As we made our way up to the second floor, Danyu kept asking questions about the house. Where was the kitchen, how large were the rooms, how well was the piano room soundproofed. I answered each question in turn, and in spite of myself, I found my mind conjuring images of her living here. Would she have scolded me if she had noticed? A foolish thought, and I let out a quiet laugh at it. By then Danyu had already gone into the room and was pressing the piano keys, and she spoke up.

“The keys on your piano are a little heavy, Astaire.”

“Heavy enough to strain your wrists?”

“No, not that bad. Actually, I rather like the solid feel. They say the piano at Brigitte Hall has a heavy touch too, so I could practice for the recital here as well.”

“Ah, yes. How convenient.”

I forced my reluctant mouth to move and smiled thinly. A recital at Brigitte Hall. I had told myself I only needed to hold out for a few weeks, since she was here to practice a piece for her sister’s wedding, and this news struck me like a thunderclap. Since the Jubilion, Danyu had received several recital invitations, and the one at Brigitte Hall was the last of them, scheduled for this coming autumn. Which meant Danyu would be turning up at my home like this all the way until autumn. My thoughts were already in turmoil.

“I’m thinking of playing Hwawon at my sister’s wedding. It suits a wedding perfectly, don’t you think?”

The Flower Garden. I knew the piece myself, having played it at a few friends’ weddings over the years. True to its name, it was a beautiful and gentle piece, and I remembered feeling rather embarrassed playing it. But the thought occurred to me that if it were Danyu performing it rather than me, it would suit her perfectly.

Danyu had already settled herself at the piano and opened the sheet music, and before long she began to move her hands slowly. Whether it was true that she still had a great deal of practicing to do, a few notes slipped out of place here and there, but as always, the sound was beautiful. A soft melody layering over an arpeggio accompaniment. The lyrical phrases that called to mind a delicate flower in bloom, and Danyu playing with her eyes closed in quiet stillness, were beautiful together, like something out of a painting.

Faced with a beauty that deserved nothing less than reverence, I could not hold back, and I pressed my lips to her forehead. The moment my lips made the lightest contact, Danyu’s hands stopped where they had been wandering across the keys.

“You really are terrible. Do you enjoy seeing me flustered that much?”

Danyu looked up at me from the piano bench with a prim, sharp-eyed look. She said it with considerable boldness, but her face was red, and it was plain she was thoroughly embarrassed. I reached out and lightly stroked her hair, letting a small laugh escape.

“It isn’t that I enjoy seeing Miss Danyu flustered. I enjoy that Miss Danyu is flustered because of me. In those moments, you are thinking of no one but me.”

Danyu ducked away from the hand stroking her hair and stuck out her lower lip. She looked full of grievances, her expression making it plain she could not agree with a single word I had said.

“Then you’re really wasting your effort. I think about Astaire every single day without any of that.”

The blunt words froze the smile on my lips. Come to think of it, it was always like this. Danyu would say something without a second thought, and I would be undone by it and want her all the more.

“Miss Danyu, you really…”

I murmured the reproach under my breath, almost like a groan, and brought my lips to hers. It begins, as it always has, with a gentle taking of her lips. Then, little by little, I move deeper, into her mouth, stirring through all of her as though to claim everything. Each time, Danyu would grip my sleeve and carefully surrender herself to that movement. A strange, quiet familiarity, like two people slowly becoming accustomed to each other, filled me until I could barely contain it.

But our kisses always stopped here. Since the moment in the empty lecture room when I had wanted to have her completely, I had been working steadily to hold the line. The thought that if I failed to keep a careful distance, I might hurt her at some unguarded moment was what kept me afraid.

I drew back from her before I could want her any more than I already did. Danyu sat on the bench with her flushed face and stared at me blankly for a moment, then bit down hard on her lip. That was her way of showing she was unhappy with me. I watched her face with some apprehension, but Danyu let out a sigh and shook her head.

“No matter how I think about it, I’m the one at a disadvantage.”

I tilted my head, not quite following, and Danyu struck my chest lightly with a thoroughly sulky expression.

“Honestly. Why are you so good at this? How much practice have you had! I’ve never been with anyone before, never kissed anyone before, and here you are having gone around with one woman after another. I wish I could do something so devastatingly skillful that it knocked you completely senseless. I’m the only one who ends up flustered and helpless every single time. Maybe I should go off and get some practice somewhere.”

“And just who do you intend to practice something like this with?”

My voice had gone flat. Knowing Danyu’s nature, I understood it was clearly a joke, but the mere thought of her lips meeting someone else’s made my chest drop. She must have noticed my mood souring, because a wide smile spread across her face instead. Having been on the receiving end of the teasing every time, she must have decided this was a fine opportunity to get back at me.

“Hmm, let me think. Perhaps I could ask Peter from my class?”

The name that came from Danyu’s lips was one I knew as well. He was a student in one of my courses, the same age as Danyu, with a very attentive manner in class.

“You’re on a first-name basis with him?”

“His older brother is at the same school. Calling them both by their surname gets confusing.”

“No, more to the point, have you been paying attention to him?”

“Do I need to make a point of it? He’s good-looking. He catches the eye without even trying.”

She said it playfully, but I had no desire whatsoever to play along. My face had gone rigid, and I gripped Danyu by the shoulders. She startled and looked up at me. She must have finally seen the look on my face, because she went flustered and began darting her eyes around.

“If it was your intention to provoke me, you have done an excellent job, Miss Danyu.”

I pressed into the mouth that had fallen open to make excuses. It was not a gentle kiss like the one before. She had deliberately needled me to put me in a bad mood, and I was in no state to be considerate of her the way I usually was. Danyu grabbed hold of me in alarm as my tongue pushed in roughly. The fine trembling of her hands made her fear and confusion plain, but I pressed her further still.

Danyu’s body gave way. Her back met the piano bench, and my body came down over hers. I slowly lifted my lips from Danyu and straightened my arms, and there she was beneath me, drawing ragged breaths. I could not look away from those eyes, fixed entirely on me.

“That boy is getting an F without question.”

I muttered it gruffly into her ear, then pushed myself upright. Still not fully composed, I turned away, and from behind me came a voice laced with laughter. I glanced back to find Danyu already sitting up, grinning broadly.

“You really shouldn’t let personal feelings into the classroom, Professor Werner.”

“He’s still getting an F. I never liked him to begin with. Staring at Miss Danyu every class, putting his hand on her shoulder like they’re close.”

“Good heavens. You noticed all of that?”

It hadn’t been intentional. It had simply happened, without my realizing it. Because my eyes had always, without fail, found their way to her. I looked at Danyu, who was staring at me with wide, bewildered eyes, and let out a helpless laugh.

“It can’t be helped. Whenever you’re there, my gaze just drifts in your direction before I know it.”

The words came out without any particular force, and Danyu’s lips pressed shut. Had something in what I said rubbed her the wrong way? Danyu watched me grow flustered under her gaze, then let out a quiet laugh and wrapped her arms around my waist.

“You really are terrible. One of these days I’m going to make you completely lose your composure, Astaire. I’ll make you so shocked you fall right over backwards. Don’t come crying to me about it then.”

The declaration was so endearing that I burst out laughing.

“I’m not joking. I mean it.”

Danyu squeezed my waist tighter in protest at my laughter, but even so, I couldn’t stop. What am I going to do with this woman? My head was full of a happy kind of worry I had never once experienced in my life before.

* * *

After that day, Danyu came and went from my home with the easy familiarity of someone who lived there. She would coolly demand a key, saying she would head over first since her classes ended earlier than mine, and she took to leaving her belongings scattered in various corners of the house without a second thought, citing the inconvenience of carrying them around. 

Whenever I happened to glance over and find something of hers in an unexpected place, I would feel, strangely, like a thief who had broken into someone else’s home, my own house suddenly unfamiliar to me.

Just as that peculiar unfamiliarity was slowly becoming something I was used to, Liv Astrid’s wedding took place.