The sun's glare shone down mercilessly on the people below. Young Aaron White adjusted his school uniform's collar, hoping to get away from the summer heat by moving his clothes around every 15 seconds. His headsets gradually slid off his ears due to his slippery sweat dripping down from his hair to his ears. The old gossip ladies who were always hanging around outside an old family restaurant just beside the school spotted another new subject to talk about- Young Master White.
It wasn't peculiar for Young Master Aaron White to be roaming around the neighbourhood during school hours and this topic of "The Lazy Rich Master" is way too overused by the other gossip ladies in different parts of the neighbourhood. Aaron's name reached everyone's ears and not in a good way. Well, sometimes in a good way...
"That handsome young man is out and about again." One gossip lady muttered, chewing on peanuts, "It's too bad that he isn't acting decent. Wasting his young for nothing, tsk tsk."
That's one example. Being called "handsome" is a good thing but the follow-up sentence? Not so much.
Aaron just turned a deaf ear to the whispers around him. He put his left earbud back on and walked away. As other people say, he's only going through a rebellious phase in his teenage years where he won't even attend school. Even the school doesn't want him anymore but, given his talents and grades, they can't afford to lose him, especially the [money]. Father White's status is more than enough to scare, I mean, to convince the teachers and principals to keep his son in school.
There was a small alley ending with a dead-end where Aaron would always go to. The dead-end was the backyard of a small, run-down music shop. Aaron sped-walked over to the dead-end. There was a wooden ladder leaning against the wall which god-knows-who placed. Aaron grabbed the base of the ladder and shook it to make sure it was still sturdy. The ladder creaked and a few little pieces of wood came off and fell down. Sure enough, Aaron thought, it's still sturdy. He climbed up that ladder and the view came into sight- the backyard of that big, wooden, old-fashioned two-story house had a long winding path from the house to a pond with stepping stones leading to nowhere. It had tiles for the roof and there were two trees on either ends of the path. On one end, where the path started, just beside the backdoor of the house, was a weeping willow as tall as 5 full-grown men but still smaller than the house. On another end, was a wisteria tree, its leaves drooping over on the pond causing the pond to have little purple petals floating around. It was as tall as the weeping willow.
Aaron found this quite fascinating. Although it was summer, the trees produced beautiful vibrant flowers, bringing colour to the house and the backyard. The sun's light made the pond glimmer, the wisteria purple leaves reflecting on the water. It was a magical sight. This colourful experience lay in contrast with the dull, torn-down house shop. As Aaron climbed down into the backyard, a sudden blast of wind caused him to almost lose his stance and fall, he felt his heart suddenly race. His eyebrows knit together in a frown. He reflexively grabbed onto a piece of brick that was popping out of the wall. The wind wasn't strong enough to blow him off but it sure was a surprise.
After realizing he had safely landed on his two feet, his frown got replaced with a look and a sigh of relief. He patted down his pants and straightened his shirt. Taking his usual spot behind the wisteria tree and the wall, he sunk to the ground out of exhaustion. Aaron wasn't a fan of anything physical. Just walking two steps will have him panting like a dog. That's why he always skipped during PE class. Although he could just fake being sick and go to the nurse's office, he found it too... noisy. Aaron had sensitive and talented ears since birth. He could already name a tune since he was three years old. It wasn't surprising, though, since he came from a family of musicians.
"Ah! As expected from Sir White! A talented offspring." people would say praises to his father for birthing such an elegant and intelligent young master. His father would receive compliments and smile, telling the people all praises belong to his wife, who actually birthed his son. At home, Aaron doesn't experience that "fatherly love" as much as he does outside. He would be criticized for not starting piano sooner. Mrs. White started playing the piano and the violin when she was just four while Mr. White learned the piano at age 5. Nevertheless, Mrs. White was more of a prodigy than her husband but it's always Mr. White who scolds Aaron for not "starting early." He started playing the piano at the age of 8, which is a bit late compared to his elite parents but still impressive.
In the end, it's always Aaron who gets tortured by his tutors' non-melodious playing. At home, he was so used to his mother's sweet melody that he can't even listen to those low-level tutors. A lot have fled his side after an excruciating amount of criticism coming from an 8-year-old kid. That's when people around him started to believe he was nothing but a rebellious kid. It took his mother a year and a half to figure out what was happening and decided to just teach him herself.
Under his mother's training, Aaron's sharp hearing got even sharper. The noise at school was unbearable for him, especially during PE when the groans and pleads of the suffering students are loud.
Aaron snuggled between the big roots of the wisteria tree growing out of the ground. As he was about to put his earbuds back on, which fell during his trespassing, he heard a soft 'meow~'
He almost hit his head on the tree when he turned around to see the source of the sound. He forgot there was a tree behind him and went around to see what was behind it. Under the striking sunlight was a familiar, white, furry cat atop a stepping-stone in the pond. Aaron widened his eyes when he saw the cat on the stone, surrounded by water. He reached out both his hands in spite of himself.
"Snow!" he whispered, "Come here! Here, here! Niceeeee kitty..."
Snow, a stray cat, was fond of humans because almost everyone in the neighbourhood treated her with kindness because of its beauty. Aaron was one of the people who developed a connection with this stray cat. A few people had tried to take Snow into their homes but she just walked out of their homes time and time again to the point where people just let her be. When Aaron first saw Snow, she was still with her siblings, snuggled inside a tire, all dirty. He immediately picked all of the kitties up, bathed and fed them. His mother found out about the kittens and gave them away to the pet shelter but Snow was left behind, hiding under Aaron's bed. After a few months, when the little white cat grew older, she just walked right out of Aaron's house and started freeloading off random people. But Aaron still took care of her, giving her baths and such. He didn't want Snow to get dirty again for the fourth time this week.
Aaron leapt to one stone to get closer to the cat. "Come here!! You're going to fall- Hey!"
Snow turned around gracefully and jumped to the stone path on the shore. She walked her little paws to the willow tree and climbed it. Meanwhile, the human squatting on a stone with his arms stretched out tipped over to his side and fell over and into the pond. The water splashed in all directions, landing on the hot, dry surface of the paved pathway and onto the stepping stones, instantly drying up under the hot sun. Aaron helplessly flailed his hands, scaring the fish away. He stopped himself from shouting since he himself knew that he was trespassing but that's useless now, he thought, he made such a loud ruckus that only deaf people wouldn't hear him. He sat up from the shallow pond and rubbed his butt, muttering a complaint.
He wiped the water from his face and looked down on his body. His uniform was dripping wet and was see-through showing his well-toned body and lean muscles. Even though he just despised any work, he really enjoyed any sport related to water, because, as he justified, his body feels lighter. But what's the use if you're not even in the water? He also does kayaking and rowing with his cousins. And he would train on weekends with his uncle in the pool, which is the only time he actually is in the water.
He stood up and sneaked over to the cat who was now on top of a branch. There was an open window where the branch was leaning over and the cat tippy-toed over to the inside of the window. Aaron couldn't see the inside from where he was but otherwise, the cat would still trespass even if there was no one inside and he might not get Snow out of the house. At this point, Aaron had abandoned all sorts of decency and didn't care whether he was heard. He immediately went over to climb the weeping willow, grabbed a stump with one hand and reached to the cat with his other hand, "SNOW! DON'T GO THER-!"
Before he finished his sentence, Snow had already leapt inside the window and landed on two outstretched hands. Upon seeing the hands, Aaron dropped down from where he was and hid behind the tree. He picked a spot where he could still see the inside and as he moved his sight, he saw a boy with semi-long wavy black hair and thin, red lips. He had fox eyes with green pupils, and long, dark eyelashes acting as curtains. The boy cradled the white cat in his arms.
There was a sudden blast of wind causing the petals of the wisteria tree to scatter and blow into the sky. The boy's hair was also blown to his face. He 'pfft-ed' his hair away from his mouth and freed a hand to tuck his hair behind his ear. This scene suddenly seemed so magical in Aaron's eyes. The highlight of the sun and the scattered purple petals, all compliment the beautiful boy inside the house.
Aaron's face went completely frozen but his heart kept thumping faster and faster the longer he looked at the boy's features. Suddenly, he thought, 'Shit. he could've heard me earlier. Maybe... I should... go... probably...' but he still stood frozen in admiration.
It seems as if the boy sat down and put Snow on his lap. Even his side profile looks perfect, Aaron thought.
Then, the boy turned toward Aaron, making him snap out of his bliss and back to reality. He sped behind the willow tree, his chest beating hard. Peeking behind the tree, he saw that the boy was sitting in front of a piano.
oh, he thought, so he also...
The boy let his hands fall on the keys of the piano. Hearing this familiar tune, Aaron quickly guessed the piece. Claire De Lune.
Holding his breath, he thought it wouldn't be too bad if he could stay for a little while. He rested his head on the tree. Soon, the boy's playing went another way. It seemed as if it was the same piece but not quite alike. It was a different, no, unique composition of the piece. Aaron was shocked at how differently the boy played this popular piece. The boy inserted notes in between the original notes making it sound more... more...
Aaron tried to think of a word but his vocabulary was limited. He pulled out his phone and searched for synonyms of beautiful.
Exquisite? No, that sounds like an old, rich man complimenting some restaurant's food. Smashing? No, too gaudy. Heavenly? Nah, too shallow. Oh.
A certain, new word caught his eye.
"Ethereal? Hmmm... I like that..." he thought out loud, closing his eyes and leaning on the willow tree as he listened to the beautiful, no, ethereal melody.126Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDQ273rFWEA
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