“I came all this way because I wanted to show you these scores. I felt that way even while I was traveling, but once I arrived in the capital, I couldn’t hold out any longer.”

Having said that, Sio crumpled the sheet music that had been swimming before my eyes and tossed it to the floor, then walked past us.

“Anyway, that’s all I had to say. I should be heading home now. The long journey has left me rather worn out.”

His unhesitating stride carried the same confidence it always had. The thought flickered through me that I wanted to stick out a foot and send Sio sprawling. But before I could, a declaration of war toward him came from Danyu’s lips first.

“Sio. I won’t just stand by and watch you run off somewhere far on your own.”

Danyu’s voice rang out as the door handle turned. She stood facing Sio, smiling with an expression of pure delight.

“I look forward to it.”

A bright, open smile unlike any I had seen from him before spread across Sio’s face as he looked at her. Only I was left unable to smile. And so the reunion with Sio Lieselotte came to an end. Jealousy, unease, and a strange competitive feeling I could not quite name. A storm was beginning to stir inside me.

* * *

News of Sio Lieselotte’s return spread through the capital in no time at all. The source was obvious without saying. Liv’s wedding had drawn a number of guests too great to count on one’s hands, and no one imagined that all those mouths had stayed silent.

As a result, the newspapers were buzzing day after day about his return and his shift to composition. The people of the capital were no different. Whenever people gathered in groups of two or three, Sio Lieselotte’s name was on their lips, and Danyu Astrid was no great exception to that.

“He really is extraordinary. To be this different from all the music I’ve known until now. It doesn’t even compare to Brandt’s music, which is supposed to be so unconventional. I never imagined music like this was possible. How can something like this exist? It breaks completely from every form that came before it, and yet the feeling it carries is even deeper. I love it.”

I sat watching Danyu, who had been pouring out admiration without pause. Since the private lesson had begun, she had been picking through the pile of scores stacked on top of the piano one by one, performing them and singing the praises of Sio’s musicality and the astonishing nature of the pieces. It was a scene that had not changed in the past several weeks.

“I think I’ll probably perform one of Sio’s pieces at the upcoming recital. It’s a bit tight for introducing a new piece, but I can’t pass up the chance to be the first to present his work. I’m going to push a little and fit it into the program. I’ve looked through them and picked out a few that seem right. Would you take a look too, Astaire?”

Danyu gathered up the scores piled on the piano and held them out to me. Seeing her smile so openly as she offered them, I couldn’t bring myself to speak. She had been smiling as she watched me, unable to reach out and take the scores or say a word, but the expression on Danyu’s face slowly clouded over.

“You’re in a bad mood, aren’t you?”

“I’m not.”

“Yes you are. You’ve been short-tempered lately. Today too. Tell me. What’s going on? Are you upset with me about something?”

My blunt answer seemed only to confirm what she already suspected. I rose from my seat entirely and waved a hand at her as she came toward me.

“It’s nothing. Truly.”

“It doesn’t seem like nothing.”

Her brow furrowed. A natural reaction. Even to my own mind, my answer carried no sincerity whatsoever. In the end, Danyu stuck out her lower lip and pushed her face close to mine. Her questioning gaze moved over every part of my face, as though trying to read my thoughts. Each time her eyes landed somewhere, that spot on my face burned, but I pretended not to notice and stepped back.

“It really is nothing.”

The moment I made that unconvincing excuse once more, Danyu’s face drew close and her lips touched mine and pulled away. It was over in an instant, but the soft sensation was vivid.

“Feeling better now?”

I blinked at her, not quite following, and found Danyu looking up at me with a disappointed expression.

“Strange. I’ve heard this always works on men.”

So she kissed me to lift my mood. Where had she picked up such an endearing method? A helpless laugh escaped me before I could stop it.

“And just where did you learn that?”

“Who else? My sister. I really can’t trust a word she says.”

Whether my laughter had put her out, Danyu shot back curtly and grabbed my arm.

“Well, never mind that method then. Just tell me. What’s the matter? Come on. I’ve said it before, haven’t I. If you don’t tell me, I won’t know. If you don’t say anything, I might keep doing whatever it is that bothers you, and you’d be all right with that?”

There was something close to pleading in that last question. I had been keeping quiet so as not to burden her, but by failing to hide my feelings completely, I had ended up making her worry instead. I smiled awkwardly and stroked Danyu’s hair.

“It’s jealousy, Miss Danyu.”

“Pardon?”

“I know Sio’s pieces are wonderful. I think it would be truly something to hear you perform them. I find myself wanting to play them as well. Rationally, I genuinely think all of that. But my feelings won’t follow. The mere sound of Sio’s name from your lips is enough to make me resent him, and I don’t know what to do about it.”

I smiled wryly and pressed my lips to her forehead, and Danyu’s face went red in an instant.

“That, well.”

“I know. It can’t be helped. Sio can’t be cut out of your life entirely. I knew all of that going in. I had steeled myself for it, in my own way. But now that it’s actually here, it stings more than I expected. I suppose I’m an even smaller man than I thought.”

“That’s not it.”

Danyu murmured quietly, touching the spot on her forehead where my lips had been. Watching her mumble with her face still flushed, the jealousy that had been weighing on my chest tightened further. To shake off this unease, I needed her warmth.

“Well. I’ve told you what had me feeling low. Now if you could do what you did a moment ago once more, I think my mood would improve considerably.”

“Really?”

At my quiet smile, Danyu hesitated and gave me a light kiss.

“Better?”

I gave a small shake of my head, and Danyu kissed me again. It was longer than the one before, but still brief.

“Still not enough?”

I shook my head again, and Danyu’s face fell into a pout. Both her cheeks had gone red with embarrassment by now. A somewhat longer kiss followed. I cupped her face in both hands and pressed my tongue into her mouth.

Danyu’s eyes went wide with surprise at the sudden warmth. I smiled and swept across the roof of her mouth. Tongue met tongue, and each other’s breath touched at the corners of our lips. The hand Danyu had been gripping my sleeve with tightened.

“That’s the kind of thing that actually lifts my mood.”

I drew back from her and traced her lips with my tongue as I pulled away. The intimacy of the kiss left Danyu unable to meet my eyes, and she lowered her head. We had kissed more times than I could count by now, and yet she never managed to hide her embarrassment. The sight of her was so endearing that a laugh came out of me before I knew it. The name that had been unsettling my thoughts was already gone from my mind.

“I’ll have to go home and play through these. I need to find pieces that suit Miss Danyu and are appropriate for the recital. Selecting too many would make the practice difficult, so one or two should be right. They said rain is coming in from the afternoon, so shall we end today’s lesson here? I can’t have a lady walking in the rain. I’ll see you tomorrow then, Miss Danyu.”

I pressed a light kiss to Danyu’s head, slipped the scores from her hand, and walked out of the practice room. Until the door closed completely behind me, Danyu stood motionless in the middle of the room. A shadow seemed to have fallen over her face as she stood there. It was probably just the sky growing darker overhead. I quickened my pace, hoping the rain would hold off a little longer.

Back home, I played through Sio’s pieces as I had told Danyu I would. They were every bit the music one would expect from Sio Lieselotte. Just as Danyu had said, his pieces had broken entirely from established form, and there was a freshness in them that could not be found in any music that had come before.

What was staggering was that this freshness was not a clumsy attempt to break from convention but had genuinely opened a different path altogether. To have blazed a trail like this in only a matter of months. I thought I had long since made my peace with Sio Lieselotte’s musicality, but this was something beyond even that.