word count: 3081 words

Second-year Kyungsoo was called shy by others, though that word is deemed too generous in his opinion. He feels that his term "withdrawn from society" would be more fitting. He pulls his knees up closer to his chest and closes his eyes reveling in the peace and the dwindling noises of the students who were leaving the school.

Kyungsoo had slipped into the practice room (whose existence was newly found to him) to avoid running into ecstatic people who were rushing out of the school doors, he was greeted with the unfamiliar outlook of blank walls and a simple, beautiful piano.

However, to Kyungsoo, he felt that the piano radiated a sad aura, emitting a sense inoccupation and loneliness, so being the kind yet lonesome soul he is, Kyungsoo sits on its uncomfortable bench in hopes to rekindle some type of assurance and warmth within the bare practice room- save the piano and himself.

Kyungsoo pulls out his handkerchief out of his uniform pocket, a frequent and unhealthy habit of his, to wipe off any imaginary dust on the piano to give it a nicer shine, and in doing so notices a sheet of wrinkled of paper on the top of the piano.

Hesitantly he reaches for it, as if he were neutralizing a bomb, and held the paper with infinite carefulness.

He gazes at the sloppily (he notes, with a slight frown) drawn score of music– he never heard of the song 'My Lady' before on the radio. From the lack of lyrics, he supposed it was some instrumental piece with a treble and bass clef for the two hands of the piano.

He glances around quickly to check if any other signs of life existed in the room, before he could practice singing, but being a seasoned singer that he is, he prefers the term "refining" as to the word "practicing". It was his strongly upheld belief that practicing should only represent the idea of polishing one's skills until it becomes a work of art.

He opens his mouth and closes his eyes after memorizing the notes for some time. Although there were no designated lyrics, Kyungsoo could feel new unwritten words come to him at the tip of his tongue, and like a voice to a microphone, he just sang whatever came to him, letting the words be heard clearly. Kyungsoo gently inhales.

'She's my lady...'

~~~

The clock reads 5:45, well past the time Kyungsoo should be home, which is around 5:20, so he grabs his bag to leave and stop and stare at the 'My Lady' piano sheet left on the stand on the piano. He makes a split-second decision to take the abandoned sheet. Maybe the owner didn't want the paper anymore. Kyungsoo debilitated once more before weakly persuading himself that he is safeguarding a precious baby chick, to protect and give it some more love so that it could grow into a majestic penguin.

He chided himself. Now is not the time to make Pororo references.

He opens the door and was greeted by a tall boy reaching his hand to open the same door.

Kyungsoo’s eyes widened. It was the popular, heartthrob first year, Kim Jongin.

What is he doing here at this time?, was all Kyungsoo thought through a wave of surprise.

As if he could read his mind, Jongin flipped his wrist over and extended his already outstretched palm towards him.

"I came to get my music back, Kyungsoo." the boy casually gestured to the score in his hand.

"Oh. I-I'm sorry." Kyungsoo was taken aback that he, of all of the most popular kids in school, actually knows his name. He shakily holds out to Jongin, who in turn reaches out to reclaim his wrinkled paper, and was too nervous to notice the slight tremor that shook in the younger's shoulders when their fingers brushed against each other.

Jongin coughed to clear his throat and his mouth quirked up to one side.

"You have a very nice voice." he grinned before turning around to leave the school premises, and Kyungsoo flushed an unflattering deep shade of red and choked on his own saliva.

When Kyungsoo's incoherent stammering was answered with Jongin's baritone chuckle, Kyungsoo stopped to stare wonderingly at the receding back of the seemingly charismatic younger boy. And that said boy's laugh was all he could think about when up to the point when Kyungsoo laid himself in bed after he climbed up the never ending stairs, staring and smiling at the ceiling above him, even when he turned off the lights to go to sleep.

~~~

It was the following day of that incident when Kyungsoo routinely clutches his lunch and quietly makes his way to the door leading to the staircase.

"Hey." a hand clamped down on his shoulder and Kyungsoo emitted a small shriek and whirled around.

There was Jongin, without his circle of friends, Kyungsoo notices, who was smirking with his hands tucked into his pockets.

"Hey." he stutters back. "I-I gotta go."

He turns to leave, having no desire to have himself a target of the younger's attention no more than he already has, but the other boy's question stops him.

"Why are you always alone?" Jongin scuffs his sneaker against the floor and stared up at him with eyes filled with sincerity.

Kyungsoo pauses, with a foot suspended in mid-air above the step, deep in thought, and gives a tiny shake of his head.

"I guess I was so used to being left behind, it's easier to cope with being left alone." he gazed at the blank wall before he turned his attention back around to the staircase to trek up the stairs once again.

Kyungsoo wholeheartedly admitted that he was taken aback by what happened next. Mainly because he entirely did not expect Jongin to grab his small wrist and pull him towards the noisy cafeteria.

"Wait-what are you doing?" Kyungsoo cried out, feeling a wave of hysteria wash over him. He felt his blood turn cold, and fruitlessly tries to pull his arm out of the first-year's grip.

"You're going to come eat lunch with me." Jongin's face remained unseen as he continued to pull the struggling, older boy to the cafeteria.

"Wait, wait! You can't treat me like this!" Kyungsoo successfully yanks his arm out of the vice-like grip of the younger boy. "You don't even know me!" he shouted.

"It's okay!" Jongin replies casually to the other's panic, then spun around, gripping the older boy's forearms. "It's fine, Kyungsoo."

"No, I can't do that, I just can't-" Kyungsoo feels his vision blur and watches the ground rushing towards him- and then he felt himself lifted up as Jongin threw him over his shoulders and walked up the stairs.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize you're so set on going to the roof, as an apology, I'll take you there." There was a tint of guilt coloring Jongin's playful tone of voice.

At these words, Kyungsoo felt himself relax, and then stiffen.

"Hey! You can't just carry me like a sack of potatoes! I can walk, so put me down!"

~~~

"So this is where you go for lunch?" Jongin blinks at the surroundings around him in a child-like fascination.

"Yes, it is." Kyungsoo sighs wearily from the previous ordeal the other put him through and pulls out his neatly stacked container of food.

"I never liked the cafeteria." he added as an afterthought he chewed on some lukewarm kimchi spaghetti. "You walk in to find a place to belong only to see clusters of strangers in their own cliques already formed. They're unyielding." he let out a melancholy laugh. "And I know I'll never fit in anyway. I'm too much if a note of discord, nothing will harmoniously fit with me."

A somewhat comfortable silence ensues around the two, until it is broken by the taller boy.

"Because you never tried." Jongin murmured, not once attempting to make eye contact to Kyungsoo's look of blankness. "You're too scared to sightread a new piece of music because you fear of making mistakes."

Kyungsoo glanced at the younger boy, trying to find a suitable answer. After a few moments of gazing at the light blue skies, he opened his mouth to answer Jongin's statement only to be interrupted by the ringing bell signaling the end of the lunch..

Kyungsoo brushed off his pants after he stood up, only to see the boy who accompanied him at lunch was already gone.

"I guess I'm too afraid to sing a song that ends too soon." Kyungsoo whispered to the silence around him before he too left the school roof to return to his class.

For some reason, the silence didn't feel so comforting anymore, Kyungsoo realizes.

~~~

Kyungsoo stared up his ceiling as Jongin's words looped around his thoughts.

“You're too scared…because you fear of making mistakes.”

Of all of the people he could have listened to, why Jongin? He groaned. That's right. He didn't have anyone else to talk to.

Kyungsoo flipped around on the bed so that his face was pressed into the pillow. He gripped the pillow tightly and let out a muffled scream which eventually exhausted him to a fitful sleep.

~~~

The next day's lunch, a sleep deprived Kyungsoo trudged up the routinely familiar stairs only to find the usually empty, secluded roof of his is occupied; as he is greeted by the sight of an absent-minded Jongin on the school roof, whose fingers danced on an imaginary piano on both sides of him as he gazed at the slowly drifting clouds.

Kyungsoo takes a deep breath.

"I want to sight read a new song because," he pauses as he takes in the hints of a smile playing on Jongin's lips. "I noticed that I actually tire of playing the same song over and over again, even when I really like that song a lot; I realize that I'm incomplete just from my want for more songs to sing to. So, I hope you'll aid me through my song." Kyungsoo feebly tries to end his impromptu speech on a brave strong note, and glares up at the sky in hopes of shooting lasers out of his eyes to make the sky fall down over him and his burning face. His line of sight was soon obscured by the shadow of Jongin's arm which ruffled his short, spiky hair; and its owner laughs that deep chuckle of his.

"Bravo, hyung, bravo."

Hyung. Kyungsoo could really get used to the sound that. He grinned, feeling even lighter than the clouds above them.

~~~

"Wait, remind me again, how does this correlate with everything we discussed about?"

"Shhh." a tan hand muffled Kyungsoo's mouth. "Just trust me. But still-" he glances around these the setting where the both of them were currently situated. "I guess hiding in the janitor's locker was a pretty stupid idea."

And I must be even stupider for listening to your stupidity, Kyungsoo grumbles inside his head.

Jongin blinked at the single shaft of sunlight that shone through the locker. "It's safe to go now.," he reported cheerily and cautiously swung the door out.

"Huh." Kyungsoo rubs his eyes at the sudden change in lighting. Jongin glances over his shoulder.

"I didn't ask for fangirls, hyung."

"I know you didn't." Kyungsoo replies snippily back. "Just...they shouldn't chase you like that. It's like you're some, I don't know..."

"K-Pop idol being harassed by sasaeng fan." Jongin supplied, grinning.

"...well maybe not to the extent of their craziness..." Kyungsoo shook his head and then trailed off to Jongin's lack of response. "Really?" his eyes widened from Jongin's nod of confirmation.

"That's just...wow." Kyungsoo blinked several times and Jongin suddenly laughed.

"What?"

"Can your eyes get any bigger? It looks like a squid's eyes."

"Yah! That's not funny!" Kyungsoo whined and punched the laughing younger boy who suddenly stopped.

Jongin's face morphed into a much more serious mask.

"We're here."

Kyungsoo peeked around Jongin's back and immediateley felt a vein pulse dangerously on his forehead as the barren practice room came into his vision once again. He was "Are. You. Serious. Why are we here, Kim Jongin?" he gritted out.

Jongin wordlessly strode over to the piano and seated himself on the bench, adjusting the placement of the seat until he was comfortable. He glanced at the still slightly fuming, yet bemused Kyungsoo, and patted the seat beside him with a tan hand.

"Are you going to just stand there, hyung?"

Kyungsoo huffed out an impatient breath and plopped himself right next to the already seated boy. "What do you plan to show me, Jongin?" he struggled to keep up his upset facade, already feeling a tiny seed of guilt growing inside, slowly feeling himself getting gnawed by his conscience.

Jongin smiled softly at the keys, not lookiing at Kyungsoo. "Magic."

He reaches his hands out towards the piano and Kyungsoo leaned away, not with the intent of avoiding Jongin but with the thought of wanting to mess up Jongin's playing by restricting the younger's arm movement. As soon as Jongin's fingers made the slightest amount of contact, Kyungsoo shivered, noticing the difference in disposition that Jongin had less than thirty seconds ago to the one he had now. It seemed that Jongin had transformed into an entirely different entity than he was.

His hands played the notes with the precision of a machine but his more emphasized movements suggest a professional fluidity that is often seen in most seasoned piano players. The notes were of a sadder and more serious tone, Kyungsoo noted, which meant it was in a minor key. There was not a moment where Jongin's hands were at a standstill- they were constantly in motion. It was couple more minutes until Jongin had finally ended the piece with a strong gliding of his the wider side of his fingernails on the keys- a glissando- and loudly struck the final notes.

"Whoa." Kyungsoo breathed, and Jongin grinned as he took in his hyung's awestruck expression. "That's some magic trick, I understand, but...Jongin, what was the overall act about? I mean, I feel the magic, but I don't understand from what." Kyungsoo groans from his inadequate phrasing of words.

Jongin smiled happily. "You see how most of the time the piano keys are black and white?"

Kyungsoo nodded hesitantly, still unsure where this conversation is leading.

Jongin leaned close to Kyungsoo's face, and Kyungsoo felt his eyes almost pop out of his face from the close proximity. What on earth–? He scrunched up his eyes, afraid of what will happen next.

"Can the magician trust the audience with his secret?" Jongin whispered into the other's ear and made his handsome, trademark smirk that many girls of the school would faint over.

Kyungsoo flushed an angry red (which would not even fathom his current mood at the moment) and slapped Jongin's upper arm. "What the heck!?" he all but shrieked at Jongin. "You don't have to be that creepy! And of course I wouldn't tell! Who else would I tell! I only talk to you!"

Jongin blinked. "Oh...whoops." Kyungsoo was struck with the sudden urge to rip out his hair - Jongin's or his own, he wasn't sure. Of all the people that decides to talk to him, why Kim (he mentally edited: Fricking) Jongin?

His internal rant was brought to a stop by the situation at hand- in which Jongin is holding his arms to regain his attention. "Hyung! Hyung! I'm sorry, I won't do it again, hyung! "

Kyungsoo shook his head to clear up his thoughts and Jongin, thinking that his senior hadn't forgiven him, tightly embraced him. Kyungsoo struggled in the younger's embrace before successfully shoving Jongin away from him.

"Yah! You're forgiven!" he shouted.

Jongin blinked. "I am?"

Breathe in. Breathe out. Kyungsoo tells himself.

He sighed. "What did you want to tell me?"

Jongin's face broke into a smile as it dawned on him about what Kyungsoo had asked about and leaned backwards on the piano bench.

"Do you realize that the piano keys are black and white, hyung?" he repeated once again.

Kyungsoo's curious nod helped spur on Jongin. "It's like they are their own colors- like an artist's palette- you mix the utmost basic of colors to blend them into the most complex, and beautiful of colors. Then, those colors are used to paint a beautiful artwork. So the basic colors would be the notes on the piano," Jongin taps a key, resulting in a pure sound. "And the blended colors would be any combination." He takes a hand, and struck a chord and added a small trill to it.

"But then," Jongin's voice came out as a near whisper. "When you combine it all together, it truly becomes a work of magic." He starts to play again, and this is a song Kyungsoo recognizes. What Jongin played previously were notes that were a part of the instrumental he sang to yesterday- 'My Lady'. It was one of those tunes where Kyungsoo had those awe-struck moments where he watched artists paint something entirely abstract in the beginning and watch as the swipes and brushes slowly merge into familiar shapes soon piecing itself into a precious piece of work.

Kyungsoo opened his mouth and sang along to Jongin's delicate playing and after some time later, felt a slight tugging in his heart. He glanced up at the clock, and he felt a clenching inside his chest. 5:10.

"Jongin-ah, it's time for us to go." Kyungsoo said softly, standing up and nudging the boy immersed in his playing. Said boy looked up at him and then the clock before closing the lid on the piano quietly, straightening up from the piano bench and tucking in the bench to be underneath the keyboard. When Jongin turned to face the older boy, Kyungsoo was almost certain he saw an emotion flickered in the younger's obsidian eyes before disappearing just as fast as it appeared.

"Let's go, Kyungsoo hyung." Jongin slung his bag over his back and the two of them made their way back to the front entrance of the school.

Unbeknownst to the both of them, a small, ripped sheet of paper had fallen out from one of their bags, floating down to the floor.

I don't want my song to end so quickly, it read, with dried tearstains slightly blurring the words.

--

I hope you liked this chapter, and message me (here or on tumblr) if there are any confusing ideas you didn't understand/ or if you just want to talk! Remember to subscribe and comment as well, because you all help me write even better! Dedicated to my supportive unnie! Thanks so much for your support! See you next time!