In just a week, Kousei and Kaori would be at the airport with Hiroko as their guardian for America. School was over, all the 8th graders had graduated and are now in their summer break, the main four friends hanging out for as long as they can before the two musicians had to, unfortunately, leave their best friends for their future.

"It's kinda unsettling, y'know?"

Kousei, Kaori, and Tsubaki all turned their heads to Watari, whom was seated on the grass before his three friends who were on the bench in front of him. Kousei opened his mouth to question Watari's claim. "What's unsettling?"

Watari sighed and leaned on his hands from behind. "That the two celebrities are leaving for America." He fake sobbed. "Leaving their two best friends behind!"

"Uh...'celebrities' wouldn't exactly be fitting for Kaori and I, but sadly it is true that we have to go..." Kousei bit his lip and sighed, leaning his elbow on his knee. "We're gonna miss you all."

"Jokes on you, Kousei, but it's going around the music industry that the most loved duo is heading over there to the fame of the world." Watari grinned.

"Well, it isn't exactly all fame where Kousei and I are going. It's LA."

Tsubaki waved off Kaori and smiled. "Same thing."

Watari laughed and without knowing it, his mouth opened to say, "You're so cute, Tsubaki."

Everyone went quiet and stared at Watari, Tsubaki turning red with wide eyes. "WHAT?!"

Kousei and Kaori were laughing, but Tsubaki was having a small meltdown.

"Shut up, Watari! You don't just say things like that!" Tsubaki frowned and reached out to lightly kick him.

"Sorry, sorry!" Watari chuckled, despite being red himself, and laid back on the grass. "I'll be sure to keep it in my mind next time."

Hearing that didn't make Tsubaki's blush calm down at all. She frowned more and said, "Just shut up!" while looking off to the side.

"Okay," he chuckled.

A silence fell upon the four friends and Kousei found himself looking up at the sky, which was a clear blue. Kaori saw where her significant other was looking and gazed into that direction, asking, "What ya looking at?"

"The sky," was his simple answer. "It's a nice one today, really clear."

Kaori took her eyes off the air above her and stared at the side of Kousei's face, slowly growing a smile and looking back up to the sky. "Y'know, there's this saying I've heard."

"What is it?"

"'Once you have tasted the taste of sky, you will forever look up,' once said Leonardo Da Vinci." Kaori grinned and interlocked her hand with Kousei's. "So by all means, look up and don't look down."

Kousei laughed and squeezed Kaori's hand. "If there isn't at least one quote coming out of you, I think I'm going crazy."

Kaori giggled. "Well luckily I'm full of quotes."

Interrupting the two musicians, Tsubaki turned to them to ask, "Hey wait, aren't you two going to perform a 'goodbye' in the Towa Hall later this week?"

Watari had scratched his head in confusion. "Isn't it a competition? Well, for the violinists?"

"Well, yes, but Kousei and Kao are only gonna be just there to play as a goodbye, since they gotta go soon and won't make it to the next one if they get chosen by the audience or make it to first," said Tsubaki.

"Hm? Oh yeah!" Kaori smiled and grabbed Kousei's shoulders, shaking him a little too roughly to his taste. "I forgot that we get to perform again!" She giggled and grinned excitedly. "I'm so excited now!"

Kousei laughed, somewhat excited with a tint of nervousness. "I guess so. I haven't gone over there ever since you had to undergo your...y'know, surgery. Does this mean we have to have a painful amount of practice?"

Kaori smiled gently and shook her head, leaning her back against the bench. "Nope! I'm going easy from now on, since there's more time in the world to keep on practicing. Like I've said, we rule, no one is going to stop us!"

Kousei chuckled and scratched his cheek, gazing longingly at his significant other. "Alright then."

"You guys better send us some photos when you two land." Watari's voice had Kousei break his gaze and looked at his friend. The soccer player smirked and got off the ground and onto his feet. "Share some of the fresh Californian air with us too!"

"They won't be giving us any air, idiot." Despite saying this, Tsubaki smiled. "But he's right."

Kousei let out a small smile and stood up, stretching his arms out. "Alright. We promise to send photos."

Watari fist bumped the air and screamed out happily. "Yay!"

"But," Kaori stood up, "we need to stay in contact."

Sighing out, Tsubaki stood up like the others and scratched her head. "That's the scary part...what if we all just lost touch and like...stop talking?"

Everyone had gone quiet, many thoughts going through each of their heads. Kousei was the first to speak. "Um, well then we'll just have to find a way to keep in touch. All we have is devices..." He saw everyone looking down while Kaori had looked off into the distance, biting her lip in thought. He sighed and continued. "Come on, we've all been friends since we were just kids! I mean, aside from Kaori but she's also very close to us that she may as well be considered as a childhood friend."

Watari sighed and scratched his head. "I mean...I'm pretty sure Tsubaki and I will stay friends for a long while...but it's just you two I'm worried about."

"Don't worry." Kaori finally spoke up, her daydreaming coming to an end as she looked to her friends with a soft smile. "As we've said, we'll come visit from time to time."

The two boys and Tsubaki all smiled at Kaori, and silence was in the air until Watari brought his hand up halfway in between everyone. "Best friends till the end?"

Everyone just stared at the soccer player. He nodded his head with a warm smile.

Kaori's face had drooped a little, but she was the first to grin and placed her hand atop Watari's levitating one. "Best friends till the end."

Tsubaki and Kousei were the two left out of the forming circle, but Tsubaki smiled after some thought and included, "We better still be hanging together," before saying, "So, best friends till the end."

Kousei took a little more time than the others, because thoughts that he never wanted to even think about were roaming around his mind. All the negatives were bringing him down and putting more weight onto his arm, making it hard to bring it up for the circle. He wasn't going to bring up his arm anytime soon, but the look that everyone gave him-that one look of hope-brought him to get ahold of himself and he forced his arm up to place his hand over Tsubaki's.

The young pianist smiled, a warming look on his face. "Best friends...till the end."

~0000~

"So...what piece are we doing again?" Kousei turned around on the bench and faced the female violinist, who was storming up a chat with Tsubaki on her phone.

Kaori looked to Kousei and held a finger up before briefly finishing the convo and ending the call. She brightly smiled and turned her full attention on Kousei. "So. You wanna know the piece we're doing?"

Kousei shrugged his shoulders and nodded. "Well yeah, what is it?"

A sly grin came his way, and his girlfriend's eyes had a certain glint. "You'll have to wait." She walked up to him and gave his head a small pat.

Kousei just stared at the blonde. "What?" He tilted his head. "Shouldn't I know now so that we can practice?"

The teenage girl giggled and walked over to the side of the bench, pressing a key on the piano to emit a sound as she smiled at the instrument. "Yes, but...I rather we wait it out a little bit. I don't want to be...too harsh on you." She turned to him and gave him a small smile. "Like I was before."

Kousei didn't say anything, he just turned and faced Kaori, some time going by as she pushed chords, and placed his arm over the keys to lay his head on his arm, which had caused many keys to be pushed and create a mess of sound. He sighed and stared longingly at his love. "It's fine Kaori. You weren't really harsh at all, I do just need a little push to actually go with the flow." He saw Kaori smile and that made him smile, but he frowned a little and said, "But...is it that you don't want to tell me because you really don't know what we're going to play...?"

Kaori's face said it all, but she simply grinned and laughed nervously. "Uh...maybe?"

The coal-haired teen laughed and sat up straight, his arms reaching forward to give Kaori's waist a small, quick hug. "Why didn't you just say that then?"

Kaori humphed and crossed her arms. "I would feel embarrassed, that's why."

Kousei stood up and chuckled, shaking his head. "You really have some type of reputation to keep, don't you?"

Kaori nodded whilst Kousei went to go over to his shelf of music scores. She smiled and sat herself down on the bench he was once on and faced the piano, stroking her fingers over the keys as she started to play Ode to Joy.

Kousei turned from the shelf in shock and was about to question how she knew how to work the piano, but then he remembered that she's had lessons before so closed his mouth and went back to finding a piece. "Nice playing, but maybe you should loosen up your fingers a little from what I could see and hear. You're practically smashing the keys."

Kaori scoffed and stopped playing, her head turned so that she could look at Kousei, who was scavenging the shelves. "Well s-o-r-r-y, Mr. Pianist Perfectionist." She smiled when he turned to flash her a smirk before turning back to flip through scores again. "I'm a professional violinist, not pianist."

Kousei let out a chuckle and took out a piece from the shelf. "I wouldn't want it any other way either." He held the score in his hands, holding it up for Kaori to see the cover for herself. "I think I found which piece we will be doing, Kaori."

Kaori stood up and walked over to Kousei to grab the score out of his hands, reading it clearly. Her mouth formed into an 'o' but then a small smile came about.

"Romance for piano and violin...op. 11, composed by Dvorak." Kaori grinned and glanced up at Kousei. "Well aren't you a romantic fella."

Kousei blushed a bit and chuckled. He took the piece out of her hands and held it. "Well...I wanted to do something simple, and something that can leave the whole hall in awe, and as well as something the both of us can communicate through."

She smiled and ruffled her boyfriend's hair. "And...this is what you decided to choose? You didn't even look through every single one."

Kousei giggled and placed the score upon Kaori's hands. "It was actually the one I had been wanting to do...but...I had forgotten all about it until I started searching."

"Oh...well...why don't we do more of a flashy piece?" Kaori tucked the score under her arm and flipped through the shelf, leaving Kousei to stand behind her and ask, "And which one do you want that's 'flashy'?"

"Maybe...some Maurice Ravel?" Kaori took out a score and observed it, putting it back right after and continuing to skim.

A pause of silence.

Kousei felt his skin go cold, his eyes widened a little out of reflect at the mention of the composer. "W-which piece?"

"Pavane pour une infante défunte."

He felt time stop for a second; many, many thoughts going through his head. His hands got all clammy real quick and his heart pace quickened, an eerie feeling of anxiety hitting him. "U-uhm...I-I don't really..." Pavane for a dead princess... "I...don't think that counts as a...flashy song, I suppose..."

Kaori turned around to add on to what Kousei had said, but stopped when she saw how horrible Kousei had seemed to appear and immediately grew concerned. "Hey, are you okay?"

The pianists eyes moved and were then glued to the ground, his heart beat thrashing into his ears. Why? Why that particular piece? Why...w-why did she have to even think of it? Kousei felt Kaori's hands on his shoulders, but he didn't move. I hate that piece so much. It... I don't want to listen to Ravel...especially not after... Kousei felt Kaori's arms go around his waist in a hug, her body molded to his own as her chin rested on his shoulder. I hate it. Why? But why...do I just hate it so much? Is it because of the story it's the most mentioned in? The one that you, Kaori, had quoted from when I went to visit you... The... Kousei, out of nowhere, broke down and wrapped his arms around Kaori, holding her tight against him as he buried his scrunched up face in her neck. I hate it. He took a shaky breath. IhateitIhateitIhate-

"Kousei!" Kaori pulled away from the emotional teen and grabbed him by the shoulders once more, having him in place while cupping her hands to grab his cheeks. She saw the tears that let loose and wiped them away with her thumbs, her voice going softer. "Hey...hey Kousei...what happened? What's wrong?"

Kousei sniffed and shook his head. "It's nothing...it's fine I was just thinking about something."

"Kousei, it is not fine that you're crying for I don't know what..." Kaori sighed and gave Kousei a kiss on the nose and buried her face in his neck. "If you don't want to talk about it it's fine."

"I'm sorry," whispered Kousei. He held Kaori tight against him and wobbly repeated, "I'm sorry..."

Kaori closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. She wanted to cry, she's never seen Kousei so...vulnerable or distraught, it honestly hurt her. She wasn't sure what had affected him so much, all she did was suggest a piece she was the most familiar with...

Then suddenly, like two magnets coming together, something clicked in the blonde's mind. That...book...could it have been a traumatic experience that got Kousei to act like this? Remembering the novel, it dawned on Kaori that it did have a similar storyline to the world and life she is living in now... She pushed away from Kousei a little, looking at his fringes that were hanging from the motion of him looking down. "Hey, Kousei...w-"

"Kaori..." Kousei looked up and gave her a small smile and wiped away the tears he had, "don't fret, okay?"

Kaori's mouth opened a tad bit, wanting to ask her question she wanted to know from him, but she set it aside and just nodded. "O-okay." She hesitated again, but all that had come out was a sigh and a nod. "Alright then."

Kousei smiled lightly. He grabbed Kaori's hand and gave it a small kiss on the back. "Hey...I love you."

Kaori grinned and gave Kousei a quick peck on the mouth. "And I love you, Mr. Pianist."

Kousei smiled and moved away from Kaori as he turned around and walked back to the piano. "So, shall we wow the people with some Dvorak?"

A grin overcame the blonde's face. She giddily went over to her case and handed Kousei the piano scare while she had her violin score. She opened her case and picked up her violin by the neck as she turned to Kousei and smiled once again. "We shall."

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AANNDDD I'M SORRY FOR BEING ABSENT AGAIN LMAO. Finally here's a chapter, well half of what I plan for it. It's short I know but I wanted to get something done and out to you guys. Originally, this chapter is long but I don't want y'all to read too, too much...so I cut half and ended it here for y'all. I really appreciate you guys who still read this story, honestly going back and rereading what I had written seemed a tad bit rushed, as well as their relationship and their characters being too ooc, buuuut idk.

Anyway, I'm sad to stay that updates may come a bit more later ? I'm going to freshman year and it's starting on the 30th of August this month, low-key scared but excited oof.

But thank you all who read this and the story and chapter and made it this far, much love<3

See you all later:) (I apologize if this wasn't the best either woops)