The Sixth Picture

                Every day Youngbae practiced on the piano at home for at least an hour. Usually, he played when his mother was out shopping, meeting with friends, or picking something up from the office. If he got caught playing too much it would raise questions from the woman and he didn’t really want that. When he wasn’t playing, he was studying, and in between those two times he would hang out with Chohee.

                “Where are you right now?” Chohee asked, cocking her head to the side as Youngbae stared off into space. Her question brought reality back in to focus and he blushed.

                “I w-well… Do you want to come with me to the practice rooms?” he asked nervously. He knew that he shouldn’t be nervous around her anymore. It was past the halfway point of the semester; he only had a month left before the Showcase and a month and two weeks before finals struck. So, they had known each other for long enough that his nerves should have stopped flaring up around the girl.

                “Is there something you wanted to show me?”

                “I- well… Yes,” he nodded, his hands wrapped around the still warm drink he had ordered a while ago. For some strange reason, the college loved to heat up their drinks to ungodly temperatures so it took forever for them to reach a drinkable temperature. Tea was the worst for that, it usually ended up like drinkable lava, but he enjoyed tea on cloudy days.

                “Is it a new song?”

                “Um…yeah,” he nodded again, hoping that he wasn’t acting too suspicious. Luckily for him, she seemed oblivious to his odd behavior. She agreed to go with him so the pair walked back towards the music building.

                He was actually beginning to become comfortable going in and out of the music building. He felt like less of an intruder and more like he belonged within this space. He had even met a few of Hyunsuk’s other students who had helped him with his techniques and, ultimately, with what he was about to show Chohee.

                They greeted a few people on the way to the practice room he preferred and Chohee only stopped twice to take pictures of various items. Once they finally reached the practice room, Youngbae stole a chair for Chohee to sit on before moving to the piano bench.

                “You promise not to laugh, right?” he asked, his fingers hovering over the keys.

                “Why would I ever laugh at you?” she inquired in return, a small smile gracing her lips. She held the camera on her lap but he wondered how long it would take before it was back up in front of her face. However, with her reassurance, he began to play.

                His eyes slowly slide shut as the first few chords filled the room. Chohee listened quietly, the small smile remaining on her face until he opened his mouth to sing. Her eyes widened and her cheeks turned as red as Youngbae’s face as she began to process the meaning of the lyrics which Youngbae, with Jiyong and several music students’ help, had written just for her.

                He was embarrassed about how his voice sounded and how the lyrics flowed but didn’t stop playing until he had reached the end of the song. Once he had finished, his eyes remained trained on the ebony and ivory keys while Chohee stared at him.

                “So, what do you-” his voice cracked, “What do you think?”

                “Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?” Her voice was shaking and she clutched the camera close to herself.

                “I-If you would like to…yeah,” he said before risking a glance at her. She was blushing and smiling but there was something in her eyes that caused the boy to worry. “If you don’t want to, that’s fine too. I mean, I’m cool with just being friends or something.”

                “I want to date you,” she stated, “but there’s something…something I think you need to know.” She picked at a loose string on the sweater she wore as her eyes shifted down to look away from him. Youngbae waited for her to elaborate but instead she said, “I think it’s time you met my family.”

                “Okay,” Youngbae agreed. He was definitely worried though. Why did he meet her family? Was she hiding some sort of dark secret? Was there something wrong with her parents? What if her family was a family of cannibals? No, no that last one was definitely not true.

                She got up and silently led him out of the practice room and then the music building before he crossed the street with her. It was perhaps the longest thirty minutes of his life spent in complete silence. She reached out and grabbed his hand before leading him into an apartment complex. They took the elevator up to the third floor and went down the left hallway before she stopped at one of the doors.

                There was nothing strange at first. The apartment was a whole lot more colorful than the one he and his mother shared. It was also obvious that the family was very artsy from the sheer amount of paintings, pictures, and musical instruments that seemed to occupy every free space in the home. He smiled when he saw pictures of Chohee growing up, there were so many of them.

                His smile faded when a certain picture caught his eye. He walked closer to it and felt Chohee trailing behind him. It was obviously Chohee in the picture along with someone he assumed was her twin. That wasn’t what caught his attention though. The siblings couldn’t be older than twelve and were sitting atop a hospital bed. Chohee was wearing a gown and had several IVs hooked up to her skinny arms. What caught his attention most was her completely bald head.

                “I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia when I was ten,” she explained, “I spent almost half of my life fighting against my own body…” Youngbae turned from the photo to reach out and wrap the frail girl in a hug. Her hands clung to his sweatshirt but there were no tears.

                “But you’re okay now, right?”

                “It’s in remission if that’s what you mean,” she mumbled, “but there’s always going to be that… And I have scars so I’m not as pretty as you are.” He stiffened at that last part. He didn’t know how she could doubt her own beauty, sure she was odd but that just added on to her charms.

                “I like you just the way you are,” he said firmly, “and I still want to date you, if you want to date me that is.”

                “She does! She definitely does!” an unfamiliar feminine voice said. Youngbae turned and saw a woman who looked like a much older version of the girl he was still holding in his arms. His face turned bright red and he immediately let go and took a step back.

                “S-Sorry, I-I-I didn’t realize…” he stammered, obviously flustered. The woman who appeared to be Chohee’s mother chuckled before running over to her daughter. She hugged the girl and laid her head on top of Chohee’s while retaining her smile.

                “Oh, you’re fine,” she reassured the flushed college student, “I think you two are absolutely adorable!”

                “So I should date him?” Chohee asked.

                “Yes! Definitely! I’m sure your father would approve too,” her mother nodded, “Though I didn’t really catch your name.”

                “Dong Youngbae,” he answered with a full ninety degree bow. Her mother immediately excused him from that. He was pulled through the family apartment and was introduced to Chohee’s father as well who seemed to be just as absentminded as his daughter. The man greeted Youngbae but then turned back to his computer where he seemed to be running codes on some sort of program.

                He caught a glimpse of Chohee’s brother’s room which was full of music paraphernalia. Some of the posters and things had been taken from the room probably going with her brother to France. When Chohee saw the direction he was looking, she suddenly said, “He asked me out with a song.”

                “You play?” her mother asked excitedly.

                “The piano,” he admitted, “I just started my college lessons a little while ago though.”

                “He plays really well, just like Oppa,” Chohee added.

                “So we’re going to have another famous musician in the family then?” her mother offered him a wink along with that and Youngbae wasn’t sure what to do next. He honestly didn’t want to correct them that he was going to be a well-to-do business man. That was the reality of his future.

                He stayed with the Moons until he really did have to go home. Chohee saw him to the door with her mother watching them with a sort of satisfied grin. Youngbae wished her goodnight and promised to meet her the next day before slowly leaving.

                He spared the apartment a glance back over his shoulder on his way to the elevator. He didn’t want to go home. He wanted to stay and listen to her mother babble while Chohee took pictures and her father played on his laptop, seemingly ignoring everyone except when he would randomly add a comment to his wife’s stories.

                He didn’t want to go home but at least he had a girlfriend to look forward to meeting in the morning.