I actually started writing this before I engage in All Alone With You, my RinxMaki fic. The idea has been in my mind for some time, and even though I wonder how many people are actually going to read a fic with a male OC as a romantic interest, I decide to go along with it.

This story will be largely from Maki's POV, set in her second year in senior high. The focus on music will play a major role in the story, as it is what inspires me to write this in the first place. As stated, this is a story that involves a male OC that will be paired with Maki. I understand that people come here mostly to read pairings among the girls, though again I have to sadly admit that I find it unrealistic everyone within the group will just get into relationships with each other. That does not mean I don't like such stories, however; I merely hope to contribute a bit of diversity to the fandom.

Plot: Sixteen years old Nishikino Maki wondered what it meant to be falling in love. An encounter with a young violinist proved to be the answer to her question.

Genre: Romance, Friendship, Drama, Slice of Life

Characters: Maki, OC; Rin, Hanayo; rest of μ's

Pairing: MakixOC

The image used for this story is illustrated by幻象黑兔 at pixiv, with the ID of the image being 45771658. The title of it is Piano solo by Nishikino Maki. Again, music plays a big role in this story, which is why I pick this image with Maki standing before the grand piano.

Story title is the song of the same name by the British band Coldplay. Chapter title refers to Chopin's composition, usually serving as a prelude to Grande polonaise brillante in E-flat major.

As always, I recommend reading in ½ page size.

Now, enjoy!

Chapter 1: Andante spianato

If she could be granted the chance to try anything for once in her life, Nishikino Maki wanted to know how it felt to fall in love.

Of course, she wouldn't admit that to anyone – what an embarrassing thing to say out loud! - even to herself, for that matter. Whenever the topic of 'romance' came up, she could only recall the argument of writing a love song or not, or Umi's outburst when everyone from μ's watched a romantic movie together, calling the movie scandalous and a sign of moral decay.

Maki had always been indifferent towards this topic. With the exception of joining μ's, her whole life had been planned well ahead of time: she would study medicine in college, become a doctor, and inherit her parents' hospital in the long run. Knowing her family's reputation, she knew her parents would ask her to marry someone with a similar status as well, and she had wholeheartedly accepted this.

It was only until recently that she started to question the validity of this path. Being part of μ's meant that she dealt with people of vastly different personalities on a daily basis, something that she had never done so in her past fifteen years of life. It prompted her to think if choosing the predestined path was actually a good idea, considering her accidental enrollment with the school idol group had given her more than she had ever imagined it possibly could.

Maki was not naïve. She knew well that regardless of her own opinion on the matter, she had to live up to the well-reputed name of "Nishikino". Even though she loved music more than anything else, being a school idol was, after all, a temporary thing, something that she would stop doing after she graduated from senior high, a little less than two years later. She certainly did not resist being a doctor, but were there no alternatives? Was there something else that she could actually do? Something that was not decided by her parents?

Was she satisfied with her predestined path at all?

Maki stared at the ceiling and sighed. She wondered what Hanayo and Rin were up to. She needed some distraction.

'That would be one thousand and seven hundred yen!'

Maki silently paid the cashier before departing from the music store. She had just purchased a copy of a music score that she had wanted for some time, and she couldn't wait to try it once she got back home. The music store wasn't located near her neighbourhood, after all. It would take her a while to get back.

The sound of violin entered her ears, and she raised an eyebrow. While street performances were common, it was rare to hear classical music being played in this area. She turned to find a teenage boy around her age standing there with his violin case open. The boy was dressed in plain blue t-shirt and a pair of black trousers and he looked like someone whom one would just pass by without giving another thought. The surrounding bystanders, only a handful of people, didn't look particularly amused as well, as proved by the lack of bills in the violin case and occasionally the sound was out of tune.

Which was a shame, since Maki could tell right away that he was a good player. Trained in classical music, Maki knew how to differentiate between poor skills and poor instruments. This teenager definitely belonged to the latter group, as it was clear the violin was an old model that needed repair. Still, the fiddler moved his fingers agitatedly on the board, his right arm swinging rhythmically to change the motion of the bow. He was apparently enjoying this as well, closing his eyes and slowly moving his body around in total disregard of his surroundings.

He would come to regret that, though. In order to make a dramatic finale, he dropped his arm right after pulling the last note loudly, but he didn't realize that the tip of his bow accidentally hit a passer-by in the chest. Maki was about to place a bill in his case when she heard the music abruptly stopped.

'Hey punk! What do you think you're doing?'

The passer-by was certainly not entertained even though the boy kept apologizing. He took a glance at the meek expression of the violinist and smirked. 'You think you can do whatever you want on the street just because you're playing some old, broken trash?'

Maki tightened her grip on her schoolbag. It was clear that this guy, with a rather menacing countenance, was simply intimidating the violinist for fun, which was completely unnecessary when he kept bowing and saying he was sorry. The crimson-haired girl looked around, but to her distaste no one looked interested enough to interrupt a clear case of bullying. There weren't many spectators to begin with, and some just backed away when the big guy started raising his voice.

'You think saying sorry will work?' The guy bellowed. 'How about you pay me with those money in your case, and then we're good?'

'What?' the boy squealed, taking a step back when the guy tried to grab the collar of his shirt. There were less than a couple thousand yen in the case, and he did not want to let his earning of the day go just like that. The guy totally ignored him though, and just pushed him aside to go for the money himself. Out of instinct, he covered his violin with his body, resulting in his head colliding with the ground with no protection.

'What a loser,' the guy laughed, and proceeded to grab the money. Yet he froze when he saw a schoolgirl closing the violin case and pulling it away in no time.

'What are you doing?' he stared at the crimson-haired girl, whom he found familiar looking, but he couldn't figure why. Maki gulped, wondering why she acted out of instinct just like that, but she had no choice now.

'Come any closer and…and…' she bit her lips, not really sure what to suggest, 'I'll scream!' she managed to mutter, not very convincingly however, given her trembling legs and her faltering eyes.

Yet, that certainly managed to do the trick. While the man looked like he was going to lunge forward, he stopped himself when people started to see what was going on. It certainly wasn't a pretty scene – an intimidating guy and a dejected schoolgirl. It was easy to tell who the people would side with if things escalated. Hence the man snorted and walked away, not paying them any more attention. The surrounding crowd slowly dispersed, and Maki let out the breath that she was holding for the whole time. She dropped to the ground in relief, hugging the violin case that she protected.

'Ano…'

Maki turned around to find the violinist staring at her as if she was some kind of weird creature that did not exist in the world. 'Thanks for doing that for me.'

She was about to rebuke, intuitively, that she wasn't trying to help him, that she just did not enjoy seeing people who liked music being treated like that. But she stopped herself when her eyes caught the small stain of blood on his forehead.

'You're bleeding,' she whispered.

'Ah, this,' the boy replied, holding his head in an embarrassed manner and wiping the blood away with his arm. 'It'll be fine. The bleeding will stop soon anyway.'

Maki frowned, wondering why someone would not want to treat one's wound right away. He looked to be more concerned about his violin than his wound, inspecting his violin carefully to see if there were any scratches while totally ignoring the running blood on his head. The sight of the red liquid bothered her a lot.

As a doctor-to-be, she could not pretend she didn't see that.

When she had calmed down and given more thoughts about it (something that she curiously had been doing a lot today), Maki wasn't sure why she was helping a stranger like that. She had yelled at him for not taking care of himself, dragged him to a park and made him sit on a bench, then without asking for his opinion, she started treating his wound.

'Wow, I didn't expect a senior high student to carry a first aid kit around.'

The boy sounded amazed, though Maki didn't understand why. Was that really such an extraordinary thing? She received the same question once when Honoka slipped and scratched her knee, or when Rin accidentally caused everything to fall down in the storage room. Wasn't it just normal to carry it around just in case?

'Hold still,' was all Maki said in response. She observed the wound closely to make sure she had what she needed, and as she held his head she noticed the boy giving her a weird stare.

'What?' she asked impatiently. The boy blushed and tried to turn his head away, only for Maki to tighten her grip. 'How am I going to clean your wound if you look elsewhere?'

'Ah, sorry,' the boy smiled timidly, scratching the nape of his neck. 'It is just that…ah never mind.'

She knew she might be a dense person – everyone in μ's had called her clueless at least once – but it was when she raised her purple eyes to meet his glance, feeling his hot breath on her neck, that she realized what the problem was.

His face was too close.

And upon close inspection, he was actually a good-looking one.

Out of instinct, she yelped and pushed him away, before realizing what she had done. The boy, stunned by the development, did not get to react in time. By the time he had recovered, he felt the other side of his head hurting, and he didn't have to use his hand to reaffirm that he was bleeding from a new wound.

'Oh my God!' Maki panicked, rushing to his side and quickly used a tissue to absorb the blood. 'It's all because of your…your…' she couldn't continue, her mind too busy trying to treat his wound as quickly as possible, and at the same time she was too embarrassed to offer any sort of apology that she ought to have done so. 'It's all your fault for hurting yourself again!'

'You're the one who pushed me!'

Maki ignored his rebuttal and focused on her task. She had learnt all first aid technique by heart a long time ago, hence it didn't take long for her to clean his wounds and place a couple of neat adhesive tapes on his forehead. She dared not to say anything more, reckoning that even if he was mad he had every right to be so. However, seeing her helpless expression seemed to have entertained him quite a lot, as he just laughed (even if Maki told him to shut up) as she tended to his need.

'Thanks for helping me with this,' the boy grinned, pointing at his forehead. 'I would be in big trouble if you haven't taken care of me.'

'It's nothing,' Maki stated simply and started to pack her bag. From the corner of her eyes, she saw the boy lean his back on the bench and caress his violin carefully. They had both checked to make sure that there weren't any scratches on the body, but the boy didn't seem convinced. That actually brought a question to Maki's mind, one that she had been meaning to ask.

'Why didn't you use your hands protect yourself back then?' She watched as the boy turned to face her, his face confused. 'Any sensible person will do that. Who knows what the fall will cause you? Besides, you should get a new violin anyway. This model is too old.'

The boy ruffled his short, dark hair and flashed the sixteen-year-old a sheepish grin. 'I've always been told that I'm not that sensible.'

Maki frowned. She felt like this person had been wasting her time.

'But I only have one violin, and without this I can't play anymore. I can't afford to buy another one.'

What did he mean? Judging from his skills, Maki could tell he was someone who had been playing for quite a long time. Surely someone who did that would be able to afford a new one? A violin wasn't that expensive anyway.

'I'll be using this to try for an audition in two months. Besides, I have made a promise to use this violin to do achieve my dream.'

'A promise?'

The boy sensed that he had her curious. He wasn't one to reveal too much about his personal biography, but somehow he felt like he could trust this person. After all, she just helped him fight away someone who tried to take his hard-earned savings, and just treated his wounds with care. She didn't seem like a bad person at all.

'My guardian at the orphanage. He passed away last year. This is the only thing he left me.'

He quickly tidied his stuff, and carried the violin case on his shoulder. Noticing that Maki looked shocked by his revelation, he figured it was a good time to leave as well. 'Thanks for your help today, miss. Have fun with Années de pèlerinage. It's not an easy piece.' (*)

The departing figure of the boy, who was humming a delightful tune, gradually faded from Maki's vision. She was still startled by what he had said. It became clear to her as to why he valued this particularly old violin so much. More importantly, he wasn't just doing it for money but he knew the world of classical music as well. Who else could see Années de pèlerinage on the cover of the scores that she had just purchased and be able to hum the very same melody right away?

Maki had never felt like this before. She couldn't forget the way his eyes dimmed when he talked about the promise, contrary to his previously energetic expression. She felt like there was more about this person that she wanted to learn about.

There was only one way to achieve that.

End of Chapter 1

* Années de pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) is a piano solo work by Franz Liszt. It's most recently known for piece no.8 "Le mal du pays (Homesickness)" from the first suite, as it is a prominent tune in Murakami Haruki's latest novel – Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.

I wonder if the first chapter goes well? I reckon it's a different kind of story from what is generally written in the fandom, but I'd like to give it a try. Meanwhile, I'll also keep updating All Alone With You, which I have the drafts of several chapters ready.

Please leave me a review to let me know what you think!