Princess, Tomboy, & the Revolutionary of Love (1)

꒰ঌ Princess, Tomboy, & the Revolutionary of Love 1

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There is a sort of relationship in this world, which is the unsavory type, and that's the sort of relationship that Yang Xiao Long and I share. Since our houses are located close to each other, it's only natural for us to attend the same school from our days in elementary school till junior high school. However, we were in the same class for nine consecutive years, and we even managed to get into the same high school. There may be some who might say that it's because our intelligence is roughly the same, but the problem is we've both been assigned to the same class again at high school. What can I say, other than our unsavory ties are extremely deep.

"Isn't this great? I'm poor at math and history, so I can copy Haruto's notes. Haruto's not too good with sports, but I am. Let's help each other from now on."

Not long after the end of the opening ceremony, Yang said that while slapping my back with a papapa sound, in our classroom that was still lingering with the smell of wax.

You're good at sports, but how are you gonna assist me with that?

"This guy's impressive. You'll see a mountain of CDs when you open his door, and they will all come tumbling down."

"Wow, why is that? Is his house a music shop or something?"

"Why have you been to his house before?"

Using me as a stepping stone, Yang had quickly blended herself in with the rest of our girl classmates which she had only met not too long ago. Her adaptability is really scary.

"Hey, what's your relationship with her?" a guy who was quite interested in me leaned over and asked me with a whisper.

"It's nothing, we just studied in the same junior high school."

"But didn't you help her tie her bow-tie prior to the opening ceremony?" another guy suddenly spoke from behind me, and caused my face to go green from the shock. They saw?

"W-well, that's because… "

"Really!? Oh damn! Are you two a married couple!?"

"Isn't that the opposite from your normal situation? It should be the girl helping the guy!"

They are picking that sort of difficult-to-explain situation as a conversation topic.

Dammit, I hate Yang for that. I've taught you many times already — at the very least, remember how to tie those bow-ties by yourself!

"Have both of you been together since junior high school?"

I shook my head for a few hundred times so as to deny it fervently, and all the guys around me heaved a sigh of relief. They pulled me away from the girls, and the group of us moved to a corner of the classroom. They then began to talk in whispers.

"Xiao Long-san's one the cutest girls in our class! That's just great."

"I always thought I didn't like a tomboy girl, but I realized now that I was wrong."

I listened to the guys's assessments with a dumbfounded expression, then looked at Yang's profile, who was still sitting on the table and chatting on the other side of the classroom. Her hairstyle back then was extremely short, and it parted down the center, which made her look really fierce. Since she left her club during the autumn of our third year, however, she began growing her hair. Now, her hair looks prettier and more feminine. But wait, the problem is…

"That girl has a volatile temper, and she's a black belt in martial arts as well. Don't you think it's better if you guys stay away from her?"

"She's in the martial arts club? Should I go join them as well?"

"Do we have a martial arts club here?"

"Even then, most martial arts clubs split up the guys and the girls."

"Why must they be separated? They should allow everyone to practice prone techniques together!"

Can you guys listen to what others have to say!?

But as she sustained a back injury last spring, she is no longer practicing martial arts. At about the same time when the first semester was over, for some reason, she began learning the drums.

But then again, she had zero interest in music back in the past, and she probably couldn't start practicing on the drums by herself, right? As for her reason for wanting to be a drummer, this is what Yang told me.

"Back during the spring when the doctor told me I could no longer practice martial arts, I drank a bit of beer out of desperation… "

"The underage shouldn't be drinking!"

"As I fell asleep in my drunken state, Bonzo appeared in my dreams."

Bonzo is the drummer of Led Zeppelin, and he died from suffocation because he inhaled his own vomit after puking in his drunken stupor. That didn't sound too good. She couldn't have seen his spirit while in a state of near death, right?

"And he said to me, 'All you have left is the drums, Yang.' Since Bonzo said that to me, I had no choice but to do it, right?"

"Was that really Bonzo?"

"I saw him continuously waving his hands at me while standing in the flower fields near the riverside. It's Bonzo alright. His Japanese was really impressive, though he spoke in Tsuguru dialect."

"… That's probably your deceased grandfather, who died last year."

It was only after the second school semester had begun that I came to know the real reason Yang started practicing the drums. Everyday after school, she would continuously pester me into joining the Folk Music Research Club.

"But Haruto you didn't have anything to do afterschool, right? Come on, just join us."

"You're meddling too much. Speaking of which, what's with the Folk-whateverthing? There's no such club, right?"

I tried recalling the introduction booklet of the clubs in school which I got during the opening ceremony in spring, as well as the parade of people who were waiting at the school gates to get the new students into their respective clubs. I don't remember seeing a club with such a complicated name.

"The so-called folk music is actually referring to rock. If we were to call ourselves a rock band directly, the teachers would never approve it, moreover, with only Blake and I, there's no way they would approve it either. So please, join our club!"

So that's the reason you are desperately trying to get me into the club!

"Stop trying to get me into a club that's not even established yet! Then again, who is this Blake person?"

"My new friend who I just met recently. She's really an awesome girl."

After a careful round of questioning, all the riddles were finally solved. It seems like Yang met this new friend of hers during the summer vacation, and her reason to begin drumming, it was all because of this Blake — somebody.

What a joke. I grabbed my bag and walked out of the classroom. All of our classmates were already focusing their attention on us as we had that conversation, and it felt really embarrassing.

Yang chased me and said, "Hey Haruto! Wait for me! What's wrong with joining the club? You have nothing else going on anyway, right?"

"I won't join that club even if I have nothing to do."

"Why?"

"Because… I won't stay long anyway."

I had originally wanted to say, "I was dragged to your training, and I gave up within a short time span of two days because you don't know how to hold back — you know that as well!" However, for the sake of my health I never said it in the end.

"Really? Then what do you plan to do in high school?"

To study but obviously I couldn't bring myself to say such an insincere but politically correct answer.

"Isn't your life just boring then?"

"So your life's very interesting huh? Why do you care about whether my life is boring or not?" I said that without much thought, and Yang suddenly stopped in her tracks.

As I turned my head backwards, I saw Yang shifting her sight away from me, and was looking downwards slightly. What's happening now?

Yang turned her head away, and asked, "What do you think is my reason?"

I had no idea how I should reply to that. "Because you're very free as well?"

Yang's hands reached out for the collars of my shirt. Before I could even think, my body had already made a spin in the air, and my back slammed against the floors of the corridor.

"Ugh!" My eyes were filled with stars, and for a moment I could not breathe. Despite that, I tried to stand up by supporting myself on the wall with my hands.

"Stop with those random shoulder throws of yours, alright!?"

"That's not a shoulder throw. That's a body drop."

"That's not the problem here! Are you trying to kill me!?"

"Stupid Haruto!" Yang stomped on my feet, turned around, and left.

What's with all that!? My reason for not joining a club was because of an extremely negative one like "finding it all bothersome." However, aside from that, there was another reason that could be considered as something positive I found something that I can do after school.

After watching Yang leave, I went to the first floor, and came to a small courtyard after walking out of the school's back gates. Next to a rusty rubbish incinerator that hasn't been used in a long time, stood a long narrow building. It was of a simple rectangular shape made of cement, similar to a park's public toilets. On its sides were several doors. Since it hasn't been used by anyone for quite a long time, the walls and doors of the building were covered with dirt, making it rather filthy.

The private school expands for no rhyme or reason, and to add on to all that, the number of students enrolling into the school is on a steady decline, all of these have resulted in the increase of many empty facilities and classrooms that are not in use. In the second month I entered this school, I had discovered that one can enter a room on the left side of this building. During my school exploration, I tried turning the handle with a kra kra sound, and the door just opened. Later, I figured out that by pressing the door handle diagonally downwards to the right and turning it forty-five degrees, the lock will open.

In the room, there was a tall metal rack, a locker and an old study desk. The walls were pasted with a sound absorbent material, that has many equally spaced circular holes on it. From the marks left on the floor, one can deduce that this place used to house a piano. As of now, the only thing that can be called the school's equipment, was some mini audio system placed next to the desk. Actually, this high school is my mother's almamater. I'd once heard from Mom, that this school used to have a music club, but it was abolished not long after she graduated.

There's a perk to the sound absorbers, I can bring in a huge stack of my CDs to this room, and listen to my favorite songs as loudly as I like. It's a good way to kill time after school. Should I be at home, my annoying sister will definitely be there, resulting in me not having a place where I could enjoy myself in peace.

Since the condition of the room isn't too good, the sound proofing is not perfect. I'll have to stuff a towel into the gaps around the door before I can turn on the audio system. On that day, the first CD I listened to was the live album by Bob Marley, and was led into a reggae mood. I was probably affected by what Yang said.

"Isn't your life just boring?" I had never thought about that. Then again, it is quite a headache for me if my life is deemed boring just because I did not join a club. Isn't this just fine, you can consider it to be a Music Appreciation Club! I'm not causing trouble for anyone either. I am using this room without any prior approval, but since this classroom seemed to not be in use for a long period of time, plus the fact that I'll keep the classroom clean as long as I ensure that no one outside can hear the music that I'm playing, it should be fine, right?

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