The day of the piano competition had come. Jungkook had practiced all the time, he rarely ate or slept, he was too much concentrated on playing the piece perfectly. The day before the competition his teacher's wife got him a chic, neat and elegant suit, because the participants of such competitions were used to dress nicely. The competition itself took place in a small opera house, which was filled with an curious audience, reporters, family and friends of the participants and the judges where sitting in the middle of everything, so they had the best view of the stage. The five jury members came from different countries, two were from Korea, one from France, one from New York and once from London. They were critical and noticed every small, single mistake. On the stage stood one single black grand piano which was lightened up with a big spot light, so only the piano and the participant was visible.
When it was Jungkook's part, he was playing like he practiced, like he felt it, like Seunghyun told him to do and like he thought Taehyung would like it. Seunghyun and his wife, who were sitting in the audience, watched Jungkook closely, but the teacher felt tense and didn't know if his student was able to make it but he hoped so. "So far, so good", Seunghyun whispered to himself, "I hope he will keep it up till the end."
"Wonderful...", his wife said quietly after a while and smiled.
"That boy... when did he..."
After Jungkook ended the piece perfectly it was quiet in the hall. No sound, no movement. He sat in front of the piano for some more seconds before he dared to move. He looked at the audience and quickly stood up bowing to them and they finally gave the young boy applause. When Jungkook looked up, facing the smiling faces of many listeners, who were clapping for him a lot, the boy felt proud and smiled innocently. He didn't expect that it would be such a great feeling to stay on stage like this.
Also the judges gave Jungkook applause, besides one, who was leaning on the backside of the chair in front of him, looking closely at Jungkook. "Professor O'Clair", one of the Korean judges leaned to the French man, "Finally, a wonderful player."

When the sun had set already, Taehyung was ending the dance crew auditions and was on his way home. He walked along the street. There were still many people around, who were heading to the big shopping mile, which was close to the academy. The trees were lightened up with many little and small lights because Christmas was coming and the city used to put light decorations on trees and buildings. Suddenly he heard someone running and a familiar voice sounded from behind. "Taehyung seonbae!", Jungkook yelped loudly, catching the older ones attention and ran to him.
"Jungkook..."
The younger one stopped some meters away from Taehyung and smiled at him. "Seonbae, I passed the first round competition", he said happily and looked down, trying to hide his blushed face, "I love you. I just had to tell you directly."
"Well, passing the first round is nothing to celebrate", Taehyung talked with his cold voice like usual, but then he gave the younger one a smile, "But I wouldn't mind cooking for you tonight."
"No, its okay", Jungkook shook his head, causing Taehyung to title his head confused, "I have to return to Choi seonsaengnim's house to practice for the next round. I'm sorry for making you feel lonely."
Taehyung sighed and stepped closer to Jungkook. "I'm not lonely!"
"By the way, the crabs were delicious! Thanks for bringing them", Jungkook spoke formally, which caused Taehyung to feel like they weren't as close as before already. The boy in front of him wasn't the same who he met the last time before Jungkook went to Seunghyun's house for the competition. "When are you going to Europe?", Jungkook suddenly asked.
"Huh?"
"When will it be? Around spring?", Jungkook asked, looking closely at Taehyung, who was looking aside, not moving an inch or saying something, "Seonbae, what's wrong?"
"Nothing...", Taehyung answered. Yet he hadn't decided if he should go with Jiyong or not, because he didn't know what he should do. He kind of didn't want to leave the younger one behind, he didn't want to explain things to the dance crew members but now since he was able to go abroad, he wanted to go so badly.
"Could it be that you don't want to go anymore?", Jungkook wanted to know.
"I'll go!", Taehyung quickly answered, "I'll go but..."
"But what?"
"I don't know when I will go yet, because now there's the dance crew and...", Taehyung stopped himself and looked away, "I will think about it later."
"Later?"
Taehyung had a strong desire of kissing those lips, which Jungkook was biting around on. "It's none of your business", Taehyung said and started to walk away, but he stopped again when he had passed the younger one, turning to Jungkook once more, "Besides that, you should concentrate on your competition and not on me."
"It's my business too", Jungkook mumbled and looked down nibbling on his lips.
"Eh?"
"You told me to aim higher", Jungkook talked loudly when he turned to the older one, "But why are you acting so nonchalant?"
"I have a lot going on as well", Taehyung tried to stick up for himself, "We decided to have another performance. If I suddenly go, it'll inconvenience everyone."
"Don't have such a lax attitude, using others as an excuse", Jungkook sounded mad, which confused Taehyung because he never saw  the naive Jungkook really getting mad before, "You have talent and there are many people recognizing it... You're... you're someone who's supposed to go out into the world." Jungkook looked down, taking deep breathes and Taehyung, whose eyes had grown big in surprise about Jungkook's sudden behavior, didn't know what to say. Then Jungkook suddenly slapped Taehyung's chest. "Stop dragging your feet! Don't be such a chickens hit!"
Taehyung didn't really know if he just misheard or if Jungkook really used words like this on him. When Jungkook puffed his cheeks, he grabbed his bag throwing it back on his back and wanted to run away, Taehyung grabbed his wrist tightly. "Where are you going?", Taehyung asked the younger one.
"I'm leaving. I don't want to see you", Jungkook mumbled looking away. Those words hurt Taehyung more than the indignity from before.
"Don't...", Taehyung whispered, holding Jungkook's wrist tightly. Then he suddenly pulled the younger one back to him and quickly laid his other hand into Jungkook's neck, pulling his face close and kissed him. Jungkook's eyes grew big in shock and as soon as Taehyung's lips touched Jungkook's, the younger boy froze totally. He couldn't move an inch while Taehyung laid both of his hands on Jungkook's cheeks. After Jungkook's eyes closed, he slowly was able to move his arms, so that he laid his hands on Taehyung's waist. For both of them it felt like the time had stopped, they didn't notice how people were staring and talked about them. 
When Taehyung slowly let go of Jungkook's lips, the younger one wasn't able to look at Taehyung. Jungkook's face was deeply red. Also Taehyung felt kind of awkward, he couldn't explain why he suddenly kissed Jungkook but he liked it. 
They just stood there, while strangers where looking at them. It was quiet and none of them knew what to say. After a while Jungkook smiled shyly at Taehyung but it was still awkward between them and since nobody said anything, Taehyung broke the silence rapidly. "You should go back to Seunghyun's house and prepare for the next round of competition", he said and Jungkook nodded. They took their leave, but Taehyung kept stopping often and looked after Jungkook.

When Jungkook had returned to his teacher’s house, Seunghyun gave him the next instructions, because for the next round the judges of the competition gave the pieces to the participants. "Listen, from now on, you're competing against time! You have to master this difficult piece by the final round!", he talked but he noticed that Jungkook wasn't really listening, "Well... don't worry. You don't need to think about the final round now. In any case, for the second round, practice Chopin's Etude and Debussy's L'isle Joyeuse."
Jungkook took the piece of paper which his teacher had handed him. "I've learned Chopin's Etude in the past", he said.
"In the past?", Seunghyun repeated confused.
"I think I remember it...", Jungkook mumbled and pulled his sleeves up.
"Okay then, play it", the man spoke and walked behind Jungkook, leaning against the wall, watching the student closely. Jungkook, who started playing the piece, remembered it perfectly, which surprised his teacher a lot. When the boy finished the piece, Seunghyun couldn't help but clap. "Bravo." Then he sent Jungkook to bed, who looked like he was about to faint. Finally his body gave in, after he skipped meals and sleep a lot the last days. "This boy is not only talented, but he can touch other people's hearts by making music. He can even make that Taehyung buy crabs for him. Maybe he can make it. Maybe he really can win."

The days passed and Taehyung kept thinking about the kiss, Jiyong's words of going to Europe with him and also what Jungkook said earlier. The whole time he couldn't concentrate so that he tried to work at the academy.
On his way to the library at the next day, he was walking upstairs the building of the piano section, when Seunghyun crossed his way. They passed each other, when Taehyung was walking upstairs, while the teacher got downstairs. "The crabs were delicious", the teacher said when he had passed his former student and both of them stopped. Taehyung turned holly around, looking at the man, who slowly turned to him. "The second round starts at 3 o'clock. Aren't you coming to see it?"
"I have things to do", Taehyung replied, turned back and walked upstairs.
"What a cold boyfriend!", Seunghyun mumbled but he made sure that Taehyung heard him.
"He's doing fine without me, isn't he?", Taehyung said. He didn't know if he would distract Jungkook from his competition when he would appear in the audience but he actually would like to watch it.
"You don't know why he entered this competition, don't you?", Seunghyun said and slowly walked up to Taehyung, "He's seriously going after 1st place in the final round." The piano teacher couldn't help but smile because he was fascinated by Jungkook and his strong will of winning. "He intends to study abroad... with you", the man explained to Taehyung who couldn't believe what he was hearing, "Determined to catch up with you, he managed to come this far."
Then the man patted Taehyung's shoulder and walked downstairs, while Taehyung looked after him before his glance wandered down. "Stupid boy", Taehyung mumbled to himself.
Taehyung sat down at a calm corner at one of the academy's buildings. He was thinking about everything again, especially about what he got to know because it was changing everything for him.
It took a while but finally Taehyung pulled out his phone and called Jiyong, who immediately asked him if he had decided. "Yes, I've made a decision", Taehyung talked on the phone, "I'll go to Europe. But... I can't go with you right now. I will do what I am supposed to do and then I will go afterwards. After Rising Star's Christmas performance I'll go to Europe."
"You've matured, haven't you?", Jiyong mentioned through the phone, "Okay, I understand. But for your last performance, I won't tolerate mediocrity." Then Jiyong hung up the phone and Taehyung put his phone back into the pocket of his jacket. So Taehyung had made his decision, now it was time for him to watch Jungkook's second round.

The competition hall was filled with people again and Taehyung took place on a seat at the last row. There was a female participant playing her pieces, when Taehyung came in. He was glad that he didn't miss Jungkook.
The judges were listening and watching them more closely than before and while all of them were quite impressed by the performance of the girl, the French judge was sleeping.
Backstage Seunghyun's wife was trying to tie Jungkook's bow tie, while the boy was half asleep on the table. "Jungkook! Come on! It's your turn soon! And you have to get ready, you aren't even completely dressed and look at your bedhead again", she talked and made Jungkook look at her, but the boy just gave her a grimace, "What's with this face? Think of something nice. Think of your boyfriend." Immediately Jungkook blushed. 
"Are you two done?", Seunghyun asked when he rushed into the room. His wife quickly fixed Jungkook's suit, before the teacher trapped him out of the room, rushing to the stage. "Listen, your Chopin is perfect. Show off your technique right with the first piece!", he explained to his student, "If you play as usual, you'll pass the second round for sure."
"Jungkookie", a voice suddenly appeared from behind and caught the boy's attention. Jungkook turned around and saw a boy, who was some inches smaller than him. "As I thought, you're Jeon Jungkook."
Jungkook looked at the boy but he wasn't sure if he knew him. Suddenly Jungkook remembered something what happened in his childhood. He had group piano lessons and since he had the talent of memorizing a piece from hearing it, he was able to play many difficult pieces although he was still a young boy. The other kids in the group were very impressed by Jungkook's skills, but there was one boy, who always was watching  him critically and used to laugh at him. "P..Park Changwon?", Jungkook asked confused and the boy nodded smirking.
"Hey!", Seunghyun appeared and pulled Jungkook with him, "Hey, hurry up!"
The audience was getting ready for the next performance, while the French professor was still sleeping. The Korean judge next to him, woke him up by shaking his shoulder. "Professor O'Claire! Please wake up! The next one will be that boy!"
"The bedhead boy?", the man asked as soon as he woke up.
"It's Chopin first...", Taehyung thought while looking over the program paper, "With Etude, technique and accuracy are required. Can he play it properly?"
Jungkook entered the stage and the audience gave applause like they did for everyone. When Jungkook stopped in front of the piano, he saw the boy again, who was sitting near the stage, looking closely at him. Jungkook looked away and turned to the audience and bowed, before he sat down on the chair. He suddenly remembered how his teacher of the group session used to punch his hands, calling him a fool and when Jungkook was fighting back, the man slapped him in the face so badly that the little Jungkook flew down on the ground. That boy, Park Changwon, just grinned and kept looking on his scores. He never helped Jungkook, so now Jungkook didn't understand what the boy wanted from him. Once again Jungkook looked at the guy, who used to give him the same cold glance. It was quiet at the hall and everyone was waiting for Jungkook to start and suddenly he started. "What's this...", Seunghyun whispered shocked, "Why those slapdash performance?"
"Jungkook?", Taehyung thought while watching Jungkook. Something was wrong.
"He's playing so reluctantly", Jungkook's teacher talked to himself, "Is that possible? Ist’s all over..."