The KIM KIBUM that shows up in this story is not the one from Super Junior. It's the real name of Key SHINee, lol. So, enjoy!

 

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Kim Kibum stood at his spot—under the trees—while staring at a figure of guy from afar. His cold eyes carefully observed the guy’s profile from top to toe.

“It’s the guy everybody’s talking about, Kwon Jiyong,” said Kim Jonghyun, Kibum’s closest fellow. “From what I’ve heard, he is a great piano prodigy since he was young. Rumor says that his ability in memorizing is incredible. Well, knowing that his father is a legendary pianist, I think his talent can’t be doubted.”

 Kibum tugged a peculiar smile upon his lips. “I wonder how capable he is as Yang Hyun Suk’s son.”

“You got any plan?” Jonghyun asked, as if he could read his friend’s mind.

“A great plan,” Kibum amusingly answered, then he walked away.

 

 

JESSICA’S POV

“No way, that can’t be true!” Hyorin covered dramatically. When I said it’s dramatic, it literally is. I admit that the news from Sulli a second ago made all of us jumped in surprise.

“You must be kidding, right?” Yuri’s eyes widened.

“I saw the announcement on the school board, how can I be kidding?” Sulli persisted, “I know this is unbelievable, but when can we see them again in one stage? Kim Kibum and Kwon Jiyong... OMG OMG OMG!”

All the girls around me squealed merrily. Well, maybe I’m the one who is the most excited girl among us. Since the first day of Jiyong’s presence in this school, my admiration towards him grew so fast. I am being friend with the girls that planned to make a ‘Kwon Jiyong Fans Club’ (and that sounds kinda stupid), but I am really sure that no one can exceed my feeling about him.

I can’t stand a minute passed without watching him. The way he plays piano, the way he speaks, the way he walks, the way he pretends to focus on the class, everything. Everything about him seems so perfect in my eyes. And what else? His charismatic face, his kind personality, and his smile...

...but, I don’t think that he has any interest in any girls at school. Like, come on, every girl in this school knows him, and 100 percents of them are his biggest fan. Within 2 days, he received hundreds of love letters and I secretly worried that he might pay attention to one of them. But what gave me a big surprise was he kept all the letters on his lockers, without reading them even once. In another day, some girls came to his desk and left some foods like chocolate, cookies, and other things that are supposed to be given on Valentine. And maybe all those girls would end up in shattering tears if they found out that Jiyong shared all the foods with the kids in our class.

Those are just a little part of ‘A Story of Jiyong, The Mr. Famous’ and sometimes they makes me laugh in pity. I wonder if he ever had a girlfriend, like a foreign girlfriend when he lived abroad, or fell in love with a European girl. But after seeing what he had done to his fangirls, I started to become afraid if he’ll never notice my feeling towards him. I started to think that maybe, just maybe, he is a gay. No, God, I hope that’ll only be in my imagination forever.

Suddenly, I saw a girl that I didn’t ever met before. She wore our uniform, but her face seemed strange. She closed her eyes and stood there, in front of my classroom’s door. I kept watching her figure until her eyes were opened, and our gaze met.

“Come on, guys! You don’t wanna miss this exciting battle, right? It’s Kim Kibum vs the new student, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” a tall guy showed up behind that girl, and after that short announcement, my friends and I rushed off to the music room.

I walked past her, and I decided to greet her first, “Hi! You’re coming with us?”

“Y-yeah,” she answered. She looked awkward, but it made her even cuter. Maybe she can be a good friend. Then, I grabbed her arm.

“Come on, we’re gonna be late. By the way, I’m Jessica Jung. And, you are...”

“Sandara. Park Sandara,” she curved a sheepish smile. OMG, I can’t stand that cuteness anymore. Then she asked, “Um, what does that guy mean with ‘battle’?”

“Oh, you don’t know? Yesterday, Kim Kibum threw a challenge to Kwon Jiyong to do a piano battle today.” my voice turned lower, “Some said that Kibum is not pleased with Jiyong’s appearance in this school, that’s why he wants to beat him in this battle and humiliate him.”

“What's so special with Jiyong that make someone's displeased with him? And who is Kim Kibum actually? Seems like he’s an important person in this school.” she asked nonchalantly, made my eyes bulged out. I mean, really BULGED OUT because she asked so. I think I was wrong. There’s still one girl left in this school who hasn’t gotten Jiyong’s charm, and it’s her.

“Seriously, are you living in a cave?” I couldn’t help but chuckled, “Kibum is not only the chairman of Student Council, but he is called ‘The Piano Prince’ for his amazing performance in playing piano. I think he sees Jiyong as a threat to his high reputation.”

I saw Dara’s mouth opened, like she was about to ask another question, but she then only nodded her head.

The time when we entered the auditorium, I wasn’t able to hide my shock after seeing the crowds that maybe as many as in a famous K-Pop concert. On the main stage, 2 black grand pianos was setted to face each players. I took a seat next to Dara, and the seats were close enough to see the things—and people—on the stage.

“Alright, alright. Attention, please!” Jonghyun walked in, entering the stage and created a silence upon the crowds. “I guess you know why you, and me, and every students are gathered here. Today, we are going to watch a rare perfomance from the gifted pianist in this school, and also well-known as the chairman of Student Council. I bet you guys already know who he is called...”

“The Piano Prince!” the crowds, especially the girls shouted enthusiastically.

I saw Dara giggle, “Piano Prince? What a silly name.”

Well, I admit that I couldn’t agree more. I wonder who invented that stupid nickname at the first place.

“But, this is not only an ordinary solo performance. Like what I’ve told you before, we are going to watch a very rare perfomance that you will not see twice in your life. This is a tough battle between our piano prince and... a new student that everyone’s talking about right now. Let us welcome them to the stage, Kim Kibum and Kwon Jiyong!”

The auditorium was full of applauses, cheers, shouts, even screams, as Kibum and Jiyong stepped onto the stage and took a seat in front of the pianos. Some even recorded this once-in-a-lifetime performance with their cellphones.

“Jiyong, fighting!” I shouted, even though I wasn’t sure if he could hear me, or even see me. Being in the sea of people—and his fangirls—makes it harder to be noticed by him, because almost everyone shouted the same words like, “Jiyong, you can do it!”, “Do your best!”, and whatsoever.

Kibum raised his right hand, makind a silence between the audience. “First, I want to make a deal with this guy,” he said as he pointed at Jiyong. “If you become the winner of this battle, I will give you an authentic music sheet of The Swan Lake... and I will give you up my position as a chairman of Student Council.”

Everyone started chattering about the deal that Kibum just made. I know that an authentic music sheet is the hardest thing to get in this world, but that was not the only matter. His willing to give up his position seems like a strong prove that Kibum is so serious with this battle.

“But,”  Kibum continued in a sharp tone, “if you lose this battle, you have to leave this school by tomorrow.”

“Deal,” Jiyong  raised his right palm and shook Kibum’s, a sign that the agreement has been approved. Everyone went crazy after that, including me.

“Is Kibum really that serious!?” I hissed in disbelief, then I looked at Dara. “Did you hear that? Kibum is already out of his mind. Maybe Jiyong does, too. Yeah, both of them do.”

“It means that Jiyong is pretty confident about this battle,” Dara added. “Once he believes in himself, I know he can do anything he wants. He can be the winner, I’m really sure about that.”

 “How can you be so sure about that?” I took a glance at her, then something titillate my curiosity. “Do you know Jiyong well?”

She only smiled, “Kind of.”

...

Who is this girl actually?

“Now, let the battle begin!”

As Jonghyun announced, I got nothing to think about because Kibum started to play his fingers upon the white and black keys swiftly. The battle has begun.

 

 

“Hey, kiddo. That was the toughest competition I’ve ever seen!”

“Kwon Jiyong, nice performance! Beyond fantastic!”

Jiyong, who exited from the backstage and walked passing some students, was greeted by some of them. Almost every person who walked past him would greet him and congratulate him. Some even gave him a hug and high-fived with him. All he could give back to them was, “Thank you.”

“Hey, you did it! It was so sick, you know. I mean, your performance.”

“Did you see Kibum’s face when he can’t keep up his pace? Such an interesting show, man. Congratulations!”

“Yeah, thanks guys!” he also met some of his classmates. Several seconds later, a group of girls approached him and made some noise.

“OMG Jiyong oppa, you’re amaziiiinggg!!!!”

“It was a perfect performance, oppa!” one of the girls gave him a flower bouquet.

“I think you’re supposed to replace Kibum sunbaenim to become The Piano Prince!”

“Whoa, thanks...Well, I think this is too much, you see.” Jiyong received the flower bouquet awkwardly. He felt like he had just performed in a big classy concert because of the flower, praises, compliments, and everything.

“No, a winner deserves the best, right?” a short-haired girl said, and all her friends nodded in agreement.

After politely excusing himself to leave his ‘fangirls’, Jiyong continued walking down the hallway. His eyes kept looking for someone between the crowds, but he found no one until somebody poked his back.

He immediately turned back his body, “Ah, Da...” but he stopped when he saw the girl who was stood behind him was not the one he had expected.

“Hey!” Jessica smiled. “The show gave me a goosebumps. What a nice performance you did there, Jiyong.”

“Uh...thanks.”

“Wanna go to class together?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah. Sure.”

Where’s Dara?

From the beginning of the show, right at the moment when he stepped into the center of stage, Jiyong threw his glance at the audiences and observed them one by one, only looking for a glimpse of the girl that he’d been wishing to see. But she was not there. Park Sandara didn’t come to watch him. Even after it ended, he still hoped that maybe Dara would show up by the auditorium door, thinking that she’d be late and she rushed quickly to see him. But there was no one coming. The door remained closed.

Suddenly, he felt a little bit of heavy turmoil crushed inside him.

 

 

A typical of peaceful Wednesday morning. Jiyong took a seat on the bench at the school park, waiting for the bell to ring. He grabbed a book from his backpack and then he started reading.

It’s been 2 days after the battle, but Jiyong hadn’t seen Dara at all. As what she always did, she skipped classes. But even after the school ended, never he saw her visible from any places. She was like gone with the wind.

He sighed deeply in annoyance. Why she has to disappear like that? She didn’t even come to see my performance or at least meet me after that and say congratulations! What the hell...oh, wait. Is it maybe because of the date several days ago? No, no, it wasn’t a date, it’s just...what was that actually? But what if I did something wrong that day and it made her displeased? Did she find me disgusting? I knew it, I shouldn’t bring her to a small shop like that...I shouldn’t eat ice cream that way...wait, why do I keep considering myself?

“Miss me?”

Jiyong, who was lost into his deepest thoughts, couldn’t help but shrieked in shock when a face suddenly showed up next to him, until he found out who it was.

“Oh, God. You...”

Dara mischievously laughed as she took a seat beside his place on the bench. “You have to see how your face looked like. It hurts my stomach so bad like crazy.”

“How many times you made me almost got a heart attack? You really like scaring people from behind, eh? What if you make someone dies because of your horrible kind of shocking method? And what else? Showing up yourself all at sudden after missing for days and don’t you know how much I...”

“What is this?” she ignored his complaints and tilted her head to see the book that he held. “I don’t know that you love reading too.”

“Can’t you just...listen to me?”

“Okay, okay. How much you what?”

Jiyong gulped. He was about to continue saying that he couldn’t describe how frustrated he was when she wasn’t there to watch him. How crazy he was when she’s gone for days. How bad he missed her since that day...hey, what!?

“No! I’m not like that!” Jiyong yelled.

“What? You haven’t said anything.”

“Forget it,” he mumbled. Get away from me, silly thoughts. Shoo, shoo. “Listen to me. I, uh...aargh, I can’t make it into words...huh? Yah, what the hell are you doing?”

Dara immediately got up and did some weird movements. Her tiny body jumped from one point to another, then she would do a ridiculous hand-waving thing like an octopus. “What? I’m doing my morning exercise. This can help me to keep up my healthy body.”

Jiyong’s frown disappeared and it was replaced by a playful smile as he stood up, then raising his hand to pinch her cheeks, “And you really like to ignore when someone’s talking to you, huh?”

“Aigoo!” Dara jumped and rubbed her right cheek. “Okay, okay. So, you want me to keep paying attention to you?”

“Yes, all the time.”

She sighed dramatically, “Fine.”

Jiyong continued reading the book, but not long after that he noticed something was wrong. As he turned his face to Dara’s direction, he curled his forehead at the girl that was staring straightly at him like a statue. “Okay, can you tell me what are you doing right now?”

“Paying attention to you,” she answered with a robotic voice.

“That’s creepy. Stop it,” Jiyong diverted his gaze towards the book, but Dara tugged his shirt like a little girl.

“Yesterday, you were superb!”

He glanced back at her again with a surprised look, “You watched the battle?”

“Yes,” she answered, still with the monotone robotic voice. “Well, congratulation, the new Mr. Chairman!”

He shook his head firmly, “I’m not taking that position.”

She stared at Jiyong with disbelief, “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, it’s just troublesome. I only take the music sheet.”

“Cool! Can you show it to me later?”

He pointed his cheek teasingly, “Kiss me first.”

“Gah, forget it,” Dara scrunched her nose.

Jiyong laughed, “Then...what do you think about the battle?”

Dara paused for a while, her face was like wondering about something. “That was just...you know what? I never thought you could play that good.”

“I know, right?” he cocked his eyebrows.

“How conceited,” she scoffed.

“Kidding. I actually kinda nervous because I’ve heard about his reputation before.”

“No way. After seeing you perform, I have to say it’s impossible that someone like you can be nervous.”

“Well, now I’m feeling nervous again because someone is staring at me like a creep.”

 “But you told me to pay attention...”

“But I’m not asking you to become one of my fangirls.” he rolled his eyeballs, then there was a moment when his gaze unintentionally fell onto hers.

Each of them were like struck in each other’s gaze. Not wanting to voice a word. Not wanting to move away. Not wanting to go away.

For some seconds, Jiyong could feel something warm crept into his heart, as he stared at Dara’s eyes. Something he never felt before. Something that he knew he found it for the first time in her eyes.

 “You know what, Ji...”

Never. Never in Jiyong’s life he felt a tremendously heart-drumming moment like this when he heard a girl's whispers . When he locked into someone's eyes like this.

“I think...”

Oh, God. What’s wrong with me.

“I think you have a pimple on your forehead.”