Violin ≛ Seo Changbin

paper

After school had ended, I immediately made my way to my room, ignoring my mom's offer of making me a snack. I lazily tossed my backpack on the floor and changed clothes. I decided to crack open my window a bit to let some fresh air in my stuffy room. It didn't help much, so as I was about to step out onto my balcony with my book, I noticed her outside as well. This time, she was setting up a music stand and had her violin with her too. Not wanting to scare her away again, I settled on my bed as she began playing. It was a different piece than yesterday, I could hear each note she played as the sound flowed through my open window. For once, I actually felt the urge to be productive today. I grabbed out my textbook and set to doing homework as I listen to her music. It was soothing, like nothing I'd ever hear before.

Suddenly, her playing stopped. I peered outside to see her staring at my house, completely mortified. A gentle gust of wind brushed her smooth hair over her shoulders, and even though she was clearly in distress over something, I couldn't help but note how gentle and alluring she looked. I followed her eyes to see where she was looking, and I noticed a single sheet of paper had gotten caught to the leg of a chair on my balcony and fluttered to the ground. The wind must've caused it to fly over here.

She looked as though she was seriously considering jumping across the distance of our houses to get it, but eventually she just gathered her things and went inside in defeat. The second she was out of sight I scrambled off my bed and rushed outside, snatching up the paper before it could be blown away again. It was a page of sheet music, with notes in the treble clef scattered all over it. I may not be a violinist, but just from one glance I could tell the piece was extremely difficult. I carefully placed it on my desk and went back to studying.

-

I sat in the back of the classroom as usual, nearly dozing off multiple times. It appears that I shared this same class with her, but I never realized it all year until now. For some reason, my eyes kept gravitating in her direction. She sat in the middle row, off to the side of the classroom, and I wondered why I hadn't noticed her before. She sat with her back straight and intently scribbled down notes as the teacher talked, contrasting with the rest of the class' slouched and unbothered postures. It was odd how I felt the need to know her, how she gave this aura that was almost addicting. I slapped myself out of my thoughts when I realized I was maybe watching her for too long. What's gotten into you, Changbin? The second the bell rang I stood up quickly and headed her way.

"Hey," I said to her. She flinched upon hearing my voice and I thought I had maybe done something wrong already. She looked at me curiously, signaling for me to continue. "Uh, I think this is yours," I said as I pulled out her sheet music from my folder.

Her eyes instantly lit up and she took the paper from my hand. "Oh my gosh, thank you so much." She smiled at me, and as far as I could recall it was the first time I'd ever seen her do that. But still, something about the way her eyes turned up and sparked felt familiar and warm to me. "Seriously, you have no idea how much I needed this," she said as she held the paper against her chest, full of relief.

"It was no problem. Do you play in our school orchestra as well?" I asked and she nodded. "That's cool, I actually know the music teacher, Mr. Kim Woojin, really well."

"Yeah, I'm really passionate about playing the violin. Anyways, I should get going now. And again, thank you for getting my music back." She waved goodbye and left.
I then headed to my next class smiling to myself like a complete fool.