Rolling Down From Here: [---]
Joshua could tell that he was making her uncomfortable. He didn’t even have to hear her music; the look on her face was enough of an indicator. Her expressions remained sweet and sincere, but there was a guarded look in her eyes. Not that he could blame her. After all, he hadn’t really tried to hide his peculiarities. She was bound to know that he had used neither a door nor a window to sneak in to catch her performance.
Clever girl, he thought. Josh wouldn’t trust himself, either. He hardly did on a regular, and no one knew him better than himself.
Joshua paused for only a brief moment, taken aback by the polite gesture of offering a handshake. It was good to know that he hadn’t completely unnerved her, at least. Mostly, people hardly even offered an introduction back, let alone something so welcoming. Still, he returned the greeting. Her hand was delightfully warm. Full of life.
“The pleasure is mine, Miss Runa,” he said as he took in his surroundings, seeing if he could gather more information about the unique girl. He wanted to see if he could get to the bottom of what made her heart so strong. Simple questions first, he decided. “So, Miss Runa, I take it you don’t perform publicly. Are you in school, at least?”
Runa couldn’t help but stifle a giggle, seeing Joshua’s reaction when she held out her hand to him. Guess that this wasn’t a response he got normally. The brunette was a naturally friendly person, and while their meeting was a bit strange to say the least, it wasn’t any grounds to be rude. She was too nice to just leave him hanging.
So, she was glad that he shook her hand back. But… she couldn’t help but notice that his hand felt rather cold in hers. Runa grinned, shrugging off the temperature his hand gave off. Some people just have cold hands that’s all, she told herself, bringing her hand back to her side.
As Joshua would look at his surroundings, he would see that it was just a normal music studio, for the most part. There were plenty of other instruments resting against the walls, like the guitars and basses, while some were in their cases on some of the shelves, like the brass and woodwind instruments. Some orchestral instruments were in the room too, and a drum set could be found in one of the corners. There weren’t a ton of personal things in the room, save for the fact that a sketchbook and some pencils rested on a desk off to the side.
Runa blinked for a moment, hearing him call her ‘Miss Runa’. “Haha… No need for the ‘Miss’, Joshua. Runa’s just fine.” She said sheepishly, huffing out light laugh, rubbing the back of her neck a bit. In her opinion, it made her sound much older and mature than she actually was. Besides, no one has ever called her that before as far as she could remember.
“Well, not in front of strangers no. I don’t mind performing in front of people I care about though.”
“Yeah.. I go to one of the schools in Ikebukuro. A bit a ways from here, but I don’t mind.” She answered with a small, kind smile. “What about you Joshua? Do you still go to school? You look about the same age as me.” The brunette would ask with a small tilt of her head.
