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                               Because the job of music is to relieve stress, not to create them. Once it is the reason for the stress, it is not good

The glass door of the shop opened with a chime, and Sunggyu shot up into a standing position behind the counter. “Welcome! Feel free to look around and treat the instruments with care! Thank you!” He called, the words familiar as he recited them from his head.

The customer was a male, his tall lanky built with the ability to attract attention to him wherever he went. He had large owl-like eyes, which had the intensity to make people feel as if he was staring into their souls.

He made his way calmly to where the pianos stood, staring at one of them before sitting down. His shoulders were tense, and his legs were shaking in a more than nervous manner. Simply put, he looked like a performer performing for the first time in a long while, and was very nervous.

He never played however, despite sitting in position as if he was ready to play. Sunggyu stared at him, intrigued before going on to play the next piece of music through the speakers, in order to make up for the awkward silence.

The male sat in that position until the piece from the speakers ended. He then stood up, with an annoyed expression on his face before storming towards the counter, where Sunggyu and the staff (Well, Woohyun and Hyerim, otherwise known as the ghost staff) were.

Woohyun clenched his fists, getting ready to start a fight with the customer, only to be stopped by a stern glare from Sunggyu. Sunggyu, on the other hand smiled shakily at him. “May I ask what do you need?”

The customer gritted his teeth, before demanding, “I need you to help me play again.” His tone came out more serious than impatient, which simply did nothing but made Sunggyu’s jaw drop slightly.

“I’m sorry sir, may I ask…” Hyerim tried as she stepped out, her arms placed awkwardly at her sides.

“I need you to help me play again. I’ll pay whatever price there is.”

“Then may I ask why do you need the help?” Woohyun, being the only one who had already recovered from his state of shock and surprise, asked, genuine curiosity evident in his voice. “Or can you tell us why do you want to play the piano again?”

“Why do you need to know all that? All you have to do is to help me play the piano again! Is it that difficult?” The customer raised his voice, before banging his fists onto the counter in an agitated manner. causing Hyerim to flinch at the loud sound.

Woohyun was about to retort with an equally agitated tone, only to be stopped again by Sunggyu. “I’ll help.”

The staff turned their attention to Sunggyu, staring at him with equally bizarre expressions on their faces. “How are you going to help him when you don’t even know what’s wrong?” Woohyun muttered, only to receive a nudge this time by Hyerim. Woohyun honestly did not seem too fond of the mysterious customer who wanted to play the piano again for some reason or another.

“Woohyun, mend the counter for now.” With that, Sunggyu moved out from behind the counter and made his way casually to one of the pianos in a corner. “I don’t know how to play the piano, but I might be able to help you with finding out the reason why you can’t play…” His voice trailed off when he was met with silence. “Or do you already know it?”
 

“I don’t.”

The answer came a lot later, but it sounded painful, at least to Sunggyu’s ears. He chose not to press further -- just in case the question ignited another furious response from the customer. Instead, he opted for the choice of simply nodding, then allowing the customer to take a seat at any piano he liked (because Sunggyu realised that he did not follow himself to the corner). As expected, the customer was someone who was rather well-versed in terms of music, considering how he naturally sat at the piano with the best wood in the shop, before gesturing for Sunggyu to sit beside him.

“I guess you're a veteran player?”

The customer shrugged. “That's what people call me.”

Sunggyu felt that he was just being humble, considering how he seemed to know a lot about music, or the ‘performance’ posture itself. In short, everything about the other male simply screamed ‘professional’ at him. But nothing could explain the reason to why he could not play the piano.

There was no way he could identify the problem by just sitting at the piano with the customer, therefore Sunggyu opted for the option of calling it a day, with the excuse of doing research so that he would be able to know enough in order to help him with this problem.

The customer came every day after that, but would only spend his time sitting on the piano bench, his fingers frozen above the keys. Sunggyu would then be sitting beside him all the time, trying out all sorts of methods to get the other male to even press the tip of his fingers onto the keys, but to no avail, because he would just flinch away every single time. The options Sunggyu had were diminishing, and he would soon be left with no more ways to help the other male unless he knew the reason behind the customer not being able to play the piano anymore.

Also, as the time passed, Sunggyu also learnt that his name was Lee Sungyeol, and used to be a performer in the local symphony orchestra. He said that he could not remember what made him stop playing, but one day, he just realised that he could not play anymore, for some reason or another. It could have been stress -- or rather what Sunggyu strongly believed at the moment. He wrapped himself in his own thoughts, just like what Sungyeol was doing, the only difference was that Sungyeol had his hands hovering above the keys of the piano and Sunggyu did not.

Just then, a loud groan from the table beside them was heard, as a girl slammed her face onto the table, creating a slight thud, jolting the two males out of their thoughts. “Hyerim, would you like to help the lady here out?” Sunggyu yelled across the shop, only for Hyerim to materialise herself in front of Sunggyu.

“I’m here, don’t have to scream across the shop to get me.”

Sunggyu jumped from her antics. “I never knew you could do that too.”

“Woohyun was teaching me. What does she need help with?”

“It’s for you to find out.” Sunggyu gestured to the female who looked as if she had her head buried into the table top. “Seems like a problem with schoolwork.” He eyed the worksheets on the table as he lowered his voice.

Hyerim nodded, before taking a seat opposite the female at the table. “Hello miss, do you need help?”

Gosh you’re so awkward I don’t know what to do with you anymore… Hyerim chided herself as the customer raised her head to look at her questioningly.

“Uh… I’m always here to listen to your troubles, I mean, if you want to talk to me about them, because I can keep your secrets.” Way to go Hyerim, way to go… Why did Sunggyu even give me this job… I’m so awkward...

The customer laughed to herself. “My name is Seongyeon, what’s yours?”

Great, now she thinks I’m weird… “I'm Hyerim.” She plastered an awkward smile onto her face and picked one of the worksheets up. “I guessed you needed a little help?”

The customer shrugged, a pout forming on her lips as her bottom lip jutted out in the cutest manner possible, her blonde hair accentuating her youthful looks. “I should be doing this by myself, but I guess some help will do good.” She smiled at Hyerim. “I have a composing assignment due soon, but can’t seem to get any inspiration no matter how hard I’m trying.” She then threw a glance around the room, before looking back at Hyerim. “I thought that being here would bring me some inspiration, but seems like it’s not the case....” She sounded disappointed, and Hyerim could not help but feel bad about it.

“Inspiration? What kind of piece are you trying to write?” Hyerim did not feel very interested in the topic, but just because she had promised Sunggyu that she would try her best to help him out, she had no choice but to start showing interest in all the composing fad that had been going around.

Seongyeon bit her lip. “I have no idea, but I thought that a piano classical-like piece will do a lot of good.” Her eyes stopped at a certain piano in the middle of the room, with two males sitting on the bench, but no one playing anything. “By the way, are they meditating?”

Hyerim fought the urge to laugh at the question, before picking one of the pages up so that she could have a better look at it. There was nothing much written on the piece of paper, save for a few notes here and there which had been cancelled away. “Maybe they are. The tall one has been here almost every day, sitting at the piano but not playing anything. Well, who knows…”

Hyerim’s fingertips ran over the printed lines on the piece of paper. “Do you need inspiration?”

The other female nodded. “That will be great help, thanks!”

Hyerim smiled, before excusing herself from the table and made her way behind the counter. She th