Octaves. Ryeowook hated octaves. Not only were they almost impossible to hit in tune on the first try but they were also so darn frustrating to practice, making him want to tear out his hair in annoyance.

When he first received the piece for full orchestra, he had blown it off as yet another easy concerto that would have nice airy flute solos and simple melodies that he could handle easily. However, his quick skim of the sheet music failed to bring to his attention this little descending 16^th note octave run at rehearsal letter ‘N’ and now he was suffering because of it.

It was only him and the cello solo at this point, and his part was as exposed as a newborn’s bare bottom. Ryeowook sighed as he pursed his lips in concentration against his silvery instrument. With his eyebrows scrunched up, his eyes flickered back and forth between his music and the conductor’s podium, fingers rapidly moving up and down to catch the octave transitions. The syncopated 16^th note rhythm was not making his life any easier as Ryeowook struggled to come in on the correct off beat at the right pitch. No, life as the principal flautist was not easy.

Especially with the rest of his section being air-headed idiots, Ryeowook thought as he glanced wearily at his fellow flautists half-heartedly play the 2^nd flute part while he worked his off one the first part by himself.

To make things worse, his friend Zhoumi, usually the principal flautist when he was on piccolo, wasn’t here to help him. The skinny Chinese man was assisting with the design process of their stage formalwear and wouldn’t come in for rehearsal until the 2^nd hour.  

Therefore, it was no wonder why Heechul had kept complaining about how the woodwinds didn’t blow enough air through their horn; by the looks of things, those idiots looked about ready to fall asleep at their stands when rehearsal had just started 15 minutes ago.

“Yah. Ryeowook, you’re still not hitting it perfectly! You’re a millisecond off on the entrance of that D octave jump. This has to be perfect! Imagine that you’re the nightingale trilling a song while the cello is my beautiful Heebum frolicking through a strawberry field.”

Ryeowook and Kyuhyun both gave Heechul a glare at this particular analogy. While the flute player remained silent in his protests at being compared to some bird, Kyuhyun vocalized his with great annoyance.

“Please do not compare me to that big grey lump of fat you call your cat ever again.”

Ignoring the jab towards his much beloved pet, Heechul stalked off to harass other sections of the orchestra, allowing Ryeowook to let out a sigh in relief. Lately, flute was just so much work for him. Solo Ensemble contest was coming up, music for All State had to be learned, and now this stupid school music. His much beloved instrument was becoming a black hole, continuously up any free time he had.

I can’t even text Yesung as much as before, Ryeowook noted sadly with a pout on his face.

He had been in constant contact with the barista after their second meeting at the café, that encounter ending in the exchange of yet another wooden stirring stick, this time delivered by Ryeowook to the blushing man, with the thin man’s number written in slanting black pen across the wooden surface. After almost wanting to give up when no new text messages appeared after 3 days of anxious waiting, Ryeowook was about ready to throw his phone across the room when it beeped one early Monday morning 3 hours before he actually had to get up for school. His mood quickly brightened though, when ‘Unknown Sender’ was displayed across the screen. He had eagerly unlocked his Blackberry and fumbled hastily with the buttons, squealing like an adolescent girl when he read the cute text message on his screen.

Hi Ryeowook ^.^ Hope I didn’t keep you waiting for too long!  My friends told me I would seem too eager if I texted you right away but I just couldn’t wait for a week like they had told me to. I know your sleeping schedule probably isn’t screwed up like mine (and hopefully I didn’t wake you up if you’re already asleep!) but I just wanted to say good night :D Hopefully we can keep in touch?

-your barista Yesung

From that point on, Ryeowook had used every little chance he could get to text the man, both their busy schedules making it hard for them to meet up besides the daily coffee run after school. Yesung had to work then and he couldn’t risk getting the man fired for being distracted on the job. Therefore texting became their way of getting to know each other, Yesung eagerly picking up his phone between customers at the café and Ryeowook pausing between page turns during his practicing to reply to Yesung.

Ryeowook was proud to say that he knew Yesung had a pet turtle that he adored, that the man’s voice was, as apparently his female coworkers had put it, “a voice they would marry”, and that Yesung was a college freshmen majoring in music. The more he found out about the man, the more Ryeowook was falling for him, his weird and quirky qualities making him all the more endearing in Ryeowook’s eyes.

However, he knew that if he wanted to keep whatever was developing between them safe, not a whisper of this could reach his parents. They had flat out told him that as a student, he had no time in his life for silly things like love and romance. Especially with their , he could already imagine his parents’ comments towards how unrealistic he’s being with the dark haired barista.

“What would a college student want with a silly sophomore?” He could almost hear his parents laugh mockingly at him if he had told them about Yesung.

No, he wouldn’t let his parents get to him. He mustn’t have those insecurities himself. That’ll just ruin whatever they had between them now. And he couldn’t let that happen, not when things had just barely begun.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Ryeowook looked around the room to check up on Sungmin.

He hoped that the tutoring session during today’s lunch had gone well for his best friend’s sake. The man had looked quite sad when Ryeowook had mentioned Kyuhyun during lunch, and Ryeowook couldn’t help but think that there was something a bit more than what meets the eye going on between his bunny and the cellist.

Hopefully whatever misunderstanding between the two of them had been solved by now. Sungmin looked quite a bit more comfortable with the music, the clear rings of the triangle sounding more accurately today than before. The man was no longer struggling through the more difficult passages, handling the syncopations with a bit more ease and finesse compared to the bumbling crashes of their first rehearsal.

“He’d be ready to start timpani in a while.” Ryeowook pondered thoughtfully as he smiled proudly at his friend’s progress.

“Cookies! Girl Scout Cookies! Director, can I have some too?” Henry squealed as he caught his director red-handedly kidnapping Caramel Delites out of Ryeowook’s open locker.

“You stupid violinist! Keep your mouth closed boy for Pete’s sake.” Heechul hissed at him, crouching behind an unused timpani to hide from everyone’s curious looks towards the back of the orchestra room.

Cookies? Ryeowook furrowed his eyebrows. He had stashed his box of Caramel Delites in his locker after receiving them from Yesung the previous afternoon at the café, the man simultaneously making Ryeowook’s day and supporting his little Girl Scout of a sister Yuri (the girl had been pestering the poor barista to buy cookies from her for days). Not only was Ryeowook’s sweet tooth pacified with the sweet treat, but his heart was warmed at the cute gesture, Yesung stuttering as he presented the simple box of cookies to Ryeowook when he stepped foot into the café.

Now, turning around to see what the ruckus over cookies was all about, the flautist was confronted with the slightly guilty eyes of a certain diva director as he eyed the half empty cookie container now sitting haphazardly on his locker.

“Yah. Director! What was that for?” Ryeowook yelled, anger coloring his cheeks with a bright red. Those were his cookies, given to him by Yesung! He usually loved to share, but those were special cookies! His barista gave them to him after all. No, Ryeowook definitely did not want anyone else touching those cookies.

Guiltily scratching the back of his head, Heechul smiled sheepishly.

“Well…. Your locker was open…. And they looked so inviting… just 4 cookies wouldn’t hurt would they?”

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Ryeowook turned away from the sight of his demolished cookie container, keeping his anger down at a simmer as he childishly stomped his feet on the risers.

Aish, that Kim Heechul. I number measures in sheet music for you. You bully me into photocopying music for the entire freaking orchestra. I had to transpose clarinet parts when I don’t even play clarinet. There is something wrong with my life.  Ryeowook rolled his eyes crabbily as he tallied up all of the charity work he had unwillingly done for the cat loving conductor. And now the man eats his cookies.

I must have sinned in my past life to deserve such a conductor, Ryeowook concluded with a tired nod of the head.

“Henry Lau I swear I will burn that baby of yours alive if you embarrass me like that again.” Heechul screeched at the violinist as the chubby boy happily gobbled down the remainder of Ryeowook’s  cookies, crumbs flying out of his mouth and onto Heechul’s blazer.

“Nom okasysh dimhmmrector!”

Heechul shook his head. Sometimes, he really did think he was teaching at a school for the mentally challenged these days.

Ryeowook jumped out of his chair happily as rehearsal ended, glad to escape the tedious 2 hour torture session that he had to endure every day. To be honest, it wasn’t as bad as he is making it out to be, but who wouldn’t be excited to escape after sitting their down for 2 hours on a hard chair purposely designed so that one couldn’t slouch?

Disassembling his flute to place back in its case, he yawned and stretched his arms above his head, sighing in comfort as his tired muscles were invigorated by his movements. Stepping down from his risers, he walked to the front of the orchestra to pick up the mountain of scores he had to number for Heechul for the upcoming competition.

Ryeowook’s slender arms could barely carry the heavy load of music Heechul had dumped onto him and staggering like a drunken man, he hastily set down the pile on the nearest chair he could find.

Sighing in relief as he avoided a potential avalanche of sheet music, Ryeowook gazed curiously at the stand in front of the chair he had stopped in front of. On it was the standard of the mill black music binder, sheet music messily hole-punched and slapped into the rings, the front pocket filled with various handouts and other worksheets.

Whoever this binder belonged to was certainly passionate about music, various notes carefully scribbled in the margins of the page and s carefully labeled above the respective notes. Ryeowook chuckled as he mentally compared the sight before him to the pristine blank pages of music his section had, the sheets as untouched as the day he had passed them out to his inattentive and uncaring flute players.

The display of care was certainly impressive, but it was nothing new if this person was a section leader. After all, they had the responsibility to be more involved, even if the rest of their section played as emotive as rocks.

What had caught his attention though, was the tiny receipt tucked into the very front of the binder, tiny gold embossed letters glittering against the plastic material. It seemed to be a confirmation of a reservation of some sort, and with curiosity seizing him in the moment, his fingers grasped the edge of the paper to slip it out of the sleeve.

A small gasp escaped from his mouth as his eyes ran over the delicate beige card, a small smile couldn’t help but forming on Ryeowook’s face as he pondered the meaning behind this insignificant-seeming  piece of paper.

A Reservation to the Seoul Symphony Orchestra:

Friday February 8^th, 7:00PM

Seats 1A and 1B

For Mr. Cho Kyuhyun and Mr. Lee Sungmin

AN: Yay updated again! :) Had a disturbing lack of homework today .__." Hopefully i didnt forget anything haha. This chapter is dedicated to our awesome band director who did in fact eat 4 of my girl scout cookies during rehearsal today when i forgot to close my locker XD And yay for Yewook :) 2nd on my OTP list after Kyumin of course :) I love writing in Ryeowook's pov, he's just such a loveable person <3 Too bad I don't have an adorably awkward cutie to buy me cookies the way Ryeowook does :'( paid with my own cold hard cash man XDDDD Well, hope to see everyone soon! Just out of curiosity, what is everyone's favorite instrument in full orchestra? Do we have more band or orchestra kiddos here? x)
Hope to see everyone again in another update soon!