Chaeyoung yawned as she finished cleaning the music room, settling her cello carefully in its suitcase. She could hear her girlfriend’s laugh when she lifted it to carry it on her back even if she was not here ; Jeongyeon really liked to about how big the instrument was compared to her size. 

She excited the room and locked the door, being the last one leaving the place. The hallway was empty, and she could hear the soft sound of students playing, she assumed, the trumpet, outside. She unlocked her phone and texted her girlfriend that she would be outside soon. 

The more she walked towards the staircase, the louder the trumpet sounds got. She could now clearly hear it, accompanied by a saxophone. She was a bit confused. Neither of the instruments were following a particular music piece, and the sounds just grew louder and louder, to the point that she got worried. 

She ran to a window and quickly opened it, tiptoeing to take the scene that was happening beneath it. 

Sana and Jihyo were facing each other in the courtyard, both blowing as hard as they could in their instrument. When one managed to get a louder sound, the other would beat it. Even from afar, Chaeyoung could tell how red their faces were. She slammed the window back and ran in the staircase, almost falling because of her cello. 

She rushed toward the duo, pushing the curious students who had gathered around them. She clapped her hands against her ears at the same time as everyone else when Jihyo managed to get a particularly unpleasant sound out of her saxophone. 

« Stop ! Stop ! » Chaeyoung yelled, a bit out of breath, stumbling in the middle of the circle. 

The two older students lowered their instruments, and the silent came back. Chaeyoung grabbed them by their arms, huffing, and pulled them closer to her. The students around began to leave. 

« What the do you two think you’re doing ?! » she loudly whispered, clearly pissed. « is that how you treat your instruments ? » 

Jihyo lowered her head and clenched her saxophone a bit harder, ashamed as she realized how stupid they must have looked. Sana, however, did not think the same. She yanked her arm out of Chaeyoung’s hold and took a step back. 

« It’s her fault ! » that made Jihyo whip her head back up. « she said trumpets were useless in bands ! » 

« I never said that ! You’re the one who’s too dumb to understand what you’re being told. » Chaeyoung let go of her unnie’s arm, her confidence to stop them gone. 

« At least I know how to play music, miss opening-ceremony-failure ! »

« Right, you do know how to blow, ! » 

That was the last straw. Sana dropped her trumpet and latched into Jihyo, or at least attempted to, as someone grabbed her from behind and pulled her away from the other girl. Chaeyoung watched as Tzuyu locked the Japanese girl’s arms and quickly grabbed the trumpet on the floor before someone stepped on it. 

Sana tried to wiggle out of Tzuyu’s hold, but the taller girl was too strong. Jihyo was standing still, staring at her nemesis, a weird glint in her eyes. Chaeyoung was about to panic, already thinking of ways Jihyo could insult Sana again, but the girl just smirked, grabbed her backpack next to Chaeyoung, and blew a final time in the Japanese’s girl direction. 

« I win. » and she left the scene, a proud smile on her face.

Chaeyoung scrunched her nose as Sana screamed injures. In the shorter girl’s opinion, Jihyo took it too far. 

« Chae ? » Tzuyu’s soft voice reached her ears. She turned her attention back to her friend. « Is the trumpet ok ? » Sana stopped moving and closed the moment she heard the tall girl say that. 

Chaeyoung raised it in front of her face, checking every corner of the instrument. 

« It’ll be alright. A small bump here - » she pointed at it. « - but it’ll be fine. You’re lucky, Sana. » she gave the girl an unhappy glare and gave her the instrument back, as tzuyu let her go. She kept shut, taking care of it under the two younger girls’s eyes. Chaeyoung shook her head when she heard a sob coming from the older girl. Tzuyu softly ran a hand on the older girl’s shoulder before joining Chaeyoung.

« Don’t cry now, Sana. » the cello player spoke out. « Let’s leave the school now, I’ll treat you to some ice cream, alright ? And you’ll tell us what happened, exactly. In details. » Sana sniffled with a nod. « plus Jeongyeon has been waiting for me for a while, now. Mina unnie is probably waiting for Tzuyu, too. » another nod. 

They quickly made their way to the school gate, and Chaeyoung shouted her girlfriend name when she came in sight. Mina was there too. Jeongyeon reached her little partner and lifted the cello case off of her back. Chaeyoung stuck her tongue out in a childish manner when her girlfriend made her daily comment about her height. 

« Hi guys. » Mina intertwined her fingers with Tzuyu’s, her gaze on a still very red Sana. « we just saw Jihyo leave the school almost dancing. Did something good happen ? » both Chaeyoung and Tzuyu stiffened, but Sana remained quiet. 

Jeongyeon and Mina shared a curious look. They needed to talk. 

—

They let Sana talk, the four of them comfortably sitting around the table. 

Turned out it started innocently enough. The two girls had left the building together, chatting about their band schedule for the week. Jihyo had teased Sana about having a weak practice time comparing to the saxophone duo, and Sana took it as a way to say that trumpets were less important. Since she had been complaining with an annoying squeaky voice tone, Jihyo had decided to make noise with her instrument to shut the girl up, and it turned into a sound battle. 

They watched as Sana teared her straw apart, blaming herself for her childish behavior. She was one of the unnies of the band, how could she react like that ? Tzuyu made a comment about how it was not a big deal, and Mina let out a laugh when Sana got up, slamming her hands on the table and her knee against it at the same time. 

« It is, ugh, it is a big deal ! I looked dumb ! Jihyo is going to make fun of me for ages ! » 

« She’s not the type. » Chaeyoung loudly slurped the end of her drink. « however, she did snap earlier. Are you sure you guys don’t have an unsorted deal or something… » the young girl watched as Sana slowly sat back down on her chair, a light blush spreading across her cheeks. « Oh, there is something. » 

Jeongyeon hit her as she bit down on her straw. 

« Stop that. And yes, Sana. What’s up with you ? And bringing the opening ceremony was really a move. You know how Jihyo got affected by it. » 

« I do, that’s the problem. oh god. » her fingers turned white against the chair’s handles. « oh . I need, I need to talk to her. » 

On that, she left the café, leaving the two couples still very confused. 

Mina and Tzuyu left to the bus stop, Chaeyoung agreed to go to Jeongyeon’s home to practice a bit. The older girl, being a violin player, loved to help her tiny girlfriend. Hand in hand, they walked around the city towards the girl’s house, Jeongyeon humming the tune of the piece they were currently working on. She got a bit worried when she noticed how unusually quiet her girlfriend was. 

« Is everything alright ? » Chaeyoung bit her tongue at the question. 

« Yeah. I just don’t understand what’s going on. It’s frustrating. » 

Jeongyeon smiled as her girlfriend’s eyebrows furrowed, her concentrated pout appearing on her face. She ran her thumb against the younger girl’s hand to ease her worries. 

« It’s Jihyo and Sana. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were secretly dating. » Chaeyoung gasped. « what ? It’s possible. » 

« It is ! » 

Jeongyeon chuckled as Chaeyoung bounced in joy, and asked her to slow down or the cello would take her down. The girl stopped with a small ‘sorry’ and Jeongyeon got reminded of the day they first met. She gave a squeeze to the hand she was holding and Chaeyoung reciprocated it. They walked in silent to the house, no words needed to be exchanged. 

— 

Sana felt like her lungs were burning when she reached her destination. She knew where Jihyo lived, they were friends after all. She settled under the girl’s window. She felt a bit like Romeo, but the situation was really different. 

She knew what to do. Jihyo and her started playing when they were 6 together, they would stick together. Their instruments were only bringing them closer. She hated herself for acting like she did earlier. So she got her trumpet out of her case turned it towards the window, and started playing. 

She chose the tune of Tchaikovsky’s Italian Capriccio, as she knew Jihyo would recognize it easily. It was a bit difficult without the others to play with her, but she was confident. As she played, she heard and saw people come out of their homes, opening their window to look at her. She played louder, in hope that Jihyo would open hers. 

Children and adults were surrounding her, the younger ones with sparkly eyes, some of the adults in awe. it gave her boost, and she managed to play the whole piece perfectly. 

But in the end, still no Jihyo. 

Vexed, she felt a tear roll on her cheek. She quickly packed her things and left the street under the gaze of a few people still present. She stopped only when her vision got too blurry, on a bench under a weeping willow. She was hurt. She glanced at her instrument’s case, the stickers on it and the slightly broken corners. 

Her tears stopped when she heard a saxophone play Bach’s Toccata behind her. She refused to turn around, however. 

She only did when the person playing finished. She sighed as the last notes rang. She loved how Jihyo played the piece, and finally smiled when her friend joined her on the bench. 

« I’m really sorry. »

« I am, too. » 

A beat. 

«  Joe’s Avery’s piece ? » Sana asked 

« We don’t have a trombone, it’s going to sound horrible ! » Jihyo looked at her friend, outraged.

« Let’s try anyway ! It’s fun ! » 

And Jihyo agreed, because music is what tied them. Because it was their way of saying ‘I love you’, even though it was completely off, missing an instrument and that they got yelled at. Because being loud was their thing, after all. 

— 

« Are we dating ? »

« I don’t know. Are we ? »

« Do you want to ? »

Sana answered with a loud blow in her trumpet.