"I want to leave!"

Jonghyun shouted in his ward, all eyes of the other patients in the ward at him. His words echoed across the walls, but his sharp and loud voice did not convince Kibum from loosening his grip on his right arm, Jin-Ah grabbing his other. Byul was standing outside, afraid that Jonghyun might start blaming her if her presence was realized, and staring at the commotion happening in there. 

"The concert has to go on, I must go and practise!"

"You can't play like this, oppa, it's not going to work!" Jin-Ah tried to persuade her boyfriend. It was only their first visit to him in the hospital ever since he lost his eyesight from the accident. 

"You'll only make a fool out of yourself, Jonghyun!" Kibum shook the arm of the badly struggling boy. "Mrs Park knew what happened and he canceled your performances. There's no use going back this soon, just calm down and–"

"What?" Jonghyun screamed again, this time receiving the shatters from a glass at the other side of the room as he shook his head in disbelief. "How... How can she cancel it? I... I'm the heir of Arpeggietta, people came to see my performance, my performance! How can she just cancel them off and hush them off with frowns?! I don't care, I must go back!"

Kibum sighed at his cousin. Never did Jonghyun act as stubborn as this time, despite the tantrums he witnessed his cousin threw when they were much younger. He finally let go and gestured Jin-Ah to do the same. "Fine, we'll see if Doctor Choi allows you."

Byul had no idea why she felt sour as she stared at Kibum walking towards the counter.

X X X X X X X X X X

Jonghyun stumbled his way to the hall. Despite the painful knocks and bumps, and also the whispering around him, he did not give up. He tried to map the path to his destination by memory and distance calculations. He ignored the concerned juniors who asked whether he needed assistance. He did not stop chanting things like "go away" and "I don't need your help" until he finally got to push the door of the large hall open.

It was probably a good thing that there were multiple ways to get up the stage — stairs from the front, and two more located at both sides of the stage, with a ramp beside it. Jonghyun could have used the ramp, but perhaps it was that he could not accept his disability that he insisted to get to the piano by the staircase. He tripped several times due to miscalculations of the height of the staircases since he could not see a thing. For once, he felt that the normal flight of stairs actually felt as steep as stepping across onto the stage from the audience.

He slowly sat onto the cushion seat as his fingers hovered across the keyboard so that he could figure out where each note were.

Several seconds later, he started with a G note on his left hand, a melody to the tempo of a waltz coming after. Then an echo from the creaking door came long. Byul heard the other melody that linked her to him, "A Child's Mind" by Song Kwangsik.

"Song Kwangsik's my second favourite composer, after Joe Hisaishi, of course."

"Really? I love 'Reflection_I". But I guess it was probably a waltz too, like 'The Merry-Go-Round of Life'. I adored waltzes. That's why I chose one for this competition."

"Then you should like 'A Child's Mind', it's a waltz too. It's my favourite song from Song Kwangsik. Listening to it makes you picture yourself walking down a street in the summer Paris, with coffee in your hand and all."

"I could totally picture how the song sounds like now."

Byul stayed silent even after Jonghyun ended. She knew she had the same thoughts as Jonghyun's performance when she heard weeps.

It was not a bad shot, actually, but the song sounded much stiffer as it should had, more like an amateur Grade 3 who decided to give a shot on light songs. The boy lost his grace on his fingertips since he went blind. 

Jonghyun banged on the piano as his sobs grew louder into wails. He lost his touch. A musical performer lost his touch, and there goes his future.

He smashed onto the keyboard harder and harder as he bawled. Through the darkness he saw through his eyes, he pictured how people would snicker at his uselessness, his good-for-nothingness. Headers flashed across. Heir of Arpeggietta loses musical abilities! Kim Jong-Il's son to abandon the association due to blindness!

Restraining from the deafening screams and bangs indoors, Byul closed the door and walked away, not realizing the glistening drops from her eyes.

X X X X X X X X X X

Kibum gave an exhausted whistle from carrying things on the floor from one end to the other, making sure that a path is visible so that his cousin will not step on something and fall. Frowning, he grabbed his dorm key and proceeded to the door, opening it to see Byul standing at the corridor with a startled face, her right hand in a pose as if she wanted to knock on the door.

"You could have used the bell instead, Korean dramas are rather old-fashioned at this point." Kibum joked, alluring a smile to Byul. "I assume you came for Jonghyun?"

"It's just... I'm worried of him. He cried really hard at the hall."

"Heard from passer-bys, yeah." Kibum nodded in agreement. "You don't need to worry. Samchon^[1] always said that Jonghyun hardly ever cried since young, but when he did, he threw bad tantrums. That's why I let him leave the hospital, because I knew he'd give up when he finally realizes how useless a musician would become without a pair of eyes to assist him throughout his career."

Byul looked at her toes. Hardly ever threw tantrums, eh? Then the accident must have really struck him hard. Kibum lightly chuckled at the girl's reaction as he continued his words.

"My cousin might look like a strong person, but you'll never know how much tears he's been holding back." the male sighed. "That's why he threw tantrums if he ever let tears fall down his cheeks. Like a balloon bursting after being stretched too much due to the air inside it. And the accident seemed to have been the greatest gust of air."

The girl remained silent.

"Well, if you'd like to make up for that, though not that you should since it was an accident after all..." Kibum spoke moments later as Byul looked up at the male again.

"Jin-Ah said she's going to be rather busy for rehearsals, and so am I. Perhaps you should look after him while we're not in."

Hope sparkled in Byul's eyes. She nodded madly to the offer. Kibum smiled back and locked the door before he went to search for his cousin in the campus. As Byul looked at the male's back, she suddenly thought of something as she called the latter. "Wait!"

The golden-haired boy turned back and stared at Byul running towards him. "What if... He hates me because of the accident? No... What if he already hated me since the day I rejected his invitation?"

"He wouldn't have saved you from that car if he hated you because of that rejection, silly," Kibum laughed as he ruffled the girl's hair and continued walking, finishing his last sentence before he disappeared down the stairs.

^[1]Samchon: Uncle, and in this case, referred to as Jonghyun's father.

I have to update early because I'm not going to be around on the first of July (This is probably my closest update to "on time" so far...). Not only will it be Leeteuk's birthday and D-29 of his return to Super Junior, it is also the preliminary rounds for my school's inter-class debate! I'm really nervous here, you see!

The August update will be a much more screwed up update than this one (despite writing 1000+ words for this update), but there're going to be something really big happening... More like the second round of this story's . Round one was the accident, obviously.

Hope you guys'd still wait for further updates! And OI, KEEP UP THE COMMENTING SPIRITS! I SAW ONE COMMENT DOWN THERE! AND yes, dear ElmoBrew, sorry for making Jonghyun blind OAO