What are you...?

Keep your door closed.
Your voice carried throughout the house.

I'm sorry...

It's fine. Also...

Your room's a mess...
Why don't you clean up a little?

I will...

(What's he doing in my room...?)

(He hasn't been here since I stopped playing classical music.)

(So what brings him here now...?)

(No, wait...)

(This is my chance to ask him.)

Dad...

What is it?

Please let me ask you again.

Tell me what you think of my song.

Oh? Does that mean it's a little more tolerable now?

Not quite...
I'm still doing a lot of trial and error...

Sounds like you're still wasting time.

...

I haven't been wasting my time.

I've been trying any and all of the solutions that I could come up with. Now, I think I'm actually close to finding the answer...

Then, you should be focusing all of your attention on that.

I have been...
But I'm still getting stuck...

Which is why I need you to listen to it.

I can't think of any other way at this point...

Honestly...

You're going to make me do all the work?

No, that's not what I'm doing...

I'm just trying to use anything I have available to me in order to not disappoint my teammates...!

Because I don't want to run...
Not like I did that time...!

I don't want to...
But the past continues to haunt me and prevent me from moving forward.

It keeps telling me that I have no right to be in charge of expressing my team's resolve in the form of a song because I ran from music once already...!

Toya...

I can't get away from it...
No matter how hard I try...

I've tried and tried, but I haven't been able to do what Ken and his team did...!

Ken? His team...?

The people who put on the event we're trying to surpass...

A member of their team became ill and ended up passing away... The event they put on and the songs they created for it were all meant to commemorate her life.

What they sang, how they sang...
The atmosphere and energy they produced blew us all away.

And I've been tasked with writing songs that can help surpass that...

If I don't, our dream might end right here, and it could never end up coming true...!

Which is why I need to hear your opinion, Dad! Tell me anything you can!

Your past is haunting you...?

That explains why your song seemed to lack pride.

...

The problem might be your understanding of what happened.

Huh...?

Yes, you ran.

That's the truth.
And there's nothing you can do to change the past.

However...

That does not mean I think you lack what it takes.

What it takes...?

Yes.

I am saying that you still may have what it takes to go up against this Ken fellow and his team.

No, how can you say that...?
You've never met them before.

Even so, I seriously doubt you're going to lose to them.

But why...?

Because of what you sacrificed.

You gave up some of the most important years of your life in order to train to become a classical musician.

Twelve years.

That is how much time you spent living and breathing classical music.

From early in the morning to late at night, you spent hardly any time playing or sleeping.

Oh...

I mean, that was because...

I know.
It wasn't exactly the life you wanted.

It was the furthest thing from “normal” as you indicated that time.

But the fact remains that you spent an enormous amount of time studying classical music.

With serious intent.

(The life I wanted...)

(Yes, he's right. I just...)

(During that time of my life...)

(I only cared about classical music.)

So, why?

Why do you keep dwelling on your decision to run?

Because...

Because... I...

I disappointed you...
I completely dashed your hopes for me...

Yes, I did have high hopes for you.

As I heard you play, I came to believe that you'd find the quintessential truth.

But you ended up choosing a different path in life. As a result, I felt something similar to disappointment...

...

But is that all you view that part of your life as?

Pain, suffering and disappointment?
Don't you remember anything else from those days?

I...

I...

As for me...

I'm proud of the way you spent so much of your life studying classical music and I believe it's a beautiful achievement.

What...?

It doesn't matter how things ended.
There's nothing for you to be ashamed of.

If anything, it's the opposite.
That time you spent...

No one can take that away from you.

...!

It doesn't matter who these people you speak of are or how much time they spent on their music. You have what it takes to go up against them.

Because your past will allow you to do so.

That is what I believe...

I think I've overstayed my welcome...

I'll leave now.
But don't forget to clean your room.

...

I have what it takes...?

Me...?

Is that true...?

(For the longest time, I thought...)

(I thought I'd never be able to erase the past. That I'd always be the disappointment who ran away.)

(But...)

(As it turns out, I have nothing to be ashamed of.)

(All I did was study music night and day.)

(And even if my joints ached or I had a high fever, I'd go over the music in my head.)

(Not a day went by without me thinking about music. That much I know for certain. It consumes my life.)

(I'd been studying how to play ever since I was very little...)

(Nothing can change that...)

(And my past is now going to allow me to do this...)

To take on Ken, his team and their ironclad resolve.