Changkyun didn’t know what to say or do; he wanted with all his might to run from there, but the intense gaze of the messy brown-haired boy was making him so nervous that he couldn’t react.

"I’m sorry if I surprised you," the boy apologized, "but I heard someone play and I was curious. And what you said... it was really adorable.”

Because of the stranger’s kindly and sincere expression, Changkyun didn’t know whether he was teasing him or not; the only thing he knew was that he hadn’t felt this ashamed in a long time. He looked down at his legs and squeezed his denim-jacket sleeves, unable to maintain eye contact any longer.

The stranger realized that what he said was making him uncomfortable and bit his lip with guilt: it wasn’t his intention to . Finally, he climbed up to the stage and walked towards the piano; as he approached Changkyun, he shrank more and more, like a frightened puppy.

The brunette stopped at a safe distance to not invade the little boy's personal space and pointed at the instrument with his chin.

"You play the piano very well," he pointed out with a gentle smile, trying to give him a topic of conversation and opening up to him. "are you in the music club?"

Changkyun hesitated momentarily before nodding.

"I supposed it... and what grade are you in?"

After a few seconds, the younger dared to look up at him, and this time he was able to analyze him more closely. The first thing that caught his attention was his clothing: the black leather jacket and ripped jeans made him look like a magazine model; his ears -that stuck out a little- were covered by piercings and he wore a choker on his neck.

His pink lips were fleshy and his dark eyes were practically covered by his brown hair: Changkyun wondered how he could walk without hitting himself on the walls wearing his hair like that.

He surely was a popular person on campus: in conclusion, he was the kind of people he didn’t want to get involved with.

Wonho raised his eyebrows, waiting patiently for an answer; it was then that Changkyun realized that he had been staring at him for way too long.

"I’m in first year..."

Although his voice was usually deep, this time it sounded like a squeak of a helpless little animal. He hated being like this, but he wasn’t precisely good at engaging conversations with complete strangers, and even less when that particular stranger had heard him recite some cheesy lines of a lame script.

"Oh, so you’re a freshman…" he murmured, pursing his lips with a thoughtful expression. “I'm in fourth year, my name is Shin Hoseok, by the way,” he added with a giggle, realizing that he hadn’t introduced himself yet, “but I prefer Wonho.”

Changkyun knew that the socially correct thing would be telling him his name, but instead of fighting his insecurities, he chose to remain silent. Wonho cleared his throat, beginning to realize the kind of person he was dealing with.

“And what is your name?” he asked carefully, taking two steps towards the scared puppy. The approaching alarmed the black-haired boy, who jumped up from the seat, surprising the other in the process.

"I… I have to go," he stammered almost inaudibly. Then he clumsily picked up the sheet music and passed by the brunette almost running.

“Hey, wait!” exclaimed Hoseok because of his sudden escape. He took Changkyun's arm and, due to the pull, his glasses fell to the floor. The sound of breaking glass made them both petrified, staring at the lenses with wide eyes.

Wonho let go of him and watched him guiltily.

"I-I'm so sorry," he said apologetically. After all, he had just broken a -provably very expensive- pair of glasses of a boy he just met. But Changkyun didn’t even look him in the face and left as fast as he could, leaving behind his huge lenses and the boy of fourth grade.

When he left the assembly hall, the black-haired boy could breathe again. That whole situation was tremendously uncomfortable; he just hoped he would never meet that guy again.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Changkyun put on two T-shirts and a sweatshirt on top. Normally he wore clothes and clothes regardless of the weather; going dressed like this made him feel more secure and protected.

But that day he wore a large blue corduroy jacket too: he was going to need an extra layer of clothing to feel more confident about himself.

That night he didn’t get much sleep. The encounter he had the day before with that Wonho guy kept him awake, but what worried him the most was the piano recital he had that morning.

How the hell was he going to read the sheet music without his glasses? If he hadn’t run away like that and had taken his glasses off the ground, he wouldn’t have to face this situation. Maybe he would have had enough time to go to a store to have them fixed.

It was almost twelve in the morning, and people were beginning to arrive at the auditorium. The dark-haired boy was backstage; he walked nervously from one place to another, holding the scores with his little hands and trying to distinguish some musical notes from the papers without much success.

"Changkyun?"

He ignored the voice and kept walking without taking his eyes off the sheet music: perhaps if he kept looking at them for a long time, the blurry pages would turn into readable pentagrams.

"Changkyun!”

The cry of his pink-haired friend made him flinch and looked at him at last.

“What?”

"What do you mean with what?" Kihyun asked annoyed. “The recital is about to start and you’re reviewing the scores, isn’t that strange enough for me to worry?”

That was true, Changkyun rarely rehearsed before a concert. Despite being an insecure person, as he stepped onto the stage, he overflowed a confidence that he wished he always had.

But that time he didn’t practice at all... not to mention that he had no way to read the scores.

"I just haven’t practiced enough, that's all," Changkyun explained, trying to dismiss the matter, even though inside his nerves were killing him.

Kihyun frowned, scanning him with his eyes.

"Where are your glasses?"

The boy held tighter the papers, cursing internally his friend and his observation capacity.

"I… broke them yesterday..." Kihyun's eyes widened in disbelief. “But don’t worry! I've already told you that I can read without them.”

"But... what are you going to do? You didn’t memorize the score!” exclaimed his roommate.

Changkyun didn’t know the answer to that question either: he had no freaking idea what he was going to do. But, fortunately, he didn’t have to answer him as the voice of the music club coordinator echoed throughout the auditorium; he was thanking the audience for attending the recital.

Then, he introduced the piece they were going to have the honor of hearing from one of the club's most talented members. The adjective he used to refer to Changkyun only made him more nervous: yeah, the audience would enjoy a nice piece of music, but it would be completely improvised.

The black-haired boy took a deep breath as the crowd began to clap and glanced at Kihyun, who wished him good luck in silence.

He began to walk towards the stage with his heart hammering at his chest; he wished with all his might that his fingers wouldn’t fail him again, like in yesterday's rehearsal.

“Wait!”

Changkyun stopped and turned to the owner of the voice: it was Wonho. His brown hair was so messy and he was breathing hard because of the running.

Still not catching his breath, he approached the surprised boy and smiled tiredly.

"Thank god… I got just in time," he muttered relieved. Changkyun was speechless from the impression of seeing him again; at that moment, his head didn’t even wonder how the hell he knew at what time his concert was.

Then, Wonho took a glasses case from the pocket of his green bomber. He opened it and pulled out Changkyun's glasses, whose broken lenses was replaced with shiny, new ones.

Even though the brunette was only a few inches taller, he bent slightly to put them gently on the little boy.

"Perfect," he said with a big smile. Changkyun was so hypnotized by his brown eyes that he didn’t notice the short distance between them; Wonho patted him on the head and brought him back to planet Earth. “Good luck out there.”

The black-haired boy tightened his mouth and, unable to say thank you, he turned around and went to the center of the stage, completely stunned by what had just happened.

He didn’t understand why a guy he barely knew would bother to buy in a hurry a pair of new lenses for his glasses. But the hard beating of his heart... was something he understood even less.