The key to stealth, was silence.

Frankly speaking, it was probably too much to ask from Yewon and Yoojin. Yewon's bracelets and drum bag accessories were jingling loudly, and Yoojin was...well, she was noisy by default.

“Shhh! Be quiet!” I hissed. To think, this wasn't even my idea in the first place. I had been minding my own business, practicing my finals piece when my two best friends came barging into the practice room telling me they knew exactly where Nichkhun was at that moment and that I shouldn't be practicing at this time because there were other more important things to do.

Like stalking Nichkhun, because it was now my priority so it seemed.

I never knew being a music major was a lot more advantageous than not- when it came to Nichkhun at least. I heard from Junsu and Taec that a lot of girls from the other colleges were sneaking around here just to do the same. I, as you may have now noticed, have no qualms against stalking, I don't encourage it, but it was a pretty good past-time.

If only now was my free-time. I've finally managed to recreate some emotion in my playing, I just needed to go beyond that block again for my finals. Maybe after that, I could finally join a competition and be a real pianist. Not just someone who plays the piano.

I could hear Nichkhun from the room across us, Franz Liszt's Transcendental Etude no. 10, of course he plays it a lot more impressively than I do. If I could ever reach the level of his skill, the way he draws out emotion from the piano, then I couldn't ever ask for anything more. Well, I would like to ask for him if that were allowed.

I didn't need to see him to know how he was playing. That one afternoon was etched into my memory completely that I close my eyes and everything is so vivid and clear, almost like I was back and frozen in time. Nichkhun, I don't think people like the way they do because of who he really is. All people see is a handsome face and a piano career but not the real person he was inside. I wanted to know him. I wanted to know everything about him. Everything and so much more.

“Yah!”

Yewon's voice snapped me back to reality and I turned to face her. She pointed towards the door Nichkhun was allegedly in and I get pushed none too gently and so there I was stumbling in through the door of Nichkhun's practice room, barely managing to stop myself from crashing into the door.

“Jang Yewon!” I turned back to give her a piece of my mind, but Yewon and Yoojin were suddenly upright and serious, I follow their gazes and find Kim Jonghyun with Shin Sekyung walking towards us.

My eyes search Yewon's and the tell-tale twitching in her left eye was already a sign of her imminent outburst. Yoojin was not any better, or calmer. The firecraker that was Lee Yoojin was already at the ready to fire her ammunition at a poor unsuspecting Kim Jonghyun and Shin Sekyung. Although, you had to admit, the two of them pretty much deserved what was coming to them.

“I thought I smelled a rat, but apparently it was a snake.” Yoojin sneered, crossing her arms on her chest and staring the couple down.

Jonghyun and Sekyung ignored her as they continued down the corridor hand in hand. Yewon's eyes were glazed as she turned to look away. I could tell she still wasn't over the issue, but I wasn't so sure if it was heartbreak or anger that she felt. A few beats passed, and she stomped her foot, crisply turning away to storm down the halls. Yoojin turned to me and I nodded at her; both of us followed after her. It couldn't have been more than a split second but how was it that Yewon was nowhere to be found?!

“Where is she?” I asked Yoojin as soon as we were outside the building.

Yoojin shrugged as she turned her head left and right, “I don't know, she was just a few steps a head of us!”

I sighed. Yewon could run very fast so it seemed. “Call her?”

Yoojin pulled out her phone and dialed Yewon's numbere, putting the call on speaker. One ring, then two, then three. “She's not answering.”

“Go check the drum practice rooms, I'll go ask around if anyone's found her.” I said.

Yoojin and I separated ways after that. Where was I supposed to look for Yewon? There were really only very few places she could be, but who knows where your feet take you on impulsive walk-out moments like she had just a few minutes ago. I stalked down the road that led to the orchestra house, I wasn't worried about Yewon, not really, not as much as Yoojin. Not that I didn't care about her, it was just that Yoojin was a little too overbearing. I'm sure Yewon would appreciate the time out on her own and she'll be fine by tonight, so I allowed myself this little walk. Earlier today I had hoped on being able to see Nichkhun as he played the piano, it truly was the most beautiful thing in this world. Ugh. That sounded so cheesy just now.

Shaking my head, I turned the corner towards the orchestra house where the symphony was practicing. Perhaps now was a good day to bother Taec and Junsu; I was supposed to be there observing Junsu anyway. There was a month to the concert and the symphony was actually getting along quite nicely. Just as Junsu had said, the performance pieces they chose were relatively easier to play since they were all basic exercises for techniques for each designated instrument. They were performing one piano concerto, one violin concerto, and an oboe concerto, it was definitely something to look forward to even if they were more commonly known pieces.

Each conductor played a certain piece in a certain signature that was specific to them, for Junsu, his was very romantic regardless of the period the music came from. Junsu was a very sensuous person, and so his personality was carried throughout his conducting. Hearing a piece led by him would surely bring you to tears. He was a master, but only on the conductor's podium. He nodded at me as soon as I entered the auditorium. Junsu was already standing on the stage preparing for practice, you'd see him and think of someone mysterious, someone you would have a hard time figuring out. Well, first impressions are hardly ever right. Junsu was, for the most part, an enigma, until of course he started talking.

“Yah! You're here, I thought you'd be here earlier.” he said partly in dialect, partly in standard language, either way his accent was piercing to the ear.

I waved a hand at him and took a seat somewhere in the middle of the orchestra seats. “Hi.”

“You're just in time, we're just waiting for Nichkhun so we can start on the Tchaikovksy.”

Nichkhun was going to be here?! My breath hitched in my chest and I felt a wave of panic wash over me. Did I look presentable? Would Nichkhun remember me? Did he know I was just stalking him a while ago?! I gulped in deep breaths to calm myself down. Breathe. Calm down, you can't be seen by Nichkhun like this. Not as a mess, that would be unacceptable.

Clicking sounds of the backdoor opening brought me back to the present and my eyes widened as Nichkhun confidently stepped onto the stage. He smiled gently at the orchestra members, and that was when I noticed something. Taec wasn't here.

Junsu cleared his throat as he stepped back onto the conductor's podium, “Taecyeon-ssi is running a little late today, so Fei-ssi is sitting in as first seat and concertmaster.”

There was little protestation from the crowd, everyone seemed to find the substitution acceptable- I wonder if they would feel the same should Nichkhun not make it to the concerts. No, that's not acceptable. It is imperative that Nichkhun plays this December.

Junsu takes his position and turns the page towards the first movement of the Concerto, and I watched in bated breath as he tapped his conductor's baton on the stand to gather the attention towards him. Every head faced him, and as Junsu lifted his hands each instrument was positioned accordingly. At the cue, music sprung like a sharp cascade of emotion tumbling down the first few meters of the composition. Tchaikovsky may as well be the most famous Russian composer to have ever lived. He was famous throughout the romantic period. He was a late bloomer, so to speak, not studying music until after he had a stable job as a clerk. To make up for his late start, Tchaikovsky composed furiously. A symphony, an opera, a tone as lyrical as a poem flowed from his pen and onto paper and eventually onto music.

Tchaikovsky's music was aglow with so much emotion flashing through each note. The composer would often say that as he wrote the tone, he would often think about that all who will hear his music will experience some reflection of what he was feeling himself.

The opening passage was a theme that was not to be repeated again in the entire piece, and so it was even more memorable considering the nature of a symphony. The first passage to me always seemed like a burst of inspiration before moving on to the products of that sudden outburst. The first passage included a string section playing the distinct opening passage with the piano accompanying it in a strong full orchestration of a forte. Loud and demanding, until the repeat of the same melody, and a sharp change in dynamics occurs as the fortepiano diminishes into a pianissimo as the melodic string section dominates with a sweeping utterance of a lyrical song.

The piano solo comes after a brief rest, strong, forceful. An Allegro non troppo en molto maestoso, not too fast and very majestic. And with the opening theme, one cannot help but feel the rush of the triumphant majesty with the resplendent piano chords that once punctuated the orchestra voice over now repeated the same melody line but this time more grandiose.

My eyes were fixated on Nichkhun all throughout the first movement. I couldn't tear my gaze away from him; I was paralyzed by the intensity of his musicality, most people would think his lapses of time signature would be sloppy, but there was this innate intuition in him that even when he stole certain beat counts from a preceding note, everything was still breathtaking and magical. My legs were numb and it spread over to my arms and to my face, my breathing was shallow and rapid, my heart pounding harder than the percussions in the background. It was like hearing the piece for the first time all over again. A rush of sensation was creeping up my body and gooseflesh erupted as every note resounded clear in my ears.

Then I heard it again, a jump in the second movement, it was explosive, and most ears may not pick it up, but Nichkhun just improvised a time count on the recapitulation of the main theme.

Tempo rubato.