ARC ONE

passionato

Origin: Italian
In music, noting a passage to be rendered with emotional intensity

DISCLAIMER: The personalities and opinions of these characters do not represent those of actual idols themselves, the Juilliard students, the New York Philharmonic, or any of its employees. The Juilliard School is not responsible for the accuracy of information.

The Fifteenth Measure

Thursday: September 10, 2020

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* “Okinasai! Okinasai! (Wake up! Wake up!)”

Not that alarm again…

Sana has this obnoxious ringtone on her smartphone that goes off every ten minutes because that girl sleeps like a rock. The alarm rotated between about six different annoying noises of varying pitch and volume. At the top of the hour, it commences with the sound of a soothing woman’s voice. Yet with each progression in ten minute intervals, the pitch and the energy of the woman’s voice only becomes higher and more annoying, like a stereotypical thirteen year-old anime girl. For two hours, I tolerated that alarm. But now I feel like I’m going to go nuts if I hear another goddamn kid telling me to wake up.

Half-awake, I climb down from the top bunk to check on Sana, who is resting on top of an inflatable bed that Chaekyung seized from Target last night. She’s still clothed in the cutout dress that she wore to the nightclub. She looked like an innocent puppy that was exhausted from playtime, drool falling from and dribbling down her chin. She looked so fragile, so vulnerable that nothing in the world can implement her calm mind with bad thoughts. I didn't want to destroy her tranquility as I would have loved to be in the same state as Sana.

But I can't stand that alarm.

"Hey", I lightly shook Sana on the shoulder, only managing a small budge to the right. Her facial expression remained the same. Then I shook her harder, but to no avail. I'm getting exhausted at this point and I need to save my strength for lugging around my bassoon case on my back. 

Wait, why do I even care? I could just leave the dorm and be on my way.

I hovered over to the lamp table to check my phone for the time:

11:30 p.m.

Oh no. I missed class. I must've overslept because I stayed up all night trying to get Chaekyung and Sana to shut up about horn stuff. The two girls were drunk and loud when they had returned from the nightclub. That was a disruption from what I thought would be a peaceful rest for the night. 

Dammit. Reina is in that class too. She's going to be wondering where the hell I was.

Slipping off my pink jammies, I hurriedly threw on a random sweater and some black skinny jeans. I slung my instrument case straps over my shoulders and made my way out the dorm room. There was no time to make breakfast, so I figured that I would just settle with brunch before my piano lesson. Yes, I have to take piano lessons — it's a course that every music major in Juilliard is required to take regardless of what instrument you play. My piano-playing skills are decent, if not a little above-average. My fingers have been trained enough to move quickly enough during fast passages thanks to the bassoon (which uses all ten of my fingers to operate the keys).

I plan to unwind at Richard Tucker Square, a small triangular park known formerly as Empire Park North. It isn't truly a park because there's more concrete than grass, but whatever. It's conveniently located adjacent to the Juilliard School and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. I could easily grab a club sandwich from one of the the street vendors and sit in one of the tables around the plaza. And unlike the Juilliard SAB Café, Richard Tucker Square isn't entirely congested with Juilliard students, making way to a blissful hour of eating and studying before my next class.

When I arrived at a table placed as far away from other people as possible, a troop of Juilliard students carried in more long, rectangular tables along the block. I totally forgot that there would be an student activities fair running throughout this week and next week, and it's usually a pain in the trying to avoid these students from shoving fliers in your face. Most of the larger organizations, such as the Juilliard Orchestra, would have their advertising booths placed on the main campus. The orchestra's goal isn't to recruit new members, but rather to gain the public's interest and hopefully inspire the younger students to try out the orchestra in the future. The Juilliard's ensembles use this practice because they function as a college class and not an extracurricular past-time. During the add/drop period, students still have a chance to try out for these ensembles.

On the other hand, the only booths that I could see within my periphery were the Juilliard Christian Fellowship, the Office of Academic Support and Disability Services, and The Juilliard Pops Orchestra. Oh no, not the Pops Orchestra. Please don't approach me.

Thankfully, the members are nowhere near me as Jackson, Eunha, Jihyo, Tzuyu, and Dahyun set up their instruments on the plaza's mini-stage. Sighing, I return to my sandwich and continue studying for my next class. Damn you, Sana Minatozaki. If only you hadn't made me miss my music theory class, I wouldn't have to be stuck staring at my piano score for Schubert's Ave Maria. 

Now, back to studyi—

"BOOM! Flier in your face!" 

"EEK!" I screech, nearly falling off my chair. I jerk my head around to see a blonde girl with fishnet tights and a shockingly short dress.

"Bahahahahaha!" she laughed, "You're Mina Myoui, right? I didn't expect you to get scared that easily."

"W-What the hell do you want?" I stutter, still confounded by her sudden appearance.

"I'm Momo Hirai! Second violinist and co-vice president of the Juilliard's Pop Orchestra with Jihyo!" the taller girl exclaimed in her nasally voice, waving the flier in front of my face like a spazzing pidgeon, "We're in dire need of more woodwind players since most of them graduated last year. You don't even need to audition to join! Just walk into the Alice Tully Hall at ten o'clock anyday and let us know that you're willing to become a part of our magic. So will you be seeing us bassoon?"

"No", I didn't even give her joke a second to sit as I tucked my sheet music in my music folder and walked away.

"WAIT!" Momo started running towards me in those four-inch heels, "This is the perfect opportunity to add something to your resumé once you leave Juilliard!"

Ugh. Do I really need to spell it out for her?

I stopped in my steps to address her, "I said 'No'. N.O. I'm already a member of the Juilliard Orchestra and I'm taking nineteen credits this year. I don't have time to dilly dally and play showtunes and movie soundtracks and pop music with you guys. And plus, my resumé is already stellar. I don't need to be in another ensemble to raise my credibility as a performer."

That's right, Mina. Don't make that mistake of joining as many bands as possible just like you did in high school.

"But we don't have a bassoon player!"

"Go find another bassoonist!" I retorted, proceeding to walk even farther from Momo, "I don't even like pop music!"

The violinist was seriously trying hard to make a scene in front of other passerbys, "The other bassoon majors don't even want to join us!"

"And neither do I!" my tiny voice could only shout as loud as possible, "Now leave me alone!"

The Sixteenth Measure

That night at Juillard Orchestra Rehearsals, Alan Gilbert arranged for all of the orchestra members to sit in the audience seats as today would be the day that potential applicants would audition for vacant positions in our ensemble. Maestro Gilbert would carry out the auditioning procedure in the same fashion that most European orchestras, notably the Berlin Philharmonic, would recruit new members. Instead of calling in a panel of judges to evaluate the audition candidates, the entire orchestra would act as the judges themselves, each member granted the power to vote either "yes" or "no".  Yes, this seems brutal at first glance. But in all honesty, it's not that different from performing orchestral solos within the orchestra, surrounded by your colleagues, especially of those who play the same instrument. In some cases, the conductor may invite a musician on their own accord if they see potential in that musician, without the consent of the other members in the orchestra. However, this action is rare.

I watched the audition process take place as each candidate trickled out of the stage one by one, numbers decreasing by the minute. As principal bassoonist, I especially paid close attention to those who would be auditioning for third chair bassoon next to Minggyu. By far, I've voted "no" more times than I voted "yes". These kids would be better off playing for the Pops Orchestra because in my eyes, none of them have practiced hard enough to take this audition seriously. In fact, I had to dig through my music folder for the score to Bolero because one female audtionee couldn't even play the bassoon part by memory. On the application form, her name was spelled as "SinB", which I found preposterous because 1) she did not give me her legal name and 2) I would never address my section mates by a designated nickname. She did not get my vote. 

Once Jeon Somi, now a Juilliard freshman, skipped up to the stage with a wide smile and a newly-bought clarinet in her fingertips, Karen Fujii is squirming in her seat with joy at the sight of seeing her music theory mentee perform brilliantly. By far, Somi is the only one out of fifteen candidates that has been accepted a position in the Juilliard Orchestra: Fourth chair clarinet. 

The last audtionee for the day was a tiny girl with a bob cut and fists that could choke a white-tailed deer. Sitting in the back row, I could hear the percussion section laughing their asses off and pointing fingers at the small girl. The chorus of laughters from the orchestra only escalated. Reina was laughing to the point where she was in tears, slamming her face into Yuzuna's sleeve. And then I realized:

This girl wasn't wearing any shoes.

No shoes, no socks — just her bare feet. Yet she continued to smile as she approached a variety of auxillary instruments, from the tambourine to the cymbals, and then the snare drum and the bass drum on the center stage. In my opinion, she wasn't that bad. But then again, I'm not a percussionist so I can't differentiate between what sounds "good" and what sounds "bad". Himchan, the principal percussionist of the orchestra, snickered loudly when she advanced towards the marimba and played an excerpt to Keiko Abe's Dream of the Cherry Blossoms. It was more of a nightmare than a dream, as discordant notes sang throughout every corner of the Alice Tully Hall.

Reina Washio is usually such a serious person. Even when she felt happy her face was frozen in a stale timeframe, sunken into the kind of grimness your average person would have prior to a job interview. But when something tickled her as funny she howled, she slapped her hand up and down almost involuntarily and could barely breath for laughing. Fat tears would roll down her newly pinked cheeks and it would be several minutes before it subsided. I couldn't help but laugh at this amusing scene, because nothing ever tickles Reina's funny bone. 

The percussionist's solo was interrupted by Alan Gilbert, who dismissed her from the stage as soon as the orchestra members resounded in a huge laughter. I could see the small girl's walls tumbling down, brick by brick. She was on the verge of bursting into tears.

The Seventeenth Measure

Chaekyung and I returned to the dorm a little after 9 o'clock, exhausted from today's rehearsals because we had to sit in on auditions for two hours, and then practicing The Rite of Spring for the remaining amount of time that we were allocated. That unreasonably high solo gave me a migraine for the entire duration of our rehearsal session because bassoonists never play in the extreme high range on a daily basis. It was like a challenge to see how much air I could expell from my lungs before they completely explode. I feel like my lips are going to fall off. I couldn't even talk to Chaekyung when we were walking back to the dormitories because my lips were that numb, and she's a horn player!

Chaekyung informed me that Sana Minatozaki had rehearsals with the Pops Orchestra starting at 10 o'clock and that she won't get off until midnight. I couldn't even begin to comprehend how and why a bunch of lunatics would arrange their practices to be that late. No wonder they're not gaining any new members. Not everyone in Juilliard is nocturnal. No musician would want to go through the pain of sacrificing their sleep.

Especially after playing the strangest, highest, and most terrifyingly  exposed bassoon solo in existence.

I didn't bother taking a shower that night because of my throbbing headache, like a toothache in my brain. Tossing my leggings aside and pulling on a comfortable night shirt, I climbed to the top bunk and threw the blankets over my head as soon as I got in a comfortable position to rest. 

Nothing is going to disturb my beauty sleep tonight.

"MYOUI MINA!" 

I take that back.

I heard Sana storm into the room, the noise of her pounding footsteps resounding in my ears and causing an even greater headache than the one I had a few minutes ago, "I HEARD THAT YOU LAUGHED AT CHAEYOUNG DURING HER JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA AUDITION!"

"Mina? The one who keeps crushing everyone’s dreams at every competition?"

"By the way, I’m Chaeyoung. Son Chaeyoung. I’ve become a big fan of you since you defeated me at the Young Artists Competition in New York and the World Festival for Young Artists Competition in Belgium. I hope you don’t think lowly of me"

"It’s a miracle how she got accepted to the Juilliard School, especially since she’s partially deaf and has to perform barefoot to feel the music better."

Was that the girl who berated me at the Young Artists Competition in New York when I was in middle school? Was that the girl who asked for my autograph after my LaGuardia audition? Was that the girl that the librarian was talking about a while back? Was that the girl who was barefoot and gave a horrific performance? Was that Son Chaeyoung? I don't recall her having short hair when she asked for my autograph many years ago. It almost seemed as if she could hear perfectly fine back then too. I wonder what happened to Chaeyoung in order to bring her to this point.

I wasn't even laughing at her; I was laughing at Reina. "Sana, hold up. This is all a misundersta—"

"How could you?" her loud, high-pitched voice continues to pierce another needle into my skull, "Chaeyoung is my best friend! She was the one who introduced me to the others when I was a lonely member of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra! She's such a huge fan of yours!"

"Mina, is that true?"Chaekyung questioned, sounding surprised. I removed the blanket from my head to get a better look at their expressions.

And then I attempted to reconcile with the angry horn player, "You guys, listen to me. I wasn't laughing at Chae—"

"That doesn't matter!" Sana cut me off, "She still believes that you were laughing at her!"

"Shouldn't you be going off to practice with the Pops Orchestra?" I reminded her, trying to avoid the subject.

"Don't change the topic!" she pressed, "God, Mina. You changed a lot over the past few years since you started to hang out with your new group of your so-called "friends". Since when did you become such a ? Did winning competitions get over your ing head or something? I can't..." 

Oh my god, shut up.

I can't deal with this girl right now. She has worse listening skills than Son Chaeyoung, and that girl is deaf. Okay, scratch that last sentence. That was horrible of me to say, but I'm so frustrated with Sana right now because she's not even giving me a chance to make my case. The pain going on in my head was excruciating. Within a few seconds, I conked out while Sana was still lecturing me about how much I hurt her friend when in reality, I never meant to. I guess that I'll have to go and find Chaeyoung tomorrow morning so I can explain the whole situation to her. But right now, I need to get a good night's sleep because tomorrow, I'm going to spend hours running all over campus just to search for that girl.

The Eighteenth Measure

Friday: September 11, 2020

I woke up early that morning, feeling like a ball of after Sana was furious with me last night.

I felt like an even bigger ball of in my studio class because I was thinking about Chaeyoung for so long, that I forgot to soak my reeds in water before playing in front of eleven other bassoonists. And now my reeds are rock hard .

I didn't eat lunch with Reina and the others today, as I was sulking in one of the practice rooms for hours on end because I could only think about how terribly I sounded in my studio class, and I'm supposed to be the Grammy-Award-Winning bassoonist there. Everyone expected me to do extremely well and I didn't deliver any results. I heard news from Shuuka and Karen that Somi would be replacing Nayeon as a member of our group. Although it regains our credibility as a six member group, I just remembered that Nayeon is also a member of the Pops Orchestra and probably hates my guts even more for what happened to Chaeyoung.

I'm such a loser, aren't I?

When Chaekyung and I entered the Alice Tully Hall for rehearsals that night, we noticed a mass of orchestra members have gathered in separate circles within their sections. Everyone was still gossiping about Chaeyoung and all the other failed auditionees, and at the same time congratulating Somi and this other freshman named Kyla Massie for getting accepted into the Juilliard Orchestra. Nevertheless, Chaekyung and I effortlessly made our way to our respective seats, avoiding the mass of musicians clogging up the string section. But before I even had a chance to assemble my bassoon, Kai, the concertmaster and now a graduate student at Juilliard, entered the auditorium with a content smile on his face, holding a slew of documents in his hands as he skipped up to the conductor's podium to give the announcements.

"I have a lot of good news regarding the opening night for our 2020/2021 concert season", he said, eyeing every person standing the stage, "Maestro Alan Gilbert has decided to add yet another piece to our program for our first concert of the season."

All around the room, the orchestra members burst into a cacophony of groans.

Kai clears his throat and continues sharing the Maestro's updates, "In addition to Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and Strauss's Ein Heldenleben, Maestro would also like to add a concerto to highlight the talents of one of our most reveled members in the orchestra. Due to high demand by the student body and the outside masses, this Grammy award-winning girl will be performing a solo in the second half of our concert."

Ah, .

The moment Kai mentioned "a Grammy award-winning girl", I knew it would be me. There's no one else holding a Grammy award in this room.

"Let's give a round of applause to Mina!" Kai applauds as my name has been announced. Everyone's gaze falls upon me like daggers in my skin.

"Y-yay?" my wary voice quivered upon the calling of my name. I wasn't even in the mood to rejoice.

"Indeed", Maestro Gilbert nodded, just arriving to the scene, "I have not decided on Mina's piece yet, so I'm leaving it up to the members and to discuss it. I expect no fighting among each other, please try to be logical and reasonable with your choice. As of now, we need to make sure that Mina shines on opening night. We only have couple of days before we open our 2020/2021 concert season. If we can't make a big impact to the audience members, we'll lose our reputation as one of the best ensembles in the Juilliard School, so please be wise with your decision."

"Everyone except our chosen soloist will decide on her piece", Kai added, "Now that the news are given, let's all warm up for Ein Heldenleben."

Are you kidding me? Not only do I have to play that stupidly high solo in Rite of Spring, but I'm not even allowed to choose my own solo for the concert? How much more screwed can I get in one day, let alone the first week of my third year at Juilliard?

The Nineteenth Measure

On the elevator heading up to our floor, Chaekyung pinpointed the essence of EDM with her ears. She was right, and the beats were only becoming louder and louder as we advanced further up towards the twenty-fifth floor of the Meredith Wilson Residence Hall. I internally groan as I know that I'm going to have to endure another night with a throbbing headache. The elevator stops at the eleventh floor and the doors slide open to reveal Momo Hirai's daunting face and her big eyes peering into my skull.

"Minaaaarrr! You're here!" she exclaims with a mouthful of food. And then I feel her hand gripping my wrist as she pulls me outside.

"Momo! WAIT—"

She drags me out of the elevator and into the eleventh floor lounge, with a disco ball dangling from the ceiling and with walls strewn with white LED lights. The bass emulating from the speakers was booming as loud as thunder; it made the solo cups and the punch bowl on the tabletops rattle. Neon lights flashed everywhere like police sirens, giving me an even bigger headache. Nothing made sense and my eyes and ears were about to explode.​ I should be used to loud noises since I sit in front of the trombonists at every rehearsal, but this level of deafness was different. The same ringing sensation in my ears continued and it was irritating the hell out of me. I wanted to escape but I end up lost in a sea of people.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?" I asked Momo. I have a naturally soft voice and shouting over a myriad of sounds would make my lungs feel like mush.

"The Pops Orchestra is having their welcome party! This is how we get new members to mingle!" Momo replied in a funny voice, snatching a solo cup filled with what she calls 'Jihyo's Hard Lemonade'. And then she grabs another cup off the counter and offers it to me. "Here, want a drink?"

The contents within the cup looked nothing like lemonade. The liquid was a lot paler and more opaque.

"What's in this thing?" I asked skeptically.

Momo shrugged, fingers sliding on the condensation of her cup, "Oh, y'know. Just the basic ingredients for a bomb- hard lemonade — water, sugar, lemon juice, lime juice, lemon slices, lime slices, ice cubes, and vodka. Ah yeah, a ton of vanilla-infused vodka. Jeongyeon and Nayeon can chug down the entire punch bowl and still be considered sober."

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Aren't you aware that there are minors attending this school?"

"HA HA HA HA!" The taller girl didn't even bat a single eyelid, "Oh, Mina. Nobody is going to find out as long as we keep it at a low down."

I had to roll my eyes at that statement. As if blasting EDM throughout the entire dormitory would keep things at a low-down. By the way, I wonder where Chaekyung is. I haven't seen her since Momo pulled me into this mess, and I need to find her because she has the key to our room.

As soon as I abandoned Momo at the drinking station, the crowd moved in one direction like a multi-headed beast with one brain. A speech boomed over the musicians, the presenter having a strident timbre of the voice that could overpower a cacophony of applause and cheering. It turned out to be Jeongyeon, the Pops Orchestra's president and timpanist with a disheveled, brown pixie-cut. She stood on top of a table as to make her presence known, holding a megaphone in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other. Dahyun and Jihyo were sitting below her on reclining chairs, collecting bets from the party guests and stuffing the cash into a sombrero owned by one of the Pops Orchestra members.

"What the hell is going on?" I questioned one of the party-goers.

"Chaekyung and Nayeon are about to play a musical drinking game", she answered, pulling out a cigarette from her purse, "Want a joint?"

I pushed her hand away from my face, "I don't smoke."

"Oh! You're that famous bassoon player! That makes sense why you can't smoke", her glowing eyes lit up in realization, "My name is Tzuyu. I'm the secretary and second cellist of the Pops Orchestra. Your name is Mina, right? Mina Myoui?"

"Uh-huh", I nodded.

Wait. Did she just say Chaekyung?

That's where that was. I'm not surprised that Chaekyung would end up intermingling with random people, given her popularity and outgoing personality. I see her and Nayeon standing in the center of the lounge, instruments at their grasp, eyes locked down at one another.

Oh, so I have to wait for Chaekyung to finish playing this dumb game before I could even snatch the room key from her?

Chaekyung's French horn is newly-polished and glistening — a far cry from Yuta Nakamoto's dented, scraped embarrassment. One could see their own reflection through the sleek, brass coating of that instrument. On the other hand, Im Nayeon is assembling her Bb soprano clarinet — a masterpiece made of African blackwood and plated with golden keys. I'm thinking that Nayeon has either decided to do something different or that she has given up on the bass clarinet for good, because I haven't seen that girl touch her original clarinet in years. 

I hope that Nayeon doesn't notice me.

I turned to the cellist, "Can you explain this drinking game to me? How long does it last?"

Tzuyu set her cigarette down and made eye contact with me, "It's simple. You roll one or two dices to determine how many shots of vodka you have to consume. After that, you have sight read a random piece while you're drunk. The game ends once somebody s up while performing."

Amazing horn-playing skills and a high alcohol tolerance? Chaekyung is going to murder Nayeon.

And I was right. It only took Nayeon about four shots for her to become tipsy, and this is all after she and Chaekyung had gone through two rounds. Her clarinet squeaked while she was sightreading an excerpt from Weber's Clarinet Concerto. Chaekyung had already gulped down twelve shots of vodka and she's still playing the low horn solo from Beethoven's Ninth in tip-top shape, paying close attention to the timing and the dynamics. Jeongyeon ended the drinking game there and awarded Chaekyung with some of the money collected from bets. Jihyo had to Nayeon to the nearest bathroom so that she could drive the porcelain bus (In other words, vomit).

After Jeongyeon had given Chaekyung the prize money, I tapped her shoulder, "Hey! Can I have the room ke—"

"Oh hey, Mina!" she noticed, and then all eyes in the room me.

Goddammit Chaekyung.

"WOAH!" Dahyun exclaimed, tiptoeing on her chair to get a better view, "It really is Mina! The bassoon queen!"

"I want to hear Mina play!" Jihyo's eyes flash with recognition when she sees my figure standing under the disco ball.

Ugh.

"I-I'm sorry guys but I need to get back to my roo— OW!", I tried to come up with an excuse to leave, but then I found my body slammed down against the carpeted floor and I can barely breathe. It's almost as if someone had dropped a rock on my torso. I feel paralyzed and I can't move.

"Ha ha! Not so fast, bassoon-chan!" After I flinch, I open my eyes to see Jeongyeon pinning my thighs down with her knees, arms outstretched so that her hands are wrapped around my shoulders. She greets me with this disarming smile that could radiate off some sort of chic lesbian. 

"WHAT THE ARE YOU DOING?" I screamed at her, squirming to escape her grasp, "GET OFF OF ME!"

"Not after what you did to one of our members", she sneers, smacking her red lips. 

What the hell is she talking about?

"I'M GOING TO REPORT Y—"

"Who wants to compete against Mina?" Jeongyeon shouts to the crowd, pinching my lips with her fingers so I couldn't speak. Nobody in the room said a single word. You could literally hear a pindrop. Hah, I knew it. They're too scared to go against me because of how awesome I am.

"I do", Sana suddenly emerges from the crowd and stands over me and Jeongyeon. Dahyun absentmindedly allows her cup of hard lemonade to slip from her hand and the glass shatters on the floor. Tzuyu spits out her cigarette in amazement as well.

Once Jeongyeon has no control of me, I shove her aside and get up on my own feet, "And what if I say 'no'?"

"Oh no, is my wittle duck scared of me?" The blonde horn player coos with that disgusting nickname and the whole room is hollering at me.

My head falls back in laughter, "Hah! Scared of you? I have more first place trophies than you have friends."

The room went wild. 

"OH ! DO WE NEED SOME ICE FOR THAT BURN?" Jackson Wang shouts amidst a wave of laughter, but Sana's facial expression doesn't change.

In fact, Sana's sweet smile is starting to reek of poison, "Then prove it." 

With all the bad things that happened earlier, my competitive side switched on. I need to redeem myself by taking down Sana Minatozaki. I withdraw my instrument case from my back and begin setting up my bassoon, quickly yet carefully. Sana leaves the lounge to fetch her horn. 

As I'm warming up by playing scales, I think of all the things that went wrong within one day. First Sana got mad at me, then the Rite of Spring, I screwed up in my studio class, then Reina and the others are wondering where the hell I've been when I could've been eating lunch with them, then I'm assigned a solo that I don't even get to choose, and then I have to apologize to Chaeyoung for laughing at her when I was laughing at Rei—

Oh my god.

I forgot to look for Chaeyoung.

That's what Jeongyeon was talking about.

Now Sana isn't going to forgive for being a bad friend. She's not going to give me a second chance to rebuild myself and now I'm going to have to deal with a roommate who's going to hate me for the rest of my Juilliard career. I try to focus on my own playing again when I see spit threatening to fall out of my reed. I end up choking on my own saliva as soon as I stick the reed in my mouth to on it.

Now that I think about it, I've never heard Sana's horn playing before.

Chaekyung leans over and whispers in my ear, "I heard rumors from my colleagues that Yoona gave Sana her horn."

Yoona giving Sana her horn? That's like someone handing over their highly protected ity. A couple of minutes later, Sana exits the elevator and returns to the lounge with her instrument. I watched closely as she unveils her horn from its case and—

Chaekyung wasn't kidding. Sana pulls out the most beautiful French horn I've ever seen. It's a gold-plated Alexander 103 — the model that the entire horn section of the Berlin Philharmonic uses. Not only that, but it's custom-made and it has those fancy leafy patterns and the name of Yoona's late mother inscribed on the bell. If that's how it looks, I wonder what it sounds like. I had a vision of Sana handing over her bank account and her car keys to Yoona in exchange for that instrument, but then I just remembered: Sana can't drive to save her life and Yoona is dead.

"Let's make things a little more interesting", Jeongyeon announces through the megaphone, "Instead of awarding prize money, how about we have the winner decides what they want to do with their losing opponent."

"Fine with me", I shrugged, holding my reed in my mouth, "If I win then you need to take down all of those posters in our dorm room."

"And if I win then you have to join the Pops Orchestra", Sana declares, still polishing the third-valve slide on the B-flat side of her horn.

I spit out my reed, "WHAT THE HELL? NO!"

"Hey! You owe me for not apologizing to Chaeyoung today", her reminding me about Chaeyoung made me feel like an even bigger piece of crap. I took in a deep breath, hoping that somehow Sana magically screws up while intoxicated, like placing her mouthpiece too far off-center so that different notes come out. Either that or she'll push in her slides in too far or too little and that her notes will come out as either sharp or flat.

She didn't do any of those things.

The drinking game begins and Jeongyeon rolls two dices to determine how many shots of Vodka I would have to consume. The number "three" comes up on one dice and then the number "six" comes up on another die. Nine shots? Are you kidding me?

"You can do it Mina!" I hear Chaekyung cheering me on from behind. I wanted to stick my fist far up her like how she sticks her hand up the bell of her horn. It's her fault that I got pulled into this mess. If I lose, then I'll become a member of the Pops Orchestra.

I pull out a random score from a pile of sheet music containing bassoon repetoire. All I'm thinking in my head is how the hell these lunatics managed to get away with photocopying a bunch of pieces designed for each specific instrument. Not only is this act considered disrespectful to the publisher/composer/arranger, it's illegal. I could snitch on them but then I realized that Sana is going to hate me for the rest of my life because I didn't do this challenge. And it's all because she guilt-tripped me into thinking that I owe Chaeyoung something when I don't owe her anything.

Goddammit Sana.

Once I consume my nine shots of Vodka, I stare at the title of the piece that I have to sight-read:

Romance for Bassoon and Orchestra, Op. 62 by Edward Elgar.

I'm inwardly smiling to myself. Edward Elgar is my favorite composer and the Romance is one of my favorite pieces of all bassoon repetoire. Although this piece is short in length, it's a breathtakingly beautiful piece wherein Elgar portrays the bassoon as a vocalist rather than just some dumb, farting bedpost. In middle school, one of my uncultured classmates mistook my bassoon as some tobacco-smoking device. So then the headmaster ordered me to play my bassoon in front of the entire faculty just to prove that my instrument wasn't some sort of flamboyant bong. I played this piece and I managed to move most of my teachers to tears.

Thankfully, I'm not drunk yet. I sling on the neckstrap, position the reed to my lips, and begin playing. My fingers automatically roll over the keys without thinking. I just adore how my breath translates into warm, songlike notes that sing from my bassoon. I know the Romance by memory, and it doesn't even feel like I'm sightreading anymore. Heck, I can play this piece in my sleep.

"Alright, Mina. That was beautiful!" Jeongyeon declares and the room is filled with applause.

"Top that, Minatozaki", Jackson teases the blonde girl, but Sana isn't fazed at all. She picks a piece from a pile of horn repetoire and rolls the dice. One dice has the number "one" on it. She rolls again and the second die has the number "one" on it as well.

ing hell.

"Two shots, yeah!" Sana rejoices, handing over a shotglass to Momo as she does the honors of being "The Drink Dispenser".

After gulping down her two shots of Vodka, Sana inhales a ton of air into her system and brings the horn to her lips. Immediately, I recognize the piece that she is playing — an excerpt from Strauss's Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life), from the end of the sixth movement with the dialogue between the violin and the horn. Not only that, but it's the same piece that we're supposed to play for opening night, and to see that Sana is playing it is even more intriguing. I don't want to admit it, but I have to the urge to say it.

Sana's tone is gorgeous.

Her portrayal of the hero in this tone poem is phenomenal. She plays with this fiery passion yet also with the astounding grace of an angel. And when she ascends towards the high E Natural, my heart melts like butter. I'm floored by how she could surpass the brash, vehement blow of a brass instrument and transform it into a heavenly, serene thread of sound. Dare I say it, but she may be even better than Chaekyung and Yoona.

Three rounds in and the two of us are still on even ends. At this rate, Sana and I are playing against each other in a "shoot-out" style, kind of like a game of Russian Roulette. Eventually, the alcohol is going to get to one of us and will cause us to screw up in our sightreading.

Either Sana is a seriously talented horn player or I'm just heavily intoxicated.

It is my turn and Jihyo hands me the pile of bassoon repetoire to pick from. I open my eyes and glare at the title:

The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky,

I want to stab myself.

I'm so sick of The Rite. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've locked myself in a practice room just to squeak out a high C. My head is screaming at me to stop, but my mind tells me that I must persevere or else I'll get stuck with these idiots and be humiliated by the members of the Juilliard Orchestra. I don't want to take on more ensembles like I did in high school. And plus, I hate popular music.

Jihyo hands me a dice to roll over. I roll one and I get a "six". I'm praying that I don't get another "six" because I've already had sixteen shots of Vodka. I groan as I realize that I can't take sweet, vanilla-y taste of Vodka anymore. I take the other dice in my hand and roll again.

And what do I get? A six.

"That's twelve shots, Mina", Sana tantalizes, still looking as sober as before.

"Twelve shots and the notorious Rite", Jeongyeon repeats.

"I can do math, you tards", I scoff, swallowing the lump in my throat before Momo hands me the shotglass refilled with Jeongyeon's infamous Vodka. After the seventh shot, I start to get this piercing noise in my ears. I don't know if it's because I've had too many shots, but it's annoying as hell. I've had instances where I lose my hearing temporarily, but I thought that was because I sit in front of the trombone section.

After the twelfth shot, my hands start shaking and I'm afraid that my bassoon is going to escape my grip. I try to tighten the neck strap and bring the reed to my mouth again. Once I begin, the rest of the noise cancels out in the crowded room and I can't even hear my own playing. I can't tell whether my bassoon is in proper pitch because I feel like someone had stuffed cotton in my ears.

Once I regain some of my hearing, I scramble to recover because I can't tell where I left off. And then all of a sudden...

*SQUEAK*

I screw up.

"And the winner is Sana Minatozaki! Congratulations!" Jeongyeon discloses, and the rest of the Pops Orchestra members rejoice as they now know that they've attained a new bassoonist.

And that new bassoonist happens to be me.

I guess this is what I get for not talking to Chaeyoung.

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