“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”

--Mother Teresa
 

--

1.

The brunette entered the empty classroom the first thing after school ended that day. She brought along her dark blue instrument case, her precious and treasured bowed string instrument lying safely inside, almost begging to be played by the 16 year old young lady. Sitting down on her usual spot at the back, she unlatched the hook of her casing and opened it to reveal her best friend—the viola.

Taking the viola up and running her hand over it gently, the young lady smiled to herself as she propped it on her shoulder and takes her bow from the casing.

She barely played a few notes when her peaceful music was interrupted by tremendously loud cheering followed by claps and hollers. Looking up, she realized that the cheering came from outside. Placing her viola down on the desk, Choi Sooyoung made her way towards the window, pushing it open to look outside.

Not far from her was the basketball court, and she heaved a sigh. She watched the sight of the school basketball team dribbling the basketball and shooting a few baskets, followed by cheers again. The young men outside high fived each other, grinning widely as they returned back to their position for another round.

“How am I going to practice at this rate?” The brunette asked herself.

When another ball went through the hoop, they cheered again.

“Excuse me,” Sooyoung said loudly, hoping that one of them might hear her. “Excuse me!” She repeated and waved her hand about, finally catching the attention of a particular member of the team.

He glanced at her with a curious expression, trying to make out what she was saying. When he saw her asking him to come closer, he arched an eyebrow before jogging slowly towards the school building, stopping in front of the fence which divided the building and the court. The young man tilted his head at the young lady by the window, a sign which showed that he was all ears to hear what she had wanted to say.

“Can you guys lower your voice please?” Sooyoung asked politely and earned another confused look from the athlete located a distance from her. It took about a few seconds for the young man to understand what she had requested, and he nods his head hesitantly a few times.

“Oh, okay,” he said. “Sorry.”

Sooyoung smiled, “It’s okay, thank you very much!” before disappearing back into the classroom.

The young man walked back towards the court, a few eyes on him.

“Hey Siwon,” the man to his left asked. “Who’s that?”

The tall young man who had just returned gave a shrug. “I don’t know.”

“What does she want?”

“She wants us to lower our voice.” He replied curtly, and the other members laughed.

They got back into their game and for a few minutes, there were no cheers and claps. Everything was quite quiet, until five minutes passed by and the first cheer returned, accompanied with a series of claps which never seemed to fade.

Sooyoung, who had been playing her piece peacefully for 5 minutes groaned when she was interrupted again. She glared at the window before sighing in defeat and storing her viola back in the case.

“Boys will always be boys,” she groaned as she slung her case over her shoulders and marched off from the classroom.

--

The music from his iPod blasted in his ears, as he silently kept his eyes on his surroundings whilst listening. Looking out from the tinted window of the car he was seated, Xi Luhan continued to observe the beautiful scenery outside as his driver continues to drive him to his school.

“Master,” the driver called out from in front, and Luhan took no notice of it since he was deeply absorbed in his music. “Master,” his driver repeated a little loude