I got inspired by Honey and Clover so I wanted to make a music version of it.
To Ikuta Erina, cello was her life. She started playing ever since she was born and she was good at it too. She liked the applause and compliments she got whenever she played. It felt good. However, she never really knew, or even thought about why she, herself, played cello. She didn’t have any goals in her life.
What happened in her life was very linear: started playing cello at 4, only knew how to play cello by 18. That was the only reason why she chose to go to an arts university. She never had much of a choice. Nevertheless, it didn’t bother her though. All she cared for was to graduate and teach at a music school or something, and then start her own music school when she had enough money. Just to live a boring life everyone does. That was her only way through life anyways.
Hello! Chamber Orchestra
Ch.1
A year passed by just like that, and Erina’s helping her next room housemate, Fukumura Mizuki, to unpack all the food her parents sent her as usual. She could’ve gotten her deliverer’s to unpack it for them but she was already embarrassed of having them in this small one room building where only students of Hello University reside.
Erina always wondered what kind of family Mizuki came from. As the months went by the amount of food became incredible each time. It was to the point where the two of them couldn’t finish all by a week, so they had to get some help (or more like give help, but Mizuki won’t know that) from their seniors upstairs. The seniors were very kind to take over the food, and sometimes, too kind to take more than enough that Mizuki didn’t have much left by the end, but to conclude, they were still kind people.
The two were unpacking for about 5 minutes but there was still a lot to go. Sadly, they were all out of strength too. Their hands were wobbly from handling the packed food.
“Fuku-chan, I think we should get the senpais to help us out,” said Erina.
“I hope they won’t mind.”
“Don’t worry,” Erina smiled, apologetically, “I’m sure they won’t.”
The seniors live upstairs. There were three of them and Erina always saw them as cute animals. From tallest to shortest, bunny, turtle, and a cat. Definitely, Erina wasn’t the only person thought of them that way. Last time she had a conversation about them with Mizuki and her friend, Kanon, they thought the seniors resembled those animals too. So they called the upstairs, ‘the farm’.
When they arrived at third floor they automatically skipped room 301, and 302 and went straight to 303. That’s where the bunny senpai Michishige Sayumi lived. She was the nicest (and the creepiest) senior out of the three. Without any hesitation, Erina knocked on the door twice and opened the door. Thankfully all three of them were in there so they didn’t have to knock on the other doors.
“Oh! Eripon and Fuku-chan! Welcome, have a seat,” said Sayumi with a smile hiding something.
“No, um, I mean thank you but,” Erina stuttered, “we were wondering if you seniors can help us arrange Fuku-chan’s food. After that, we can all have dinner together.”
“Sounds great!” The cat look-alike senior Tanaka Reina yelled out. Then she took the turtle resembling senior, Kamei Eri’s hand and stood up instantly. Poor Eri stood up along with Reina. Only Sayumi was the one sitting down. “Perfect timing guys, I was getting so tired from listening to Sayu’s nonsense.”
“It’s not a nonsense!”
“Sayu,” Eri didn’t know where to put her eyes. “I like your idea but it’s just too much to do when it’s our graduating year.”
“But it’s because it’s our last year here.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt but can we get going?” Erina softly spoke up.
“Right, we’ll talk about it more while we have the dinner,” said Sayumi.
Arranging the food didn’t take long when 5 girls were on it. The girls had dinner right away, thanking Mizuki’s parents. Of course, Mizuki was a bit embarrassed by it.
“So,” Sayumi started, “you’re a cello major, right? Eripon?”
“Yes, I, cl, am,” Erina choked on food.
Sayumi explained her grand plan to make her graduating year fantastic: to make a chamber orchestra and hold her graduation concert. The idea itself was amazing, but Eri and Reina opposed for realistic reasons. How on earth will 3 graduating students manage a chamber orchestra?
“Right, so that’s that, but you know all music students are busy. How’re you gonna get people to join?” asked Reina.
“Well Fuku-chan you told me once you used to play violin right?
“Yes, but I stopped at around junior high to concentrate on drawing.”
“I’m sure you’re still great, so I’m gonna write you down on the list along with Eriopon!”
“Wait! Michishige-senpai!”
“See Reina? I can get people to join just like that! Haha!”
The two juniors could barely have dinner that day. They were worried about how this is gonna turn out. They were already busy with homework, assignments and many more. Things were about to get really busy this year.
*
For about a week Erina saw many posters around the school hallways. The posters were all from Sayumi. It was about the audition for her orchestra. The audition date passed, so the results were probably in, she thought. But what’s with the name? Funny. Hello! Chamber Orchestra? She could already see Reina opposing heavily to that name but Sayumi still won over in the end.
The classes were oddly extra boring today. Erina couldn’t stand it. She managed herself to stay awake but it was as good as if she was asleep. Spring. That’s what it is. Erina went to school cafeteria to get herself some coffee. The three seniors were there too.
“Oh, Erina-chan, what’s up?” Reina called out first.
“I’m really sleepy today for some reason.”
“Spring it is,” Eri chuckled.
“Here, have a seat here,” Sayumi offered.
After she got her cup of coffee, she sat down beside Reina. They were talking about the chamber orchestra. Erina decided to stay quiet for the most part but she couldn’t help herself from asking questions when she heard that there were a lot of people who auditioned.
“Wait, people actually auditioned for this?”
“I know,” Reina rolled her eyes.
“Hey! What’s with the tone! Of course people will audition for my orchestra! After all, I’m cute.”
“I don't think that’s the point here.”
“Well, a lot of people auditioned but it was really easy to choose who got in,” and Sayumi showed the paper with the list of names of people who made it.
Hello! Chamber Orchestra
producer/conductor
Michishige Sayumi
producer/manager
Kamei Eri
Tanaka Reina
concertmaster
Sayashi Riho
1st violin
Ishida Ayumi, Natsuyaki Miyabi, Sugaya Risako, Tsugunaga Momoko, Suzuki Airi, Yajima Maimi, Wada Ayaka, Fukuda Kanon, Miyamoto Karin
2nd violin
Suzuki Kanon, Iikubo Haruna, Kumai Yurina, Okai Chisato, Hagiwara Mai, Miyazaki Yuka, Takagi Sayuki
viola
Satou Masaki, Kudou Haruka, Sudo Maasa, Uemura Akari
cello
Kanazawa Tomoko
bass
(we need someone!!)
piano
Tasaki Asahi
There was a pattern in this list. It was pretty easy to find it. Erina spoke her mind out.
“Wait, they’re all girls’ names.”
“That’s correct! Isn’t it exciting? An all girls chamber orchestra!”
"And that's the reason why we don't have a bass player. Two guys auditioned for it but Sayu here, was against letting them in," Reina rolled her eyes again.
Reina and Eri were shaking their heads while looking down. So she chose only girls and left the boys out. Erina looked through the list once again and realized her name was not on it and sighed out of relief.
“Oh, and don’t worry Eripon. Your name will be right under the cello section and Fuku-chan, under second violin! I only put the names of people who tried out for the audition so they know they made it. My, I can’t wait for our first meet up!”
Reina patted Erina on the back as Erina took a sip of her coffee, and sighed again out of concern. She still has one class left and today was gonna be a long day. Extremely. Long. Day.
*
Erina opened her fridge to figure out there was nothing to eat. Wow, fail. There was only one place to ask for help, and that’s Mizuki’s. Erina took her hoodie and got her slippers on.
KNOCK KNOCK
Somebody knocked on the door as she was about to walk out. Erina opened the door and found out Mizuki was there.
“Hey, I was just about to go to your place.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s great because I was gonna ask for your help.”
“What for?”
“My food’s about to go bad so I really need to finish them. I was gonna ask you to call the senpais too.”
“Awesome! I was just about to ask you for some food because I ran out of them!”
The two went upstairs to call the seniors to help them out with the food. Mizuki always felt bad about asking the seniors to finish the food for her. Erina wished Mizuki would know she’s actually helping them, and not being an annoyance but Mizuki was too nice for that. However, they both agreed to keep the part about food almost running bad to the seniors.
It was always room 303 they entered first, so they could get Sayumi to ask Eri and Reina next door. That was the usual pattern but there was something not usual about it this time.
Erina knocked, “excuse me, Michishige-senpai.” She opened the door and walked in to find out there was another girl sitting across from the three seniors with a table in the middle. The air ceased.
Mizuki followed in and saw the same girl, and Erina looking at the girl. What is this? She thought.
There was something irresistible about this. Mizuki immediately knew. Maybe none of the people here did, but she knew. However, as the third person, it was devastatingly painful to sense that this intensely overwhelming emotion was unrequited. To watch someone fall in love was quite strange. This all happened in less than a second too.
“What is it?” Sayumi broke the silence.
Normally Erina would ask Sayumi to join, but she seemed busy. Mizuki stepped up and stood in front of Erina.
“I have a lot of food for the dinner. I was wondering if you would like to have dinner in my room.”
“Oh,” said Sayumi. She found this situation a bit unfamiliar but she couldn’t really depict why. “Yeah sure. And this is the concertmaster Sayashi Riho-chan. Would it be ok for her to join—“
“Would you like to join us for the dinner?”
The request was from Erina to Riho, but Sayumi answered.
“That would be great! Rihoriho, aren’t you hungry? I’m sure you’re hungry so let’s go eat. Fuku-chan’s food’s very tasty!”
“Thank you,” said Riho, as her eyes were on Erina.
“My name is Ikuta Erina. You can call me Eripon.”
“I’m Sayashi Riho. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you.”
Everything was usual as is but it wasn’t. The only difference was it went from 5 girls to 6, but the gap was big. One thing everyone learnt about Riho that dinner was that she eats well. She even asked to be invited again. Well, after all, Mizuki’s parents only send her the finest quality foods.
The plates were all half emptied when everyone heard someone rushing into the building. The footsteps were coming closer and closer to Mizuki’s room. Everyone continued eating except for Riho, who experienced this for the first time.
“Riho-chan, don’t worry. She’s not harmful,” said Eri.
“Who?” Riho asked in confusion.
“There’s someone,” Reina chuckled. “Mizuki-chan, I’m telling you. You should at least lock your door so at least she won’t charge in.”
“I’m sure she’ll just break in then,” Mizuki laughed.
The door burst opened and a woman stood there. She goes by the name Takahashi Ai but people call her the ‘mystery lady’. She’s not a student in Hello University at the moment but still lives here. She would sometimes appear in the school too. She randomly disappears and randomly comes back and no one knows what she does, hence, the ‘mystery lady’.
“Mizuki-chan! Long time no see!”
“You’re lucky, Ai-chan. We still have some food left,” said Sayumi in place of Mizuki.
The woman squeezed between Eri and Reina and went straight for the food. Riho was a bit uncomfortable but everyone seemed to be OK. Mizuki could feel that Riho was lost, so she decided to help her out.
“This is Takahashi Ai-san,” and she gestured towards Riho, “and this is Sayashi Riho-chan.”
Ai looked up, and became motionless at once when Riho gazed back. The air ceased once again.
Mizuki could feel that something was going on. But this time, it wasn’t intense at all. Very calm, almost as this was supposed to happen, like, you expected it to happen. Like watching a movie you knew the ending of. Such an emotional day, she thought.
The dinner ended just like that and Ai left without saying goodbye. Riho looked around like a lost puppy. However, Ai left.
“That Takahashi-san never changes,” said Mizuki as she laughed.
“She doesn’t say goodbye?” Riho asked.
“No, it’s just that—“
The door burst opened again.
“We might have finished the dinner but the night’s still young!” Yelled Ai, as she held up a white plastic bag clearly filled with liquor. “Let’s start! HAHAHAHA!”
“You drink, Sayashi-chan?” Reina asked.
“I would like to but I’m not weak with alcohol,” Riho answered kindly.
“Good luck, Sayashi-chan. We’ll be here so don’t worry,” Eri looked at Riho with eyes filled with sympathy.
“Ai-chan, if you get too crazy again I won’t forgive you!” Sayumi yelled.
Everyone got scared. Whenever Ai brings alcohol into the night, nothing went well. The biggest problem is that Ai would never drink herself but make her juniors drink. Of course, no miracle happened that night. Ai made everyone drink and they all got sick, especially Riho. A can of beer was good enough to make her feel nauseous. Ai made Riho cry that night and ever since then, Riho put every effort to avoid her. And Ai put every effort to chase her.