“How? How?!”

The entire class was enraged. Nam Woohyun, first seat violist, stood and yelled at Mr. Kim.

“How? How can you put first seat violinist, first seat violist, and second seat cellist with the worst person in the entire school?!”

Ari sank in her seat, tears b.
She knew she was bad. She knew she couldn’t play.
But being reminded in such a manner?

No, thank you.

The class glanced back at Myungsoo, but he looked disinterested in the whole matter. Instead, he and Sungyeol were whispering about God knows what, the latter giggling. Neither cared; neither would.

Sunggyu, second seat cellist, stared intently at Ari. He wanted to comfort her, to hold her in his arms.

He couldn’t now, definitely not. But maybe, one day, he could.
But for now, he was on her team. He was on her side.

He would stand by her.

“That is quite enough, Nam Woohyun.” Mr. Kim was upset by the reaction. “Get into your groups, everyone, and start discussing what it is that you want to play.”

“Yes, sir.”

--

“What should we play? Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? Or would that be too hard for you?” Woohyun shot Ari a dirty look as he sat down. Sunggyu shot the same one back at him, as he, too, took his seat.

Ari gazed off at Seunghyun. He caught her look, and gave her a comforting smile, but she only sighed.
It’s ok, he mouthed, but she shook her head. It was far from okay.

Sunggyu tried to smile at her, too, but he was ignored, as Myungsoo had finally decided to join them. Ari’s admiring look made him burn with jealousy.

“Classical or modern?” Were his only  words, mind clearly preoccupied.

“Either one is alright.” Woohyun said. “I can play both. Which is good for little miss handicap over there?”

Ari frowned, as did Sunggyu.

“Do you have a preference?” Myungsoo asked her. She shook her head.

“Alright, classical it is.” He continued, “I’ll choose a song for tomorrow, then. We can discuss after the playing test.”

The girl silently cursed. The playing test, how could she have forgotten? Vivaldi, big surprise from Mr. Kim, the Presto section from the summer movement, and she could not execute those sixteenth notes well.

Couldn’t I play like Henry Lau?She sighed, thinking of her idol. All my problems would be solved.

When she was finally snapped out of her thoughts, Myungsoo had gone to join Sungyeol with his team, and Woohyun followed. Sunggyu sat alone with her, swinging his legs in the chair.

“Are you going to leave, too?” She asked, tilting her head. He shook his.
“I’ll stay here with you. You don’t seem to have anyone to join.”

“I’ll go with Seunghyun. Don’t worry.” Ari shrugged, getting up and promptly leaving. Sunggyu sighed loudly. How oblivious could she be?

--

“Your sixteenths are sounding better, ‘Ri” Seunghyun peeked into her room. It was almost 2am, and the girl was nowhere close to finished with the song.

“Thanks,” She huffed, rolling her shoulders. 5 hours with this violin was enough to drive her crazy.

“You should sleep. Being tired for the test won’t do you any good,” He walked over and gave her a loose hug. “Good night.”

She bit her lip, hesitantly. “Good night.”

Seunghyun heard her play for another good half hour before the zip of the violin case, and a click of the lights.

--

“Hey, why do you think I’m so horrible at violin?”

Ari gave a loud sigh as she asked that, swinging her arms. Bags underneath her eyes were present today more than usual, having stayed up the extra few hours to practice, in hope of passing today’s test. Seunghyun gave a small chuckle, glancing at his twin. He wanted to hide her away from her team, her group. He would’ve done anything to trade Minhwan for her.

“It’s because your talent went all into piano,” he tried to smile, pulling her close to him. “I bet Woohyun wishes he was as good as you at piano.”

Ari frowned.
Piano.
Her one and true love. How great it would’ve been if she got in as a piano major.

What if.

“Why did they accept me if I’m so horrible?”
Seunghyun was stumped. He gave a sheepish smile, and she replied with a laugh. A forced one.

“It’s okay. I know they pitied me because you’re so amazing.”

“That doesn’t even make sense, dimwit.” He smirked, pulling her into a headlock as she shrieked loudly. “They accepted you because they believe you can truly become a great violinist.”

“You don’t need to lie,” She shook him off, and straightened out her hair. “Oh, we’re here.”

The two looked up at the school gates, and the smaller of the two gave another loud sigh.
“Here take this,” She handed him her violin. “Put it away please! I’m going to play piano!”

And with that, she ran off.

Seunghyun smiled sadly, watching her skip across the campus, her bookbag over her shoulder, and her skirt flying.

Why was the universe so mean to her?

--

It was an odd place, the practice rooms. They were in an isolated part of the campus, just a lonely building, filled with rooms made specifically for the students to use. Rumour had it that it was to be torn down soon, but several piano majors were to protest, as the old piano in the main room was to be destroyed as well.

Ari frowned at the thought. She loved it, that old piece of junk.
She didn’t know why. It seemed almost magical.

The girl walked through the building, looking for an empty room, peering into the windows. No luck; each one she checked was occupied. All that was left was the small room at the end of the hallway; she absolutely hated this one.

She tiptoed, peering through the window and fell as the door opened.

“Oomph!” She collapsed onto the person, and came face-to-face with a very pink Sunggyu.
“Ari!”

She clambered off of him, mumbling many apologies.
“Were you going to use this room?” He asked, still blushing.
“Um... well, if you’re not using it...” He shook his head, no.

“I guess I’ll practice then.”

He scrunched his eyebrows, wondering where her violin was. No one knew about her piano ability other than her family.

“Where’s your—“
She smiled at him, and his heart melted. “I want to play piano. I’ve had enough of violin.”

Eyes full of interest; he watched her walk to the piano, looking at it with more adoration than how she looked at Myungsoo.
“Can I... hear you?” He asked. There was a slight nod, and he sat down, bursting with anticipation.

She placed her hands on the keys, and let the melody take her away.

Ari forgot Sunggyu was there with her. She was 100% focused on the music, as was he. How could she be in the strings program? He thought, mesmerized by her hands; how smoothly they flew across the keys. She was nothing short of amazing.

When she was done, the two sat in silence. Sunggyu finally spoke up, his face mirroring his awe.

“We shouldn’t be a string quartet...” He mumbled. “I’m sure if you played piano, Myungsoo played guitar, and Woohyun and I sang, we’d be pretty damn amazing.”

A blush creeped up the girl’s cheeks. This was the first time someone other than family had complimented her, as indirect as it was.

“I don’t think they would agree,” she shrugged. “It’s a good idea though.”
“We should play to our strengths, and yours is clearly piano.”

The blush darkened, and the girl brought her hands to her face to hide it.

“We should... go to class,” she murmured, her eyes glancing at the clock in the corner of the room. Sunggyu panicked, jumping up and leaping over to his cello.

“My class is on the other side of the building!” He cried, picking it up and putting it on his back. “See you later!”

Ari waved shyly as he ran out; pleased she had another person to call a friend.

Not many people wanted to be friends with a bad musician at an arts school. 

--

OK, that's that! haha sorry for the wait.

so two things; 

Alright, so I'm a horrible author and I don't know how to incorporate every  bit of information that I want into the story, so to know all the small, useless details, I will create blog posts!!! It's basically background information, and references and stuff like that. So yeah, if you have time, check it out!  Ps. it has the seat ranking, which may or may not be of interest to you guys. :D

Here is chapter one: http://www.asianfanfics.com/blog/view/80419

chapter two will be updated in a bit :D

secondly, i have a oneshot collection! mainly infinite (big surprise!!!) but yeah; im in a bit of a rush so just check my other stories and you'll find it there! 

good day! xoxo sonng6969

comments are greatly appreciated<3