Author's note: Hi everyone! This weekend I had a bachelorette party so there really wasn't much time to update this story. This chapter has 2 (maybe three?) parts. I know, I know, it’s my fault for writing such lengthy chapters, but I very much like descriptive writing and so I mostly end up with very large chapters. Anyway, I can divide them for you, here, so I hope you don't mind. Just think of them as individual chapters!

 Chapter 4(1)

It wasn’t that she did not feel accomplished, happy and proud. She did. She always did.

Winning another prize did not mean just another trophy to have on a dusty shelf for her, the piano had long ago (ever since she could remember, really) become an extension of herself and being acknowledged by people who were true experts and professionals in her field made her feel all giddy and fuzzy inside. Being someone who had accomplished someone made the endless hours of practice rewarding and it also made her glad because every prize meant she would be able to build her own career and continue doing what she liked the most.

Every award would also mean receiving a video call from Austria sooner than the usual one that would come once in every month, month and a half or so. These awards meant her parents would remember she existed once in a while as well.

Biting back the dire bitterness in her, Ji Woo found herself thinking as she bowed deeply to the head of the committee of the Seoul International Piano competition as he passed the crystal award with golden designs of a clef by it along with a dozen white roses which she detested but made an effort to accept with a smile and elegance in the way her arms embraced the large bouquet arrangement. Ji Woo had been around for a long time for these kinds of events, sometimes her Yoo Bi unnie would come,  she had always managed to come even when she was still in college or when she needed to go abroad for competitions, except when they were in Europe, where her own parents would take her.

Soon Ji Woo had discovered that she loathed going to those with any of her parents. She did not always won the competitions she partook in but when she did, she liked to feel like she did right now in this moment; happy, accomplished… itching to get her fingers on the keys again to make music. Back then she was younger and even though her attitude couldn’t exactly ever be called rebellious, she understood less and got angry more (even if she didn’t show it on the outside) and those times, when she won and the first person she exhibited it to would be, for instance, her concertmaster father people would somehow feel like the first place wasn’t even disputable… as if even if she did not deserve it she would still win it. Frequently in those competitions, in the waiting rooms, Ji Woo would hear whispers of how the other contestants were really only vying for the second positions because with her there, accompanied by her father, there were the lowest chances to get first place.

Honestly she had always thought of those other children and teenagers as wimpy and noisy… if they really thought she wasn’t good enough they should prove themselves better than her. But even without opening her eyes and just listening with her eyes closed and head leaned back in the cushioned seat she could hear the wrongness of the technique or the way they failed on the intensity variation. From there on she had started to not go with her parents but alone, to competitions in Europe. Not because she didn’t love them or appreciated them, but because she had made it her goal to prove to the sore losers that she would win because her performance had been better. Because she spent hours alone in the apartment she shared with her unnie practicing the piano non-stop, until she couldn’t feel the tips of her fingers the morning after or until her nails chipped to blood or she got cramps so bad she would be forced to stop and just hold her hand to her chest and groan quietly until they passed.

But now, as she stood in the front of the reception hall full of influential people looking at her, in her beautiful pale pastel blue dress which, she too, thought it disclosed too much skin on her back but had fallen in love with thinking how beautiful it must’ve looked while she played, Ji Woo felt a little , just tiniest bit abandoned but foremost… all alone. She had no one to hold her award for her, to hold her flowers, to give her the silvery scarf by a solitary chair inside a waiting room and most of all, to smile at her during her victory speeches.

She honestly did not have to say much, but it was when it came to moments like these that Ji Woo regretted to keep her piano career such a distant reality from any of her friends. To say the truth she often met some people from her department in school, but schoolmates had nothing on having a sole person beaming with pride while watching her speak and receive her with open arms, congratulating her. It was these times, then, that she felt sorry for never telling her unnies to come and that she would be happy for having them there, for not telling Nana and Jae Min that they should come… for not ever having asked Yeon Woo oppa to come watch her because she thought she looked pretty playing the piano and maybe he would’ve thought so too.

But in particular, Ji Woo felt the most apologetic towards her parents, who regardless of their jobs and even if they thought the only interesting and endearing thing she could do was music always had supported her most cherished activity and did not even care if she won or lost because since they understood the music so much better than all of her friends would enjoy it so thoroughly that would also bring a smile to her lips, watching their expression. She now felt she should have taken that care while she lived in Austria and after that, when she traveled to Europe and they would just come receive her at whatever city’s airport to accompany her. She missed the way her mother would listen to the piece she was playing with her eyes closed, with her head leaned slightly with the temple in her fist elevated by the couch’s arm and after that she would analyze the piece better for her to comprehend it further and play it better. Or the way her father would sometimes appear in the music room when she would spend the whole night practicing and left an apfelstrudel and a large mug of warm milk in snowy day by the table next to the piano, gently nudging her aside to show her a new interpretation of that part of the music sheet she had been struggling with. She missed them all a lot, and in many circumstances but the most would still be now.

Thanking the award with a humble demeanor and a beautiful bow that truly showed how happy Ji Woo was inside, she did not forget to mention her family, of course and two or three college teachers. Since one of them was present tonight the speech hadn’t seem so agonizing. It was just a small thanks and a lot of bows. It was when she was finalizing with a grand thank you towards the judges from the contest that sided the President of the Competition Committee that she noticed him.

But she didn’t know how she had been able to ignore someone so… well, big. He had apparently been there the whole time and his body was to the back, almost at the main exit of the reception hall. At his side there was a smaller, silvery haired boy that elbowed the taller and motioned with his head towards her following with a silent large yawn. Chanyeol was still painfully handsome. That first and only time, he had worn a snapback backwards and no makeup and baggy and normal clothes. But tonight he was exactly the guy she had seen on the cover of magazines, on online pictorials, mvs and variety shows, (she knew she was ridiculous, but she hadn’t been able to stop herself). It was with that acquired information that she, eventually, managed to recognize the smaller nonchalant guy by his side. He had a great voice and his name was Byun Baekhyun, also known as the person who two-timed SNSD Kim Taeyeon with Chanyeol.

The thought almost made her burst out laughing. Two last bows towards the guests and then towards organization, her eyes locked with the taller man… his eyes suddenly lit up and a somewhat sheepish or maybe lazy grin broke out on his lips. His hair styled back and his all black outfit consisting of a turtle neck and chic slacks and a, slightly longer than normal, blazer made her get all shivery inside and her hands shook a little. This guy is seriously drop dead gorgeous… Gulping down those thoughts harshly, she got down, blushing and bowing immediately, shaking hands politely with her left hand supporting her right arm with the people who came to meet her and congratulate her and were presented to her. Honestly she was feeling just a little too exposed with her back like this. Her professor by her side smiled softly and told her to just go change and return as soon as she could. He was a very rude man towards most of his students. But not with her or the other two students from her college who had also participated and had made it to the semifinal-round. According to him, he just liked talented people and disliked imbeciles, but to be honest Ji Woo was perfectly aware that he was a little of a ert who really enjoyed being near beautiful girls. Not that he ever acted erted towards her of course, or else she wouldn’t like him as much as she did. And he was an astounding mastermind when it came to music theory and sheet analysis and that was an area she always needed a little help with. Because he helped her with what once had been her father’s task in her studies he felt somewhat like a father figure to her. Prof. Jo Jun Pyo also looked the part with his pepper-and-salt hair and small eyes and he always brought her cookies whenever she would stay late in the School’s music rooms to finish up a project or when her sister asked her to not come home just yet.

Nodding meekly in his direction Ji Woo quietly took her leave, politely excusing herself from the group of people she just had been invited to join, leaving towards a door, adjacent to the wall where the little podium where she had gone to receive her awards. Almost reaching it she stopped abruptly and almost dropped the roses she had received earlier. Not that she even appreciated them but letting them fall ungratefully on the floor was still not the best way to express her feelings of gratitude towards the award and the organization. Stopping her musings regarding white roses and how much she disliked them, the small girl felt a cold shiver course her exposed back and looked back – she had an odd feeling, as if she felt eye in her back but when she subtly looked behind her, over her right shoulder, the scene was exactly as before; beautifully dressed important people from every field across the nation chattered intensely in small groups around tables or in between them. No one’s eyes were solely focused on her, even though she had been the protagonist for the night. Sighing she looked back again to her award and towards the door in the side wall.

Of course not. As soon as the award is delivered this is nothing but a social gathering of influential snobs.

Speaking of influential snobs, she also let her mind wander to the incident a few weeks ago and frowned, trying to push it down and off of her head as soon as it came immediately regretting even remembering about it. Maybe that was why he had come? He definitely fit the influential snob type, if someone asked her…Even if she still thought he had the most award winning looks of all of them.

Hiding a small quiet scoff under her thin, long fingers she entered the hallway that the door led to and searched for the waiting room. Nor