Chapter 40
Lullabies
Kazuki wasn’t ready for the moment to end. Here, there, in this temple where the silence engulfed them, he found himself utterly incapable of retreating.
Rattled, Kazuki could only stand there, fighting the instinct to draw her into his arms and hug the life out of her. To tell her just how his world had brightened when she crashed into his existence.
I can’t.
He shivered. The cold, perhaps, or all those pent-up emotions. By his side, Elyna seemed completely unbothered by the chill, cheeks burning from her confession—a Viking through and through. The temple’s atmosphere wrapped around them like a benediction, a sacred moment between two souls.
Kazuki quelled the instinct to touch her. Instead, his fingers traced the rough bark, searching for some connection to ground himself. Was it chance, or fate that caused Elyna to move at the same moment?
Their hands brushed across the trunk, barely a whisper of contact; they both froze. Before he could catch himself, Kazuki silenced his reason and closed his fingers around hers.
Just one moment. One little moment.
Kazuki’s hand enclosed hers. His heart raced as the world narrowed to this single point of contact, warm skin against his cooler one. For a heartbeat that stretched into eternity, he could only marvel at how perfectly she fit against him.
He could get used to that. To her little hand engulfed inside his, to her private smiles only directed at him. To this casual intimacy in a slumbering garden, where souls could connect without fear.
By his side, Elyna had stopped breathing. She didn’t move an inch, watching their intertwined hands. In the common room, someone sneezed strong enough to carry across the distance. Reality crashed back with the strength of a hammer. The spell shattered, and Kazuki jolted.
“I… sorry, I…” Elyna stammered, looking anywhere but at him.
Don’t you apologise for my shortcomings!
“No, Elyna. I am the one who…”
Who what, huh? He stepped back, fighting the urge to punch the bark that had welcomed their magical contact. “We should… Shin will probably send a search party soon if we don’t return.”
“Hai,” Elyna whispered.
To leave the maple tree and its shelter was brutal; ever responsible, Kazuki took the lead. The cold bit his cheeks as he retraced his steps through the lantern path, Elyna in tow. He didn’t dare offering a hand to climb upon the engawa; outside, the night was as silent as ever.
Disapproving, or simply indifferent. As their steps echoed on the wooden path, Kazuki tried—and failed—to ignore how easily Elyna matched his stride. The lantern lights bathed her features in shadows, making them hard to read.
Kazuki decided not to linger; he needed the distance.
They reached the common room in no time.
After the filling meal, the atmosphere had lulled to whispers in the dark.
In this relative silence, Shintarō’s voice rang like a gong.
“Ah, you found her! Perfect timing. My students said they were promised a lullaby.”
Really?
Elyna laughed nervously, whether from the expectations or his earlier blunder. “Beware, the one I know is from Nickelback.”
Humour, to diffuse the tension. Kazuki took a deep breath; he was starting to know her tells far too well for a mere supervisor.
“There’s nothing wrong with Nickelback,” Shintarō replied with a wink.
The young woman beamed at him, absolutely unfazed by the familiarity. Ironic, how that flirtatious wink didn’t carry an ounce of ambiguity between them, when the earlier brush of their hands had exploded like fireworks.
Several students snickered, but the musical reference flew straight over his own head. Was it one of Shintarō’s favourite rock bands?
“Something Norwegian would be nice,” one of the girls asked.
Elyna seemed to consider her choices for a moment, tongue tip poking between her teeth. “I might have something… it’s called Byssan Lull.”
There were a few nods and, surprisingly, not even a comment from Shūji who slouched in the shadows. Haruki sat in seiza on the other side of the room; a worrisome sight. Kazuki could probably catapult Elyna into their group tomorrow to settle it; she might have better luck prying Shūji open.
Who knew he’d regret that decision not a day from now?
As the students arranged themselves closer to the ancient square hearth, some of them clustered around the hibachi[14] instead. The ceramic bowls glowed with coals, casting flickering light upon their huddled forms.
Elyna settled cross-legged directly beside the hearth and closed her eyes.
She looked every bit the fairy he’d dubbed her, each wavy strand gleaming like spun metal in the firelight.
Shadows played across the curve of her cheekbones, giving her an air of mystery that only deepened when her voice rose.
Byssan lull,
barnen sover
Rich and warm, her low tones carried the ancient tune with a lilt Kazuki had never heard in her voice.
Each note haunting, each sound pure like the crystalline waters of Norwegian fjords.
It wasn’t the season of ghost stories, but the hair on his forearms stood on end, as if the foreign words rolling off Elyna’s tongue could conjure northern spirits.
If he closed his eyes, he could almost see the winter lights dancing in a star-scattered sky.
Around him, silence had settled, his students huddled like children wrapped in woollen blankets after a harsh day. Elyna’s voice rose and fell, lulling them into enchanted sleep as she sung of snow-covered mountains, howling storms and gliding boats.
The ocean again, he mused.
Of the song now only remained a gentle hum that died like the fire, gently and smoothly to allow night to settle. There was no applause, only reverent silence in the wake of the lullaby’s magic. The fairy brushed the corner of her eye to catch a stray tear; she wasn’t the only one.
His heart lurched. What did that song mean to her? Perhaps a grandmother’s hand braiding her hair as a child? Happier days, unburdened by divorce? The call of distant shores, of an ocean rougher than the Mediterranean? Her roots, perhaps.
Emboldened, a girl from Shintarō’s class offered to sing a Japanese song. When Natsuki started humming the haunting Takeda lullaby, Kazuki’s gaze fell upon Elyna. She was smiling, enthralled. Happy to learn, to share, to be included.
Kazuki’s chest loosened, as if the iron chains that constricted it had shattered.
There, in the quiet shadows of a temple, he finally stopped fighting and accepted the feelings that had been growing for months.
The battle had been lost, probably, from the moment Elyna had first walked into his classroom with those storm-blue eyes and that quiet determination.
As he mulled over his defeat, the Takeda lullaby filled the room, bringing him back to olden days.
A few other voices arose to meet Natsuki’s, boys and girls joining the melancholy of a familiar song.
They intertwined like a choir. Carried by her comrades, Natsuki’s voice thrived, painting a melody that went straight to the heart.
The cause of the Burakumin[15], celebrated in the most unlikely place.
It was yet another avalanche caused by Elyna’s snowballs, creating a hauntingly beautiful polyphony that echoed in the temple like a symphony.
Kazuki should have marvelled at this spontaneous creation, a symbiosis of two classes that barely crossed paths.
But from his corner of the temple, he was ashamed to admit he couldn’t take his eyes off the beacon of light that was Elyna.
She was singing now, underlining Natsuki’s in another harmony.
There was only one quote that could possibly fit, one he’d picked up recently as he tried to improve his English, and educate himself on typical British culture—Pride and Prejudice.
You have bewitched me, body and soul.
There was a strange peace in accepting that he was utterly lost. Not even the knowledge that he wouldn’t fight—couldn’t, actually—quelled the overwhelming warmth that coursed in his veins.
To watch Elyna glow filled him with a happiness so pure it almost hurt; she was finding her place, and her voice. Growing into herself. The woman who faced him now, eyes misted over a song that was as tragic as it was beautiful, was magnificent.
If unrequited feelings were the price, he would pay it gladly. Kazuki stowed away every little detail of her like a thief; it would be his treasure. One he had no right to keep but would cherish nonetheless.
Elyna: I sang Byssan Lull last evening. It made me think of home.
Aksel: in class?
Elyna: In a temple in Hakodate. I’m sure I’ll tear a breach in reality.
Aksel: ??