She looked thoroughly. Hongki was talking to him, Daehyun listened, and even though Daehyun friendly smiled and nodded, he didn’t seem really interested in what Hongki was saying. Hongki was a very friendly person, especially around girls, but once he started talking, it was almost impossible for him to stop. Why didn’t Daehyun look her way? She kept staring at him, it probably lasted for a few seconds only, but to her, it felt like minutes passed. She was making a fool of herself like this, standing still, staring at Daehyun. She looked at Yonghwa, she could still go and sit next to him… Oh, why wasn’t that idiot paying attention to her? She was about to give up, as Daehyun turned around, still carrying his friendly smile on his face. His eyes were searching for the teacher, but they found Hyeri’s eyes instead. His friendly smile turned into a broad grin. He waved to her, she waved back. She dared to come closer now. Hongki looked from Hyeri to Daehyun and back.

‘You know each other?’ he asked.

Daehyun nodded, ‘yes, she has shown me the way around here this Monday.’

‘Aha, how nice of her!’

‘We kind of made a promise to sit next to each other today, I hope you don’t mind.’

‘Oh no, not at all, you should have told me earlier!’

Hongki rose from his chair and walked up to Hyeri.

‘Our pretty principal puppet, touring around with the new ones,’ he laughed, while he caressed her cheek.

Hyeri turned red, she snatched Hongki’s hand.

‘I’m not a principal puppet.’

‘Sure, you aren’t.’

Hongki laughed once again. Then he seated himself next to Yonghwa. Hyeri could hear Hongki say, ‘oh god, the new one’s after the girls already.’ Hyeri smiled at Daehyun and sat down next to him.

‘Is he your boyfriend?’ Daehyun asked.

Hyeri burst into laughter, ‘what? Hongki? No way! What made you think that?’

‘Well, he touched your cheek and praised you, it seemed that way.’

‘That’s just the way Hongki is, he always tries to seduce any girl that enters his eyesight.’

Daehyun chuckled, ‘well, thank you.’

‘For not having a boyfriend?’

‘No, silly!’ he laughed.

Daehyun made a hand movement, meaning Hyeri had to come closer. In her ear he whispered, ‘for being my excuse to get rid of that guy, he sat down and started talking to me, about all kinds of things, I don’t even know what he talked about.’

Hyeri giggled.

The second bell rang, the lesson was starting.

Miss Kim, the music teacher, rose up from her seat and started talking, ‘good afternoon, class. Hope you had a great lunch. Before I write down who is present and who not, I want to tell you all that there’s a new student. Some may have seen him this week already. Others, like me, haven’t. Therefore, I’d like Daehyun to come forward and tell us something about himself.’

Hyeri heard a deep sigh, coming from Daehyun.

‘Not again,’ he whispered.

He walked up to the front of the class.

‘Hello everyone, I’m Jung Daehyun. I’m 17 years old and used to live in Busan.’

The teacher nodded, ‘very well, Daehyun. And tell me, why have you chosen to take music classes?’

‘I thought it would be fun.’

‘I see, and do you play anything, perhaps?’

Daehyun shook his head, ‘no, miss. I’m sorry.’

‘It’s okay, can you then sing us something?’

Daehyun looked shocked, ‘sing?’

She nodded, ‘every new student has to show that he or she is worthy to be here.’

‘I haven’t sung in a really long time, I’m not very good…’

‘You don’t have to be good, you just have to show that there’s hope in working with you, and you’ll immediately overcome the stage fright in front of this class.’

‘Okay, I’ll sing something then.’

Daehyun took a deep breath. Hyeri was holding her head with her hands, elbows on the table, ready to enjoy what she would get to hear.

Daehyun started to sing. He stammered a bit at first, probably a little nervous still, but as he got further into the song, his anxiety was gone. Not that the stammering made the song turn out bad, Daehyun’s voice was amazing. It sounded so nice. He even had no trouble in hitting the higher notes. Hyeri didn’t recognise the song that Daehyun was singing, she decided to pay more attention to the lyrics.

‘I won’t ever leave you alone,

You know I love you to the bone.

I want you to know how stunning you are,

In my eyes, you are the only star.

In this world, full of sadness and lies,

My love for you is true and never dies.’

Daehyun breathed out. The whole class had silently been listening in complete awe. Damn, he was good. Although she tried to hide it, miss Kim seemed quite contended about Daehyun’s performance. She applauded and after her, the class followed.

‘Very well, Daehyun. I’ve heard enough, you can take your seat again.’

Daehyun walked back and smiled at Hyeri, who was giving him a big thumbs up.

‘You were really good! It was a great idea to take music class next to your normal classes, I’m sure you’ll only improve!’

‘Thank you, I’m glad you liked my singing. I bet you’re very good as well, otherwise Miss Kim would have kicked you out already.’

Hyeri chuckled, ‘ah well, I’m not very good. I just like singing a lot.’

‘I’d like to hear it sometime, anyway.’

A week passed, music class had been lots of fun last week, so Hyeri was excited for today’s music class too. This month, they were learning to play some pieces on a keyboard. It turned out that Daehyun actually knew how to use the keyboard. He was able to read music notes and quickly managed to play some of the pieces. He and Hyeri shared a keyboard. Hyeri sometimes had trouble finding the key that leaded to the right note, but Daehyun gladly helped her out. She had been telling Jia about Daehyun’s voice and hidden piano talents all week now and Jia started to .

‘It’s time. Go and see your long lost love, my friend,’ Jia laughed.

Hyeri punched Jia against her arm, ‘stop it, you!’

‘Hey, I’m not the one who keeps talking about him all day!’

‘I’m not that bad!’

Jia laughed even harder now, ‘yes, you are! No doubt you are!’

Hyeri sighed, ‘have fun dancing.’

‘Thanks, you too, have fun observing the boy next to you.’

The girls parted ways. Hyeri walked through the long hallway. Suddenly, she started to feel very nauseous and dizzy. It couldn’t be because she was hungry, because she had just eaten. But what was it then? She decided to ignore it and entered the classroom. The seat next to Daehyun’s was still free. She speeded up her pace, and sat down quickly, ensuring no one else will sit down there anymore. Daehyun greeted her with a big smile. The second bell rang and the lesson started.

She was in the middle of one of the pieces when she felt that the nausea was coming back, her head ached very badly too now. She stopped playing, Daehyun looked at her.

‘What’s wrong? You did very well!’

‘I… I don’t feel so good.’

‘Hmm, you indeed seem to have lost the colour in your face. I guess it’ll be a good idea if you go and see the school doctor.’

‘No, I’m fine. I’ll be fine.’

Her head felt like someone was slashing it with a pickaxe.

‘Are you sure?’ Daehyun asked, slightly worried.

► ‘Yes. I’ll be fine.’

► ‘No…’