Songwriting for Yuna was only a mere hobby but she took it seriously. So when she found herself stuck in the rain with a girl like Eunbi, inspiration came effortlessly and Yuna just had to take it. Nothing in particular piqued Yuna’s inspiration. It was actually quite vague in a sense but something about Eunbi made her want to sing and write lyrics. At last, moments like this didn’t come often to her and Yuna was going to use it to her advantage.

Eunbi coughed out after eating a bite of ramen, wheezing with the sudden request. “What?!”

“You said you’d help me!” Yuna begged. Well, not exactly begged but she did give Eunbi her infamous puppy-dog eyes. “Please?”

Eunbi was clearly nervous about helping a stranger with a song but that didn’t stop Yuna’s determination. With boldness and quite unlike her usual self, she leaned closer to Eunbi and smiled softly.

“Please…?”

Backing up from the sudden action, Eunbi became a sputtering mess. She half-expected for Yuna to back down but, in honesty, she couldn’t complain. Rather she didn’t want to complain. And Eunbi wouldnt admit this but Yuna did have a sort of charm that pulled her in.

“I mean, I don’t have any other choice do I?” Eunbi laughed.

A glare of sun lit up in Yuna’s eyes, sparkling with ambition. “Thank you, really and —“ Sensing the pressure on Eunbi’s shoulder, Yuna smiled. “— you don’t have to help me write anything, just to tell me if lyrics fit together.”

That, of course, was not the answer to why Yuna needed Eunbi to help her. While she could do her song-writing alone in her room, Yuna wouldn't get much done honestly. The words of help to Eunbi were more of an excuse. What she felt was almost a desire, an invisible string pulling in the girl's direction that told Yuna… well, she wasn’t exactly sure what her mind was telling herself but Yuna knew she needed Eunbi to write her next set of lyrics. 

With her guitar in its condition, Yuna held the pencil given by Eunbi, tapping it against the wooden table. She stared into Eunbi’s eyes, letting herself get lost in them. The surroundings around them blurred into a mixture of colors, rushing past the two frozen girls. Unlike when she’s alone and writing lyrics; Yuna could feel Eunbi’s presence and the pounding energy she exerted.

Tapping the pencil in beats, Yuna’s lips moved unconsciously.

“Please tell me now as you see me. Standing in front of love. When will I be able to be me?” Although Yuna hadn’t finished the pre-chorus — or hell, even the intro, the words she just said felt right. Even with writing songs as a hobby, Yuna wanted and needed them to be the best they could. Who knows? She could be singing this song for someone who took her heart.

A moment of silence occurred between the two. Yuna's line of concentration shattered like glass as Eunbi stumbled forward. The stardust and inspiration disappated and all was left was the souls of the two girls who met on this spring day. They resonated, beat together as one, the blue flames constantly flucuating in size until it had nothing to ignite it.

The pencil dropped from her hand, breaking trance the two were under.

“Um…” Eunbi hummed, a heat rising on her cheeks. “You sing… uh, very well.” She hid behind her hands and whined in embarrassment.

“I’m sorry, I’ve never had someone look me in the eyes for that long.” 

Yuna coughed awkwardly, taking her words as a sign to stop staring, and turned towards the window. Hiding behind her own pair of hands which was out of the norm. On a typical day: Yuna was more than confident. Sure, she was quiet and shy but once you talked to her enough, she would open up. But now? Never before Yuna felt so embarrassed that she had to hide herself; excluding the one time she tripped in front of her friends. But the real question was that did she really just get lost in Eunbi’s, a girl she barely knew, eyes?

“Oh my god! I’m sorry it was just —! your eyes are really pretty so it kinda helps me—“ Yuna ended her sentence short as she realized what she said, clasping a hand over to make sure no other unwanted words escaped.

They stared at each other with equal embarrassment except Yuna could no longer find the courage to even make eye contact for more than three seconds. Her heart pounded in her ears, a redness tinting the tips of it. And frustratingly enough, Eunbi seemed unconventionally attractive with her shy smile and the pink hue on her cheeks. Embarrassment was one thing but thinking that someone she just met was attractive? If Eunbi could read her thoughts, Yuna would've just died then and there.

“Um… thank you.”

“It’s really nothing…” Yuna said softly.

Eunbi fidgeted awkwardly, keeping her hands over her face. “You can keep… staring if it really helps.” Her voice cracked mid-way causing Yuna to chuckle. 

“Ahh, what to do~? It’s kinda embarrassing.” Yuna places her hands on her own cheeks, covering the rising red color. She felt unusually hot. And as it could very well be a fever starting to form, Yuna was not convinced once Eunbi finally put down her shield and looked Yuna back in the eyes.

The guitarist’s heartbeat was erratic as her vision tunneled into Eunbi’s eyes. Knowing that she was never going to see her again reassured Yuna just a bit yet it didn't stop the part of her brain to feel bashful. Yuna turned those emotions away, focusing on the tangents in her mind; the lattice of thoughts spiraled in her head, for who she was making the song for and why. Not all songs have a deep meaning to them or are meant for analysing but that factor alone was the one driving Yuna to write. She smiled bitterly, her hand unconsciously writing any words that came to mind. This meant something to her even if it was a hobby.

Rain trickled down the glass windows as the two stranger’s stared into each other’s eyes, one’s soul re-igniting into a flame while the other remained shy and small. Yuna couldn’t describe the darkness room their spirits were in, it was only shadows and the glowing their living souls luminated. Then one moved. Like a heartbeat, it pumped with, what Yuna guessed, music.

It was all metaphors — references even — in the song. Yuna knew exactly what they meant, if she said the words to Eunbi, the girl would think she’s crazy. Not that she would ever tell her of course.

Instrumentals played in Yuna’s head full of thoughts, brushing back the inconvenient ones, she let out a sigh. The flame of inspiration went out as quick as it was created and the light in her eyes went out, breaking her stare with Eunbi and towards at her sheet. Her own words didn’t even make sense to her anymore. 

“Yuna?”

“What is it?” She said, colder than intended.

Eunbi evidently froze from Yuna’s tone, her posture slumping over in defense. “Um, well…” She placed a finger on her temple before shaking her head. “... it’s nothing.”

A curious look was given to Eunbi as Yuna played with the pencil in hand. “It must be something, you can tell me you know.” Yuna smiled.

“Well… um,” Eunbi’s hesitance was starting to put Yuna on the edge but the girl didn’t want to scare her anymore than just a few seconds ago. “Is it okay if I write something down?” Eunbi just barely spoke above a whisper.

“I’m sorry, what?” 

Just as the words left Yuna's lips, the trigger in Eunbi’s mind went off, her slumped posture turning stiff as the girl grabbed both of Yuna’s hands. “Can I write something down?” She yelled (by accident of course).

Yuna yelped at the sudden outburst and pondered the question for a split second. She wasn’t going to reject Eunbi, after all if she had that weird inspiration spike maybe Eunbi did too, but besides that: the way she was holding her hands. They were soft and if Yuna tried hard, she could smell the sweet peachy lotion on them. Now that her attention was on Eunbi’s hands, they looked beautiful. Yuna laughed at her own thoughts: if the owner of them was beautiful, why wouldn’t their hands be?

“Holy !”

“What?!” Eunbi immediately let go of Yuna’s hands, much to her hidden disappointment.

Yuna’s eye widened in embarrassment, shakily opening to form a quick sentence. “I’m so ing sorry, did I really just say that?! Oh my god…” Brushing back her hair, Yuna whined softly and repeated her thoughts. She was just complimenting the strange pink-haired girl, right? Yuna would say another girl was beautiful and her hands were cute but Eunbi was still a complete stranger.

“You didn’t say anything? Do you not want me to write–”

“No!” Yuna squawked. “You can –” Nervously pushing her wrinkled papers into Eunbi’s hands, Yuna turned her back towards the girl. “– write whatever you want!”

“Yuna, the pencil?”

“Pencil! Right!” Her fingers trembled as she waited for Eunbi to take the pencil out of her hand. And the so-called beautiful hands of Eunbi brushed against her fingertips causing Yuna’s system to combust and glitch. God they felt really soft.

Right then and there, Yuna wanted to curse at herself. Just because of one simple thought, she was acting like this! She was lucky she wasn’t saying these things to Yewon, what a hot mess that would be; Yuna couldn't even imagine how much she'd be sputtering and blushing.

Watching Eunbi write oh so cautiously made her release a breath she didn’t even realize she was holding. The sight of the pencil piqued Yuna’s curiosity and looked closer, the pencil didn’t have the usual pink eraser or yellow paint. Instead, it was black with a few letters lining the length. But what caught her eyes the most was the strange “2H” at the end of the pencil.

Though she found herself not caring once Eunbi handed the paper and pencil back to her.

“I don’t really write music so,” Eunbi tilted her head ever so slightly, a light smile curving on her lips. “Just don’t have high hopes for it.”

“I’m sure it’s fine.”  Yuna said truthfully. Her eyes glazed over the soft written graphite and raised her eyebrows at the weirdly comforting lyrics.

At the sound of the rain, I’m closing the doors. 
I wanna hide my heart [Yuna write here!]

A smile creeped on her lips as she read the small message Eunbi wrote for her, over and over again. With ease, Yuna put down the paper and gave the pink-haired girl a big smile.

“I like it.”

“But?” Eunbi inquired, clearly nervous to what Yuna had to say – or criticize.

Yuna laughed and pointed to the note Eunbi had written. “What’s with this?” Looking back at the note, Yuna disregarded the melting in her heart and decided to not to acknowledge that she was completely swooning over a few words.

“Well, I wanted to make the lyrics feel more like you and not just my words.” 

Briefly, Yuna was surprised. She thought Eunbi would say something along the lines of “I didn’t know what to write”. Not that she would’ve minded either way but a part of her was glad that Eunbi felt the way she did. Eyeing the girl curiously, a moment of sonder passed through her mind. 

“That’s cute.” Yuna said, not at all in a mocking way, complimenting the girl as she placed her chin on her palm. “If you don’t mind me asking, do you want to sing it?”

“Sing…?” Eunbi repeated whilst Yuna nodded.

“I can close my eyes if you want.” A gesture of Yuna that she would do regularly, closing her eyes as Eunbi cleared . Excitement ran through her veins to hear her sing. Eunbi’s speaking voice was already mellifluous and the fact only made Yuna more eager to hear her voice.

“Ah… I don't… sing.”

Her sudden words caused Yuna’s eyes to snap open. It’d be a lie to say she wasn’t disappointed but she couldn’t blame Eunbi. Yes, she may have forgotten that she had met Eunbi only an hour ago and they weren’t exactly buddies. And while she had the urge to try to convince Eunbi to sing, Yuna could only shrug in response.

“I understand.” She didn't want to pressure her any longer.

A goddess-like smile formed on Eunbi’s lips before she glanced at her phone, then out the window. Yuna followed her line of sight and her stomach immediately dropped. She opened to speak but her vocal chords only knotted up, squeaking out an incoherent noise.

“And my friend is here to pick me up,” Eunbi said in a rush, packing up her school bag and the snacks she bought earlier. “It was nice meeting you!”

Yuna was tempted to yell a halt, her hand lashing out awkwardly, but Eunbi had already sprinted to the sliding doors.

“Good luck with your song, Yuna!”

“Wa—“ Once Yuna found the courage to speak, Eunbi already went out the door and towards the black car. A grimace flashed on her face. She didn’t even have the chance to ask for Eunbi’s number. The girl was a nice partner to be with as she wrote songs and it wasn’t like Yuna could go around asking who Eunbi was without a family name. But it was pointless to be contemplating over that she couldn't control. Who knew if Yuna was going to see her again? With a defeated sigh, Yuna took the pencil and paper, stuffing them into her coat pocket whilst picking her guitar up. As she slung the strap around her shoulder, the girl stared at the two empty ramen cups.

“She didn’t even bother to throw it away.” Yuna laughed under her breath, tossing the cups away.

Her eyes stared at the raindrops racing each other on the glass. At least the rain was dying down and she could finally return to her dorm after a little less than an hour. 

With a last bye to the cashier, Yuna left the store and returned to the grey skies and wet asphalt.

A piece of red thread tied around her finger, stretching out as Yuna walked further away. The voices were muffled and the lights were dimming. Velvet curtains, a piano and someone else were there waiting. But even with the lingering eyes, Yuna wasn’t nervous. So she had to ask herself:

“Which do you really fear? Is it failure or commitment?"