Song Ari sat in her seat, tapping a pen against the back of her hand.
Tic
Toc
Tic
Toc

The clock ticked away mercilessly. Every second that passed was a second she couldn’t get back, as much as she wanted to. Every second that passed brought her closer to her doom: fourth period orchestra.

She’d slaved through the entire day; slept through a history lecture, read four chapters in her novel study and here she was, solving functions and whatnot in math.
Five minutes to go.
Four minutes and 58 seconds.
Four minutes and 55 seconds.
Four minutes...
Four minutes...

The whole class was completely focused on that clock, their hands clenching in their seats No one wanted to be here, everyone looking forward to their last period class: they were all music majors, and had their music class next. They all twitched excitedly, about to jump out of their skin. Everyone had an ecstatic grin on their face, except Ari, of course. 

Two minutes...
One minute...

She glanced nervously over to her twin, Seunghyun, who shot her a grin. He was definitely looking forward to orchestra. He reached out his hand and ruffled her hair, and suddenly, the bell rang.

Ari let out a loud groan and slumped against the desk as everyone jumped to their feet and ran out the door.

“Come on, Ari. It’s not that bad.”

She shook her head. It was worse that anything she could ever face.

-

The music room was nearly completely full by the time she got there. She frowned sadly at her classroom: orchestra. Not a piano major, as she'd hoped to join. Not even applied music, but instead, orchestra. Classical music and strings majors, all over their heads with Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and, the teacher’s favourite, Vivaldi. She wanted to be anywhere, just anywhere, but here.

The girl settled in the lonely seat in the back, designated specifically for her. Last chair violinist, Song Ari. The violinist who was completely horrid, always off-tune, always offbeat. The unfortunate twin of second chair Seunghyun: people were never sure who to pity. If they pitied her, they never showed it, though. Instead, Ari was sentenced to loneliness and friendlessness.

Not that she minded.
Music was there for her, at least. Music will be there for her.

The wrinkles on her forehead deepened as their teacher, Mr. Kim, walked through the door, his son, Kim Sunggyu, second chair cellist, following close behind. Her breath hitched Kim Myungsoo, walked in.

First chair first violinist Kim Myungsoo, the envy of the entire school. Skilled in almost every instrument and blessed with beauty rivalled by local schools as well. Ari admired him to no end, wanting his attention more than anything else. Kim Myungsoo this, Kim Myungsoo that, she would never get tired of thinking of him.

Kim Myungsoo... Perhaps I’ll be in his quartet.

She brushed the idea quickly out of her mind: she would only bring him down. He deserved to win: BOTB champion really fit him. It would be a shame if anyone but him won for this section.

Kim Myungsoo...
Kim Myungsoo...

Second last chair violinist, Lee Sungjong, walked up to her, and sat on the chair to her right. He waved shyly, and focused his attention back to the front. Lee Sungjong, he wasn’t bad at violin. Not as bad as she was, but he was made fun of more than she was. Not for his musical ability, but more for his appearance: he was a girl at first sight, most definitely a girl. Ari had sworn that he was, the way he sat cross legged on the chair, his wide grin and high pitched laugh: but he wasn’t. The first thing she had said to him, in fact, was a question asking if he knew where the girl’s washroom was, on audition day. He’d looked at her with a look of disbelief, before replying that he was a boy, and he hadn’t visited the washrooms yet.

She remembered the pang of guilt before he laughed, saying not to mind it, and that he was used to it. But she knew, as the months passed, he was far from used to it.

They were barely friends: the two chairs were still a safe distance away. She was too scared to talk to him, and he the same to her. They briefly glanced at each other, the nervous look in both their eyes.

No one wanted them in their quartet: and to have both of them in the same group was instant failure. Ari gave a loud sigh as Mr. Kim tapped his desk loudly with a baton.

“Attention, class!”
Everyone silenced themselves, sitting upright in all the seats. Ari could see Seunghyun and his group sitting on the far side of the classroom, nudging each others’ elbows and laughing silently. Myungsoo and his best friend, Lee Sungyeol, sat in the far back corner, opposite of Ari and Sungjong. The two were whispering to each other under their breaths.

There was a loud bang as the door flew open: first seat violist Nam Woohyun and first seat cellist Jang Dongwoo waltzed in. Mr. Kim gave them a disapproving look, but made the motion to start what he was about to say. The door flew open once again.

“For Christ’s sake—“ He stopped. “Lee Hongki, pleasure for you to join us.”

Seunghyun and his group of friends catcalled, laughing. Lee Hongki was the singer to their band, and was a vocal major. He liked to come into their class often, just to mess around. Mr. Kim liked him, of course, but it did not seem like his day today.

“Hongki, please leave. Don’t you have a competition to prepare for or something.”
“Sorry, sir.” The blond haired boy sulked out like a dog with his tail between his legs. Everyone giggled as they saw him make faces in the door window as soon as Mr. Kim’s back was turned, but quickly turned their attention back to the impatient teacher. He gave a grateful smile to the violinists sitting in the back, before finally starting.

“As you should all know, Battle of the Bands is back. Since you are all strings majors, you will be joining in—“
“STRING QUARTETS!”
Much of the class chimed, hands cupping their mouths. Ari gave a half hearted grin, and through the corner of her eye, saw Sungjong give one, too.

“Yes, string quartets,” Mr. Kim looked frustrated, but continued to force a smile. “And usually, I would let you choose your own groups, but it is a rule that members are randomly chosen.”
He glanced at Seunghyun and his friends, and they whooped.
“Except for you four.”

Seunghyun (Second chair violinist), Lee Jaejin (Third chair violist), Choi Minhwan (Fifth chair violinist) and Choi Jonghun (Third chair cellist) were always together: administration had registered them as a ‘permanent’ group, but it was really because the four of them, and Lee Hongki, had actually been signed by a label, even if neither of them were Applied Music majors. FT Island, they called themselves; five treasure island. Ari distinctly remembered having a fit of giggles the first time she’d heard it. A silly name to match a group of silly people.

She really loved them, though, the music they played. She loved listening to Hongki sing, to Seunghyun and Jonghun play guitar, to Jaejin on his bass, and Minhwan with his drums. It was always the highlight of her day, of her week even, hearing them practice. She wished she could help, wished she could do more, but they didn’t need her.

“Well anyways, the procedure is like this. One violin will be chosen randomly from this bag, and they will be the group leader. They will then come up and choose a cellist, a violist, and their second violinist.” Mr. Kim held up 3 bags, each filled with papers with students’ names on them. “Understood?”
“Yes, sir!”

“Good. Group #1’s leader is..” he paused and reached into the bag. “Fourth seat, Im Hanbyul.”

There were catcalls and whoops as the short, handsome boy got up to the front of the classroom. He too, was quite popular, especially for his singing. Ari wondered why he was a string major, when he could’ve easily shined as a vocal major. His bright smile shone, as well, as he reached into the violist bag.

“Byun Jangmoon!”

He was friends with Hanbyul; fourth chair violist.

Park Junjin, fifth chair cellist was called, and last but not least, Japanese transfer student Azuma Tomoki, seventh chair, was their second violinist. Sungjong gave a slight laugh.
“They’re lucky; they’re all such close friends.”

Ari nodded slightly. How she wished she was as close as them; how she wished she had friends.

Names were called, and slowly, only 4 violinists, 2 violists and 2 cellists were left. 5 teams had already been decided: only 2 were left to be announced. Myungsoo, Sungyeol, Sungjong and Ari were left as the violinists. They all eyed each other, along with the rest of the class. If Myungsoo ended up with Sungyeol, the cellist and violist would be brought down by the two remaining violinists, but if he was with anyone but Sungyeol, he would be brought down for sure.

How had the class ended up like this?

Seunghyun watched Ari with a concerned look on his face. She fidgeted in her seat, glancing up nervously as Mr. Kim reached into the bag to pull out the first name.

“Third seat, Lee Sungyeol.”

“Second seat violist, Lee Howon.”

“First seat cellist, Jang Dongwoo.”

Tension filled the air as everyone watched him pull out another name. Ari felt like there had never been a more prolonged silence.

“Thirteenth seat, Lee Sungjong.”

The person with the biggest outburst was first seat violist, Nam Woohyun.

--

i will make a list of the seating numbers and groups later on.
realized my writing mirrors battle royale a bit: ive hd this written for ages, but i just typed it up recently. i'll take it down by chapter 3 or so to rewrite once more. 

word count: 1635