Clothes are Memories

Disclaimer: La Corda D'Oro belongs to Kure Yuki alone. And this is my very FIRST La Corda D'Oro fic.

Pairing: Tsukimori Len and Hino Kahoko. My OTP.

-Flashback-

"Uwaa! This is so hard!" Kahoko exclaimed to herself. It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon. She was just on her way home after school. Just after crossing the street, she noticed a vibrant, colourful shop nearby. Now here she was in this shop, trying to decide upon a suitable goodbye gift to give Tsukimori-kun before he left for Vienna. And it was proving to be very difficult indeed.

"This one? No, no, he had one like that..." Kahoko mumbled, as she rummaged through the racks. "What about...? Forget it, that' the one he wore today...And that one, it wouldn't suit him at all..." She sighed.

Coats, cufflinks, shoes, Tsukimori-kun seemed to have them all. She finally managed to find a shirt that complemented his golden eyes. She decided this was the one to buy. Then the price tag peeked out of the collar. Kahoho sweatdropped at the impossible amount.

"Sheesh! What a price!" The redhead grumbled as she put it back. "It's only a normal piece of clothing, why should it cost so much...?" Her eyes suddenly caught a hint of something curiously blue in the corner. 'Tsukimori-kun?! In a place like this?' She thought. She immediately rushed over to it, not caring that the very expensive shirt she was going to put back had fallen to the ground in a heap.

"But...this is..." She couldn't say a word. What she'd thought was the back of Tsukimori-kun's head was actually a scarf sticking out of a whole shelf full. Long, woollen and glossy. Kahoko took it in her hands and gasped. "So soft..." It was a proud-looking scarf, that seemed to be of fine quality. It was plain blue, with the kind of criss-crossy diamond pattern you'd see in an old-fashioned sweater or jumper or something. Said pattern happened to be of diamonds in two shades of red with an overlapping gold pattern on it. Chapter 70, page 22, you'll know what I'm talking about.

"Oh well, to heck with the price!" She exclaimed. She hoisted it off the shelf and looked up the price tag. She gasped: Only 1 yen! "This is the strangest world ever..." She thought to herself. Then, on a whim, she tried it on in front of a nearby mirror. Fold in halves, bring around neck, then slip loose ends through the loop at the other end. She smiled. The scarf complimented her face in every way, she found. The blue was such a shade of blue that it did nothing to clash with her hair.

"If anything, it's the colour of Tsukimori-kun's hair..." She thought. "Tsukimori-kun. All his life he breathed music and it comes out of his fingertips so beautifully. Yet, this kind of a lifestyle, one that he was stuck onto for the sake of it, this is what made him the Tsukimori-kun we all know. I don't know if he'd like it, but I'll buy it anyway..."

She took it off her neck and bought it wrapped and bagged.

The night before her round of the competition...

"Yes, just as I thought, this is the best choice..." Kahoko said to herself as she found the white dress that Lili had conjured up for her at the first selection of the concours. She held it to her as a wave of nostalgia overtook her. She remembered that whole day, her panic at realizing that the participants were to perform while all dressed up, the awkward moment when Hihara-senpai found her wearing a nun's garb that Lili accidentally conjured up, performing barefoot while Tsuchiura-kun accompanied after jumping on to stage, when Tsukimori intervened after he found Shouji-san berating Kahoko's attitude towards music in a very un-kouhai manner...

"It has nothing to do with me anymore..."

Those words hit Kahoko full force at that last memory and she huddled into her dress. "Uwaa, I'm feeling nervous again..." She had no clue what possessed Tsukimori to say those words yesterday. A seed of worry suddenly started to grow in her again, for no apparent reason. Then her eyes shot to the scarf in the bag. Her woman's instinct took over and before she knew it, she was standing in front of the Tsukimori residence.

While she was hovering between the decision of whether to stay or to come back another time, he suddenly appeared in front of her and she backed up in shock. "UWAWAHHH! TSUKIMORI-KUN?!...Uh, sorry, I shouldn't have screamed..."

"Why are you here? Aren't you competing tomorrow?!" He looked pretty irritated.

"Hai, I know, but...There's something I want to give you..." She held out the bag to him. "Because I've always been under your care, I should at least give you a token of gratitude..." She began to feel flustered. "It's only a scarf...I bought it quite recently..."

She felt the bag being taken away from her hand. Her eyes widened. Then she looked up just in time for him to say, "Arigato."

'I'm so glad,' she thought, a slight blush taking over he cheeks. Then, he spoke again.

"All the same, think about tomorrow's competition. Think about the reason you practiced so hard for."

Kahoko became more agitated, "That's not it!" She waved her hands. "It's just...I felt like I HAD to come here to give you the scarf, for some reason..." She bowed down, unable to look at him. "I know I would have given it to you some other day, but I felt like doing so today...Also, I feel so nervous. So I thought, that if I came to see Tsukimori-kun, that would calm me down."

Tsukimori-kun listened, feeling both annoyed and astonished that she'd gone through all this trouble just to see him. And that she'd bothered to spend her money on him. He huffed, then replied, "Why must it be me that you have to find? You know you can do a lot, even when I'm not at your side..."

"Tsukimori-kun..."

"This has nothing to do with me anymore."

This saddened her greatly. It was the second time that she had to hear this phrase that week.

"Look. Just...don't say things like, 'It has nothing to do with you anymore," There was a slight tremor in her voice as she spoke, "I know very well that I have to fend for myself to accomplish my goals...And that you're leaving very soon too. So..."

Tsukimori's irritation faded as he looked at the girl before him. 'If only I could have told her sooner,' He thought. 'Do I have to make her sadder by telling her now?'

Kahoko suddenly raised her head to gaze at him with a flustered expression disguised as fake happiness. "Until then, you'll stay by my side, right? You know I'm so careless and...And..." The hope was evident in her voice as she added, "I really want us to do a duet again. It's been so long and...I promise I won't be troublesome so please...Could you be able to fulfill this last yakusoku for me? Please?"

If Tsukimori-kun had never felt heartbreak before joining the Concours, he felt it now, as though an anvil had dropped onto his heart, squashing it so much he thought he would have fallen onto his knees before her. An involuntary gasp dropped out of his mouth as his eyes widened at what she said.

Kahoko promptly became embarrassed. "G-g-gomenasai, that was really embarrassing, Tsukimori-kun..."

"I'm sorry too, Hino," The blue-haired young man's expression remained unchanged, though his voice was solemn. "I cannot fulfill this promise."

"Cannot..." Kahoko echoed, her voice and heart hollow. Now Tsukimori had to look away. He had always been unable to stomach the fact that Kahoko wore her heart, not just on her sleeve, but on her music, soul, face, everything, when it came to him.

"Hai...I can't..."

Kahoko stepped back, disappointed. "It is troublesome, isn't it. Gomen ne, Tsukimori-kun..."

Tsukimori-kun looked up as she continued, "Guess I'll take my leave now." She turned around to walk away.

'Do it or regret it,' Tsukimori thought. Then before Kahoko knew what was happening, a warm pair of arms had engulfed her in a one-way hug from behind. Her eyes widened in suprise as her brain tried to think of a way to retaliate.

"C-chotto...Tsukimori-kun...!" Kahoko's blush deepened as she tried and failed to see his face. She could feel his chin on her head, his breath on her hair.

"That's not it..." He murmured.

"Eh?!" Her hands came to rest on his arms of their own accord.

"It's tomorrow...I have to go tomorrow...That's why."

"Tomorrow?!" Her eyes widened with shock. That's when Tsukimori-kun realized how close he was to her personal space. With an apology, he let go and stepped back.

"Wait...Tsukimori-kun," She replied quietly, then turned her face his way. "If I hadn't come to find you today...Then were you planning to leave quietly?"

His eyes narrowed in denial, as he tried to formulate a reason why he kept it from her. "I..." But in his mind, he knew the real answer, 'I couldn't tell you without hurting your feelings.'

Kahoko suddenly smiled. It wasn't the kind of smile he'd seen on her. It was the smile of defeat, disappointment. "I guess...I had nothing to do with your departure after all...Insignificant..."

Tsukimori could only stare back at her.

"I'm going home now..."

And off she ran, without even looking back, looking depressed enough to cry, leaving a flabbergasted Tsukimori-kun in her wake.

-End Flashback-