HEART STRINGS | 지훈

4

"Who the hell makes a quiz in the second week of classes?" I groaned to myself and started getting dressed. I wanted to look decent and go for more "classy" style now that I entered the university. It hasn't been long since the beginning of the semester, so I wanted to make a good first impression and attend all classes properly.

I put on my white blouse, simple black pants, put on light makeup and went to campus. Despite the fact that my first class was a quiz, I was in a good mood and went to one of the coffee shops on our campus to buy my favorite caramel latte. But my mood for today was completely ruined when I was just walking peacefully, and some jerk decided to bump into me.

"Watch where you are going." Rude.

"Excuse me? YOU were the one who bumped into me and made me spill my coffee all over myself!! I'm going to be late because of you!"

"First of all, you had to look where you were going, and not hover somewhere in your thoughts. Secondly, your coffee spilled on me too. And, third, do I look like I care if you are going to be late? I have classes too."

With these words he simply left. What the fuck? Is he serious? My white blouse is now stained with coffee, and I haven't even had a chance to drink it properly. And he even had the audacity to blame me?? What an asshole.

I couldn't go to class looking like this, so I went back to the dorm and changed my clothes. Because of this idiot, I was late for class, missed about 20 minutes of the quiz and did not have time to finish it. What a great day..

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After classes, I came to my room feeling awful. My roommate, Minji, asked if I was okay and I told her about how some idiot decided to ruin my day.

In times like these, there was only one thing in the world that could calm me down. Music. Even before the start of the semester, when we were just moving into the dorm, I decided to explore the campus a little and found out that there were two music rooms. One of them was new, with new equipment, a lot of different instruments. The second one was apparently already abandoned, it was clean, but the only instrument left was the piano. There were several chairs and desks in the room, microphones and that was it. All the music clubs of our university hung out in the first room, and rarely anyone came into the second room. For my introverted soul, this was the best thing that could have happened.

By the way, my name is Choi Jinhee and I am a first year student at Yonsei University. I'm studying to be an architect, but my soul has always been closer to art and music. Since childhood, I taught myself to play the piano by watching musicians perform on TV. At school I started listening to k-pop, and even somehow wanted to become an idol haha. I admired idols, especially those who produced their own music and wrote lyrics for it. I was so inspired by this that sometimes I spent a lot of sleepless nights to write a few lines. I learned notes, rhythms, beats and other music related stuff by watching tutorials on youtube to compose music using the piano. I wanted to create my own full song, but I was too shy about other people's opinions, so I never showed the lyrics I wrote to anyone, and my closest friend once told me that I have a nice voice, which actually boosted my confidence, so I decided to sing my own songs myself. I planned to pursue music after graduation, but my parents had other plans for me. I was an only child, so I didn't want to disappoint them in any way, especially when our financial situation was not one of the best. That's how I enrolled in architecture, and music only remained my hobby, which almost no one knows about. I have never released my songs and most likely it will never happen. But I secretly dream that one day I will have enough confidence to show my works to everyone.

About my love life? Well, nothing interesting. I've never dated anyone, I haven't had my first kiss yet, hell, I haven't even held hands with a boy. Actually, I'm either very shy with the guys I like, or too cold and rude with the ones I don't like. There was one time when a guy asked me to be his date for a ball, but I was so nervous that I couldn't utter a word and just ran away. My mom says I should look for a boyfriend at university, but I don't know, so far I've only met a few guys from my group and one jerk on the way to my class. Moreover, with my social skills, this is most likely impossible..

I'm actually from Busan, so I live in a dorm here in Seoul. My roommate's name is Yoon Minji, and she's studying to be a designer. I do not know how, but we clicked straightaway on the very first day of our acquaintance. Minji is an outgoing person, an extrovert and just a ball of sunshine. She was the first to take the initiative, and thanks to this we became closer in just a couple of weeks. It feels like we've known each other forever. She shows me her projects, takes me to study together or takes me out for a walk so that I don't sit in the room 24 hours a day. I let her listen to some of my songs, which she says are really good, or I help her with history. Even if we study at different faculties, there are subjects in the first year that, fortunately or unfortunately, everyone needs to take, history as an example.

I guess I can say that I'm good at studying, as it was the only way I could help my parents back then. They didn't put that much pressure on me, but they really wanted me to go to university and enter a good major with a high salary. So I had to push everything else far into the background and just study hard. So here I am, at the university of my dreams, studying for a good profession. But there are two sides to the coin. After I immersed myself in my studies, I stopped paying attention to my surroundings, which eventually made me a person without much experience in communication, much less in relationships. Sometimes I think I'm just unlovable and boring. Therefore, in the new page of my book of life, called university, I would like to stop being that nerd, and join life, feel its colors and, well, maybe find someone for myself.