✓Crotchet || MCND Castle J

Chapter 4 - No Progress

Minji's POV

One week had past and Seongjun hasn't sent his share of the project yet. He took a picture of my lyrics for his reference and I'm left with nothing to do. He's supposed to send me the beat with his own edit of the lyrics and I will adjust the words to my liking. I presumed we'd meet up after that to finalize it but nothing; one week and still nothing.

I shouldn't have just left their table that day. I could've at least told them what's wrong, but there was nothing wrong. I just freaked out because they were fighting and I felt like I was an outsider who caused them the argument, which I did; and I am an outsider. It's my opportunity to make some friends and I blew it off just like that.

I don't even know if I can contact him first. What if he's just busy? I didn't see him around after that day. But surely he'll tell me that, right? I mean this is an important project and there are only three weeks left. A full song in just three weeks seems impossible.

He didn't attend composing class today so I only presented Instructor Kim my lyrics as progress. He was about to lecture me about his class being composing and me presenting song lyrics when I cut him off saying, "Seongjun has the beat. I just don't have a copy with me."

"Ah yes," He said. "Surely Mr. Son already made a masterpiece to go with your amazing lyrics." He let me off and I just wrote some lyrics for the entire period while my classmates work on their projects.

I went to the cafeteria after class. It is less crowded this time but I still brought my own lunch. I'm recently interested in making Korean dishes since Seongjun and his friends said my kimbap was delicious and I kinda wish they could have a taste of my tteokbokki today.

As if on cue, someone said "Tteokbokki." And I realized it was Yongha carrying a tray and was about two feet from my table; Taewoo following him. It's no use hiding from them now that they sat with me. "You made these?"

"Yep," I answered, forcing my voice not to shrink. "Just get some if you want."

"Thanks," Yongha said as he dug in.

Taewoo was quiet as Yongha just kept blabbering about how my food differs from what he's used to. He kept on for a while until there was a whole two minutes of silence before Taewoo spoke up. "About last time—"

"I'm sorry about that," I cut off. "I didn't mean to butt in your private conversations. Please don't blame Seongjun on it."

They looked at each other and smirked for half a second, just as how they did about a couple of times last time. I don't know what it means but it made Seongjun sigh each time.

"Oh we aren't angry about that," Taewoo said. "We're sorry if we gave you the wrong idea."

"Yeah," Yongha added. "We just like teasing Seongjun. His reaction is always priceless. You should try teasing him sometimes."

My mind went back to that one time I teased him and I realized that I had the courage to tease him because he's a bit gullible. That's the reason why his friends like making fun of him.

I didn't know I was smiling like an idiot until I saw them looked at each other again. I pretended nothing happened and focused on my food.

"Have you heard from him lately?" Taewoo said. He realized that came out wrong because Seongjun and I aren't really close so he added, "I mean you two are working on a project together so I just assumed..."

Oh right, the project. "No," I answered. "He hasn't yet given me anything to work on. It's been already a week and we have no progress, not to mention I showed Instructor Kim nothing in his class a while ago."

"That sucks," Yongha said. "But knowing him, I'm sure he already did something. Maybe he just didn't have the time to send it to you."

"Or you could just send him a message now to remind him," Taewoo suggested and Yongha tentatively looked at him but he just shrugged.

I took out my phone and stared for a few seconds at his last text message—
"-Seongjun". I didn't even know his last name until I heard it from Instructor Kim earlier and I'm pretty sure he didn't know my name until I typed it on his phone.

I realized I smiled unknowingly again when Yongha cleared his throat and said, "Just tell him to send you that damn beat already."

"Or ask him to meet up for a while," Taewoo suggested. "He could use a couple of hours off from practice."

I considered what he said and started typing. I ended up with:

Hi. I'm just wondering if you're done with the beat? Maybe I could pick it up later if you're free?

"And sent," I said. I looked up and saw the both of them smirking like a pair of idiots who just won a bet.