"Aoi? Or are you not? You're looking at me with a weird face. I might be mistaken. Sorry to interrupt you dear sir. Or can you not understand me?"
That's a lot of questions coming from one man not even trying to wait for my reply. I guess I'll have a hard time dealing with this guy.
"I'm Aoi. And yes I can understand you sir. Are you perhaps Mr. Lambert?"
"Oh thank God you're Aoi. It would've been awkward if you were someone else. Your English is good. Really fluent."
It was awkward anyway with the way you approached me. Is this normal in France? I might experience culture shock for a while if this is completely normal.
"Thanks for the compliment? I guess."
"No need to be polite. We'll be working with each other so might as well drop all the formalities when talking to me. Just think of me as your friend and not your editor."
"That'll be nice. Please to be working with you Mr. Lambert."
"Not mister. Just call me Lambert. Now repeat."
"Pleased to be working with you Lambert."
"Pleased to be working with you as well Aoi."
We made our way to his rather fancy car as he helped me carry my belongings and baggage. His car was a Lexus. A luxury car indeed. We made our way to the apartment that the company had set up for me.
The place was indeed new for me. The infrastructures were very different from what I had known in Japan. It made me feel that I really am in another country. I bet even the practices here are different. This will get some time getting used to. I wonder what my apartment will be like.
"We'll be in your apartment in 30 minutes. Anyway, where did you learn english?" Asked Lambert.
"From my parents. They used to go on tours overseas back when they were still active musicians."
"I see. A family of musicians huh? Can you play any instruments?"
"I can. But I'm not that good."
"We'll see about that later."
I wonder what he meant by that. We're going to my apartment right? I can't handle any detours right now after all. I still have jet lag after that tiring flight. It's been a while since I've been on a plane after all.
After a few more minutes of driving, we parked in front of a white four storey apartment that looked very much like what I've seen in movies where France was the setting.
"Here's your apartment. I'll take you up to your room so wait for me."
"Yeah sure."
After Lambert turned off the engine, he once again helped me carry my baggage as we made our way inside of the apartment. After entering the entrance, we were greeted by a lobby with a simple sofa and a grand piano in the middle.
I see. So this is what he meant by "We'll see about that later" huh? Is it even working? Isn't it just for aesthetics though? It's rather clean so it might actually be working.
"Now Aoi. Let's see your music capabilities. Play the piano."
"I didn't even say that I can play the piano. So what if I can't?"
"Oh you're right. I just assumed that you can play the piano. So can you not?"
"I can. But won't it disturb the neighbors? It's already 7 PM, you know?"
"Oh you don't need to worry about that. So just play it."
I guess there's nothing I can say to this guy when he already made up his mind to make me play the piano. Now what should I play? I'm in France and considering how I'm feeling right now I'll go with that one.
I sat on the piano chair and took a deep breath before playing.
"Oh. Ravel huh. Pavane pour une infante. That's something I didn't expect. And for it to be played with such emotions, how old are you exactly?" Said Lambert as I continued to play with my eyes closed.
I finished playing and opened my eyes once again. It has become my habit these days to play with my eyes closed. I don't exactly know why nor do I intend to do it but I just do. As soon as I opened them, there were three people watching me from the stairway right in front of me aside from Lambert.
There were 2 men and 1 woman. One of the two men looked Asian to me so I guess he's not a local here. Maybe a Japanese person like me? The other one had long brown hair about as tall as Lambert but much thinner. The woman had long blonde curly hair who looked pretty. I'm guessing she's French as well.
"Good playing." Said the woman. "I guess I won't prohibit you from playing that piano like I did with Lambert."
"He's off tempo a couple of times but I guess it's fine." Said the man with long brown hair.
"I'm going back to my room." Said the Asian looking guy.
Did I perhaps upset him? I hope I didn't.
"Perfect timing! They'll be your dormmates Aoi. This pretty looking woman right here is Sophie. She's single by the way. This good looking guy is Adam. And that other guy who just left is Hajime, he's from your country so I hope you get along well. By the way, the three of them are pianists. Elite ones at that."
What? Are you saying that I just played piano for elites? Wait, why am I in the same apartment with these musicians? I would definitely need an explanation from Lambert.
After the surprising introduction, Lambert and I made our way to my room. Lambert handed me the keys and asked me to open the door since his hand was full carrying my baggage.
I opened the door and surprisingly, the setup was quite similar to my apartment way back in Japan. A small kitchen aisle and straight ahead was a bed in the corner of the room and a television attached to the wall in front of it. Under the TV was a working desk. I guess this will be my new home for a while huh?
"You played some good piano earlier. You even had the approval of elite pianists. Why didn't you become a musician?" Asked Lambert as he sat on the kitchen aisle.
"I think my love for writing is much greater than my love for music. I play from time to time but that's it."
"That's a shame. You're really good at it. But you're even better at writing novels."
"Have you read it?"
"Dude, I'm your editor. I'm more or less required to read your novel. I was even surprised that it was written by a college student. And not a literature student but an IT student."
"How was it then? Be firmly honest."
"Well, there are things that could be better here and there but trust me. I think you'll go big in this industry Aoi."