Today was a personal schedule day. After practicing together for only two hours, the guys who had college went to college, and the others do whatever was written on their schedules or just practice. I did not take the Suneung last year because we were promoting again at that time, and it made me have do-nothing-days at days like these. Well, not practically do nothing, but well…

I was scheduled a Basic Vocal class this morning, but I guess a bit of dancing wouldn’t hurt. After everyone had left the skyroom, I my music player and closed the door.

The speakers I plugged to my phone were playing Hate That I Love You, but I wanted to dance to something else.

Skrillex’s Equinox.

Yes, yes. Stop wondering why I would ever want to dance to this kind of stuff. My hip hop teacher, Jaewon hyung from Black Beat introduced me to dubstep and now it’s filled almost 1/3 of my phone’s music memory. The song was nice and rough, but the beat was rather slow. The song flowed easily, I liked it.

I followed anything my music player played me, dancing to about ten more songs before deciding that I was bored. I stopped the song playing, sighed, and scratched my head with one hand on my hip. Maybe the vocal class had not ended yet.

I turned off the lights then went outside the room. I strolled down the hallway and met a few juniors along the way. It was rather empty because the senior groups were either touring or promoting. The vocal practice rooms were only a turn away from the part of hallway I was in.

I knocked the room my said teacher was in, then entered. “Hello,” I nodded to everyone in the room. There were Sehun, my trainee friend, and two trainee girls. Yes, I guess we were that bad that we had to train singing with trainees. One of the girls, hood up, looked to me as I sat. She had very short hair my length dyed almond. I bet she would look just like me from the back, only smaller.

“Can we resume?” the teacher asked. She pressed a chord on the keyboard and everyone started vocalizing according to the assigned tone. I was not mentally prepared yet so I did not really understand what they were doing. I joined them on the second time. Seeing that I was so confused, the teacher decided to restart the session all over from warming up. Everyone glared at me.

The teacher counted by tapping on the side of the keyboard as we were ordered to inhale and exhale in measured tempos. When we were done, she asked us to vocalize again, and again, and again for the next hour, then we had a duet session. She gave the freedom to volunteer and pick a partner.

The girl in short hair and black hoodie grabbed her friend’s arm and raised a hand. “We want to sing Whitney Houston. Same Script Different Cast.”

“Oh, English song? Alright,” the teacher nodded to the interesting choice. She started playing the Fur Elise-sounding intro.

The short haired girl gave a very quick, very secret glance to me as she started.

“I know he’s leaving me for you.”

And then realization hit me square in the face.

“Who said that? Who told you

…that it’s true?”

The short haired girl was my school's best graduate from Contemporary Class this year. The ace junior. The person who gave up on our story for me, for my ego.

“What is he telling you, could it be the same things that he told me?“

Hwang Chara. My eyes widened in surprise seeing how she’s changed over the course of a year.

Her friend traced her hands on the lyrics written on the sheet, focused on pronouncing it correctly. “He told me that he loved me.”

“I heard that.”

“He told me I was…”

“Beautiful?”

When she saw me again, I gave an ‘is that really you?!’ face, smiling wide in wonder. She nodded slightly then focused back to the song and the girl standing beside her.

The piano stopped and we were all snapped back to reality. “No, no. One more time,” the teacher growled. She took a deep breath and gave the correct example. “How did you know~”

The other girl looked at the teacher alarmedly. “How did you know~”

“How did you know~” the teacher repeated.

We watched as the girl tried so hard to get it right.

“Switch to something easier, this is a bit of too hard for you two,” the vocal teacher said. The girls both sighed in relief and started blaming at each other jokingly under their breaths.

We watched the girls sing another song, an old memorable song from my elementary days. Then everyone was forced to prove their improvements one by one by singing solo each.

I might be cool and handsome but let me hand the discussion of voices to my hyungs. The beautifying of my comparatively uglier voice—no, it’s not technically ugly, it’s just people buy into high pitches—is a very sensitive subject and I prefer not to share the day nightmares of vocal pedagogy that I had to pass for many years to come.

We bowed our gratitude to our vocal coach and went outside the practice room. As soon as the soundproof door was closed, I approached the short haired girl in thick, thick doubt. My far hand was hiding behind my back, holding tight to Sehun’s.

“Hey,” I casually said. The girl turned her head and she seemed slightly startled.

It was her, though.

“Hello,” she nodded and dunked her face along the way in respect for me being her sunbae. No, no matter how distant we had grown, this was not right. Although yes, things like these were inevitable, I had to admit.

Sehun started tugging on my hand, telling me to stop. But I continued, still with hesitation. “Nice choice of song.”

“Thanks,” she murmured. “No hard feel though. Sorry,” Hwang Chara looked up to me and smiled lightly. It’s been a long time. “Be happy, you guys.” she said cheerfully to me and Sehun; her high school friends and company sunbaes, nothing else. “Gotta go. Bye.”

Chara did not forget to look over my shoulder and wave too. “Bye, Sehun!”

Although it was sad to see her slightly dimmer, time made everyone heal somehow. She was still bright and warm like what she always was.

I turned to Sehun and expressed my astonishment. “I didn’t know that Chara auditioned here. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought you knew.” Sehun answered blank and flat.

“We never saw her,” I said, still in the same wondering tone.

“She came here after I graduated.”

“She’s new?!” I heard the boxing bell ring as I jawdropped elegantly in the hallway. Sehun simply nodded. Phew. Time flies, people change. Had we truly forgotten? Had we drifted even further?

Had we all healed?

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Hello everyone! ^^ How's life? I'm entering my senior year in a month, makes me jittery.

How do you like the story so far? The slow pace is a challenge to me on how to split the parts of the story correctly. Is this too slow for you? Any comments, any favorite parts? Any inputs? Ehe ^^ Please tell me using the comment box below *points air on comment box* I'm on chapter seven right now and don't worry, the problem is about to start. Thanks for reading, commenting and subscribing up till now. Please shower 'Moonlight' with lots of love, thank you, I love you~ ^^