FIVE

~| The First Dream Concert and The War Inside |~

It had been days since I got ostracized by the Orchestra members and I admitted that it was getting worse in time. At first, they didn’t talk to me. Then, they suddenly bumped onto me in purpose, trying to annoy me. And they started to pull pranks on me.

The latest prank that they did to me was hiding my designed chair on the first violin section. They knew very well that I would be late for practice session and I would arrive in the same time with Taylor or the conductor so they kept hiding my chair. Of course, I kept ignoring them and stayed patient while taking an empty chair for myself. Somehow, I believed that the pranks would be gone soon or later.

Seriously I was afraid if what they had done to me was known by my friends; or to be precise, by Crescendo House members, especially Seoyul. Because, sometimes they bumped onto me or pulled a small prank at me in public, in front of my friends or even the Crescendo House. It always scared me if my friends or the members would question their act and I would end up telling them that I got ostracized. So I always tried to conceal the real reason of their act because I didn’t want any of my friends to worry about me.

And, if you were asking why I didn’t want Seoyul to know that I was bullied, I honestly didn’t know why. I only felt that I wanted her to be the last to know about this matter. But I knew that something couldn’t be hidden forever.

And worse, the one that I wanted to know the last was the first to know.

One day, I just came out from my class when someone suddenly stepped in on my way. I looked up and saw Seoyul smiling at me. “Hello.” She greeted with her usual cheerful attitude.

Seriously, whenever I saw her lately, I always felt something stirring inside of me. I knew that I always admired her and looked up on her as one of her fans. But lately, I realized that there was a little hint of something else; I couldn’t figure out what kind of something it was. And today, when she suddenly popped up in front of me, I felt chocked, as if something had blocked my air way or taken my breath away.

“Hi,” I replied, perhaps in a little awkward manner. Unconsciously, I looked up and swiped my gaze around to find another member although I had guessed that there were none of them around.

“Do you have class after this?”

I looked back at her and shook my head. “No. But why are you here?”

A wide smile appeared on her face as she heard my words. “Ah, I need to talk with you about music arrangement. There were some songs that I want for our next cover. So I need some suggestions.”

I frowned to hear it. “Why not ask Junhyung?”

As soon as she heard my question, her lips pouted, her eyes squinted and she crossed her arms on her chest. I didn’t know why I found her cute. But she looked as if she was pissed about something, so I just hid my smile.

“I have tried to call him but he didn’t pick up.”

Ugh… to be honest, I felt a little bit disappoint, knowing that I was her second choice after Junhyung. But I reminded myself that Junhyung was better in music arrangement.

“But I still have you,” Seoyul continued as she lowered her hands and swung her arm across my shoulders. A hint of bad feeling struck when I saw her playful smirking face. “So help me.”

And the next thing I knew was she had dragged me along, although I wasn’t sure if I could refuse her request. So I just went along with her. It wasn’t bad either to discuss music with her on my free time. In fact, I always found myself amazed with her ideas whenever we were discussing music arrangement or composition. But then, to have everyone looking at us as she dragged me, it was a little embarrassing.

“So… what kind of songs did you find?” I asked her, hoping that she would release me.

And she did everybody. Hallelujah.

Because of my question, she took her hand away from my shoulder. From her bag, she took out a piece of paper and handed to me. “Here’s the list.”

I took the paper and looked at it for a while before scoffing silently to see the list. Seriously, I really amazed to see her music reference. For a girl like her, she really listened to wide variation of music genres. On her list, I saw names such as Bump Of Chicken, Beethoven, Acoustic Café, Evanescence, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Jay Chou, One OK Rock, Girls’ Generation, Switchfoot, Linkin’ Park, The Coors, Davichi, EXO, Westlife, AAA, Yiruma, Natsukawa Rimi (I wasn’t sure but I thought she was an Japanese folk singer), Glee version of many songs, and the one that made me smiling, Coldplay.

“Do you seriously want to cover them all?” I looked back at her.

“Not really,” she said lightly, “perhaps some of them.” She turned her head to me. “Do you have any suggestion for which good song to cover next?”

I looked back to her list, thinking on which song that attracted me. Honestly, there were few good songs that I knew and I was sure that there were more that I hadn’t known yet from her list. If I was following my own music taste, I would pick Jay Chou or Coldplay since they were my favorites. But it was for Crescendo House, so I couldn’t follow my ego.

While thinking, I took a glance at Seoyul. She was tying her hair partly. I could notice braids on the both sides of her head. And she wore white sleeveless shirt, dark blue cardigan and jeans with low-cut boots. It was the hairstyle that I always thought looking perfect on her. At least, she looked more mature and feminine with the style.

“E-excuse me.”

The voice of a girl distracted me. I turned and saw two girls behind me; one of them seemed to be shy and brought a notebook on her hands. “Yes?”

“Are you Daniel Jang?” the one who was shy asked me in careful manner.

It was kinda weird to be asked who I was. Well, Daniel Jang is me, right. But before I could say something, Seoyul already replied for me in cheerful manner. “Yes, yes. He is Daniel Jang.” She placed her hand on my shoulder casually while the other hand was placed on her hip.

A smile bloomed on the girl’s face; she looked relief. She then handed the notebook at me while saying, “Can I get your signature?”

I was dumbfounded with it. It was the first time someone asking my signature; moreover, it was asked by a fan of mine. I could guess it from the way she behaved. But when I took a glance at Seoyul, I found that she was smiling widely. Perhaps she had guessed that those girls were my fans. To see my silence, she signaled me to give them my signature. So I did it. I swore that I could hear Seoyul’s squeal as I signed the notebook. And I could hear them talking about me.

“So you’ve seen his performance?”

“Yes. I really like his performance in To Love You More. It’s very good.”

I lifted my gaze and I found Seoyul smiling at me. “Ah, I see,” she said as I returned the notebook to the owner. I could see pride and satisfaction on her eyes. Seriously, it felt like she said ‘I’ve told you so’ at me. She turned to the girls again. “Are you also from Music Department?”

“No, we’re first year students from Dance Department. But I have been watching Crescendo House for a while, although I only start to become a fan recently.” She looked back at me with her sparkling eyes. “I also subscribed to your channel. You’re a good violinist for real. I guess, you’ve inspired me to do better.”

I thanked her awkwardly. But instead of me talking to her, Seoyul spoke again. “Well, look forward for his performance with Crescendo House, okay.”

“Yes, we will.” The girl looked back at me. “Thank you so much for your time and I hope you luck with your study and Crescendo House.”

“Ah, thank you.” I humbly thanked her and she went away with her friend.

Seoyul was waving at her in her usual cheerful manner for a while before turning back at me with her wide smile. But before she could say something, her smile quickly faded. I was wondering why but I quickly got the answer as I heard a familiar voice.

“Well, well, well. Isn’t it our popular violinist?”

I only silently heaved to hear the voice because I recognized it perfectly. It was belonged to one of the violinist on the Orchestra. As I could remember perfectly, his name was Saito Daisuke, a Japanese nationality, a violinist and a second year student of Music Department. He was also one of the first people who acted cynical at me. I turned at him. He was coming along with two of his friends.

“Do you enjoy your growing popularity?” He asked again.

Something on his voice told me that he meant sarcasm to me. I didn’t like that. But I was more concerned about Seoyul. I didn’t want her to know about the matter. So I ignored him and wanted to leave as I turned and grabbed Seoyul’s arm; I really needed to drag her away before she could ask something.

“What? So now you can ignore me, huh?” He scoffed again. “I didn’t expect that the best candidate for the next concertmaster is a chicken.”

Huh? Concertmaster? Me?

And I stopped because of his speech.

Seriously, it was the first time I heard about my appointment as the next concertmaster for our orchestra. Taylor was a third year student so I knew that she would hand over the Concertmaster title to someone else next year. But I had never known that I was one of the candidates for the position. Besides, I was still a first year student. So why would I dream to become a concertmaster?

“I really don’t know what the Great Miss Ahn Seoyul sees in you when she picked you as the new addition of the group. To be honest, you’re not that good. And I’ve seen that Crescendo House’s standard has come down because of you.”

I told myself to breathe and calm down. But why did he have to bring Crescendo House along?

“Now I realized that Ahn Seoyul must be tone-deaf. I don’t know why she can become the main vocalist on Crescendo House. I bet that she dubs her voice.” He chuckled. “Or else, why does a girl from Broadcast Department can be so good in singing?”

That’s it. It was fine for me if he mocked me. But to hear him bringing Seoyul into this matter, it really angered me. Everyone would agree with me that Seoyul’s voice was genuinely good.

I turned, wanting to give him a lesson. Before I could move forward, someone had slipped and placed herself before me. I then realized that the person was Seoyul. But somehow, my anger subsided instantly when I saw her standing in front of me. “Seoyul…”

And Daisuke seemed to be surprised as well.

Rather than becoming angry, she acted calm as if the mockery didn’t bother her. The way of her bringing herself right now had reminded me on how she was when she leaded Crescendo House’s discussion for cover songs’ arrangement. It made me thinking that it was right if I thought that Seoyul was the leader of Crescendo House.

“Well.” She crossed her arms on her chest casually. “Do you want me to sing right here right now to prove you that I sing myself?”

Daisuke didn’t answer. But I really didn’t know why Seoyul seemed to challenge him.

She inhaled before asking, “Saito Daisuke, right?” Upward tug appearing on both corners of Seoyul’s lips afterward but I was pretty sure that it was just a fake smile. “I think I remember your audition test for Crescendo House.” She touched her chin, acting as if she was thinking. “Lea Salonga’s The Journey, wasn’t it?”

I noticed a change on Daisuke’s face.

“But I also remember all the mistakes that you’ve made that day.”

It surprised me to know that Daisuke had taken a test to become new member of Crescendo House before and failed. So when Seoyul told me if she had gone through every possible violinist across the school, she really meant it.

“Do you want me to tell you again why you’ve failed?” I heard her talking again but Daisuke scoffed, underestimating her.

“Oh, what do you know about my mistakes? You’re only a Broadcast major. What do you know about music?”

“O, so you want me to tell you.”

Oh ho, I was having a bad feeling about it. And I was proven right when Seoyul opened again to list down all her expectation and Daisuke’s mistakes from the beginning of the song till the last.

I always knew that Daisuke was a good violinist. I admitted that his technique was good; he was better than me on that part. Unfortunately, he always played by the book. For him, playing exactly like what the score wanted was very important. So he was lacking in the feeling and improvisation part. Meanwhile, I knew perfectly that Seoyul wanted a musician who could quickly catch up on her pace, knowing on how the music would flow, and able to improvise on every song as a member of Crescendo House. I could understand why Daisuke had failed.

But listening at Seoyul listing every mistake that Daisuke had made, I couldn’t help but to feel a little pity at him. Daisuke’s expression grew paler as Seoyul pointed out his mistakes. Seriously, Seoyul, do you have to be that blunt?

Although, it made me realized that Seoyul didn’t joked around when she said that she had tested every possible violinist on her own before she found me.

“Do you want more?” She ended it with an innocent smile that made Daisuke speechless.

Oh gosh, she was really a devil-in-disguise. I guessed, I had to remind myself not to go on Seoyul’s bad side. I didn’t want her to list down all my flaws because it would be so embarrassing for me.

Then, all those innocent looks vanished from her expression and she lowered her hand. “So if you want to get even with me, just come directly to me. Don’t throw your anger on Daniel. He’s innocent.”

“But what do you know? Daniel has been slacking around because of Crescendo House. He always comes late for practice because he’s too busy with the group.”

Seoyul turned at me with one of her eyebrow raised. It meant that she demanded an explanation from me.

Okay, I admitted that my sense of time had been messed up lately. But it was purely because of me or my lessons, not because of Crescendo House’s activities. So I just shrugged, hoping that she would understand if I would explain it later.

“I’m not sure about that,” Seoyul replied as she turned back to Daisuke. “I know that Daniel hates to be late and he’s actually a punctual type.”

“Whatever. But I do know that Crescendo House’s standard has dropped. Accepting Daniel as one of your members,” he scoffed, “he’s not even worth. His technique is still not good.”

“But still, I think he’s better than you.”

“What the proof then? I won’t believe on his video performance because it doesn’t guarantee if he’s good. You can edit his part and dub it. And I know how he is in Orchestra. I really think that it’s a mistake to give him the violin part for Last Carnival. He doesn’t have any potential to be a good violinist.”

“So you only want to see his ability in live performance. Am I right?”

But Daisuke scoffed again. “As if he can do it. He’s lucky to survive on the Orchestra so far because Taylor likes him so much.”

I thought Seoyul would respond with defying manner. But she didn’t say anything. It gave Daisuke the chance to walk away. He looked at his friends. “Let’s go. Dealing with these useless violinist and someone who has biased over him will only waste my precious practice time.” He then walked away along with his friends.

I saw Seoyul crossing her arms as she watched them leaving. Her lips were slightly pouting. And again, she heaved.

“Seoyul,” I called her carefully. She turned her head to me. “Are you okay?”

She gave me an assuring smile and only nodded.

“Thank you for defending me,” I said again.

She lowered her hand. “It’s fine.” She turned her gaze back to Daisuke and watched him for a while. I noticed a heave coming again from her. I really wondered why she was heaving more than usual. But later, I began to realize that heaving was her way to suppress her anger.

She then turned at me. “Come on, Daniel.” And she walked away.

I followed her. As we walked, I noticed that she became silent. She seemed to think about something. When we reached the stairs in front of Music Department’s building, she turned to me.

“Say. Do you bring your electronic violin today?”

I nodded. “Yes, I do. It’s in my car.”

She nodded. “Then… can you drive me somewhere?” She asked again.

“Where?”

Another fake smile appeared on her lips. “I’ll tell you on the way,” she said then rounded her arm on mine. “Let’s go.”

I then was dragged by her again. But I decided not to ask anything to her. Somehow I trusted her. She gave me our destination when we had entered the car. So I drove her there. During our ride, Seoyul seemed busy typing on her phone. She seemed to have a conversation with someone but I didn’t know whom she talked with and I didn’t dare to ask. Somehow I felt that I wasn’t supposed to bother her although she looked fine.

Finally we arrived at the destination.

It was a small apartment building with two stories high. Perhaps there were only available for eight and up to ten tenants. But I knew that I had driven to the right place since Seoyul got off from my car as I parked in front of the building. I turned off the engine and took my bag before going out. I didn’t forget to get my electric violin before following Seoyul inside.

At first, I thought we would visit one of the apartment rooms above the ground. But Seoyul went to the basement instead. I came to realize that there was a room downstairs. Seoyul turned her gaze to me with her smile while stepping down the stairs. “You’ve never come here before, right?”

“Nope.”

She then skipped the last stair and jumped to front of a door before turning her body to me. “I welcome you to the Base, Crescendo House’s base camp and home,” she said with her host manner. “In this place, we usually recorded our videos prior to your acceptance.”

“Why not still after my acceptance?” I sprouted out a question that had been lingering since we arrived at the door. Honestly, I felt a little offended. I felt like the members hadn’t trusted me yet by not telling me about the place earlier. But surely, they had their own reason; I convinced myself for it. And that reason was what I wanted to hear.

Seoyul gave me an apologetic smile and dryly chuckled. “Well, most of us are having classes and activities at school in weekends this semester. So we move the recording place to the school with the thought that it’ll be easier for us to meet there instead of here.” She paused. “But perhaps, we will back to this place on our next videos. It’s kinda bothersome to bring our instruments inventory to the school for recording.”

I only nodded. Somehow, I could accept the reason.

“Ah,” she seemed to remember something. “We’re also having our own practice room and recording studio in here. So if you need to practice or recording or something, you’re free to use the place. I’ll give you the spare key later.”

“Okay.”

She smiled and turned back to the door. She slipped her hand on her bag and took out a group of keys. She inserted the key and held the handle. But it seemed that the door had been opened. She frowned in confusion. “Weird. I thought I have locked the door when I went out this morning.” She then pushed the door wider and went inside. I followed her.

Inside, I looked around. The place was like an ordinary apartment. It had living room with sofa, TV and many more. There was also kitchen and doors leading to rooms, perhaps. If Seoyul didn’t tell me about the place earlier, I might guess that the place was her apartment.

“Ah, Junhyung.”

That name made me turning to Seoyul. I saw her standing on an open door while looking inside. I approached her. When I arrived at her side, I saw Junhyung inside the room, in which I guessed that the room was the recording studio. He was sitting on the swivel chair in front of a table and he waved at me when he saw me.

But why could I guess that the room was their recording studio?

Well, although I could see a familiar side of the room, there were also mixer panel, laptop, microphone, speakers and other recording equipment in there, on the other side of the room. So I knew that the room was the place where they always recorded their videos.

“Tsk. I knew you’d be here,” Seoyul said as she approached the guy. “Why did you not pick up your phone?”

“Sorry.” Junhyung leaned forward and placed the book that he held on the table. “I was working on new composition so I put my phone in silent mode.” He looked back at us, more specifically at Seoyul. “So what’s wrong? Your message seems like a damsel in distress.”

Seoyul heaved and leaned back on the table, facing Junhyung, and then crossed her arms. “Saito Daisuke was trying to mess with us again.”

A knowing smirk came to Junhyung’s face. He leaned back to the backrest and stretched his feet. “What did he do this time?” He asked casually, as if he had expected it to happen.

Seoyul grinned. “Earlier at school, he suddenly came and mocked Daniel. He blamed us for making Daniel late for Orchestra’s practice after he joined us. He even said that our standard has dropped because we accepted Daniel into the group. He also said that Daniel is not even good in playing violin.”

“Well, I also think that I’m still not good enough,” I butted in, making the two seniors of mine to look at me. “Frankly speaking, his technique in violin is better than mine.”

“But technique is not everything in here. You also need sense and creativity to improvise in music.” I couldn’t argue with Seoyul for that. And she continued, “How long has he been playing violin? Has he never play song by ears before? I think it’s easier than to play by scores, right?”

I only took a look at Junhyung when Seoyul was ranting. There was an upward tug on one corner of his lips. “So what will you do now?” He asked in calm manner.

Frown came onto Seoyul’s face and her lips were also slightly pouting; it seemed that she was thinking seriously. “I’m thinking of having another Live Performance,” she said then turned her gaze to Junhyung. “There will be a live stage for our school cultural week’s opening event next week and our radio will be hosting it. I think we can get a spot there because the organizer keeps asking me whether Crescendo House can do live performance there or not.”

I saw Junhyung only nodding.

“Although… I haven’t know how much time we will got for our performance. I’m still expecting his call.”

“So what songs that you have in mind?”

Again, Seoyul heaved. “First of all…” She turned her body to the laptop; Junhyung shoved himself away to give her the space. “I’ve been thinking about covering this song for a while. But I’m not sure if the song fits for us or not because it’s not like the other songs that we’ve been covered so far,” she said as she looked for a certain song on the laptop.

“What song?” I asked as I moved closer.

Seoyul turned her gaze at me. “Switchfoot’s The War Inside.” She said as a song played on the laptop.

I dropped my jaw when I heard the song’s title. That song was a rock genre song. So I spoke it out, “Isn’t it a rock song?”

She nodded. “That’s why I said, we’ve never done it before.”

“So what’s your idea with the song?” Junhyung asked. I caught a curiosity in his voice; perhaps he had known if the song was a little bit hard to do for us but also wanted to know how Seoyul would arrange the song.

“I was thinking… because we’re always performing acoustic version, then why not to have this song in a full band? But there will be only guys for it. So I was thinking that there’ll be Daniel on electric violin, Minhyuk on drum, Lay on guitar and you on keyboard and also the vocalist.”

“Then, how about the bass part?” I asked again.

“Junhyung will do it,” she said as she pointed at Junhyung, “with the keyboard.”

“So you’re expecting me to handle the sound effect, right?” He concluded and a smile bloomed on Seoyul’s face. She flicked her fingers as she said, “You got it right.”

Before someone could say something, Seoyul’s phone rang. She quickly looked at her phone. “A, it’s him,” she said then looked at us. “I’m going to answer this call. You guys can discuss what you can do with the song.” She then turned and walked toward the door.

I watched on her as she left. I could see her sliding her thumb on her phone’s screen and answering the call while stepping out from the room. As the door closed, I asked, “Is Seoyul angry?”

Junhyung scoffed to hear my question. “Angry, perhaps not. Pissed, definitely. She might be concealed it but she’s the type of girl who doesn’t want to lose.” He paused. “But I think it’s understandable. Crescendo House is her pride. So stepping on one of members or the group itself is equal with stepping on her pride.”

“And how about you? You’re also the founder of the group. Are you not angry as well?”

He leaned on the chair’s backrest and heaved as he turned the chair to face me. “Truthfully?”

He seemed to ask if I wanted his honest answer or not. I always saw Seoyul and Junhyung as someone who were cold-headed; that they could control their emotion better. As long as I knew them, I had never seen them becoming angry. But today, I had seen Seoyul becoming angry. So I was wondering about Junhyung.

I just nodded, replying his question.

Junhyung crossed his arms on his chest and took a deep breath. “I really want to crush them all.” Seriously, I gulped to hear it, thinking that both of Seoyul and Junhyung were equally scary when they were angry. Junhyung smiled lopsidedly afterward and leaned forward, taking the laptop’s mouse. “But someone has to be the cold-headed one around here, right? So why bother to be angry when Seoyul does.”

I only smiled to hear it then leaned back on the table. “You seem to know Seoyul so well.”

Junhyung took a quick glance to the door. “If you’ve known her for more than seven years, she’ll be easy to read.” He then looked back at me. “Now, come on. Let’s get back to work. We need to re-arrange the song. You also need to think about how you will fill your violin’s part, right?”

I nodded then took a chair to his side and sat there.

A little later, Seoyul re-entered the room and told us that we had a slot for a mini concert. So we would need to prepare several songs for our next live performance. She had also called all the members to gather immediately because we would need to discuss about it.

After discussing about the song list, we got six songs for the live performance. Perhaps, if I needed to list them down, it would be like this:

Switchfoot – The War Inside; that would be brought by me, Junhyung, Minhyuk and Lay in full band.
Ailee – Evening Sky; that would be brought by Seoyul, Sayaka and IU acoustically with Piano, acoustic guitar and (perhaps) tambourine/shaker egg.
Acoustic Café – Last Carnival; that would be brought by me and Sayaka with violin and piano. Seoyul told us that she had asked permission to Taylor for performing this song before the Orchestra did it. She thought that it could be the way to promote our Orchestra’s performance on the last day of the Cultural Week.
Taylor Swift – Mine; that would be brought by Seoyul and Lay acoustically with guitar. And somehow, I wished that I was the one who played guitar. But I didn’t dare to do it because they also wanted me to sing.
Katy Perry – Roar; that would be brought by me, Junhyung, Minhyuk, Lay and Seoyul in full band. Lay would be the one who played Bass and Junhyung would be playing guitar. So they left the keyboard part to me.
BUMP OF CHICKEN – RAY; as the final act. It would also use a full team band where Junhyung on sound effect, Lay would be on guitar, Sayaka on piano/keyboard, IU on Bass, Minhyuk on drum, me on guitar and the vocalist because Seoyul expected me to sing the first verse before her, and Seoyul as the vocalist.

Seriously, when I imagined the performance while we were discussing it, I was sure that it would be an awesome live performance. I was working with awesome musicians after all. So within a week, we kept on practicing. I even skipped the orchestra practice, in which I had never done before. I wanted to show them that I could do Live Performance as well.

Finally, the Cultural Week Opening night came and it was the time for us to perform.

As the star of our school’s Radio, Seoyul hosted the stage with a male Radio host. There were some other performers before us. They were coming from various departments of our school. I could see some of my friends performing on the stage.

“Daniel.”

The call made me turning my gaze. It was Taylor who called me and she was approaching me. “Hi, Taylor,” I greeted her as she arrived in front of me. She only smiled and took a quick glance to the stage, where the mime performance was held. “It’ll be your performance soon, right?”

I only nodded. “Yeah, after this.”

She looked back at me. “Look. In the behalf of all Orchestra’s members, I want to apologize for their behavior lately.”

“It’s fine, Tay—“

“No.” She interrupted me and seemed to feel guilty. “I should have done something to prevent them.” She paused for a while before continuing. “Honestly, I feel bad for Seoyul because the Orchestra members seem to look for troubles with her now. Personally, I’m one of Crescendo House’s fans and I always admire her way to run the group.”

I only looked at her, waiting for her to finish her words.

“And do you know? When I found out that she’s accepting you on the group, I feel very happy for you. I know that she has made a great decision. I always know that Seoyul and Junhyung always give the chance and space for their members to develop themselves. So I know that you can be something more than what you are now.”

Actually, I felt speechless and I couldn’t say anything else, other than, “Thank you.”

“And, I’m telling you this not as a part of School Orchestra.” She then smiled. “But, crush them. Show them your best and silent them with it. Don’t ever let them underestimating you.”

I scoffed softly, feeling amused. “Okay.”

“Good luck with your performance.”

I nodded and she turned to leave. But before she really left, I called her because I was wondering about one thing. “A week ago, when Daisuke confronted me, he said about me as the next concertmaster. Is it true?”

Taylor only smiled but I knew that she meant yes. “You can always turn it down, you know?”

I actually wanted to ask her more but I heard the stage manager telling us to prepare for our stage. So I came to my violin’s case and took them out. As I approached the stage again, I saw Seoyul coming.

“Hi,” she greeted me with her cheerful smile as usual. I only smiled to reply her. “Nervous?”

I nodded. “Yes,” I replied honestly but she only chuckled. I realized that she looked relax and composed. “Aren’t you too?”

She smiled. “Well, rather than nervous, I guess it’s more like overwhelmed. It’s your first live performance as part of Crescendo House. So I’m excited to see how it will be.”

Geeh. Seriously, she wasn’t helping at all. Hearing her words, I felt as if I was carrying a heavy burden with this performance. It was very different from our regular performance for our video. Our pride as Crescendo House was staked on it. Besides, as the newest addition of the group, I knew I wasn’t as good as Junhyung, Minhyuk or Lay. So I was afraid that I would mess up and ruin everything.

“But I guess it’s very natural,” she continued with softer voice. “No one can avoid nervousness before going up the stage.”

I knew that she was right; that it was all natural feeling. Who wouldn’t be nervous in time like this?

But somehow I really want to stop my hands from trembling and my palms from sweating.

“Daniel.”

I looked up as I heard Seoyul calling my name softly. She smiled soothingly then stretched her hands to take my left hand.

On the moment her hand touched mine, I felt some comforting warmth slipping through my skin and rushed through my vein, eliminating every fear and nervousness that I had inside. I became miraculously relaxed and felt some courage gathering within me. It was weird to know if someone could comfort me like that through her touch but it had been done by Seoyul.

“This hand… I always believe that there will be many good things coming from it.”

Weird. I was supposed to be burdened by her speech but I wasn’t. With her hands on mine, it felt as if her courage was flowing to me.

“On my first live performance, someone told me. Just sing with sincerity and give the performance of your life with everything you’ve got.” I saw Seoyul raising her gaze to me and she smiled. “So don’t think about anything else, okay? Release all the burdens. Just enjoy yourself and have fun on the stage.”

Like what we are always had usually.

I wanted to thank her for giving me courage. But the other members had come, making her to release my hand.

As usual, we gathered in circle, stretching out our hand with Seoyul’s signal. “Okay, guys, this is it. It’s the time for us to show the result of our practice for the week. Don’t think about anything else onstage. Just enjoy yourself. Give the best performance with everything you’ve got.” We cheered afterward.

Junhyung, Minhyuk and Lay went to the stage. I wanted to follow them but someone softly patted my back. I turned my head and saw Seoyul smiling encouragingly. “Good luck.” I heard her whispering before she left.

I took a deep breath and heaved before stepping out into the stage. Seriously, I wasn’t feeling so nervous anymore. It felt like as if every doubt, fear and confusion that I had inside perished instantly. Somehow, I was sure that everything would be alright, that our performance would be fine.

I came to my designed place and placed my classic violin on its stand; I would need it for later. I then took the cord for my electric violin and plugged it. When I lifted my gaze to see the crowd, I could see members of School Orchestra amongst them. Seriously, they were looking as if they were expecting my defeat. For Christ’s sake, I’m part of them!

Sigh… I really couldn’t believe it.

But Seoyul had created this stage for me and given me the chance to show my ability. She had put her every trust and faith on me and my ability when she chose me as the new member. I might not know yet if I would become a great musician or not; it was an unseen future for me. But as part of Crescendo House right now, I knew that I could do this stage.

So if you are expecting my defeat… I scoffed. Not a chance, guys.

Seoyul had put her every faith on me. And it was my turn to reply.

I won’t lose this war.

~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

If you're wondering about the other performance songs, here they are:

1. Ailee - Evening Sky