Middle school. 

She stood a head taller; her long, black locks swayed when the wind blew into the hallways as the windows were open during lunchtimes. 

“Unnie!” the call would ring, repeatedly as it gets lost amongst the lunchtime crowd of third-year students who were indifferent to the presence of a second-year. At times, usually sundown, when the corridors were empty and the evening rays shone through the glass panes, the call would reverberate. 

When she turned, her hair flew and she searched for the source of the call with her soft, warm almond eyes. And she would smile when her eyes finally met mine.

April: the start of a new school year. In her first lunch break in middle school, Eunbi’s footsteps follow the signs that lead her to the top floor of the building adjacent to the classroom block. Her fingers grip tightly on a file that she hugs close to her body.

“Ooh?” the sound of the piano causes Eunbi to take a pause. A Chopin Nocturne. E major! Opus 62 No. 2! Eunbi exclaims in her head, identifying it immediately for having known it well as Chopin’s last nocturne to be published in his lifetime. Eunbi’s curiosity draws her nearer to the music room with her cautious steps. Her small frame leans over as she pokes her head through the ajar door. Her eyes lie on the back of the tall, long-haired girl at the piano bench, her fingers gracefully flying across the keys. 

Eunbi does not realise that she has been holding her breath until she finds herself gasping for air at the end of the piece. Losing her balance, she stumbles and creates a loud crash into the door of the music room.

Startled, the girl by the piano jumps in her seat. 

“I’m sorry! I did not mean to intrude,” Eunbi gives a deep bow. Her chest rises and descends as she inhales and exhales, while her anxious eyes dart from side to side. She raises herself after a long moment of deafening silence and finds her breathing cut short once again.

“Don’t be,” Eunbi is answered with a bright smile that puts out Eunbi’s senses momentarily. At that moment, a bell seems to sweetly ring at the back of Eunbi’s mind.

Apart from a certain glowing mesmerisation the face is emitting, Eunbi knows she finds it familiar.

The fright on Eunbi’s face must have been unmistakable; following the sunshine beam is a courteous introduction: “I’m Choi Yuna from Class 2A.”

Eunbi purses her lips together.

I certainly have seen her before, haven’t I?!

Eunbi dashes off wordlessly, leaving the senior no time for a response. Eunbi’s legs carry her back to the classroom block and to the end of the storey where the stairs are located. While catching her breath, she hides herself behind the walls and takes a last glance. Her eyes spot a confused Yuna turning her head amongst the crowd of third-year students, before seemingly approaching the flight of stairs where Eunbi remains. Eunbi scurries down the stairs to the second storey where the first-year classrooms are located. Before returning to her classroom, Eunbi turns her head and lifts it for a view above the stairs.

Yuna walks away from the stairs, a floor above hers where the second-year classrooms are located.

Eunbi wearily drags herself through the door after removing her shoes and arrives ten minutes early for her lesson. She hears again, the Chopin Nocturne in E major. It’s the third theme. Someone is playing only the top melody line and the bass line. Focusing on the melodic interplay, Eunbi guesses, it’s something Seohee ssaem would ask her students to do. 

The music captivates Eunbi who starts dozing off in her seat. Her head droops to her left, the exhaustion from school and its burdens overcoming her. Eunbi completely blacks out, unmindful that the music has stopped, and only wakes up when she feels her head falling against a soft pair of hands. 

Eunbi shakes herself awake. “I’m sorry!” she gives a deep bow, while her eyelids remain reluctant to open up. 

A short, gentle burst of melodious laughter resonates in the empty hallway, one that enchants Eunbi. “Do you always have to apologise when you see me?”

Eunbi stands herself up straight, befuddled. She widens her sleepy eyes for a clearer view. 

Eunbi hesitates before her lips move. “S-Sunbaenim?” she slightly stammers.

“Don’t call me sunbaenim, we’re not even in our school uniform,”

Eunbi frowns, perplexed.

“Unnie will do,” Yuna beams.

Eunbi narrows her eyes. 

“Haven’t we met before? We’ve been Seohee ssaem’s students since we were kids. I know your name, Hwang Eunbi,” Yuna warmly smiles at her.

The way Yuna gently calls her name whilst having her characteristic sweet smile put on sends a chill down Eunbi’s spine, as much as it makes her heart flutter.

A year of exchanges in the music room passes by swiftly; Eunbi finds herself located two flights of stairs nearer to the music room, while Yuna finds her classroom only a connecting bridge away. 

“It must be nice, being a third-year,” Eunbi’s eyes are on their feet as they take their steps together to the next block as they do every lunch break.

“It must be nice, you’re not among the youngest in the school anymore,” Yuna’s reply has an additional tint of cheekiness.

Eunbi lifts her head, her lips forming a pout directed at the older girl.

“I didn’t mean it that way!” Eunbi huffs, cracking Yuna up into chuckles.

“So, what are you going to play today?” Yuna asks Eunbi who is still irked by her playfulness.

Eunbi places her hand behind her back as she takes each step with heart, nodding as they go, and starts, “So, I asked ssaem to teach me that nocturne too.”

“Wait, that nocturne? As in, my Opus 62 No. 2?” Yuna is initially fuddled.

Eunbi nods her head, slowly and deliberately.

“Did ssaem want you to play that too? She really loves that piece, doesn’t she?” Yuna chuckles at the memory of their teacher enthusiastically advocating why Yuna should learn this piece and play it as part of her exam repertoire.

“I wanted to learn it, after hearing you play,” Eunbi sheepishly answers, her trembling fingers fidgeting.

Yuna’s footsteps come to a pause. “Really?” she softly asks, her astonished eyes wide and round.

Eunbi nods again, wordlessly, having always been anxious of this disclosure. Eunbi had never meant to hide it from Yuna; she had been waiting for a good chance to tell her, and now it had seemed like one. 

“I’m glad,” Yuna breaks into a soft smile, “let’s learn it together.”

It was another of those evenings, when there was no one in the corridors but her and me. The sun painted an orange hue over classrooms; our shadows were long and profoundly slanted.

Our faces stood an inch apart; we could feel each other’s heartbeats, as did we hear each other’s breaths synchronised.

“Can I kiss you?” a whisper broke the silence that embraced us, rather reluctantly.

I was answered with the sweet, serene touch of her soft lips on mine.

a/n: thank you so much for the fast subscribers and comments uwu!! i spent some nights last week on this and finally finished it today. (though i may still need to proofread and do adjustments on the language etc.) i completely was not expecting this story to turn out full-fledged on this single chopin nocturne but, oh well :”) this fic means a lot more to me than just the nocturne tho. ahhh, i enjoyed writing teenage sinju. and the school setting made me terribly nostalgic. nostalgia is so painful :”( and sweet innocent sinju is just sweet. hehe