Days had been passed since my mother’s anniversary concert. And if you guessed that I would become the new star of our campus, you were so right.

Since the concert was held on the campus grand auditorium, many students from our college came. And of course they would see my performance with my mother. So now, I was famous as Lee Donghae’s little sister and also Lee Haeri’s youngest daughter. I disliked living with those titles for long time so I kept myself low. And to live with those titles were not actually delightful either. High expectation was waiting ahead of me; I already knew about it. Yet, I couldn’t do anything to prevent it.

What had made me change my mind, you asked?

Probably it was my mother.

As I stood and watched her exchanging greets with the guests and talking with her friends on the ballroom after the concert, I saw extreme happiness on her face. I often saw her expression after each of her concerts. But it was different. She had pride written all over her face. Somehow, I understood that being on stage with her children was making her proud. And when I saw her like that, I remembered about my childhood.

Once when she tucked me into my bed, she had asked me my dreams; which I answered innocently: to become like her and to sing with her on stage. As a child, I was admiring her and idolizing her. I remembered how I was amazed by her performances; she was so cool and beautiful, shining so bright on the stage. At that moment, I remembered that my mother told me if she would be very pleased if she could stand together with all her children and perform together on the stage. At least now I had fulfilled her wish. And somehow it was making me proud.

But then, as I came back to the grand auditorium’s stage after my class few days later and sat on the piano’s chair in the center of the stage, the conversation with my mother on my youth and my mother’s face after the concert were coming back to me again.

That night, I couldn’t deny that something I had kept for so long had returned; it was the grand feeling of standing on the stage. Something within me had awakened again from its slumber. I was happy and excited. It made me thinking that I was actually like to be on stage and performing, just like Donghwa Oppa, Jihae Unnie, and Donghae Oppa. No matter how hard I tried to run from performing, I still like doing music. Heaving as sigh, I was thinking that I was my parent’s daughter after all; music had run deep within me.

I turned myself to the piano and looked at the keys for a moment. I would have lied if I said that I only could play guitar. For my early years, I had learnt to play piano and violin with influence of my father, Donghwa Oppa and Jihae Unnie. Placing my fingers on them, I played few notes that Donghwa Oppa had taught me years ago; it was a song that he liked back then from a Japanese singer, Fukuyama Masaharu.

As I played the music, I remembered that I used to sit next to Donghwa Oppa as he played the song. And I also remembered seeing Jihae Unnie or Donghae Oppa singing the song. Sometimes, Donghae Oppa even played guitar for accompanying the song. It was a beautiful and romantic song, and I eventually became liking the song. As I reached the chorus part, I hummed the song unconsciously. And then, I sang the last part eventually.

Watashi koi wo e iru, koi ni ochiteru
Mou kakusanai atsui tokimeki
Yatto meguriaeta no, yume ni miteta no
Sameru koto nai natsu no akogare

Sagaeta... anata dake...

"I am in love, I've fallen in love
I can no longer hide this racing heart of mine
At last we met, I dreamed of it
My summer's wish, always in dreams
 

I searched only for you.."

After I finished playing the song, I just smiled to know that my piano ability wasn’t rusty. Probably, I would need to consider practicing piano more at home. But then, to my surprise, I heard claps from the audience seats. I quickly turned my gaze to the direction and gasped as I saw Henry there. He was walking down the stairs to the stage with his smile as always then stopped at the bottom of the stairs, just before the stage.

I didn’t know why but I felt like my heart was ready jumped off. I didn’t know that he was listening. My ability in piano and violin was something that anyone didn’t need to know as I wasn’t feeling so confident with it. But then, someone had heard me playing the piano. Furthermore, that someone was Henry, someone that I idolized and looked up to as a musician. I was ashamed knowing him listening to my piano, thinking that I must have been so bad if I had to compare myself with him. Somehow, I became panic.

“W-w-what are you doing here?” I said as I stood up, mentally facepalming because I had stammered.

“I was sitting up there while studying when I saw you entering the room,” he said as he pointed at the most back row of the seats.

I looked up. The place was dark and the lights only lit up around the stage. So I wasn’t sure if I would see him.

“Are you in love with someone?”

As I heard the words, my gaze traveled back to him. It surprised me to hear the question. Somehow, I felt something different within his voice although he smiled with his usual smile.

“It was a love song, right?”

I was unconsciously nodding then tilted my head. “Do you understand the meaning of the song?”

Smiling wider, he shook his head and said, “No, I don’t understand. But every time you sing, you always make people feel what the song is trying to tell.”

“Ah.” I dropped my gaze. “I’ve never known about it.” I looked back at him. “Isn’t it bad?”

A gentle smile came on his face. “No, it’s not a bad thing,” he said as he shook his head again and dropped his gaze. “Actually, it’s something that I admire from you. But hearing your song earlier was making me thinking if you’re in love right now. So are you in love?”

A question came into my mind as I heard his last sentence; why did it bother him if I was in love?

“Is it something that I really need to tell you?”

A gentle smile came to his face. “Not really,” he said then looked at me, straight into my eyes. “But for sure, I will be a little disappointed if you are.”

For a moment, I became speechless because of his words. He was smiling, making me thinking that he might be playing around with me. I almost brought myself to laugh with his words. But somehow, as I looked into his eyes, there was a certain gaze that made my heart starting to beat faster. And that moment, I thought he was serious with his words; and somehow, as I thought about his words, I suddenly felt that I forgot to breathe.

Oh my God. Did Henry just tell me that he might be jealous?

Note:

First of all, I really really sorry for disappearing after I finished my other fic. I need to stay away from fiction world for a while since I have writer's block and my real life is so distracting. I'll leave you with this update for now. I hope my idea will be flowing like a river so I can update soon.

The song that performed by Jieun is a song from a Japanese singer, Fukuyama Masaharu, 'SQUALL'.

But I still hope you enjoy the fic. Subscribe and comment will good. And thank you, silent readers, for your time to stop by and read the fic :)