In a week following my encounter with Jonghyun and Mr. Kangta in the school music room, my weekend pretty much turned into something unexpected. Weekends were the days I was looking forward to, and I knew for a fact that every student like me was fond of these days. It would only mean we can be stress-free, with no paperwork needed, no homework, and projects. At our school, weekend homework was banned. It was believed that the weekend should be spent with the families and also this would be a time for ourselves. But in my own opinion, it was a time of the week for wild parties and hangouts.

Students at my age would spend their weekend nights in the most famous cafe in the town that was named "Mouse Rabbit", located near the Solstice Garden where most tourists are. The Mouse Rabbit was owned by Mr. Kim Yesung, who happens to be my brother and the school director's friend. It was an aesthetic cafe that serves dozens of coffee and sweets that you would only find in this town. From Saturday night until Sunday night the cafe would be packed with students who want to have a cup of coffee and a slice of chocolate cake or traditional rice cakes. The cafe was a place where you can relax with a nice ambiance with 24 hours access on the weekends. But for students who wanted to spend the end of the week by adding a little spice, like me and other popular guys at the school, they opt for the restaurant across it.

Across from Mouse Rabbit, there was a Mexican bar and restaurant named "Grill5Taco". The restaurant was owned by Lee Joon, an 18-year-old guy who also graduated from the Pleasant Hill Academy. It must be surprising because he was young when he started his business right after graduating with the help of his wealthy parents. The bar was minor-friendly and selling alcohol to underage is strictly prohibited at that time. If you're caught selling liquor to people under the age of 21, you could face a fine or a year of jail time. But as Lee Joon was also a delinquent student during his high school days, he built a secret hideout in the basement of his bar for his customers who wanted to try underage drinking forays. The hideout was only open to the people he trusted, and one of those people is me. Lee Joon was one of my closest friends aside from my gang. We've become close during my third year of high school, and the two of us hit off. Hence, you may now have an idea where we get supplies of alcohol during those recruitment parties, and being the son of the former mayor gives us prerogatives to break the law sometimes.

It was one of our Sunday gatherings, I, my friends, and Lee Joon together with other students who have a free pass in the basement are already tipsy from drinking several bottles of booze. We've sat on the circular couch from the corner of the basement and been partying since the sun had set. Usually, those parties that we held were well known to the students and will last until midnight or dawn. We never cared if we have to go to school by tomorrow or be apprehended by the teachers. It was easy for us to act like a normal or good student who was listening to the lecture without much difficulty for some of our teachers don't care about us, or they already had given up countlessly sending us to the guidance counselors. The basement was also soundproof allowing us to play music on full blast without disturbing those people who are peacefully having their dinner upstairs. And it could also prevent civilians to call the police on us.

Anyway, I was just enjoying my time talking with Joon when someone tapped my shoulders, and I turned around to check who it was. Lay Zhang, is a senior student in a different class and a patron of Joon's basement bar. Lay was also one of those people that the students don't wanna mess up with for he was known for his family background. And as a hobby, he also bullies random students out of fun. The Zhang family immigrated to Korea during the '50s, and since then, they started to build establishments, helping the economical state of the town. Half of the establishment in the town was owned by their family.

So moving on, at first, I thought he just wanted to say hi and talk to me for a little bit. But then, he leaned over near my ear and whispered something that widened my eyes.

"Jonghyun is looking for you. He's outside." Lay said nonchalantly.

I abruptly stood up from the couch, making Joon surprised by my reaction. I'm not gonna lie but finding out that Jonghyun is outside of that restaurant where most of my friends are had me freaked out. I ignored their confused stare and chose to talk with Lay further.

"What he's doing here?" I said in a low voice.

"I don't know." Lay shrugged. I noticed the curiosity in his eyes. No doubt, he was trying to interpret what is going on between me and Jonghyun. Although Lay was also the type of student who bullies the powerless for fun, he also hadn't the guts to make fun of the director's brother. "He just asked me if you were here."

I racked my brain for possible reasons why he was looking for me. That morning I haven't received a call from him when I was at home. Meaning, I didn't have to do protection duty; until my mind lingers about what happened last Friday night. We agreed to meet on Sunday night to talk about our project with Mr. Kangta at his cousin's piano studio. He was set to pick me up at home because I don't know where it was. I cursed and realized that it slipped off my mind as I am excited to spend the weekend partying. But I didn't expect that Jonghyun would fetch me in this kind of place.

"Thank you, Lay," I said. He walked away to join his classmates. I got back in my seat, and I realized that Joon was looking at me indifferently.

"What's wrong?" Joon asked, "You look confounded. What did Lay want?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." I said and smiled at him, putting down the half-full bottle of beer I was holding on the mini table. "Look, Joon, I remembered I have something important to do tonight. If you don't mind I need to get going now." I discreetly said to avoid sounding suspicious. It's bad enough that Jonghyun had fetched me, and I don't want my friend to have a wrong idea why I am leaving at 7:00 pm.

Joon's brow furrowed. He seemed genuinely perplexed. "What's wrong? You never leave from a party this early especially with that something important?"

Instead of explaining, I stood up and patted him on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Joon. No time to explain. I'll just make it up to you guys next week." I looked over to my friends who were still busy drinking and talking to announce that I would be leaving. "Hey guys, I need to go now. Something came up. See you at school."

I left, without checking if they even cared or if they had heard me. My mind was that time was full of adrenaline rush to not be caught by one of them and to meet with Jonghyun as soon as possible so he'll be out of this place.

Albeit the loud conversation of my friends behind my back, I was rushing out, all I cared about was seeing Jonghyun.

◈◆◈◆◈◆◈◆◈◆◈◆◈◆◈

On the corner of the small piano studio, I settled myself in the empty monoblock while listening to the instrumental piece that Jonghyun had been playing on the piano for an unkempt time. He was helping me to get familiarized with it. After Mr. Kangta had asked us to perform at the concert, it was only after a week he gave us a song to sing. According to him, it was hard to find the perfect song which would suit our vocal ranges. The song was a ballad. The melody was ear-catching as well and easily remembered. You can tell that the song is a love song with a mix of pop. By that, I was sure it would suit Jonghyun's vocal range even though I haven't heard him sing it yet. No wonder it was handpicked by Mr. Kangta. I looked over to Jonghyun, and my eyes landed on the black leather jacket that was hugging his body - it was my jacket.

The moment I stepped outside of the bar earlier, I saw him standing alone on the corner of the street near the restaurant, looking at the ground while hugging himself because of the strong cold winds; he was only wearing a thick white long sleeve, a pair of jeans and a sneaker. And his appearance screamed tiredness. Realizing that he indeed fetched me and came a long way reaching this far, I felt ashamed and penitent for recklessly forgetting about our practice night. I slowly sauntered towards him. At that moment, I don't know what had gotten to me, even if there were some students from our school hanging around the street, and a dozen pairs of eyes were on me; I nonchalantly removed my jacket, wordlessly dropped it above his shoulders to protect him from the coldness. Maybe it's because of the alcohol kicking in, but all I can think was what I am doing is the "right thing".

Jonghyun looked at me bewildered. I didn't give him a chance to say anything as I hurriedly walked away and took another route leading out of the street. It took a moment before I was sure he was following me and trying to catch up on my phase. I slow down for him to catch up with me completely, and finally, we are walking side by side in silence. Weirdly, it seems he can read my mind as he leads the way toward the streets leading to where the piano studio was at.

The studio was located four blocks away from the restaurant, and it was owned by Jonghyun's cousin, giving us free access to use one of the studio rooms without paying rental fees. We were walking in the hallway when he broke the silence. "I used to go here when I was young until now." I nodded and followed him. We stopped in front of a room and opened the door, revealing a grand piano situated in the room's center. The room was small but spacious, and the walls were painted white. There was a massive glass window at the back where you could have a better view of the night sky, the moon, and the billion stars. And tonight was exceptionally starry.

So, I was seated on the corner and was waiting for Jonghyun to finish playing. Now and then, I would look at him, silently deliberating whether I should apologize or not for my wrong feats. To be perfectly honest, apologizing was a great obstacle for me. When I was younger, it was easy to utter the two words "I'm sorry," but now, it feels like poison. After a few moments, the melody that was coming out from the piano had died down. He stopped playing.

"So," he trailed. "What do you think? Have you become familiarized with it?"

I looked up, removing my gaze from the paper. Jonghyun's eyes met mine. "Yeah, I guess so. I just have to memorize the lyrics."

"Hmm," He hummed. "That's good. Once you've memorized it let's try to sing it." He said, and he averted his gaze back to the piano sheets.

I stared at him for a second, just merely studying his face. And while I was busy observing his feature, I noticed how divine his face was. His face was full of joy and gaiety. It's like looking at a masterpiece, and you won't dare to tear it or inflict damage. By that, I realized that making him sad or hurt by my mistake wouldn't do any good. So, I gather so much courage to say the words out of my mouth.

"Uhh, Jonghyun," I gently called him, and he looked back at me with an eyebrow raised. I can't look at him straight in the eyes because of the nervousness. "About earlier... I'm sorry for forgetting our practice night..."

"It's nothing." Jonghyun smiled at me and waved his hand. "I am aware that you and your friends are always in Grill5Taco every weekend." Part of me was surprised that he was aware of our weekend forays. It didn't seem like the sort of thing he'd care about. "So, I sort expected that you would forget about it. I came to the restaurant, luckily Lay was outside. I asked him if you were there and he kindly told me yes. Then he offered that he will inform you I was looking for you."

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter