“Oh?”

You look up as you hear someone utter a word.

Your breath catches in your throat as you meet the person’s eyes.

“New girl?” Kai scratches the back of his neck and looks around.  It’s a habit he does, when he meets new people, he expects someone to help him introduce himself or something. 

“Y-yeah,” You clear your throat and flash him a smile.  “Jung Aeri,” Setting down your pen, you offer your hand.

As he accepts it in a handshake, he smiles back.

“Kim Jongin, or Kai, for short,” He says, and you follow suit in unison.

Chuckling, you smoothly wriggle out of the strangeness of your identification of him.  “You’re pretty popular around here, huh,”

“Eh, you might say that,” He shrugs and takes the seat behind you.  “We’ll get acquaintaned to each other after class, okay,”

Rather than a request, Kai says it like it’s an appointment.  Smiling to yourself, you pay attention to the teacher’s lesson closely and simply wait for class to come to an end.

When it does, Kai comes to hold the door for you.  “Shall we?”

“Why, thank you,” You nod your head at him and walk outside with your head held high, only to drop it back down to laugh along with Kai.  Same old, same old. 

“Aeri!“

You look back as someone calls your name and grin as you see Kyungsoo running over to you. 

“How—oh,” He sees Kai and his shoulders droop immediately.  “I was at her first, Jongin.  Stay away, I don’t have a chance if you’re here too,” Kyungsoo steps to turn around but you grab his arm and pull him back.

“I knew you guys were at me,” You sigh dramatically, flipping your hair.  “We can have lunch altogether, you know,”

Laughing, the three of you head over to the cafeteria to grab some food. 

“You’re okay with not eating in the caf?” Kyungsoo asks you as he leads you out of the building and onto the school’s yard.

“Of course I am,” You frown at him as if he just asked you the weirdest thing ever.  “I alwa—“

Oh, right. 

“I, erm, always did that too in, uh, high school,”

Not so smooth, this time.

“Good then.  Because being friends with us, you probably won’t be able to eat in the caf for like, forever,” Kai laughs as he sits down under a tree.

The tree; it isn’t the usual one.

You realize, that the usual tree stands alone, with no students under it.  Kai doesn’t sit there when he’s not with you and Lay.

You lower your head and clear your throat before you eat.  “I’m not hungry,” You set your sandwich aside and stare at the grass under you first before returning your gaze upon the two guys. 

The two notices nothing out of place and fires away with their questions about you, and you answer, stuttering at times and taking a lot of time to think occassionally, making up something about yourself.  You hate lying, you loathe it, but you can’t exactly tell the truth either, right?

“Lay-hyung is still in the hopsital,” Kai says to Kyungsoo when the topic about an assignment in class came up.  “I did it anyways.  Don’t want to trouble him further,”

“Hospital, huh,” Kyungsoo says, falling silent.

It would be weird if you didn’t ask what they were talking about, so you do.  “Lay?”

“It’s the coma girl’s boyfriend,” Kyungsoo answers you.  “The one I told you about,”

“Ah,” You nod in comprehension.  “And he’s in the hospital because?”

“He doesn’t want to leave her alone,” Kai says very quietly, while he stares away at nothing in particular.  “Aish, this is so depressing,” He messes up his own hair and shakes it back into place flawlessly.

“You’re having practical class with me after this, aren’t you?” Kyungsoo asks you, glancing at the notebook on your lap.

“Ooh!” You inspect the schedule and find, that indeed, you’re having practical class after this.

“Instrumental or vocals?”

“Instrumental,” You tap the word “Inst.” Under the class’ room number.

“.  Wanted to hear you sing,” Kyungsoo winks playfully. 

“Eh, I’m not that good,” You shrug with a smile.

Going separate ways with Kai, you and Kyungsoo go over to the class at the 3rd floor, coming in on time.

You go through the average new kid introduction part and take a seat beside Kyungsoo, only to get called again to play the piano for the class.

“Why me,” You mutter to yourself and sit on the piano, setting your fingers on the keyboard.  You can play the piano.  You play 3 instruments, actually, but you focused on the violin and the piano, mostly.  Lay taught you the guitar.

As your fingers glide across the keyboard and your eyes run through the dots on the paper in front of you, you play the selected piece, and finish without getting a note wrong.  The song is the standard practice piece the teacher hands out for students in the beginning of classes.

“Aeri-ssi,” The teacher comes to you from her table and taps her chin thoughtfully with a frown on her face.  “May I ask you why you didn’t use the pedals?”

Pedals.

Legs.

“Erm,” You glance down at the pedals and realize that you’ve set your foot on the floor, not touching the unfamiliar metal.  “I—“ Your fingers press a note nervously.  “I don’t know how to,”

The whole class chuckles in amusement and heat rushes to your face.

“My, my,” The teacher steps back in surprise but then pats your shoulder.  “We’ll turn that around sometime later, okay?”

You nod and return to your seat, clutching at the hem of your yellow dress as the class’ eyes follow you to your seat, the chuckles and murmurs continuing until the teacher tells everybody to quiet down.

What can you do? You were paralyzed for years, your body forgot how to properly step on the pedals.

But you realize, that being a person who can actually play the piano but not know how to use the pedals is more humiliating than not being able to play at all.

Whatever.

You’re going to learn it all by yourself.

“You’re not going home?” Kyungsoo asks you by your locker.

“Nah, gotta get down on those pedals,” You click your tongue and wink at him, turning your back and giving him a wave.  “Get home safely!”

“You get home safely! Don’t stay out for too late!” Kyungsoo yells back and you throw him a thumb up over your shoulder.

Your feet bring you up to the third floor once again, tripping painfully at the last steps because you lost count.  Yes.  You have to count when you mount the stairs.  You’re not very used to having legs, you know.  And you’re not some girl that just adapts to everything she’s given.  Not very easy.

Hissing and rubbing at your knee, you enter the piano room again, glad to find it empty.  You sit down at the piano and set your foot on the righmost pedal; the pedal you noticed was the one used the most when people play.  Finding that you can’t feel its surface with your shoes on, you take it off, and tap the palm of your foot onto the cold metal, familiarizing yourself with it.

You try to step on it and press a key.  The sustained melody rings throughout the room and you smile.  The pedal really is important. 

You try to play something while you keep your foot on the pedal at all times, but conclude that if you do, the notes clash with each other and the melody turns unclear.  Your foot feels weird, too, tired, due to the energy you use to step on the pedal.  You close your eyes and recall how the other students step on the pedal for so long, and slap your head in your own stupidity.

Placing your heel on the floor and the rest of your foot upon the pedal, you step on it repeatedly to test your comfort.  Perfect.

You nod your head according to the tempo you’re playing at, and in synch lift your foot and bring it back down.  It wasn’t perfectly timed; you still couldn’t manage to properly divide your attention on the keys, the tempo and your foot, but now, at least, you know how to play with the pedal.

Grinning in satisfaction, you close the piano’s keys and run out of the class, skipping out until the gate, bowing at the guard before walking out to the street.

As you come out onto the bus stop, your smile gradually disappears.

It’s getting dark and you’re alone.

You’ve never been alone outside.

You’re only alone at home.  Outside, you always have Kyungwoo, or Yumi, or Kai or Lay with you.  The night wind blows at your cheeks and you rub your arms as you shiver, although you’re wearing a cardigan over your dress. 

The bus hisses to a stop in front of you and you quickly hop onto it, according to the message Luhan had given you on the first day about going home.  About which bus to take and which apartment number you’re in.

You take the frontmost seat, the one right behind the driver, not liking the feeling you get when you sit at the back.  The bus isn’t exactly empty, but it isn’t exactly full either.  You don’t like being alone.

You jump down the bus reluctantly when your stop comes and you glance around, trying to find your way towards your apartment building.

You walk, slowly at first, but then, your walk turns into a trot and then a jog. 

As crowded as it is, you feel suffocated.

Alone.

Whipping your head left and right, you don’t watch where you going as your shoulder collides with another’s, tossing you forwards onto the ground.

You wince as your knee scrapes against the rough pavement, hitting the same spot that hurt when you trip. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Someone comes to kneel by you, grabbing your arm and hoisting you up for support.  “Are you okay?”

When your breath catches in your throat back when you saw Kai, this time, no air comes into your lungs.

It’s Lay.

YEOREOBUN ANNYEONGHASIMNIKKA

where have all of you gone :'

99 days is receiving such little amount of love, it pains me why why is there something wrong with it?

i missed all of you :""""

I HAVE BEEN WAITING

why aren't you guys coming to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee D:

ANYWAYS

for those who have been reading

THANK YOU I LOVE YOU YES YAAAAAAY

and do enjoy the progress of this story ^^

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