Cho Rinhae lazily walked down one of the many halls of Seoul Academy, the bottoms of her white Nikes echoing dully in the empty hallway. Class was over and most of the students had already gone home. Though, Rinhae didn’t want to be home yet, didn’t want to hop into her car and drive the twenty minutes back to her house. She didn’t want to be greeted by the always empty living room, because she felt more at home, less lonely at school.

She continued wandering the halls of the Music wing, her black book bag held in both her hands behind her as she swayed slowly to a nonexistent song. Her fingers itched to reach for the phone in the front pocket of her grey skinny jeans and text her cousin who was most likely still in class, more than ten miles from the college she attended.

Rinhae sighed, though it seemed loud in the silent halls and her brown eyes spotted a couple jumping apart from the corner of her eyes just as she passed the hallway they were sitting at. Her swaying stopped and she jerked her head slightly to the left when her bangs decided they wanted to hang down the front of her face.

A faint melody of piano keys softly began playing at the end of the corridor and Rinhae humorlessly wondered if she was suddenly thrown into a horror film, though the tunes of the keys were gentle. The corners of her lips quirked upwards and her quiet steps sped up in anticipation.

Her breath hitches quite audibly and she swears her heartbeat doubles as a voice she immediately falls in love with accompanies the smooth piano playing. From the tone of the voice, she easily knows that the singer is male, and quickly assumes he’s the one playing the piano. She really wants to know who this guy is, because really, most of the guys here are such athletes and she doesn’t care how fast they can run three miles.

She slides down to sit, back leaning against the wall right beside the door of the room the mystery singer is occupying. Her dark brown eyes focus and unfocused as she thinks about the many guys in her classes, because there’s no little window on the room’s door to see the dude and she doesn’t want to barge in and ruin his song. Her head drops back against the wall and instead she just chooses to listen. The melody of the piano and the male’s voice is absolutely soothing and she doesn’t care if she can’t hear the lyrics, but her eyes slowly close as she falls asleep, sitting in the Music wing of Seoul Academy.

~

Rinhae wakes up ten minutes later, the door of the classroom wide open and its piano unoccupied. She scowls in disappointment before standing up and dusting herself off. She picks up her book bag and leaves.

At three sixteen she arrives at her small home and she kicks off her Nikes, skillfully throwing her bag next to the couch before dragging her feet across the carpeted floor towards it. She drops onto the soft light grey couch, her short choppy black hair bouncing and she huffs away the strands of hair that fall to the front of her face. Her eyes become blurred and all she can think about is the dude who sang in room two eighteen.

It is then that Rinhae brings her hands up to grasp the bright green and white headphones that always hang around her neck that she notices they aren’t even there. She immediately sits up, tired brown gaze scanning the whole living room. She soon realizes that she left her headphones and iPod on the floor when she sat down to listen to the male’s singing. Her eyes narrow and she scowls, putting all the blame of forgetting her most valuable item at school on the mystery singer.

She nearly jumps when her phone vibrates in her pocket and she laughs at herself when she sees that it’s a text message from her cousin.

From: Rihye
yah! whats up? hows vocal year going?

To: Rihye
It’s alright, should’ve just stayed there. Haha, there’s a guy too.

From: Rihye
oooh, whats his name?

Rinhae sighed, a frown tugging at the corners of . She then proceeded to tell her cousin about the mystery guy she discovered singing at her school. She told her how she didn’t know his name or what he even looked like, just that she heard him playing piano and singing while wandering around the Music wing of her college. They talked randomly for a while, before her cousin declared she needed to go.

From: Rihye
well, ive got a date. good luck finding mr. vocals! :)

To: Rihye
Ha, whatever. :P

~

It went on like this for about two whole months. Rinhae learned that Mr. Vocals, as her cousin called him, practiced in the same room every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. There’d be that occasional Thursday where he wouldn’t sing alone, but with – she figured – his friends. She’d always hear his voice though, when they’d begin singing and her nose would wrinkle as she listened, trying to decipher which voice belonged to him whenever they laughed and talked. In the end, though, she’d always fall asleep and wake up to the opened door and the empty room.

What annoyed her the most was she still hadn’t been able to locate her headphones and iPod. It especially didn’t help when Mr. Vocals began singing songs she remembered to be in her playlist two weeks after she had lost it. Every day, she’d catch herself whistling the tunes to the songs he sang. She couldn’t help but start humming or even singing along whenever his irresistible voice would vocalize, the words muffled by the closed door, her favorite songs. And every time, she would fall asleep to his soft lullabies and wake up to an opened door and empty room.

It was near the beginning of the third month and Rinhae, for the first time, caught him – or rather him and his friends – joking and chuckling right outside their usual practice room. She hid behind the corner, dark eyes squinting as she tried to figure out who he was, which one he was. She didn’t care if she seemed like a stalker, because she wasn’t, since she had no idea who he even was.

She decided to just casually walk down the hall as they talked. She pouted a little when she somewhat recognized some of the boys and realized three of them were in at least one of her classes. She didn’t get close enough to actually get a good look at all of their faces since they began entering the class room, but was satisfied enough to know that Mr. Vocals was one of the five. She ends up titling them as total jerks when she realizes they don’t invite her in once she sits down on the floor; her usual spot.

On that same day, Rinhae finds a CD in the pocket of her book bag when she gets home after walking up, once again, clueless. She pops the CD into her radio and she could feel the blood rushing to heat up her cheeks when she finds it’s filled with songs of all five of them, mostly of him alone, singing.

After listening to the whole thing, she quickly grabs her bag to see if they placed anything else in it or gave her iPod back, because she swears she saw her headphones wrapped around of their necks, hidden with the hood of their sweater. She then checks the CD case, removing the square cover paper and unfolding it several times. It’s filled with words and a small piece of paper with a message – So you know the lyrics – and she finds that they added the lyrics to all the songs that were on the disk.

She restarts the whole track and can’t help but smile.

~

Another month goes by and Rinhae is beginning to lose it. She begins giving up, because she’s tired of waiting and waiting for him, but she can’t help it. His voice is just so ing addicting; she almost bought a CD player just to listen to the disk they gave her. She can’t help but sit and just listen, because she’s unable to break the trance she’s in; the trance some stranger has over her.

It’s the starting of a new month, and Rinhae decides she’s not going to sit and listen as frequently and focus more on her studies. She wants to completely give up because she’s beginning to think this guy just thinks it’s some kind of game, making her swoon with just the sound of his voice.

Weeks go by and she’s beginning to focus more and more on school, rarely coming to listen to him until she decides to just stop. It’s the last day that she decides to visit and she’s stupid enough to not wear a sweater, so she sits down at her usual spot freezing and shivering. She doesn’t care though, because he’s there singing and she thinks it’s worth it when her eyes slowly begin to close.

She thinks it’s worth it because today, she’s going to stop waiting for him, and try to forget him. She’s tired of being left alone in the cold.

Rinhae wakes up as usual to the empty halls, the open door and unoccupied piano. She realizes, as her mind clears up, that his dark grey jacket is wrapped comfortably around her, keeping her warm. Her sigh echoes softly as she gets up, curling herself into his jacket as she starts walking, deciding she’s not going to give back the jacket even if she gets her iPod and headphones back.

~

It’s been two months since Rinhae has stopped coming to listen to him sing, instead she spends her time afterschool in her vocals class. There aren’t many students today, her partner and another pair of classmates sit and practice. She hums a joins them after a while, wearing his dark grey jacket.

She sighs, and sits next to her partner – close friend of Mr. Vocals – Lee Jinki, on top of one of the counters. She shifts, careful not to hit any of the equipment, back pressed against the wall.

Her head drops gently against his shoulder, “…me, a fool who’s fallen for you.” She quietly sings.

She hears Jinki chuckle, because he knows, but she doesn’t even bother asking. She knows he won’t tell her – he promised not to. Her eyes close when Jinki leans his head against hers, and she’s glad he’s there for her because he’s like a brother to Rinhae, taking care of her and such.

She opens her eyes when she feels him tug onto the sleeve of her – his – jacket. Her cold fingers reach out to latch onto his.

“You need a ride home?” He asks after a while, brushing his thumb against her knuckles.

Rinhae hums, nodding her head slightly between his shoulder and head.

The two other students are leaving and her eyes close once again when Jinki starts humming.

She’s asleep within two minutes.

~

Rinhae stirs, mumbling when she slowly begins to wake up. Her eyes are still half closed, eyes unfocused and blurry and there’s a voice. She hears it clearly, his voice singing so close, but it’s soft, she thinks she’s dreaming. His voice becomes louder, more confident and her dark brown eyes beginning to focus and she sees him.

Kim Jonghyun.

Her eyes widen when she sees how close he is, smiling and singing with brown, almost black, eyes shining right at her. She’s suddenly aware of everything, aware of how she’s not dreaming – that this is real and Mr. Vocals is Kim Jonghyun, handsome, grinning and singing with that irresistable voice of his. Rinhae then notices that the classroom is dim and she’s accidentally pushed some of the recording equipment onto the floor when she tries to move away if not for the wall behind her.

His hands rise to hook her green and white headphones around her neck, Jonghyun’s knees knocking into her own and she’s thinks, where the is Jinki?

Heat rises to her face when their eyes lock, her breathing hitches when he smiles softly. His face leaning forward and Rinhae can hear her heartbeat echo in the too silent room, she wonders if he can hear it. Jonghyun lets out a short chuckle then, fingers tugging onto the sleeve of his jacket, right hand brushing against her jaw before moving to the back of her neck to pull her forward.

“You can keep the jacket.” He whispers quietly, jokingly.

She would’ve laughed, but she suddenly found his lips pressed against her own. She pressed her left hand against his shoulder, the other hooking three fingers into the pocket of his jeans and slightly tugged as she kissed him back. He pulls away, and she sighs, because she knows she fell the moment she heard his voice. Rinhae doesn’t notice her eyes are closed until she opens them to look at him. Jonghyun smiles and she wiggles the fingers that are still in his pocket, smiling back because it doesn’t even matter anymore.

Jonghyun hums softly, pressing his forehead against her own, watches as Rinhae stares at their now intertwined hands.

“Yah! Hyung,” Kibum calls from the doorway, Jinki grinning behind him, “stop touching Rin-ah and let’s go!”

Jonghyun laughs and Rinhae falls in love all over again.