69novels Page 25
Page 25
The sounds of students laughing noisily after school, and the sharp screech of shoes scraping against the floor, filled my ears.
She was the only one standing in front of the "Club Information Board," quietly gazing at the colorful club introductions inside.
The shadows filtering through her bangs cast a melancholy mark on the corners of her eyes.
"Kanzaki-kun?"
Perhaps hearing Kitahara Hakuba's call, Kanzaki Eri's slender arm trembled slightly, and she slowly raised her soft eyelashes, looking at him expressionlessly.
Her eyes were no different from the spreading night.
Chapter 29. A pig fell into a pile of cabbages and managed to nibble on them.
She clasped her hands together in front of her and remained silent, only slightly parting her thin lips.
For some reason, Kitahara Hakuba felt a strange sadness, like the desolation of a summer day ending, the clear light of a winter morning, or a single shoe left in the sand at dusk in the park.
"Kanzaki-kun? What's wrong?" He snapped out of his daze and went over to ask with concern.
Kanzaki Eri still didn't say anything. She was like a koala that had fallen from a tree, still munching on eucalyptus leaves, with only a faint glimpse of her neck twitching slightly.
Kitahara Hakuba's gaze fell upon the club bulletin board, which was filled with club drawings made by students, posted haphazardly and without any pattern.
The usual clubs include the Literature Club, Drama Club, Kendo Club, Judo Club, etc.
Outrageous ones include the SOS Brigade, the Neighbors Club, the GJ Club, the Summer Club of the Far East Magical Nap Society, the Service Club, the Human Observation Club, and all sorts of other things.
"You want to join another club?" Kitahara Hakuba was taken aback.
As the face of the oboe, this is unacceptable.
Kanzaki Eri's face wore an expression as if she had been suddenly exiled to outer space. Her long eyelashes drooped slightly as she spoke in a soft, timid voice:
"I... won't stay in the brass band for long."
Her delicate voice made Kitahara Hakuba instinctively lean forward to listen.
In his mind, sharp, deep, low, and gentle sounds all have different shapes.
Eri Kanzaki's voice is like a faint star in the sky; once the boundary between light and shadow is blurred and they blend together, she ceases to exist.
"What's wrong? Did someone bully you? Or are you unhappy in the brass band?" Kitahara Hakuba asked with a tense face.
Although he was only asking the purest question in his heart, in Eri Kamisato's mind it seemed to be equivalent to a profound question like, "What is your view on life?"
“No…” Kanzaki Eri said.
"What happened?" Kitahara Hakuba scratched his cheek helplessly.
"fine......."
"What exactly do you want...?" Kitahara Hakuba's face twisted in a grimace, speechless.
“Training is about to start, can I go?” he asked.
"Mmm." Her voice sounded like a kitten that had been soaked by the rain.
The two walked upstairs together, but she walked very slowly behind him, so slowly that Kitahara Hakuba thought she might disappear at any moment.
She didn't sit obediently in her usual seat until she arrived at the music classroom.
"Teacher Kitahara." Nagasawa Miyabi and Goto Yuichi stood up to greet him as he walked in.
Kitahara Hakuba smiled and nodded:
"How's the training going?"
Due to their lack of experience, the two of them were unable to participate in marching and seated performances, and their development can only be planned after the Hokkaido Music Festival.
Because summer vacation is very long.
"It's alright, I just really want to start playing an instrument right away."
"almost."
Kitahara Hakuba suddenly realized that Shinomiya Haruka's family owned a musical instrument store, so were the school's musical instruments purchased from her family?
"Are we going to practice the ensemble later?" Nagasawa Miya asked.
"Ah."
"Then we'll help you move these tables out."
Although the music classroom is large, it still needs to make the most of the space to accommodate more than fifty people plus music stands. Any tables that take up space must be moved out.
"It's alright, it's alright. You guys keep practicing. If any of the boys are free, I'll have them do it."
As Kitahara Hakuba spoke, he went to the practice room next door and saw two boys huddled together looking at their phones.
"Wow, when is this game going to be released? It looks amazing!"
"I've been following him since he released his first video on August 20th this year!"
"I have a feeling this is going to be a huge hit! Come to think of it, they've already become this popular with just one classic novel. I can't even imagine how popular they would be if they turned the Three Kingdoms into a card game!"
Did you buy it?
"It's still too expensive. I'll wait until it's released before making a decision."
The two seemed to be watching some game video when Kitahara Hakuba stepped forward and interrupted them, saying:
"Matsugang, Tenkai, you two come over and help move the extra tables from the music room to the hallway. They'll be going into the music stands later."
The number of boys in the brass band club is pitifully small; out of a club of over eighty people, there are only seven boys.
Five people were on the playground facing Shinomiya Haruka's instructions, while the other two often huddled there playing on their phones.
Kitahara Hakuba wouldn't place too high expectations on the two of them, because they were a trumpet and drummer from Class B, and their growth level was C+, making them second-year students.
Many boys believe that joining a wind instrument club full of girls will bring them good luck in finding love, like a pig falling into a pile of cabbages, where even if they roll around and nibble randomly, they can still get a few bites.
This idea is actually completely wrong.
The two people in front of them were exceptions. When they entered the club as freshmen, they were full of ambition, hoping to find an artistic girlfriend and start a youthful romance. However, they found that the girls here didn't even give them a second glance.
They found that the female students in the department preferred physical intimacy with other female students to dating male students.
By the second year, thinking that he wouldn't be interested in girls anyway, he simply gave up.
These were all said by the male members of the club and Kitahara Hakuba.
Although he was a teacher, he had just graduated and still retained a student's air. He didn't often have a serious expression, and the boys in the department were willing to chat and interact with Kitahara Hakuba in their spare time.
Kitahara Hakuba really wanted to tell them that, based on his experience, the girls didn't just want to be close to other girls; it's just that they weren't the ones who wanted to be close to them.
"Teacher Kitahara, can't girls do these things? You always make us boys do them," Matsuoka Osamu said with a pained expression.
Kitahara Hakuba had complained about this when he was a student; whenever there was hard labor involved, the teachers would assign it to the boys.
Now that he's a teacher, he's discovered that the reason he likes to boss around boys is twofold: firstly, it's about efficiency, and secondly, boys are easier to talk to each other about.
"This is your chance to show your masculinity in front of the girls, go for it."
“My masculinity was completely exhausted within a year,” Tianhai Cang said.
"Hurry up, I'll treat you to milk tea sometime."
"You should have told me earlier."
The two walked to the music room laughing, but when they saw Nagasawa Miyabi and Goto Yu carrying the same table, they immediately straightened their chests, stretched out their arms, and each carried a table out.
Orange light streamed in through the square window. Kanzaki Eri's gaze fell to her feet. She reached out and picked up a speck of dust that had been stirred up from her sock with her slender fingers.
"Do you need any help?" Nagasawa Miya asked from the hallway.
Matsuoka Osamu pressed the table against the wall without changing his expression.
"No need, these are too light for me."
"Junior, let us handle this little thing." Tian Hai Cang's tone was deliberately deep, as if he could blow bubbles from his throat.
With a girl around, the two of them worked twice as efficiently, and the tables in the room were almost emptied without Kitahara Hakuba even having to lift a finger.
Goto Yu stammered, "As expected of a boy..." which made both of their faces and necks turn bright red.
After a while, a commotion arose downstairs at the club building, as club members who had finished training on the playground were going upstairs one by one.
Chapter 30. Execution of Voice Parts
Because there is no soundproofing in the music classroom, all the fabric curtains have to be drawn.
In an instant, most of the light in the music classroom disappeared, and an oddly white light enveloped the room.
The members of Group A had already taken their seats with their instruments, while Kitahara Hakuba allowed the members of Group B, even those who couldn't play, to listen and gain experience.
"Get your instruments ready and begin tuning them together," Kitahara Hakuba said.
Next, just like the previous audition for each vocal part, Kitahara Hakuba asked them to all produce the same sound.
"Okay, let's get ready for the ensemble."
He stood upright in front of more than eighty people, raising his baton high as his members raised their instruments and took a deep breath.
"One, two, one, two, three, four—"
The baton suddenly fell, and the percussion instruments playing "sing, singing, singing" first outlined the rhythm, followed immediately by Tachibana Kuno's first trumpet, with various brass instruments joining in.
This piece is cheerful and lively, a jazz-style wind instrument. Even though Kirishima Mai wasn't a member of the A section, she was completely absorbed in listening to it, pressing her fingers into the air on the cold piston of the oboe.
The first few bars of the performance went smoothly, but as the middle section progressed, Kitahara Hakuba became increasingly aware that the rhythm was off.
Inconsistent pitch, chaotic rhythm, rusty technique, lack of tacit understanding, imbalance of vocal parts, inaccurate grasp of style, and lack of expressiveness.
The Shin-Asahi High School Brass Band encountered every problem that should not occur during ensemble performances.
What should have been a beautiful and cheerful musical score turned into a jagged, broken line.
Not only Kitahara Hakuba looked sullen, but even Shinomiya Haruka pursed her lips and raised her beautiful eyebrows.
"stop."
He abruptly broke up the playing of each instrument, and the notes that were tangled haphazardly in the air were punctured like bubbles.
Kitahara Hakuba looked down at his team members, most of whom had embarrassed expressions on their faces. Especially when they looked at him on stage, they looked like children who had done something wrong and quickly lowered their eyes.
"Minister Yukawa."
"exist."