"Clarinets, two of you, I need your tone here to be more vibrant,” Yuna turns towards the said section when the conductor addresses them. Like the click of a switch in her head, Yuna spots a familiar figure. When she looks up, Yuna’s breaths halt.

Hwang Eunbi. 

It takes a while before she can regain her composure. Why is she here?! Yuna can feel her palms wet in sweat. Her eyes do not tear away from Eunbi who attentively has her ears with the conductor, scribbling with her pencil onto her music sheet.

When the conductor picks the baton up again, Eunbi sits up.

Their eyes meet. Both girls miss the entry. 

Seated below the stage, Eunbi releases a huff as she reflects on her lack of focus during the first half of the rehearsal. Eunbi knows why; every time the ensemble starts playing Yuna flows into her mind like a stream, naturally flooding her thoughts and driving out her concentration. She looks down and brings her hand to her face, her lips pursed to form a troubled expression. To think that I concluded I had a crush on her, Eunbi grimaces. Eunbi asks her palpitating heart, what is it that I feel for Yuna unnie?

Proceeding to get a breather, Eunbi exits the concert hall to be greeted by the cello and bass sections strolling across her. Her eyes begin to search, immediately as an instinct.

She finds Yuna easily. Yuna sees her. Eunbi's breath cuts short.

It is the second time that day, that their eyes meet but Yuna shows no acknowledgement. Eunbi feels heat rising within her; her ears are hot, and she begins to sweat.

Livid, Eunbi stomps her way back into the concert hall. Eunbi doesn't think about reaching out for Yuna and grasping the cellist by her arm. 

“Unnie,” Eunbi’s voice is hard. 

Yuna struggles to find a response. “Eunbi, please,” she begs in a soft voice. Yuna turns around, scanning their whereabouts with anxious eyes. "Not here," she mutters when the rest of the strings section is gone.

Eunbi tries not to roll her eyes. Her grip tight on Yuna’s arm, she leads the latter out of the concert hall. Yuna allows herself to be dragged along, though careful not to create a commotion. 

“Unnie, are you going to go on like this forever?” Eunbi’s question reveals the distress within her. “Pretending not to know me?” she raises her voice.

“Eunbi, please,” Yuna finds herself struggling with a response. "I've really been trying to find a way to speak to you, tell you, and hope you understand," her voice is a plead. She finds herself trapped in the situation, not having known how to face Eunbi since her last conversation with Eunbi after her mother’s phone call; Yuna knows that she has aggravated the situation by keeping her distance, but argues that she knows no words she can say. They’ve fought before, fallen out, but this time Yuna finds that she cannot think of a possible solution to salvage their relationship. 

Yuna remembers then her mother: the woman had wanted Yuna to return to this home she now has in Seoul, and to let her grandmother's passing be a blameless one. Her mother had encouraged Eunbi's presence in her life, even with the loss of that of their family. Yuna knows, too, that she wants what her mother wants. A mother knows best, and Yuna knows undoubtedly that she cannot do without Eunbi, having met her and growing fond of her.

"You know, I agreed to perform for this because I thought you'd like the Borodin. I was going to invite you, perform for you. Never would I have expected to see you here, treating me like a complete stranger, " Eunbi grunts, candidly revealing her frustrations.

"I'm sorry, Eunbi, I'm sorry, " the exasperation in Yuna's voice shows. "I really am, and I'm grateful you thought of me for this repertoire- I really am, " Yuna earnestly says. The distress on her face causes Eunbi to soften.

Eunbi blinks and breathes. Their tense gaze creates a loud silence.

"It's okay. I guess this is our first performance together then, " Eunbi mutters as she drops her head. Eunbi internally sighs, questioning her own words: for each time she replies "It's okay" to Yuna's apologies, she wonders, how much meaning will their conversations actually hold?

Upon Eunbi’s tasteless reply, Yuna decides to speak up, “I really couldn't face you after everything. I know I must have been very frustrating, and my actions were hurtful. I'm truly sorry, Eunbi yah, I hope we can move on from that, even though I know I don't have the right to ask for that. But I really appreciate everything that you do for me too, Eunbi, I don't want to lose this between us.”

Eunbi stands still before Yuna, the latter's last sentence reverberating in her head. This between us, Eunbi hears it over and over again, feeling heat rise in her ears. Did she really say that? She feels, at low intensity, a familiar fluttering in her heart. Eunbi purses her lips together and drops her head. Is this what love does to you? she asks herself, one moment you're so mad at her and the other she means everything to you, your happiness, your life?

Yuna drops her head for a little as well at the lack of a response, until she finds in herself sudden courage to step forward and reach for Eunbi's hand, in her action conveying all her apologies, gratitude and intentions to reconcile. Holding it in hers, Yuna's fingers provide Eunbi's with a firm grip that sends warmth into Eunbi's heart.

Eunbi, startled at first, comprehends the message embedded. The fluttering in her heart intensifies as warmth spreads within her. Without hesitation, Eunbi takes a deliberated step forward and envelopes Yuna in a tight embrace. 

Surprised, Yuna almost falls back upon the unexpected action. Nonetheless, a smile spreads on her lips and she returns the hug delightfully, receiving also reciprocation about her sentiments from the younger housemate.

Feeling Yuna's arms around her, Eunbi's heartbeat races such that she worries about Yuna being able to feel the thumping of her heart in her chest. her quivering lips, she squeezes her eyes shut and cannot help but feel paradise in Yuna’s arms. So this really is love, she thinks, feeling like she's above the clouds.

When they part, their gazes are locked, but this time their lips display gentle smiles. Eunbi doesn't know how long they've been in their positions until someone bumps into her from the back and she drops her file. 

“I'm sorry,” the fellow musician says. Eunbi exchanges bows with him before he walks away.

Yuna watches as Eunbi picks the file up. Her jaw drops realising the page the folder was open to.

“Mozart's… Clarinet… Concerto,” she mutters. Eunbi looks up, her eyes alert in the unexpected reveal.

“I-I wanted to tell you!” her words are quick and anxious. 

“You signed up to audition,” Yuna breaks into a smile.

Eunbi swallows, “I did.”

“When are you auditioning!” her question sounds more like a gasp. 

“The day after this concert… Pretty unplanned, I don't usually pack my schedule like that-”

“You'll do well, regardless,” Yuna cuts Eunbi off, full of faith, wishing Eunbi some confidence.

Eunbi squirms, “I don't know “ 

“Things will always turn out okay,” Yuna’s words of assurance to Eunbi has her realise that those were the words she needed to believe in all these while. 

When Yuna reaches for Eunbi's hand and gives it a comforting squeeze, both girls feel their hearts skip a beat. 

"First violins, really, tomorrow is the day, I don't want to spend so much time on this," the conductor nags as he fiddles with his baton. Eunbi's fingers are quick on her phone, while both Yuna and Eunbi pay only half the attention to what they should be concentrating on.

[Unnie, dinner later together? :D]

Yuna cannot help but smile, hearing exactly Eunbi's voice in her head as she reads the text message, picturing the lively facial expressions the younger would have if this were a spoken, face-to-face conversation.

[Your pick. Now put down the phone and focus]

"As-ssa~" Eunbi mutters a victory cry under her breath. Her lips form a satisfied smile as she picks the clarinet up again, her produced sound for the rest of the rehearsal probably sounding a little too bright for the required tone of the symphonic poem.

For the first time in a long while, Eunbi feels jittery as she comes onstage after the end of a piece (that did not include her, nor was she paying any attention to- while she kept telling herself "It's my first time onstage with unnie" and inducing cold sweat on her forehead). She tries to clear her mind as she takes her seat. Drying her sweaty palms by the sides of her culottes, her trembling orbs shift from the cellist with a face that mesmerises (more so now with make-up that brings out her charming features) to the conductor. 

Before the conductor picks his baton up, Eunbi steals another glance at the cello section, meeting Yuna's gaze. Yuna gives her an encouraging smile, and she returns it with a thankful one with the nod of her head. Here we go, she tells herself, taking a deep breath, praying for an enjoyable time that she will be able to keep close to her heart. 

"Unnie, let's take a photo!" Eunbi excitedly drags Yuna away from her section when everyone is celebrating the end of another successful performance. Yuna chuckles, as warmth spreads within her to witness again the girl’s antics that brought her days in Seoul joy and made the place a home. 

“Jiwon ah, help us take a photo,” Eunbi asks a fellow winds and hands over her mobile phone.

Noticing immediately, Yuna widens her eyes, “You’ve changed your phone?”

Eunbi smiles and nods, “My brother got it for me!”

Eunbi looks at the photo intently after it is taken, and sets it as her wallpaper. Yuna notices, and keeps the act close to her heart.

“Send it to me, I wanna use it as a wallpaper too,” Yuna rests a hand on Eunbi’s shoulder.

Eunbi’s heart skips a beat. She hears, again after a long time, the soft ringing of a bell at the back of her head.

EUNBI IS SO CUTE HELP i'm truly in love with shinb and while picturing her as the hwang eunbi in this i really can't help but <3333 what ultimate biases does to stans,,, anyway, the piece that is supposed to be performed here is a symphonic poem by Alexander Borodin, titled "In the Steppes of Central Asia". considering that the overall tone of the piece isn't dark, imagine how happy eunbi must've sounded on her clarinet to be "a little too bright". keke why so cute >\\< and YES ARE WE ALL EXCITED FOR #回_LABYRINTH BECAUSE YES here's to more shinb taking over my heart and killing me and hopefully another season of mainline hehe ♡♡ DID WE ALL DIE DURING THE PHOTO RELEASE OF TWISTED BC MY MAINLINE BABIES WERE SOOO CLOSE TGT UWU and the highlight medley already sounds soooo good?? anyway, i hope you've enjoyed the update! the semester is starting to get really hectic for me and i don't know when my next update will come,, would still appreciate the comments and the support though! thank you my lovely readers ♡♡♡

p.s. rereading this got me thinking about how quickly yuna noticed eunbi's new phone LOL. new iphone bling bling

p.p.s. rereading this again i think it's not quick at all for yuna to only notice eunbi's new phone now when THEY LITERALLY LIVE UNDR THE SAME ROOF this girl is in her own world