The hall was silent as the pianist’s slender fingers slowed down, the beautiful melody coming to a stop. The hall erupted into applause as the pianist, a pretty, dimpled boy smiled, bowing once before exiting.

~*~

  “ this!” Byun Baekhyun shouted, hurling the remote away as hard as he could. Tears spilled from his eyes as he glanced at the television, where the pianist was currently being interviewed. It should have been him up there on that stage, seated behind the piano, where he belonged, his fingers flying over the keys as he played the opening song for the local arts festival. It should have been him smiling brightly into the camera, telling the reporters about his dreams to be a renowned pianist. It should have been him to have a path to his goal already carved into his future, a future stolen from him because of his injury.

  Baekhyun scowled at the bandages wrapped tightly around his left hand, a reminder of the snowy day that had changed his life, a day he remembered as clearly as if it had only been the day before.

~*~

  “Excuse me, sorry!” Baekhyun pushed his way out of the crowded train station, mentally cursing as sharp elbows poked into him. Finally, he thought, as he emerged out onto the street, shivering and pulling his jacket closer around him in an attempt to keep the sharp bite of the winter wind away before heading down the familiar path to Seoul Music Academy for the Gifted.

  “Get out of the way! My bus is here!” Baekhyun looked behind him a flustered young man barrelled through the crowd, knocking people aside as he rushed for the bus a few metres ahead. His eyes widened as he realized that he would too be pushed aside if he did not get out of the man’s path and he tried to get out of the way, but it was too late. Baekhyun yelped as the man forcefully pushed him aside, sending him sprawling onto the road and straight into the path of an oncoming car.

   The only thing Baekhyun remembered before blissful darkness overcame him was the loud screeching of tires, the bright headlights speeding towards him and the crunching of his fingers as heavy wheels ran over them before a searing pain shot up his hand. Pain that was so agonising that it seemed worse than hell itself.

~*~

    “I will be able to play the piano as usual, right?” Baekhyun anxiously asked the doctor pacing before him. He stared at the heavy cast on his hand. He closed his eyes, silently wishing away the tears that threatened to fall as the silence dragged on. He knew the answer in his heart; he just did not want to believe it.

  “Baekhyun,” the doctor knelt down to look the young boy in the eye, “No matter what happens, you can always start anew, try something else.” He looked away before whispering the words that confirmed his patient’s worst fears, “I’m really sorry, but you will never be able to play the piano as well as you used to.”

  At that very second, Baekhyun felt his entire world crumble around him. Silent tears streamed down his cheeks as he willed himself to wake up from the bad dream. He had always been defined by his piano playing gifts, always been Byun Baekhyun, piano prodigy. And now that was gone, snatched away in an instant. Who would he be now, just a plain, boring boy that was the same as almost everyone else?

  “No…” he whispered, standing up so suddenly that the chair was knocked over, “that can’t be true...” And with silent sobs racking his thin frame, he turned and ran out of the room.

~*~

 Baekhyun shook his head, attempting to stop his trip down memory lane. If he didn’t, he feared he would return to the times when depression, darkness and despair were his constant companions. He could vaguely the looks of sadness on his the faces of his family as he, once a bubbly boy, retreated into a shell of his former self, spending his entire days curled up in front of the window, cursing the world as it went by. After all, why was everyone out there able to continue with their perfect normal lives when his was anything but perfect or normal? Why did it have to be him that had the misfortune to be at the right place at the wrong time? Why not someone else, someone whose life would not have changed so drastically just because of an accident?

  Baekhyun shuddered, clearing his thoughts and plastering a fake smile on his face as his mother walked in. No matter how he felt, he had to pretend to be just like before for the sake of everyone around him.

~*~

  Baekhyun glanced around in disdain. Everywhere, students milled about, chattering loudly. There was no order around, unlike his old school. It was the first day of his new school life in a public school. To someone who had spent all his life studying in one of the top music academies in the country, this new environment seemed to be inhabited mainly by uncivilized cavemen.

  Baekhyun glanced down at the slip of paper he had in his right hand. Locker 136... He gritted his teeth, sighing before taking his first ever step into the too brightly lit hallways of his new school.

  “What the actual hell…” Baekhyun breathed, staring at the inside of his new locker. As if it wasn’t bad enough luck to have been assigned the locker between the ones of a skinny cheerleader that seemed to be always surrounded by a large crowd of noisy, giggly girls and of a nerdy looking boy that was constantly murmuring math formulas to himself, it appeared that the last person to have used this locker had forgotten about their slice of pizza on the last day of school.

  Suddenly, Baekhyun realized that it had gotten quiet, a bit too quiet, in fact. Glancing around, he saw that everyone around him was staring something behind him in shock and fear. Turing around, he caught a quick glimpse of a broad smirk before he was slammed into the cheerleader’s locker and a mocking voice invaded his ears.

  “Hey, new boy, heard of me? The name’s Jongin. So I heard you were from that fancy music school at the other side of town, I’m sure this school isn’t fancy for you, why don’t you go back where you came from, brat?” Baekhyun gulped, cringing backwards as far as he could as Jongin’s hot breath hit his face. Sure, he had heard of Jongin. If you were a teenager and you hadn’t heard of the one who could bash you up if he felt like it, then you had obviously been living under a rock.

  Baekhyun cursed mentally, squirming against the iron grip of the bully. There was no one around in the hallway, everyone had retreated to safety away from what they assumed, from experience, was going to be a bloody and painful fight.

  “A rich kid like you must have a lot of expensive gadgets,” Jongin grinned as he stuck his free hand into Baekhyun’s pocket, withdrawing his phone and turning it around in his hands. “Not the latest model, but I can still sell this for a lot…” Jongin pocketed the phone, seeming to be lost in his thoughts of what he would do with the money when he suddenly turned to look at his captive.

  “You’re quite pretty for a boy,” Jongin leered at the smaller boy before his expression hardened. “But I don’t really like your nose,” he snarled pulling back his hand and curling it into a fist. “Sayonara to your prettiness,” Jongin let his fist fly towards Baekhyun’s nose.

  Baekhyun watched in horror as Jongin’s fist flew towards his face at an alarming speed. Then everything seemed to go in slow motion. He closed his eyes, bracing himself for the impact, felt a certain fist reach his nose and stop, with it barely grazing his nose and not going any further. Cracking open his eyes, Baekhyun almost collapsed to the ground when he saw just how close Jongin’s fist was to his face. Long, pale fingers were enclosed around the bully’s thin wrist, pulling it to a sudden stop a mere hair’s breadth from Baekhyun’s face.

  “Get. Away. From. Him.” A deep voice broke into the bubble of silence as Jongin’s hand was released. With a gasp and a look of pure angry thrown at the newcomer, Jongin withdrew Baekhyun’s phone from his pocket and throwing it at its owner’s feet, turned and scurried down the corridor.

  Baekhyun watched Jongin’s retreating back in amazement before he turned to look up at the one who had saved probably saved his life, expecting to see someone who was at least as scary as the Wolverine or scarier. Instead, to his surprise, he found a ridiculously tall, but still normal boy his own age.

  The first thing Baekhyun noticed was his hair, frizzy and coloured an unnaturally bright shade of orange. And then he noticed his height. The orange haired boy towered over Baekhyun like a giraffe, making the latter feel even smaller than he already was. Warm, caramel eyes that were way too large peeked out beneath a long fringe and the smile on the newcomer’s face actually creeped Baekhyun out a bit. Baekhyun was sure that the taller boy meant to have a reassuring expression, but the way too wide grin on his face, coupled with his large, round eyes, gave the impression of a lunatic on crack looking for a victim to murder.

  “I think this is yours?” The taller had a really deep voice , a voice that did not go with his appearance. With a jolt, Baekhyun realised that the other was talking to him and he quickly adverted his eyes to the hand holding his phone in front of him. “Uh… yea.” Baekhyun grabbed the gadget, heat rushing to his cheeks as he fumbled to slip it into his pocket, giving up when he almost dropped it again.

  If the orange haired boy had noticed Baekhyun’s embarrassment, he did not show it. Grinning even wider, he laughed lightly before launching into the fastest introduction the smaller had ever heard,” Hi hi hi hi! The name is Chanyeol, Park Chanyeol. And you’re Byun Baekhyun, right? Anyways, look out for that Jongin, he can be an , but if you stay out of his way, you’ll be fine. See you around!” And before Baekhyun could even process his word fast enough to form a reply, Chanyeol was gone, practically bouncing down the corridors to class and leaving a very stunned Baekhyun standing alone, clutching his phone in a death grip and wondering if Chanyeol was mentally sound or had escaped from an asylum.