The music flows from Dahyun’s fingertips as if it were water, spilling forth from her hands in rolling wave after wave of sound. Soft piano notes bounce off the walls of the practice room, creating an odd, yet now familiar sensation within the young pianist.

        The practice rooms are sound proofed to perfection, each padded wall sopping up the acoustics ever so slightly and taking the edge off of each note. Due to the soundproofing, the rooms create a muted kind of existence - where there’s no reverb to speak of.

        When Dahyun was first introduced to these practice rooms, she was fascinated with the way they worked. She’d sit on the piano bench in the small rectangular box and clap her hands together as loud as she could. She would yell the lyrics to her favorite songs, smash her fingers against the electronic keyboard, garnering the same result over and over again.

        Scraps of handwritten sheet music are set in front of Dahyun. There’s a pencil placed thoughtfully behind the curl of her right ear in case if she needed quick access to it. She glares at the scribbles she’d jotted down, leaning forward and furrowing her brows as she deciphered each note and played it accordingly.

        Somehow, the piece still didn’t feel right to her, as if it were missing something. Dahyun just didn’t know what yet. More than anything, Dahyun hated when she didn’t know. A million thoughts began racing through her head as her eyes glazed over the pages.

        Was the key signature bothering her? Were there too many sharps for her liking, or not enough in the first place? If not that, was her discomfort caused by the time signature? Did she have too many tempo changes?

        “Christ,” the pianist sighed, running a hand through her hair as she studied the pages. “I’m never going to finish on time at this rate.” It was frustrating, hearing something in your head and struggling to find the correct tune for it. Dahyun felt as though she were going around in circles over the music swirling inside her, waiting to be tapped into.

        Even with Dahyun’s rare ability of perfect pitch, there were times when the idol found herself stumped. Now, when she called on her musical skills more than ever, she was still coming up short. Distraught, Dahyun checked her wrist watch for the time and sighed.

        With a heavy heart and drooping eyelids, Dahyun slowly stood and gathered her music. All will be well after a good night’s rest, she thought to herself. She’d been studying nonstop since that morning, and hadn’t seen the light of day save for when she dragged herself out of bed.

        For her music performance class final, her professor assigned everyone to create their own original piece. The arrangement of music was required to have at least two movements in it, and would be performed by the rest of the class as sight reading music in order to gauge whether or not the difficult of their piece was appropriate.

        Dahyun had two weeks before the deadline was up, and she’d only managed to create five and a half pages worth of notes so far - a little over half of her first movement. But she needed more, much more, in order to turn in something at least semi-decent, and still had finals to study for. After all, she was majoring in music composition, she needed to put out the best work she possibly could.

        Though she’s created scores of music before for fun and for tiny assignments in class, Dahyun didn’t want to cut any corners. She wanted to orchestrate something that would convey her growth in her field, how much she had learned throughout the years. She wanted to surprise her peers and her professor with something so beautiful, it would move them to tears.

        Shoving the pages haphazardly into a sleek black portfolio, Dahyun readied herself to leave the safe haven of the silence of the practice room and return to her apartment.

        There, in the comfort of her own home away from home, she would dive underneath the blankets of her bed and surrender to the irresistible temptations of some much needed sleep.

        However, the moment the pianist stepped out of the sound proofed room and turned to shut the door behind her, she positively froze in place. All thoughts of the comfort of her bed were whisked away from her. Suddenly, Dahyun felt awake and alert.

        A haunting, melodious voice called out faintly to her from the practice room across from hers. The door of her own room clicked shut behind Dahyun, but she leans against the thick, translucent glass and waits. She lingers there, staring at the back of the stranger as she continues to sing, transfixed by the sound of her voice.

        From what she can tell, the stranger is a woman. She has long, light brown locks the color of rich chestnut that tumble down past her shoulders. She’s tall. Or at least taller than Dahyun is by a few inches.

        The woman’s figure is slight, lithe underneath a pair of casual blue denims and a black sweater. Her voice is beyond beautiful; she is a siren calling out to Dahyun, begging the pianist to throw herself overboard. It’s one of the most alluring sounds the pianist has ever heard.

        An idea hits Dahyun quickly. The woman’s voice could be exactly what she needed to make her music sound complete. Her mind began to race, trying to think up of ways she could possibly ask this complete stranger to collaborate on her final.

        Lightly, Dahyun raps her knuckles against the glass of the stranger’s door to garner the vocalist’s attention. Startled, the woman whirled around on her heel and stared at Dahyun with an unreadable look. The pianist notes that the other woman looks as though she were a siren as well, and finds herself drawn into a pair of captivatingly dark eyes.

        “Coffee?” Dahyun asks once the woman opens the door. Her lips part to bring out what she hopes is her most charming smile. After sitting down at a piano bench for five hours straight, Dahyun could only hope she still looked somewhat well-put together.

        Perhaps she should’ve checked in the mirror of her phone camera before walking over. For all she knows, her hair could be a mess by now. She rocks back and forth on her heels, waiting for the woman’s response.

        “Huh?” Comes the reply, “It’s nearly three in the morning.” The woman’s voice is as gentle as a passing breeze, light and airy above Dahyun’s head. Her expression conveys confusion, endearingly so, with her brows furrowed together and her eyes flicking from in between Dahyun’s eyes and Dahyun’s mouth from behind a pair of smart horn-rimmed glasses.

        Dahyun shrugs and hugs her portfolio tighter to her chest. Her grin is still evident, but worn a little at the edges. She’s suddenly unsure if her plan would work after all. “Exactly my point,” the pianist says with a giggle. “I think we could both use a caffeine boost and a break, right? It’s nearly finals week, for Christ’s sake.”

        She waits, growing more and more uncertain of herself as the woman stares at her with the same blank expression. The stranger is obviously trying to decide what to do, whether or not to trust Dahyun - a complete stranger, or return to her studying in the practice room.

        “You know what...I think there’s a twenty-four hour coffee shop in the library,” the taller woman says at last, easing away Dahyun’s anxiety. She sticks a hand out, waiting for Dahyun to take it. The pair shake hands briefly, smiling at each other shyly. “I’m Sana,” the singer introduces herself, “What’s your name?”

**

        Once Sana hurriedly packed up her music, the pair set off walking through the brightly lit hallways of Kyung Hee University’s music building in silence. Dahyun won’t lie, it wasn’t exactly a comfortable silence. Each of them were shifting through their sleep deprived minds for something at least a little coherent to talk about.

        But finals week is finals week, and Dahyun knows Sana must be as tired as she is, so she doesn’t blame either of them for the lack of conversation. They’re both dragging their feet a little bit, shuffling through the empty corridors of the building.

        Not surprisingly, they pass a few other students scrambling to study for their own exams. On the sprawl of couches and chairs, Dahyun spies someone sleeping with a textbook covering their face and nearly bursts out laughing at the spectacle.

        “What grade are you in, Sana-ssi?” Dahyun asks, starting off their conversation with a classic ice breaker. She holds the door for Sana as they step out of the music building and into the inky dark of night.

        In the opaque yellow of the lights lining the paved walkway outside, Sana’s light brown hair seem gilded and the whites of her eyes are stained with the color of egg yolk. Above, constellations wink down at them and the moon steals glances of the earth from behind the sparse cloud cover coating the heavens.

        A soft rolling breeze dances around the pair, sending their hair sprawling across their shoulders and the leaves of the freshly budded trees to rustle in approving song. Dahyun hasn’t witnessed a night as beautiful as this in a long time, having been swamped with her course work and being forced to stay indoors and study.

        After spending more than a few hours trapped in the practice room, she felt much better out in the fresh air. She hoped Sana felt the same way, that she wasn’t regretting hanging out with a total stranger. “I’m a senior. I’ll be graduating right after this semester wraps up,” Sana replied with a small smile, shyly peeking at Dahyun’s surprised reaction to her age.

        Dahyun’s eyebrows had lifted at their own accord, though she quickly fought to regain her composure. “And yourself?” They’re halfway to the library now, footfalls clicking against the solid stone of the pathway. Campus seems deserted save for the two of them - a sprawl of dark rolling hills of grass and trees with thick trunks reaching for the heavens outside of the luminescence of the lamplight.

        The beauty of this layout is part of the reason why Dahyun picked this university to attend in the first place. After her first visit to Kyung Hee University, her heart had been captured. It had been mid-spring when she first stepped foot on the campus, a newly christened high school senior searching for her future.

        The cherry blossom trees, coupled with the stunning, sweeping architectural feats of the college was a hit and run for Dahyun. She’d seen photos online of the area before arriving, but they did little to prepare her for how awe inspiring the sight was in real life.

        As an eighteen year old girl, she’d stared up at the university’s Peace Hall and felt a wave of emotion come over her. Dappled sunlight splashed hues of pastel pink on the impressive structure; it had been nearing sundown when Dahyun’s campus tour had finally made their way around the area.

        Not only that, but the music building was also breathtaking. Crown Concert Hall had been one of the last structures their group visited, and were even escorted inside the rich wooden interior for a brief walk through.

        The moment Dahyun saw the stage, she knew, no questions asked, that this was where she belonged. She vowed to enroll and get in the same day, and worked hard her last year of high school in order to achieve that goal.

        “I’m a junior. I’ve still got another year left,” Dahyun groaned, covering her face with her hands. Despite loving her college, the pianist had to admit - it was hard. Harder than she’d anticipated for sure. Sana giggles at this, and playfully smacks the pianist’s shoulders.

        “Don’t worry, it’ll all be over sooner than you’ll realize,” Sana says, stifling her laughter with her sweater sleeve. “You’ve already made it this far. This upcoming year will be a blur, I promise.” Dahyun dips her head in agreement, and the pair continue on in a comfortable silence.

        “So what’s your major, Sana-ssi?” Dahyun asks, glancing at the music folder clutched in between the older woman’s ivory fingers. Since they first walked outside, Dahyun had thought up of a long list of questions she wanted to ask her new acquaintance. She could hardly wait to ask each and every single one of them.

        “I’m actually an engineering major with a minor in vocal performance,” Sana smiled. Dahyun decided that she really liked seeing the older woman smile. Sana’s eyes crinkle up into half crescent moons and her pupils glitter - flecks of obsidian and pearl reflected in the scattered light surrounding them.

        She’s beautiful, Dahyun decides. So distractingly beautiful that Dahyun almost forgets the reason why she’d knocked on the vocalist’s practice room door in the first place. But perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to appreciate the older woman’s beauty just a little while longer.

        “Kind of a weird combination, I have to admit – singing and engineering. But I couldn’t really let singing go, I guess,” Sana continues with a shrug. She brushes her slender shoulder against Dahyun’s in a way that makes her feel as if they’ve known each other for years rather than twenty minutes. “What about you?”

        “I’m a music composition major,” Dahyun said, gesturing towards her leather portfolio. “I was actually working on my performance class before we met. My professor assigned all of us to compose our own original piece, and we’ll all be sight reading each other’s works the same day we turn it in. I wonder how the rest of my class is handling it, I don’t feel very confident in my piece.”

        “My vocal performance professor assigned virtually the same thing to my class, too!” Sana exclaimed, lifting her own music folder. They’re at the doors of the library now, looming above them like the castle out of Hogwarts. “I was rehearsing my song when you knocked on my door,” the vocalist explained while holding the door open for Dahyun.

        As soon as they enter the library, their voices become hushed whispers. Sana leans down and her breath fans across the shell of Dahyun’s ear as she directs them towards the stairwell. “Maybe we should listen to each other’s pieces and give each other feedback,” she murmurs, winking at Dahyun before taking the lead. Luck seemed to be on Dahyun’s side tonight.

        Cheeks flushing crimson, Dahyun diverts her attention from Sana’s flirtations by scanning their surrounds as they climb to the third floor of the sprawling building. Row upon row of tall book shelves, stacked high with volumes of text cover nearly every inch of the floor.

        There’s a straggle of studying students crowding the long, oak tables of the first floor, sharing hushed words or silently typing away on their lit laptops. It’s eerily quiet, albeit rightfully so. She wishes she were surprised to see this many students milling about, but she knew as the days stretched on, the amount of them would steadily increase.

        Everyone should be asleep at this hour. Yet here Dahyun was, lining up outside the library’s coffee shop next to a beautiful girl she’d just met half an hour ago behind a long queue of other exhausted college students.

        Not that Dahyun was complaining, of course. She was practically ecstatic with how things were unfolding between her and Sana. Staying up another hour or so would definitely be worth it in the long run if she was spending it with the vocalist.

        From the looks of things so far, Dahyun would say that she and Sana got along together quite nicely already. It wouldn’t be too difficult to propose her idea after all. “I actually have a recording of mine on my phone,” Dahyun says flashing the voice memo at the older woman.

        “I took a video of myself!” Sana replies excitedly, eyes alight and alive. She takes a few steps forward in the line, ducking into the small corner of the coffee shop. The delightful smell of freshly ground coffee beans fill Dahyun’s senses, and she smiles up at Sana. “We can grab a study room and give each other’s recordings a listen.”

**

        The pair find themselves a little nook in the library, between the shelves of paperback scientific journals. Dahyun sinks into the leather of a worn out armchair and sighs contentedly into her macchiato. Honestly, she doesn’t know why she asked Sana to coffee. Being in the older woman’s presence alone was enough to wake Dahyun up from her stupor.

        “Shall we exchange parts?” Sana asks, taking the initiative between the two of them. The vocalist flashes a coy grin, taking a large gulp of her brown sugar latte. Reluctantly, Dahyun passes over her portfolio and cell phone while Sana mirrors her actions.

        She extracts her wound up earbuds from her jacket pocket and plugs them into Sana’s phone. “Don’t laugh,” Dahyun jokes, flashing a worried smile in Sana’s direction. Although the pianist was somewhat confident in her work so far, Dahyun had to admit she felt jittery whenever sharing her music with someone else to gauge their opinion on it.

        There was something extremely intimate about allowing someone to listen to a movement that she created herself. Perhaps it was that way for everyone, Dahyun thought as she surrendered herself to Sana’s judgements by passing her phone across the coffee table.

        “I won’t as long as you don’t laugh at mine,” Sana winked playfully in response. Excitedly, the vocalist hooks her own set of earbuds into Dahyun’s phone. “I’ve got an idea! We should start at the same time,” Sana exclaims in a hushed whisper, leaning forward in her seat so that their foreheads nearly brush together.

        She holds Dahyun’s phone out, the voice memos app clearly displayed across the illuminated screen. Her thumb is delicately hovering over the red play button, and she looks at Dahyun expectantly. “Oh, right,” the pianist mumbles, mirroring Sana’s actions. Their knuckles brush together as Dahyun readies herself to start Sana’s video.

        “Three...two...one,” Sana mouths, eyes locked with Dahyun’s so intensely the pianist almost forgets to jab the play button. In an instant, the sound of Sana’s song floods into Dahyun’s ears. While the vocalist’s smooth, honeyed voice envelops her, Dahyun takes the time to really take in Sana’s features.

        Sana truly is beautiful. With her hair down and her spectacles flashing in the white lights overhead, the vocalist almost looked like an angel. Without any backtrack or instruments, Dahyun was tuned in solely on Sana’s vocals, on the formation of her words. Dahyun decides that Sana’s voice is just as beautiful as Sana is herself. Not only did she look the part of an angel, she sounded like one, too.

        She hoped that Sana would like her piano piece. She prayed that her creation wasn’t as terrible as she thought it was. Dahyun kept her gaze trained on dark wood of the table, listening, observing, taking everything in slowly.

        There was Sana sitting across from her like some kind of heavenly vision. There was a beautiful voice meandering in her ears. It was nearly four a.m. and she felt as though she were on fire, more awake than ever thanks to both Sana’s presence and the coffee she’d chugged down.

        Sana’s song felt like a sad goodbye - like the way a sigh sounds and feels like when coupled with shed tears. It conveyed emotions so raw that Dahyun feels a sparkle glazing over her vision, tugging at the very heart strings in her chest.

        When the three minutes and thirty-five seconds of the video are nearly up, Dahyun watches Sana on the screen. The singer clears and then reach for the phone’s pause button, smiling to herself and the camera, and then the video frame freezes.

        Slowly, Dahyun looks up. Sana’s already taken out her own earbuds, twirling them in between her fingers as she waited for Dahyun’s reaction. “Holy ,” Dahyun murmured. At this, Sana’s expression fell, anticipating the worst rather than the best reaction.

        Quickly, Dahyun set down Sana’s phone and clasped a hand over the singer’s. “Whoa, hold on. You didn’t let me finish! That was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard,” the pianist gushed. Just like that, Sana was smiling again, as if Dahyun had flipped a switch.

        “You really think so?” The vocalist asked, shyly looking down at their hands. Dahyun nodded enthusiastically, “Absolutely! You sounded like some kind of angel, swear to god!” Sana giggled, and lazily slipped her phone out of Dahyun’s grip.

        As they exchanged phones, Sana tilted her head to the side and Dahyun got lost in her eyes. The vocalist’s innocent gaze transformed into something darker, something deeper. Her pupils were full of something Dahyun couldn’t exactly place a name on, but made her feel jittery all the same.

        It felt like Sana was staring into her soul and seeing Dahyun for the first time, for all that she was and all she would ever be. The pianist tried to ignore the way the hairs of her neck stood up and the wave of embarrassment came rolling over her body, hot and heavy.

        She cleared and looked away, tucking her phone into her back pocket, trying in vain to keep Sana from seeing the blush creeping over her pale features. “What did you think about mine, Sana-ssi?” She asks, attempting to distract the older woman.

        Transfixed, Dahyun remained rooted in her seat as Sana leaned over across the table again. Smooth skin, tantalizing eyes, and a pair of rouge lips filled her vision, and she couldn’t help but allow her eyes to flick down to Sana’s parted mouth as the vocalist came closer.

        If Dahyun didn’t know any better, she’d say there was seduction gleaming in Sana’s impossibly black eyes. “I think…,” the vocalist draws out, eyelashes fluttering as she steals a glance at Dahyun’s mouth. The pianist gulps as subtly as she can at the sound of Sana’s voice.

        The sound is lower and huskier than the tone been using before. Sana sees Dahyun’s reaction and smirks ever so slightly. The sight makes Dahyun’s chest tighten up. It’s almost as if the older woman is challenging Dahyun to admit her attraction.

        She feels a single finger settle underneath her jaw, tilting her head up to meet Sana full on. For a moment, she wonders if Sana might kiss her there, in the middle of the library, at nearly half past four in the morning.

        Surprisingly, Dahyun doesn’t feel as opposed to kissing a near complete and total stranger as she’d originally imagined. She would have instantly leaned into the touch had Sana not been so dangerously close, with her breath fanning against Dahyun’s face.

        “You’re very talented with your fingers. You know that, right?” Dahyun nearly sputters in shock at how innocent and somehow seductive the words came from Sana’s mouth. The vocalist giggles and lets the pad of her finger slip slowly off of the skin of Dahyun’s throat.

        Sana takes her seat and downs the rest of her coffee, showing off the sculpted muscles of her neck as she does so. When she sets the cup down, her eyes begin burning through the pianist’s soul once more as her tongue darts out to lap away the liquid.

        For the second time that night, Dahyun wonders what it would be like to feel Sana’s lips on hers. Her eyes follow the motion of Sana’s , envisioning the sensation, the heat of her tongue stealing a kiss. It should alarm the pianist just how quickly she’s become attached to this woman, how easily she’s become enamored with her.

        She wonders why she’s perfectly okay with how the atmosphere around them had melted into something much more heated than helping each other out with a project. Since when had she ever flirted with anyone as outright as this? Quickly, Dahyun pushes those thoughts away.

        Besides, how could she even begin to try to think clearly when there was a beautiful and talented woman flirting with her, looking at her as if she were everything she’d been looking for in the first place? “You should show me sometime, Dahyun-ssi,” Sana giggles again, winking at her from across the table.

        Dahyun takes a deep breath, her lips nervously. She does her best to ignore Sana’s blatant flirtations and get back to the true reason why she had knocked on the vocalist’s practice room door. “Well...I think I can have something like that arranged,” she muttered before diving in to her proposition.

**

        “So…,” Sana trails off, a thoughtful look playing over her face. Dahyun stared across the table, anxious to see what the vocalist’s reaction would be. Sana leans back until the front legs of her chair tilt up, arms crossed over her chest, pondering on Dahyun’s idea. “Was all this just a ploy to use me for my voice, Dahyun-ssi?”

        Alarmed, Dahyun shook her head furiously, eyes wide in their sockets. “What? No way!” The pianist exclaimed, earning her a soft “shh” from behind the rows of bookshelves beside their table. After a moment of held breath for fear of being reprimanded by one of the university’s many librarians, Dahyun continues on in a quieter voice.

        “I mean, we could help each other out. This would be a mutually beneficial arrangement,” she murmurs, splaying her hands out. She runs a hand through her hair, trying to search of more reasons why Sana would want to sing for her music. “I could write an accompaniment for your piece and play it with you!”

        Even after her explanation and adding on writing an accompaniment for her own song, Sana still doesn’t seem entirely convinced. She begins playing with the rim of her empty coffee cup, one eyebrow cocked at Dahyun. “Why me, Dahyun-ssi? I’m sure I’m not the only vocalist you know on this campus.”

        “Okay, okay,” Dahyun sighed. She pinched the bridge of her nose before continuing. “Honestly, I don’t really have a lot of friends in my class I can collaborate with, even though I feel like there’s something missing in my piece. When I heard your voice...well.” Dahyun shrugged and grinned. “I knew I wanted to partner up with you if I could. So…can we pretty please work together on this?”

        Sana taps her chin, acting as though she were mulling it over. “I’d love to! We could go back to my room if you want,” Sana says, her voice dipping into the slightly seductive tone she’d used earlier. Dahyun positively blushes in vibrant hues of pinks and reds, head bowed. “What’s the matter?” Sana asks innocently, tapping Dahyun on the shoulder.

        “Relax...I was just talking about the practice rooms,” the vocalist says. Then she giggles, and Dahyun joins in with her own soft, albeit nervous, laughter. “Ah...it’s a little late now for practice, though. Isn’t it?” Sana looked at her phone screen’s display for the time.

        The pianist nods her head, glancing at her wristwatch. “We should probably head home if we want to get up for classes tomorrow, Dahyun-ssi.” They stand from their seats and pad through the library towards the exit. “Thanks for the coffee,” Sana says sweetly, holding the door open for Dahyun again. The pianist blushes beneath the dim yellowed hue of the building’s lamplight. “No problem,” she murmurs.

        They exchange a quick hug that has Dahyun’s heart nearly beating through her chest, and then Sana turns on her heel, heading in the opposite direction Dahyun needs to go in. She watches her go, standing outside the steps of the elegant building, listening to the crunch of gravel and grass beneath Sana’s shoes before she snaps back to her senses.

        “Wait a second!” Dahyun calls, racing after the older woman. “Sana-ssi!” She nearly slips on the dew coated lawn as she approaches Sana, who’s gazing at her with a confused look. “Oh? Are you going to give me a goodbye kiss, Dahyun-ssi?” The vocalist teases, smirking to herself when she notices Dahyun becoming flustered again.

        As she fidgets with her phone, Dahyun rolls her eyes. “What? No!” The vocalist her head to the side, an adorable quirk Dahyun notes to herself. “What is it then?” Sana asked, frowning ever so slightly. She almost seemed disappointed Dahyun declined the offer, but she brushed that away. “Hang on,” the pianist replies.

        Slipping her phone out from her back jeans pocket, the pianist hurriedly taps in her password combination and begins flicking through her apps. A moment later, she holds the screen out for the older woman to see, smiling triumphantly up at her.

        “I thought we should exchange phone numbers. You know, that way we can arrange a time we can meet up for our project,” Dahyun explains, gesturing to her phone’s display as she holds it out for Sana to take.

        “I see, I see,” Sana murmurs, swiping the device from the other girl’s grasp. While her nimble thumbs dance over the tiny screen, Dahyun takes in Sana’s side profile. Her eyes traveled down the long and curled lashes to Sana’s sharp, strong nose, then down to the gentle curl of her red lips.

        She was just beginning to appraise the curve of Sana’s jaw when the vocalist hummed in delight, passing Dahyun back her phone. As Sana breaks out her own phone for Dahyun to punch in her digits, the pianist pauses for a moment, squinting at her phone screen.

        “You saved yourself as Sana-chan?” Dahyun murmured to herself, staring at the freshly made contact. Beside her, the vocalist nods happily, busy pulling up her own contact list. “That’s right!” Dahyun looks up, still puzzled. “Wait a second, are you...Japanese?”

        She fumbles with her hands when Sana holds out her phone. “I am! Couldn’t you tell by my accent when I sang?” Dahyun chuckles to herself, “I didn’t want to pry too soon. I thought you might’ve been, but then again you might’ve been from around Gyeongsang or Busan.”

        Sana nods slowly, watching silently as Dahyun typed in her phone number and set her contact name. “Your Korean is excellent, Sana-ssi,” she praised when she handed the older woman her phone back.

        “Minatozaki Sana-chan,” the vocalist emphasized, giving Dahyun a pointed look. The pianist laughed, throwing her head back. “Okay, okay,” she said, caving beneath Sana’s irresistible charm. “Goodnight, Sana-chan,” Dahyun called, turning away.

        “Sleep well, Dahyun-chan,” the vocalist hummed, and then began to walk away in the opposite direction. The pianist fought the urge to look over her shoulder at the older woman’s retreating figure. As she walked, she pondered on Sana’s flirty behavior.

        The sight of the vocalist’s infectious smile remained plastered in Dahyun’s mind, beaming at her as if she’d set the stars in the sky. No one had ever looked at her like that before, with so much raw emotion that it had twisted her stomach into a nervous mess.

        It was half past four o’clock now, but she was more than wide awake. Making her way slowly across the campus towards her campus apartment, Dahyun of nothing but the warmth spreading from her heart to the rest of her body and the odd but alluring Minatozaki Sana.

        There was no doubt about it, this was going to be one hell of a final project.

**

        Her and Sana meet up the next day after hours of studying for their separate exams, crammed inside one of the tiny practice rooms of the music building with each other. Music folders are splayed out across the top of the electronic piano. Vivid food wrappers are swept into a small pile beside the piano bench, remnants of their snack break from earlier.

        Sana clears once, then twice. She’s studying the rough draft of the part Dahyun had written up to accompany her piano piece while propping herself up against the wall of soundproofing beside the instrument.

        Dahyun watches, amused, from her seat on the piano bench as the vocalist mouths the words to herself silently. They’d spent the first fifteen minutes talking over Dahyun’s piano piece, discussing the emotions the pianist wanted to be conveyed, reading the piece together.

        “How did you do it?” Sana asks, sending a wave of her chestnut colored locks over her shoulder with the flick of her wrist. They had just finished going through the tempo markings. Dahyun frowned and leaned an arm against the piano cover. Her eyes flicker from the sheet of paper up to meet Sana’s eye.

        “How did I do what, Sana-chan?” Giggling, the vocalist sets the paper down and reaches for the next page. “I’m curious as to how you managed to already write so many lyrics in such little time for your song, that’s all,” Sana replied, skimming through the characters. “We’ve only been away from each other for like half a day and you’ve already got pretty much your entire project done, with lyrics included.”

        The pianist shrugs her shoulders, trying to appear like Sana’s compliments weren’t coloring the pale skin of her cheeks. “It was kind of easy once I got going, really,” Dahyun mumbled. She waved a pencil at her own copy of the piano piece. “I just thought up of all the other songs I’ve heard that use piano and went from there. They’re all kind of sad, so I just thought up of one of the saddest stories of all time.”

        She watches as Sana glances up from the music with interest, “And which story are you trying to convey, Dahyun