-_- Pushing Minori pushes me toward the great door...
"What's inside that thing? Or in that room?" Adam wondered.
He thought to himself that he really didn't want to make music—or maybe he was just bad at it. Weird, huh? Something you don't usually practice, and yet you call yourself talented? Of course, you'd be bad at it, because you never even tried it a hundred times. You never learned it.
How can you be bad at something you didn't even try many times? You don't know that, but still, I don't know... and I'm not gonna try.
Minori placed his hand on his chin and shrugged. "Well, to my knowledge, it's supposed to be a place filled with music boxes on shelves."
He smiled and made a "don't know" gesture. "I haven't gone into that room—it's another, different plane."
Adam looked at him. "So you're making me leave?"
"Well, no!!! I'm trusting that you won't just run off and never come back, because that would be rude."
Adam just stood there, feeling a little confused about his psyche...
As I opened the door, the room behind me faded away. The person I had been talking to disappeared, as if I had been transported into another existence, leaving behind the very place I had come from.
I saw massive shelves lined up side by side, wrapped in vines and cobwebs. Orange lanterns floated on the sides, illuminating the space faintly. A dark shade of blue light glowed along the ground path.
Many music boxes were on the shelves. I looked at them—each had different carvings, names, and materials; some were silver, some steel, and some wooden.
I grabbed a music box. It was silvery. The title read: Friend.
I opened it and twisted the key. A tinge of calming music filled the surroundings as if the air itself was vibrating with sound, and the environment shifted into a small room.
I saw a girl in her room, playing and shifting her legs up and down as she lay on her bed. She had another friend, a yellow-haired boy whose face was fading a bit—I could only clearly see the girl, with her long black hair.
They were talking and laughing, eating boiled eggs, surrounded by wrappers and snacks, watching a video on a laptop.
The music was calming.
Then it shifted back to the Lost Music Boxes...
Adam could only smile in awe. "Well, that was cute. I wish I had that in my past li—" Wait, I don't have a past life. There was a tinge of nostalgia, a longing to be that memory within him, but it slipped away. "Weird. Anyway, I just have to find some music, right? And then I'll go back... I mean, I'm not some kind of traitor."
Walking along the hallways, sighing, I thought, He's pressuring me to be good. Well, I'll half-work this anyway.
Seeing large gray vines wrapped around a couple of music boxes on the shelves, I grabbed the vines and pulled, tearing them apart. I found a rusted, oval-shaped music box. I tried to turn it on.
Music started—a calm tune, like rain on a twilight night. A lofi melody that made you sleepy, but could be boring. It was the kind of music you'd need to blend with others like it; comforting on a sad day.
Like before, the room or atmosphere shifted into a blurry painting-like canvas. I saw figments of time passing: a girl with her parents, some moments of arguing, some giving her gifts and spending time with her. It transitioned into a dream-like state—the parents hugging her, a little girl under streetlights at night. The last image was her parents with blank faces at her graduation, watching a familiar girl on stage.
Then it shifted back to the Lost Music Space...
This feels like a memory or something -_-. Am I intruding on someone's private life?
Ugh. Seeing my interest drawn to music boxes covered in cobwebs... I was always curious about things—wondering what would happen if I did this or what's in that place.
I flung the cobwebs away.
A black steel music box sat there, a bit hard to open. The carving read: What Would I Do Without You?
As I opened it, a violin screamed in my ear with a high-pitched shriek.
Then the scene transitioned again.
I saw a girl on the ground crying at a funeral, surrounded by coffins. People around her turned into blank puppets.
I immediately closed the box, my ears feeling like they were bleeding, and put it away.
Nope. Not this one.
If I ever see something like this, the best thing to do is leave and never go back.
I scrambled my way back to the door I had come from.
I huffed as the hatted person greeted me again—Minori.
"So, did you get the music box?"
I gave it to him.
"So, are you gonna make me show it to the whole stadium or something?"
There was silence, then he said softly,
"No... Thank you. You can choose to leave now. I'm just happy I got to hear it again."
He smiled at the music boxes as they played their melodies. His eyes were filled with longing and adoration... Someone that he hadnt meet in a long time now.