if it was from that or the fact that music seemed to follow him as he walked. It seemed he wouldn’t be able to avoid the problem for much longer, if others were noticing this quickly now.
Even though he now properly recognized the problem, he had no clue what he was going to do about it. Panic, most likely. Jump out of the window? A little less likely, but always a possibility.
He finally made it to his classroom and peered in cautiously, trying to see if he saw any unfamiliar faces—the possible new student. The coast appeared to be clear for now.
He took his seat and unpacked his things like normal. His notebook, workbook, a pencil, and a pen. He arranged them all neat and orderly on his desk, grasping for a sense of control in an otherwise uncontrollable situation. He ignored the blatant looks as his classmates turned to him to find the source of the noise—some catching on immediately and snickering or winking at him, others staring in shock, unable to believe that something so romanticised would happen in front of them in the middle of a boring, ordinary school day.
The rest of his classmates rolled in while Eugene switched between being unable to keep his eyes off the door and locking his gaze to his desk in fear of the moment where the new student (his…) would walk in.
The class became quiet, but not calm, as the teacher walked in again. They were all waiting in anticipation, most having probably guessed what was making the music rise to an extremely-noticeable, not at all muted volume. A moment after walking in, the teacher noticed the commotion as well, unable to detect the exact person the noise was coming from.
She tried to fight back a small grin, but she was unable to and tried to hide behind her hand instead. She cleared her throat and it ended up coming out more like a chuckle. “Well, then-”
Eugene would never hear what she was about to say—whether or not she was going to acknowledge the elephant (more like a fully grown Blue Whale) in the room or if she had a bit more tact—because a loud sound distracted her. A sound that was growing louder and louder .
The sound of a cheesy saxophone obnoxiously broke through the hushed school halls. They could all trace the movement of the sound by the resulting commotion of students leaning out of their classrooms to observe.
Eugene hunched over as much as possible and dropped his head into his hands. He knew if he lifted his head he would be bright red. They could all hear loud steps making their way hastily towards their classroom.
The sound of strings and saxophone and drums reached a fever pitch, mixing together in a very disharmonious way, especially paired with the chittering of all his classmates.
The door opened with a slam.
Eugene didn’t feel like looking up as the music was as loud as it had ever been, essentially lighting a bright neon sign pointing straight at Eugene.
“Aha! It’s you !”
After his exclamation, the room was suddenly doused in alarming silence. The music was cut short, like the universe itself was waiting for his response. ‘ Well? ’ it was saying.
Eugene lifted his head.
At the front of the room was a boy with fluffy black hair and eyes brighter than any he had ever seen. Though he would bet that the fire engine red of his own face might have the boy’s eyes beat. He was smiling wide, punctuated by sharp canines, and pointing right at Eugene with a triumphant look across his face.
Though the music no longer played, Eugene still felt like he could hear it—in his head or in his heart—as his pulse beat like a drum and roared in his ears like a brass instrument.
Eugene had never given much thought to romance, but sometimes the Universe got back at you by shoving it right into your face with cheesy sax, eyes red like a sunset’s whisper, and a smile that shoots you straight through the heart.
“ This ,” their teacher began, barely containing a laugh, “Is the new student, Mogari Shishikuno.”
Eugene didn’t know what to say or think. But, he managed to consider, at least he was cute.