To Requester : OMG, I'm so sorry! The plot I wrote barely follows what you wanted and I changed the titled and ohmigah, I'm so horrible. ; ~;

I'm so sorry...

Of Music, Love, and Chalk Covered Sidewalks

Park Jiyoung is five when she’s sure she meets her best friend.

It’s one of those days when Jiyoung is playing outside by herself, scribbling rainbows and drawing bears with colorful pieces of chalk on the sidewalk. Her parents are watching her from inside her home, occasionally checking on her because they love their only daughter too much to actually have her left alone.

She’s in the middle of scrawling a face for a giraffe when a moving truck and car pull up to the driveway of the home next her theirs.

Before she knows it, Jiyoung’s parents are outside greeting their new neighbors as furniture gets lugged out of the truck.

The Kim family is nice, nearly as enthusiastic and happy as hers and Jiyoung smiles big when they introduce her to their son, Kibum.

His hair is brown and his eyes are sharp. He’s blunt and honest with a bit of an attitude for a skinny five year old and Jiyoung’s chalky fingers stain his when they shake hands.

She grins, “You’re pretty.”

It doesn’t get long for Jiyoung to get glued to Kibum. She takes into heart every word he says and hangs on to him like a life line. Though, it takes her a while to get used to his shifting personality, changing from teasingly snarky to his hidden sweetness and odd femininity.

Soon, Jiyoung and Kibum are inseparable; neither of them found without the other. They’re always seen side by side, their childish laughs ringing throughout the neighborhood as they paint meters of the sidewalk with their youth and nothing else matters but the powdery chalk stains on their hands and clothes.

Those drawings don’t last forever, though, washed away and fading from footsteps and soon disappearing.

Just like that, their friendship ends after two years when Kibum is forced to move because of some new job his father had gotten.

Jiyoung waves goodbye to Kibum as he waves back through the window of his parent’s car. Two years only feels like two days to Jiyoung and she thinks she won’t be able to see Kibum, their promise of forever washed away like the chalked markings on the pavement. She only hopes that it all doesn’t fade away as the distance between her and the car grows.

Jiyoung reverts back to her happy self within weeks, making friends and cooping herself in her room every day after school.

There are new neighbors now living in the house Kibum once lived in, another couple with a son too old to be scribbling childish nonsense on cement. Jiyoung it sitting on the curb, drawing tiny pink hearts as she thinks about Kibum, wondering if he’s doing the same with a piece of red chalk.

She is nine when she first hears actual music – the melody of a piano humming soundly through the walls of the house next door and Jiyoung finds she loves the sound. It’s then that she knows what she wants to do.

“Mama!” She exclaims, her school bag being dropped carelessly next to the couch as she races to the kitchen.

“Mama, I want to learn piano.” Jiyoung is tugging insistently at the hem of her mother’s shirt and her mother smiles down at her.

“Okay.” Her mother says and Jiyoung concentrates solely on her piano lessons, finishing her homework quickly to focus on perfecting her scales.

At age fourteen, Jiyoung’s parents sign her up for vocal lessons. Her voice is scratchy, cracking when she tries to sing pitches she can’t reach. But her parents support her fully with her choice and she’s passionate with her music, so she tries hard.

Within years, her voice is as beautiful as the graceful press of the piano keys when she plays.

When Jiyoung is old enough, she moves out of her parents’ home, instead living in a dorm with two roommates she barely knows the names of. Her mother still calls her of course, cooing her I miss you and sending all their support and love through every phone call.

She’s been accepted into some music academy on a scholarship after working so diligently on her piano and vocal lessons. When the classes start, Jiyoung buries herself in music compositions, black and white keys and the next note she tries to perfect.

It’s as she’s heading back to her dorms, voice itchy and fingers sore, when Kibum runs into her. And Jiyoung has to blink and pinch herself a couple times to make sure she isn’t dreaming.

“Hi!” Kibum greets her warmly, more handsome than ever.

Jiyoung finds she can’t speak; dry and she’s so confused. Kim Kibum, her best friend of only two years is standing, grinning, right in front of her and she can’t even tell Do from Re anymore. She stumbles a little, arms wrapping immediately around his neck and she nearly sobs.

Kibum laughs and it’s reassuring, gentle when his arms encircle her waist, “I missed you.”

“I missed you!” Jiyoung mumbles into his shoulder, so delighted and happy with tears streaking down her cheeks, “God, you idiot. How could you leave me? Didn’t even give me your phone number…”

Still smiling, Kibum tightens his hold for a second before pulling away to wipe away her tears, “We were too young to share things like phone numbers and emails.”

Jiyoung shakes her head, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m not even supposed to be here.” Kibum chuckles, “but we moved back and I’m visiting a friend who goes here. Maybe you know him? Kim Jonghyun?”

“Oh.” She hums, nodding.

“Are you busy later? We should do something.”

There’s the chime of a bell and students are suddenly shuffling the hall and Jiyoung hesitates for a brief second before pulling out a piece of paper and a pen from her bag. She jots down her number before pressing it into the palm of his hand, smiling.

“I think I’ve got time.”

Jiyoung is sure by the time they’re hanging out for seriously the thousandth time since Kibum – Key, as he says he’s now called – has come back that she loves him. She’s fallen in love with this Key who has grown and matured, now a striving artist (and god is he good).

Kibum – Key, she has to keep reminding herself, is still honest and blunt but he’s still caring. He’s so skillful in what he does, painting landscapes and sketching faces so real and simply beautiful. Every of his pen or brush is sure and perfect it leaves Jiyoung in awe.

But, Jiyoung is worried. She’s starting to struggle with her own passion as she sticks more and more to Kibum. It’s hard for her to focus with every text and call that her voice jumps at a note she’s already perfected and her fingers tangle over smooth keys. And she knows she won’t be able to handle both Kibum and her music.

Her breath shakes when Kibum takes her hand, smiling like always as he confidently says three words.

“I love you.”

And Jiyoung bows her head because she loves him back, so much more than she allows herself to. She just can’t bring herself to say it, to commit when she’s been committed to her music for years.

“Key – Kibum. I can’t. Not yet –” She stutters helplessly.

 “We’ll make it work.” He says, “It’ll be easy, like covering the pavement with miles and miles of chalk.”

She sighs but Kibum kisses away the pout on her face, kisses her slow and sweet and just right. And Jiyoung can’t help but think that it will be easy – like chalk covered sidewalks.