Section One: [W o o j i n] Evening

"Good evening, Jeonginnie!" Woojin smiled, waving to the 17-year-old. Jeongin ran up towards the performance area, dropping his backpack and bowing towards the elder. Woojin met Jeongin a while back at the library when Jeongin needed help with a math problem and Jeongin saw Woojin as a role model ever since. Jeongin was amazed whenever Woojin would sing, and he was always welcome to help Jeongin with his school work when he needed it. 

"Jeongin, you should be home by 9:30 so that you can get to school on time tomorrow."

Jeongin sighed. He only needed help with two more math problems that he skipped over. "Yes, I only have two math problems left." He trudged back over to his backpack and pulled out a black binder. 

"What happened to your pink binder, Jeongin?" Woojin asked, looking at the new black binder instead of his pink one with stickers on it. 

"Oh, um, it ripped," Jeongin stuttered as he looked around before placing the binder on the cafe table by Woojin. Woojin squinted. A few days before, the pink binder that Jeongin had before still looked pretty durable. Jeongin pulled out more supplies from his blue backpack. The pencil pouch with puppies on it was now replaced with a plain dark green pencil pouch. 

"Did you replace all your supplies? What happened? Did you lose them somehow?" Woojin blabbered, starting to become worried. 

"It's nothing," Jeongin mumbled as he lowered his head. He pulled out his homework as Woojin stood up. 

"Really. What happened? I won't tell anyone. I need to know this Jeongin, so it can stop," Woojin firmly stated. Are his things being stolen?

"My classmates... my classmates called me a dw-dweeb for liking these types of things."

"Things? What types of things?"

"Pink and puppies... and stuff like that."

"Jeongin," Woojin saw Jeongin frown. "You aren't supposed to listen to them about that. You shouldn't be ashamed of the things that you like. Don't hide it." By this time, tears were spilling out of Jeongin's eyes. Jeongin pulled out a tissue from a pack in his pocket and wiped his tears away. 

"That won't stop them from calling me things and spreading rumors though."

"It has really gotten that bad? Jeongin, why didn't you tell me before?"

"I don't know why. I don't know what to do." Jeongin rested his head in his hands. They sat in silence for a while as Woojin quickly wrote thorough explanations for each of the math problems. He figured that Jeongin wouldn't want to hear his verbal explanations when he is in such a bad mood. 

"Jeongin. I want you to bring your normal supplies back. When people call you things, ignore them. If people ask you about a rumor, stay confident and think positive," Woojin suggested. Jeongin nodded half-heartedly as he skimmed the explanations that Woojin just wrote. 

"I'll try."

Section Two: [F e l i x] School

Felix awoke for school at 5 am. He woke up earlier on purpose to avoid his family members in the kitchen, and he would be out the door by 5:25. That would give him some time to join Mr. Sohn for a short lesson before school at 5:40 until about 7:20, when he would head to the subway and start towards school, which started at 8:00.

This Monday when he got off the subway, a boy in his grade offered him a bento box. Felix was confused. He had seen this boy around the school but never bothered to properly meet him, but now he randomly just went up to him and offered him a bento. 

"Would you like my bento?" the boy asked Felix, holding the box out. The bento looked great and extremely appetizing especially after Felix's lesson with Mr. Sohn. Felix was about to take the bento before realizing that he should know the person first.

"Who are you?" Felix asked. He was calmer than usual when meeting new people, but that was probably because he was extremely tired already and the week had barely started. 

"I'm Seungmin. I think I'm in your second period," the boy introduced quickly. "And I believe you are Felix." Felix nodded.

"Ah, Seungmin!" Another boy came running up to the two holding a packet. "Did you complete your passage for the partner project?"

"Yeah Hyunjin, I did," Seungmin nodded, visibly blushing.

Hyunjin was Seungmin still holding out the bento to Felix. "You shouldn't give out your lunch like that Seungmin. You have a long day ahead of you and you need that energy." Hyunjin shrugged, still blushing. Hyunjin looked over to Felix.

"Hi, I'm Hyunjin. If you see Seungmin trying to give away his food, please stop him." Felix nodded.

"Okay. I'm Felix." 

"Nice to meet you, Felix," Hyunjin smiled as he gently pushed the bento box back into Seungmin's chest.

"You better eat, Seungmin. When we get time later for the project or if I see you anytime before that, I want to see the bento box empty. Got it?" Hyunjin ordered.

"I'll try," Seungmin mumbled as Hyunjin waved and walked away. 

Seungmin turned to Felix. "He's so handsome... I'm glad the teacher paired us up for the partner project," he whispered, slightly embarrassed. Felix smiled at Seungmin's sudden smittenness. Seungmin looked back down at the bento, closing the lid and placing it back inside his backpack. Felix and Seungmin began walking together towards their first classes of the day. It was now 7:50, and the flow of students arriving became stronger. Felix was usually already in the classroom at that time, but he walked slower alongside Seungmin. Felix's steps became a bit smaller through the flow of people and Seungmin drifted a bit behind Felix. Felix looked back through the flow of people, trying the look for Seungmin. Instead, he felt a hand grip on his arm, pulling him to the side of the foot traffic.

"You're gonna get trampled if you walk that aimlessly," the person said laughing. He wore a black cotton face mask and a hoodie. Pulling off the mask, Felix saw that it was Changbin.

"Oh, hi Changbin!" Felix exclaimed, smiling at the sight of the rapper.

"Hey, Felix. Where's your first class?" Changbin asked. He saw Felix beckon Seungmin over. Seungmin clearly hesitated before walking towards Felix and Changbin, probably intimidated by Changbin because he wore all black. Approaching the two, he slid next to Felix in hopes of not getting the attention of Changbin.

"Oh, hi. I'm Changbin," Changbin introduced politely. He quickly noticed Seungmin.

"Erm, hi. I'm... Seungmin."

"Oh, we have two minutes before the bell. See you guys later," Felix waved. 

Changbin smiled at the pianist. "Bye Felix. Nice to meet you, Seungmin. See you around." Seungmin didn't feel as shy after seeing Changbin smile. He clutched the straps of his backpack and walked into his classroom.

- [Four hours later] Lunch (noon) -

Felix was more exhausted than usual, probably because of sleeping a lot later the weekend before. It was now lunch, and he was looking forward to heading toward the library to finish his research project. Exiting his classroom, he began his way towards the school library. 

"Hey Felix!" Felix looked back to see Hyunjin.

"Oh, hey Hyunjin."

"Have you seen Seungmin? I was wondering if he ate anything yet." Felix automatically turned with Hyunjin into another hallway that went in an opposite direction from where the school library was. It's okay for now I guess. I'll just go back later, Felix thought, wanting to continue a conversation with the kind Hyunjin.

"No, I haven't seen him. Is Seungmin usually like that? Like does he usually give out his food freely?" Felix questioned. Hyunjin looked down, trying to recall. 

"We don't really talk that often, but I think in the past he would really look forward to eating his lunch. He's gotten thinner, I'm pretty sure. I wish we could talk more but whenever I'm around him I feel like he would be uncomfortable since I talk so much and I blabber on about topics and I think he's a lot more quiet than me but he might be one of those people that's actually pretty loud when you get to know them so I guess I should just try to talk more to him and hopefully he'll open up. You know?"

Felix blinked, dazed before nodding. "Yeah, maybe you should try to talk to him more I guess." Felix remembered earlier when Seungmin mentioned Hyunjin's handsomeness. Maybe Seungmin did want Hyunjin to talk more to him. Felix slightly smiled, glad to be able to hear what the two thought of each other. 

"Ah, made it," Hyunjin sighed, turning inside a room that Felix had never been in before. Felix decided not to go inside because he had to go to the library still, and he briskly said bye to Hyunjin. Panicking, Felix looked around the hallway, forgetting which side he came from. His first instinct was go to the right side, so he turned right and continued walking. All the doors seemed to be locked, because all the teachers were on their lunch breaks as well, but one door at the end of the hallway was open. Our of curiousity, Felix hesisitated before peeking into the room. The room was of a typical classroom size, except for the fact that it was empty besides a desk, chair, and a piano. A piano!

Felix crept into the room, looking around to make sure no one was in the room. Once he made sure the room was clear, Felix sat at the piano. He pressed middle C once, checking if the piano was in tune. The piano didn't look old, but Felix wasn't sure if it was old, and the room didn't look occupied recently. Felix started to play one of his memorized pieces, playing softly at first and then louder as he reassured himself that he was alone. 

But that wasn't the case. 

Felix peeked back between the two variations of the piece and quickly stood up when he heard footsteps coming through the hallway. Due to the emptiness of the room, there was absolutely no place to hide. He had realized that he had closed the door by reflex when entering. He froze in his place as the door swung open, mentally preparing for an explanation.

Section Three: [C h a n g b i n] Thinking place

"That sounded amazing. You should continue," Changbin addressed, his voice booming in the empty room. Felix felt his cheeks flush and his heart beat faster as he turned back around and sat at the piano bench. He watched as Changbin took a seat at the chair in front of the desk, opening the notebook on the desk. Felix recognized the notebook once it was open as the notebook that Changbin used to write lyrics for the 3RACHA mixtapes. Changbin looked towards Felix, making Felix quickly turn around and begin the second variation.

As Felix filled the room with his melodies, he could slightly hear Changbin writing down some things in the notebook. Felix's playing reminded Changbin of his grandfather, who also played the piano. Changbin's grandfather had passed away from cancer a few months ago, and Changbin had tried to avoid hearing the piano for a while. When he learned that Felix played the piano, he was reminded of the ambitions that his grandfather took up in becoming what he wanted to be when he was younger. To hear Felix playing the piano at this moment was bittersweet to Changbin. Felix's style of playing was absolutely beautiful, but he was slowly reminded of his dear grandfather. He looked down at his notebook again.  The precious things, the precious moments... 

Felix had finished the second variation and turned around to Changbin. "What is this place, Changbin? Are you usually here?" 

"Yes, yes I am. This is my thinking place. I write my lyrics here, and I feel like this is where I most deeply concentrate."

"Ah, so that explains why I have never seen you before we met at the junction, despite going to the same school."

Felix watched as Changbin twirled his pencil twice in his hand before jotting down another idea.

Felix looked around, noticing that the room actually had lots of space to move around. "This actually seems like a nice place to dance."

Changbin glanced at Felix. "You dance?" Felix nodded shyly. He thought back to Minho, the dancer he had met the previous day.

"Cool. I've wanted to dance but I... never really could..."

Felix thought of a deal. "Changbin, I can help you learn to dance if you help me with rapping." Changbin looked down, and Felix nearly broke out into a sweat because he thought he had said the wrong thing. 

"I guess so. Yeah, maybe we can," Changbin announced after a while. Felix could sense that he might be a bit uncomfortable just learning by himself. He was pretty sure that Changbin would let him work on rapping in the 3RACHA studio, probably along with Jisung and Chan. Maybe Felix could ask Minho if he could use the secret department store dance room and see if Minho might want to join in and help. 

Felix became caught up in making plans when the bell rung indicating 10 minutes to the next class. Changbin closed his notebook and they both walked out of the room. Changbin closed the door, double-checking that he didn't leave anything on the desk. 

"Are you able to come to our studio today? I'm pretty sure Chan would be okay with it," Changbin told as the two walked through the hall. Felix found walked through, finding the halls more and more familiar until he was back at an area he recognized easily.

"I probably am, if I sneak out. I actually don't have a piano lesson later today because I already went this morning."

"Ok. I'll let Chan know. Any time before 10 pm is fine tonight. See you later, Felix!"

Felix grinned as he walked towards his next class. He began to think about his next plan to sneak out, his trip to the library to finish his research project long forgotten.