Kris sighs, looking around once more for Tao among the sea of faces. There are too many people gathered in one area since the school has to pack a large gym class outside in the cramped courtyard.

"Looking for someone?" Lay asks from behind after seeing Kris glance back for the umpteenth time.

"It's nothing...I..I just had a kink in my neck and had to stretch it," He replies and decides to give up his search for Tao.

By third period, Tao is still nowhere to be seen.  Kris dismisses it from his mind and tells himself that he's probably sick.

During lunch, he visits the old piano room. Kris sits at the keys and stares at the black and white colors, hoping that some music will distract his mind from Tao.

It's not even a few seconds into the piece when Kris is interrupted by two students crashing in through the door. They motion for him to keep quiet, then rush and hide in a nearby cabinet.

Troublemakers, Kris scoffs but keeps playing.

Moments later a slightly disheveled, red-faced man wearing a coach's uniform appears at the door breathing heavily.

"Hey, you!" He shouts at Kris, breath uneven like he just ran up five  flights of stairs. "Did you see two students come in?"

Kris barely looks up and shakes his head, pretending to be absorbed in his music.

"Aishh...those two are going to be dead when I find them!"

The sound of the coach's footsteps gradually disappear, and the cabinet door slowly creaks open.

"He's gone," a voice inside the cabinet mumbles, and the two students stumble out. Both wear crumpled uniforms, undone ties, and disheveled unkempt hair.

"Thanks a ton, uh...what's your name again" one of the two asks, patting a pen messily shoved in his pocket. His hair is a dark auburn color, and reminds Kris of a scarecrow. A tall, clumsy scarecrow.  "I've never seen you before. You new?"

"I'm Kris," he introduces. "I just recently transferred to the music class."

"Ahh...well I'm Chanyeol, he's Baekhyun." Chanyeol motions to the other guy, considerably shorter and thick eyeliner surrounding his eyes, who waves. "We're in the soccer team. He's the captain, but only 'cause he's older." This earns a shove from Baekhyun.

"Old?! I have my youth to soccer. I chose to walk this long, hard, road-" He throws his hands up dramatically. "All because the school needed me."

Chanyeol rolls his eyes, absentmindedly sighing and flicks some dust off the piano.

This earns a punch from Baekhyun. "Yah. Can you be a bit more serious when I'm talking?" He turns to Kris. "We should get going, but you should come to one of our games sometime to watch the masters of soccer."

Kris hums a maybe, and the two athletes stride out of the room.

"Our coach is so stupid," He hears Chanyeol say as they walk away.

"I know...whadda moron. He couldn't even find us."

***********************

Kris swears that though he's been on campus for several days already, this is probably the 11th time he's gotten lost. The school is just too damn big. It also didn't help that most of the room number plates were faded  with age. Kris looks around the suddenly empty hallway and curses his bad luck. This isn't the first time he'll show up late for class.

C'mon room 241..where are you-

"Hey, you."

Maybe class can wait.

Kris turns at the familiar voice and ignores the rapid change of speed of his heartbeat.

"Lost?" There's a bemused look on Tao's face.

"No," Kris mumbles and blushes slightly. "I was simply...looking for a new route to class."

Tao laughs. Kris can't help but notice that his laugh sounds like the soft tinkle of chimes in the spring breeze. "Don't be afraid to admit it. Everyone gets lost at least five times their first week here," he says.  Kris decides not to bring up the fact that this is his 11th time in a few days, let alone a whole week.

They walk side by side down the silent hallway, Tao maneuvering his way through like he's memorized the building. Kris makes sure his steps are slow and small.

"So," he tries to break the silence. "Why weren't you at school this morning?"

"I was practicing piano." He pauses to look at Kris suspiciously. "Why, were you thinking about me?"

He smiles. "Of course. Thinking about your music."

"..but I was thinking about you..." Tao says softly. Kris's heart stops. Their eyes meet for a second before his face breaks into a broad grin. "....your music, that is~"

Kris doesn't want him to see the way his face falls, so Kris shoves Tao and he laughs.

He decides he likes that  laugh.

***********************

Kris meets up with Tao again later after classes, walking alongside with his bike, carefully making sure his steps match Tao's.

"So how many people are in your family?" Kris asks, always the conversation starter.

"My family? Just me and my mom. How 'bout you?"

"Just me and my dad," Kris answers.

"Just me and my dad." Tao mimics his voice. "You like copying people, don't you?"

"Hey! It's true," Kris protests.

Tao's reply is quick and accusing. "Then what does he do?"

"Don't you know?"

"Huh? Why would I know?"

Kris smiles to himself, a plan forming for getting back at Tao for teasing him all the times before.

"If you don't know," he grins, "then forget about it."

"Sheesh." Tao huffs. "Why do you have to keep that a secret?"

"If you can have secrets, so can I~"

Tao pouts. Kris realizes his pout is just as cute as his laugh. And his cheeks. Tao's cheeks are way too adorable.

Dangit, Kris! He thinks to himself. Why are you even taking note of these things, you creep!

There's an awkward silence, and before he can stop himself, Kris reaches over and pokes Tao's cheek.

"H-hey! What was that for?!" Tao yelps, quickly turning a deep shade of red.

Kris sticks out his tongue, playfully running away.

Did...did I seriously just stick out my tongue?

He can't imagine himself doing anything that childish ever, but Kris quickly doesn't care anymore when he hears Tao laugh behind him- that tinkling, beautiful, clear laugh.

***********************

103. 104. 105.

Tao carefully places one foot in front of the other. He finds that it's difficult to walk straight with your eyes closed.

106. 107. 108.

Finally, he opens his eyes-

-and sees Lay.

Well, that wasn't part of the plan.

A few looks around the room and Tao knows he came too early; the students are still on break.

Nevertheless, he doesn't let that faze him. Tao knows he can just come again tomorrow and start over, but his eyes will have to be extra careful this time.

"The competition is about to start! Quickly, or you'll miss it!"

Tao has never heard anything about a competition earlier, but he follows the stream of students rushing out the door, curious to see what the commotion is about.

They arrive at a piano room, two Grands set up facing one another. At one bench sat a rather dark-skinned guy with handsome features. On the other sat...none other than Kris.

Tao decides to stick around, eager to see Kris's skills in this so-called competition.

"Today, our new student wants to challenge The Piano Prince. This really is a bravery of high honor," announces a student seated on one of the pianos. He has enormously huge eyes that look almost comical to Tao.

"So what exactly are they doing?" He whispers to Lay.

"Dueling pianos, don't you know?" Lay replies. His eyes are fixed on the two contestants.

"Fellow students, I am prefect Kyungsoo, and this, as everyone knows-" Kyungsoo gestures to the gentleman seated at the piano. "is Kim Jongin, the Prince of the Piano. This is because there is no melody he can't play. And no opponent good enough to defeat him.

The room is buzzing with excitement. Tao notices the looks of admiration on the students' faces. This Jongin guy must be a pretty big deal.

Kyungsoo claps his hands loudly and the room falls silent. "Enough with the formalities. The dueling piano competition begins now."

 The crowd cheers, and on cue, Jongin places his fingers onto the piano. He starts with a quick etude, fingers skimming across the keys,

"Wow, from black keys to white keys," comments Kyungsoo, as if he were some kind of sports announcer.

When Jongin ends the song, his eyes meet Kris's stare across the piano. He throws a menacing glare, challenging him.

"New kid, did you listen carefully to that just now?" Kyungsoo sneers. "Don't even think about hitting a wrong note." He waves his hand, signaling for Kris to start.

Kris begins with an impressive glissando, and in fact mimics the entire passage perfectly- phrasing, dynamics, style, and all.

The crowd applauses, and it's obvious no one was expecting Kris to be this experienced. They murmur amongst themselves in awe of Kris's playing. Tao smirks. He actually isn't bad at all.

"Huh, good show." Kyungsoo crosses his arms. "You really didn't miss one note. It seems, something harder is needed..."

Jongin starts a new piece, this time slow and sad. Kyungsoo frowns. "A Chopin waltz...isn't this a bit too easy?"

As if in response, he plays one last grace note then drops heavy chords, picking the tempo up.

"That's right," Kyungsoo nods. "I knew it wouldn't be that simple."

The piece continues to get faster and faster. Tao can't wait to see how Kris will handle this one.

"It's possible that Chopin didn't even finish composing several of these movements. Jongin's improvising skill- it's absolutely amazing." Kyungsoo turns to Kris. "New kid..."

He starts the piece slow, like Jongin. Soon he picks up speed- but this time twice as fast. Kris's fingers are a blur as he goes from one end of the piano to the other.

Kyungsoo eyes widen, and Tao can't help but laugh at the sight. He didn't think it was humanly possible for someone like that to open their eyes any wider.

"It seems like we're in for a good show today," Tao hears him whisper.

By now the confident Jongin is visibly nervous. He loosens his tie and cracks his knuckles, choosing his next song carefully. He begins the piece with fast right hand trills. The left and base is steady and ominous and continued by fast arpeggios

Not to be outdone, Kris follows the melody, this time using his left hand only.

"What's he doing!?"

"Is he crazy?"

He must be, Tao thinks to himself. No one can play a piece that fast with that difficulty in just one hand- is left hand, even. It just wasn't possible.

Yet somehow Kris does it. Never missing a single note, playing it with only his left hand, and ending with a perfect chord.

At this, the audience bursts out in applause, and Tao finds himself clapping along.

"Gentlemen, the dueling piano competition has been brilliant. Kris, man, you've got some amazing skill."

It's a statement well spoken, Tao thinks as he watches the crowd swarm Kris. Someone who posesses this ammount of expertise may very well be able to play the piece that-

No. Tao scolds himself for being so stupid. He shouldn't even be thinking of that. No one can know of his piece, not after what happened last time.

Yet it's unmistakable that Kris is a musician like no one Tao has ever met. Perhaps that's why he felt so drawn to him since their first encounter.

"Here." Jongin steps towards Kris and hands a book full of sheet music to him. "Consider it my reward. You put up a good fight."

 Kris thanks and congratulates Jongin as well, graciously taking the music.

"That was amazing!" Lay practically shouts as he bounds up to Kris.

It's obvious that Kris isn't used to getting all this attention and praise, Tao notices, as he awkwardly thanks everyone complimenting him.

Tao smiles one last time before silently leaving the room; he'll congratulate Kris later.

After all, he does have plenty of time.

Heyhey enjoy the update? It was really difficult to put a scene based on sound into writing, as you would imagine haha >__< hope it wasn't too confusing for you all? don't be afraid to comment! ^___^