6

The tensed silence that covered the room was oppressive. Once in a while, it was broken by the clinks of utensils against the ceramic plates. Myungsoo had no appetite to eat, but wanting to escape his father’s stern gaze and his mother’s fake smiles, he gulped down all the food with much difficulty. It was rare that they had any dinner like this together and whenever they did, he hated it. It was just not natural. He would have to sit with a straight back and eat with exceptional table manners. It was not that he had bad table manners but it was frustrating to have his parents watching his every move.

When dinner was over, the family rose from their chairs and went out of the dining room, leaving their half-finished food on the table. Myungsoo prepared to leave his parents and strode towards the stairs. But his father’s voice stopped him in his tracks.

“Myungsoo,” his father called. He mentally groaned and turned around. “You haven’t practiced for days.”

“Come on dear, play something for us. I would prefer Chopin,” his mother voiced her thoughts, clasping her two hands together and putting on one of her despicable fake smile. When Myungsoo paused in reluctance, his parents paused as well, waiting patiently.

When he decided that they were not going to let him do otherwise, he slowly traced his steps towards the piano. His mother let out a satisfied smile, knowing she had won the silent war.

Myungsoo opened the fall board carefully and sat stiffly on the stool. Knowing the piece by heart, he hit the notes perfectly, no miss, no unclear notes, no mistakes. There was only one word to describe his playing: perfect. His parents had always described him as a prodigy. True, he was more accomplished than most of others: he had been playing before he could even talk upon his parents’ wishes. But he played monotonously, in other words, insincere. There were thousands of other pianists who could play just as well. But a prodigy embeds feelings into their playing and makes them come to life.

He never knew the meaning of music but perhaps he would someday. Once again, he slept that night, not knowing what he had missed.

-------

Myungsoo stared at the pile of crumpled tissue papers on Sunggyu’s desk. With nose, red and watery eyes, Sunggyu was clearly not paying attention in class. He was usually the most supportive one especially in math class: spouting out answers even though he did not know them. Now, with his sneezing fits and runny nose to take care of, he neglected the class on whole.

Without Sunggyu’s enthusiastic replies and participation in class, the lesson turned into a dry one. The teacher, having no one to support her speech, directed all her attention on getting back on Myungsoo. She had something –well, everything – against him ever since the incident the previous day.  And so, she was determined to make him suffer.

As she walked around the class, giving her endless speech about the nearing exams, her eyes landed upon Jiyeon. She let out a sly smile. She had an idea. She did not execute her plan until the class was over.

“Park Jiyeon, you were absent yesterday. Am I right?” She did not wait for Jiyeon to respond before continuing, “Kim Myungsoo. Please teach Jiyeon on the lesson she missed yesterday. I will test her at the end of the day to see if you taught her properly or not.”

Feigning the sweetest smile, she looked both at Jiyeon and Myungsoo. Poor Jiyeon, she had been dragged into her devious scheme.  The teacher picked up her things before dismissing the class for their break.

Even in his sickly condition, Sunggyu managed an impish smile and picked up his tissue papers to discard them.

“If you have not realised it yet, the teacher hates you. Well,” He slapped his friend’s stiff back “Good luck.”

With that, he left, leaving Myungsoo to struggle out of the mess himself. He looked around and realised that he and Jiyeon were the only people left. And for the first time in his life, he was at lost of what to do. Then, he regained his posture, arranged his thoughts and decided to do it like a man. He walked towards the clueless figure on the other side of the classroom leisurely.

“Go on to the usual place. I have something to attend to.”

Jiyeon nodded, knowing exactly where he meant. She headed off. When she was out of sight, he opened his bag and hesitantly took out a piece of paper and a pen. Realising his strange behaviour of the moments, he shook himself and proceeded towards their agreed meeting place. Unknown to him, a pair of watchful eyes was scrutinizing his every move.

Myungsoo felt and intense burning on his back, as if someone had been following him and watching him carefully. But every time he looked back, he saw only the emptiness of the hallways. His instincts told him otherwise. He knew someone was following him. He walked faster, somehow knowing that whoever was following him could not keep up to his long strides. Soon enough, he was greeted by the fresh, cool air and the sight of a girl’s back whom he assumed was Jiyeons’.

Then, he saw the magnificent clock tower, which was framed by the sun’s brilliance.

It was a beautiful day. Despite the chilly weather, the wind blew calmly and the soothing air enclosed in around him. The branches snapped with the wind. He slowed down forgetting about the earlier chase. She was sitting on one of the benches that surrounded the huge water fountain. If at night it had glimmered in the moonlight, in the day, the sunlight enhances it s serenity. The whole scene was an oasis.

“Hey,” The wind carried his voice to her ears. She turned to see Myungsoo coming towards her. On that particular moment, when his dark hair swayed with the wind, she finally understood why the girls swoon over him. His face was angled perfectly; his eyes had a mysterious twinkle that made people wonder what lie beneath its surface and she assumed that his lean figure was what most girls had admired. But she did not find why she should like him because of his features and chose to ignore his exceedingly attractive appearance.

“Ok,” his voice broke her train of thoughts. “We’re going to go through trigonometrical geometry.”

“The first thing that you need to know is obviously about trigonometrical ratio. There are three operations that you need to familiarize yourself with. So that is basically why it’s called the trigonometrical ratio. The three operations are: sin(sine), cos(cosine) and tan(tangent).”

He explained further, with Jiyeon giving nods as indications of comprehension. Without him realising it, he had explained most of the first part of the topic effortlessly. What not, He had equipped himself with teaching skills and repeated them everyday so that someday, when his sister is capable enough, he could share his knowledge with her. Though he knew that this was just a fruitless hope, he desperately clung onto that very hope. Teaching the girl in front of him had somehow renewed his empty hope. Without noticing it, euphoria planted itself deep down in his heart.

Five minutes before the break ended, their ‘class’ ended. To confirm that he had taught her properly, and that she understood whatever she needed to know, he asked one last time.

“Understand?”

She did not reply for a few seconds and assuming her silence for hesitance, he held up the blank piece of paper and the pen he had brought.

“If there is something you need to know, you can write it down here.”

She instantly stood up and snatched the white paper from his hands. He had somehow found out that she was mute. She crumpled the paper and threw it away, throwing with it, his confidence and left him clueless. She smiled at him and walked away. If he needed to communicate with her, he would not need a paper and pen. She would show him what he needed.

Seeing the girl smiling at him made him realised what he had just done. He almost opened himself up to a stranger. He kept his frustration to himself and unwillingly walked to class.

Upon his entrance, his classmates were talking to each other in hushed whispers. They were trying not to make it obvious that they were not talking about him but it was clear enough that they were. As if it happened on daily basis, he put on deaf ears on the hushed conversations and seated himself beside his restless friend.

Before he could even make himself comfortable, Sunggyu grabbed him by his collar and pulled him close.

“Man! Did you know what you had gotten yourself into?” He hissed, barely able to control his volume.

Myungsoo was silent from confusion. That was invitation enough for Sunggyu who was exceedingly impatient on breaking the news to his friend.

“Did you know of the latest rumor that had been circulating just a while ago about you and well, her,” he pointed his chin towards the girl whom he was talking about.

Myungsoo did not need to look to know who he meant. It was obvious that he was referring to Park Jiyeon.

“So, how did your little date go, Mr. Popular?” Sunggyu mocked.

He snickered, which was followed by a series of coughs and sneezing fits. When it was over, he sniffed and rubbed his already too red nose and grinned.  

“Oh, and trust me, you might want to keep her away from the preying eyes of your crazy fans.” He advised his friend dryly.

Myungsoo shrugged.

------

Myungsoo looked at his watch. Crap, he was twenty minutes late. If that damned Sunggyu had not made him run errands, he would be at the clock tower right now. He had been running throughout searching for Mr. Lee(Sunggyu’s soccer coach) ,to pass him his friend’s excuse letter.

But the coach had seemed to be playing hide and seek with him. When he saw his silhouette moving towards the teacher’s lounge, Myungsoo had followed him. But when he neared, there was no sign of him at all. And when he saw the tall figure who seemingly walked towards the cafeteria, the same thing had happened. He was finally able to hand the letter to him twenty minutes later at the school filed. He did not know why he had felt so upset.

“You know I have a feeling that you shut yourself up just to irritate me.”

Myungsoo halted and turned towards the sound of the high pitched voice. Oblivious to his very presence she continued on.

“Look here,” she forcefully lifted Jiyeon’s chin so that she would be staring directly into her venomous eyes.”I give you one more chance to swear upon your life to distance yourself from him.”

Jiyeon’s failure to satisfy her wants had further enraged the already boiling girl in front of her. She clenched fist and said in a restrained voice.

“Very well, I heard that ignorant girls are tough. Let’s test it out.”

She raised her arms and opened her clenched fist. Then, diverting all the energy she had to her raised arm, she swung it aiming on Jiyeon’s exposed porcelain cheek.

But then an alarming force stopped her hand in action. So strong it was that all her strength died down upon impact. Myungsoo steel grip was enclosed around her wrist. She looked up to find a pair of cold eyes boring into hers. Chill ran into her every vein, biting her to the marrow. She felt cold, no numb. Myungsoo had used his dominance against her, and he didn’t do it for himself. It was for her. He glanced on Jiyeon for a second and let go of the grip.

He took one step and leaned to his side.

“I take that you won’t do that ever again,” he regained his posture “and, she has nothing to do with me.”

Then he walked away.

 Yeseul, not believing what she had just encountered, forgot all about Jiyeon. With her distracted, Jiyeon took the chance to escape and trotted a distance behind Myungsoo. The sun was almost setting by the time she reached her clock tower. Myungsoo had reached a few minutes before her as she was not able to keep up with his long strides. Seeing him not seated at the bench like he always did, she nodded in acknowledgement and beckoned him near.

He progressed and when he was within her earshot, he blurted out.

“You play the piano?”

It was a stupid question and he knew that it was not needed. But her answer puzzled him even more. She shook her head and smiled before stepping into the darkness. And this time, he followed.

The dark abyss engulfed and it caught him off guard at first. But then, Jiyeon’s reassuring footsteps rang in his ears and he followed the sound. Then, it stopped. He knew that she was already sitting on the stool. Without persuasion, he went to sit beside her.

Jiyeon started playing as soon as she felt his warmth beside her.

The warmth of her playing soon soaked into his ears, bringing with it a voice that raised the hair on the nape of his neck.

Hi, my name is Jiyeon.It was spoken in a language he had never known, yet he understood it perfectly. The melodious voice caught him off guard. She was talking; introducing herself through her playing. It did not take long for him to realize that it was the language of music.

The urge to reply made his fingers run across the keys. He improvised the playing on the upper notes. Jiyeon had to match and soften the intensity of his playing. And soon they were playing like the devils, shooting notes at each other and combining four hands into one. All the feelings poured out, the playing running high and low like the river meandering about to find its heart. They were playing along with each others’ heartbeats. 

If her playing alone had been magnificent, their playing was simply beautiful. He finally understood her denial of playing the piano before they went in the clock tower.

It was not the instrument that she played: it was music.

----

A/N:

Guys, i am sorry for the late update. Again. I know this is not the best chapter I had ever written and i apologize. I had like, tests for the whole week and I think I had totally caught on Sunggyu's illness. Hehe. If you have any questions, well, DON"T ASK. just kidding. Questions and  comments are welcomed. :D

Well, once again enjoy!! ^^

-Faith