After another sleepless night, because the song has occupied my thoughts the entire time, my alarm announces the start of another extremely exciting *cough* school day. Before my departure I dive into my desk drawer, looking for the report that I finished a few days ago and that I have to hand in today. During my search I fall upon an old friend of mine, my  walkman. Now is a unique chance to use him again, since my MP3-player broke down a couple of days ago and I really am in need for some music. Checking if the walkman still works properly, I notice there’s already – what seems a homemade – CD in the device. A little curious of what kind of music will be on the CD (I don’t recognise it, though I probably made it myself), I switch it on and the device starts playing without any difficulty.

On the beats of my favourite songs I go to school. Until the fourth songs, a slow ballad song, starts to play… Minjun’s own written song. My legs stop in their track, refusing to walk any further. I have to sit down on a nearby bench or I would have collapsed in the middle of the crowded street. On hearing his beautiful voice and his incredible piano skills the endless stream of hot tears starts to run down my cheeks. In the middle the song suddenly falters. Thinking it’s just because of the old walkman and desperately wanting to hear the angelic voice again I press the replay button. But the song gets stuck at the exact same moment, just after the most significant sentence of the song: ‘I will never stop loving you’. I try again several times, but the device refuses to play the rest of the song. I give up and skip to the next song. No problems here or with the following songs. Extremely frustrated I walk through the school gates, into boredom’s way.

As I’m wandering through the hallway, someone suddenly taps my shoulder. Weird, since everyone has been avoiding me after Minjun’s death. Surprised and curious, I turn around to meet a smiling Nichkhun. My eyebrows knit together in a frown. What does he want from me?

After he got settled at this new school I’ve helped the Thai exchange student a couple of times with his administrations and some of his courses. At that time his Korean wasn’t that fluent yet and my English was better than most of my fellow students, since I lived in Boston for a couple of years. However, after I started hanging out with Minjun we have lost contact. The two were archrivals, enemies that couldn’t stand each other.  Minjun was jealous of Nichkhun’s piano skills and especially of the attention he received from teachers, students, random people. The Thai prince, from his side, didn’t seem to be eager to make any contact with the other either. I thought it was ridiculous, but who was I to understand the rivalry between two talented musicians?

“Hi, Taecyeon-shi,” Nichkhun greet politely, interrupting my thoughts.

He softly bites his under lip, clearly weighing the words he wants to say.

“Taecyeon-shi, I was wondering if… Have you already found a partner for the new assignment? The one for contemporary music? I was wondering if maybe… maybe we could work together? I know you used to work together with… yeah, you know… but now…”

The only thing I can do as the Thai prince tries to find his words is stare at him, shocked, irritated and slightly furious. That guy hasn’t said a single word to me after I became ‘friends’ with Minjun and now, right after my boyfriend’s death, he has the guts to approach me and to ask me if I want to partner up with him? Unbelievable.

Nonetheless, I realise I need a partner and I know it’s very unlikely that anyone else will be eager to work with me at this moment. So in the end I agree to his request.

Together we walk to the music room at the end of the hallway and when we enter Nichkhun is immediately asked to the front. Our ways separate as I walk to the back of the classroom and settle down on a chair in the corner of the room. As a true model student, Nichkhun starts to play the requested song flawlessly. In the middle of the song, however, the fallboard suddenly slams shut, onto Nichkhun’s fragile fingers. The boy in question screams in pain, bitter tears running down his cheeks. Our fellow students are so shocked that they all jump up and start shrieking and panicking. I am the only one who stays seated, frozen in utter confusion. Never have I seen this piano’s fallboard fall down by itself, not even during last year’s earthquake.

At a distance I seem to hear an evil laughter, but when I look around there’s no one around who’s laughing.

---

Taecyeon, if I were you, I would start wondering what on earth

is going on with the pianos and the walkman.

Only three more chapters to go...

The end is coming closer <3