Anna and Yuria’s Adventure

Anna and Yuria’s Adventure

 

Anna was a second year high school student and she was sick of everything. 

No matter what she was doing or how hard she tried, it seems that she would only find herself with nothing but an endless string of bad luck.

 

Yes, one could say that she was unlucky. 

She was unlucky in love, for though she had shown love, it was never reciprocated. 

Beyond that, she was unlucky in all of her relationships with others. 

She felt herself to be unlucky in academics. 

She even suffered bad luck when she took part in extra-curricular activities at school.

 

She always compared herself to her friends and thought “Why do things go so swimmingly, so easily, for them? 

What meaning is there in my life?” 

As for me, I don’t believe my life has any meaning. 

It has no meaning whatsoever.

 

And now, here she was again having her worst day ever.

 

She felt quite puzzled as she looked down at a drawing she had made. 

It was drawing on which she had worked very hard. 

It had taken her over a year to finish! 

But now, it was ruined. A classmate of hers, Emma by name, had ripped it up.

 

“Why did she do such an awful thing? 

Is there something wrong with me? 

But, it really is no wonder that things like these happen to me. 

They will happen, and they do happen. 

They happen because they are bound to happen to someone like me. 

Someone who is worthless.”

 

Her heart was heavy and she was at a loss to know what to do next.

 

One day, as she was on her way home from school, she caught sight of a stylish wooden building.

 

“Is it a new cafe?” 

She asked herself as she went up to a window to take a peek inside.

She looked in and noticed a girl singing.

 

“That uniform she is wearing is from the same school that I go to.” 

Without thinking, she opened the door to the cafe. 

Inside a blackboard was hanging on the wall and in front of it stood a girl. 

Later, she found out that the girl’s name was Yuria, a third year high school student. 

There she was, standing there and singing.

 

This encounter with Yuria turned out to be a pivotal moment in Anna’s life. 

Things in her life were about to change at this cafe.

 

It was but a short time before Anna had come into the cafe that Yuria, herself, entered it. 

She came in, and, for the first time ever, laid her eyes on a page of sheet music to a song entitled “Enjoy & Love.” 

Then, for some unknown reason, Yuria felt compelled to try and sing it. 

She was in the midst of that attempt when Anna entered the room.

 

A long time before all of this happened (and quite a while before coming across this song) Yuria, too, had decided to give up on making friends.

 

“Who needs them?” she thought. “Having friends just means you have to worry about when they will finally backbite you. 

So-called ‘friends’ seem to be good at that!”

 

You see, Yuria had once overheard a friend of hers badmouthing her to someone else. 

And those hurtful words she had heard kept on going through her head over and over again.

 

But something began to change when she sang this song, “Enjoy & Love.” 

The hurt and pain she had been feeling for so long began to fade away.

 

Yuria spoke out loud, and said, “This song seems to have a mystic power.”

 

Let’s go over how these things happened in the first place.

 

It all started with a music stand that was in the cafe. On it was a book. 

In it was a page on which were written the lyrics of and the music for the song “Enjoy & Love.”

 

The book happened to lay open to that song.

 

Yuria, who had never heard this song, took a look at it. 

She studied it and made an attempt to sing it. 

She really did not know why she did so, but she felt that she should try to sing it.

Yuria’s days had been filled with lots of pain— emotional pain. 

So much that she had come to the point where she no longer knew how to enjoy life. She had even forgotten how to love herself.

 

 “Enjoy and Love.” As she looked into the open the book, she felt her heart warming.

 Anna, who was across the room from her, had just entered the room. 

She was standing near the door when Yuria began singing “Enjoy & Love.” 

She stood there, quietly watching as she sang.

 

Anna, too, felt her heart begin to warm while listening to Yuria sing.

 

There they were in the cafe before opening time. 

There the two girls stood. Anna was listening, and while listening felt as if something hard that was in her heart began to melt away.

 

Yuria kept on singing the song, “Enjoy & Love.”

 

She had noticed Anna’s coming into the cafe, but, even so, she kept on singing. 

Actually, she felt she ought to continue singing the song. 

She should sing it for the girl who had just come in. 

She should sing it for Anna.

 

It was as if a bit of intuition had told her, “Here is a girl who needs this song.”

 

Indeed it seemed that the song was making a difference for Yuria as well. 

It was making a difference for her who had always been overly worried about what others thought of her.

 

Worrying like this had kept Yuria from being confident. 

And she did suffer from that lack of confidence.

It had prevented her from trying new things, even things that she had always wanted to try.

 

But as Yuria read the sheet music and tried to sing it, things began to change.

 

 

“It is time for me to drop this false pride of mine. 

I need to quit worrying about what others think. 

I need to do what I think is important. I need to follow my own heart. 

I am not really sure why, but I think I should also sing this song for her, that girl over there, too.”

 

And now, the voice of Yuria’s singing echoed in the heart of Anna. 

“Enjoy & Love”

 

Anna began singing “Enjoy & Love,” along with Yuria. 

Then, she paused her singing for a moment as she felt the weight of all her burdens easing.

 

Anna rejoined Yuria in song. 

She felt a happiness welling up in her heart, little by little.

 

“I don’t need to compare myself to others. 

And, there is certainly no need for me to blame myself continually for anything and everything.”

 

“It’s like a revelation! 

I have never thought things like this before. 

It wouldn’t have made any sense to me. 

I thought that this kind of thinking was only ‘fine sounding-talk.’ 

But now, how it has touched my heart!”

 

A few moments passed. 

Anna realized something. 

She realized that the encouragement she was feeling to stop comparing herself to others and to quit blaming herself for everything that goes wrong were not actually in the song lyrics. 

Those thoughts had come from within her.

 

“There is no need to compare myself to others! No need to always blame myself!”

 

Anna continued with Yuria, singing “Enjoy & Love” over and over again. 

By singing “Enjoy & Love ” they both felt as if their hearts were shining brightly together.

 

Anna felt as if her inner being was shining out! 

She looked at Yuria’s face. Yuria nodded to her silently, and with a smile.

Then, Yuria said, “I think we should call this song ‘The Shining Song.’”

 

They decided to continue to meet at the cafe at the same time each week. 

So, every Wednesday after school when the owner was busy preparing for his dinner customers, the two girls would come inside the cafe to sing.

 

It wasn’t long before Anna and Yuria decided to form a singing group. 

They called it “The Shining Song Girls.”

 

Remember Emma? 

She also came around to the cafe and rediscovered her old friend in the singing group— Anna.

 

The group had come together and, then, Emma surprised Anna with an apology.

 

She said “I am sorry. Really sorry for how I acted toward you, Anna. 

I guess that I was envious of your talent.”

 

 “Of my talent? You think that I have talent? ”

 Anna could not believe what she was hearing Emma say.

 

Yuria, also, found strength to do something that she would never have been able to do before. 

After they formed that group, she approached the owner of the cafe and proposed they hold a singing contest there. 

She suggested that they try to gather together other young people who had an interest in singing. (In doing this she was hoping to meet people who enjoy singing.)

 

The owner replied, saying “Actually, I have held singing contests here often. 

How about you joining our next one?”

 

Anna, who had accepted Emma’s apology, decided to redraw the drawing that had been ruined. 

This time she was able to complete the artwork more quickly than the first time. It only took her a month.

 

She also started thinking she might have artistic talent. 

This was because for the first time in her life she won an award for her artistic work. 

Her redrawn picture won an award for what she loved doing, drawing.

 

Yuria continued to sing with “The Shining Song Girls” and felt a strong bond of friendship between her and Anna. 

A heartfelt trust had been formed. Anna felt the same way.

 

One day, someone new came to join the group. 

Her name was Karen. She was a first year high school student. 

Even though Karen had always loved to sing and had been in choirs since she was a little girl, her attitude towards singing had changed through the years. 

She changed from enjoying performing to having a need to show that she could sing better than all the others. To her, this was no less than a tragedy.

 

She had realized the change in her attitude when she was a junior high school student. 

It was then that she began to feel fed up with performing for honor… the “honor of the school” or “the honor of the choir.”

 

But when Karen came across“The Shining Song Girls" and heard their performance, the joy of singing was rekindled within her. 

After listening to them, she also joined the group as a singer.

 

“Singing should bring joy,” she thought. “If it doesn’t, why should one try to improve? If singing doesn’t bring joy, is there any reason to try to win contests? 

It is thanks to Anna and Yuria that I have gotten back to what is truly important in singing.”

 

Anna and Yuria continued to find their good fortune increase. 

Both of them had changed. Both of them were now able to act on what truly inspired them.

 

So now Anna and Yuria had the confidence that they had longed for. 

And as long as they sing “ Enjoy & Love,” as long as their hearts shine on, they will be able to go wherever their hearts lead them.

 

They have confidence that no matter what life deals them, in the end, all will turn out fine. 

Written by　Shun　Shinning

Illustrated　by　Serori

Afterword.

 

Our adventures continue with the story of a teenage girl named Rena. 

In her limited world she has a problem. Her problem is her inability to share her heart with others in order to make friends.

However, she has a passion. She wants to pursue: Singing.

 

As you may remember, the previous story, Yuria found a book which had the music and lyrics to the song “Enjoy & Love” printed in it.

But there is not all. Its main content was the story you are about to read. 

This book introduced Anna and Yuria to each other and the song that was in its pages changed their lives.

 

Just what is the song, "Enjoy & Love?" What can it do?

What kind power does it have?

 

Read the story “Rena and Crumpy” and learn about this mysterious music.

This Fantasy-story can work to inspire your life and change it for better in a fantasic way.

 

You will be surprised at how reading it will open your eyes to a better future.

Rena and Crumpy