“…It’s kinda small.”
There are many Statues of Liberty around the world, and the exact number is unknown.
Paris in June was pleasantly sunny, and the roses, jasmines, and other flowers blooming here and there in the city were giving off the scent of early summer together with the overflowing greenery.
As if inviting the refreshing breeze from outside, Hazuki left the apartment window wide open. She opened her notebook by the window and engaged in a video chat with Doremi, Momoko, Hana, and others.
The communal space outside MAHO-do shown on the screen was already dark.
With daylight saving time now in effect, there was a seven-hour time difference with Japan.
“So the surgery went well?”
Hazuki leaned forward instinctively as she spoke.
Yeah! But I was surprised when I got the call that Ai-chan was injured...
As Doremi said that, Momoko and Hana nodded vigorously.
That was last month, wasn't it...
Indeed, it was surprising...
That day, Aiko, who had been running near the training grounds, felt discomfort in her ankle as she dashed down a slope. She stumbled and was taken straight to the hospital.
It was a ruptured Achilles tendon.
On the day of the surgery, the three of us, me, Momo-chan, and Hana-chan, went to the hospital.
When we opened the door nervously...
She was like, "Wow! You all came?" and laughed on the bed, so we were surprised.
Even though her foot was fixed in place, she was incredibly lively. She even ate three puddings that Momoko made~~!
“That’s just like Ai-chan.”
Hazuki laughed lightly.
But Aiko, she's been injured before too... I wonder if I could see her medical records?
Seeing Hana say that, Hazuki couldn’t help but smile.
“As expected of a future doctor. Hana-chan.”
Ehehe...
Just then, the door chime rang Chilin! And the sound of MAHO-do’s entrance door opening could be heard.
I'm home~~.
Ah! Onpu's back!! Onpu-chan, Hazuki-chan's here too~~!
The next instant after they thought Hana had disappeared from the screen, Onpu, who had been pulled in by Hana, filled up the whole screen.
Hazuki-chan!
“Onpu-chan, long time no see~~! You look busy.”
Fufu... I have quite a few jobs in the countryside. Hazuki-chan, you must be busy in all kinds of ways too, right?
“Yes. Aside from playing for work, I also teach children, and I have to practice myself too… There are many days when I think, ‘The day’s already over!’”
So there's no time to go visit Yada-kun either, huh.
At Momoko’s words, Hazuki made a somewhat lonely looking smile.
“That’s right. New York is far away. And there’s the time difference… He must still be sleeping now.”
What's the time difference again?
It's six hours! So it's already past 8am there... He's probably still in bed.
Doremi asked, and Hana immediately answered.
“Because he always stays up late…”
As Hazuki said that, Doremi nodded impressively and said,
Haah... Hazuki-chan, it's like you completely understand everything about Yada-kun. Even though you're in a long-distance relationship and there's a time difference, you two don't waver at all...
“Oh, well, Doremi-chan, you’ve been with Kotake-kun for a long time too, right?”
Doremi got a little fidgety and said,
Well, you know. He's out there now working hard as part of the Japanese national team... Waiting is hard on a girl, you know?
“It’s amazing, Kotake-kun. Since practice is indispensable for both sports and music…”
Just then, Hazuki glanced at her watch and went “Ah!”.
“Oh no! It’s almost time for my student’s lesson.”
Ah, I see.
“Yes. Well, see you again.”
Yeah, see ya...
Bye-bye~~!
Everyone on the screen waved.
And then they were gone.
Hazuki closed her notebook reluctantly, as if loathe to part, and started getting ready to go out.
Hazuki took the bus to her student’s house.
The sound of someone playing the trumpet on a song could be heard from somewhere.
“Masaru-kun plays that song a lot too…”
She had to get off at the next stop.
Hazuki pressed the stop button.
The student was a seven-year-old girl living in a luxury apartment.
She played the violin with her ponytail swaying from side to side.
She was good at controlling the strength of her bow, and she produced a very beautiful sound.
When the girl finished playing, Hazuki clapped and said,
“Ç’est bien! (Well done!)”
The girl nodded happily and said,
“Merci!”
“Alors… (Now then…)”
As she flipped through the sheet music, she wondered if the girl could play a slightly more difficult song too.
She was currently teaching several children, but since each of their personalities and abilities were different, she thought about what kind of guidance would be good for each one. Seeing them produce unexpected results brought her a joy that was different from performing herself.
While such a life was fulfilling, when she thought about Yada she still became uneasy.
They respected each other’s desire to pursue what they wanted to do.
She knew that there’s no way something like that could continue forever, but even so she didn’t really know what to do going forward either.
Hazuki is really doing her best.
When you think about it, in high school her father went bankrupt and they lost their home... And yet she's made it this far.
She deserves to be happier. By the way, I wonder how's Yada doing?
Yada was wandering along the riverbank.
The sunlight was strong but the blowing wind felt nice.
Stepping into the shade of the trees, he took out his trumpet and tried playing it.
Passersby stopped and listened to the sound.
After playing to his heart’s content, Yada put his trumpet away in its case and wandered off again.
Then after some time, he was walking down unfamiliar alleyways.
He looked up at the buildings and peered down the roads to his left and right.
“Huh? Which way is it!?”
A passing man only glanced at the memo Yada tried to show him, waving both hands in an “I don’t know” gesture and walking off.
I wonder what he's doing?
Wandering around in the middle of the day instead of working!
Before he knew it, Yada was walking through a park.
He tried speaking to an elderly man sitting on a bench, but the man only shook his head.
Yada heavily sat himself down next to the old man.
“Aahhh, I wanna go back to New York…”
He looked up at the Eiffel Tower.
Hmm!?
Yada's in Paris!?
In any case, there was practically no English notation in Paris, and few people who could speak English.
His smartphone unfortunately ran out of battery, so he tried walking aimlessly relying only on the names of the streets, but he was completely lost.
“I feel like I’m just going around in circles…”
As he was wandering around irritably, he saw a store in the distance.
A store clerk was rearranging shopping carts in front of the store.
“I hope English gets through…!”
Muttering like a prayer, Yada ran up to the store clerk.
“Uh, excuse me…”
“Ah, are you Japanese?”
“Huh!?”
Surprised by the green-eyed store clerk’s question, Yada was left speechless.
The June sunset was late.
Even at 8pm it was still bright out, and the people of Paris were enjoying the night in their own way.
A stylish restaurant located in a corner of an upscale residential area was famous for its ability to enjoy music along with delicious cuisine.
Hazuki was performing live music there alongside viola and cello players.
While savoring the elegant performance, the customers enjoyed their meals.
When she didn’t have any major concerts, aside from giving lessons to children, she would take on these smaller gigs.
She planned to save up money this way to be able to go to New York again.
When the job was over, Hazuki went out the back door of the restaurant together with the cello and viola players.
“Salut! (Bye!)”
“Salut! Hazuki.”
The sparkling lights of the distant Eiffel Tower indicated that it was already 11pm.
Hazuki, who had taken the subway to the nearest station, took out her smartphone as she climbed the stairs.
Normally, she would have received some kind of message from Yada around this time.
But there were no new messages.
“…I wonder if Masaru-kun is busy too…”
For some reason, her violin case felt heavy.
Juggling lessons and concerts had left her quite exhausted.
When she got home, she’d take a shower, drink some hot milk, and crawl into bed.
Thinking such thoughts, as Hazuki arrived at the entrance to her apartment, she noticed someone crouching in the corner.
“Kyaa!”
Instinctively, she stepped back and saw the dark figure crouching there wriggling a bit.
“You’re late…”
That voice was…!?
“Eh?? Ma, Masaru-kun!?”
Yada stood up with a sleepy face and said,
“It’s not that French people don’t speak English, it’s that they can’t speak it at all!”
Then he collapsed into Hazuki’s arms.
For a while, Hazuki just stood there stunned, her face a mix of surprise and joy.
From the warmth of Yada’s body, it felt like something that had been building up in her heart was melting away.
Impressive, Yada Masaru...!
Once inside her room, Hazuki sat Yada down on the sofa and hurriedly started boiling water in a small white kettle.
“You must have been cold? Even in June the nights get chilly… Better than coffee, how about some milk tea? Ah! Or are you hungry instead?”
Saying that, she turned around to find Yada had fallen asleep slumped over on the sofa.
“Honestly, Masaru-kun…”
Unable to stop herself from smiling, she brought over a quilt from the bed and draped it over Yada.
“Mmm…”
Yada curled up and hugged the quilt, perhaps relieved to be enveloped by Hazuki’s scent.
Hazuki rested her head on Yada’s chest and whispered,
“It’s not a dream, right…”
She savored the happiness of being together with him.
Around the time the Statue of Liberty was bathed in the morning sun at the foot of the Grenelle Bridge near the Seine River, Hazuki and Yada were having breakfast together by the apartment window.
“Anyway, I was surprised at how tiny the Statue of Liberty in Paris is.”
“They say the Statue of Liberty in Paris is about a quarter of the height of the one in New York. The Statue of Liberty in New York was a gift from the French people, right? The one in Paris was a gift from the Americans living in Paris.”
“I see…”
Yada noticed there was unexpectedly a tamagoyaki along with the orange juice, coffee, toasted baguettes, and salad.
“Oh, tamagoyaki!”
“You prefer tamagoyaki over omelets, don’t you?”
Yada immediately took a piece of tamagoyaki with his fork and took a bite.
“Mmm, delicious!! Is this from the canned food yesterday?”
“Yes. The grilled saury you got from Henri. But it’s strange, isn’t it? That you’d meet Henri after getting lost.”
“I was surprised he spoke Japanese and said he was friends with Asuka. But I didn’t think I was that bad with directions.”
“Ufufufu… Really. Henri’s supermarket is in the complete opposite direction from our place after all.”
“What’s that supposed to mean!”
Yada lightly shoved Hazuki.
“Because. Fufufufu…”
Hazuki was laughing with tears in her eyes.
“Is it really that funny!?”
Then Hazuki took off her glasses and wiped her tears as she said,
“No… I never imagined you’d come to Paris. So being able to have breakfast together like this, I’m just happy…”
Hazuki and Yada, who had each walked their own paths.
Paris and New York were over 8 hours apart by plane, and the tickets weren’t cheap either.
Even if they saved up money, neither of them could take that much time off work, so it was hard to actually meet, maybe once a year at best.
“French people really only speak French huh? What a pain.”
Yada said it like an old habit, but Hazuki, who was usually the one going to New York, had never imagined Yada would come to Paris.
Yada finally realized that his selfishness until now had made Hazuki feel so lonely.
“…Sorry.”
Yada sat down next to Hazuki and put his arm around her shoulders.
Hazuki leaned her head against Yada’s shoulder.
“It’s okay. We’ve made it this far after all… How long can you stay?”
Then Yada suddenly became restless.
“Um… ah, didn’t I tell you there’s a music festival all over Paris in June?”
“La Fête de la Musique?”
“Yeah, that’s it! I’ll stay until then.”
“But that’s just next week. Are you sure you can stay that long?”
“It’s only six more days… No big deal.”
Hazuki suddenly raised her head, and her glasses glinted as she adjusted them.
“Did something happen, Masaru-kun?”
“Eh…”
At that moment, the jazz club owner’s voice echoed in Yada’s mind.
What does a punk like you know about jazz!?
Yada quickly dismissed the thought and feigned nonchalance.
“No, it’s nothing!!”
Hazuki looked at Yada with a skeptical gaze.
But her eyes gradually softened.
“If you say so.”
Yada didn’t open up easily about troubles.
Hazuki understood this better than anyone.
In the afternoon, Hazuki had to go for her student’s lessons.
She was worried about Yada, but they had no choice but to go their separate ways for now.
Taking the path lined with horse chestnut trees was a shortcut to the station.
Hazuki and Yada walked side-by-side, each carrying their instrument cases.
Hazuki looked up at the horse chestnut trees and said,
“If we’d come a little earlier, the horse chestnut blossoms would have been in full bloom. They are light purple and very beautiful.”
Yada looked up at the sky above and said,
“I see.”
“The Cloisters museum you took me to in New York, they transported an old monastery from France, right? The white roses there were beautiful… I wonder if they’re in full bloom now?”
“Maybe…”
Hazuki quickly moved in front of Yada and peered into his face.
“I won’t ask what happened to you, but for you to come all the way to Paris alone… I’m worried.”
Yada was surprised by Hazuki’s firm tone, but tried to maintain his composure.
“Don’t be stupid. No need to worry unnecessarily. Anyway, aren’t you going for your student’s lesson?”
“Yeah… What will you do, Masaru-kun?”
Yada stretched in a rather unenthusiastic way and said,
“Maybe go to an art museum… At least I can kill time there without having to deal with that annoying French language.”
“Fufufu… The Louvre and the Orsay museums are good too, but they might be crowded. Oh, I know! There’s a music museum at the Cité de la Musique. They even have English guides. Take the metro line 5 to Porte de Pantin station… Ah, the wall of the platform has musical notes painted on it, so you’ll know it right away.”
“I see…”
He didn’t really care where, but Hazuki’s earnest attempts to look after him were somehow endearing.
“Ah, it’s better to get a carnet for the subway.”
“A carnet?”
“A set of tickets. Since you plan to stay for a while, right?”
“Ahh! I’ll do that.”
But seeing Hazuki still looking worried, he said,
“Hurry up and go. You’ll be late.”
“Ah, yeah. If anything happens, send me a message, okay?”
“Yeah, I got it!”
Yada grabbed Hazuki’s shoulder, spun her around to face the direction she was going, and gave her a gentle push forward.
Hazuki turned back and said,
“See you later then!”
“Yeah!”
Hazuki left, repeatedly turning back to look behind her.
Once Hazuki was out of sight, Yada started walking.
Following Hazuki’s instructions, he walked through the underground passage from the subway station, and the entrance to the Louvre was easy to find.
But he regretted it as soon as he went inside.
Just as Hazuki had said, the crowds were overwhelming.
Yada, who had expected the museum to be more relaxed, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the MoMA in New York City, was already fed up. But since he was there, he decided to at least see that famous painting.
“The Mona Lisa.”
The painting, framed in glass, was surrounded by a large crowd of people taking photos.
Yada, who was looking at it in a place away from the crowd, muttered in disappointment,
“The Mona Lisa is so tiny…”
There were other famous works that Yada had probably seen depictions of somewhere before, like the Venus de Milo and a headless but winged goddess statue, but he was mainly just annoyed by the sheer number of people.
“Can’t tell if I came to see art or just a bunch of heads.”
Yada headed towards the exit as fast as he could.
Getting fed up, he aimlessly walked until he came across a canal.
“A tiny river…”
The canal, lined with trees, was spanned by an arched bridge, and people were leisurely spending time here and there.
“But somehow, it’s calming…”
He sat by the riverbank and took a bite of the bread he had bought along the way.
“……”
He bought the bread thinking it had a cheese topping, but it turned out to be sweet cream.
He hurriedly washed it down with mineral water.
“Aahhh, I want to eat a bagel sandwich…”
Meanwhile, as Hazuki taught the violin lesson at her student’s house, she worried that Yada might have gotten lost again.
She was also still concerned about why he had suddenly come to Paris.
After resting by the canal, Yada walked aimlessly again until he found a subway station.
While he couldn’t read the station name,
“⑤… She said something about line 5…”
Yada took the subway, and as soon as he sat down, tiredness and jet lag hit him, making him drowsy.
It seemed to be several stops until the museum station, but if he fell asleep, he would definitely miss his stop.
Thinking so, he desperately fought against sleepiness, but every time he woke up from the vibration of arriving at a station, he realized that he had been asleep.
This repeated, until suddenly he noticed the train had stopped at a station where musical notes were drawn large on the wall of the platform.
”!!”
He hurriedly tried to get off but the doors wouldn’t open.
He remembered that there were still manually operated doors on some trains in Paris.
“Geez! In this day and age…”
He unlocked the door and barely managed to jump off as the train started moving.
The “Music Museum” was located inside a large park.
Although the entrance was a bit hard to find, once inside, the procedures were the same as in any other country.
When Yada entered the exhibition room, at first he was amused by the unnecessarily elaborate decorations of the old instruments, the strangely shaped wind instruments, and the giant double basses.
But gradually he became interested in the sounds of each instrument, which were played through the audio guide.
The sounds produced by the instruments, which he initially considered old-fashioned, struck Yada as fresh and somewhat tantalizing.
“Whoa…”
Before he knew it, there were two violins displayed in the showcase in front of him.
“Stradivarius… from the 17th to 18th century!?”
Stradivarius and Guarneri... I'd like to play them at least once..
Hazuki had often said that, but he just realized now those were made over 300 years ago.
“Whoa…!”
The exhibition gradually shifted to newer instruments from more recent eras.
Among them was a trumpet.
It took thousands of years for the trumpet to evolve from its original form, similar to a vuvuzela, to its current shape, and then jazz was born…
“Jazz is really new from the perspective of the music world, huh…”
Before he knew it, he was exhausted from walking.
Then he heard the sound of the medieval style instruments from the audio guide playing somewhere.
But the tune was rock music.
Staggering towards the sound, he saw a corner of the exhibition room where live performances using lutes and recorders were taking place.
A few audience members were seated in the chairs lined up in front, and they were having a great time.
Yada also took a seat in one of those chairs, immersing himself in the world of medieval rock.
The music seeped into every cell of his body.
Then the jazz club owner’s voice echoed in his mind once again.
What does a punk like you know about jazz!?
Yada let out a wry smile.
“That’s right. I still don’t understand much…”
As he absorbed the music into every nook and cranny of his cells, he felt something changing within himself.
The hands of the clock on the clock tower of the Musée d’Orsay pointed to seven o’clock.
While biting on an ice cream cone along the Seine river, Yada mumbled to himself,
“I’m… so small…”
At that moment, the alert on his smartphone sounded.
He took it out to see a message from Hazuki displayed.
“……”
After checking it, Yada started walking again.
So what happened to Yada in New York anyway?
From what I found out, it seems he got into a dispute with the owner of a new jazz club he signed a contract with.
With all the stress piled up, it must have been the final straw that made him explode.
But perhaps, it's good that it exploded.
Indeed... It seems the boy realized something as well.
Hazuki was waiting for Yada at the entrance of the subway station, holding her violin case.
She saw Yada running towards her, weaving through the crowds, carrying his trumpet case.
“Hazuki!”
Hazuki smiled and as they descended the station stairs side-by-side, she asked,
“Where did you go? You didn’t get lost, did you? Did you have lunch properly?”
“Don’t ask me everything at once.”
Looking at Yada’s face, Hazuki sensed something in that instant.
Then Yada, gazing straight ahead with a slight smile, said,
“I think I’ll go back tomorrow night.”
“Eh?”
“If I stay here for another six days…I feel like it won’t be good.”
“…Yeah, you’re right. Well then, we don’t have much time left, so we have to enjoy it until then!”
At that moment, they heard classical music coming from the station corridor.
“Debussy’s ‘Clair de Lune’…”
“Let’s go!”
As they went down to the platform, they saw musicians performing with a cello, flute and small harp in a corner of the passageway.
The gentle melody and tones seemed to gently embrace the people passing by.
Many commuters stopped to listen intently.
“I always think, performing in a proper venue is different from the sense of unity with the people just passing by.”
“I don’t really get it, but it’s totally different from New York. Over there it feels kind of aggressive, like a battle with the audience. But here, before you know it you’re drawn into it…”
“Maybe so…”
As Hazuki closed her eyes to listen intently, suddenly the sound of a trumpet rang out.
”!?”
Somehow Yada had spontaneously joined in with an improvised performance.
“Eh, eh, ehhh~~~!!”
For a moment, both the audience and performers looked at Yada in surprise.
“No, Masaru-kun. Only those with permission are supposed to perform!!”
Gazing at the flustered Hazuki with amusement, Yada continued playing his trumpet.
Yada’s masterful improvisation, which showed his presence while also knowing when to hold back and let the other instruments shine, brought smiles to the faces of the other performers, and they gradually began to arrange the piece in a jazz style.
“W-What should I do…”
“You gotta go for it!”
Yada pulled the hesitant Hazuki in.
“Ehhh~~?”
All eyes turned towards Hazuki’s violin case.
“Eh! But…”
Both the audience and the performers encouraged her to “play” with gestures and expressions.
The performance became even more lively.
Unable to resist, Hazuki took out her violin and began playing too.
At first, Hazuki was hesitant to draw the bow, but she quickly blended into the surrounding performance, playing the violin as if she had been there from the beginning.
In the end, it returned to a calm arrangement, and it ended as if the moonlight gently enveloped everyone.
At that moment, a resounding applause echoed through the platform.
With a pleasant sense of weariness, Hazuki and Yada instinctively made eye contact.
Just then, they saw a station attendant running towards them.
“Crap!”
Yada gave the performers a casual wave goodbye, grabbed Hazuki’s arm and took off running.
“Waaahh~~!”
Their retreating backs received a shower of applause.
Skillfully avoiding the approaching station attendant, they jumped onto the subway train that had just arrived.
Inside the accelerating train, looking at each other panting, they broke into laughter.
“Phahaha…”
“Ufufufu…”
Supporting each other with their exhausted bodies, they continued to laugh.
Humming “Clair de Lune”, they returned to their apartment. Opening the front door, they dashed up the stairs and disappeared into their own room.
The moon was shining in the night sky, as if watching over the pair.