“Hey, what the are you doing with the first year?” A voice deeper than this dark basement echoed.

The two of us spun around. I saw a tall boy with pitch black hair. It was hard to see what he looked like because it was so dark but I could tell from his voice that he was pretty pissed.

“Chanyeol! Oh, I was-” She staggered.

“Don’t lie to me. I followed you the whole time hoping that you weren’t thinking of doing what you did last year but I guess I overrated you.” He snorted.

“Look, I’m just doing what sunbaes do for their hoobaes! It’s the school tradition!! And why are you suddenly concerned about this? I don’t remember you giving about it last year!” She pouted.

Chanyeol sunbae shook his head. He walked down the steps and grabbed my hand.

“Hey, where are you taking her?” Solbi sunbae raged.

“To her classroom, duh.”

I walked up the staircase staring at my hero’s broad back. I wanted to throw my arms around him to show my appreciation. Leaving the angry sunbae, we headed back to ground level. I had to jog to keep up with his long legs.

“Where’s your class room?” He asked, his back still facing me.

“Uhhh…Music History…” I murmured.

Our hands were still entwined as he led me to my first class. After a few more seconds of silence, we reached a classroom. He slid the door open and walked in. I half walked half stumbled in. Everyone was staring at me. Actually, they were staring at our entwined hands. I looked down in awkwardness.

“A third year student decided to take her down to the basement for fun.” That was all he had to say to my professor who sighed heavily. I guessed that this kidnapping ritual happened often at the start of the year.

The professor gave me a sympathetic smile, “I’m sorry you had to go through this on your first day of school, Ara. Please, sit where you wish.”

I smiled back at her and was about to walk over to an empty seat when sunbae oppa tugged on my hand. I turned around and faced him for the first time.

We were less than a feet apart. His eyes were dark brown and his lips were baby pink. I almost melted when his eyes folded into a beautiful half crescent smile. I swallowed.

“I’m sure you’re gonna do amazing without my luck but…good luck,” He murmured. He looked down at my name tag, “Ara.”

He then straightened his bent knees and let go of my hand. I quickly clasped my hands together. He placed his hand on my head and messily tousled my hair before he walked out of the classroom. I couldn’t stop my blood from rushing to my cheeks. I quickly finger combed my slightly tangled hair and walked to the back of the room past the awestruck students.

***

After the boring history class, I went to my next class. I made sure that I knew where I was going five minutes in advance so that I wouldn’t get stuck in the basement with a y sunbae. Although, I didn’t mind being rescued by a super cute sunbae oppa… I slumped down on an empty seat at the back of the classroom thinking about his broad back and his deep sparkly chocolate brown eyes. I just wanted to run my hand through that charcoal black hair of his.

“Attention, class!! Now today, I would like to do a brief check up on your sight reading skills. Form a line in front of my desk.”

I started to panic. I stared at my class schedule. It clearly said room 207- Pia class. So why was I panicking?

I couldn’t read notes.

The professor stood beside the grand piano and handed the student a composition that he or she had to play by sight reading. Everyone in front of me had no trouble reading the notes on the sheet. My palms became sweaty and my heart pounded against my rib cage. I felt like I was going to puke.

“Next.”

I tried to take deep breaths as I made my way to the grand piano but I could already feel the anxiety kicking in. I took the composition with shaky hands and scanned over as I sat down in front of the gorgeous instrument. I swallowed in fear. It was happening again. The notes were salsa dancing in front of me; jumping from line to line and sticking their tongues out. My eyes swirled with nausea.

“I..I can’t do this…I c..can’t sight r..read…” I breathed. Everyone around me gasped, including the professor.

“What do you mean you can’t sight read?” He asked.

“I’ve always h..had trouble reading t..them…maybe I’m…I don’t know…musically dyslexic?” I shrugged in embarrassment. I just made up the stupidest word for the stupidest excuse. A musician who can’t read notes!! I felt like a failure.

“Wait, you’re the student who received full scholarship in the singer/song writer major, right?” The professor reminded me. I nodded with shame.

“Then how do you make music? I’m not being sarcastic. I’m genuinely curious.” He added.

“Well, I just…write the lyrics when I feel inspired, and I play out some random chords on my piano that might fit into my lyrics, and I build up on it with other instruments. I record it when I’m done because that’s how I keep track of my songs but I also use the computer program hooked onto my key board to write out the score; but I do that because everyone else does it. I don’t really use music sheets…”

“Have you learned music professionally?”

“Not until today…”

My professor looked at me as if I was his new science experiment. He got lost in his thought for a minute then faced the piano.

“Miss Jo, may I try something? I’ll play the composition for you once and I want you to play it for me the next time. Will you be able to do that?” He was cautious.

“Sure, why not.” I shrugged. I did it all the time.

My professor briefly played an unfamiliar piece from his head that was about a minute long. I closed my eyes and let it sink into my ears. The harmony of the notes was so beautiful. He stepped away from the piano and I knew that it was my turn.

“May I play the piece in another key? I think it would sound much more elegant in my opinion…” I asked. He nodded in surprise.

I took a deep breath and placed my fingers on the right keys. Before I could think, my fingers started to move to the music in my head. I knew I was hitting the right keys without a music sheet. My feet stepped on the pedals when I felt like it was needed. I didn’t remember my professor stepping on it but the music sounded much more elegant with a few soft presses. My eyes fluttered open when I realized that I was done. I looked around and saw people with their jaws hanging down. As soon as one student started to clasp, everyone else followed with a round of applause. I blushed with all the attention on me.

“Well, I’m quite impressed. I believe that you have a rare talent that not everyone has the privilege to be born with…hmmm…I would like you to go to class 102 before you leave the school building in the afternoon. There’s someone who would be more than delighted to meet you.” He smiled.