#classic quote material | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

saiidahyunie · 8 days

Text

light a flame

kim dahyun x f!reader

sum: the girl you're accompanying seems to have a musical tick for you, pulling your heartstrings despite being distasteful.

tw: fluff ; angst? ; smut ; cursing ; tension ; abusive pasts mentioned

of all the quotes and lessons shared to you in your years of existence, there was one saying from your eighth grade middle school band teacher that stuck with you for the longest time now:

music is life.

the feeling of being on stage is exhilarating. that rush of adrenaline pumping out the nervousness of the song etched into your brain. you’ve done it multiple times up to this point, it’s practically second nature.

being blinded by the bright lights of the auditorium, the soft material of your dress meshes with the leathery cushion of the seat beneath you. fingers are spread across keys of your grand piano, waiting for the first note, an untold story yet to be heard through the music.

will the long hours of practice be worth it? can it reach the people out in the audience? these thoughts and emotions built up inside of the life i’ve dedicated to?

that first sound, a chord, the grandness behind the touch. it’s a breath of fresh air, you lived for classical music, the discography between different composers, the madness of their pieces.

there was one slight catch in your part unfortunately: this wasn’t a solo act.

her hands are up with the violin in between, extending out to the crowd captivated by her beauty. it’s revolting to you. locking eyes with her, she pulls a small tug at her lips forming a smile. it’s infuriating you, the facade she’s carrying over her appearance.

“you see me, right?” she asks with her eyes, taunting you, pushing you to the limit first. “all of these people are watching me.”

she’s taking up the spotlight over, seeing that she’s the more superior musician in this performance. that off white dress exposing her shoulders, her middle back facing you and the piano. classy, regal, royalty, everyone knows her name compared to yours.

but no one knows the truth between you two, or the battle that’s about to unfold in front of their eyes. you and her are both soloists, not meant to be the background performer.

so you’re asking yourself why, on god’s green earth, to the sheer amounts of frustration that you didn’t think you would have, find yourself playing second fiddle to the girl standing on the right of you, taking in that glorious spotlight you rightfully deserved away?

jealousy was an unfamiliar feeling, because this woman was making you leak in it.

—

“y/n!”

(for the impasse that’s about to happen, this is how it pans out.)

you perch your head up from the cover of the grand piano to see professor baekhyun, a beloved musical director and mentor that helped pull you into his program after watching one of your competitive piano recitals back when you were in grade school.

he had an eye for talent, so he waited until the right moment to swoop in when he heard the news from your range of musical teachers that you were looking for a possible destination, becoming his esteemed and most trusted pianist that he’s ever had the pleasure of teaching let alone play under.

confused after hearing your name, you scan around the room to see him on his podium, waving a hand prompting to come over amidst the cleaning chaos happening around you. it was another productive rehearsal done for the day, and it was roughly late in the afternoon. luckily, you had nothing left in your schedule since this would be the last thing you had before heading back to the dorm to catch up on some assignments and maybe even squeeze a few reps of the music you and the orchestra just went over today.

weaving through all of the empty chairs and stands, some of them which still had music folders and binders, you eventually stop at the bottom elevated podium that baekhyun was standing from, attentive and ready for whatever he had to say for you.

“good! you’re here.” he says, smiling with an outreaching hand before stepping off the podium to meet at your level. a way of which he liked to ground himself to his students, always open and inviting to sprinkle wisdom whenever he can. “you got a minute for me?”

“i do, actually. is there something wrong?”

“no, not at all.” baekhyun replies, before lifting a hand behind your back, leading you to stand on the podium with him now while the rest of the orchestra students kept going with putting their cellos and violas into their cases.

while on the elevated podium, you look over to the sea of chairs rising from their elevated rows the further you see to the back of the room, where the wind players are sitting all the way to the percussionists stand. it was like a hierarchy of sorts, all of these instruments with different keys and tones all coming together to create this unspoken language that captivates even the people that claim they ‘don’t listen to music.’

it was more than a different world. this was your second home.

“how do you feel about the excerpts from today?” baekhyun asks you, giving a quick glance at him, looking at the master scoresheet on the grand music stand in front of you.

“i think it’s alright.” you answer, skimming through the bars beyond bars of notes, changing time signatures, the score playing through your mind as you twiddle your fingers with your head moving slightly to deepen the internal feeling. “i only had a little bit of time to sight-read prior, but this is an interesting piece to pick out, professor. i’m pretty pleased.”

baekhyun steps down from the podium, following along his pathway stopping just on the stage.”i know that this piece won’t be a problem for you, especially when it’s with the ensemble.” he says, walking along with an arm over you to the edge,stopping again just before the steps. “there was something else i had in mind for you specifically, y/n.”

“really? whatever it is you request i’d be willing to consider.” you beam with a cracking smile, letting a little laugh out that baekhyun receives well by also chuckling a bit. he taps your shoulder showing the repoire you built with him over the past couple years, the mutual admiration and respect through the shared passion for music was nothing to ignore.

“this is why i’m amazed with your enthusiasm, y/n.” he says, “the way that you’re so driven by music is something to be proud of. i’m glad that i can have you as one of my many pupils in my teaching career.”

“i’m flattered with all of the remarks, sir, but i don’t want to take up most of your time.” you reply while looking out to the nearly cleared out room of musicians.

“oh! right, sorry.” baekhyun apologizes, lifting a hand up in assurance while he inhales a quick breath right when he continues. “i’ve been approached by the board to help for this special event that’s coming up in a little bit over a month and a half.”

“special event?”

“it’s something to commemorate the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our music program,” baekhyun states, priming you to have a shocked expression of how momentous the occasion was. “and i wanted to formally ask you to perform as one of our programme’s highlights.”

“wow, i–uh–” you cough for a short second, “i-i genuinely don’t know what to say, professor.” you say shaking your head in literal disbelief. “i’d love to have the divine honor to perform for this—showcase? recital?”

“to put it that way, yes.”

your shoulder gets bumped by a hand, that turns out to be mina’s when you give her a quick glance on the right and smile while she heads on her way out, violin case on her back and you can visualize the pointe feet when she makes the steps down the stage.

“so,” baekhyun brings your attention back to him, “what do you say, y/n? think you can prove to the board of all the well-spoken things i’ve said about you for the past year and a half?”

the faint sound of chatter and various instruments being hit by someone in the percussion section just messing around helps you think of the very promising proposition that’s on the cards now. most of the students have left by now, but some hung around for a bit longer for whatever the reason may be. professor baekhyun’s hall was a space that you wanted to be in ever since the first tour during orientation. this institution, this sanctuary, a haven for people like you, dedicated to leave their own mark in the art of music. doing an event like this was good for experience, to play and build more connections even after graduating.

“yes.” you say, nodding your head in full agreement to baekhyun’s question, smiling all dorky while doing so. “i’ll take up on your offer.”

baekhyun can see in your eyes the starstruck child that he once saw years back, as if he had seen someone he hadn’t in a very long time. he smiles with his eyes, proud and delighted to hear your answer. “bless you, y/n. for a lot of things that i’d say but truly, thank you.”

you don’t say anything, because you didn’t need to. he sticks his hand out for you to shake in which you do, nodding along to this exciting project that was about to unfold from this point on.

“ah, i almost forgot about one detail,” baekhyun says clasping his hands together, nearly getting ahead of himself like he almost does in ninety-nine percent of the rehearsals. “you’re going to be in a duet with one of our string players.”

a stifled laugh leaves your lips because of your professor’s clumsiness. there was no doubt that he was seen to be one of the most revered teachers in the department because of how he makes music so enjoyable and easy to get on with while also being heavily respected for those who wanted to take his teachings to heart. before you could get lost in the fun, you clear your throat to bring the conversation back. “a duet right? who are you pairing me with exactly?”

baekhyun kept his attentiveness on you while asking, looking over your hair to see if the second person was still here by any chance with the second to last wave of students making their way to the door. “let me see if she’s—oh, there we go. miss kim!”

turning your head over your shoulder, eyes filled with curiosity, you see the woman approach you and baekhyun. she moved with a purpose, almost gracefully. the air surrounding her gave a triumphant aura that swept in the small space between you and the professor. wearing a white quarter-zip with the ends of the sleeves tucked up to see the hint of skin on her wrists, the small hands you think that weren’t meant for a string instrument. her eyes keen with an observing gaze, the low lighting in the room showing how she gallivants across closely with an effect.

when she sets herself adjacent in the unoccupied space between you and professor baekhyun, the two of you move inward to shift the conversating line to connect her in. now with a closed, comfortable proximity, her gaze engages towards you, expression blank but with eyebrows hinted slightly upward that washed the intimidating demeanor she carried away while walking over.

the sound of the soft clamoring from the group of students then fades out into the hallway giving the room a more echoey space where it was just you three and a few straggling students still getting their materials together. baekhyun made sure that the room was quiet once again as he carried on with what you and he had discussed so far.

“great, now that we’re all here, i’ll keep this brief.” baekhyun says, clapping his hands together then forming tiny fists. “y/n, i’m sure you’re acquainted with miss kim here?”

“dahyun.” she says to you, snapping your attention away for a second. you nod your head in acknowledgment, twining your fingers together. “i’m sure we’ve seen each other around classes quite a bit.”

“right,” you down the lump forming in your throat. “we have, i’m pretty sure.”

“which brings me to what i was just talking to you about, y/n.” baekhyun butts in immediately after the short exchange. “you’re aware that dahyun here is also one of our best musicians in the ensemble.”

“i remember the festival that we did a while back where she had a standalone solo for one of the pieces, yes.”

“so my idea was to have you accompany her with a piece that you two have agreed on or one that i have personally handpicked.” he continues, noticing dahyun rolling her shoulders back with her chin slightly pointed upwards from the corner of your eye. the attention of detail from the impossibly perfect blend of charming and pretty seen from her gorgeous side profile along with a face that looked noticeable without anyone ever saying about it.

as clueless as you looked—not really that’s just how you looked in normal circumstances like these—eyes attentive to what was being talked over. dahyun runs a hand through her hair and back. fingers small, nimble, delicate to the touch. you’re patting your hoodie down for no apparent reason to help shield the fact that you were slightly leering to a degree (just out of curiosity and not because she’s—okay, no. get that out of your catalog.)

“would you prefer for us to look through some pieces for a few days and then get back to you? or–”

“i think it would be better for professor baekhyun to give us something instead of that. makes it more of an interesting challenge to tackle.” dahyun butts in suddenly. you’re initially thrown off by the act (stunned would be one better way to describe it). but baekhyun admires students who are willing to set themselves apart from the rest. hell, a good majority of the students are musically driven here that also included you, so there was no place to talk.

bakehyun just laughs, looking at you with a shocked motion of falling backwards slightly with dahyun tugging a smile at the corner of her lips form what she just said.

“right,” he starts again, “it wouldn’t be me if i didn’t challenge two of my esteemed students with something that can test both of their musical capabilities.” he says, hands on hips proud of the pupils in front of him, clicking his tongue to signify the end of the conversation. “i guess that settles it then. i’ll leave you two to do whatever information exchanges that need to be done, and keep on the lookout for an email by me in the next few days.”

you both give professor baekhyun his goodbyes, heading into his office for some downtime and other needs or responsibilities he had to take care of. that just left you and dahyun who instantly went to get her stuff before leaving. you trail behind her since her chair was right beside where you were sitting on the piano, sheet music still out and backpack open for you to deal with.

“dahyun,” you set your sheets into one clean stack. “since we’re gonna be working together on this, it’s only right to—”

a phone was immediately out with the number pad on the screen. you stop short, perplexed at why she had an outreaching arm towards you. taking the hint, you grab the phone, digits are inserted, and you give the phone right back to her. “i sure hope you know what you’re doing, because i had a few ideas of works that we could’ve glossed over together.”

dahyun sets her eyes on you, not even paying attention to her own typing on the phone. “well, that wouldn’t be fun then, right?” she says. you hear a light buzz on the piano next to you, your phone, swiping it over to see a text message that was definitely from dahyun. “besides, who doesn’t like to be challenged around here?”

“what are you trying to say?”

“scared that you’ll fall short?

“that’s not the point here. whatever happened to ‘oh! nice to finally meet you? or ‘are you excited to work together on this performance project?’”

dahyun giggles, not that evilly but more so like plotting towards something, you’re furrowing your brows together with a cross look that breaks out a singular dimple in her face, tongue on the far side of her teeth like she’s earned that gaze from you.

“i’m not an easy person to get along with.” she says, tilting her head at an angle towards you with a near mischievous smile, almost taunting you in a way. not bearing any mind to it however, you shake your head.

“listen dahyun,” you whisper, leaning slightly inward to match her face, “i think we’re gonna get along just fine with this, believe me.”

“that so?” dahyun scoffs, “alright then, if that’s what you want to believe, then be my guest.” shouldering her backpack on and violin case in hand, she walks past you at her own pace. “you have my number, so watch for my texts.” was the last thing you heard while she waltzed her way out of the hall and into the bustling hallways.

you’re biting an inner part of your lip from the exchange that happened just now, looking down at your phone to see the simple text message of ‘hey, it’s dahyun. this is my number. don’t even think about texting me here unless it’s related to the duet performance.’

shutting off your phone, you hit it against your thigh a couple times before letting out a sigh. slumped shoulders realizing that this was going to be a lot more than a challenge.

what the hell was wrong with this girl anyway?

—

see, like professor baekhyun, you too had left a small detail out - a little lie in the spring season of april where the trees and flowers are blooming in their full brightest colors so to speak.

but the truth was the fact that you were familiar with dahyun for quite some time now - specifically since the sixth grade.

“ren! ren! come over here and get a picture with your sister!”

you hear your mom call your brother over while you’re bedazzled in a nice crown holding a trophy and bouquet of flowers. the pomp and circumstance of another successful recital event where you achieved the highest award in your category.

might’ve been overkill from your instructor at the time to keep the repertoire under wraps from the adjudicators only for them to be jaw-dropped to the floor floor when they see a twelve year old smash other contestants out with the third movement of beethoven’s moonlight sonata flawlessly to achieve and always, impress.

competition may be fierce, but everyone in music is fighting towards something with a point to prove.

cheers and jeers are filling your ears while you’re smiling with a scrunched nose getting smushed into a hug by your older brother. look, the nervousness you had before getting on that piano was nowhere to be seen replaced by flashing lights of the cameras. once all of the pictorals were done and over with, you and the entourage you have surrounded make way towards the front foyer of the convention center. guests start to peep over and catch wind of the main headline that was the talk of today’s event, honing in on the mutters and hitched breaths.

while that was happening, another group of people also made their way down the stairs towards the front doors. a girl was at the front of the pack wearing a sash, holding flowers as well. with her fair, creamy skin, the lines on her face tracing a smile, silver hair embellishing her appearance to the point where you’re probably not even watching where you’re walking. there’s an increase of people conversing around the entourage - also an influx of coverage suddenly - journalists, camera crew members, it’s a live reality show.

“that looks like the kim family.” your mom points out, bewildered and amazed with the amount of attention that they’ve managed to spin around in the matter of a few seconds. family friends and relatives are also shocked with how the whole frenzy just unfolded right in front of them.

“the kim family?” you ask, trying to get a better view at the bottom of the set of stairs, also quite puzzled to see what was happening.

“the kims.” ren supplies, “i thought you would know about them actually.”

“who are they, ren?”

ren leaned on the wall on the opposite side of the stairs, gazing over to the right in the distance where the group was walking through. “they’re one of the most well known family names around the music community. the whole family is backed up by generations of musical talent, with their daughter, dahyun and her brother winning in the accompanying duet category.”

“so that’s what the buzz was about in the other hall.” your dad say, exhausted with the ‘unbearable’ amount of down time you had after performing, since the awards ceremony wasn’t until the afternoon.

“believe it or not,” ren has your attention again, “i heard that dahyun is poised to be the crown jewel of the family as a musician, the way she captivates her audience with the aura she possesses while playing.” amidst all of the chaotic people shadowing her, dahyun now walked closer to the steps giving a sly wink to one of the cameras.

“i heard a bit of their performance when we came down here to eat,” you tell ren, “the presence she has just by existing is really amazing to witness.”

and if attention was something that you were being held under a microscope by, the people surrounding dahyun began to notice that you were just there. shocked to see that another one of the main headlines in yourself was just going unnoticed, they spread the message like wildfire within the group and all at once the flurries of lights are back onto you again.

ren, being the protective older brother and bodyguard that he was, kept his back towards you, fending off any pesky individuals that might take your personal space. smiling without a care in the world, you turn left to see dahyun’s face on you - stoic and intense with sincerity. you could feel the raw power she held without her saying a single word. she had a solid idea of who you were, and you had the same regard while the shift in the balance of this unexpected dynamic showed her ascending upwards while you stayed put. (the notion of being each other’s acquaintances was certainly present, but there’s nothing that carries over beyond that.)

like the sheet music that you play through the emotions of yourself, until there’s the end bar of a measure, you move forward, dividing up the small sea of people as to who they should follow.

—

for a more recent and relevant pretext, there was this:

it’s the first year and the beginning of the semester after winter break. after being courted by professor baekhyun to consider trying out for his wind ensemble in the first week back, the process of finding chair placements wasn’t technically a problem since you were the sole choice to be the pianist ahead of three different candidates. (and no, you’re no nepo baby, the problem was that everyone else gunning for that grand piano just couldn’t keep up with your–okay, there might’ve been a quick discussion as to how you got the seat in the first place, but we’ll just say that no one else was really even close).

the list of students is posted up on the bulletin right outside of the hall. class was already over and it was getting late, the dining hall would be packed if you didn’t meet up with seb and raiha who were two of your classmates in the intro to music appreciation class waiting with an open seat at the table, but here you were.

in terms of names, there wasn’t anyone who really stood out across all sections. hell, everyone was pretty decent to a degree to get a chair across all woodwinds, brass, and percussionists. the real picky situation was the strings, and my goodness was that a bloodbath.

to the best of your imagination, you could only picture what certain people had to do to differentiate their musical quality to make it stand out amongst the others - there was really nothing borderline to distinct here, everyone was given the same passage, tempo, dynamics, and the way that baekhyun wanted it to be played.

so you’re scanning the list of names from the cellos, double basses, violas, and here’s where it gets interesting: the violins.

selection for the violins was very, very technical. if you had the slightest hiccup in this instrument, it’s pretty much game over for the parts you’d be playing. it’s that cut-throat.

(this is where the second run-in with dahyun happens, almost seven years after that recital encounter.)

she steps up to the bulletin, looking at all of the torn, faded flyers with call slips ripped from its origin. she’s in your peripherals, long overcoat protecting her body, a white scarf wrapped over for an extra layer of protection. her hair is black now, wavy, in contrast to the silver shade she had a long time ago. she also had a set of earmuffs on her head.

a major switch up, but you’re the same kid from that day when you first saw her, not even blown away from the fact that she’s going to the same school as you, in the same ensemble as well. a weird coincidence to gather, but it’s not that weird to really think that but kind of funny how you managed to put two and two together.

so, like any other normal human being primed for a connection, “hey.” you tell her, warm breath meeting the cold air to mix.

dahyun pulls her scarf down and looks over, “hi.” she says, face only poked with a simple hint of pink breaking at the tip of her nose. in contrast to your hoodie and raincoat, she looks cozy, and warm.

“i see you got the first chair, congrats.”

“thanks, glad to see you got the piano seat for the semester.”

“thought i had to work a little bit harder for it,” you answer without sounding like a complete schmuck trying to say ‘it’s easy’, “and i’m glad that in the end it was me who got the part.”

a brief second passes through the small atmosphere you and her created, before the silence is broken by the string of sniffles that’s plugging up your nose.

“well,” dahyun starts again, fixing up her coat and scarf. “i’m gonna go ahead and take off. it was good seeing you.”

“yeah, you too.”

that’s how it ends. you don’t say or ask anything after because she’s already halfway through the courtyard. even worse, you or her don’t even ask about the names. not that you or her needed to, but it would’ve been nice to break that beginning icy barrier down first.

because to what you could assess, kim dahyun–the spearhead of the newly formed ensemble, was nothing more than an oddity.

—

the agreement is already in place, you’ve said yes to playing along as the second role of the act - there’s no drawbacks or repercussions from this, except–

“you’re gonna have to tell me this one more time. you’re playing for who?“

okay, there might be a few people out of the loop on the news, and your roommate tzuyu is a part of the crop in light of this ‘shocking’ development.

“look,” pressing your thumb against the annoying spot that's been the center of your headache for the past few days, “tzuyu, i already told you that it’s just an accompanying role. nothing out of the ordinary for my lineage of expertise.” the soft whirr of the kettle boiling on top of the stove lightly masking the jazzy ambience you’ve built in the kitchen later that night while preparing for the unfancy dinner.

tzuyu, as sharp and quick-witted as she is, plays the role of dunce for a second when she forgets the pot full of noodles bubbling over behind her sizzling on the glassy surface. once she finishes her little hiccup, her doe eyes are set on you again, zeroing in on your unassuming gaze with an eyebrow like she’s not impressed with your answer. “i’m telling you, i don’t understand what’s the big deal about me playing alongside one of the most well recognized musicians in our ensemble.”

“it’s not that,” tzuyu shrugs her folded arms together, “it’s who you’re being paired with.”

“what is it that i don’t know about dahyun?”

tzuyu bears her path from the stove to the opposite end of the dining table, and in all fairness, you know the history of tzuyu getting her point across to you more times than you can count on your fingers. “you’ve only heard about the praises and good things about that girl who has the entire music community at her feet.”

“so, impress me.” a careless threat you throw that summarizes the whole naiveness and innocence of your persona.

a soft laugh leaves her lips, hands coiled up together and placed nicely on the table. “i’ve known dahyun ever since we’ve been in elementary school, and you’ve known me for roughly half of that time. so you tell me, which one seems better to assess on paper?”

“tzuyu, i’m losing this fight already as it is.”

“okay,” tzuyu continues, “dahyun, as great as she is from a musician standpoint, didn’t get to where she is because of her family status nor the glitz and glamor she carries everywhere she goes.”

you lean back on your chair, knee up against your chest, “what makes her so different from the rest that i’ve played under or with?”

“she’s ruthless, leaving no quarter for the secondary role, she’ll do anything to make sure the spotlight is hers for the taking and no one else’s.” tzuyu lists, picking off a grape from the bowl set at the center of the table between you two. “dahyun is always the one who leaves her challengers in the dust, and because of that, most people in your position won’t even make the move to stand on the stage with her.”

you fold your fingers flat, placing your chin right on top of them. “what makes her the bad guy, then? i mean—there’s gotta be more to it than just that.”

“dahyun is extremely harsh with her counterparts. pushing her predecessors to the highest limit of their ability. she–” tzuyu stops short because she knows from first hand experience since stumbling onto it unintentionally, “–she will test, badmouth, and insult you to the point where you’d be considering turning down the role just for the sake of your mental health.”

“is there a level to this? because she was already having this sort of attitude towards me when we spoke earlier.” you ask tzuyu, standing up with an empty bowl in your hands to break this debrief before you even bother asking more questions.

“oh,” tzuyu tells, grinning like she knows it all too well, “that’s just the start of it. if i were you, i’d consider everything you’re about to put yourself through.”

“i’m not considering it.”

“that’s what they all say when they hear the rep the famous kim has.”

—

it’s all the usual when you’re repping out mozart’s piano sonata no. 8 in A minor out of complete boredom after the next rehearsal a few days later, letting your hands gracefully glide across the keys with clear precision, feeling the nuances of every detail that’s been beat down into you over and over again through practice.

everything in the song would meet it’s abrupt end when tzuyu hits the high c note on right end that makes consider moving out of the apartment later when you get back, but instead you just shake your head realizing that anything more from what you’re just playing and you’d never make it back to the apartment as it is.

tzuyu pokes her head through the opening of the lid and soundboard, giving the best ‘really, why’d you do that’ expression making her roll her eyes because she doesn’t regret what she did. “do you always get lost with the stuff that you play on a regular basis?” she asks while you let the fallboard hit the keys below you while your other hand deals with the sheet music in your binder of the same excerpt that was went over prior. “like, when do you not sit at the piano?”

“only when i have more pressing matters to deal with.” replying with a zip-up of your backpack before standing up from the seat. “where are you heading after this?”

“i might get something to eat with sana on campus,” tzuyu replies, “then maybe run to the grocery store. we’re out of eggs anyway.”

“right, i think i can tag along with you actually after i–”

tzuyu shifts her head the opposite direction from you when she hears her name being called by one of the occupied seats with a hand raised. it turns out to be dahyun when she stands up, your eyes land on her with her hair wrapped up in a high bun, glasses that appear to look big on her but she pulls it off right with her simple gray hoodie. tzuyu then glances back at you and she catches you staring a bit longer than expected, so she gets the hint immediately. “i was going to say hi to her! you should come with me.”

“tzuyu, wait–i don’t think that’s a—”

“it’ll be fine.” she reprimands, and she already has your hand in hers, pulling you away from the safe haven of your grand piano and into the unknown space that’s over in the violin section. “besides, it’s better to get to know your fellow musicians anyway.”

you’re sighing, rolling your eyes, pulling the hem of your sweater from the inside of the sleeve to escape from tzuyu’s grasp, but it’s all futile once you and her finally reach to dahyun’s chair at the end of the row, giving a friendly wave and interlocking fingers. “dahyun!!!”

“hi tzuyu! who’s the parcel behind you?” she asks, you scoff at the verbal jab dahyun just dished out not even more than one second of being in her space, darting your eyes away to avoid any sort of eye contact whatsoever.

“oh, y/n? i just had her tag along with me for a second while you were cleaning up. i’m sure you’ve already met her on multiple occasions, so i thought you’d recognize her.”

“looks like y/n here appears to be lingering behind you, but she’s interesting to say the least.”

“i could say the same thing about you, dahyun.” you manage to butt in, bearing a small smile to stand your ground.

“about the lingering part? or the other thing?”

“you’re funny.”

tzuyu forces out a laugh, hands up to ease the rising tension of this intense staredown that she’s caught in the crossfire of with the unmoving eyes she feels from the both of you. “okay you two, i think we can be a little bit nicer to each other don’t we think?”

clenching your jaw, which is a bit out of the ordinary for your namesake. you’re not the kind of person to get annoyed or irritated at anything really, but for some reason there’s something that’s setting you off when it shouldn’t.

“yeah i suppose you’re right tzu,” dahyun nods, eyes twisting over to you like she’s the one who’s done no harm. it isn’t pissing you off, but you’re definitely pressing brows together in pure bafflement, “i’ll be a little nicer to y/n here if she deserves it.”

god, she’s leaving no breathing room for you to settle. the fault lines separating by the second more when dahyun teases you to no avail. “i mean, no offense. i just thought that she’d be a little more–y’know–”

given how she seems lax and so disinterested in the pleasantries, you could sense the hierarchy that dahyun has placed herself, thinking that you’re stuck up, closed-off, just another thing to be not given any care for. but the bottom line was that you’re–

“less disappointing.”

-beneath her own standards, is what she assesses.

seriously, what the fuck is her problem?

“since when were you so good at personality profiles, dahyun?”

that’s what sets her off, slightly. and at this point tzuyu can’t even play the mediator anymore.

“you’re an easy book to read, l/n.” dropping the first name basis all of sudden when you’re just trying to play the good guy in this conversation, “you know, a lot of people would kill to be in your position to play alongside me, so be thankful that you got considered to play the part and like i said, you’re anything but your so called ‘reputation’.”

“this is unbelievable to hear from you. how bout i—”

“enough!” tzuyu chirps out, which breaks the verbal exchange for a moment. dahyun’s expression stays stoic, but her eyes were burning with a fiery ambition like she had a point to prove. pouting your lips together following a sigh, you do nothing but watch her pack up her stuff in front of her music stand, peering over to see the unfamiliar sheet music of a piece that had your gears turning. “alright, did you text sana, tzu?” she asks, and tzuyu nods, giving you a look that signifies that she’s gonna get going on with her day.

you zip back to the piano, grabbing your belongings before hopping off the stage right when tzuyu and dahyun were about to leave. tzuyu gives you a subtle nod before walking past you. next was dahyun, who stops in her tracks to make eye contact with you, “i’ll see you in two days.”

“for what?”

“for the first practice session, idiot.” is all she says before she lightly bumps your shoulder heading out.

even more irritated than earlier, you press your tongue on the inside of your cheek, fighting down the notion of how much a pain in the ass dahyun had just become in a short span of time; eventually, the frustration will build up to a point where you’d slam your hands on the keys where the strings will break.

a saving grace comes, in the form of professor baekhyun waving his hand from his office, signaling you to see what he has for you. “you wanted to see me?” you say, popping your head past the door frame to see baekhyun lounged up with his feet on the desk, with a booklet of sheet music draped across him like he’s reading the newspaper.

“i was just about to head out,” he answers, “but not before i hand you this.” his voice in a light strain when he sits upright, handing the said sheet music that was on his body just seconds ago. you grab the aged paper, skimming through the lines of phrases without even looking at the freaking title of the piece.

“wait,” you hear yourself through the blistering sounds of music, “isn’t this—”

baekhyun chuckles, because he already knows all too well what your question was. “yep, this was the piece that you saw that got me into where i’m sitting right now.”

the top of the page reads: ballade no 1 in G minor, by chopin.

“you–you–you can’t be serious—” in disbelief you were, “i thought that—”

“dahyun requested something more of a challenge for the two of you, so i delivered in that regard.”

never in a million years you think that you’d have the chance to perform this life-changing masterpiece, but here you were. “i–i don’t think i can–”

“you say that you can’t, but i know that you will.” baekhyun cuts you off before you can even think about stepping back from this role. “i could’ve gone with a whole catalog of different pieces, but i chose this one because it tells the story of not only my career, but yours and dahyun’s story weaved through music as well.”

“corny.” is what you follow up with, looking down at the music again. it ends up being all too much, a sensory overload to the brain with the amount of demands this piece had: the delicate touches, the fast-paced sixteenth notes, the rush and slowness from one movement to the next.

“you can hear it too, right?”

“what?”

baekhyun leans closer, “you can hear the music, right?” tilting his head the same right angle you were currently showing. “you do this little ditzy of twitching your entire neck when reading or sight-reading music every time i hand it out to you.”

you pause, letting everything that your head was processing flood in all at once. “i can.”

“then this shouldn’t be a problem for you or her then.”

—

it really wasn’t a problem.

everything about this event seemed completely doable, from the extremely challenging repertoire to the grand scale of the occasion. sure, baekhyun could’ve asked anyone else to do your part but you brought it upon yourself to the task of playing, given with the huge honor that was impossible to turn down.

the hinges of the small practice room swing open, creaks of the floorboards groan from the weight of your steps when entering. various things were disorganized, yet a home of their own when you see the full stack of extra chairs, a rack of music stands with one missing from the very edge of it. something about the very old-fashioned appearance of the place feels unfamiliar but still recognizable.

you’re scanning, ensuring that the room was all to yourself, only to hear the faint sound of strings in the next room over. funny, there was no extension to a nearby room next to the one that you were just in, but you float over to the walkway to see another small space that was occupied with a piano and of course, her.

dahyun has her back turned to you. a black button up with her sleeves rolled up to the elbows, arms up with the violin under her touch. she’s wearing this pair of neutral colored khakis that’s cuffed right were the ankles stop before her white sneakers, playing through a passage of an excerpt that you’re not too familiar with, slowly turning with the weight of music when she catches you in her peripherals, dragging out a note before she tilts down her instrument turning towards you. “you’re late, by the way.”

your bag is still on your shoulder, binder at the side, a blank expression with all of the alarms going off inside the brain at the wrong time. “huh,” you say, somewhat lost in the exchange where she just stands there, eyebrow up waiting for a response. this isn’t helping your case, “what do you mean?” eyes off to the side of the closed piano diagonal in her direction, “i swear i wasn’t late.”

she sighs, head lowered when she curls her lips inward, “did you not see my text? from about fifteen minutes ago?”

“fifteen?”

“fifteen.”

setting your bag onto the seat, already drawing up the bridge before she zeroes in with those monolids, doe eyes that you’re not even toying with the idea of challenging her this late into the day. “i’m not following where you’re going with this.”

“i hate repeating myself, you know. you’re fifteen minutes late, end of story.”

well, shit. she got you there. you had your phone on do not disturb anyway, but no chance in hell dahyun would believe you with the way she was a few days before.

“i mean you didn’t tell me which room we were going to be practicing at,” you tell her, steering your way to the piano, unlocking all of the covers and pegs to avoid any more interactions with her. “to be fair, it’s both parties' fault for a lack of communication.”

“hah,” dahyun breathes, smirking. “i hope you got the sheets from baek after rehearsal the other day,” she says, “i’m already ahead of you past the first theme leading into the second repeat of the B theme.”

“dahyun, this isn’t supposed to be a competition.” you tell her, setting yourself down with the binder up and open with the sheet music of all the different notes handwritten through the bars of what to keep in mind when progressing through the passage. there’s this swirl in the air when she makes her way next to you on the seat, leaning down to read your decent penmanship, lip quirked up before letting out a slight snort.

“you keep notes on your music?” she muses, “i thought you’d be a little more extra about this piece, considering that you’re a teacher’s pet.”

“what?”

dahyun laughs, mocking with her little eye smile when she notices that struck nerve, “i’m just saying, always at baekhyun’s beck and call every time like a puppy with its owner. it’s cute, adorable really.” she also hears the sigh come out of you when your fingers start to splay across the keys, playing the dissonant chords just to get your musical chops up before playing through a measure or two to get ready.

“where do you want to start, then?” you ask her, seeing that graceful stature with her flowing hair reach over for the music stand and bring it closer to the piano, across and centered in between the field of vision in space of the lid. “you wanna try getting through a third of the ballade just to see if we got it down?”

“sure hope you did your homework, y/n.” dahyun quirks. “i heard from someone in the ensemble that you don’t even try to look at the sheets and just play off of sight reading. not the way to go in my opinion.”

“dahyun.” you say, irritably, and she just giggles again.

“aw, something the matter?”

that fucking annoying ass smirk, with her violin in between her chin and collarbone, bow ready alongside the strings wairing for that cue to play. you glance at the sheets before your hands press down on the set notes printed in black ink, head nicked up like anticipating a breath, and you play.

—

for anything of substance, you learn a lot of new things about dahyun in addition to the stuff that you’ve been briefed by tzuyu.

she’s refined, a set routine of her tuning her violin, ensuring that the strings on her instrument are in peak condition, a bit of a germaphobe considering the number of times that she’s wiping down the wood any chance she gets when you hiccup over the notes multiple times.

in between breaks, you see her on her phone while you’re playing a small measure or two of other pieces that aren’t chopin’s ballade. you would like to assume that she’s texting for plans after practice and all of that speculation gets thrown out of the window when she’s–

“can you like?” you’re pressing the bridge of your nose over the sound of the blocks being cleared in dahyun’s game of tetris, “turn it down if it would do you any good?”

she flashes this look of annoyance, brows knitted together and a harsh exhale from the nostrils, raising the game volume all the way up.

“dahyun,” you start, and let’s be honest; there’s these waves of productive which becomes good considering dahyun’s persistence to get you up to speed while you’re playing catch up, but when that comes to a screeching halt because you raised your voice over the slightest thing that shouldn’t have let a normal person off, “look, i get that i was late by my own fault, but we’re not gonna get anything done if you’re just gonna keep acting like a freaking child.”

all dahyun does after is stick her tongue out, not even giving you her full attention while she taps away on the screen. “didn’t really ask for your insight, so deal with it.”

“so are we gonna practice again?” you offer as a last resort to steer this sinking ship.

“nope.” she simply answers, “not until you finish playing catch up.”

maybe agreeing to play alongside her was a mistake after all.

—

the first practice session was already hell from the start.

it’s even worse when the two sessions after are extremely slow.

tzuyu greets at the door, eyelids shooting to worry instantaneously at the sight of you with an ice pack to your forehead, the coolness of that solid item freezing the nerves on your face, stinging the bruise that’s at the corner of your right eye adjacent to your temple. she’s horrified, a hand raised where you lift your own saying that it’s fine, nothing to worry about, all is well for today’s activities.

“you look like shit,” she tells you, seeing your bag on the rack and the coat hit the high chair in the kitchen before you crack the fridge open for a comforting swig of milk straight from the jug. “wanna tell me what happened on today’s events with da–”

“don’t,” you answer, “my head’s ringing still after i got face to face with the goddamn door.”

“is that what really happened?”

“well…”

—

(session two went reasonably tame.

the room was filled with all the exchanges and bickering about different pieces performed and the cv’s being listed out like a fucking five-to-seven minute powerpoint presentation.

reasonably.

it wasn’t until dahyun got too cozy in your nerves by continuing to push your buttons, calling you a nepo baby because of your good rapport with baekhyun and a few other instructors that had known you before attending the institute. a terrible take coming from her, considering the fact that she was a hypocrite and very bad at hiding it.

you weren’t that far in the pyramid unlike her, but god was she so easy to read considering all of the things that were the stark opposite presented in front based by observing:

1.) first to rehearsal the day before, late to the practice session.

2.) internalizing the critiques from the director, she spits them out all over the place when it’s just you.

3.) she got a way in by her family name while you got the full ride and a letter of rec to seal the deal.

that last one might be a loose comparison, but it feeds into what happens next.

“i’ve looked into your family’s history and everything.” you tell dahyun, looking at you in disbelief from the outburst, “still find it unbelievable how you’ve managed to get to this point in your career.”

“and what did you assess?” she chides, “i sure hope everything sounds good as it is on paper.”

“you and that fucking ego.”

“save it, won’t make you feel better.”

ignoring that, giving a light slap on the rim of the glossy wood. dahyun was impossible to undo the taut in her mind to make her stoop down to your level. you hate it, it’s a mistake, you could be doing something else in your day that was more sufficing than this.

“was it really worth it?” you ask, “downplaying everyone else’s status and motivations because it doesn’t line up with what you want? thinking that you’re so perfect just the way you are and above authority?”

“okay, rude.” she says, lowering her bow to the side before the clicks of her heels bring her right to the piano. “you don’t get to say things like that about my life, my background, my family, so zip it.”

there we go, managed to set off one of her tripwires.

“really,” you start again, “because i heard and saw that your dad and brother also went to this school, pursuing the same profession. but your brother wanted to do other things to cultivate his music dream.”

“cut to the point, l/n. we still have to get through the second run through of the A theme.”

“okay, i’ll stop.” complying to her demands, which was funny since you were the one to get things going in the music the other day. “we break even then.”

—

the third session is where all hell breaks loose.

a slow, but still productive rehearsal drained out most of your energy. you would tell baekhyun to call it for today, but you catch a glimpse of that dark mix of straight and wavy hair floating up the stairs, following her like a spirit.

and you’re struggling to keep up with her in the jolly section of the piece midway, watching her pluck away with the strings while your hands are tensing up constantly. the lack of sleep was the culprit due to the fact that this section in particular was an absolute bitch to iron out the night before, especially the measure with the ascending and descending scales jumping into that 180 bpm tempo.

tripping up on a bar, you stop, fist in the air slightly while dahyun tilts her head facing you. “why did you stop? we were really complimenting each other through that passage perfectly.”

“i know, it’s just my hand. got a small cramp.”

you could hear her mock you.

a coping mechanism that you had in your folder was to stand up from the seat, lower down the cover so that the sound can travel more closely towards you. (it doesn’t make sense but it helps the workflow more efficiently when focusing on a hitch in the music.) you tell dahyun that we’ll go again from the scales, and she does a pickup leading up to the chord before descending backward down into the same section once more.

it’s going well, everything seems to be going smoothly until another break in the music stops you.

“i thought you had this section down.” she tells you, violin between her chin and shoulder while you’re scanning through the music again, playing that set of hopping chords on the left hand for good measure. “don’t tell me we’ll have to be here for another two hours. i’m tired.”

“so am i,” you retort, “okay let’s go again.”

two more fuck ups happen.

then dahyun scratches a note.

another slip up, and you can see the frustration building up within her.

“my god,” she tells you minutes later, “do you have this part down or not?”

“i do.”

“then why can’t we go to my tempo?”

“all you’re doing is plucking the strings through these measures,” you sneer, her annoyance now transferred over, “why don’t you sit here and press these keys for a trade, how bout that?”

dahyun sits down for a second, the crinkles in her green long sleeve and black pants bending in every way as if the fabric of the universe could rip to shreds from that moment. leaning forward, her elbows are on her knees, eyes laser-focused with a deadly intent.

“you mess up one more time, and i’ll propose a better idea.”

not answering, you shake your head and count her off into the pickup. the notes are complimenting each other, dancing across the walls, every limb in your body extended into the piano before you second guess yourself into the seventh mistake of today’s practice. dahyun drags out the same note from before, slacking her arms in relaxation before letting out a sigh.

“dahyun, look. it’s been a long day,” you tell her again, back turned towards you, reaching over for something on the floor, from a case. “you shouldn’t have told me to go through this part until i—”

fight or flight response kicks in when you see an old violin flying towards your face.

lucky that you were about half a second quicker, ducking to the left side and falling onto the floor. once the pieces of the shattered wood settle onto the floor, you look to the right, hitting your head on a sticking leg from one of the stacks of chairs, the scratch stinging your face when you sit up properly on the ground, looking up at dahyun in visible confusion.

“what the fuck was that for, honestly!?” you’re yelling at this point, “are you trying to kill me!?”

dahyun presses her tongue against the inside of her bottom lip, her gaze giving no sign of life before tending to that itch bothering her eyebrow. “we should’ve been done with this section from the first couple of tries. now i’m late to meet up with sana and jihyo for dinner.”

“that’s not the issue here!” you exclaim, “where did you find that violin anyway?”

“keep it down and be thankful that it wasn’t a full on chair.” she retorts, “we’ll end here for today, just text me when you’re free for the next practice session.”

you’re still trying to register the sequence of events that had just happened in the span of a few seconds, while seeing dahyun walk past you with a pissed off look on her face, on the way out of the door when you finally stand up, blood trailing down to the floor from your small gash when you see your reflection on the window.

explaining this to anyone outside of this room would deem you as crazy.

dahyun was simply out of her mind.)

—

“you sure about this?” tzuyu asks, waiting for you at the bottom of the steps of the conservatory. “i mean, you could’ve saved yourself the trouble if you just said no in the first place.”

and she’s not wrong, no denying that. it would’ve been a better thought to have, letting someone else take your place to play the supporting figure alongside dahyun. it’s just too bad nobody will ever find out about the story that’s told from the small bandage on your face, plastered with a small sticker of a star to give it a little bit more pizazz.

a lack of misjudgement thereof, and maybe it could be put simply just by getting off on the wrong foot with the silver violinist in the ensemble. doesn’t change the fact that beneath her ‘good girl’ image lies a person that checks off all the marks that tzuyu briefed you beforehand. but of course you didn’t listen, that was a tendency plaguing you for all or life while walking on the scuffs of your shoes along the sidewalk.

blinking with one eye, the cut still open underneath the small pad, you and tzuyu hear the honey filled laugh of sana on the opposite side of the railing, head back while you see dahyun’s side profile, open and smiling before her hair sweeps to the left side of her shoulder.

“i’ve never seen you so stoic before,” tzuyu gathers, tugging on the sleeve of your jacket to get your attention. you bat an eye, looking back to acknowledge her point, “this is a version for me to see and i gotta say, i kinda like it.”

“she pisses me off,” you tell her, a declaration that's been beneath your chest for quite sometime now. “her and i just can’t seem to click like normal people for some reason.”

“why do you think that?”

“i don’t know, and if i did,” shrugging your shoulders with a tug from the corner of your lips, “you would already be the first to know.”

you’re not sure about that answer either, it isn’t right to jump to that conclusion automatically. hell, the world would be a better place if your body was on top of a person’s car passing by you then and there. a tragedy to say the least, an unfinished tale that will never see the ending if it hadn’t been for tzuyu walking with you back to the apartment in the way that she is; humming and pointing out the pretty flowers and lilacs along the bushes.

tzuyu’s look is pensive when you and her stop at a crosswalk, her eyebrow arched while you’re putting an effort to not have the frame of mind on dahyun. the day’s been long, you still had to iron out certain sections of the piece, and there’s that constant train of thought of just ending it all right now.

a look over your shoulder to see the silhouettes of dahyun and sana together, shoulders bumping along between two friends, laughing and smiling before they disappear in a sweeping motion past the corner.

dahyun was an infectious person to be around. she just had that kind of effect on people.

to you,

she’s that dangerous poison that's withering away your soul from the inside out.

—

the fifth session had not much happening.

dahyun was in and out of the practice room for most of the time, trying to get some stuff outside of school taken care of with her family. you couldn’t ask much since–

“it’s not that big of a concern,” she tells you, “it’s just a small thing that needs resolving with my parents.”

“i’m just saying that it would be nice for you to share, unless you find it to be prying.”

“prying?” she questions, and the sigh she lets out is heavy, labored even. “i’m still a little hurt with what you said about my dad and brother the other day. i expect some form of apology at least.”

“i’m the one who needs to say sorry?” dahyun just lifts her brows again when she sees that hint of anger behind your voice. “what about you doing that part first considering you chucked a freaking instrument at me last time?”

she presses a finger to her lips, hiding a smile, “keep it down, there’s other people occupying the other rooms next to us. it’s not like you to cause a scene during the day.”

“fuck you,” you huff, leaning back slightly on the seat, hands falling to your thighs when she shrugs her shoulders again. dahyun then looks down to her vibrating phone, seeing the contact id and raising it up to show what she’s doing next.

“some harsh words, y/n. that’s not nice” she says mockingly, “now if you’ll excuse me, i’m gonna go ahead and take this call.” that bravado not giving you any effect and it’s nothing out of the ordinary when her head vanishes past the door frame.

a subtle nod is all you give yourself, playing through the excerpt again of the ballade before your brain farts suddenly right before the grand return of the b theme in its explosiveness on the score. dahyun had played through this with you roughly about five minutes ago, and you could tell that this was the part of the piece where she enjoys it the most.

while tracking back to redo the whole section again, you catch yourself staring at the keys for a little while longer. it would be definite insanity to repeat over and over, but that’s practice.

instead, you set that right hand to that low d sharp to middle c, the opening notes to another one of liszt's pieces stuck in your memory banks, allowing the feeling of the sound to carry you through the music to help ease your mind for a bit.

dahyun comes back a little more mentally exhausted than usual after the phone call when her ears pick up on the beautiful piece being played on the piano. she stops short at the door, looking past the window that’s framed with you in the middle, eyes closed while your body sways along.

she becomes a little bummed out when you’re already through with the song, notes deflating, going slower and slower, the tone becoming more lower, softer even. eventually it ends with you leaning forward, letting out a heavy sigh when the final whole note is played completely in its full count.

a tear falls out of dahyun’s eye, quick to wipe it off of her cheek before turning around to hide from your gaze. she felt bad for giving you shit recently, but she still hates the fact of how good you were as a pianist - being able to bring people’s emotions out of them with the way you played.

it was just a stupid song, she thinks, but it begs the question as to why she feels this way over something that doesn’t even compute with her?

all that dahyun does is clench her fist amidst all the confusion while you’re looking down to the toebox of your shoe.

—

they say that the law of attraction is a powerful force to have in the mind. positive thoughts lead to positive results, and vice versa.

it’s such an easy mindset to follow, considering that you’ve already thought out what you want to do with your present situation, and probably with your life after.

you can’t say the same about dahyun, however. especially–

“this was a mistake for me to come here tonight.”

–you’re at a party that you didn’t want to be at in the first place. correction, it’s the small celebratory afterparty for jihyo’s master’s recital event a couple hours earlier. nothing wrong with having a little fun to break the working loop every now and then right?

“i told myself the same thing too,” you tell her, fingers placed against the granite of the counter behind you, taking in the lively ambience built by the small number of people in the room, spread out from across the kitchen to the living room, about fifteen - maybe twenty people. “but it’s jihyo’s last big hurrah before she’s off to the real world in music, wherever she goes really.”

and that’s when you look to the right.

it’s an anomaly, a blank page. there’s a part of you in that brain of yours that can’t stand looking at her in the face because she seems so fucking calm and unimpressed. again, it really irks you when dahyun is throwing daggers from her oreo colored eyes, hand combing down that free-flowing, healthy black hair of hers and there’s this stroke of a realization that she is pretty (no, you’re gonna regret it later the more you stare) and enticing, but still a question mark to leave unchecked; for obvious reasons.

“sana insisted that i tag along, gave her a promise that i’d drink with her.” dahyun says, swirling around a cup that was about three-fourths empty before pulling another sip. “now she’s all over momo and mina and i’m not even gonna try to pry her off of them.”

“pfft,” you let out, the peach soju in your hand sloshing about because it would be better off to not get royally fucked up tonight since it’d be a losing situation for you and tzuyu. crashing at jihyo’s place doesn’t seem too bad of an idea, considering that it’s happened before in the past. “it’s still irregular to me, you know.”

dahyun shifts over to stand across from you, back against the kitchen island while holding up the nearly finished cup of terra in front of her mouth, “got something to say?”

“it’s just,” and you’re fighting the urge to smile since it’s still pretty new to think, “i didn’t think you’d be an alcohol person.” you tell her, and she tilts her head slightly determining if the compliment was backhanded or not, “i thought you’d be more of a wine kind of girl.”

“there’s a plethora of things that you don’t know about me,” dahyun teases. “i think you get the gist of my position.”

clearly.

“but i’m amazed that you still have the guts to talk to me,” she adds, pressing the rim of her cup downing the last bits of the beverage. “testing my nerves during practice leading to–” she points to the edge of her skull where the bandage is still present. she says it like it isn’t an insult, more of an observation - a late observation at that.

“right,” you say, the slick of your bottle soaking the palm of your hand when you drink it again. “still need an apology for that, too.”

dahyun pouts her lips when she shuffles back to the same spot that she was before, standing next to you watching the live background of the party. you don’t know how long it’s been since the end of the recital, but the earlier that you can leave with tzuyu so that the sleep comes easy tonight, the better. “i’m sorry.” she says, placing the cup down on the counter behind her.

“what?”

“i don’t like repeating myself, remember?” she reprimands, “you know what i said, so put it together.”

to a tactful decision, you accept her apology. it’s a first step, but a step nonetheless. “was it really necessary though, to do that?” you ask her, pointing up to the bandage trying to state the obvious.

“what do you think?” dahyun raises an eyebrow at you, slightly smirking. “are you saying it’s my fault?”

“no, but i–”

“then you already have your answer.”

with a slow sigh, there’s no point in challenging that topic any further. the noise of momo’s laugh fills up the room so loudly to the point she’s nearly sobbing. you and dahyun just stare at the event unfolding where momo is flat on her back, nayeon over her pretending to do chest compressions from a joke that was probably missed by your ear. but it doesn’t matter, you’re still nudging elbows with the girl that chucked a musical instrument at you a few days ago, brushing that off like it’s nothing. maybe it’s just out of spite, or anger, a calculated attempt to set you straight - whatever the reason she had will most likely not see the light.

“there is something that i do want to ask,” you prompt, and dahyun just giggles again. she’s not annoyed from the sound of it, but intrigued that you’re keeping a conversation going with her, cursing the basis of pragmatics.

“what’s with all the questions?” she asks back, “i haven’t gotten this much from someone since the interviews after the university festival?”

a noise leaves your lips between a snort and a chuckle, drawing your arms together across your middle. “just out of curiosity,” you model while trying to find the right words to ask, “was your family always dead set on you becoming this ‘perfect’ musician for them?”

dahyun breathes, eyes a little more open now, trying to internalize your question as much as she can. “you can be a little more blunt with me. no need to shelter the criticism you’re about to say or heard from.”

she can hear the little ‘tsk’ come out of you before you’re tending to the annoying bandage of the healing cut lying underneath. “look, why do you act the way that you do when it comes to music? especially with me?”

“hasn’t tzuyu answered this for you? or at least talked about me with you?” dahyun answers back, “i assume that she has because she knows first hand why i do things in that way unlike everybody else.”

“you really expect me to take that as an answer?”

“expect much less than that from me.” dahyun deadpans, turning her head at the call of tzuyu walking over with a shit faced sana on her shoulder. you lock eyes with tzuyu, automatically reading her expression to indicate that it was time to go home.

“am i calling miyeon?” you hear dahyun ask tzuyu, leaning over to see sana’s condition, and she’s out cold. “guess i’ll go out to call her then.”

tzuyu nods in agreement, dahyun then excuses herself from the small bubble of people to make her way out of the party and into the calm air coming from the outside.

“i thought you said that she pisses you off,” tzuyu observes, wiggling her body to tend to the sleeping sana riding along her back. “and here you were actually talking to her as if nothing ever happened.”

“well she was staring into my soul since we got here, she just gravitated towards me when she could’ve been literally anywhere else.”

tzuyu seems unimpressed by this, “she tells me that she still hates you, but i think something’s changing underneath.”

that last statement could hold a lot of different meanings and interpretations, probably. carrying grudges against others wasn’t ideally the best thing to have as baggage mentally. dahyun was only the best in and out of the ensemble because of the talent she possessed. too bad that her real personality was the harsh truth to take head on when the wishes of certain things to be different start creeping up at the back of your mind. it could be that, or the tiny percentage of alcohol speaking to you.

“uh tzu,” you point at the round-faced brunette with her cheeks full of what she drank, ready to be spilt out, “sana’s gonna puke over your shoulder any second now.”

—

everything resumes as normal, two more practice sessions pass going into seven.

“i think we should go through it one more time.”

“no.”

“no?”

“you heard me, i said no.”

you can’t help but rub your temple at the immense amount of stubbornness that’s oozing out of dahyun when she sits there at the inquisitive angle of her head to the right, her feet floating off the floor as she kicks them. “dahyun, i swear to god–”

“let’s do something different today,” dahyun says, a little bit more demanding than before when you’re flipping through the sheet music, trying to find spots to brush up while on a momentary break. “you’ve heard my performances while you attended some competitions as a kid, right?”

“well yeah,” you answer, looking at her with those rimless wide lenses sitting on the bridge of her nose painting a soft smile towards you. the gray hoodie provides a cushion for her elbow when she props it on the piano cover. the agenda was to get through half of the piece, given the amount of individual time you and her put into it when you’re not together, gauging progress before the deadline (which was less than a long way to go). “we performed and competed in the same community, how could i not hear you play?”

dahyun laughs, which was rare for you to see. she reaches down for her violin and bow, dragging the hair along the strings to sing a tone before adjusting the tuning in her usual sequence. nice to see that she’s warming up a bit both as a person and musician, but still unsure if it’s determined to be good or a bad thing.

“you remember the capriccioso duet? the one by saint-saens?” she asks, and you huff out a laugh with the say that she’s acting. “i know you have it memorized somewhere in that small brain of yours.”

“okay, wow.” you say, closing the binder signifying the end of practice for now, delving into free time until you or dahyun decide to change your mind sooner or later. “how could i not know it by heart?” you manage again, “i watched you play it on stage as kind of like that encore thing they made you do at the festival event that day.”

“really?” dahyun questions to her uttermost shock, “you’re joking right? didn’t know you were a fan of me back then.”

“i didn’t say that.”

“but you’re implying that you were.” she lets a small trill leave her mouth at the last letter, she’s taken a liking to irritating you, willing to put the effort of being that headache and annoying feeling because it gets you worked up. “what are you gonna do, rip the keys off and throw them at me as payback?”

“i think i might have to if you don’t shut up and get ready to play.”

“how far do you wanna go with the song?”

“are you challenging me?”

“and what if i am?”

you shake your hands and pop your fingers, loose enough to the point that you could rip them off your body and let them play for you instead. dahyun has this warm look on her face, hidden with determination to perform this piece to the absolute maximum as if she were on stage.

that’s the binding that breaks you, somewhat.

dahyun is infectious, consuming your ambitions faster like the inscribed ‘presto agitato’ on the paper you glanced at.

she shouldn’t be making you feel this way, but not all is lost yet.

—

session number nine.

you shouldn’t be getting used to dahyun. you shouldn’t be getting used to the way that she acts around you, it’s becoming all part of the subsequent routine that you’ve wrapped yourself into playing alongside her. it still annoys you how stubborn she can be at times, not wanting to go back with you in certain parts of the ballade, the way that she laughs when you roll your eyes at her when you don’t get what you want.

she still curses at you, everytime there’s a missed note, an early count, rushing, dragging. her grilling when you managed to fuck up the second most hardest section in the piece that’s supposed to be more lively and upbeat, your hands working left and right while she’s plucking away at on the strings. the way her upper half bounces along with the phrase, almost grazing freely in the fields on a sunny day it seems like.

her musical quality sounds intense, but she’s having fun with it. you catch a glance at her with her eyes closed, a soft smile peeking through at her lips. when she opens them, there's that small sparkle behind them before she lowers her eyelids slightly, looking less filled with life while her muscle memory continues to be the constant motion flowing through time.

your approach to this piece may be different than hers, but there's a connection to the contrast between it that’s displayed by the way dahyun plays. the way that she stresses notes in between, like she’s in pain, wanting to be seen. she’s letting her passion be the weak cover to that side of hers. tragic. to be sympathetic towards her or not will be a bridge to cross eventually - the next page at the turn of your fingers when you get to it.

after what two to three hours felt like an eternity, you were the one to call it wraps for the night. throughout the practice, specks of dust came and went between you and dahyun, exchanging coughs during the session that also made you two stop playing. while dahyun decided to just chill out for a bit, you took it upon yourself to sweep up the place so that next time there'll be no suffocating.

“hey, could you hand me the spray for the windows?” you ask her, getting her attention while pointing to the bottle sitting on top of the closed piano. dahyun makes her way to you, noticing that in between breaks, she took off her sweater to combat the stuffiness that filled up the room. there was air conditioning, but most of the time dahyun kept her outer layers on despite you slipping out of your jackets every now and then.

“thanks,” you tell her when she passes the cleaning spray to your free hand, noticing a string of bruises along her wrist. you notice two more on her other arm in the upper regions close to the shoulder, and that got you a bit perplexed. “did something happen to your arm?” you ask, pointing on your forearm to indicate.

“what?” dahyun asks, tone clearly sounding ticked off at the surprise question. “i’m fine, y/n. nothing happened to me that you should be concerned about.”

“don’t lie,” you answer back, taking off your cleaning gloves to grab her wrist, showing the bruises to her. “i know something happened, so tell me. who did this to you?”

“why do you care all of a sudden? are you trying to make yourself feel better after i hurt you by throwing a goddamn old violin at your face?”

“that’s not the issue here! you’re clearly hurt.”

“it’s nothing,” dahyun retorts, “i don’t need you to worry about me.”

“dahyun.”

“don’t. i’m fine, really.” she says, flicking her arm down to escape from your grip, pressed while you click your tongue in annoyance. no need to end today on a bad note, so you grabbed the bottle of cleaning spray and the dry rag used for the windows.

the dramatic period of silence sweeps the room, soft ticking from the clock above serving as the only sound while the seconds continue to pass. once everything was back to it’s original place in the storage compartment, you walk out to see dahyun sitting, mouth partly open to ask again about her bruises, but it’s better to save it for another time for when she’s comfortable, if she’s more comfortable.

“are you sure you want me to play my part of the coda along with yours?” you ask her, bent over at the seat while she’s staring at her phone.

she just gives you a ‘huh’ in her signature monotone voice. typical.

“why would i bother asking you again?” you say again, pulling the lid of the keys back down to protect them from the open air filled with dust. sighing, “you’re already checked out as it is.”

“i was listening,” she muses, “my answer would be the same if you asked me or not.”

“so what was my question, then?” you’re offering once more, “if you were saying that you listened.”

dahyun purses her lips when she zips up her bag, “you know, most people would play it safe and play the backing music given to them.”

“your point being?”

“but baekhyun gave you the full score for the piano, leaving it up to us in how we play this piece together.” she answers. dahyun shoulders her bag, on her way out, you’re quick to follow her too down the hallway. again, it feels too natural to be like this with the person that you have a semi-heated relationship with a (rival, fellow musician, let alone friend? it’s still hazy to fully determine the facts. she’s still cruel, unrelenting, but damn good at what she does, and it’s making you shake your head again mentally.)

a swing of the door and it’s out into the refreshing cold of the night. dahyun stops short before the descending steps, turning around with a shrug of the shoulder.

“i think you should, to answer your question.”

way to be unbearably blunt. seriously, she can go fuck herself with that.

“but–”

“will you? that’s certainly not my place to know.” dahyun says, that tilt of her head and that small dimple of hers, smiling innocently. you hate how she’s so open ended with things like these, because it’s hindering the fact that you’re going to be losing your shit for the next few weeks trying to get this coda down perfectly.

she gives no reassurance when she reminds you to text her about being available for the next practice, the top of her head bouncing along the steps of the conservatory and into the darkness.

—

it’s the tenth practice session, and the sunset is beating down on the windows of the small space in the room while you’re tending yourself to the piano.

you curse again when you hit a wrong note on the keys. this fucking ending part sucks. fuck this piece, fuck chopin, and fuck that annoying ass 39 note phrase and scales that he has because he must’ve been on crack when composing this.

dahyun was supposed to be here thirty minutes ago, but she texted you that she had to help sana take care of some stuff for her music theory class. apparently sana being the procrastinator, decided to wait until the last minute to write up a paper and begged dahyun to help her on it.

speaking of deadlines, the recital was a little less than two weeks away, and you’re kissing your hopes goodbye to bakehyun’s good graces about you if something doesn’t come out of your ass from now and until the performance. you’re spamming the high c-note on the piano to vent your frustration because this piece was hard. staring at the sheet music wasn’t gonna solve anything, but by practicing, it’s possible.

“where is she at?” you’re asking yourself before you adjust your posture on the seat, hands ready before playing through the infamous section again when you hear the small sound of steps approaching the door.

“sorry for being late.”

you turn to see dahyun standing at the door.

“what’s there to be sorry about?” you tell her, “i read your text so i figured i’d just get ahead a bit while waiting.”

a giggle leaves her lips as she looks down, you’re not putting any mind to it however because she always has some sort of comeback at you on the ready. she walks in with hands behind, filing herself into the open space in this little arena crowded by the scattered chair racks and music stands, the emptiness of the green chalkboard on the side reflecting little light off of it when dahyun settles in.

“i thought you’d be a little more forgoing and berate me for being thirty minutes late,” she says, sliding off her backpack and violin case onto the floor before dragging a chair not far from her or the piano. “aren’t you gonna do it now? i’m waiting on it.”

“i rarely get mad over some funny thing that’s called attendance,” you say, fingers automatically playing a dissonant chord written in the paper, “besides, telling you stuff over that isn’t really my style, but i still hate your guts.”

“ouch,” she says, eyebrows perched and a smile underneath. “i’m actually impressed with your honesty.”

“you shouldn’t be, consider that as growth.”

there’s a sudden force that pulls you back when dahyun laughs at what you said, hiding her face with the ends of her hair in embarrassment. it’s also natural for you to play along when you’re nodding along to the scattered notes played by your hands, trying to make sure that you have it right before you pick it up through repetition.

dahyun then walks over from your peripheral vision, standing right behind you while playing through the beginning hit of the coda. she’s intrigued by the different changes between the hands, eighth notes and half notes taking up the bars of music throughout. learning her head closer to yours, getting a closer look while you continue, it wasn’t distracting but she sees you mess up in the same spot again, sighing out in frustration while she picks up the singular page where you broke musically.

“you weren’t kidding,” she breathes, voice flat with a hint of shock behind it. “and i thought my music was hard but this is on a different level.”

“now you see why i was asking you the other day about playing this through,” you say, placing the misaligned sheet back to its original position. “i’ve been stuck on this for the last day or two, but i have it almost down.”

dahyun moves back to her chair while she explains the plans for today’s session, backpack on the seat when she zips it open, fishing out her binder and other materials that she uses during practice, realizing that’s missing something that she thought was in the bag already. “shit, i thought i did - hey, you should take a break. i left my woodblock in the rehearsal hall downstairs.”

“do you really need it?” you ask her, eyes meeting hers while being very unamused. “i can focus on this a little bit longer before we actually get started.

“are you seriously asking me if–”

“dahyun, it was a rhetorical question.” you laugh, fingers hitting the wrong key once again. “i’ll go ahead and take five while you get ready.” dahyun knits her brows together, half-smiling when she starts to make her way out of the room and downstairs.

you’re left alone again in the small space, something that you’re used to at this point since dahyun always walks out in between breaks and what not. it’s another loop from the other day where you’re struggling in a passage of music, decompressing your brain with a completely different song to keep your hands moving before carrying on with the ballade once dahyun gets back.

dahyun’s shoes skate across the floorboards when she returns back from the lower level of the conservatory. again, she stops in her tracks at the open door when she hears the contrastive yet expressive phrasing between the lines. she can feel the power behind your fingers when they hit the keys, almost like you’re venting your anger. you’re confusing the idea in the interplays, crudeness over ferocity.

the frustration, she’s impressed by how much you put yourself through to perfect the little details in your playing. dahyun’s heard this piece a long time ago when she was young, it’s pulling at the threads in her heart at the faint memory creeping through her head.

it’s all too familiar to her. the sorrowfulness, whispering like some hushed curse dahyun doesn’t want to hear. she can feel your hollow cavity within your chest digging into hers, trying not to fall apart with the pain that’s unraveling. you don’t say anything, the full concentration not being fazed at all when you look up as your hands descend down in the scales of the notes, kicking with the powerful chord in the entirety of the piece, allowing the full madness of yourself lost to the winds of the song.

dahyun felt every single wave of emotion pass through her body while you waved with the piano, bending it to your will. she can’t comprehend that you had this side that wasn’t shown to anyone else. facing things alone because no one else could keep up with you, until when she came along.

nearly completing the excerpt, your eyes trail too far from the high key range of the piano, connecting with the door frame to see dahyun there, stopping yourself from playing while she stares at you. “oh,” you breathe, a sense of shock on your face, “i didn’t think you’d be back so soon.”

“well,” dahyun puts the woodblock in her hand behind her back, the pink cardigan she’s wearing nestling onto the aged wood, “i heard you play and just wanted to watch for a bit. not that you would mind.”

“i didn’t,” you say, sharply inhaling before scooting the seat back away from the piano to signify a stop to the playing. “see about that break–”

“hah.” dahyun laughs, making her way towards her spot with her backpack sitting on the chair, her violin case resting at the leg, open and waiting to be played. “do you want me to consider you playing as your five minute break, or are you actually going to get away from the piano for more than five minutes?”

“rude, again.” so on brand for her to be this way like it’s nothing. “if it’s all the same to you, i’d be fine if you’d tie me against the leg of the piano just to make your day better.” you make it sound like a promising offer, a proposition that she’ll happily accept if she wanted to, and she would if it was presented.

she laughs at you, the smirk spread across her face giving you more reason enough to roll your eyes back, reflecting on whatever the fuck you just said. because really, do you hear yourself right now? giving dahyun ideas would be the last thing on the list if it ever came to that.

“didn’t know that you’d be the kind of person to be into bondage.” dahyun manages, trying to stop her giggling from the utter stupidity you just spat out in front of her. “would you really let me tie you to that piano on the floor if it saved your sanity?”

“i meant musical bondage.” oh god, you’re really not helping your case here. even worse when it doesn’t even make rational sense with what you just said. “i–fuck, you know what? forget it.”

dahyun sits herself up on the chair, laughing again when she sees you stand up to hide your embarrassment. “you’re really fucking something, you know that?” she says, and you lock eyes with her. “like, you really surprise me with a new quirk every single time we’re together.”

“you’re still a bitch,” you respond to the observation, “if i say anymore, i don’t think i would be able to stop myself.”

“are you finished with your break?”

“don’t even think about throwing shit at my head if i mess up this time.”

—

it’s late into the evening when the power goes out in the conservatory suddenly.

a flip of the light switch shows no response to the practice room. up and down again twice, no luck.

up and down for a fourth time, still no electricity. the only light illuminating the room was coming from dahyun’s phone, scurrying over to the piano in search of yours, turning it on right after and facing it up to the ceiling while you peek your head out into the hallway that’s wrapped in nothing but darkness.

it’s kind of a fucked situation to be in, really: stuck in the practice room with the power out and it turns out that you and dahyun are the only ones in the building together?

splendid. the walls in the room would serve to be a great listener for impending doom you’re about to put yourself in.

—

“how do you know love’s sorrow?” dahyun asks you out of the blue, in the midst of the darkness.

you let your back slide down the wall, a sigh rasping once the bottoms of your legs lay flat out on the floor. “well,” you’re saying this like it stings you every time you think about it, “it was my mom’s favorite piece to play when i was little, said that it made me sleep at times.”

“so fucking original,” dahyun laughs, that tilt of her head when you see her from the corner of your eye, covering the vulgarity that she’s too accustomed to say, it’s stupid - borderline insanity really - you don’t even know how long it’s been since the power went out. “i guess this is the part where i say ‘oh! i’ve played this one when i was little’ and you would say ‘that’s a coincidence’ or something like that.”

“you and i really have two different scripts going through our heads right now.”

and no one would believe this small bubble, this flashpoint in time even if you lived to tell the tale. it’s how the low light from this old-fashioned lantern stashed in the far corner of the room that looked like it belonged in the late 1800s between dahyun’s feet and yours.

or maybe, when you left the room to check on the breaker down at the basement (god knows how you went there and back without the cells in your inner ear primed up to the highest level of close hearing possible each time you breathe or made a step back upstairs.) coming back to see dahyun shaken up, slightly erratic, the girl can’t seem to sit still given the fact of how much her hands were jittering.

“i didn’t know you hated the dark this badly,” you say, hand through your hair while the illuminating moonlight shines through the window above you two sitting down under. “gets me wondering how do you even sleep at night?”

dahyun slaps your shoulder, causing a wince to tug the muscles on your face. “first of all, don’t assume things that you’ve only heard from others,” she says, “second of all, i was just worried that you wouldn’t make it back in one piece.”

there’s this gaze she gives you with the dim light of the lantern off to the right side of your peripheral. even when she’s covering half of her face with the sleeve of her sweater, her eyes say something different. they’re cold, deadpanning, it’s a delicate hint to that underlying layer that’s hidden over that tough demeanor.

“didn’t think you’d be much of a worrier also, sorry.” you say, hand raised up in surrender, the whole warmth of the ambience created in the room lowering your inhibitions by the second. “guess that’s a new thing learned today.”

“about what?”

“that you do care about others.” you say, much bluntly.

a head is lowered into arms before dahyun looks up again, hiding a mix of a laugh and an inhale - running her fingers down her face before slotting her tongue just behind her bottom lip while you’re checking your dead phone for the eight consecutive time in the span of ten minutes.

the silence ever grows so louder.

“i too hate the nights sometimes.” your head hits the plank of the wood behind you, eyes up to the ceiling like this was some sort of realization brought up within, but this is just an overextension just to keep the conversation going. “i can’t sleep unless there’s a low light somewhere in the room where i can’t see it, but just having one is enough for me.”

dahyun looks at you again, her gaze locked with your side profile while you appear to reconsider everything in the lines of your life up to this point. she’s always so quick to put you down because it felt better to be that way, like her arms folded across her bunched up knees, she’s put this wall down to no second thought because it was easy for her.

it isn’t the end of the world in this situation, “i often can’t sleep at night sometimes,” she tells you out of nowhere, your turn to look at her to meet her eyes, slightly fuller with life. “takes me a bit before i actually doze off.”

“how long are we talking?” you ask her, eyebrows raise in the hope that this carries over.

“an hour or two.” dahyun answers, meeting you in the middle with her face matching yours, the hint of gold hitting the bottom corner of her cheek and jaw. “maybe even longer if sana and i were practicing late.”

brand new, a genesis of sorts. you’ve had normal conversations with dahyun before, talking about classes and music logistics for the recital. but this is a very new territory that’s been unexplored until now, a side of her that’s slowly creeping out from the shadows in its blossoming appearance.

you sit up slightly a bit to peek over the window, trying to see any sign of a security personnel in a golf cart or passer-by, it’s presented with nothing but the lines of trees swaying in the air, the dead of the evening filled with scattered crickets making themselves known in the distance.

“well i suppose i can talk about this then,” you offer the inquiry that could be subject to an interview or interrogation - in dahyun’s case it would be the second option. “would it be okay for you to tell me about those bruises that you got a while back? they looked pretty bad to me given that it was no accident.”

“watch it,” dahyun growls quietly, “i already told you for the last time, it’s nothing to be concerned about.”

“so then why can’t i be?” you’re asking, pleading. there’s also that second thought as to why would you be asking about dahyun being hurt in the first place after all of the shit that she’s done to you? that was also another thing to be addressed. speaking of–

“how come you’re okay with it if someone else were to ask, but when it’s me and all of a sudden i’m getting shit for no reason?”

dahyun just shakes her head, you’re pulling your lips back before saying any more that can make things worse. “look, i just don’t see why we can’t be friends just like everyone else that you hang out with.” you tell her, offering a possible explanation, “am i that big of a problem for you that’s not even worth solving in the first place?

“it’s not that.” she tells this as a bunkered down, spur of the moment excuse. a shitty one at that, especially. “it’s just…because…”

“c’mon dahyun, don’t give me that.”

“what do you want me to say?”

“anything that’s better than just ‘that’. i know you can do better.”

you sigh as a sign of giving up, and dahyun looks the other way before she snaps her head back to you, “it’s because of how much of a kiss ass you are at times. it annoys the fuck out me.”

“i’m a kiss ass? you’re the one who treats everyone like equal levels of royalty but when it’s me, i get treated like some sort of outcast that wants to be heard but you don’t care about it anyway!”

dahyun rolls her eyes, she’s doing it again; not willing to reason to anything else besides her own point because in her mind she’s right. always right. a curl of your right leg finds your arm seated at the knee cap, brows furrowed together trying to piece the revelations together while dahyun just stares out into nothingness in front of her.

“see the thing is–”

you look at her again with a quizzical look on your face, anticipating the potential jab she might dish out on you again.

“i do care,“ she says this, her voice sounds strained, like she’s fighting down the feeling of swallowing the whole fact down her throat. “i do….about you,” it’s throwing your whole head off in the thought process, “it’s just–difficult for me to–accept it.”

good god, the words sound broken. you’ve seen that dahyun can have these emotions with others, and not just be downright shitty when it comes to getting with you. this is a change, a good change at that, and it’s still hard to believe what she just said just now.

“baekhyun didn’t even have you as the initial option to be my accompanist.” ouch, you’ll definitely save that later when you see him again for rehearsal. “i’ve gotten a bad rep because of how i wanted to play things, and the other pianists didn’t like my creative direction in that.”

“dahyun, i didn’t even know this.”

“so when we were stuck with the possible selection, i asked baek if we could get you, and he told me that he wasn’t sure that you’d be a great fit for me. for obvious reasons.”

everything starts to make sense somewhat. “but that doesn’t explain why–”

“let me finish, dumbass.” dahyun sighs out, tugging her legs more closely now, the threads of her jeans creasing under the pressure of skin. “i was only acting that way because i wanted to get the best out of you, since baek stressed that you knew what you were doing, you just needed someone to help unlock that hidden potential you haven’t seen yet.”

you’re so lost in the new script, this might as well be an improv skit on the fly. the realization starts to hit harder little by little the more dahyun keeps explaining, and god she’s a much different person when she’s not berating you constantly or nagging about different parts of the piece that she wanted to work on over yours.

it’s a hazard, the lights in your head won’t stop going off. this is all talk, you might just be hungry, or dehydrated. either or, it doesn’t also help the fact that you’re staring at dahyun’s newly formed rosy cheeks mixed with the amber light bouncing off of it. the sudden closeness sweeping over in a matter of seconds.

“i…had no idea about this, at all.” you say, scratching your forehead trying to gather everything that was just filling your ears moments ago. “i’m sorry, but all of this wouldn’t have happened if we just–”

“talked, i know.” dahyun’s quick on the draw as well. she’s smiling, a wave of relief washed over her, back to her typical bubbly self that she normally was. she was like this with sana, with tzuyu, and now the newest addition: you.

“i suppose that this is all terrible timing.” she adds on, and you’re laughing as well, burying your face into your knees before looking back up on the ceiling soon after. “you see, about the bruises,” you’re reeled back in after the lighthearted break.

“my mom got really sick when i was little. she was a violinist before everything went bad.” dahyun has the new sense of confidence all of a sudden. if it were anyone else, she would’ve shut them down immediately, butting onto the next topic or question, or insult in her mind. “she gave me the belief that if i played the violin, she’d get better. in that case, i did just that.”

you nod, breathing quietly while doing so.

“i played, and practiced, for so many days. every competition that i attended was in the hope that she could get better, and for a time she was–day by day. then it got bad again, and my dad had it all twisted in the head with all of the costs and other outside pressures that he was dealing with for me and my brother.”

the story itself didn’t feel real to hear, but the way that dahyun was telling it showed that she’s been through this and knows that this part of her life was in the past.

“then, it wasn’t in the hopes of making my mom better anymore, it was just about winning. if we won, great, nothing happened. if we didn’t, then my dad would punish us for hours until he felt satisfied that we wouldn’t fail again.

“dahyun…” your voice breaks, lip quivering while anger boils through your body just by hearing that. hugging her for comfort would suffice, but you could see that she was headstrong, and that was something to admire about her, “so what about the bruises from last time?”

“i went to visit my family back home that weekend,” she answers, rolling up her sleeve to see that most of the marks were already gone completely, “got into an argument with my dad and he pretty much let me have it.”

“how are you saying this so nonchalantly when you got fucking hit?” you exclaim, balling your fists up in a heat of anger.

“y/n,” dahyun says, hand on your fist, shocked at the cool touch of her fingertips, “it’s okay. i’m fine now, that’s all that matters.”

taking a few seconds to recuperate, you relax yourself into the woodward on your back, sighing in exhaustion before the power comes back on. you and dahyun look up at the lights before staring at each other, standing up first before helping her up with a quick hand. she nods in approval, a thank you non-verbally, but a nice notion to the gesture you did for her nonetheless.

a few seconds later, a man that worked in the utilities for the school finds you guys, questioning if there was anyone else in the building besides you two, once he got the answer that it was just you and dahyun, he assured that you two would have everything off by the time you leave before moving on to take care of something else downstairs.

“should we not continue with the practice?” dahyun asks, closing the personal space between with her backpack in hand, “we still have to go through the—”

“i think we’ll be fine,” you reassure her, a thumb up to the side of her shoulder with a soft smile. she gives you this mix of a cross but cheerful look when you show your teeth to her, snorting through your nose while you got your stuff together. “go on ahead without me, i would assume sana would be worried about you not coming home by now considering it’s late.”

dahyun freezes for a second, wanting to wait for you, but you insist that she’d get going first before she has any funny ideas to annoy you longer. “are you sure?”

“yeah, i’m sure.”

dahyun then sighs, heel turned to the right towards the end of the hallway. “oh y/n?” she calls out to you, looking up with a hum in response.

“thank you,” she says, “for listening.”

you smile back, a big accomplishment for you and her both to act like this now, “always, you’re welcome though if you’re waiting for that. now get out of here.”

dahyun shakes her head for the final time tonight, looking back at you getting your stuff together from the piano. she stares for a little bit longer than expected, a shift towards something. she could think about it while standing there, but she starts to walk, putting it in the back of her mind to ponder about later.

she also starts to think you’re not so bad after all.

—

[4:07 pm]: i think we’ll be fine for the recital.

dahyun looks at her phone with a pert expression while walking out of her cousin’s cafe on campus heading on her way back to the conservatory.

[4:10 pm]: ditching on the last practice before the performance? that’s not like you at all y/nnie. she texts you instantly.

[4:12 pm]: i got roped to be a stand in for a gig. pretty much out of my hands since tzuyu said yes.

dahyun chuckles at herself from the message, knowing that you were always the person who couldn’t say no to anything offered to you even if you tried. why’d you let tzuyu put in a word for you? clearly it’s a setup.

[4:20 pm]: my thoughts exactly. but it’s fine, at least i’m out of the apartment for something else besides school.

you’re not wrong with that part either, leaning back on your chair while reviewing whatever concoction that’s composed from your head translated onto the digital file on your laptop. this part was for music theory and you thought it would be a good idea to just get it over with before leaving for the gig you were going to be playing at.

“do you know where to go tonight?” tzuyu asks, peering her head over past the door frame, the subtle wave of her hair curtains the background. “shouldn’t you be practicing for the recital next week anyway?”

“i’d very much rather decompress with a different genre than drive myself insane with classical music pieces for more than five days a week,” there's this small heave of your breath when you stretch out your arms overhead, “i also need a break already so why not do this instead?”

tzuyu lets out a soft laugh, pulling herself upright before entering through the doorway, rounding the table before grabbing your empty cup of espresso that was probably downed in one or two swigs. “do you at least have the proper attire?”

your nod while eyes glance over to the door with the outfit attached to the wall, something simple and nothing too glamorous for the occasion. “you said it’s at the small club in the plaza just across campus?”

—

and so, here you were, sitting at a piano with a quaint margarita sitting on top of it. the place itself was lively, filled with conversation and people on the small dance floor adjacent to the stage. sam, the guy that tzuyu said yes to you being the stand-in for the usual pianist, steps close behind the wooden spinet with a glass in hand, raising it up as an offer to indulge in another sip. “i suppose you’re having a good time tonight with this last minute thing?”

“i am,” you answer, rim of the glass to your lips while the remnants of the margarita slides down your tongue, “not much of a drinker but i figured why not have some fun for a bit? song choices are also solid and simple to follow, no issues here.”

“i should have you fill in for seb more often!” sam exclaims, “knowing him and his girlfriend being this well recognized actress, we don’t even see him as much.” you tilt your head at the new information given to you, something that tzuyu didn’t even bring up prior and simply said that your name just came up out of nowhere when her and sam had class earlier in the week, “tzu also said that you’re not much of a jazz enthusiast which is a complete lie–”

“sam, we gotta get ready for the next set.” myung-soo, another member of the small quintet jazz group, butting in with a pat to his shoulder.

in a few short moments after everyone else got into their respective places, “alright, off of my count.” sam says, the members met eyes with each other along with yours before sam mouths the words: five, six, seven, and…

—

dahyun waits at the crosswalk while she checks her phone for the time. ‘9:34’. she shouldn’t be out this late considering that she’s not a fan of cold weather, especially when the wind and the rain mixed in the air, heels clicking along the slick asphalt at the bottoms of her feet when she enters the plaza across from the school’s campus.

her ears pick up on the bossa nova tune heard in the building on the right side, to her curiosity, she weaves her way into the entrance of the club, the crowd looking to thin out from the outside but the complete opposite when she manages to squeeze through past the door. in her mind, she would’ve preferred to just wait outside under one of the commercial heaters that they typically have for restaurants. instead, she watches a couple take the small dance floor, dancing to the music as she bopped her head lightly to the sensual tune of the trumpet and backed piano voice.

her eyes catch the idle vibe of the jazz band’s head bopping, taking in the whole ambience before the room is filled with a collective applause, the voice of the club’s host thanking everyone for coming out tonight before taking the hint to leave early before there’s a huge pileup at the front door.

luckily, dahyun smiles to herself, overseeing the departing crowd of the club dispersing into smaller numbers. she then realizes that most of the people had no umbrellas over them, taking the liberty of closing hers and hooking it to her forearm while she does this plie into the balls of her feet, elevating to catch that someone in the crowd she’s waiting for.

“hey.”

the violinist sets herself down from the tips of her toes, turning around to see you in surprise. your head cocked at an odd angle, left arm folded in front that’s holding your leather jacket, the other hand with a helmet. “what are you doing here?”

“i was gonna ask the same thing?” dahyun fires back, mind registering the image of you and your attire. she stops short at the sight of you in that simple white dress shirt, the first three buttons from the neck down are unbuttoned, sleeves rolled up with your left wrist shining in two simple bracelets. your slacks are doing your midsection justice in all the right ratios–almost hourglass like that could even rival dahyun’s if she put it in a competition–your hair also flowing freely down the right side of your face. it was like dahyun was facing a mirror image of herself.

(really fucking weird if you put a thought into it, but you got lazy to tie your hair up, so that’s why.)

“i told you earlier, i had a gig,” you tell her, the arm holding your helmet out to the now closed jazz club with the lights still on from the outside. “this was it, playing for the regular pianist at this place for tonight.”

dahyun blinks, unfamiliar with the surroundings for a second before she shakes her head to snap out of it. her brows furrow again when you start to walk towards the street again, turning around to meet her eyes again, flipping your hair that makes her clear her throat. “i had a feeling i recognized the person at the piano earlier, didn’t put my finger on it. they were—”

“interesting?”

“enticing.”

you nod, the corner of your lip tugging slightly, forming a smile when you look up to the sky, the hints of stars in the gray bashing against the black canvas. “still begs the question,” you reply, seeing the glint in dahyun’s eyes when she smirks back at you, almost gleefully, “you didn’t just come here to indulge in jazz, did you?”

“my brother,” dahyun says, and she smiles when you have that same expression she had when she saw your text earlier that day, “he’s the bassist for the place here.”

“oh, that’s—” you try to piece it together, getting the same pat on your shoulder, turning your head to see myung-soo on your right, sharing the same eye smile that dahyun has when greeting others (it’s really fucking uncanny in this case). “what the fuck?!”

“nice playing, sorry again for springing this onto you at the last minute.” he says, walking over next to dahyun when she rolls her eyes playfully at him. “it’s good to see you again after all these years!”

“nice to see you’ve done well for yourself,” you reply back to myung-soo, “also impressed knowing that music hasn’t left you even after everything that’s happened.”

“i didn’t even know that you attended the same school as dahyun up until last week.” myung-soo says, pointing to dahyun with his head with another smile spread across his face.

“only because you’re too busy getting your business venture up to speed.” dahyun butts in, elbow to his elbow before her eyes veer the opposite direction. “always sounding like traveling the world will drain the life out of you.”

“and it will! when i get to it.” myung-soo laughs, pulling his bass guitar case over his shoulder more to secure it in place. “were you waiting for me so that we can go home together? i just parked right outside the club.”

dahyun kept her eyes on her brother for a few seconds longer, twisting over to see that you had already reached the edge of the street, jacket on and on your bike before you felt the presence of her eyes on you, looking back to see you visibly confused. “wait!”

you stop, sitting upright when dahyun walks over to you on the sidewalk. “what’s up?”

the moonlight glow reflects off of the glossy cement, the droplets of rain spread out across the body of your bike, the wool material of your slacks soaking in the remnants of water wiped away from the seat. you still have this hinge of anxiety from dahyun’s aura when she’s just standing there, her face expressionless, but her eyes always telling a much deeper tale over the appearance. “did i do something wrong this time?”

“i just…lost my train of thought.” she looks down at the admission, the small gust of wind sweeping through her that curtains the pink rising to her cheeks.

dahyun has that poise to her, an anomaly that can be noticed on any other given day. the fact still stands–

she’s beautiful. (but you won’t admit yourself to that.)

“won’t be the first time i’ve heard that from you,” you laugh, the helmet between your hands nestling in between your thighs while dahyun does that little habit of hers: tongue against the inside of her cheek or where the inside of her bottom lip just rests against her lower row of teeth. “you sound worried, should this be a concern?”

“no, not at all. i just felt like we should’ve practiced for one last time.” dahyun says, inhaling and sighing deeply soon after, the stress becoming apparent for even a slight second. “we’re out of time aren’t we?”

all dahyun sees is you sliding the black helmet on, seeing the opening space where the visor closes, meeting your eyes while you roll up the ends of your leather jacket to give the skin some breathing space to the air. “you sound like me, that's another first.”

“do i?” she asks, and it comes off in disbelief meddled with a laugh. “god, there’s a lot going wrong.” she can’t see it, but you’re smiling under the solid material of the plastic and mesh when she said that, a flex of the wrists that’s followed by holding the handlebars.

“i think we’ll be fine,” you tell her, starting the bike that’s brought to life into a small hum, “we’re musicians, prodigies at that too.” saying that like it’s a fact, an affirmation, a reminder. “like i said, we have this in us.”

dahyun shakes off the reassurance, hand tapping her thigh before she attempts to prolong the conversation for a few seconds longer, “you never told me you dabbled with jazz, or rode a bike for that case.”

you look at her through the opening space of your visor, replicating that same eye smile she gave to antagonize, more than content with the fact that she’s the one pushing the wanting knowledge deeper. it could be poetic justice, or a full circle, better yet–

“i guess there’s just a plethora of things that you don’t know about me.” you tell her, slapping down the visor in place, “that makes us even.”

–a full callback, a coda of sorts. a perfection of writing in all aspects, really.

“i’ll see you at rehearsal,” you say, revving up the motorbike once to keep the seat on your bottom warm. “take care dahyun.”

she groans, rolling her eyes again, but in a more playful way when she smiles back, “i’ll see you in class y/n, good night.”

you give her a final nod of acknowledgement, revving up the bike when you look over your left shoulder for the blind spot, slowly rolling away into the distance, not showing dahyun under that helmet of yours the dimple you couldn’t get rid of.

—

a week passes, and it’s the night of the performance, less than two hours before taking center stage.

the buildup around the venue was grand, there’s a whole press release around the school. light posts and designated areas for the army of photographers set up around the front of the auditorium with well known figures around the community also coming out to celebrate the wonderful occasion.

you’ve managed to scrape past the paparazzi, meeting up with baekhyun and dahyun prior to having the special moment of taking in all the bright lights and the many click. click. clicks on the red carpet. dahyun’s dress is appealing with the off-white and daisy floral look complimenting her porcelain skin, the angles and slopes in all the right places. you look good, she looks good. the accidental eye contact towards each other is also a funny exchange when you notice the blush burning across her cheeks, dahyun can take the attention, but when it’s you, it’s leaving her speechless, asphyxiating for one second even.

even when you’re settling into the reflection on the vanity, adjusting the bracelet that you’ll have to take off for the performance anyway, when the door behind you busts open with no announcement. dahyun storms in, not even phased or horrified with the swivel of your chair to face her. “hey, this isn’t your dressing–”

“you happen to have a spare dress here, do you?” she asks frantically, hands clutching the coat over her, “mine just ripped from one of the sliding doors on the way in and,” her voice sets in the reminder of this whole thing you got yourself into, “we get on stage in about ten-to-fifteen minutes.”

you glance at the clock from the reflection, immediately shooting up from your seat, approaching dahyun to assess the damage when she has her arms folded, closing the space between you and her in the small room. “how bad is the rip?”

“what?”

“show me where the dress ripped, i think i can stitch it together in a few minutes if we’re lucky.” you tell her, hand tugging at the hem of her blazer. her expression is shocked, disbelief that you’ve put yourself forward into the unintentional advances of your actions (no time to act like this when there’s more important matters to deal with).

“are you fucking crazy?” dahyun exclaims, closing the blazer even tighter to restrict you access, and it’s gonna make you bust a blood vessel if she drops the innocent girl act right now. “i’m telling you, the rip is not that big of a deal–”

“but you’re making it sound like it’s the end of the world, now show please.”

she sighs, loosening her pull on the polyester for you to open, that floral dress she had unveiling a tear in the fabric of her waist, the hole showing the small hint of her abs off to the right side. you’re also tugging on the loose threads, opening it up more to see the faintest sliver of her bra (c’mon, really? at this time?) before she clears her throat before you could even make a full internalization of the image.

“wow…” your voice trails as dahyun just accepts the hand at the side of her middle, the softest touch of your hand just resting on the dress while her hand hovers your forearm. “how the hell did this happen?”

“we can figure that out after i get a new dress.”

dahyun doesn’t realize that you’ve had this dressing room to yourself for the past year or so, knowing that it regularly gets cleaned out every few weeks, so the odds of having a dress here just by pure luck is highly unlikely. however–

“did you check the cabinet in your dressing room?”

“no, it’s been locked since i got here.”

you turn to see the set of keys on the corner of the vanity, realizing that one of the old pieces of metal should be able to unlock the cabinet upstairs, hopefully. so you grab dahyun by the wrist, pulling her through the hallway and into the elevator heading up to the third floor of the auditorium.

at first it was just you two inside the lift, then the elevator stopped at the second floor when a sudden influx of staff entered, forcing you to press close next to dahyun once at max capacity. your hands at her waist while her arms brace against your chest. you also kept your head up while dahyun kept hers down, the distance from chin to cheek dangerously close if you or her made a sudden move.

“this is okay, right?” you ask, voice above a whisper, fingers gripping the fabric that makes you blush from the sudden contact. dahyun just nods, hiding her face into the jacket while her heart races at the beeping of the panel.

eventually breaking away from the compact proximity of the crowd in the elevator, you and dahyun manage to make it back to her dressing room, fast to the lock of the cabinet with the grinding of the metal, opening it up to see a singular dress at the very edge inside. you step away for dahyun to get a closer look, and she tilts her head, nodding along to say that it’ll work for now. “thank you.” she says, looking at you, maintaining her professionalism all the way through.

“i’ll be out backstage,” you tell her. “keep your eye on the clock and text me if you need anything else.”

dahyun just looks at the last wave of your hand and leg when the door sweeps shut, looking at the moved clothing piece from the cabinet now onto the couch.

—

the hands shouldn’t be this jittery moments before entering onstage, but they are.

the simple slim, but elegant dress sits on your well-fitted figure, fingertips sliding across the fabric in the hopes of coming to grips. your brain is working overtime trying to ensure that every minute detail of the music is ingrained into your muscles.

dresses annoyed you at times of wearing it for occasions like this, it never got old.

you want to rip it off yourself to save the trouble.

baekhyun waltzes in out of the darkness of the stage equipment, microphone in hand and a calling card that really only had scribbles of lines across just to look the part, knowing that he had a charm of improvising his lines with little to no practice. “where’s dahyun?” he asks, snapping you out of your train of thought.

“shit, i–” you sound like a pole just struck you in the head, “uh–”

dahyun then walks past the doorway with her violin at the right moment, and the image of her has enough pull on you like a black hole swallowing up a planet. her outfit - that high neck, sleeveless dress that exposed her shoulders, her collarbone also hinted the more you let your eyes indulge. she also has this rosy blush of makeup that’s a small touch up, in addition to those pearl earrings that complimented her lazy braid of hair as well.

she looks absolutely ethereal, and your heart skips a bit when she approaches you.

“how do i look?” dahyun asks, catching your eyes while you’re still slack-jawed. she lifts her palms up to the side to present the whole look, “i think it’s pretty cute no?”

you suddenly don’t want to rip off your dress anymore, but hers instead.

so you say nothing, frozen while your doting eyes just continue to blink as dahyun smirks sheepishly. baekhyun raises his hands in adoration, “you look absolutely remarkable by the way miss kim. gorgeous, stunning, the main event for sure.”

he’s right. baekhyun is so damn right.

he then turns his head towards center stage once the prior performance finished up their act, giving a bow to the audience while looking at you and dahyun. baekhyun smiles, eyes fluttering at the excitement that’s about to unfold, and he mouths ‘good luck, but you two don’t need it’.

the presentation and exposition fades out from your ears when dahyun stands next to you, diverting your attention to her when she meets your eyes again. “you’re awfully quiet,” she observes, gauging a punchline to hit with you if the flow of the conversation flows in her direction, “are you nervous?”

your hands stop moving entirely, sliding down your thigh once you’ve been brought back to your senses. “no, i'm not.” you reply, shaking your head at the notion, “the nervousness doesn't get to me.”

“we’ll see about that,” dahyun says, hand clutching your wrist for a slight second before dropping it in a reaction to the applause of your numbered introduction. “fancy a little competition for once?”

“stick to the script, dahyun.” you growl, knowing that the tone in her voice always spells disaster whenever she challenges you. “if you want the limelight so badly, give up trying to move me.”

“never.”

she walks onstage, the roars only getting louder when she peeks over her shoulder to meet your eyes, and you follow. dahyun’s gravity is impossible to resist when you’re also waving to the crowd, the dry light burning your eyes once you’ve settled in on the steinway.

everything settles down, moments away from the set of work that you and her have been practicing on for countless weeks. the eagerness to start, the drive to finish.

dahyun lifts her bow so gracefully, building up suspense when you have your fingers over the two keys of the piano.

and the both of you finally play.

—

(if you could see yourself performing in the audience, you could easily consider the experience to be life changing with the way dahyun’s weight is played through the music. she easily pushed you from the first note of the ballade to the grand entrance of dahyun’s moment on stage.

it lit a light within you, to see her having so much joy in her playing, the highlight of talent for the whole auditorium to see. she’s running away with her moment, you can see her smiling just a bit when she twists her body towards the piano.

dahyun can lead the celebrations once the roar of thunderous applause is heard.

as always, all you can do is follow.)

—

there’s scattered pods of groups at the reception following after the concert. members of the ensemble and the friends that you talk to on the regular all having a quick drink and exchange of laughs. you’re also conversing with different faculty members while being towed around by baekhyun in what felt like a forced promotion.

in between the switches of dialogue, your eyes scan out to the crowd, surveying for anything out of the ordinary - a way out of sorts. yet the sight of dahyun in the distance, talking to one of her professors intrigues you just at the end when she steps away. time starts to lose it’s pace: she has her tongue against the inside of her cheek, that messy braided hair brushing on the midline of her back, she has this quirk of her eyebrows to be perked up in high spirits - it’s cute.

but then her gaze shifts into something more serious, focusing closely across the hall - she’s searching, floating across the floor when she sets her sable sharp eyes on yours. they’re piercing through the more you speculate just mere inches away now.

“i need to talk to you about something,” dahyun announces, and there’s this sense of limbo because it could literally entail nineteen different ways (maybe more), “privately.”

amidst the lively climate of the after party, and you’re riddled with a mesh of nerves and eagerness to leave and find out what’s been plaguing dahyun’s mind, the noise of it all becomes more and more quiet the further you and her get away.

once the sounds are near zero, dahyun opens a door to an unoccupied room secluded on the second floor upstairs from the main hall below, the low light of the doorway as the sole source to see dahyun’s face. the nervousness that was once there before was now substituted with a calming presence between you two - safe and secluded.

“what’s all this about?” you question, walking in further past dahyun followed by the subtle shut of the door. “it’s not like you’re in trouble or anything.”

“oh it’s nothing bad,” she replies, pathing similarly while you set yourself against the door frame, allowing dahyun to take up the bigger space from you. “i just wanted to tell you two things that happened.”

you breathe and swallow, slowly.

“okay,” you mumble, arms behind your back then at your side, “what’s the first thing you want to tell me?”

dahyun just stands there, suspended for a few seconds while the only thing that the walls pickup is the little pats of her thigh. you tense your jaw, while she just clicks her teeth not long after, “weird, i kinda forgot. sorry.”

her lips curl into a smile and you’re thinking of quick jabs to dish out for the hiccup she just presented you with, “so what’s the other thing you were gonna tell me,” you say, “if you can’t remember the first?”

dahyun flashes this look from her charcoal eyes, lips pulled inward as if the uncertainty she’s about to commit derails the whole act she’s put up until now, but she could care less once that first step was taken, and you’re still staring at her like an idiot - it’s nothing new.

she kisses you.

that press she has, it’s the lightest touch. your mind short circuits a bit from the contact, pulling away slightly and dahyun chases to keep her lips on yours. her hand is quick to thread through your hair, the other on the slope of your jaw. your hands were quick to naturally grab her waist, parting her lips in the process from the tug, biting her bottom lip that whips in a sharp inhale of air through the nose.

your back is against the frame of the door. dahyun is collapsing by the millisecond, hands going haywire, she lets out this hum of approval when you groan a bit into her mouth, the movement of everything becoming desperate, frantic - the air leaving her soft lips lifting that urge to go the extra step, slowing down suddenly to backtrack on what she has done to you.

“how about that?” she asks, stealing another peck before you let your inner conscience take the reins of your position for a slight second, swapping ends where she’s pinned against the door now, leg hiked up from your hand under her thigh, “fuck.”

“about what?” you repeat the matter again while attacking dahyun’s neck with your tongue and teeth, a tease for what’s about to unfold while nibbling away at the soft skin before sweeping a kiss to her jaw and the bottom of her ear. “i caught on about this a while ago, i could see it.”

the dragged sigh that dahyun lets out is heavenly. christ–

“you’ve proved me wrong,” dahyun’s eyes lowering slightly when her fingertip skates across the mold of your cheekbone, that damned smile forming across her lips to signify that she’s winning this battle so far. “and to think that i had other thoughts about you.”

“you don’t think i could flatter you enough?” you ask, leaning back slightly while her hand is caressing your middle. “we shouldn’t.” you’re quick for the defensive, “i–we can’t.”

“oh,” dahyun breathes out, “what a shame.” it’s a taunt as she’s patting down your hair while you shake your head.

“screw you,” is the response that’s sputtered out in the heat of everything.

“your problem,” another kiss given out to keep you second guessing, “not mine, dumbass.” she snickers before letting out an unexpected moan when your grip tightens around her waist, pulling her closer. “always the one to play it safe.”

it’s downright evil when that last sentence is whispered out to you. this should be a one time thing, never to happen again - not in a million years or when there’s the next opportunity to play alongside the very person that has put you through hell, dragging you down to an even deeper depth.

“kiss me again.” dahyun says, permissive yet commanding.

you’re at the end of the excerpt, no response for your part, and you do kiss her again. no other choice could be sufficient enough to save you - you’ll kiss her like your life depended on it. she can own you, and curse her for having you all figured out.

—

you’ll count the measures in your head, let the hands work meticulously between the lines. frankly, this flame in your heart will only burn brighter.

—

dahyun keeps you gravitated when you pin her in the same position against the walls of your apartment. it’s way off being gentle with all of the fuck’s and hmms and heated insults of keep your mouth working over me to name a few. your coat is torn off frantically while you’re shoving your nose under the lower ridge of her jaw.

“god,” dahyun murmurs when your lips brush across hers for a second, tending to the other untouched part of her neck before your arms slide around her waist, a hard grab at the hip that makes her gasp. your hand is buried in her hair again as she opens herself up to you, tongues clashing as she tries to hide away, figuratively making herself smaller under you.

there’s an audible smack when you catch your breath, only for dahyun to fill the space in your throat with her voice once more. she needs this: you, over her, hands full, begging to be unraveled. you’ll fuck her up, a final movement, the rhythm that will quiver when you hear her wailing for your name.

“you’re such–ah! p-prick,” she groans again when you’re shrugging off your leather jacket onto the floor, keeping a hand on dahyun before she pulls you back, elbow against the wall while her hand snakes to put your chin higher up before you freeze for a slight second, breath hitching between lips when she lets out a soft whine when you don’t give her what she wants. “please, please, please—keep going.”

her nails drag across your arm, trying to urge you to do something about the momentary pain, but you’re too good with your hands, clutching onto her wrists when you cross and put them over her head. there’s a wrinkle in her dress when she lifts her leg as an attempt to wrap it around you, your left hand quick to deflect it off before it’s back on her midsection.

the edge of your nose is nestled into her hair, lips canvassing the rim of that little heart-shaped ear, a spot discovered when her back arches off the drywall for a millisecond. this is a new side to dahyun—one that’s catching you by surprise the way her eyes flicker, her bottom lip twitching that’s met with another heavy sigh when you kiss the swell.

“why keep fighting…when you’re already losing?” you question, voice muffled against her neck carelessly, dahyun’s gasp filling your ear when you let go of her wrists for her to get around your neck, prolonging the sensation that makes her eyes roll back. “i can stop if that’s what you want.”

dahyun shakes her head, her arms giving no slack when you slide down her neck further, consuming this drug that’s unleashing this symphony of hot, ragged breaths and moans.

“do you–do you have any idea,” she huffs out, her leg hiked up now for your thigh to settle in the middle, “how many nights i’ve gone through–thinking about ruining you?”

you can’t help yourself but chuckle, “funny how you’re saying that,” forehead against hers, face in your hands with the constellations of lust boiling under her eyes,”when i’m the one that has you like this–” smiling against the underside of her jaw when you’re leaving another shadowy mark.

dahyun’s body is so small, so fragile–it’s becoming more and more destructive when you undress the upper half of her dress, resting at the waist when you see the hidden figure much more closely, a blank page of music waiting to be written or sung.

“are you gonna keep staring, or are you gonna get back to it?” she asks impatiently.

“so–” a slide up her chest where your hands stop at her breasts, another kiss after to keep her quiet and mewling, “fucking–” pulling away with a subtle pull of her lips–lathered with your spit, “needy.”

you see the glint in her half-lidded eyes, she’s winning.

“you could shut me up, and i’ll keep giving you shit.” she says, pressing your body closer, “don’t test me.”

“you’ve already done that. gonna need a new offer on the table.”

“am i feeding your ego?” the lines on her face crinkle into a grin, “you’ve been wanting this to happen, haven’t you?”

she’s so turned on when you let your hand tug the waistband of her white dress, playing along the edge of her underwear, slipping in to test the waters, lightly rubbing her clit that stops her movement from the sudden shift of her legs opening wider for you. “i could just leave you like this, and forget about it.”

“don’t–don’t give me that. stop–fuck, i hate–” dahyun sputters out, the muscles in her body cramping and relaxing to the point she can’t stop the bucking of her hips. “fuck me up so bad… just don’t be a tease.”

“what is that you want?” you propose, kissing her again, head into the wall again while dahyun’s hands slide the latter half of her dress, crumpling on the floor. “need me to deal with your bratty attitude?”

she smiles. a wave of relief. she’s honest, a rarity at best, “can you give me what i want?”

“depends,” you reply, hands down the end of her hips, trying to remember the feeling of her hourglass-like body, “we’ll see if i have you screaming to deserve it.”

dahyun shivers in place, lips in between her teeth while her eyes trail down the sight of you sinking to your knees. the underwear is quick to be discarded, and her legs twitch a bit from the trail of wet kisses. you could feel the heat the closer you get. little by little, piece by piece, she has reduced you to where she’s over you once more (for now at least.)

everything changes when your mouth meets her other lips, and a slide of the tongue upwards, relaxing into it, she’s following along.

“hngh!”

you lift her leg over your shoulder, grinning, pulling back soon after to meet her eyes and twitching brows, “it all makes sense now.” with that, you hook your arms around her hips and leg, siphoning away all sensibilities that she has left.

when the tip of your tongue nicks her clit, or when it dips in deeper–it’s a steady approach to eating her pussy in the same way you play the piano. a more delicate touch, the whiner she gets. ravishing and ripping? she’ll grip your hair harder while you’re tearing her to pieces. her pupils are blown out while these hot kisses from you make her cunt drip over your chin.

“yes,” dahyun moans, and she’s already beginning to plead. “fuck, fuck–don’t—you’re amazing–god. please.”

considering all of the choked moans building up within her windpipe and the way her calf is pressing onto the disc of your shoulder, she’s losing it. the sweetness of her pussy is enough to last you lifetimes. you can read the reactions, her hips crumbling over your forearm, feeling the bearings of your mouth faster, harder.

“you’re trembling, is this all too much for you?” you groan, gauging her condition. the heat in her hips is increasing, and with another swirl of your tongue around her clit. it’s magical, she’s lost in the suction.

“no,” she responds, shaking her head side to side before she admits soon after bobbing her head up and down. “hmm, yeah.” it’s the only form of management that she could do once her hips finally spaz out, shuddering while you’re holding her in place against the wall. “god, y/n–” she’s panting at the calculated effort, gripping your head as you lick.

“cum baby, you know you want to.”

“you’re—you-you-you’re gonna make me,” she whines, diminished to a whisper, and it’s a mix of curses in between while she’s finally collapsing, the spill finally being drained. “y/n, i’m gonna cum–shit!” dahyun cries and you’re showering her in praise through hums. the reward of her slick soaking your mouth and chin.

dahyun lets the lingering shudders leave her body while you’re still kneeling, smirking at the work you just did, letting your tongue clean up the last bits of mess she’s made over you, her leg resting on your shoulder comfortably. “such a good girl for me,” you mumble, looking up to see her flushed face, “what a beauty to see.”

you elevate yourself, find your hands clasping hers. it’s a mend that’s built in such a short span of time, but she’s smiling, melting under your touch when you lift her off the ground and in your arms, legs wrapping around your waist while her lips are on yours again.

“how do you want me?” the girl you’re carrying asks, getting lost in that little afterglow she’s emitting when you’re staring at her, thumb rubbing the side of your face when you manage to get to the bedroom, settling down with her on top. “was pinning me against the wall not enough for you?”

“you really,” you start, caught off guard again when dahyun leans down for another messy kiss as your body tenses up, clutching the small of her back while you groan down her mouth. “don’t know when to shut up, do you?”

“just can’t help myself,” dahyun answers, the fringes of her messy hair sending a picture for you to keep in your mind, “i’m gonna get back at you for teasing me up till this point.”

“and i’m not gonna allow you,” your grip on her hip tightens, the threat present when you flip her over on the bed, slipping out of your dress and lowering yourself to treat her to more kisses across her face then down her neck, earning more lovely moans out of her. “no matter how much you try, you’ll lose. every time.”

dahyun’s eyes flutter shut when your hand works her breast with the other occupied by your mouth. her back comes off the sheets just a bit while you’re circling your arm around her waist again, pulling her towards you, her pussy against the cold touch of your thigh.

“baby, baby–baby please—i want you to fuck me–need your mouth - your fingers, please - give me what i want,” she’s writhing beneath you, “you’re such a bitch.”

her hand scratches your lower back slightly, a sharp inhale in her mouth while she’s smiling. fuck her neediness for you, it’s that annoying attitude that she’s unleashed to the point where you’ll consider flipping her over the bed and completely give in to her pleasures, but that won’t be the case.

“ask real nicely first,” you tell her, “i won’t listen to a fucking brat who thinks she can have whatever she wants.”

“and if i do, will you?” she’s doubling down her efforts, working you up when she lifts her head up to shower a few kisses down the line of your throat, hands flowing across the slides of your hips and waist to lower your inhibitions. “i always get what i want.”

“fuck,” you say, gripping both sides of her middle, pressing your knee against her core, and she moans. “fucking brat.”

“yes,” again, it’s not right, you have to set the record straight with her. “need you now, need you to fuck me - ruin me.”

you’re leaving more marks across the others you put on her; the way her body tenses when you let your lips trail down lower and lower and lower, the clutch of your fingers on her leg slowly shifting over to her exposed pussy, wet and ready; something that needs to be dealt with here and now.

“have me like this, and fuck me some more.”

the sound that leaves your lips is primal, and you’re letting her have it. “a fucking slut is what you are,” you tell her, sliding your finger across her folds, and the cry dahyun lets out is something that crumbles the whole facade, “you want me inside now?”

“make me - shut the fuck up.”

“don’t test me,” is all you say to her, and you push two fingers into her swollen cunt. dahyun’s head presses into the covers and you’re already curling your knuckles inside. it’s even worse when you slide down her body more and start to eat her out while you’re thrusting in between, spreading her legs out more to give you clear air.

“just–hnn–no–yes–shit–” she snaps out. it’s a hard fall, way off balance. you’re kissing the inside of your thigh before you’re back for more, the taste of her is electrifying, eyes rolling back while her mind is in a completely different headspace.

“so good,” dahyun tells you, lifting her head up while you’re fucking the life out of her. “fuc–god that’s fucking something.”

the syllables become less verbal and coherent, the arousal neverending when dahyun’s screeches reach another decibel. her hips and legs are in the air by you while your tongue swipes inward again. “my lovely slut can’t seem to keep her voice down,” you mumble breathlessly, noting that her high is coming, “should i let you cum now that you’ve earned it?”

“please–” it’s the countless utterance she’s said for who knows how long now, “i’m so fucking close.” her thighs are trembling at this point around your head and once the sobs come in, the musical cue that dahyun is thoroughly fucked through, you let your kisses become more languid, the rubs on her thigh becoming sporadic - slowing down as she barely puts in the effort to keep her head up.

once everything settles and the stench of sex is the only thing taken into account, you set dahyun on the sheets again, dropping kisses making your way up to her tattered neck and jaw. she tastes herself from your lips while carding fingernails into your hair, humming with a sheepish smile once the tiredness makes its way in.

“already worked over?” you whisper into her ear and she grumbles in response.

“i’m gonna get you back sooner or later,” dahyun answers with a lazy lip lock that has you smiling, “i’ll let it slide just this once.”

“even after everything i did, you still won’t shut up.”

—

when the morning comes, you’re doing damage control, staring up at the funny bumps and patterns on the ceiling while the soft, labored air of the lovely violinist snuggled up tickles your collar bone. she’s all wrapped up nicely in the sheets of your bed, arm draped across your waist as she presses her cheek, getting more comfortable.

she murmurs in her sleep, leg on leg with the sheets as the divider, "i got an offer to perform in vienna."

"vienna?" you puzzle, combing a few strands of hair from your face before your eyes land ontop of dahyun's head, "as in like-europe?"

"that was the thing i wanted to tell you, but like i said, i forgot."

humming in response, the silence settles in again while the events of last night replay back in your head. “how long have you–” you don’t even finish that question, because it sounds like a repeat button on the track.

dahyun just looks up at you, the messy bed hair and intense gaze will have you mentally pulling up over the covers to hide in embarrassment. it seems vague when she’s also questioning too; the inquiry of when did ‘this’ occur. she’ll have you guessing, because she doesn’t answer at all.

“can you get off my arm? like, i can’t feel it.” you tell her.

she just clutches you closer in denial, not wanting to let the heat escape between the two of you. your eyes dart down to see her look up at you so earnestly, following along the curves of your body–the newly acquired spot of bruises across your chest while her fingers graze over your ribs, like the strings that she plucks on a daily basis.

“and if i refuse?” she asks, hand falling flat on the underside of your boob, “do you want me to rush you to the hospital for an amputation?”

“tell them about my heart condition too,” you reply, whispering. the little ‘thrums’ in your chest from underneath are constantly moving like a slow metronome. “might as well pull the plug on me.”

dahyun again just lifts herself up slightly, elbow propped up as she scoots to capture your lips. this harmonious feeling laid all out for you to listen, the hums and giggles that she reveals is a reward in itself. she can be abrasive and stubborn, play along with the self-deprecation, feed into the derailment of your emotional state.

“i could never,” she follows up with, rolling over when you sit up to unshackle the limbs from their slumber. “besides, all of this wouldn’t have happened if it weren't for me making the first move.”

“you’re one to tell me about your little crush on me since we were freshmen is childish?” you say, looking over your shoulder while dahyun just sits their idly, wrists on wrists in their natural lady-like position, “if that were the case, then–”

once you stand up to stretch the tension out, you spin back to see dahyun in a loose oversized sweater that was on your office chair next to the bed, staring at you innocently before looking down with those pouty lips, tugging on the collar that shows the necklace of marks stretch across her neck, as well as some of her collarbone. she could wear a trash bag, or the spare white dress from the dressing room last night, and you’ll keep staring at the image - she’ll look good in anything.

“you didn’t ask for that,” you tell dahyun, hand on your hip while the sleeves cover her hands, shielding her face (and that gummy eye smile combo) away from you. “stealing isn’t a good look for your rep anyway.”

“it’s not stealing,” she retorts, “think of it as borrowing.”

when you swipe the curtains to rein in the cloudy mix of white and gray from the sky, dahyun settles a pillow between her arms, that one pillow that’s muddled with your scent and warmth, prolonging the absence until you’re able to fill that space in her again.

“so you’re just gonna borrow everything that you see in my place?”

that signature laugh again, it’s music to your ears. you’d wanna record it on a voice memo and have it for your keepsake. she can take the materialistic items you have some care for, steal your clothes that will come back around like a boomerang, have you taking tylenol for the amount of times she’ll drive you insane when practicing for performances together - she’ll steal everything, because she can.

“you still haven’t answered my question yet.” you tell dahyun, kneeling in front of the edge of the bed while she’s still trying to avert her eyes from making eye contact with yours. fingers hooking around the sleeves of the sweater cuff, placing them on your face when she eases herself onto you - those gentle fingers and small hands - she’s that flourishing story you’ll read and tell.

a loving dream that was once a nightmare.

a/n: happy birthday to the woman who is the pinnacle of this account's existence. if you made it all the way here, thank you for reading as always, it really means a lot. <3

(small shoutout to @cry4mina for helping me push through while writing! this wouldn't have been possible w/o you)

and dedicated for @neoplatinum, my present in return for gifting the title.

#dubu day >.<#kpop x reader #twice x reader #twice imagines #twice dahyun #twice #dahyun x reader #kim dahyun x reader #kim dahyun #twice smut #hyunie

169 notes · View notes