“And you know, Yun, your sister's friend, is she coming on Saturday?”

“What are you talking about? No, it's going to be only us.”

“Aish... I was hoping Byeol would have invited her friend too...”

Hongbin rolled his eyes and watched Wonshik sighing loudly and pouting.

“You know Byeol doesn't like to hang out with people outside the school.”

“She doesn't even like to hang out with people at school,” Wonshik laughed sadly.

Since Byeol, Hongbin and Wonshik were the same age, they went to the same schools and the two boys had been best friend since forever. Wonshik had seen the brilliant, cheerful and talkative Byeol changing into a shy one, until she ended up like she was today: she wasn't talking to anyone except her family and Yun, her only friend. She wasn't laughing like she used to do, she wasn't singing or dancing anymore, and according from what Hongbin was telling him, she wasn't playing the piano anymore. The girl that had once made him dream at night had suddenly disappeared a few years ago, and now only her ghost remained.

“Taekwoon,” Hongbin asked his older friend to change the subject, “what are you staring at?”

“Hum?” he turned his head to look at them.

“What are you staring at? Since the beginning of the lunch you're looking away.”

“Nothing,” the shy boy mumbled and started eating his now cold meal.

Hongbin, curious, turned around and tried to see what could have been his friend's center of attention. There was nothing in particular, just two juniors arguing loudly by the knew it wasn't interesting enough for Taekwoon to pay attention to it. There were also the soccer team bothering a nerdy guy from the eleventh grade, or a senior shouting at the lunch lady, saying the food was disgusting. There was nothing which could have really made Taekwoon to be spaced out.

Just when he was about to look away, he caught a glimpse of Byeol, eating in the corner of the room. Ahn Yun was in front of her and was talking all by herself since Byeol was only nodding or faking smiles. His sister must have felt someone staring at her because she turned her head and send him a little smile. In return, he offered her a reassuring and big grin.

“Who are you smiling to? Who is the lucky girl?” Wonshik playfully elbowed him.

“Just Byeol.”

“You know... you shouldn't be doing this. Lots of girls are already jealous because she's your step-sister, so if they see you smiling at her, they're going to be even angrier at Byeol.”

“I don't care about them. I won't let anyone mess with Byeol.”

Taekwoon looked up.

*

“Byeol? Where are you going?” Hongbin asked her when he saw her while getting out off his classroom, Wonshik following him closely.

“I-I have night lessons tonight.”

“Are we Thursday?” she nodded, “oh, alright, I had forgotten. I'll tell mom to pick you up once you're done.”

“I'll walk home, it's fine,” she mumbled and blushed, feeling all the people passing by looking at them, especially girls.

“Yah... don't joke with me,” he smiled, two cute dimples appearing, “you can't possibly go home alone at night.”

“It's alright, I can do this. So... see you later.”

She looked at Wonshik and quickly bowed her head before rushing to the last floor where were the music rooms. Because school ended at five p.m but night lessons started at six p.m, she had one spare hour to do whatever she wanted. At the beginning of the year, she had decided to use one of the free music room, the one with the piano to play a bit and even to sing when people were away. It was the only hour of the week she was relaxing and enjoying herself a bit, because all of her troubles were left away. She made sure there was no one in the corridor and entered the third music room out of five, closing yet not locking the door behind her.

She left her blazer on the sofa at the back of the room, with her bag, and sat on the seat in front of the piano, ready to play. But before, she took her phone out of her pocket and called her older brother.

“Byeol!” he laughed after he picked up, “it's Thursday!”

“Yes,” she smiled, “Am I bothering you?”

“Byeol, how could you be bothering me?”

“I'm going to play, do you want to listen to it?”

“Byeol! Just start already!” he laughed.

“Alright oppa.”

She smiled and put her phone on the piano and put it on loudspeaker. She breathed in and out a few times, getting mentally and physically ready, before she pressed the first keys.

Recently, she had discovered a song untitled Backwoods and had seen a live version of this song made by Mamamoo, a new k-pop group and Byeol had completely falling in love with this song. She had first learned how to play it all by herself, only by listening the song, and then she had started to sing. And because her big brother was an amazing singer, she was used to call him for him to be able to hear her performances.

She started to play, the sweet sound of the piano echoing into the whole room and when the moment to sing come, she didn't hesitate, knowing she was alone anyway so nobody was there to make fun of her.

It was only her, her sweet yet powerful voice singing the very emotional song talking about love, but Byeol like to dedicate it to her father and her brother. After all, if she was still singing even a little bit, it was only for them. They were the only person bringing light into her dark life.

She started crying at the middle of the song, tears rolling silently on her cheeks and because she couldn't stop playing, she just let the droplets of water falling. She made sure to control her voice enough for it not to be too awful since she was crying, but she managed to hit all the high notes and to handle them perfectly, bursting into tears once she was done.

“Byeol... don't cry...” Ryeowook whispered through the phone, “don't cry, please, or I will be crying too.”

“I'm sorry,” she sobbed, trying hard to stop, “I'm really sorry...”

She hid her face behind her head and bit on her lower lip, listening to her brother's voice while he was trying to comfort her.

“I'm really sorry, oppa...”

“Why are you sorry?” he said, “sorry for being a wonderful singer and pianist? Sorry for having feeling while singing? Sorry for crying? You don't have to be sorry, Byeol,” he stopped for a while, and then spoke again, “no matter what happen, I don't want you to be sorry, ever! You understand me? You're too good and too worth it to be sorry. Don't ever let those es bring you down and fight with your voice, show them what you've got! Alright?”

“Alright, oppa...” she sobbed.

He told her even more comforting words and then he had to hang up, leaving her alone with her thoughts. Because she was feeling suddenly drained out of energy and courage, she gathered her stuff, put on her blazer, swept away the last tears remaining on her cheeks and she left the school, giving up on her night lessons.

*

Hakyeon had hesitated for a long time before going at the third floor where the music rooms were. Since school was over, most of the students had already left and those remaining were playing or working in the forum. He took the stairs, determined to meet Kim Byeol but once he reached the last floor, he stopped, leaning against the wall. The whole corridor was dark since all the lights were turned off and he didn't really want to turn them on, scared Kim Byeol would see him and run away. He didn't know in which room she was playing either, since there were four room in total and Ahn Yun only talked about a room but didn't precised the number; yet, he could clearly hear the piano and muffled voice coming from one of them. He absent-mildly listened to it for a while, his head moving following the sad and slow rhythm and once he finally gathered enough courage, he stood up and entered the long corridor.

Since the doors had a little windows, he saw the light coming from the first room and guessed she was in there. As he came closer to it, he was able to confirm it, her voice becoming louder and clearer.

But he quickly saw he wasn't alone in the corridor. Indeed there was someone leaning against the wall just next to the door. The tall figure didn't move when Hakyeon approached, probably because this person was too absorbed by the girl's performance to hear him, but when the head boy cleared his voice, this person jumped a bit and turned around, visibly surprised and a bit ashamed to have been caught. Hakyeon was really astonished to see Jung Taekwoon, the cold and shy boy with no friends who was in class spying on Kim Byeol.

“Taekwoon,” he whispered and frowned, “what are you doing here?”

He also wanted to add “alone in the dark spying on Kim Byeol while she is playing piano?” but he left this part unsaid. Taekwoon didn't answer, he just looked at him with a blank face and then he moved, bumped into Hakyeon and left.

“Hey! Taekwoon! I asked you a question!” the head boy said as he watched his classmate disappeared.

At the same moment, the door opened and Kim Byeol went out. Because of the darkness, she probably didn't recognized him and just bowed her head before rushing out, following the way Taekwoon just had taken.

*

“Oh no... it's raining,” Byeol whined when she went out of the school.

She stayed by the door where she was still protected by the roof and looked at the droplets of water falling on the ground, the light of the moon or even the light from the streets lamps reflecting on it. Since December was soon to be there, by the time they were going out of school, the moon had already replaced the sun. Byeol didn't really mind, but she didn't like walking alone on the rain and in the dark. The whole combination was scaring her. She decided to wait for the rain to stop a bit to walk back home.

Someone opened the door next to her but she didn't move or even turned her head to look at this person. It's only when the silhouette passed by that she recognized Jung Taekwoon's special walk. Also, when he walked under a light, she saw his rather long and curly black hair and his sharp profile which helped her recognizing him.

She kept looking at him until he stopped next to the gates. When he turned around and jogged to where she was, she looked down.

“Byeol.”

She felt her heart missed a beat but didn't look up, too scared to actually face him.

“Kim Byeol.”

She looked at him. He was standing under the rain, his uniform and hair wet while the droplets were running on his smooth pale skin.

“Come here,” his voice was nearly not loud enough compared to the sound of the rain, but she managed to hear him.

“W-what?” she took the straps of her bag and clutched her hands tight around it.

He did two huge steps and stopped just by her side. She looked at him with wide opened eyes, feeling very uneasy. He removed his blazer and put it above her head. She nearly screamed but bit on her lower lip to prevent herself from doing so.

“Follow me,” he said into her ear, which made her shiver.

She didn't know why, but she listened to him and they ran to the boy's car which was parked into front of the school. He opened the car door for her to enter and she hesitated, but because of the rain, she quickly went in.

“I'm driving you home,” he said once he the engine.

They didn't say a word during the whole ride.

Here's the third chapter, i hope you liked it !

I must admit that I like the last part, it's really cliché but I like writing it ^^

Don't forget to leave a comment to tell me what you thought about it, to subscribe and upvote if you want to :) 

Bye ! 

Mae.