“I'm going out,” Byeol shouted into the house before she opened the door.

“Byeol wait!” she heard her mother telling her, so she listened to her.

“What?”

“Where are you going?”

“Out,” she answered as if it was obvious.

“But where? It's late right now, and we're going to eat soon.”

“I'll eat in town.”

“I don't want you to go out right now, and-”

“But why should I listen to you, huh?” Byeol dared to answer with an unfamiliar boldness, “you don't care about me anyway.”

“It's not true,” her mother sighed, annoyed, and put her hands on her hips, “don't go out and come to eat with us.”

“Someone's waiting for me, see you later.”

“Wait Byeol-”

And before she even heard her mother's answer, Byeol stepped out of the house and put her earphones in her ear to relax with some music. She walked alone in the darkness and the coldness of the first night of February and once she reached the bus stop, she sat on the bench and dug her hands into the pocket of her winter jacket. While she waited for the bus which would take her to the downtown, she exchanged a few messages with Hongbin and even Wonshik who was inviting her to one of his party which would take place on Saturday. She didn't say yes but simply told him she would think about it first and contact him later once she'll know. But she knew that if Hongbin was going, she would follow her brother.

Once the bus was there, she went inside and it took twenty minutes to arrive. Yet, she still had around thirty minutes by feet to reach the place she was heading to. As she crossed the familiar and busy streets, she felt anxiety slowly but surely building up in her chest and her mind was filled with questions. Her hands were shaking and she couldn't help but panicking. Indeed, it was really sudden and even though she knew she wouldn't be alone, she couldn't help be being scared.

Finally, after what seemed to be the one of the longest walk of her life, she arrived in front of the famous Academy. It was old building trapped between two moderns business towers and that was why the building stood up so much in the area. Also, a lot of celebrities and talented people were coming to this place to train at whatever they were doing concerning dancing, playing an instrument or singing.

Byeol entered the building and sighed with relief when the heat greeted her. She rubbed her hands together and blew on them to warm them up and then she looked around if she could see Taekwoon who was supposed to come with her. But apart from the receptionist and two violin players, they were no one around. She sat on a free chair and patiently waited.

Ten minutes later, since he wasn't showing up, she tried to call him but he didn't answer. At first if she was only stressed by coming at this old place, she slowly grew annoyed too. So she decided to take the elevator and to go at the only floor she knew, the one where they used to train.

Before entering the big room, she half-opened the door and peaked inside to see if there was someone, but since it seemed empty, she entered and left her bag and coat next to the door. She slowly walked toward the black shinny piano resting alone in the middle of the room and she sat on the seat. She opened the keyboard and after five long years, she was finally able to touch those perfect white and black keys.

After one last call to Taekwoon to which he didn't answer, she decided to play to spend her free time since she had nothing else to do anyway. Ode to Joy by Beethoven was the first piece to come to her mind and she tried to play the parts she remembered a bit though the biggest part of the beautiful piece still remained unknown to her mind. But she didn't give up and tried really hard to play it beautifully and with feelings. Because that was exactly what she was feeling at the moment: she was happy yet absolutely nervous. “That's the key of success,” she remembered Mr. Lee telling her, “feelings”.

Half an hour later however, when she stopped playing because her hands and back were hurting, she had the good surprise to hear someone clapped behind her. She turned around, startled, and saw Mr. Lee leaning against the wall by the door, Taekwoon next to him. They were both looking at her with a fond smile on their lips and Mr. Lee's tired eyes were even sparkling with pride and happiness.

“It was beautiful,” her former teacher said, “isn't she a good player, Taekwoon?”

The boy nodded.

“She is.”

And this sensation of déjà-vu made Byeol blushed like crazy before she stood up and politely bowed at the old man. They shared a warm embrace before he made a comment about how much she had changed during the past five years and how beautiful she had became.

“You know,” he said, “when Taekwoon told me you were coming back, I thought he was lying. And until the very last minute I thought it was a lie! Look, he had to drag me there for me to believe it!”

“That's why I was late,” Taekwoon explained, “because I had to go to his place to come and pick him up.”

“Taekwoon, I'm sorry for not believing you,” Mr. Lee patted the boy's shoulder.

“It's fine. What truly matters is that we're both back now.”

“For real?”

“For real,” Byeol proudly said.

*

“What do you want to eat?” Taekwoon asked her as they stepped out of the building.

“W-what?”

“It's late now, we should go and eat something before going home. What do you want to eat?”

“Just... whatever, I'm fine with everything.”

“Alright,” he smiled, “let's go.”

She nodded and followed him in the street. They walked side by side and didn't really say much yet the atmosphere wasn't weird at all, the silence wasn't bothering or annoying. It felt just fine and it reassured Byeol a lot. She walked with a slight smile over her lips and she felt perfectly fine. She wasn't stressed anymore now that she knew she was going to do what she liked the most in life: playing the piano.

They stopped at the convenience store and bought ramen. They sat in front of each other and Byeol thanked him for the food since he had insisted to pay even for her.

“We should always eat together after our lessons at the Academy,” he cleared his throat and she swore she saw him blushed.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, since it is on Thursday at eight pm, which is quite late, we should always eat together and then I could drive you home, it's safer than taking the bus or the subway, especially in winter.”

“Won't you get bored of me?” she asked with a serious tone, “I mean... we already see each other at school and during the lessons will be together, so it might be annoying for you to be with me, especially since I'm not the most entertaining person on Earth and-”

“Byeol,” he sighed, “if I wanted to avoid you, I wouldn't even be talking to you.”

“O-oh really? Alright,” she looked down at her food to avoid his gaze which made her shiver.

“But won't I be too bothering? Too annoying? What if I made a mistake? What if I say something which make him mad? Will he hate me? What if he is only doing this just because he pities me?”. All of these questions kept repeating in her mind and suddenly, she didn't feel like eating at all.

“You know,” he said, “sometimes you should just stop thinking and just enjoy the moment you're living.”

“Philosopher now, I see,” she chuckled out of the blue, saying out loud what she was thinking about.

“Yeah, like that,” he chuckled too and emptied his bowl of instant noodles.

He yawned cutely and rubbed his eyes like a child, which Byeol found absolutely adorable. She smiled as she watched him do and once he caught her staring, she looked away. Yet, from the corner of her eyes, she could see him smiling.

“You know, those meals will have together, they could be dates.”

“Dates?” she froze and blinked a few times, “what do you mean dates?”

“Like... actual dates, the moments you spend with the person you're interested to,” he blushed and said with a soft voice.

“Dates like couples have?” she titled her head.

“Y-yeah, like couples,” he ended up saying and her heart missed a beat.

She couldn't see herself, but she was sure she was looking like a crazy girl with a big foolish grin and round sparkling eyes.

“Like couples,” she smiled.

*

“What?!” Yun excitidly clapped in her hands, “does that mean you're together now?!”

“W-what? No!” Byeol shook her head, “no no no! It's not that!”

“But dates are what couples do.”

“It's not like that, he said it was dates with the person he was interested in.”

“Are you stupid or something?” Yun rolled her eyes at her best friend's childish behavior, “it means he likes you! So it's totally dates like couples have!!”

“Shh,” Byeol put her hand over Yun's mouth, “not too loud, people could hear us.”

Yun rolled her eyes and pushed her hand away.

“There's nobody around us, we're at the library during lunch break.”

Byeol looked around and since she didn't see anybody or didn't hear anything, she sighed, relieved.

“If you two were a couple you'll be really cute! I might even be jealous!”

“You and Jaehwan are cute too.”

“But we don't have much in common contrary to Taekwoon sunbae and you, and plus, you've known each other for a really long time now, it's like you'll be dating your childhood love.”

“Taekwoon sunbae is not-”

“Byeol~” Yun pinched her friend's cheek, “don't lie. I know you.”

“But-”

“Nope, no lies.”

“Yun-”

“No,” the young girl chuckled, “and you know, to me, you're already dating. So don't try to convince me you're not or not even in love with him. I won't believe you.”

“Don't go around spreading rumors...”

“Hey! I have nobody to tell and there's nobody around, let's say nobody heard.”

Yun winked and left the room, Byeol quickly following her.

And what they didn't know was that Hakyeon was actually there, hidden behind a shelf, and that he had heard all of their conversation.

Hey guys ! How are you ? 

Another week has passed so here's chapter twenty-three ! What do you think about it ? About the evolution of the relationship between the characters ? Can you tell what's going to happen next ? I can tell you something, it's that the following chapter is going to be only dialogue and dialogue only, so it might be a bit boring to read but for the story and especially for the end of the story, chpater twenty-five is going to be really important. Yet, because it's only dialogue, I might upload it during the week so you'll have two chapters next week, or I'll upload two chapters on next Sunday. I still don't know what I'll do. 

Anyway, thank you to all of you who subscribed and who leave comments, please do the same for this chapter and upvote if you think this story is worth it :)

Thx 

xx

Mae