Pov | Ichika Matsumoto

I am seventeen, and I have never held a boy’s hand. Last week, a boy from the literature club, Tanaka, tried to talk to me in the library. He had kind eyes and a paperback copy of Soseki. He asked if I ever got lonely, practicing alone in the soundproof room until midnight.

“The violin is my partner,” I told him. It sounded poetic. It sounded romantic. But what I meant was: I am too afraid of silence to let anyone else in. ichika matsumoto pov

The Gravity of Silence

“The vibrato in the third variation was uneven,” she said on the train ride home. “You rushed the descent.” I am seventeen, and I have never held a boy’s hand