Mark was a lot of words: silent, a bit introverted, and usually uncaring about towards strangers yet always polite.

But Mark was not dense towards strangers.

In fact, he was always able to read people’s expression and actions, more than people thought he could. Being the hyung, he could read his donsaengs mind in a glance, carefull to look out for sadness or hurt being on their face. If you asked Taeyong, he would tell you that Mark was silent, focused and patient; which is why he was actually able to read people’s mind easily, even if they were strangers. Especially if people meant harm to him.

Like now.

Their Music class usually started with an introduction of a famous artist of a certain genre, and then they would proceed exploring said genre by analysing its characteristics.

Yet today Mr. Kim stated that today there would be testing everyone’s musicality by having a look at practice. There were many instruments that were prepared, and Mr. Kim asked every student to try to play one piece of their choice, on the instrument of their choice.

Mark frowned as he only spotted classical instruments. No guitar. No drums. No any basic instrument like a triangle.

When Yougmin, who also happened to be a scholarship student, asked about it, he was met with a smile of Mr.Kim.

A very cold one or fake one, Mark could not tell the difference.

“This is not a low grade school, so wont I teach about low grade music.”

Mark snorted inside. Decent music.

What in Heavens name as decent music?

It was not Mozart’s pieces that were trending on musical portal charts, where they?

This was the 21st century, and “decent music” was a concept that did not exist; as long as one person liked it, why would it not be called decent music?

However it did not seem that Mr.Kim was of the same opinion, as he would make a humiliating lecture, every time a student failed to meet his expectation. Especially Youngmin.

When it was his turn, Mr. Kim smiled.

But he knew there was hostility in his voice, when he asked; “What about you Mark? Did you decide on your instrument?”

Mark’s eyes narrowed slightly but he nevertheless replied: “I did.”

Mr. Kim’s eyes narrowed too, as he nodded. “Good, then go ahead.”

Mark did not understand where he was going at. So, he ignored the feeling of hostility and made his way towards the piano.

“Oh, the piano? I presume you know at least some decent piece? What a surprise.” Mr. Kim ‘s expression was one of light ridicule, and he glanced slightly at Hyunsob, who smiled right back at him.

Mark narrowed his eyes further. Huh, so that’s the whole child play going about.

Hyunsob was probably wanting to give him payback, but Mark knew for sure, he could not be the only reason. Mingyu sure had long hands.

Mark merely smiled as he took place. A decent piece, huh.

Truthfully, he wanted to just play the cover of a UNITED song, as Minhyun hyung and Daehwi hyung always learned Mark to play them, when it was summer time. Summer time meant no school, and no school meant Mark could come sometimes with his dad to the company. Especially when he was younger; be it the piano, guitar or drums, there wasn’t a single request the UNITED hyungs would deny to the adorable child, full of musical talent of their favourite Choreographer and dance teacher.

But since Mr. Kim was looking at him like a hawk, Mark would not give him the pleasure to comment on his musical choice.

The one that had actually taught him to play the piano was his Appa.

When his appa left, Mark hadn’t touched the instrument for a long time. The only exceptions were when UNITED hyungs taught him a new song to cover. When his Appa came back, Jeno had wanted to learn the instrument, which he did in Appa’s house, because Taeyong’s little apartment didn’t had their old piano. The apartment could not fit the big instrument, now that the other room was taken for the youngest. They were five kids now instead of two.

But Jeno had sometimes asked for his hyung to watch his practice, at their Appa’s house.

Mark had watched, but not a lot of times because he was also busy with dance practice and basketball matches.

And when things went better with Appa, Mark had been too busy to retake his practice.

Mark closed his eyes for a brief second, remembering the melody.

“Mark-yah, lets try one more time.”

“Mark-yah, don’t sulk, Appa is sure you can do it.”

“Like that. 1.2.3.4 and 1.2.3.4…”

He opened them, and his fingers touched the keys, as the first notes of Dream, from Yiruma, could be heard in the room. It was no easy piece, but he had played it a couple of times at his dads company studio, whenever he had missed his Appa ( Of course when Taeyong was out of sight). It had been the first piece his Appa had taught him, the memory had been one he had secretly treasured a lot. Hence even though his memory of the music sheets failed, his fingers were more confident as he did not miss a single note.

He could heard the soft murmur of shock in the room, but he didn’t bother to look at Mr.Kim expression, nor at Mingyu’s dog.

1.2.3.4

And 1.2.3.4

When the last melody dies, Mark’s heartbeat was beating like crazy, but not a single expression could be seen on his face.

“Was that decent enough, Mr. Kim?”

If Mr. Kim’s smile had been cold, then his current smile was ice- freezing-cold. “It can be considered decent.”

Mark nodded, but he did not say anything.

Here in class, he had indeed less power. He did not want the headmaster to call his dad, troubling him with such a trifle matter of a snub teacher.

Mr.Kim asked another student to play, as if nothing had happened.

Herin and Koeun looked at each other: “Did you know Mark could play the piano?” asked the later.

Herin shook her head, still amazed at the fact she had heard a flawless prestation of Mark form a not so easy piece.

Koeun sighed: “That boy is a bigger mystery then the death of MJ…But why did Mr.Kim tried to humiliate him? He always ignored him before.”

Herin looked slightly at Hyunsob. Since the night of Cherry’N, she had not been able to forget the implications that Mark had mentioned when talking to Mingyu. She had tried to keep an eye on the fourth years, and even during Mark’s last match she had tried learn more about the “incident”.

There was something wrong. But nothing concrete. It frustrated her a lot.

“I don’t know…But maybe we should find it out.”

When everyone had tried to play a piece, Mr. Kim moved them to the back of the room.

“Classical instruments are mostly known to be Western, but don’t forget that that’s only a piece of the whole picture. We should always be proud of our own background. Does anyone know how to play any of these?”

Displayed on the big table, were various Korean classical instruments: traditional Korean flutes, drums, gongs, and string instruments in al kind were displayed all over the table.

“Anyone wants to make a try?”

For once, the very proud students were not very enthusiastic, as which well-of family would still learn their child such traditional instruments?

“Maybe you, Mr.Lee?” the cold voice, made a dozen eyes pairs look at him.

Some of the snickered, happy to see him in such a difficult position that would only lead to humiliation. Others were worried.

“Mr. Kim, I would like to try.” Herin tried to volunteer.

Mr.Kim glanced at her annoyingly, however he calmly responded as he knew better then to provoke the pearl of a dragon. “How lovely, Herin. When Mr.Lee’s turn is over, I would be happy to hear your performance, which I know won’t disappoint.”

Herin wanted to make an objection, but Koeun shook her head. She would only make it worse, and maybe Mark would have to face twice the wrath.

Mark however wanted to laugh.

He turned towards Mr.Kim and smiled: “Sure. Which one do you recommend?”

Mr.Kim was taken aback by such brazenness, disbelieve briefly painting his face, but he quickly recomposed himself as he smiled.

“Can you play many of them, Mr.Lee? Otherwise I would just pick the one where I can hear a decent piece.”

Mark smile never faded, as he confidently answered, “I learned all of them. Which one would you like to hear?”

Mr.Kim stared at the boy as he sneered inside. Learned all of the Korean traditional instruments? What was he, a Virtuous? Who was he kidding, was he trying to make him back off? To scare him? “Oh, really? Then how about Gayageum?” Mr. Kim proposed sweetly.

Before Mark could even answer, the wooden zither of 12 strings was placed in front of him.

Mark smiled coldly inside. He could of course not play every traditional instrument.

That was a lie. A big fat one.

But he knew that by saying so, Mr. Kim would give him the most difficult one, and the most unlikely for him to master.

Which was one of the many zithers like instruments.

Unlike the piano, Mark played the zither on a very frequent basis, thanks to Renjun.

Mark would like to see, how much of a slap he could give with this.

Mark decided to go all out, as he plucked the first pair of strings experimentally. Mark smiled.

Renjun had once participated in a competition. He had chosen a classical Korean song, which he had repeated countless times, worrywart as he was. Mark had been there every step of the way, and Renjun had won the competition without a hitch. A pity the boy never wanted to do it again, because he felt it was to stressfull to be worth it.

Mark smiled, and he began with extra finesse plucking the strings as the first notes of the Boating Song could be heard. It was traditionall Korean song. Decent of the most decent. And annoyingly difficult too.

Mark’s eyes were focussed on the strings, his hands quick movement one after the other with precision that could only be one of a seasoned musician. The difficult handplay caught many by surprises and Mr. Kim stared at it with a look of incredibility. How was this possible? The boy was a mere honorary student, of the plainest background! Originally he had thought that it would be so easy to give Mingyu a favour, yet humiliating the boy had all been for naught! Instead he kept receiving this slap right in front of all his students! Mr. Kim could not help but feel hatred towards Mark, and he certainly was angry at Mingyu for making him stuck in this predicament.

When the last melody faded away, Koeun could not help but clap her hands. Soon a lot of students joined her, even though some, like Hyunsob and those who were disappointed did not join them.

Mark turned around, his heartbeat felt like crazy, as this was not easy piece to play.

His eyes however stayed icecold as he asked: “Is there anything else you would like me to play?”

Mr. Kim’s face was red from anger and embaresement, however he did not want to try out his luck again as he replied in a very composed way: “That won’t be necessary Mr. Lee”

Mark sneered inside. He had perfectly managed to scare him away.

“I did not know you were so talented, why did you never mention it?” Koeun smiled as they walked through the hallways, on their way to their lockers.

Mark shrugged. “I am not really. Renjun likes to play zither, while Jeno likes to play the piano. So I learned a trick or two.”

Koeun rolled her eyes. “You call this a trick? If this was a simple trick, then anyone could learn to be a virtuous Mark.”

Mark shrugged again, not knowing what to respond.

Herin smiled, easily detecting his distress, “Don’t you know Mark? He likes to be humble, stop bothering him.”

Koeun smiled slyly as she discreetly winked at Herin. “That’s why you are better than most of those arrogants headshots in our class.”

Herin blushed but ignored the comment. Yes. She liked Mark’s low profile a lot. No need to rub it in front of him.

She then took some courage before asking: “Then do you play any instrument Mark? No tricks included?”

Mark nodded as he opened up his locker: “The guitar, I guess.”

“So, you are al musically talented in your family?” Koeun tried to pry even more.

Mark merely shrugged. “Not really. But because of my dad’s job we do all love music.”

“Your dad’s job?” Koeun tried to not look to excited that she was getting a good job at slowly putting up the puzzle that was the mystery of Mark. The boy rarely talked about himself, and it was so frustrating sometimes.

“My dad teaches dance.” Mark took his English book, missing the excited glance shared between Herin and Koeun.

“Ah! Is that why he always wears trendy sportswear during parents counselling?” Koeun suddnely realised, as a mystery was finnaly partially resolved.

Mark nodded, locking his locker.

Herin bit her lip as she carefully asked: “What kind of dance does he teach?”

Mark looked up at them, not really seeing why they were so interested. But there was no harm, coming from these two and so he still replied: “A bit of everything, but mostly freestyle and streetdance.”

Herin and Koeun blinked in surprise.

Koeun blurted out: “That’s cool.”

Mark smiled a bit. “It is.”, before going towards their English class.

“Did he just smile?” Herin squeaked.

Koen smirked. “Breath in, breath out Herin. I am sure you still wanna see him smile even more properly before you die”

“yah!”

Frankly Mark did not get it. First Mr. Kim.

Now Mrs. Im.

What was that brat thinking? And what were those teachers thinking? Had Mark done anything to wrong them before?

Mrs. Im, his English teacher had asked him to come in front. Mark was warry, not liking her too excited eyes mile, and he had carefully taken his steps towards the blackboard.

“Today, Is Poetry week. As everyone know, the English culture has lots of famous poets, and they all had very big influences in the English society. The most famous one would be Shakespeare, but there are still many others who have left their big mark into the world of literature.”

She then turned her attention towards Mark. “Mark, how about you recite me one of them?”

Mark was surprised, but it did not seem like she was trying to pick on him, maybe it was just his bad luck. A little voice in his heart, however told him to be careful.

He then wracked his memory for an English poem. Kun appa liked poems. He liked to read them to Jeno and sensible Renjun, so Mark had heard a lot of Korean and Chinese ones…But English ones?

Huh, they had never seen one in class, what did the teacher actually expected?

Mark looked at Mrs. Im who had a very innocent smile on her face.

…

A voice said…

“Well, we are waiting Mark?” Mrs. Im smile was even brighter as she interrupted Mark’s thoughts.

Mark frowned before he cleared his throat as he began to recite:

“A voice said, Look me in the stars

And tell me truly, men of earth