Tokyo: Who would still fall in love after being spoiled?

Chapter 34: Amano White Dress. Congratulations. Congratulations...

When Tian Ye stepped onto the stage in a white dress, he was sitting in the seat provided for the contestants to listen in the concert hall.

The concert hall was filled with an enthusiastic response far greater than that of the twenty or so contestants who had come before her.

The applause and cheers merged into a wave of sound, echoing endlessly in the concert hall, which should have been quiet and restrained.

The girl on the stage was wearing a simple white dress, plain clothes and light makeup, and her black hair was draped over her shoulders without any hair accessories.

She waved to the audience, and the noise died down.

Although she was not dressed too fancy, she was undoubtedly the most dazzling person in this competition.

When the girl sat down in front of the piano and slowly put down her fingers... even ordinary listeners could hear the piano sound pouring out, which was of a completely different level from the previous contestant.

He didn't understand how professional judges evaluated the quality of a piano performance, and could only search for the right words based on his subjective feelings.

More than just smoothness, more than just gorgeousness, more than just a correct interpretation of the original music's meaning, Amano's piano sound has something that has never been heard under the fingers of other contestants.

Pure, passionate, and so touching...it was enough to make him, who had no interest in classical music, unconsciously mesmerized.

That thing was something he could never touch, never feel, even if he played the two pieces he had mastered with all his might. Along with the girl's melodious piano music, it flowed through the hearts of every listener.

Even as the last contestant finished playing and the others who weren't already in the concert hall began to arrive and take their seats around him, Amano's piano music still lingered in his mind, echoing over and over again...

"Classmate," a familiar cold voice suddenly came from behind the right, approaching from a distance, "Can I sit next to you?"

"...Someone is already here. It's reserved for my Cybertronian companion." He looked back and saw Amano, who was wearing a white dress, had walked to the side.

"Really?" Amano sat down without any belief, and a fresh and lingering scent of perfume wafted towards him.

"Lemon? Rose? Vanilla?" he asked.

"Want to know?" Amano studied his profile, from his hairstyle to the light makeup still on his face, then to his collarbone and collar. "You can ask the organizer's makeup artist."

"Does the makeup have perfume?" He hadn't gotten rid of the piano music in his head yet, and then he remembered that it came from the hands of the young girl who was staring at him, and he felt a little uncomfortable being stared at.

“Only girls have it.”

“You’re treating me differently…”

"It was originally available, but later it was largely cancelled due to criticism that the so-called 'perfume smell' affected the performance of male pianists."

"What a pity." He looked at the empty stage and chatted with Amano casually, continuing the topic that had nothing to do with the piano.

Some of the audience who didn't care about the ranking results had already left, but there were still whispers of discussion in the judges' seats.

"Oh, so Inoue-san has a habit of using perfume?"

"I got some ramen soup from lunch, so I sprayed some perfume on it so I could return the formal suit I rented."

It’s also a family restaurant, but it’s not as delicious as the one near the boarding house.

"So..." Amano pondered for a moment, not knowing what to do.

Immediately, two spray sounds of "chi, chi" were heard in my ears.

He retracted his gaze upon hearing the voice and looked to his side. Amano was holding a bottle of pink liquid perfume in his hand and kept spraying it.

"Ah-"

Seeing him turn his head, he pressed it again and sprayed it on his tie.

"Orange, peach, and musk." She arched her brows and smiled. "It lasts for five hours. Is that enough?"

"Enough..." But which boy would wear this kind of perfume?

Amano put the perfume he carried with him into the messenger bag on his side, and gently lifted his hair as he looked up again.

While he was distracted, I took control of the topic.

"Congratulations, Inoue-san, you win this time." She looked at him with interest and said.

He won? How did he win… After he finished playing in the morning, the applause from the audience was much smaller than when Amano played.

"The results haven't been announced yet, how do you know..." He looked at Amano and met her gaze.

"I just know it." Amano looked away and looked at the bandstand in the distance, speaking in a confident and unreasonable tone.

He looked at Amano's profile, at the girl's clear eyes reflecting the light, at her slightly raised mouth corners, and was suddenly stunned - Amano in a dress seemed to have become a completely different person from usual.

For the first time, he felt the vitality that a girl of his age should have.

The judge representative responsible for announcing the rankings climbed up the side steps onto the stage and slowly walked towards the center where the lights were concentrated.

"Inoue-san, you are the first in this competition." She declared confidently, without any resentment in her tone for losing to him. She said it lightly.

"I'm number one?" He only played at the same level as when he tried playing at the piano store that day.

Now it was Amano's turn to feel incredulous. "Inoue-san, do you think there are other players who can play better than you?"

"No?" He couldn't tell, but the system's rating of Lv. 4 was probably only considered a relatively good level for high school pianists...

"How could that be possible..." Amano narrowed his eyes. The light that would have been reflected in his eyes was blocked out by the window as his eyelids drooped slightly. His eyes, once bright as the morning star, dimmed for a moment.

"So..." The judges' representative, a thin, gray-haired man with a straight back, wearing narrow, gold-rimmed glasses, spoke into the microphone, testing his voice. "Now, let's announce the competition rankings."

The entire concert hall fell silent.

"Nominated contestants, please come on stage promptly to receive your awards..."

"Tenth place: Masako Ichikawa."

"I got a ranking?! Yeah——" He was sitting right in front of him. The moment he heard his name, he cheered excitedly.

He stood up, walked briskly down the auditorium and onto the stage.

"Congratulations." The man with gold-framed glasses picked up a medal from the mobile table pushed by the staff next to him and hung it on the chest of the girl named Ichikawa.

The medal is made of copper, and there are three other medals of the same material on the table.

"Ninth place, Fujiwara Yuka."

"Ah... the ninth one..." Baohan's lost voice came faintly from behind his left.

When hearing similar results, the contestants' different psychological expectations are revealed through different reactions.

The girl in the chiffon bubble dress walked up to the stage with her head slightly lowered and an expressionless face. She forced a smile to accept the "congratulations" from the man with gold-framed glasses, and stood next to Ichikawa, who was holding the bronze medal and examining it carefully.

"eight place……"

"..."

The woman in the red dress in front of him is number six.

Starting from her, the texture of the medal's surface turned into silver.

"Third place..."

It was a boy. He didn't react at all after hearing the result. He stood up with a stern face, walked onto the stage, received the medal, which was at least made of gold on the surface, and stood in the position designated by the man with gold-framed glasses.

So far, only the first and second places have not been announced.

Neither his nor Amano's names have been mentioned yet.

"Second place," the man with gold-rimmed glasses raised his head from the list and looked towards him, pausing slightly, "Amano Kanade."

"Congratulations on first place, Inoue-san."

Amano smiled faintly at him, looking as if he had not expected this. He stood up and walked calmly towards the stage amid the uproar in the audience.

(End of this chapter)