Part 4
 

“Alright, I’ll see all of you tomorrow. Remember to practice!” Liyin said and dismissed the trainees. While she was packing her teaching materials and music scores, Mark carried his bag pack and jogged towards Liyin, “Teacher Ri In! Where are you heading off now?” He asked.

“I’m going to practice a bit for the new song. Why? Are you trying to date your teacher?” Liyin teased and ruffled his hair. Mark ducked and tidied his hair, “Yea, if you don’t mind younger boys, I’m sure there are other younger boys who wished they are able to date you.” Mark flashed his cheeky smile.

Liyin raised up an eyebrow, “How flattering of you, Mark. Don’t grow up to be a playboy please.” She chuckled. Mark gave her the silly smile and asked a bit too enthusiastically, “I heard you’re going to have a duet with Jongdae hyung, is it true? Have you recorded? Is it a love song?”

“I think I just gained a new fanboy huh?” Liyin rubbed her chin and continued, “Yea, I’ve done recording my part. I haven’t heard Chen-sshi’s part though.”

Liyin was actually worried how the both of them, 2 complete strangers, are able to sing a love song, a song about how 2 separated lovers regretted letting go of each other and still misses each other. The helplessness and how the 2 lovers long for each other, will they be able to perfect that? Well, it’s not like she hasn’t done it before as Stephanie said matter-of-factly, as Stephanie said, “Come on, don’t worry. You’re the Queen of Duets. How many duets have you done so far? Junsu, Jonghyun, Bingyang, Henry and even Hankyung! Quit worrying, I mean you even managed to build chemistry with Junsu, that brat, Jongdae is a nice kid, everything will be alright!”

Liyin always winced when Stephanie talks about her ex-boyfriend, Junsu. He played a big role in Liyin’s life. He taught her many stuffs and she didn’t thought they would eventually fall in love. It was a blessing and a disaster, good and bad memories. However, they are still friends though…

“I’m going to visit Jongdae hyung, do you want to come with me?” Mark offered. He saw the worried look on Liyin’s face. Well it’s Jongdae hyung, anyone would be worried. Mark laughed in his mind just thinking of Jongdae hyung’s expression when he was to appear with Teacher Ri In.

Liyin checked her time, she should be able to… And she would really want to see if Chen might need any help from her, or they could just talk?

“Sure, I’ll go with you.” She agreed and grabbed her bag.

--

Chen sat at the table, going through the lyrics and humming the melody, waiting for his turn to record. He already recorded both his duet with Jonghyun hyung and Krystal, it was in Korean, so it didn’t took much of his time. Chen stared at his lyrics paper, filled with cramped words and markings. He sighed and used both his hands to rub his face, “You can do this! You’ve been practicing day and night! I’m the almighty Kim Jongdae!” He said to himself, as if it could help him feel less nervous about this song.

He’s worried. He is going to sing with Liyin sunbae. The figure that is always so out of his reach, they hadn’t even have a proper conversation other than greeting each other at hallways or some SM gatherings; someone who he only talked to through stupid love notes. He doesn’t even know why he did that. It just so happens she bumped into him and he happened to see her tears and something in him just sparked. Must be his stupid hero-complex, he wants to protect her, or at least help her smile again.

After the day he gave her the first anonymous gift and note, he went home and downloaded all her songs; every single one of them, as he listens, he sinks deeper into her voice. Day after day, he just wants to see her smile. Now, he is going to sing with her! Someone whom he only watched from afar, he is now able to talk to her, to sing with her. He’s fidgety right now because he is worried if his voice would match hers.

Just then, the assistant producer came in with the sound engineer, Chen quickly stood up to greet them.

“I’ve been seeing you so often recently huh? Haha~ So you ready?” The sound engineer asked, after they exchanged greetings.

“Yea, yea I am. But… will you be able to let me hear her parts first? I heard she’s already done her recording.” Chen requested.

“Sure, I bet you’re gonna like it. Because I do.”

The music played, and he heard her voice. Her voice light with vibrato. So gentle, the way she sang every word with the right emotions, she knows how to go soft and light, then switch to a strong tone. He expects her to be good, but it was even better than what he expected.

His heart was beating so fast even after the music stopped.

“Good huh? Now it’s your turn.” The assistant producer smiled at Chen and patted his shoulder.

After 2 tries, they called him out to listen to the recording with them.

“It’s not that bad. Let’s take a break and try it again.” The assistant PD said and went out to handle some matters.

Chen plopped himself down on the sofa and sulked. It’s still not good enough. Some of his pronunciation still sounded weird, something sounded off. Just then someone knocked the door and he saw Mark’s head peeking into the studio.

“Yah, you rascal. What are you doing here?” Chen asked.

“Well, to repay you for being such a nice hyung, always BUYING me dinner and VISITING me after my vocal classes, guess who I brought?” Mark said and emphasized specifically on the capitalized words, he opened the door bigger and revealed the figure behind him, looking confused, not understanding what Mark just said.

Chen saw her looking at him quizzically and shot up from his seat, “Ahnyeonghasaeyo, Ri In sunbae!” Mark snickered at his reaction and pulled Liyin in.

‘Remember to kill Mark later.’ Chen made a mental note but still smiled brightly, trying to hide his nervousness.  

Liyin smiled and greeting both Chen and the sound engineer, “Ahnyeonghasaeyo~ Sorry for the surprise visit, I didn’t create any inconvenience, did I?” She asked.

Chen mentally said, ‘Of course not, you don’t know how happy I am to see you!!’ With the same dumb smile still plastered on his face.

“Nah, it’s good that you’re here! Little Chen here seems like he needed some help with his Chinese.” The sound engineer joked.

“Ah~ Hyung~~~~~~” Chen whined.

Liyin giggled and made her way beside Chen, “Really? Let me see your lyrics.” She bend down to look at the lyrics in Chen’s hand as her hair fell off her shoulder, Chen could smell the strawberry scent from her, sweet and fresh just like her. He stopped breathing as she was too close but he still managed to say, “You can take the seat beside me, Liyin sunbae.”

“Chen, cut the honorifics, just call me Ri In or Ri In noona. I’m pretty sure you’re younger than me?” She gave Chen a smile and sat down beside him. Mark held back his laughter for a good 5 minutes; the other hyungs should totally see Jongdae hyung’s face now, he went to the other side of Chen and nudged him.

Chen turned and glared at Mark and nudged him back, “Ri In Noona… You can call me Jongdae too. That’s my real name.” His eyes wrinkled up as he smiled widely. ‘Ri In Noona? Noona? It feels good calling her this, makes me feel a step closer to her.’ Chen thought to himself.

Liyin smiled and said, “Sure, Jongdae.” She took his piece of lyrics from his hand and read through it.

“Your handwriting looks familiar…”

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Yeap!

Here's an update!!! Hope you enjoy it!! I've decided to continue on with this fic~

Thank you for the all the comments!

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