The long-awaited Saturday was finally here.

Chaekyung had been extremely excited for the day to come. She saw L a few times in the hallway throughout the week and she always smiled brightly at him, not being able to control the natural beam that came to her face when she saw him.

He would always smile back politely, not knowing how it sent a million butterflies in her tummy.

Chaekyung had viewed this Saturday's date as the Next Big Thing in her life at the moment. She had tried at least a dozen outfits from her gigantic wardrobe every single night, asking opinions from her mom, Jaekyung, and sometimes even her dad on which outfit worked.

At the end of the week, she still couldn't find the outfit that she wanted to wear on the all so important date with L.

She wanted to impress him, to make him fall for her like she had already fallen for him. She couldn't bear it if he didn't like her in the same way she did towards him. It was the first time in her memory that she had liked a guy so so soooooo much.

Hence on Friday afternoon after school, she had gone with her friends to buy a new outfit just for the occasion. With her wallet armed with her week's allowance and also Jaekyung's, she finally managed to snag an outfit that she thought suited herself. Jaekyung had advised her to wear something that fitted her personality and not something that she wasn't.

The best way for L to fall for her was the fall for the real Lee Chaekyung, not the Lee Chaekyung that she wanted to portray herself as.

Hence on Saturday morning as the Lee Sisters waved goodbye to their parents who were driving out of the drive way, Chaekyung had to keep herself from jumping up and down in excitement.

"Unnie unnie today is DA DAY!" she chirped excitedly. "I can't can't cannnnn't wait!"

Jaekyung laughed in amusement and shook her head, turning back into the house when their parents were out of sight. "Don't be so excited about it that you faint alright?" she chuckled. "And then you'll have to say goodbye to your beloved L."

"Hey!" Chaekyung pouted. She glanced at the time and saw that it was 9am in the morning. "Kyaaaah another seven hours till the date with L! I can't wait!"

Jaekyung smiled. "Well I'm obviously not a candidate for the entire process, so why don't you call the girls over to help you prepare for it?"

"GREAT IDEA!" Chaekyung chirped and raced to the phone. "I'll call them over now!"

Jaekyung smiled and nodded, walking over to the piano and flexing her fingers. She glanced at the clock. Seven hours till she was supposed to be at the concert hall for the first round of rehearsals. Oh joy.

"You're going to charm the shoes and socks of L, Chaekyung." Bomi praised. "If he still doesn't fall for you after this, he is positively gay!"

Chaekyung laughed and looked at herself in the mirror.

She was wearing a colorful leopard print jacket on white base, paired with cute pink shorts and a bright pink leather sling envelope bag. She had on two medium high pigtails and looked absolutely adorable, even if she would say so herself.

"He's going to fall for you in no time, Chaekyung. No worries." Soomi assured.

"Do you really think so?" Chaekyung asked shyly. "I really want this date to go well you know?"

"We all know." Soomi nodded. "If we didn't, we'd be blind and deaf because you've been repeating it for the whole of this week." she teased. She giggled and looked over at Yoomi. "Yoomi you should be the one to give Chaekyung advice because you're the only one out of us wiht a boyfriend."

Yoomi laughed. "You think I'm that experienced in love? I've only had one boyfriend."

"Yeah but don't forget Woohyun oppa had been the ultimate playboy of Woollim before you came." Bomi reminded. "He must have used some of his ways on you for you to fall for him and you'd have picked it up."

Yoomi shook her head. "Nope. Because the Woohyun oppa I know is clumsy and unsure of himself, the playboy side of him isn't the real him." she grinned. "I don't know about L, though. Different people act differently in front of the person they like."

"Then I hope L oppa acts really differently in front of me compared to other girls." Chaekyung giggled. "But then again I haven't seen him with any other girl before so I don't know how he usually acts in front of one."

"Isn't that better then?" Soomi asked. "That means you're the only girl in his life! Oh man I can't wait for you and him to get official! This is so exciting! I feel like a matchmaker or something!"

Chaekyung flopped herself on the bed and smiled to herself. "Yeah I hope we'll get official too."

"And for the last item of the night, Professor Kwon's best student will be performing Beethoven's Sonata Hammerklavier Opus 106! One of the most challenging pieces ever in history!" the emcee announced. "Let's welcome, Lee Jaekyung!"

There came applause and Jaekyung stepped out onto the stage hesitantly. She was wearing a simple white button down shirt and high waist pencil skirt just for the performance. She looked pretty good except for the fact that she still looked like she hadn't seen the sun for a long long time and her face wasn't visible with the glasses on her face.

She bowed at the crowd and gave a small smile.

The applause was significantly softer than the applause for the other pianists since they had their own groups of supporters. Their families and friends, and some even had their entire class come and support them.

Jaekyung had none.

She tried to ignore the fact that her parents weren't around, that even Chaekyung wasn't around, that she was really really alone on that stage with no one supporting her down there. she swallowed and closed her eyes, steading herself.

*Remember the piece, Jaekyung.* she told herself. *Lose yourself in the music.*

Jaekyung raised her hands and as her fingers touched the piano keys, they moved of their own accord in that manner where you could only achieve when you had practiced the piece so many times that you could play it with your eyes closed. You could play it while chatting with someone else. You could play it while daydreaming and your hands still knew what keys they were supposed to press.

Jaekyung closed her eyes and tried to lose herself to the music but she couldn't. She tried really hard to forget she was sitting there on the stage, and there were about five hundred people down the stage watching and listening to her every note.

She couldn't.

She hated herself for it. She practiced so hard for that song, and she knew she could just be a world-class pianist if she just worked hard enough for it. She chose journalism instead of music but she could have done it if she tried.

But she decided on journalism because she had that fatal flaw which every single musician would die to have: Stage Fright.

The first time she stepped on stage when she was six she screamed and cried for her mom and dad. They ran to her immediately, her mother still holding onto Chaekyung who had been four at that time. Jaekyung was terrified, just terrified.

Her parents trained her little by little, playing in front of the family first. Then their relatives. And then friends. And then the rest of the kindergarten.

Slowly, she overcame her fear of performing in front of the crowd. But....

She couldn't do it without her parents or at least Chaekyung around with her. If she knew that any one of them were around, sitting in one of the audiences, she would feel comforted and would feel much better.

They weren't there that day.

And despite how Jaekyung told herself again and again that it was going to be alright, she couldn't find her balance up on that massive stage. Jaekyung reached half of the song and even she herself felt the music was horrible.

She didn't make any technical mistakes of course, her fingers were skilled that way. But the music that she produced were just so mechanical, so flat and dull. It was like a robot playing the piano and that was the fatal flaw of music. Because music was from the heart and there wasn't an ounce of feeling in her piece.

Jaekyung took a deep breath and continued playing. *Forget the audience. Forget them.* she thought. *You can do this.*

It wasn't until she was three quarters into the piece that she started feeling for the piece. Her originally stiff straight body began swaying as she played the music, and she closed her eyes to savor it. She forgot herself, forgot the stage, forgot those people down there who were undoubtly judging her.

She was finally lost in the music.

Jaekyung finished the piece and her hands slowly lifted off the keys, her eyes still closed as she savored the remaints of the notes floating in the air. The applause didn't come immediately. The audience were still trying to return to reality from the musical world Jaekyung had painted.

And it came, the applause.

It was deafening, and some people even stood up as they cheered for her. "WONDERFUL!!!!" they shouted.

Jaekyung allowed herself a small smile. She bowed ninety degrees and looked at the masses of people cheering for her despite how she looked or behaved. At such times, she finally felt like she was alive.

Professor Kwon came out on stage with his other students for the final bow and the recital came to a great end.

------

Backstage, Professor Kwon pulled her aside to talk to her privately.

"What happened out there today, Jaekyung?" he asked in concern. "You weren't into the music until three quarters into the piece. I must say it was really impressive to garner such a response with just a quarter of the song with your heart in it but that isn't the point. The point is why you weren't into the song for the first three quarters, Jaekyung?"

Jaekyung fidgeted uneasily. "My...m-my parents and sister aren't here today." she murmured. "I was a little unsettled."

Professor Kwon frowned. "They aren't here today?" he questioned. "They know of your....special fears don't they?" he questioned. Jaekyung inwardly thought it was a clever way to phrase stage fright. "Why aren't they supporting you on this?"

Jaekyung just shrugged. "It's okay, professor. I'll have to learn to perform without them one day." she reasoned.

Professor Kwon sighed. "But still...." Jaekyung wasn't listening any longer. She wondered how her sister was doing with that L guy of hers.

Just at that moment in another part of Seoul, Chaekyung was having the time of her life with L.

He had picked her up at 4pm on the dot, dressed in his signature checkered shirt and a black hat, not looking like he used particular amounts of efforts for the outfit but still looking awesome.

He looked rather awkward since he hadn't gone on a date with a girl before and he didn't know what to do, but Chaekyung's chirpy attitude made him melt a little, as he started to respond. They went to shop a little around the town area and picked up a few cute items as they chatted along the way.

Chaekyung got to know about his grandmother and his reason for staying in US previously. She got to know about his friendship with his Infinite friends and how he really liked journalism.

L got to know about Chaekyung's dreams to become a fashion designer some day and well...there were a lot of things she said. She was the type of girl to chatter and blabber all the way and even though it was a little rude, L couldn't help but drift off sometimes because his attention span wasn't that long.

But he did notice something. She refrained from talking about her elder sister when he asked how many sisters she had. It was the first part of the whole conversation where Chaekyung actually paused, having nothing to say.

L concluded it was either Chaekyung hated her sister or she had reasons for not telling. He couldn't figure which was it.

They ate a simple meal at one of the eateries with a waiter called Luhan and waitress called Haejung, and L sent her home.

"I had fun today L oppa." Chaekyung smiled sweetly. "Thank you."

L nodded and waved, driving off in his black Audi. Chaekyung watched him go till he disappeared off the corner and she still wouldn't go into the house, lingering outside where there was still faint amounts of his presence.

"Today is the best day ever." she whispered.