An outing with Grace (part 3).

“Okay. Then I’ll start with… Mmm…” She put a finger on her lip, and though I didn’t know if it was intentional on her part, I found it really cute. “Tell me about your hobbies.”

“M-My hobbies?” That was such a… harmless question.

“I told you. I want to know the man behind the peerless prowess. You said you play video games, right?”

I felt my cheeks heat up at her comment, but I tried to ignore it. “Y-Yes, I play games on my computer. B-But what I do the most in my free time is play guitar.”

Grace’s eyes widened. “Ooooh! Really? No, wait. Mila said you were in the music club. You played guitar there?”

I nodded. “But I’d been playing for a couple of years before then.”

“Why guitar?” Grace asked, eyes set on me even as she drank some tea.

“Um… T-This is a little embarrassing but… There was this song in a game that I really liked and I wanted to play it. I loved it, but it was really hard. It took me like a year to get the entire song right.”

“But you got it in the end?”

“Y-Yes.”

“That’s really cool! I’ve always been envious of creative people,” she pouted. “Numbers and memorizing things come easy to me, but when it comes to the arts I’m a leading zero.”

“You like music, Grace?”

“Of course I do! Though Sarah always makes fun of me because she says I have an old man’s taste in music.”

“What do you like?” I asked, growing excited that we were talking about something closer to my own interests.

She smiled bashfully. “Would you believe me if I said Creedence is one of my favorites?”

I laughed a little. “No way. Seriously?”

“Yeah. Blame my dad for having them playing around the house every day while I was growing up.”

I hesitated in speaking my next words, but the excitement pushed them out. “…I know a couple of Creedence songs, actually.”

“You do? Then you have to let me hear you play one of these days!”

I almost wanted to reply that I didn’t know ‘One of These Days’ by Pink Floyd, but I abstained. Felt like too convoluted of a joke.

Shit. My heart was racing. It was the first time someone showed such genuine interest in something I did. However, the thought of having someone hear me play was a good counterbalance and kept me grounded. “…I don’t know if they’ll let me use the instruments in the music room.”

“Then you can just invite me to your house one day, hm?” The mix of her casual tone and suggestive look almost made my mind wonder.

“M-Maybe…” I chuckled nervously. Bringing Grace to my house? How would Isabelle react?

“My turn again, and since we’re already talking about it… Why did you leave the music club?”

Oh. That.

I grimaced but tried to hide it by looking down. “It was awkward to be there. I joined to try to make some friends, but had a hard time talking with the other members. Then one day… I came back from the restroom to find that someone had cut all the strings from my guitar while everyone acted like nothing had happened. I just… didn’t go back next time and ended up quitting.”

“What the hell? They cut the strings?” Grace asked, frowning and visibly taken aback. “And the teacher?”

“Wasn’t there when it happened. He tried to get to the bottom of it, but no one said anything. He tried to convince me to stay, but…”

“No, I get why you’d quit. That’s just… Urgh!” Grace grunted and shook her head.

“W-Well, it’s fine. It’s not like strings are that expensive, and it didn’t make me stop playing or anything.”

“That’s not the point, Oliver. That was just straight up bullying, and without having the guts to even show their face.” I noticed Grace was clenching her fist around her spoon. She then took in a soft breath and calmed down as she let it out. “Sorry to bring out bad memories. I didn’t think it would be something like that.”

“I-It’s not a big deal,” I tried to assure her. “I don’t mind you asking.”

She giggled. “Thanks.”

By that point we were finishing our meal. We paused the conversation for a moment to go get a bit more food, and that’s when Grace told me, “I’d advise not to eat that much more. Get your money’s worth, yeah, but don’t go overboard or you’ll regret it when we go to the next place.”

“Next place?”

She grinned. “You’ll see. But I almost don’t want to leave now,” she said as we both sat down at our table again. “I kind of want to stay here and keep talking now that I managed to get the ball rolling.”

“S-So long as it’s not a bother, I’ll try to talk more. Back and forth questions, was it?”

“Back and forth questions,” she confirmed. “And on that note, it’s your turn.”

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