"Oh, I get it now. In the eyes of people who participate in piano competitions, prize money is optional, because the value contained in the title of ’champion’ alone is already enough.
"For people who don’t understand piano, they might not even know who won which competition, let alone rember those who participated but didn’t beco champions. But for the competitors themselves, even if they’re trying to build their reputation, they’re not aiming for so kind of massive, out-of-the-circle fa. What they want is recognition and value within the piano world.
"Leaving aside bragging rights for a mont, even if they run out of money soday, they can still apply to be a piano teacher or open a piano training school.
"As long as they write in their self-introduction that they once won a championship or achieved so ranking in a certain piano competition, then exaggerate it a bit like a résumé, they basically won’t have to worry about salary issues or not being able to recruit students.
"After all, parents who want their kids to learn piano—even if they don’t understand piano themselves—will naturally prioritize teachers or training schools that have clear, visible credentials like winning a competition.
"And later, when bragging to relatives, they can even say: My kid is learning piano from a master musician."
"Mm, that’s right. Most people who participate in piano competitions are after the champion title to raise their reputation and value. There are also so fourteen- or fifteen-year-old contestants who are forced into competitions by their parents. Just like how my mother used to force to participate in all kinds of piano competitions."
Yukino Yukinoshita nodded and added:
"By the way, Kotomi, you’re really smart. I hadn’t even finished explaining, and you already figured it out on your own. It almost makes wonder if that silly, airheaded side you usually show is just an act—playing dumb to catch people off guard."
"Hehehe~" Kotomi Izumi laughed without responding, then continued, "Anyway, the important thing is that you’ve regained your motivation to play the piano. That ans inviting you to join my three-person band back then wasn’t for nothing."
"That’s purely result-based reasoning—you’re just claiming all the credit in one go. But... you’re right. If you hadn’t invited to be the keyboardist in your trio back then, I probably wouldn’t have picked up the piano again, nor rekindled that unwillingness to lose buried in my heart.
"I’m participating in piano competitions to beco champion once again. After I win, I’ll keep playing the piano, but I won’t enter competitions anymore. I’ll let the piano beco a part of my everyday life—playing whenever I want, whatever piece I want, however I want. Thinking about it that way, playing the piano suddenly doesn’t seem so heavy anymore."
Yukino Yukinoshita said this with a rare smile.
"Playing the piano should’ve been like that from the start. The way your mother taught you was completely wrong. Instrunts should clearly be about cultivating interest first, and only then learning seriously."
Even though she had never t Yukino Yukinoshita’s mother, that didn’t stop Kotomi from complaining at this mont.
"You’re right. If it were you, Kotomi, with the way you talk, you might actually be able to shut my mother up completely."
"Ahahaha... I’m a very polite person, you know," Kotomi Izumi said quickly.
"Oh? So you’re planning to be polite first and ruthless later with my mom? If that’s the case, I’d be more than happy to help however I can. As for my mother, I don’t know if I hate her or not—but I really want to see her suffer a setback at least once."
Yukino Yukinoshita said this half-jokingly. After saying it out loud to Kotomi, she felt her heart completely relax.
"In that case—" Kotomi Izumi sat up, stretched out her hand, and said, "Then win a championship in a piano competition that’ll make your mother completely convinced!"
"A championship that’ll make my mother concede..."
"That’s right. If you want victory to be the ending of your piano competitions, then let that final victory be grand, earth-shaking, and deafening! Go participate in the piano competition your mother once wanted to enter, and win the championship trophy she failed to obtain but dread of!
"Let your mother know just how foolish it was for her to feel disappointed in you back then!"
Kotomi’s words were like a heavy hamr striking straight into Yukino Yukinoshita’s heart.
Why did she want to participate in piano competitions again after so many years?
It was because she hated losing.
But was her unwillingness to lose really only about refusing to let her piano career end in failure?
No—there was also her unwillingness to lose against her mother!
Her mother’s coldness over the years had always left a blazing fire hidden deep within Yukino Yukinoshita’s heart.
Since she wanted to compete again because of that unwillingness to lose, then she might as well seize this opportunity to release that fire completely—win a championship that would leave her mother speechless and forced to acknowledge it!
Use raw, undeniable strength to prove it to her mother.
That her disappointnt back then was nothing but a mistake—an ignorant, foolish mistake!
"Alright. Let’s do it!"
Yukino Yukinoshita took a deep breath and sat up as well, extending her hand toward Kotomi Izumi. With a crisp smack, they completed a clean high-five.
"Since my mother was disappointed in back then, I’ll use my own strength to win the championship trophy of the Brahms International Piano Competition—the one she dread of but never obtained!
"I don’t just want to slap her in the face with my ability and prove that I’m not the worthless person she claid I was! I want to stand on the awards podium, right in front of her, and smash that championship trophy onto the ground!"
The Brahms International Piano Competition was regarded as one of Europe’s most famous, highest-level, and most professional international piano competitions, enjoying an extrely high reputation worldwide.
Countless pianists competed in the Brahms International Piano Competition, pouring everything they had into fighting for the championship trophy—all for the sake of glory.
But Yukino Yukinoshita’s motivation for becoming champion was only one thing:
Revenge against her cold, indifferent mother!
Beco champion. Win the trophy. Then, on the awards podium, smash the trophy onto the ground.
Everything was for the sake of proving one thing to her mother:
’I am not the worthless person you call . I never truly loved playing the piano. You, who forcibly imposed your unfinished piano obsession onto , have no right to say the word ’disappointed’ to !’
’Look! This is the championship trophy you once dread of obtaining. Now I’ve won it—but I won’t share it with you, nor will I keep it for myself. I’ll only smash it onto the ground right in front of you. And if it shatters, then even better!’
It was as if Yukino Yukinoshita had vented everything inside her. She gasped for breath again and again, wishing she could fast-forward ti straight to the day she won that championship trophy.
Soon, as she gradually cald down, Yukino Yukinoshita realized that Kotomi was still beside her. The mont she thought about the emotionally charged, image-breaking words she had just spoken, her cheeks couldn’t help but heat up.
Just as Yukino Yukinoshita tightly pursed her lips, waiting for Kotomi to tease her for being chuuni, she instead heard Kotomi Izumi say, her eyes sparkling brilliantly:
"Yukino, that was so cool!"
Yukino replayed the words she had just said in her mind. They were sincere, straight from her heart, and in the heat of the mont, saying them out loud had felt exhilarating and cathartic.
But once she cald down, it felt exactly like when your grown-up self stumbles across the cringe-worthy userna or personal tagline you used as a kid—pure, overwhelming embarrassnt.
Yukino Yukinoshita had already braced herself, waiting for Kotomi to burst out laughing or tease her rcilessly. Instead, Kotomi hit her with:
’Yukino, that was so cool.’
Just five simple words, yet they echoed endlessly in Yukino Yukinoshita’s ears.
The feeling was like ordering a box of five McNuggets at McDonald’s, only to open it and find fifty nuggets inside. After finishing all fifty, you discover there’s still a Big Mac waiting at the bottom.
Never mind how a box labeled "5 pieces" could possibly hold fifty nuggets and a Big Mac, or who on earth could finish all of that. Just the sheer, logic-defying surprise alone was enough to produce an indescribably strange sense of joy.
That said, to be fair, the question of who could finish fifty nuggets and a Big Mac did have an answer.
Kotomi could.
Kotomi’s two favorite burger chains were Burger King and McDonald’s. Her personal best at McDonald’s was eating seventy McNuggets in one sitting, along with three Big Macs, three large fries, and six double Filet-O-Fish burgers.
Before leaving, she even packed one grilled chicken burger to go—Aimi loved McDonald’s grilled chicken burgers.
Why ten?
Because Kotomi was going to eat eight of them.
Back to the point. This was exactly the state Yukino Yukinoshita was in right now.
Hearing Kotomi say she was cool made her feel incredibly good, yet at the sa ti, she couldn’t understand why Kotomi would say that.
Kotomi Izumi seed to notice the confusion in Yukino Yukinoshita’s heart and explained with a smile:
"While you were talking just now, I couldn’t help imagining the scene—your standing on the podium, smashing the championship trophy of the Brahms International Piano Competition onto the ground. I even matched it with suitable background music in my head. So I blurted out ’so cool’ without thinking."
"Th-That’s a bit much..."
Yukino Yukinoshita lowered her head, her face flushing red. Hearing Kotomi say that made her happy, but at the sa ti, unbearably shy.
"I’ve already picked out the BGM too," Kotomi Izumi said seriously. "It’s called Zero Eclipse."
When Yukino smashed the trophy, the music would start right from the lyric ’You’re bigger’—it would be insanely hype.
"Zero Eclipse? Is that a new song you’re planning to write?" Yukino Yukinoshita asked.
"Yeah. What you said earlier gave the inspiration. I’ve almost finished thinking up the lyrics already. Thank you, Yukino."
After performing together on the cultural festival stage, Yukino Yukinoshita had already co to deeply acknowledge Kotomi’s composing talent. So when Kotomi ntioned a new song, Yukino didn’t think she was joking at all—instead, anticipation quietly blood in her heart.
Would it be similar to the previous songs, or would Kotomi try a new direction this ti?
Especially hearing that this new song had been inspired by her words—that even the lyrics were nearly complete—made it feel as though a tiny person inside Yukino’s heart was jumping up and down, cheering wildly.
Yes!
"N-No need to thank . When Zero Eclipse is finished, just let be the first one to hear it. I’m really looking forward to your new song."
Yukino Yukinoshita suppressed the excitent in her heart and spoke calmly.
"Alright, no problem. Leave it to . Once Zero Eclipse is finished, you’ll be the first one I invite to co over to my house to listen."
Go to Kotomi’s house to listen?
Those words erupted like a small volcano inside Yukino Yukinoshita’s heart.
If she’d been given a chance to fast-forward ti earlier, she might have chosen to jump straight to the day she won the Brahms International Piano Competition.
But now?
Now, all Yukino Yukinoshita wanted was to fast-forward ti to the day Kotomi’s new song Zero Eclipse was finished—and she was invited to Kotomi’s house to listen to it.
Kotomi inviting her over. Just the two of them in a room.
What would Kotomi do to her then...
Buzz—!
A roaring sound like a speeding train filled Yukino Yukinoshita’s ears. Her cheeks grew hotter and redder by the second, like a steam locomotive charging forward, billowing thick clouds of steam.
"Hey, Yukino, why is your face so red?" Kotomi Izumi asked with concern. "Is it a bit warm in the carriage? I actually think this temperature feels pretty comfortable. If you’re feeling hot, I can go ask the attendant to adjust it. After all, there are only the three of us in this entire first-class car."
Kotomi asked sincerely, though there was a faint, hard-to-read smile lingering at the corner of her lips—one that made it hard not to suspect she might be doing this on purpose.
She hid that smile well, and with the dim lighting in the carriage, Yukino Yukinoshita didn’t notice it at all.
"N-No need. Actually, every ti I eat spicy food, my face turns red on its own. Sotis it happens right away, sotis only after a few hours. This ti it just happened to be the delayed kind. Don’t worry—it’ll be fine in a bit."
Trying her best not to let Kotomi see through her embarrassnt, Yukino Yukinoshita desperately pieced together an explanation in her head.
She thought of a line and said it. Thought of another, and added it.
After finishing her flustered explanation, Yukino Yukinoshita lowered her head quickly, face still burning red.
Kotomi Izumi thought back to what Yukino Yukinoshita had eaten for dinner that night.
Cream-stewed vegetables. Chicken fried rice.
Not a single dish was spicy. There wasn’t even a decorative chili pepper in sight.
Especially the chicken fried rice Yukino had ordered—it really was delicious. Kotomi had stolen several bites of it.
So many, in fact, that Yui Yuigahama had gotten a little jealous. Kotomi had focused so much on Yukino’s fried rice that she barely touched Yui’s tomato olet beef noodle dish.
Yui had puffed up her cheeks and eaten several big mouthfuls of noodles in protest, accidentally biting her tongue and nearly crying from the pain—yet she still saved the beef and olet for Kotomi.
Of course, Kotomi didn’t know about Yui’s jealousy at the ti. While eating Yui’s tomato olet beef noodles later, she’d even evaluated it like a food critic in her head:
Too much tomato. The sourness was overwhelming. Whether it was the beef or the olet, the first thing you tasted wasn’t aroma—it was sourness.
Kotomi didn’t like food where sourness was the dominant flavor.
Take pickled cabbage fish, for example. She liked it when the fragrance outweighed the sourness—just a hint of sour was perfect. Not overly sour.
She’d once eaten a version with lemon added. That taste...
Kotomi had hunched her shoulders and forced herself to finish it—not because the fish was particularly fresh, but simply because it was far more expensive than regular pickled cabbage fish.
Back to the point.
None of the dishes Yukino Yukinoshita had ordered were spicy.
So why did Yukino say her face was red from eating spicy food?
Oh—she got it.
Kotomi Izumi instantly understood.
Yukino Yukinoshita was just trying to cover up her embarrassnt.
—
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