Chapter 5

Anika POV

            I shuffle around my bedroom, restlessly rearranging this and that. Glancing at the clock, I sigh as the minute hand inches towards 7:45 a.m. What can I say? I’ve always been an early riser and since I didn’t want to wake up the boys, I’ve been lounging around my room for the better part of an hour or so.  I fish through my shoulder bag, carefully pulling out the small sticky note.

Kim Ryeowook.

Or at least, that’s what I’m sure it says as had I discreetly watched him penning his signature over and over on those sticky notes yesterday.

Smiling slightly, I gently stick it on the dresser mirror, ignoring the little twinge of pitiful guilt stinging in me. Even I couldn’t argue the fact that it was a cheap and ridiculous of me to snag one of his signatures like that. But in my defense, yesterday really wasn’t the most convenient time to be asking for your bias’s signature. I shook my head in dismay.

Ugh…if the guys see this, I’ll be made fun of mercilessly.

A few minutes later, as I was fiddling around with my iPod, I hear some footsteps outside my doorway.

Hm? One of them is awake right now?

Slowly getting up, I inch my door open, and peer out. The footsteps could still be heard, seeming as though they’re crossing the living room. Curiously, I tip-toe after them, a little surprised since, from the time I’ve been here, it hasn’t seemed like any of the members were early risers. Pausing and listening in the living room, I could hear a door opening down the hallway and knew someone had gone into the music room.

Why would they need to go in there at this hour?

After having an internal battle with myself on whether I should go in or not, my curiosity wins over.

Cautiously opening the door, I peep in to see Junsu sitting at the piano, his face turned in my direction, fingers poised above the keys. He blinks in surprise before smiling at me. “Oh, good morning, Anika! You’re up early.”

“I could say the same for you,” I smile back. “Do you usually practice this early?”

He shrugs. “Always. It’s a routine for me; getting up and practicing early in the morning, whether I’m staying at home or here, especially when I don’t have schedules. And since this room’s sound proof, I wouldn’t be disturbing the others.”

I let out a low whistle, impressed.  “The fact that you wake up pretty early just to practice by yourself is quite impressive.” I hesitate for a second, realizing that I’ve just interrupted him in his routine. I then blurt out apologetically, “Sorry, I was disturbing you, aren’t I?” I politely bow my head a bit, and take a step backwards.

He looks slightly alarmed for a second as I’m about to go. He snaps out an arm, effectively grabbing a hold of my wrist.

“No, honestly, you weren’t bothering me at all. I just started when you came in,” he says earnestly.

 After a brief pause, he offers, “You can stay and watch if you want.”

I feel my heart giving an involuntary jolt of joy. The idea of being able to watch him practice seems almost surreal. I nod excitedly, sitting on a chair that’s a little ways away from the piano. He plinks on a few keys, getting the blood in his fingers flowing. And, in one fluid motion, he presses each key into a soft melody.

My eyes flick from the joyous dance that his fingers do when playing to the calm expression of concentration on his face as he runs through the piece. It’s a light, smooth song. Actually, I can tell right away it’s the piano piece to a jazz ensemble. He slowly comes to an end, a content smile twitching at the corner of his lips. Immediately, I let out an awe-filled breath I hadn’t known I was holding and start clapping furiously.

“Holy smokes, that was amazing!” I’m honestly not exaggerating, the fact that I had seen and heard him play in the flesh rather than on a computer screen was an astoundingly different experience altogether. Sure, I had expected to be amazed, but this was on a completely different level.

“Thank you,” he smiles gratefully. “I guess it would’ve been better if I had sung, but…”

“Hey, you were still able to do a fantastic job playing such a great piano piece,” I reassure him. “Now, I can say that I’ve seen and heard the Xiah Junsu play the piano in the flesh!”

He lets out one of his famous dolphin laughs. “Well, I won’t argue with that; I don’t usually give individual people mini concerts.” He plays a slow tune while humming but then, abruptly stops.

He turns to look at me and seems to be considering something, judging from the look of his eyes. Before I can open my mouth to ask what’s up, his eyes gain an excited glint and he asks, “Hey, Anika, you know how you sang for us the other day?”

I nod, not sure what he’s getting at.

“Well,” he continues, voice audibly getting more eager, “to me, it really seems like you have potential for singing. How would you like to get singing lessons from me, then? We can do them in this room.”

I stare at him in shock. Singing lessons? A big part of me is ecstatic at such an honorable offer, but another part of me is almost mind-numbingly nervous. It’s the easily-flustered, timid side of me kicking in…What if I do something stupid or embarrass myself in front of him?

I look him square in the eyes and see the glint of pure, even somewhat childish excitement and hope. If I accept, it seems like I’d be his first student and that’s probably why he looks so happy at the prospect of mentoring someone. Seeing the look on his face, I subconsciously let out a soft chuckle. How can I refuse an opportunity like this? Giving one firm nod, I smile slightly at him. “I’d love that.”

“Chincha? Yes!” He lightly punches the air, his face adopting a look of pure glee. “I’ve never personally trained someone before, but knowing that I’m the one mentoring you, it seems like such a fun thing!”

I laugh at his joy. “I can see why you’d be excited. How ‘bout I start tomorrow?”

He eagerly makes arrangements with me. Apparently, he’ll be helping me a lot with singing in Korean too, to help me with speaking a bit of the language and because it will be a fun, added experience. I was also to report every morning, if possible, to the music room at around eight o’clock where Junsu would be waiting to start my daily lessons. We would practice for two hours, until about ten-which was about usually half an hour before Jaejoong and Yoochun usually woke up.

“I don’t want those two to find out that I’m giving you personal lessons,” Junsu explains. “They’d always be a bother and be overall annoying.”

“Wow, you think really highly of your members…”

“I always try to be humble since my hyungs’ level of annoyingness is nothing compared to mine.”

We both laugh, and spend the remainder of the two hours joking around and talking about my future lessons while Junsu plinks away at the piano, randomly playing a melody or two. It was really nice, sitting in the practice room with him, listening to the beauty that seemed to pour out of him and into the notes being played by the piano. It was a calming, happy sort of setting. I have a feeling these lessons are going to be something to constantly look forward to.

Sometimes, I really wonder how people put up with others in the world...for example, how do any of my readers put up with ME?! TT__TT I swear, I myslef don't even know why it takes so so darn long to update >.> Recently, my computer crashed and I didn't have Microsoft with anything else, so, I had to wait a while before posting. My laptop's fine now, and I really, really hope that I can get to updating. One of my New Year's resolutions is to update this story FREQUENTLY AND NO SLACKING!! I give all of you permission to give me strongly-worded messages to make me update even more. Honestly, I really hope to get this story to be finished before my next birthday (in July). So, please wait for me, everyone! >.<

On to the chapter discussion. Now, with these singing lessons that the OC will be doing with Junsu, this is something in the story that I've wanted right in the beginning, even when I FIRST thought of this story at all. You can say that this is a crucial point and the bridge between the development between Anika and Junsu's relationship. So, expect a lot of scenes with them practicing in the music room. I can't wait to write more about this and hopefully, I can do this well! 

I'm thankful for anyone that's still reading this and I truly am very sorry for the inconvenience. Actually, all I ever do is apologize every chapter T_T I hope to stop doing that >.< We might have to wait a bit since I have midterms and such coming up, but I really want to get out another chapter soon^^ Thank you all! <3 I hipe you enjoy and please provide feedback~