Confidence

[browneyedmami.livejournal.com]

Title: Confidence
Author: browneyedmami
Fandom: La Corda d'Oro
Genre: Romance
Characters/Pairings: Shimizu/Fuyummi
Summary: Fuyummi is out at the park hoping to be able to play in public with confidence when Shimizu finds her sitting on a bench alone. Will he help her gain the confidence she needs?
Notes: Written for tech_chix for my Christmas exchange 2009


I had been walking in the park for quite some time just wandering to pass the time. I had my clarinet with me because Kaho-senpai told me that she sometimes practices in public places to get more confidence. I hadn’t been successful as of yet. While my playing is pretty good, I just don’t have the confidence that everyone else has. It had started to snow, but I tried not to let it bother me too much and just continued on walking until I found a bench. I sat down and sighed.

“Fuyummi-san?” A male voice said all of a sudden. I looked up and saw the angelic face of Shimizu-kun, one of the boys from the concours….the one I had a crush on, but will never tell because of my lack of confidence.

I didn’t respond for a moment, and then I looked up to see him again only to find him suddenly sitting next to me.

“Fuyummi-san….it’s cold outside and you’re by yourself. Is everything alright?” he said in his usual sleepy tone.

“I’m fine” I said to him, though I was lying to both him and myself.

“You don’t look fine. Why don’t we play a song?” he suggested.

I looked up at his face again, and he had this smile that made me want to say yes to whatever request he would give me, but instead I said

“I don’t know Shimizu-kun. I don’t think I’m ready to play in a public place” I said with a blush.

Without a word, he got up, took out his cello and began playing. A couple bars through the song, he looked over at me, a smile reaching his eyes asking me silently to join in. I found the beat and played along with the familiar tune, and allowed myself to block out everything except the music.

When we were done, the sound of clapping surrounded us. It seemed we had drawn a crowd. He smiled at me, then unexpectedly grabbed my hand and we both gave a bow and gave our thanks.

After a while, the crowd cleared, and I knew it was getting late and that I needed to go home soon myself. It was getting darker and much colder too. I packed up my instrument, then began to bid my goodbye to Shimizu-kun, but before the words could come out of my mouth, I felt his coat on my shoulders.

“I’ll walk you home” he said, and then extended his hand. I blushed, but took his hand into mine. It felt amazing.

The walk home was rather quite, only the occasional random conversation, but he held my hand the entire way there. When we finally arrived at my doorstep, I said

“Thank you for walking me home Shimizu-kun. Have a good evening”

I was ready to turn to head inside, but he grabbed my wrist, and said

“Please call me Keiichi…”

I blushed and smiled before saying

“Keiichi” with somewhat of a stutter. He smiled and gave a small chuckle before leaning in to give me a kiss on the cheek and saying

“Goodnight….Shouko.”

With that, he turned from my house and began to walk home. Once inside my own home, I smiled the widest I ever had in my life and decided that perhaps being confident wasn’t so hard after all.

Now to call Kaho-senpai…..