Petulant raindrops slashed across the windows, streaking with calligraphic glory. It was summer, the hottest time of the year in Seoul - or any country for that matter - but the rain had been relentless the last few days. It wasn't so much the raindrops but the surprisingly startling heat that came with the rain - like sunlight sprinkled into the balcony, with only the rarest gust of wind offering some form of respite from the heat as a gale swept through the open balcony, allowing the white day curtains to dance in their own crazed, flamboyant and yet graceful manner, emitting cool, swooshing sounds of the wind. 

Yunseul opened her eyes with a start. She was lying face down on her pillow, and a bit of mascara that hadn't been completely removed the night before had tainted the clean white pillows. She sighed, pushing her hair from her face and sitting up, her body bare and still tingling from the happenings of the night before. 

She turned to her bed stand. There was a note written by her boyfriend in neat scrawls: 

「Hey love, 
So sorry, had to rush to work, Tina called to tell me the client was in the office early. I made some coffee and breakfast for you, it's on the coffee table. And remember your pill. Love you, see you tonight. 
- Jongin 」

She smiled slightly at the thought of her boyfriend, clamouring to pick up his clothes, prepare breakfast and then rush out the door to work. Leaving the note on the bed stand, she rose to get a shower. 

The phone rung incessantly, and she had just about managed to pull a towel around her when the shrill tone switched to voicemail. A gentle male voice resonated throughout the apartment: 

"Hi guys! Baekhyun here. You guys are crazy, constantly living such busy lives that you can't even pick up your phone? Oh and Yunseul - what's the point of having a phone when you don't even reply your messages?" He laughed. "Anyway, it's been two years - when are my two crappy best friends coming to visit me? It's bad enough that you keep saying you're coming and then don't." He laughed. "Come soon. Email me your details, yeah?" Then the line cut. 

Her damp hair hung loosely at the sides of her face, and she returned to the shower, adjusted the knob to a certain temperature and ran the water. And that was the time she began to think. She had always done her best thinking in the shower. The night had always been about worrying, dwelling and analysing. But in the morning, under the hot water, she had ample time to ponder, to daydream, and to remember. So as she lathered her hair, inhaling her scented shampoo, the memories of her, Kim Jongin and Byun Baekhyun flooded her mind. 

Yunseul first met Baekhyun in music elective class in junior year. Only the students who took two or more honours classes could take an elective in music, art or computing, and when they were each prompted with these options, music was the obvious choice. Music wasn't a very popular class amongst the students in their high school because of the high level of difficulty to pass the examinations. Then between art and computing, most students chose the practical route and went for computing, particularly to learn coding. Despite that, the music class had a good twenty students, all with high music qualifications. Most of these students were at best haughty and self-absorbed, and at worst simply elitist, condescending and awfully insensitive. Somehow, on one occasion, Yunseul and Baekhyun found each other, two slight misfits in the sea of arrogant virtuosos, and the short dialogues of disgust towards the rest of the students in class evolved into larger and longer conversations of music and life outside of class, and before long they were analysing music together. Most students in the music elective were too proud to admit to listen to anything other than classical music, and claimed to find anything else a horrible din. But Yunseul and Baekhyun loved the genres of pop, rock and jazz, and in such a self-aggrandising and elitist environment, it was a near-miracle to find anyone else who would admit to having similar passions. 

Outside of class, they would listen to new albums together, of any genre really, and carefully dissect the tone and flow of the music. Yunseul remembered them crouching around the dashboard in his dad's car, playing different versions of the same song, then arguing about the lyrics, or about the singers' interpretations. They would dissect the music to its little bits and pieces, argue about the instruments involved, and then even recreate the same music in different ways with different instruments on mobile applications. Of course, they loved classical music most - while other students praised Mozart or Bach to the skies, and others professed an undying love for Chopin's music, Yunseul and Baekhyun were held together by an inexplicable love for Beethoven - the carefully crafted, slightly arbitrary and yet comforting blend of classical and romantic, from his earlier intriguing pieces to his later heart-wrenching, angst-ridden pieces. While Baekhyun was more drawn towards romantic pieces like the famous Moonlight Sonata, Yunseul felt a connection with the series of symphonies, particularly Symphony No. 8, also known as The Unfinished Symphony. They toggled between their understandings of Beethoven's emotions and motivations, and always confused others with their passionate and heated discussions on his works. At that time, secretly, Yunseul had feelings for Baekhyun - but he was her only friend in high school, and she couldn't risk the status quo - there was simply too much to lose. 

Soon enough, Yunseul met Jongin - Baekhyun's oldest and closest friend. As if a foil to Baekhyun, Jongin was the exact opposite - he took one honours class - honours math, no less, and enjoyed his weekly golf sessions with his father and other businessmen compared to leisure talks about music and life. He was the kind of guy who saw connections and building up his future career (though he was always meant to take over the family business anyway) as more important than understanding existentialism or self-discovery. But Jongin was sweet, humble and very compassionate - and the three soon started to spend more time together outside of class, discussing the roads ahead of them, life in high school and beyond. 

But fate had its own way of meddling with things. Senior year came and a month before graduation, Baekhyun left for London on early admission to study a prestigious music course. Two weeks after, tragedy struck - Yunseul's mother, her only parent, passed away, and the landlady had her evicted from her apartment due to outstanding payments. Jongin was splendid - he handled everything quickly, got her an apartment, paid the rent, and held her mother's funeral - all in her time of vulnerability and grief. Baekhyun hadn't been able to make it back to