Yooji: Love is War [Winrina]

04: Challenge

          I went straight to the music room right after our last subject for the morning ended. The excitement of finally having to play the keyboard again and be in my comfort zone was overbearing I practically forgot to bid Aeri my goodbye when I left.

          Even though I wasn’t able to attend yesterday, my co-members filled me in on what happened in our group chat last night, much to my delight. Fortunately, I didn’t miss anything important except, of course, the fun.

          The music club had around fifteen members. Four seniors including myself, seven juniors, and four freshmen. I wasn’t that close with them, but they were all nice people to hang around with. Though sometimes, they could be a bit weird. And by weird, I meant they tend to treat me as someone above them. As if I was a special person of some sort. I don’t mind but it gets uncomfortable sometimes.

         They were already playing their respective instruments when I stepped inside the club room. Some of them looked up, nodding to acknowledge my arrival, albeit awkwardly for some reason, some did not bother at all, and here was Yeji, one of our bassists, who almost threw her bass out the window to dash toward me with a huge smile on her face.

          “You are finally here!”

          Yeji was the closest thing to a friend that I had in this club. She was cool and doesn’t pry into my personal life. Like me, she’d preferred our relationship to be strictly clubmates. She was like a breath of fresh air.

          “What’s with the overreaction?” I gave her a quizzical look. “I was absent only for a day...”

          “It felt like an eternity with how boring these people are,” she said unapologetically loud, earning an amused cackle from me.

          See?

          Cool person.

          “You are so full of shit, Yeji,” I remarked jokingly, walking past her to the far corner of the room where my keyboard was situated.

          Ah, it had only been a day, but my fingers were itching to touch the keys already and play the afternoon away.

         I was more used to playing the grand piano since it was the first musical instrument that was introduced to me. This keyboard that I had right now, I started playing it when I first joined this club, bought it with my own money because there was no way I could bring the grand piano with me, right?

          Yeji followed, settling herself on the chair beside the keyboard before gazing upon me, eyes fixed, like she was studying me.

          Okay...?

          What’s with her?

          “There are rumors going around...” she began slowly, gauging my reaction. “About you and the Minjeong Kim.”

          I froze on my spot.

          What....?

          “Why do you look surprised?” she asked while chuckling. “According to the rumor, you were in the library with her yesterday. Did you expect nobody would be suspicious seeing you two together on the same table when your dislike toward Minjeong Kim is known to the whole school?”

          Ugh.

          I completely forgot about the part that people would talk.

          Why did that devil not saying anything?

          “Oh...” I racked my brain for an excuse that wouldn’t sound lame. “W-Well, see here, our families are actually acquainted because of our similar backgrounds. I was just forced to talk to her, was all.”