Locking the door of the lab after her class had ended, she looked around the corridor for any sight of the one student that was absent. The very first time he was absent from her class. But the person she hoped to catch was nowhere to be seen. She made her way slowly towards her room, wondering if she would bumped into him; which was actually unlikely since never once she saw him around campus or the faculty other than within her class for the past 2 months she started teaching him.

Han Yoon Jae reached her room and sighed. She was disappointed that she didn’t get to meet him. Guilty. That was what she was feeling last night and though it’s true that they don’t actually have any relationship defined between them, she felt that nonetheless.

‘It is oppa’s fault for bringing me there for dinner. If I would have known we’ll be going there…’ she thought as her mind wandered to the night before. She was so shocked to see him there as they walked inside the restaurant. Actually, upon seeing the signage, she prayed she won’t bump into him and god seemed to have other plans for her as her prayer was declined a few seconds after she made it. She couldn’t even bring herself to look at him. Though she knew there was nothing wrong for her to go out with her long lost close neighbor in public or being seen by him, but she can’t lie to her heart, to her own feelings and that made her felt the guilt.

But she was glad and sad to see he was unaffected by it. He did his job properly, he smiled to the other customers and he looked at her directly as if there was nothing amiss. ‘I’m no one to him. Just someone he knows. I’m the only one here that was exaggerating with my own feelings. I can’t lie anymore…until they wore down, I’ll just have to accept the fact that I like him,’ she told herself.

But what confused her was that, right after the dinner, at the rehearsal, at Jung Min’s shop, he was acting totally different. He didn’t talk much; he didn’t look at her or even ask about her opinion regarding the songs. It’s like there was something happen in between the two meet that changed his attitude towards her. When she tried talking to him, he would just answer in simple sentences, like he is just being polite.

She really doesn’t understand him. And when she offered him and his roommate a lift, he politely declined to Gong Ji Cheol instead of her. His answer was that he had somewhere else to go and if his roommate, Kim Kyu Jong would like to accept the offer, he should just do so without him.

‘What could have happened? Why did he act that way? And now, he didn’t even come to my class. This is driving me crazy!’ She got frustrated and slammed the book she was carrying on the table. Her attitude startled her roommate who was typing away on her computer.

“Yoon Jae chan, daijoubu desu ka? Gwaenchana yo?”

Hearing the question, she looked up from her desk towards Maki, her roommate other than Reina that came from Japan to do her Masters degree here at Kyonggi University. Maki’s Korean language is not that good yet and she had to take a semester to study the language first before she was allowed to do her Masters. Luckily she knew some Japanese phrases that she self taught herself while listening to Japanese songs.

“Maki chan…gomen nasai. Continue your work,” she answered, embarrassed by her action. Actually, she was so immersed in her own thoughts that she didn’t even realize Maki was in the room.

‘I need to calm myself,’ she thought as she got up from the chair and left the room. She wandered down the corridor, thinking on how to calm and clear her head. If she kept thinking about Kim Hyun Joong, she can’t do her work. And there are still a lot of journals that she needed to read. As she walked past the music room, she halted and reversed back to the main door where the time table of the room’s usage was pasted.

‘I could play a little. That should release the tension. Music always calms me down,’ she thought as she scan through the time table and looked at her watch to see the slot for that particular time period. ‘It’s free for another 30 minutes. That should be enough.’

Yoon Jae opened the door and heard a melody from a guitar. She looked back at the time table, ‘It’s free on the time table but someone is using it. Maybe it is the student from the previous class. I could probably ask if I could use the room for a while.’

She entered the room and looked around to where the sound comes from. “Annyeong…” she greeted when she saw someone by the corner of the room strumming the guitar. She can’t see who it was but she was positive the person is male from the clothing. What she never expected was when the person she greeted raised his head, looking at her, was someone she knew. Someone she was actually been thinking about and for the reason she wanted to use the room to clear her head in the first place.

“Kim Hyun Joong-sshi.”

Kim Hyun Joong stood up and bowed his head a little. She could see a tinge of shock and guilt on his face. ‘Should I just straight away ask about his absence from class or about yesterday or say something ordinary first?’ she debated in her mind about what she should say to him. As she tried to make up her mind, she approached him slowly. She could see from his reaction that he too was thinking about his next move. None of them expected to bump into each other like this.

“Composing a new song for the band?” she asked, going for her third option.

“Huh? Uhmm…”

“So…you were here the whole time? Inspiration more important than my class?”

Guilt could be clearly seen on his face as he tried to hide them by looking down to his guitar. “Well…I…I was late. So instead of disturbing the others, I came here.”

“Really? This is the first time I saw you bringing your guitar to the university. From the first time I saw you rehearse at Jung Min’s, you seemed to always leave your guitar there.”

She saw him raised his head and stared at her. His stare made her self-conscious and turned away to look at the piano on her right side.

“Is it okay if I play the piano for awhile? I need to unwind myself.”

“You can have the room. I’ll leave.”

‘No! I don’t want you to leave…’

She quickly twirled her head to face him, “No!”

‘Oopps! I said it out loud! Now what?’

“Well…It’s just that…I…I’ll only take a few minutes. Why don’t you wait and listen?”

‘Wait and listen? Yoon Jae ah…are you out of your mind? Can you actually play with him there, listening?’

“Is it really okay with me listening to you playing the piano?” She heard him ask, looking at her questioningly and she could sense happiness in his tone as well.

‘Does he really want to hear me play?’

She gave him a nod of approval and her heart skipped a beat when she saw him smile at her. He doesn’t smile much, as far as she had known him and absolutely not this wide smile before. When he smiles, she noticed his eyes glittered and his boyish expression would just shine through. That could really melt any woman’s heart and right now she was indefinitely melting in his charm. Before she totally lost in his smile, she quickly turned her head away from him and made her way to the piano with each steps felt like her brain was working overtime to make her feet lift up and walk.

As she sat in front of the piano, she could felt his eyes on her from the back and it made her even more uncomfortable but what else can she do?

‘I should just play. When I’m one with the music, I won’t feel like this anymore.’

Taking a deep breath, placing her hands on the piano keys, she started to play her favorite classic song from Debussy, Valse Romantique.

It was true. She doesn’t even realize that Kim Hyun Joong had already changed his position when she focused on her play. When she ended the song and opened her eyes, she was startled to see Kim Hyun Joong leaning to the piano watching at her intently. Her cheeks started to burn with embarrassment when he clapped his hands and the awe look in his eyes.

“You’re great! What’s that piece called?”

“Valse Romantique by Debussy.”

“Debussy? I think I’ve heard that name before. But I don’t listen to classical songs. Debussy…familiar name…” he said as he continued saying the pianist name. She watched him and a smile crept on her lips.

“Maybe from Jung Min?”

“That guy never play anything classical like that before…not in front of me that is… No, I don’t think I heard it from him.”

“Then, I can only think of another possibility. Do you watch movies? There is this one movie that was popular in 2008 that girls love to see though…Twilight?”

“Twilight? English movie?”

“Emm…about a vampire that fell in love with a human? It was adapted from a book with the same name. They are still doing the movie for the entire collection. It’s a saga with 4 books.”

She watched him touched his fringe and trying to recall when she started to notice him as a man rather than just a mere student of hers. His feature, his hair, his expression, his smile, all about him really amazes her. ‘Maybe this is what they call a flower boy? Even with the scars under his left eye and on his nose did not affect to his charm. Did I started to fall for him for his physical appearance or after I got to know the real him?’

“Oh…that movie. I think I’ve seen it once. Maybe it’s true I heard the name from there,” he said that woke her from her thoughts.

“Maybe so,” she answered, not knowing what else to ask. ‘He must have seen it with his girlfriend. He doesn’t look like someone that would watch a movie like that,’ she thought, feeling a little down when she realized that there was a possibility that he already have someone special in his life.

“Do you always play the piano for your neighbor?”

His sudden question startled her. “Who? Ji Cheol oppa? Yes, when I was small. He moved when I was 9. We lost contact. Luckily my mother bumped into his mother one day and we managed to meet again.”

“How about now?”

She looked carefully at him. She was curious why he was asking this kind of question at her and she didn’t get any clue from his stoic expression.

“No. Why are you asking me these questions?”

“Nothing. Just curious of what you do with your boyfriend.”

“What? Boyfriend? He’s not my boyfriend! Didn’t you hear what I’ve just told you? He’s my ex-neighbor when I was small. Who told you he was my boyfriend? Jung Min? Hyung Jun? Aisshhh…those boys!”

“Aniyo…I only assumed he was.”

“Stop assuming anything! And don’t go around spreading this kind of rumors!”

“I won’t. I’m sorry. Don’t be upset. You’ll get more wrinkles.”

She glared at him. ‘First he said Ji Cheol oppa is my boyfriend and now he’s picking on my age? This guy is really something…’

“Come, let me play you a song. Mind if I sit next to you?”

Even with him smiling at her, she was still mad at him. She continued glaring at him and as if her reaction was not visible enough that she was upset with him, he ignored it by sitting down on the bench and forced herself to move a bit to the side.

‘Okay, fine! If this is how you are going to play…we’ll see who will win. I’m old is it?’

“Let’s make this more interesting. I will play a simple song and then you will have to play the same song faster than mine. We will take turn playing it faster than the person before and who ever could not play it faster lose. The loser will have to accept whatever penalty from the winner. Deal?”

‘I’m surely going to win. Jung Min never wins against me before. I have wrinkles is it? I am going to draw wrinkles on your face and you can’t wash it off for the whole day. Just you wait, Kim Hyun Joong,’ she plotted her revenge for what he said about her being old.

“Okay, I understand. Most wins out of three tries? So, the loser will have to do anything the winner say, right?”

“Yes, I agree to that. I’ll start first,” she said, agreeing to his condition without any second thoughts. She was certain she’ll get all three tries.

“Please, start.”