~| So This is How They Work! Sound of Love & the Rainy Sky |~

 

As he had promised, I received a message from Junhyung that night about Crescendo House’s meeting. He told me the location. It surprised me to know that the location was actually inside the campus area. It seemed that Junhyung had booked a music studio room.

 

He also asked me to prepare some songs for new cover’s candidates. He suggested preparing them in MP3 format instead of just mentioning the song itself. Lucky for me, I had songs collection stock in my iPhone in different genres so I just needed to look at them.

 

But honestly, it was actually confusing to choose. I didn’t know their reference for songs that they had picked. I tried to look at their videos for ideas but it didn’t help me at all; the more I looked, the more I got confused. It felt like Crescendo House had sung many varieties of song’s genre. So I gave up looking and just went to bed that night.

 

The next morning, as usual, I drove my car to school. I came a little bit early since I wanted to do my assignment and study a little before going to Crescendo House’s meeting. So I came to the library. When I got there, I saw few people on the place. But I noticed a certain person amongst them all.

 

There was a girl, sitting alone on the farthest table near the window. She had a long wavy black hair that she let loose; eyeglasses sat in front of her eyes and pen was on her hand. With earphone attached on her ears, her head swayed rhythmically while reading. As I looked at her, I realized that she was Sayaka and she looked undisturbed even though several guys were looking at her, mesmerized by her mysterious beauty; or perhaps, because of her melodically humming or the tapping sound of her pen. It seemed that she was enjoying the song on her phone a lot till she forgot that she was actually inside the library.

 

For a moment, I felt reluctant to approach her. From all Crescendo House’s members, I always considered that she was the hardest person to be approached to. Perhaps, it was because she had this big sister’s charisma around her. It really made me feeling intimidated by her. But since there seemed no-one wanting to warn her, I felt that I had the obligation to do it.

 

I silently heaved and approached her. When I stopped at her side, she still hadn’t noticed my presence. So I tapped her shoulder gently. She raised her gaze and saw me then took off her earphones. “Oh, hello, Daniel,” she greeted.

 

“Forgive me, but your hum is too loud,” I told her softly. She looked around, realizing that the librarian was glaring at her, and returned to me with apologizing grin and reddish blushes on her cheeks. “Sorry,” she said.

 

I only nodded and smiled to see her reaction. It was actually very weird to see her blushing but it was cute somehow. Despite of her elegant and mature air around her, she was quietly expressive and clumsy. Well, perhaps Sayaka is not too intimidating after all, I thought. And somehow a thought of asking her about my confusion last night passed through my mind. I thought I really needed to talk with her.

 

“Do you mind if I sit here?” I pointed at the empty chair beside of her.

 

Well, the chair wasn’t actually empty; she put her bag there. But realizing that someone else might need the chair instead of her bag, she quickly took her bag and put it on the floor. I thanked her, pulling out the chair to sit there. As I put my book on the table, my eyes fell to her phone on the table, noticing a song title on its screen. I also saw a notebook with her handwriting; some verses were inscribed on it. I read the first verse. It went for something like this…

 

All I need to do is say, “I love you”
I wish I could, but my fears hold me back
The thoughts of “I love you” and “I love you”
Would intensify before melting away again
If our time together could be a second longer
It doesn’t have to be forever
The sounds of love make wishes under the rainy sky

 

The corner of my lips was tugged up as I read it. I looked back at her. “The song seems nice,” I said softly.

 

Sayaka turned her gaze on me, clueless. “Huh?”

 

“That.” I pointed at her lyric.

 

“Ah.” She looked understand.

 

“Is it for your class assignment?”

 

“No,” she replied as she lifted the lyric sheet. “It’s just a song that I happened to find. It’s good. Perhaps, I’ll show it later to Seoyul and submit it for our new cover.”

 

Well, while we were on the topic… “Can I ask you something?”

 

“Sure.” She nodded.

 

“How do you pick the songs for your cover? Do you have any reference on picking the songs?”

 

After she listened to my question, she was frowning as if she was thinking. “Hmmm…” her head slightly tilted to a side. “I don’t think we have any references on picking songs. We just listen to a song. And if it clicks, we just use it.”

 

“And what about the instruments? How do you pick which instruments to use?”

 

“Mostly piano and guitar can cover all. As a student from music major, you must know about it, right?”

 

I nodded. She was right. Piano or guitar could almost cover every instruments. In classic music, composers such as Mozart or Beethoven usually used piano to create their song before they converted it into orchestra. And guitar was the all-in companion for modern songs. I could almost sing everything with guitar as my instrument.

 

“But for the other instruments, we usually let Seoyul to decide.” I frowned to hear the name, thinking that she might have mistaken mentioning Seoyul’s name instead of Junhyung.

 

“You mean Junhyung, right?” I tried correcting her mistake but she only smiled understandingly. “Ah, I forget that you haven’t known about it.”

 

What did she mean?

 

“Well, actually, Junhyung’s part is more as the transcriber for the music. But the one who re-arranges the music and decides which instruments that we used, it’s always Seoyul.”

 

Somehow it was unimaginable for me. I knew that Seoyul was a great singer. A broadcast major student arranged music for music major students? Somehow it was absurd.

 

It would be different if Seoyul ever took music class for piano, guitar or violin. But I remembered watching a Q&A session where she stated that she had never taken any music class. She had also said that she couldn’t play instruments such as piano, guitar, bass guitar or violin like her bandmates. And as far as I had seen, she only knew how to play melodica/pianica, recorder, xylophone or shakers. Seriously, those were instruments that kindergarten or primary school students used for their music lesson in school.

 

So Seoyul as Crescendo House’s music arranger? Somehow my mind was refusing the fact.

 

My thought was disturbed by Sayaka’s chuckles. I looked back at her. “You can’t believe it, right?” It seemed that she could read my mind and I was feeling embarrassed by it. “Perhaps, no one from music major will believe it. But you’ll see about it later. Seoyul is not a person that you can underestimate when it comes to music. She really loves music despite of her incapability in playing instruments”

 

When she said her last two sentences, I had an impression that she had known Seoyul since long. I propped my chin on my palm. “You sound like you have known her for long.” And to my surprise, she replied, “Oh, I do have known her for long. We have been friends since sixth grade.”

 

Really? And I wanted to ask more since I was very curious about Seoyul.

 

But before I could ask, Sayaka’s phone vibrated. She looked down to her phone and grinned in reluctant. I could see one of the Professors’ name on the screen. “Geh, I forget about piano lesson for our next gala concert,” she said then cleaned up her things in hurry. She took her phone as she stood up. “I gotta go. See you later.”

 

I only waved as she left. I turned my gaze back to the wooden surface in front of me and heaved. Oh well, perhaps it wasn’t my luck to ask other person about Seoyul. Perhaps, I just needed to sit back and see how Seoyul really was. I tried to cheer myself up, saying that I would be working with her after all. I was sure that I would know her more.

 

For now, there was a curiosity that really needed to be answered about Seoyul’s music talent. And, oh boy, the time really knew how to make some curiosities grew. So I took my bag and violin to the practice room. It was better to spend my time practicing than to be idling.

 

But seriously, practicing was the effective way for me to spend my time. When I took my phone to check the time, I realized that I almost forgot about the meeting. I quickly packed my violin and things then came out to look for the location that Junhyung had given me last night, music studio number 7.

 

I found the place. It wasn’t hard to find because I often went to that part of the building. I heaved and entered the room. Just as I had thought before, I was the last one to come and the other members were already there. They were sitting around the coffee table on the room. I noticed that Seoyul was sitting with Sayaka on the couch and earphone was attached on her ears. IU was sitting on a single sofa while playing her guitar. Minhyuk was sitting on a high chair beside her. Junhyung was sitting on the swivel chair while Lay was on another chair beside him with his guitar. I came to Junhyung, noticing some papers on his lap.

 

“I’m sorry for being late,” I apologized to Junhyung. He only smiled. “It’s fine. Just take a seat.”

 

I took an empty swivel chair and pushed it to Minhyuk’s side. I also noticed that Seoyul took off one of the earphones on her ears.

 

“Okay.” Junhyung opened up. “Since we have completed now...” He paused for a while as he took a look at the other members. “Perhaps, some of you want to know about our newest member.” He then looked at me. “Dan, can you introduce yourself?”

 

In an instant, every eye was fixed on me. I gulped, feeling awkward to receive all those attentions at once. And my mind suddenly went blank. “Hmmm… My name is Daniel Jang.” Name, checked. “I’m a first grade from music major.” Grade, checked. “I can play violin, as well as guitar and piano.” Instruments, checked. So what else?

 

“Can you sing?”

 

The sudden question from IU had caught me off guard. I turned my gaze on her. Honestly, singing was something that I felt less confident at, compared to violin, guitar or piano. But I sang on my Church sometimes. So at least, I knew that I could sing and I wasn’t tone-deaf.

 

But then, me? Singing in amidst of these great singers?

 

“Perhaps, yes?” My answer came out like a sort kind of question because I was feeling unsure. “Honestly, I don’t know. I haven’t tried to sing.” I looked around then continued, “At least with singers like all of you.”

 

Perhaps, my answer was too honest since I saw an upward tug on one of Seoyul’s lips corners while the other smiled or chuckled.

 

“Oh, Daniel,” Sayaka said as she shook her head. “Actually, we’re not that great. But as you see, we work as a team here. That’s why we can achieve what we have right now. Besides, we always believe that if you’re not good in singing alone, singing in group will help. And basically, we’re just having fun and enjoying the moment when we’re singing while playing music. That’s how we work as Crescendo House.”

 

“True,” Lay said. “I guess we can call it as the basic principal of Crescendo House. Just have fun and enjoy the music.”

 

I looked around and saw that the other members seemed to agree with it. “Well, I guess I’ll try then.”

 

Junhyung smiled when he heard my words then looked at the other members. “Is there anything else that you want to know about Daniel?” He waited a while for someone to speak out but there was nobody; thank goodness. Junhyung looked back at me. “So let me introduce our existing members.” Then he introduced each member along with their instruments’ skill.

 

And after that, Junhyung gave me a sheet of paper. “This is the song that we will use for this week’s recording. You can ask Minhyuk for the song.” I only nodded as I received the paper. “And Dan, we’re not trying to scare you. But Crescendo House always do recording on Weekends. So it means that we will have a recording today, later at night.”

 

What?! No one told me about that. But I didn’t think they would listen to my complaint. Besides, I was the newest addition of the group so I didn’t think I was in the place to protest about their ways of working.

 

I looked down at the lyric sheet on my hand. The title of the song was Hush from Miss A. From what I had known about the song, it was a song for girls. So I thought that all the guy members of Crescendo House would only be supporting them.

 

“Seoyul.” The call made me lifting my gaze and looked at the mentioned girl. It was Junhyung who called her. “Let me make sure again, okay? The singers will be you, Sayaka and IU, right?”

 

Seoyul nodded. So it seemed that they had discussed about the song earlier before I arrived.

 

“And for the instrument, you only need guitar, right?”

 

Again, Seoyul nodded. “Perhaps we can add shakers or tambourine for the refrain parts. Actually I was thinking to add some bass sound, perhaps bass drum or bass guitar. But I don’t know… I think it’ll be too crowded.”

 

“I think we can try while practicing,” Junhyung said. “So let’s practicing now.”

 

“Guys,” Sayaka suddenly interrupting, making everyone to look at her. “I… actually want to submit another song.”

 

“What song?”

 

Sayaka turned to Seoyul. “Ah.” She took out her notebook and took a piece of paper out of it. “I happened to find this song in my playlist. And I was thinking that it might be cool if we cover this song.” She looked at the lyric sheet. “And when I was practicing earlier, I suddenly thought of Daniel playing his violin for this song.” She turned to me.

 

“Really?” Seoyul seemed interested as she leaned forward. Sayaka only nodded and handed the lyric at her. She also offered her earphone to Seoyul. “Just listen to the song first, will you?” Seoyul was gladly to receive the earphone and listen to the song. But as for me, if my eyes could pop out from my eye sockets, I was sure that it would fall out. “Wa-wait. Why me?”

 

Sayaka turned at me again and shrugged. “I don’t know. It just came to my mind. Besides, I think it’ll be such of waste if you’re just sitting between us, playing your violin or just sitting behind the camera. You’re the new member. So why not expose yourself more?”

 

Seriously, I wanted to reply the statements. But Seoyul’s voice cut me off before I could even speak.

 

“Ah… I see.” I turned my gaze to Seoyul. A bright smile had bloomed on her face. She looked at Sayaka. “This song really fits for Daniel.”

 

I noticed Sayaka’s expression becoming brighter as Seoyul turned to the others with Sayaka’s phone on her hand. She unplugged the earphone and put the phone on the table then tapped the screen for rewinding the song.

 

“Here’s the lyric.” Seoyul handed the lyric sheet to me. “Try to listen it.”

 

As the song played on Sayaka’s phone speakers, I recognized the song as the melody that Sayaka hummed at the library earlier. And from the lyric sheet that Seoyul gave me, I also realized if the verse that I read earlier was the verse from this song.

 

The song itself was called ‘The Sound of Love and the Rainy Sky’ and it was sung by AAA. The full lyric was going like this:

 

All I need to do is say, “I love you”
I wish I could, but my fears hold me back
The thoughts of “I love you” and “I love you”
Would intensify before melting away again
If our time together could be a second longer
It doesn’t have to be forever
The sounds of love make wishes under the rainy sky

Since we’ve been apart, there’s been several days of pouring rain
On such days, I’d always bring an umbrella to you

Waiting at our usual place, for the person who wouldn’t appear
You were right there, without an umbrella, completely drenched

If I could warm your frozen hands again
I want to return to the time when it all began

All I need to do is say, “I love you”
I wish I could, but my fears hold me back
“Do I love you?” “Or do I not?”
A love with wavering feelings under a rainy sky
If our time together could be a second longer
It doesn’t have to be forever
Until it stops raining, please, let me stay like this…

Even the future I believed in
Will you laugh and say, “It’s all in the past”?
I don’t even have the strength to forget everything
Since that day, my time has stopped
Two streams of tears
Roll down your cheeks
“It’s the endless, incessant rain’s fault,” the sounds of love sing

More often than before, I’ll envy couples on the streets
When did I become so afraid of being alone?

But now, I will cherish this brief moment of happiness
I wish we could just go on like this
And become an ordinary couple

What you’re hoping for now
What I want to say here
Would we finally feel the same in this moment?

All I need to do is say, “I love you”
I wish I could, but my fears hold me back
I’m gazing at your face from the side
That’s all I ask for now!
But without you, I won’t even be able
To feel this glimpse of happiness, so
Actually, I want to keep holding you tight, forever

“Missing chances to meet is a test to see if we can start again”
I wish I had said that right away
This has gone beyond mere affection
Now, with all my heart and soul, I love you
In the few days I’ve lost, I’ve finally realized that
Actually, I want to know how you feel right now…

All I need to do is say, “I love you”
I wish I could, but my fears hold me back
The thoughts of “I love you” and “I love you”
Would intensify before melting away again
If our time together could be a second longer
It doesn’t have to be forever
The sounds of love make wishes under the rainy sky

 

It was a good song. But I couldn’t understand why Sayaka and Seoyul said that the song was actually fit for me.

 

“See, this song really fits for you.” Seoyul said to me after the song ended. I only looked at her. The question ‘really?’ was coming to my mind. “How come?”

 

“Let’s see.” She stretched out her hand at me as she leaned forward, asking for the lyric sheet. I gave the paper to her and she put down the lyric sheet. “You see. From this part to this part, you can put your violin on it as a companion, and also in this part. Ah, this part too. And… you can fill in on this part. This part. Here’s too. Then this part till finish.”

 

She pointed at the lyric and put a mark on the places where she meant as she explained. But somehow the cover for the song itself was playing on my mind. And with the song that had repeated again, somehow some music images of how I would play the violin part later were playing on my mind.

 

After that, she raised her gaze back at me, looking somehow excited. “Kyaah, this song is really meant for you. I can’t wait to see the outcome.”

 

I was speechless to hear her and only blinked while looking at her. It was true that I could imagine how the song would be. But I amazed on how quick she could think about the arrangement of the song and the composition of the music. I lowered my gaze to the lyric on my hand.

 

And when I raised my gaze, I noticed that Junhyung was looking at me with a smirk on his lips. It struck me to realize that this might be what Junhyung and Sayaka had talked about before regarding Seoyul. I started to understand that, despite of her incapability in playing musical instruments, Seoyul was a brilliant music arranger and composer.

 

“So…” Minhyuk’s voice brought me back to reality. I turned my gaze to him. “Who else will do this cover with Daniel?”

 

Seoyul hummed while looking at us. “Actually, I was thinking to have Lay supporting us on Miss A’s song. So…” Her gaze fell to Junhyung. “Junhyung, can you do the song with Daniel, please?” she partly asked, half-pleading, perhaps for the guy’s agreement.

 

The mentioned guy only smirked to hear his name coming out from the girl’s lips. It seemed that he had understood. “Okay,” he looked at me. “With my pleasure.” He turned back to Seoyul. “Is piano fine?”

 

A smile bloomed on Seoyul’s face. “You can really read my mind.”

 

Junhyung only scoffed. “How many years do you think I’ve known you?” He told Seoyul then looked back at us. “Okay. Let’s start to work, guys.”

 

Then, everyone started to move. Junhyung stood up and came to me. “Dan, bring your violin and come with me. We can use the room there.” He pointed at the recording room. So I took my violin case and the lyric sheet then went with him to the recording room. But somehow I felt relief inside to know that I would work with Junhyung. It was good to work with someone that I had known for my debut.

 

The recording room was actually a room for instruments recording so it was larger than the other recording room. There was keyboard there as well as a piano. Inside, I saw Junhyung sitting on the keyboard chair and I approached him. He told me to sit on the chair across of the keyboard and prepared my violin so I did.

 

“Say, Junhyung,” I called him when he was playing some tones on the keyboard. He looked at me. “Yeah?”

 

“Do you always work like that?”

 

“Like what?”

 

“Always rushing like this.”

 

He just smirked understandingly. “Not really,” he said. “Actually, Seoyul has picked Miss A’s song since we had our latest session. But she didn’t have any ideas of how we will cover the song or what instruments that will company the singers. Everything was decided earlier today.”

 

“Does Seoyul always decide everything in the group like that?”

 

Junhyung smiled again. “I’ve told you before that Seoyul’s roles in Crescendo House are not only a singer, right?” He leaned back and crossed his arms on his chest. “To tell you the truth, Seoyul is basically the mastermind behind Crescendo House. Every covers that we have were actually managed by her. She’s the one who thinks about how we sing the song, which instruments will accompany the song and which members who fit to sing the song.”

 

He turned his gaze to the door, in which I followed. “When you walk out that door, you’ll see her instructing the others about the vocal arrangement and also how Lay and IU will play their guitars. She’s basically our producer.”

 

I looked back at him. “How will she know if we play right?”

 

“Seoyul has sharp ears, you know. She can hear our mistakes.” He paused for a while. “And the reason why she is always so selective and only choosing a member who has high sense of creativity, sharp instinct and quick thought, it’s because we will need to follow her pace.”

 

“But how did she select through all the candidates?”

 

An amusing smirk came to his lips. “There’s a thing from her that works wondrously. And seriously, I really don’t know how it works.” Junhyung chuckled. “But whenever she looks at someone playing music or singing, she always gets some tingle feelings inside of her. And when she got that feeling, that person will always turn out to be a great musician or a famous one.”

 

“So she thinks that I can be great too?”

 

Junhyung only looked at me with a smile before heaving. “Well, at least I know that you are a good musician. I have watched you for a while, you know. And in my personal opinion, I believe that you will become a great one.” He paused for a while then added, “I’m sure that Seoyul believes it too.” He untangled his arms. “Now, let’s get back to work.”

 

Seriously, I really didn’t know what to say. But since Seoyul and Junhyung seemed to put their trust in me, so I tried my best not to let them down.

 

And after few hours, the door opened, interrupting our practice. I turned to the door and saw Seoyul peeking in with her smile. “Are you ready?” she asked.

 

When I saw her standing on the door, I felt something stirring inside of me. Perhaps it was a feeling of awe for her incredible talent or a feeling of respect. But on that moment, I knew that I’ve seen her in different way from I used to be. She had become a person that I admired the most and I was honored that she had picked me amongst every musician that she knew. So I wanted to thankful for the chance that she had given me by doing my best for my debut as part of Crescendo House, to keep her faith on me and to never let her down. It was my promise to myself.

 

I turned back at Junhyung for his approval but he only shrugged. I understood that he left the decision to me. So I turned back to Seoyul for replying her.

 

“Yes.”

 

And this is how the song can be...

 

 

 

~ooOOOoo~

 

Author(s) Note:

Thank you for reading this story and I really hope you enjoy it until the very last. I'm very sorry for any grammar mistakes.
Any suggestion and questions are very welcomed. Feel free to ask me from the comment box or via my Twitter @AFFalize_sakura ! :3

PS: And this is the actually version of the song, AAA - Koi Oto to Amazora