~♥~ Yun Hee POV ~♥~

Third period had ended, so I left to go to my next class. Everyone had different classes they chose at this time. I had cello practice, Jiyoung had creative writing, and Kyou took photography.

I approached the door to my cello class but stopped when I noticed a salmon pink paper posted on the oak brown door. The sign explained that cello classes were cancelled for the day and directed students to enter another class they are enlisted in or have a free study time in an extra room until “the situation” was worked out. It didn’t say what “the situation” was, but there have been rumors that the teacher had caught Ebola virus.

It was such a stupid plan, I thought. Students won’t even listen and instead hang out in the hall talking to their friends. My hypothesis was already proven right because I noticed some classmates loitering nearby. I ignored them.

This was such a hassle. I didn’t want to spend extra time in class, and I didn’t feel like “studying.”  I opted out of both options and chose to go to the piano room.

The piano room had only one grand piano in it. Students were allowed to go in if they needed to, but it was usually empty. It’s the place I always go to whenever something like this happens. No one ever barges in or kicks me out, so I became comfortable in it.

The place wasn’t too far, so I just walked across the hallway until I reached it without much thought. I stood outside of the door and grabbed the handle. I heard it being played. That was the first time I had ever heard it being played by someone other than me. Did I sound that good, or was it the person playing it that was so amazing?

I didn’t want the person to hear or see me, so I quietly opened the door a centimeter and peered inside. My attempt at being invisible was a fail. As soon as my vision adjusted to the piano, I saw Mika staring at me. How had he noticed my presence? Was he psychic?

He was the first to say something. “Hello.”

I stayed silent at first, surprised by the sudden voice in the silent room. “Hi.” I continued to stare at him not knowing what to do, so I apologized. “Sorry, I thought I heard the piano.” I started to close the door.

“Wait,” he called, and I stopped. “Did you need it?”

“No, not really.” I waited for his response.

“Are you sure? I can leave if you do,” he asked concerned. He stood up from the bench and began packing his things.

“No, no, you can stay.”

Mika halted his movements. “What did you come in for?”

“My class was cancelled, so I was just going to do a little playing until next period, but I can go somewhere else. Wait, what are you doing in here?” I came to the sudden realization that it was strange for him to be in here.

“Doing a little skipping,” he said like it was no big deal.

“What?! You’re skipping?”

“Yeah, the class isn’t that important anyway.” The awkwardness died down.

I was flabbergasted. People skipped all the time, but I didn’t expect Mika to do such a thing. “That doesn’t matter! You shouldn’t skip any class.” Even though I was scolding him, I couldn’t help but smile. He was too.

“Why not,” he grinned.

“It’s against the rules.”

“So?”

“So, you should follow them.”

His cocky mask faded, but the smile stayed. “I was just kidding. I mean, I really am skipping, but I usually don’t. I just didn’t want to be in that class right now.”

“Why not?”

“The teacher is incompetent, most of the students can’t sing, and there are a lot of annoying people in that class.” He must have had a vocals class, which isn’t implausible since he has formed a band. I had the urge to hear what his singing voice sounds like. It must be angelic if his speaking voice is already this amazing.

“Are you being bullied?” I teased.

“What? No.”

“Are you the bully?”

“No, I’m not the bully,” he laughed. “I’m just in the beginner class for now because I transferred in late, so it irritates me a little.”

“Oh,” I tried to keep the conversation going, “when are you going to be in the higher class?”

“About a week or two.”

“So, you’re going to skip class and come here every day for the next two weeks?” I raised my eyebrows at him.

“Maybe not every day.”

“Right.” I couldn’t think of another witty comment. I was surprised I had maintained another conversation for this long with him in the first place.

He sat back down on the piano bench and played a few notes. “Do you want to help me compose?” he looked up at me with his elegant hands still on the keys.

I was startled at the request. This whole time I was standing at the doorway holding the door slightly ajar. “Umm, sure.” I closed the door and strode over mechanically. Mika scooted over on the bench and motioned for me to sit down. I did. We were about an inch away from each other. It was the closest I have ever been to touching him. I felt tense. I could hear my heart beat reverberating in my ears and my face heat up.

“Have you ever composed before?” His gaze was back down on the piano keys. He wiped some imaginary dust off of them.

“No, I usually just play sheet music.” I backed my words up by playing the chorus to a JPop song by Utada Hikaru. I was at the higher pitched side. “Are you composing a new song for Dae Guk Nam Ah?”

“I started a new one, but you have no experience, so I can’t trust you with that,” he sighed making fun of me.

“Whatever,” I scoffed. “So, we’re not going to compose?”

“We can compose our own little song.” He looked down at me and smiled. It only made my heart louder and my face redder.

I didn’t trust my voice, so I only nodded.

He began by playing a few notes on the lower end of the piano with his left hand. I created a harmony with my right. I wasn’t a professional, but I tried my best. It didn’t sound too bad.

He stopped playing and wrote down some notes on a blank sheet of music paper. I continued with a solo.

He jumped back in. I waited a few moments before giving him a solo while I wrote the following notes. We resumed back into a duet with me on the higher pitched end and Mika on the lower.

 The tune we were playing together reminded me of a sad and broken relationship. It wasn’t the teenage type drama, but a real, mature one.

We went on improvising in silence for another few minutes. Mika lifted his fingers from the keys, but they didn’t touch the pencil like I thought they would. Instead, they rested on his knees. I mimicked him and turned my head to him. “What’s wrong?”

“It was sad.” He didn’t look at me this time. His gaze was at the wall in front of us.

“Yeah.” I stared at the same wall. “It was.”

“No, I’m talking about how bad you are at playing.” My mouth hung open in shock. He smirked and shifted his eyes to meet mine. “I was kidding,” he chuckled.

“What? That was mean. Am I really not good?” I fought the urge to push him backwards so he would fall off the bench.

“You’re good; you’re good.” He held his hands up in front of him in case I would try to hit him.

I glared at him pretending I didn’t believe him. Compared to Mika, I was bad. He was an amazing pianist. I struggled to keep up with him. “What time is it?” I sighed.

“I don’t know.” He lifted the sleeve to his blazer to show he wasn’t wearing a watch. His wrists were so pale and slender. I wanted to grab them for no reason other than to just touch them, but I didn’t.

I looked around the room for a clock on the wall. There was none. I sighed again and slumped in the seat.

“Do you have somewhere to be?”

“Yeah, class at quarter after eleven.”

“Oh, that’s right. I think we still have another half hour.”

“There’s a clock in the hallway.” I got up and opened the door. I peeked through to see if I can catch a glimpse of the clock at this angle. I could. We had twenty minutes left, so I had been in here for roughly thirty with Mika. I couldn’t tell if it felt like we were together for more or less time.

Mika spent my temporary absence playing the piano. I didn’t recognize the melody. It sounded upbeat and bubbly.

I carefully walked back over to him, not wanting him to stop. As I got closer to him, I could hear him humming. It turned into quiet singing.

I stood next to my side of the bench. I was afraid I would be in his way if I sat back down.

I was too enchanted by his amazing voice. It was the most wonderful sound I had ever heard. I wouldn’t be able to describe what it sounded like. The words for such an astounding sound weren’t founded yet. They were too unimaginable.

I gawked wordlessly still standing. He kept singing and playing. His voice got louder, and I was able to make out the lyrics.

That smile which I saw at a fleeting glance
At one shot damage was done to me
Love at first sight? As compared to misery
I'm thankful to sparkling moments
Thank you
Your radiance is
Changing my every day
Because we dreamed the same dream you see
The fate of falling in love
My heart is throbbing fast anticipation and uneasiness is
Swirling in my body
I'm trembling excitedly it starts from here
Our story

He abruptly stopped playing and turned to me. “Did you like it? It’s one of our songs.”

“Yeah, I did,” I managed to mumble.

He smiled. “Good.”

I wanted to hear more. I wanted him to sing to me, but I could never tell him that. I just stood there awkwardly waiting for him to say something.

We stared at each other in silence. He was looking at my eyes, and I tried to do the same but could only dart mine away and back nervously. I don’t know what he was anticipating from me. The small smile never left his face.

I felt embarrassed that such an attractive boy was here alone in this room with me and talking to me, and now he’s just staring at me. I hadn’t realized the situation I put myself in.

I cleared my throat. “Well,” I coughed, “if you’re busy with writing for Dae Guk Nam Ah, then I can leave.” I was probably in his way. He was staring at me to ask me to go away, I assumed.

“No, don’t. Didn’t we already discuss this?”

“Oh…”

“I just wanted to get your opinion on the new song.” He looked at me expectantly again.

“It was good,” I lamely repeated.

“Just good?”

“It was great?” I asked if that was an acceptable critic.

“What did you like about it?”

I sighed. “All of it.” I pretended to be annoyed at his persistence.

“Which part the most?”

I sighed again louder. I took some time to think it over. “The~,” I slurred contemplating.

He was starting to get impatient. “The lyrics, the beat, the singing?” he suggested answers for me excitedly.

I wanted to say “the singing,” but went with “the lyrics.”

“Which line was the best?”

I sighed once more and shifted to put my weight on one foot. “I don’t know. Why do you keep asking me stuff?”

“Because I want to know what you think of the song.”

“I told you what I thought of it.”

He mocked my sigh. “Fine, you don’t have to tell me. You probably think it’s horrible and that I fail as a lyricist.”

“No, I don’t!” He looked at me from the corner of his eye with a sad expression. “I really do like it,” I comforted.

He laughed. “Okay, I believe you.”

I shifted my weight to my other foot. Mika scooted over on the bench and patted it to tell me to sit back down. I flopped down next to him with another sigh.

“You sigh a lot.”

“Yeah…”

“Are you sad?”

“No, I just like to sigh.”

“Why?”

“You ask questions a lot.” It was my turn to mock him.

“Yeah…” We giggled at our imitations of each other.

There was another silence. To fill it, I started playing a song from Pokémon. I couldn’t sing well and didn’t want to embarrass myself, so I hummed the lyrics. It was a slow and depressing tune about friends having to go their separate ways.

“What are you here for anyway?” he asked.

I continued playing. “String instruments. Mainly cello.” I took a break from humming, but my fingers didn’t.

Mika looked around the room. “I want to hear you play,” he said under his breath and got up to search the room for what I guessed was a cello. I doubted there was one in here.

He walked over to a door that I had never looked in. The only thing in this room I touched was this lonesome piano. He opened the door and went inside. From where I was positioned, I couldn’t see inside. He stayed in there for a good two minutes, and I moved onto the next song that popped into my head.

Finally, he stumbled out of the mysterious room and closed the door. There was a small case in his hands that wasn’t a cello.

He set it down on the piano. I stopped playing and watched him unlock the case and bring out a violin, my second favorite instrument.

“How’s a violin?” He held it out to me.

“I love violins the most after the cello.” I stood up and grabbed it. He sat where I had been, and I picked the bow up from the case before rosining and tuning it. I stalled and took my time. I was nervous. I never liked people staring at me, especially if it was someone like Mika having his full attention on me. I couldn’t mess this up!

Eventually, I began to play “A Diabolic Waltz.” I had managed to play the first five notes when I heard the bell ring and clamoring in the hallway. It was the warning bell before the next class.

“I’ve got to go. So do you.” I started packing up the violin hurriedly.

“Here, I'll put it away.” He sounded disappointed, but that could have been my wishful thinking.

“Thanks,” I said and watched him walk over to the still opened door. Before he could turn around, I left without saying anything else.

As I was walking through the halls and all throughout class, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. He was not only the best looking person I had ever seen, but he was also cool, mysterious, kind, funny, and talented. He was my “ideal type,” as one would say.

I wasn’t going to tell him that. It’s too embarrassing. I decided to just act normal. He most likely didn’t feel the same way. That would be so unrealistic. Such a wonderful man would never fall for someone like me.

I had to keep reminding myself that this was life, not a shoujo manga.

Hello there, all~! We're almost on our tenth chapter! That's pretty exciting, right? I really liked this one. Mika and Yun Hee get some more romance in there, but I had a tough time wrapping up this chapter. Did it turn out well? Did you see the chapter poster? Usually I have my sister "Jiyoung" make them, but I felt like making it since I had the idea. It glitters o.o Next chapter will have Kyou and Jay~ I feel like I've been neglecting them recently. Anyway, heart points to whoever knows the song Mika played(lyrics were from AstroMafia)~! Even more heart points to those who comment~!