Chapter Eight: Sudden Change

          “Okay, let me try that,” I said as soon as Jun-hyung finished playing the first few bars of the composition he was teaching – Canon rock. It was one of the compositions played during his battle with L, so I was expecting that I would be excited when I study it, but then because of the earlier conflict, and because the rock version contained a lot of variations, I was finding it way harder than expected. “Uh, what’s next again?” I said, forgetting the next part of the bar I was playing.

          Jun-hyung sighed. “We’ve been repeating that part for a few times already,” he said, putting down his guitar. “You know, let’s take a rest.”

          “But,” I was about to protest when he stood up. “Where are you going?”

          “Nowhere,” Jun-hyung said. “We’ve been seated on the floor for like… an hour. I told you we’ll just continue this during lunch, but you insisted.”

          “Our teacher isn’t around,” I said, putting down my guitar over its case and joining him in his stretching. Jun-hyung stretched and looked at me before bursting into a laugh.

          “What are you laughing at?” I said.

          “You know you should talk to her.” I was surprised to the sudden change of topic, but then of course I spoke.

          “Honestly, I wanted to, but I don’t know what to say,” I said.

          “Just ask her,” Jun-hyung said, “There’s nothing wrong in asking. If you ask her, you’ll know if she really is disappointed in you or not. If she is, then you can do something to make amends with her.”

          “Go,” Jun-hyung told me.

          “But, how about you?” I said.

          “I’ll be fine,” Jun-hyung said, “I’ll be here once you get back.”

          So I left the rooftop and went down, back to our classroom. Fortunately I found my best friend inside, alone. I went in, and she noticed me right away, but the twinkle in her eye wasn’t there, so I decided to talk to her and get straight to the point.

          “Georgette, are you mad – no – are you disappointed in me?” I asked. Gette looked at me but didn’t respond. “Come on, please, talk to me.”

          “I’ll be lying if I tell you that I’m not,” Gette quietly said.

          “Why?”

          “Because,” Gette paused, bit her lip and continued, “Because you’re not the Mae that I’ve known before.”

          “Gette, I don’t understand,” I told her, “In what aspect did I change?” Gette gave me a little of her sad smile. “Never mind,” she said, sadly. Suddenly I remembered Jun-hyung’s theory, and the urge to ask was so strong that my mouth moved before I could even think.

          “Gette, do you like L?” I asked. Gette looked at me for a while, wide –eyed before saying, “How about you? Do you like Yong Jun-hyung?” Her statement suddenly made me feel uneasy. Do I like him? “O-of course! I like him” I said, “but just as a teacher. He’s really good in guitar.”

          “Really?” Gette said.

          “Yeah!” I said, “I don’t even consider him as a friend.”

          “Then I like Myung-soo as much as you like Yong Jun-hyung,” Gette told me. I knew that I don’t like Jun-hyung as something else other than a teacher, a school mate, but I didn’t know why her answer just made me feel worse.

          “I thought you like, like him,” I said, “I was worried that…”

          “Worried that…?” Gette said.

          “Worried that you’ll take L away from me.” Gette suddenly came forward and hugged me.

          “Anieyo, I can never take away anything, or anyone from you,” she said, which started to calm me down. I didn’t even notice that I was already crying. “You’re my best friend. I would never do that!”

          “Uh, are you still mad at me?” I asked her.

          “I’m not mad at you,” Gette told me, “but if you want to make up, just promise me that you’ll hold steadfast to your dreams,” I could already see the small twinkle back on her eyes. “And stay just the way you are, that’s all.”

          “I will!” I said, “So, we’re good, right?”

          “Sure,” Gette told me. “Do you want go to the ice cream shop with me?”

          “Of course!” I said. Then Gette looked around and said, “Right, but where are your things?”

          “Ah!” I said as I remembered. “I left it on the roof top with Jun-hyung! Stay here, I’ll just take my things and –”

          “No,” Gette said which stopped me from running out of the classroom. I looked back, and she has a small smile on her lips. “Go back to your practice,” she said.

          “But, how about our ice-cream time?” I said.

          “We’ll do it some other time,” Gette said. “Just go back to Jun-hyung and make sure you study hard, okay?”

          “Okay, I will!” I said. I quickly returned to the roof top. I was so excited to tell Jun-hyung about what happened that I knocked the roof top door open.

          “Jun-hyung ah!” I yelled, but I stopped as soon as I noticed that he wasn’t on the same spot as I left him earlier. I went over my things. My guitar was there, and… are those CD’s?

          I took a CD and flipped it to see what it was, but all I found was a caption on the case, “Tutorials – Yong Jun-hyung.”

---o0o---

          I took out the CD from its case and carefully placed it in the CD player I had at home. When it played, I was so surprised to find Jun-hyung speaking to me, as if he really prepared the video for me.

          “I made this since I’m not sure until when can I teach you. I may have to take another part time job, or I may have to transfer schools… you’ll never know what might happen, so…” he took his guitar and strummed it. It was the guitar we both together. “I’ll be teaching you through this.”

          The videos were… interesting. He spoke so normal as if he was talking to me. He even said my name a couple of times which made wonder how he looked like when he was taping this. “Like a crazy person,” I muttered.

          I watched, stopped the video and imitated every move every now and then. After a while, I chuckled. Jun-hyung must have made it so that he wouldn’t get tired of repeating the same movements on his guitar, just because I couldn’t get it right easily. Smart guy.

          I rewound the video a couple of times until I was able to get the bars that I was finding hard to learn earlier. “It wasn’t that hard,” I told myself.

          I went to school the next day feeling so positive. I finished one composition, perfected it and started on another. Just when I thought everything would be as bright as sunshine, something odd happened.

          As I was walking down the corridor to our classroom, I met Jun-hyung. I stopped to wave at him, but he passed beside me as if I was somebody he never met before.

          “Yah! Yong Jun-hyung sshi!” I called him, which luckily made him stop. “Are you ignoring me? Why?” He didn’t reply, so I continued, “Aren’t we going to study together during lunch?”

          “No need actually,” he said rather coldly which unexpectedly made me feel hurt. “You were already watching the videos, right?”

          “Yes, I were but,” I said.

          “Study and meet me on Monday,” he said, “We’ll have a duel.”

---o0o---

          “A duel? Right away?” Gette said when I told her what Jun-hyung told me. We were in the classroom, waiting for our teacher to come. “It’s just four days away!” she said.

          “Yeah,” I said, “I think it’s going to be a test. You know, like a quiz.”

          “Do you want me to help you?” Gette said. That moment, L’s group went in and settled to their seats. Jun-hyung, on the other hand, was nowhere in sight.

          “Nah,” I told her, “I need to listen to guitar solos, not pianos.”

          “Are you sure?” And I nodded to her in response. “I see, I won’t get to spend time with you anymore. But it’s okay. As long as you’re happy.” Suddenly I felt like a bad girl. Why do I keep on hearing her say things like that? So soapy.

          “We’ll go out together, soon, I promise,” I told her.

          “Good morning class!” the teacher’s voice sounded inside the classroom, and the previous chitchats were cut. “One of your classmates filed a fifteen-day leave of absence, so please help him when he gets back,” suddenly my hunch told me that it was Jun-hyung. And I was right.