Chapter Text
Guitar Lessons only $20 a week!!
Bonus Lessons for additional $10 per week with any
Brass
String
Percussion
Woodwind
Instrument!!
vvvv Just take a ticket and call the number!! vvvv
Kiku could only look at the flyer and judge the (honestly) bad design of the flyer on the bulletin board. He imagined that was most likely the main reason why all but one of the tickets badly cut at the end of the paper were still there. It almost made him cringe, but he could tell effort was (crudely) put into it so he only squinted at the paper to try and ignore the design and focus more on the offer.
He was a little interested in what the flyer was offering, seeing how cheap the lessons were compared to the $500 lessons of professional companies, as well as the fact that it offered lessons with other instruments. Kiku himself only knew piano (because of his parents) and flute (to fill in the music requirement), so maybe it’d look better for him to be able to play something like guitar.
Now, Kiku wasn’t a music major (he actually majored in digital arts). In fact, he didn’t have much interest in music and only has the knowledge of basic music theory from being in his high school orchestra. The only time he ever really listened to music was when he was doing homework (so as to block out any intruding sounds) and when he walked the streets in between classes, as students would play their instruments as practice or for some extra money.
However, his dormmate, an Italian with a traditional arts major, Feliciano, had said that Kiku was living a boring life as a freshman. Kiku was never really one to take words like that very seriously (all he wanted to do was just get through college and take a job at a graphic design company or something like that afterward), but when he looked at how lively Feliciano was, Kiku was a bit more conscious with how he went about his hobbies.
So now, even with the poorly made flyer putting him off, he was considering the cheap guitar lessons.
He took one of the messily cut tickets and went up to his dorm.
*****
[Dialing…]
[Pick up]
“Hello?”
“HELLO!”
Loud… “Ah, hello, I’m calling to ask about-”
“Oh could you be asking about guitar lessons!”
(some mumbling and shuffling could be heard on the other line)
Good to know I have the right number… “Ah… yes… I was wondering if they’re still available… ?”
“Oh yeah they totally are! You interested in taking them?!”
(more mumbling and a muffled squeal(?))
“Yes…”
“Oh cool! Just tell me what time and what day of the week you’re free, as well as how you’d like to pay?”
“Aah well… I’m free Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays so… and I’d like to pay in monthly installments...”
“Sure! So how about this Saturday at 2:00 pm?”
“Sure…”
“I’ll text you the address of our meetup place, so, when you get there, just look for a blond guy with a lot of big luggage! Thank you for signing up! Bye-bye!”
“Bye…”
[Hang up]
What a strange guy…
*****
“Are you sure you’re supposed to meet here?” Feliciano asked worriedly.
It was Saturday, almost 1:45 pm, and he and Kiku had arrived at the address that the man over the phone (Come to think of it, I never got his name… thought Kiku) had texted him and it turned out to be… a cafe.
“Ahh well, this is the place he told me. There’s still fifteen minutes before we’re supposed to meet, so let’s just go inside and wait?” Kiku responded.
“If you’re sure… it just seems kind of suspicious. I mean, what if he’s, like, some sort of player that makes adult videos and he’s trying to get honest people to act in them!”
“Well, a cafe may not be the mostー” Kiku opened the door for the both of them “ーideal place, but it’s near the music department buildings, so maybe he just wants to meet up and introduce himself before continuing with lessons in another building.”
“That! That… makes sense… I guess…” Feliciano pouted, crossing the entrance.
Kiku had to admit that meeting up at a cafe (aptly named CAFEinated) that was a popular dating spot was a little sketchy, but the person over the phone didn’t sound like too much of a bad guy (even if he was loud), and if you could trust anyone’s instincts, your best bet was Kiku Honda.
“What did he say he looked like again?” Feliciano asked as they sat at a table, waiting for the guitar lesson man to show up, the coffee they’d ordered almost done.
It’d already been five minutes after 2:00 pm, but Kiku had insisted on waiting just a little bit longer for the man to come.
“Blond. Carrying a lot of big luggage. He’s also loud when he’s excited, it seems.”
And, at that moment, as if on cue, the door had practically been slammed open by someone who fit that very description.
“FRANCIS COULD I GET THE REGULAR TO-GO BECAUSE I’M SORT OF IN A HURRY!” he shouted.
An irritated shout in French was the only response the man got.
“Umm… do you think that could be him?” Feliciano whispered to Kiku.
“I… I would think so…” Kiku was getting a case of second-hand embarrassment, slightly regretting his decision to take these lessons with such a person.
Before Kiku could turn to look at Feliciano for confirmation, the Italian had already risen from his seat and had started toward the blond, who looked sort of exhausted, yet excited. Kiku quickly followed after his dormmate.
“-here for guitar lessons!” Kiku had heard Feliciano say when he’d arrived right behind him.
“Ohh, so that’s why you sound different!” said the man.
“Aha, well, here’s the friend! He’s Kiku, and I’m Feliciano!” The latter had pulled Kiku next to him.
Up close, Kiku could see that the blond was about a head taller than him (though, he’d always been shorter than his peers, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise) and that he wore red-rimmed glasses over his blue eyes. His face had some sweat glistening on his forehead, indicating that he probably ran to the cafe.
“Oh, well, nice to meet you! I’m Alfred! Alfred F. Jones!” He smiled widely, and it was almost as if the two in front of him were hit by a direct beam of sunlight. “So… just… err, Kiku? Was it?”
“Ah, yes, only me,” Kiku spoke.
“Alright! Oh, and Feli, if you ever want lessons too, just ask!” Alfred winked before looking to Kiku and pulling him towards the counter to pick up his coffee. Kiku could see the look of confusion his friend had had before hesitantly exiting through the doorway. In all honesty, Kiku had been a bit confused too, and he’d started to think, What a strange guy…
*****
“So! This is the piano room! There are other rooms we could use, but this room has the best acoustics, plus it has a piano to help with tuning!” Alfred exclaimed, the echo enunciating the room’s great sound.
Maybe it was because Kiku was just hastily pulled into the most suspicious looking building he had ever seen, but the piano room didn’t look as grand as Alfred had put it; the only thing grand about it was the one piano in the middle of the room. Without it, it’d just be a big room with almost blindingly white walls (though, admittedly, it was much better than the old and damp exterior).
Kiku decided to sit at the piano, feeling a bit of nostalgia when looking at it.
“So, Kiku, would you mind telling me a little bit about yourself while I unpack everything? Like, maybe talk about your history with music?”
“Ah… well… I know music theory… and how to play flute… and piano… but otherwi-”
“You play piano?”
“Ahh… yes…” He interrupted me… Kiku thought.
“You remember any pieces? I kinda want to hear you play something! That’s if you don’t mind, of course.”
“I don’t mind, justー” the shorter man exhaled slowly “ーI think I remember how to play one piece, so I’ll just…?”
“Go ahead! This is the piano room after all!”
With that, Kiku seated himself in front of the piano, all the keys at his disposal. The only “complex” piece he could remember besides all the nursery rhymes was Gymnopedie, by Erik Satie.
It was a very poignant piece, and quite baroque, but it was a nice composition that could accompany many different stories with only three parts, so he decided it would suffice.
He tuned up with the piano, trying to remember how the placement of his fingers should be. He went through the scales he knew before settling down, ready to play.
Kiku started, his hands moving across the keys in a very relaxed way. Most of the notes were half and quarter notes, so there was no need to have much action when playing. He bobbed his head to keep in time, the memory of the piece becoming clearer and clearer. And, before he even knew it, he was done with the first part of the composition.
He paused to inhale sharply before continuing with the second part, and repeated this process to segway into the third. He finished with some finesse, exhaling slowly, the opposite of his rests.
Kiku turned to Alfred, who transitioned from a small smile into a bright beam and exclaimed, “Wow! I mean, I could tell it was an easy piece, but each note you played was crisp, yet smooth, sorta like a really good french fry!”
“Ah, thank you,” Kiku said in response, cocking his head to the side slightly at the french fry simile.
“Though, isn’t this piece used for sort of sad scenes? It’s sort of melancholic, don’t you think?”
“Maybe so, but I think it’s more of a description of a playful walk through rain. Either way, it’s quite a romantic song, yes?”
“Ohh, I guess you have a point!” Alfred said, going through a range of expressions.
Noticing this, Kiku couldn’t help but think, again, What a strange guy…
Alfred spoke up again, “Ahh, so! Before we start, I’ll tell you a little bit about my own history with music as I warm up, okay?”
The other man nodded his in approval, and so, picking up one of the guitars he had unpacked earlier, Alfred started, strumming chords, starting with Cー
“Well, when I was about three or four years old, I found this double bass in my attic and when I told my dad,”
C to Eー
“he said it was his and I begged him to give me lessons, but he said, ‘Oh no, Al, I’m not good enough to teach you,’”
E to Gー
“and so we ended up spending about $800 on lessons for me, and honestly the only reason I wanted to play the contrabass was because I heard it was a jazz instrument, and I love jazz above a lot of genres,”
G to Bー
“And I didn’t play it as much after fourth grade, since that was the year I started to play trumpet, which is, famously, another jazz instrument,”
B to Dー
“I continued that for three years, and in seventh grade I took up flute, and I learned fast, though I did play trumpet if the band director asked me to, and that started my time with woodwind instruments, like in eighth grade: I took up clarinet and saxophone, since, you know, they’re both single reed instruments, and saxophone is, also famously, a jazz instrument,”
D to Fー
“And then in high school, I was, officially, a part of the percussion section, and I got into drumline, but I helped out with the school concert band since I had some basic knowledge with all of those instruments, and I got into jazz band too! You could probably tell I really enjoyed that,”
F to Aー
“And I made lots and lots of friends! So I learned how to play instruments like oboe and french horn and trombone and euphonium and piano and xylophone… And I also helped out with the choir so I learned to sing!”
C to D to E to G to F to A to B and then back to C
“Yet, throughout all of that, I secretly learned lots of string instruments, like cello and violin and viola and, obviously, guitar, since my school couldn’t afford to have them, though my dad had to rent them for me to practice with,”
In playful strumsー
“But then one day, on my birthday, I think before freshman year, he said to me, ‘You know, Al, you’re so passionate about music it breaks my heart you can’t have one of your own, but I’m going to change that now,’ and he showed me this big suitcase looking thing about the size of my torso and I just knew it would be a trumpet,”
The rhythm like the feeling of going downstairs as a childー
“And so for five years, my dad always gave me a new instrument on Christmas and on my birthday, which is in July, and that first year I got a trumpet and my dad handed down his double bass; the second year I got a violin and a viola; the third I got a cello and a french horn; my senior year I got a guitar and a keyboard,”
Upstairs nowー
“And after I graduated, I told my dad I would be a music major here, and he was like, ‘I shoulda known,’ and he brought out this whole drum set for me and he said, ‘To commemorate your time as a drum major in high school,’ and, gosh, it was like the best dad joke I’d ever heard from him because he knew I was a percussionist as well as drum major in marching band and I swear I’d started crying,”
An echo effectー
“Because gahh! He did it so coolly but you could see he was crying too. And now I’m a freshman here as a music major!”
And a little riff through the scales to end it, placing his hand on the strings to stop the lingering vibration.
“Anyway, that was a long story and a long warm-up, wasn’t it?” Alfred brightened, cracking his knuckles and stretching his arms.
Kiku had stopped staring at the blond’s hands on the guitar when he’d stopped playing and looked up.
So, after Alfred had said his closing statement, Kiku'd said, “You seem so familiar with the guitar, and yet you play all those instruments… So you really weren’t kidding when you’d listed all those sections for bonus lessons?”
“Nope! Ahh, and speaking of the flyer, are you a traditional arts major by any chance?”
“Well, I’m a digital arts major...?”
“Even better! So, I want to strike a deal with you!” Alfred smiled, and it could’ve worked so well on so many people (and, admittedly, Kiku was starting to give into it).
“What do you propose?”
“Well… you know how the flyer is, you know, kinda… crappy? My dormmate, Gilbertーhe’s also a music majorーsaid he would take care of all the flyers, and they honestly looked, no offence to him of course, kinda bad…? But, you know, he spent all night working on it and copying them so I just kinda stuck with it, but I want to replace it since this whole gig’s supposed to bring in more money between the two of us and I honestly think the flyers are putting everyone off… you know?
“So!” Alfred clapped, “If you like the lesson, would you please help design new flyers?” His hands were clasped and his look was hopeful and sincere, so Kiku was starting to pity the blond.
He thought it over for about two seconds before deciding that he would deal, since he thought it was a pity no one would see Alfred play and because it would be good practice for Kiku.
However, he hesitated for another two seconds because he was afraid that if he accepted this time, the Alfred would ask for a lot of other favours using that same gesture of pitifulness, and Kiku would probably learn to fall for it more than not.
But, in the end, he sighed and said, “Okay.”
“Great!, I’ll talk about the details after we finally start this lesson, how about that?” Alfred grinned, picking up the other guitar and handing it to Kiku.
Another “Okay” spilled from the shorter man as he accepted it, copying Alfred’s positioning and thinking (at the back of his head), Oh boy…