A few months passed and Keiba and Min had grown a lot closer. She was slowly but surely filling the friendless void that had been within Min since he and Ricky and Sun-Hee dropped contact. It didn’t help that their classes were on opposite sides of the campus. If no one made an effort, they never saw each other (though Min figured that they probably saw a lot of each other). But even still, a lot of his pent up anger from their lack of communication had begun to lessen. A lot of that had to do with Keiba’s presence in his life.

He walked toward the performing arts building and entered. The sound of a cello could be heard as he approached Keiba’s classroom. She and the music teacher were the only ones in the room. This wasn’t the first time he’d come to pick her up, but it was the first time Min had heard her play, and she wasn’t bad at it. After a few moments of listening, he decided he’d wait outside for her. He slipped out without having anyone notice he’d been there.

Keiba was just finishing up as the door closed quietly behind him. Her teacher gave her a standing ovation as the song came to a close. “Excellent!” She said. “Wonderful rendition of Bach’s Allamande.”

Keiba smiled sheepishly. “Thanks.”  

“I want to introduce you to someone.” She said. “He’s a good friend of mine and owns a local orchestra. I think he’d like what you have to offer.”

“Oh?” Keiba perked up.

“Yes. I’ll set up a meeting. Enjoy your lunch for now, but I’ll let you know a time and place tomorrow.”

“Okay. Thank you so much, Ms. Heller.”

“No, thank you, Keiba.” Ms. Heller picked up her things. “Have a good day, sweetheart.”

“You too!”  Keiba set her cello in its case as Ms. Heller walked into her office.

Keiba heard someone walk in as she was picking it up. She looked up thinking it was Min-Kyung, but it wasn’t.

“Yo.” The stranger greeted.

She stood with her cello and moved her curls out of her face. He was a little taller than Keiba with hazel eyes, a lean musculature, and brown hair.

“Hi.” She avoided eye contact with the attractive stranger, distracting herself by setting her cello in the music storage room.

“Where’s Ms. Heller?” He asked when she emerged.

“I think she went into her office.”

“Thanks.” He started off in the direction of the music teacher’s office. He paused after a couple of steps. And then, as though he couldn’t help himself, he said, “I’ve never seen you around before. Are you new?”

“This year, yeah.”

“Cool. I’m Ben.”

“Keiba.”

“Nice to meet you.” He gave her a half-hearted smile over his shoulder and then quickly entered Ms. Heller’s office.

Keiba watched until the door shut behind him. That was weird; no one had really made an effort to talk to her since she’d been here. She shrugged to herself and left the room. She found Min sitting on a bench in front of the music building.

She tiptoed toward him and tapped his shoulder. She grinned when he jumped.

“Hey, Min.” She sang.

He glared at her, but there wasn’t any real anger behind it. “You know I don’t like it when you do that.”

“You need some spice in your life, man.” She said.

He sighed and stared at the ground, his mood no longer playful. “Whatever.”

Keiba frowned at him. She sat beside him and set her backpack on the ground.

 “Hey, are you okay?” She asked. “You seem a little out of it.”

“Yeah… I just—” he stopped, looking conflicted, then shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

Her face fell a little. “Oh, okay.” I shouldn’t expect him to open up to me just yet. She reminded herself. If he wants me to know, he’ll tell me eventually.

But he’s been like this for as long as you’ve known him. One part of her argued.

It’s better than he was the first time we met. Much better. Another part of her retorted. And I can’t force him to do anything; that’s the wrong way to go about it. Time will tell.

 Keiba shook her head a little to dispel those thoughts.

“So where do you want to eat today?” He asked.

“Mm…” she drummed her fingers against her jeaned knee in a puzzled manner. “Subway!” She burst. “I haven’t been there in a minute.”

He smiled. “Okay, sure.”

Keiba shouldered her backpack and walked with Min toward the parking lot. They entered his car and he drove them to Subway, where they picked up their sandwiches and sat at one of the tables to eat. Min noticed that Keiba seemed brighter than usual.

He swallowed a bite of his buffalo chicken sub. “What’s with you?” He asked.

She took a long sip of her Sprite, grinning smugly around the straw. “Oh nothing, nothing.”

He rolled his eyes. “Don’t act coy.”

She laughed. She couldn’t keep it to herself for long anyway. “Okay, okay. Ms. Heller said she liked the way I played and would introduce me to a guy who owns a local orchestra.”

“Ms. Heller’s your music teacher?”

“Mmhm!”

“Oh. Wow, that’s great. Congrats.” He said, meaning every word.

“Thanks.”

“Do you know when?” He asked.

She shook her head. “Ms. Heller has to check with him to see when we can do it.”

“Well good. I heard you some when you were playing. You really were good.”

She blushed. “You think so?”

“Yeah. I didn’t want to interrupt, but when I heard you play I was like whoa… is that the same Keiba I met at the beginning of the year? The same weird one who likes to name things and play with string? And I don’t just mean string instruments.”

She laughed, nudging his cup of Dr. Pepper with her finger. “Shut up, I’m not that weird.”

“Oh of course not.”

She laughed again. “Well thanks anyway.” She popped the last little bit of her sub in , chewed, and swallowed.

“You know,” she began. “No one’s ever said that my music could actually go somewhere.”

He blinked. “No one?”

She shook her head. “I started playing when I was twelve just after my mom died, and there wasn’t a lot of support at home. It got to the point where I wasn’t allowed to practice there.”

His eyebrows rose. “Really?”

She nodded.

“Then when did you practice?”

“At the place I got Violoncelle. Actually, she was given to me for free.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I was in the shop so much practicing, or just getting away from home, that the owner gave her to me.”

“Wow.” He wouldn’t have guessed the happy, optimistic Keiba could have had such a difficult upbringing, though he supposed he could see that reflected in her modest wardrobe choices and in the shy way she interacted with other people.

“So playing was your escape.” He concluded.

She met his gaze and held it. There was a lot of weight behind her stare, but he returned it unflinchingly.

“Yes.” She nodded slowly. “You’re right. It was.”

He nodded and took another bite of his sub. “Things weren’t easy for me growing up either.” He said when he swallowed.

“No?”

He shook his head.

The door jingled as a pair of customers walked in.

“What do you mean?” Keiba asked.

“Well, there was a—” he stopped. His eyes were glued to the couple that had just entered. The expression on his face went from nostalgic, to surprised, then angry. But there was also sadness, pain, and longing in his gaze.

And something else Keiba couldn’t quite identify.