the little bell ⇢ rensung

trois

the usual practice times were over and the two were working on their own duet. even though it was horribly painfully awkward at first, they powered through and picked up the pace, albeit it was mostly renjun who did manage to do that, while for jisung, scared was an understatement.

trembling hands held the fingerboard of the violin, jisung's gaze fixated on the pianist as his heart beats faster, anxiety coursing through his frame. his fingers tapped and pressed, almost dancing over the strings in tandem to the bow sliding up and down, yet struggling to keep up with the tempo.

(a/n: stan exo uwu)

renjun's daft fingers moved gracefully throughout the contrasting black and white keys of the 88-key piano, lightly pressing through the specific notes in the sheet music he was sightreading. it seems as if each and every single challenge presented in the etude were of no obstacle to him, as he quickly skimmed through the slow sensual minims to the contrastingly fast glissandos and accentuation.

barely catching up, jisung tried his best not to fuck up as all his concentration gathered up from the nooks and crannies of his mind and was given to the piece, sighing in relief as the piece was pretty much a fast piece of semiquavers. as the piece reached its climax, he gave his level best and had a smooth end.

renjun let out a heavy breath as he turned to the younger, beaming happily at him as he approached him. "looks like you do have some hidden talent. not bad at all. but i do think there are times where we might have fucked up...god, i forgot to bring mark-hyung here..."

"w-who...?" jisung queried, that name seemingly sounding familiar.

"mark-hyung. he's a violist who's part of the chamber. he's...pretty much the only string player i'm acquainted with..." renjun explained, which only further perplexed the violinist. "wait...violist...? b-but both are different...." jisung trailed off, scratching his head.

renjun merely chuckled at that as he beamed wholesomely at jisung. "he's well-versed in both violin and viola, but viola's his main instrument..." renjun trailed off as a smirk curled his lips, glancing smugly at jisung as he nudged his arm. "did you really think i don't know about strings? just because i don't play them doesn't mean i'm dumb, you know..."

"s-sorry about that...i didn't mean to call you dumb..." jisung's lips wobbled as his head drooped down, trembling hands placing the violin in its case. renjun fell silent as he did not mean to hurt the poor boy, and that lack of replies became a cue for jisung to leave the place. sighing, the younger grabbed a cloth and started to wipe the strings of the violin, before reaching out to loosen his bow hair.

realizing that he made everything completely awkward for him, renjun's feverish mind tried to find some way to save the situation. he started to think with his arms rather than his brain as his hands found their way on to jisung's, grabbing them tightly while the bow remained in the grasp of his curled fingers.

a longing glance taking over renjun's expression, his eyes swimming in wordless apologies as the two made eye contact, startling the younger.

a few very long seconds passed by as nothing was heard from the vast practice room other than the distant reverberated ticking of the clock, as it felt like time itself slowed down for renjun to force his apology out of his lips.

"i-i'm..." renjun started as the words he gathered up started to shatter and fragment into barely understandable stutters, albeit as he picked up the pace, his words fell out of his lips as a whole. "i'm s-sorry...f-for...all those h-harsh w-words...y-you're a great v-violinist...o-our practice...showed that...i-i didn't mean to ever hurt you i swear! ugh, lord, i just want to strangle yangyang for being such a bitch..."