Taekwoon's POV

"That will be all, Leo. You're done for the day."

I said nothing, choosing to simply bow my head instead, listening to the scraping sound of metal on stone as my teacher got up and went to the door.

"I expect next lesson that you'll have actually practiced instead of choosing to disrespect me by pretending you did."

The door opened and closed before I had the chance to respond.

Not that I would have.

These so-called teachers don't deserve any response. They know nothing. I'm willing to bet that my teacher could never even dream of playing the music I am.

I hate him so much. I hate the way he coldly watches, waiting for anything that even remotely sounds like a mistake. I hate the way he forbids me from adding any sense of emotion to my playing, saying that emotion is "a deviation from what the composer wanted". I hate the way he makes me play for hours on end with no break in between. I hate the scissors he leaves at the end of the piano, always lingering there waiting to be used should he decide my nails are "too long". I hate that he saps the beauty and joy out of something I love.

I shake my head quickly, sitting there, basking in the silence of the recital hall, shaking out my hands.  Eventually, after regaining full mobility in my fingers, I get up and head towards the common area.

The sun's already beginning to go down, and the entire lobby is filled with a hazy, golden light that streams in from the large window above the entrance. Of course my teacher decided to let my lesson go well into dinner time. It's hardly worth it to head over now.

I decide just to head back up to my room, because at least then I'll have some time alone before everyone else shows up from dinner.

I go to unlock my door, only to hear the sound of it locking when I turn the key.

So either one of my roommates neglected to lock the door, which is unlikely, or that fourth empty bunk had, at some point today, gotten filled.

Bracing myself, I unlock the door once more and walk in, only to see a new student in the middle of desperately scrambling to simultaneously both jump out of my desk chair and bow. In the end, this resulted in him knocking over the chair, it's impact loudly echoing around the room.

I stood there, feeling embarrassed for him, not quite sure how to respond.

"Sorry! Uh, I'm sorry. I'm,..new here, and I was just, uh, waiting for you, or anyone I guess, to show up, because I wasn't quite sure where to...unpack, and, uh..."

He knelt down, picking up the chair and sliding it back to its original spot.

I internally cringed as I waited with some kind of morbid curiosity to see what else this mess of a student would stutter out.

"I'm sorry about the chair, I didn't know where else to really go. Oh! My name's Hongbin and I-"

"Stop."

He looked at me in shock as I interrupted him.

"I'm sorry?"

"Just...stop talking."

He stared with big eyes and nodded dumbly.

"I'm Leo. That's my bed."

I pointed to the lower bunk next to where he was standing, resulting in him quickly moving away.

"And that's your bunk over there."

He quickly scrambles over to the other side of the room, placing his bag on the top bunk.

Unsure of what else to say, and in no real rush to set him off into rambling again, I sit on my bed, going through my bag until I find my laptop and headphones, putting them on quickly.

I try to focus on my work; I'm supposed to be writing a new piece for violin, but I can feel the new student staring at me.  I look up a bit from my screen, looking at him from the corner of my eyes.

I can tell he wants to ask me something, I can see him wringing his hands, rubbing them together and just generally being distracting and twitchy, with that tentative gaze that I can feel on the back of my neck. 

I can sympathize in a way, Rovix is certainly hard to get used to for the first couple of days-

More like the first couple of weeks.

Or months.

But it is not my job to have to take care of him, and I'd rather not be the one who has to explain to him the...unorthodox system that Rovix works under.

I'd rather not talk to him at all, honestly.

So I set back to work, turning my back towards him slightly and making sure he can hear me typing on the computer.

I keep checking the clock, for once wishing dinner time to go by quicker, so I can be spared the discomfort of being alone in a room with...whatever it is he said his name was.

Speaking of dinner, did no one tell him he was missing dinner hour?

I couldn't help but feel a bit guilty, as the new student must have unwittingly sat here, unsure what to do, and unknowingly missing dinner completely.

But then again, it's not my job. That kind of stuff should have been mentioned when he first arrived. Or he should have had the brains to ask, or figure it out himself when he looked at the clock.  Who knows, though, maybe he was just feeling too awkward to join everyone right away.

I wouldn't blame him.

There's by no means a lot of people here at Rovix, but there's enough that one can feel a bit intimidated if you're not familiar with all of them.

Especially if you're as much of a mess as this kid is.

Hopefully in time, though, he'll get used to it.

He'd better, at any rate, because I definitely did not want him always hanging around in the room. I was always bad at working around other people, and I'd never get any work done with him awkwardly hovering the way he is now.

I could feel him still just staring, and I turned my head to look at him, but as soon as I did, he was just as quick to turn his head the other way, so I just went back to work, though I did turn off my music in case he should say anything, but I left the headphones on, in the hopes that that would keep him from trying to.

It didn't work.

After about 10 painful minutes, he spoke up, much to my chagrin.

"Sorry...uh...Leo?"

I sighed, taking off my headphones and looking at him.

He didn't continue to speak for a while, instead just nervously staring at me.

"What?"

"Oh, right, sorry. I was just wondering if I could, maybe, ask you some questions, you know, about...um...here. It's just, the head master, he didn't really explain much, so I-"

"Just ask the student advisor. He's only next door. He'd be better at answering questions."

"Oh, okay. Right."

He rubbed the back of his neck, jumping as lightly as he could off the bed and heading to the door.

"Not now though." I paused. "He's probably still at dinner. Dinner goes from 5:30 to 6:30. You don't really have much time to go now, but it shouldn't be long before he's back."

I did feel a bit badly, looking at his face that was awful at masking his discomfort.

"Ah...thanks for telling me. I guess I'll go in a bit then."

He walked back to his bed and let a moment pass in silence.

"...Why aren't you at dinner then?"

Please don't try to make conversation with me.

"Just because."

"Oh, right."

I heard a rustling sound and looked up to see him digging through his backpack.

"Well, uh, if you're hungry at all, I have some food that I brought with me."

He held some kind of granola bar towards me. I shook my head and he quickly retracted his arm.

"Oh, okay. Uh...you don't mind if I, uh, eat in here...do you?"

I shook my head again.

"Great...thanks."

The room thankfully became silent again, besides the sound of him eating and me typing.

Unfortunately I knew it wouldn't be long before everyone else showed up and ruined the quiet once more.