After I was able to quit piano, I didn't even sit in front of the piano anymore. I was just a naughty child every day.

When I was 14 years old, I became friends with a particular boy. All of the boys I played together with came from many different family backgrounds, and there were many of them who you could say were not very good.

Their families were shady [lit: wild], and they always thought about running away, leaving for the outside world. There wasn't really anyone else besides boys who felt that way.

But he was the only different one. His thinking was different in every way. Though he was mischievous, he didn't think about running away. There were some really awful arguments. Before I knew it, I found myself liking him and spending more time with him.

One day when we were skipping school, he said to me, "My parents aren't home right now, so why don't we go to my house?" Before that, I hadn't even been to his house once.

Because he would say all the time "My parents are really strict," I didn't even know what neighborhood his house was in.

The first time we went to his house, I found that it was a mansion. The gate was imposing, and it was the first time I had ever been exposed to such an affluent family. I realized that there. So, I didn't want to show anyone my house. Going with a companion there was obviously very different.

We went into the house from the garden, and in the room right in front of us was a grand piano. This grand piano was far grander than the one we had in the music room at school.

"Whose is this?" I said without thinking.

And he said nonchalantly, "It's mine."

"Liar!"

"Nope, that's the truth."

As he said that, he quietly opened the lid of the piano and suddenly began playing.

I couldn't believe it. My companion who I'd played pranks with together was playing the piano! And not only that, but he was really good.

"My parents are music teachers, so since I was little, they made me learn piano," he said. And then I decided to be frank with him.

"To tell you the truth, I play the piano too."

So then, I tried to demonstrate my playing.

However, my level of playing was nothing exceptional. Though I knew his upbringing and mine had been similar, his skill certainly far surpassed mine. My playing level wasn't even worth mentioning.

I quit piano at age 11 and then had three years of nothing, so what is the difference there?

Wanting to show off the differences between us, I just got hurt.

I felt a rising determination of not wanting to lose to him.

I hate losing.

I ran to the town's music store and looked for all kinds of piano pieces. Sheet music for the piano. They were divided by grade and rank.

The piece my friend played for me was a very high and difficult grade, somewhere around D or E. In order to pass him, I would have to play level A or B. Even practicing C was out of the question. Buying all of the piano pieces that had a difficulty level above E, I went home and from that day forward, I started practicing piano like a madman.

I didn't want to lose. That was all. It wasn't because I started liking piano. I didn't even go to school; I just practiced. I practiced so much that I didn't even sleep.

I immersed myself so much in my piano playing that my parents thought that this sudden inspiration was incredibly weird, and where they had in the past told me to go practice, now they were yelling at me, "Stop already!"

TRANSLATOR'S NOTES
Well, that was a pretty short chapter too, but now we know the secret of Gackt's hatred for the piano and why he started playing again XD Since there's only one chapter left in this first section, I'll go ahead and translate that one too, so we can learn how Gackt started playing the drums.

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