Minjeong had always loved music. From as soon as her consciousness allowed her to remember, she has always been surrounded by music. And growing up, music became her safe space. Something she could retire to whenever things would get too heavy, and the world would be too much to bear for her.
In short, music blessed her life.
But music has also been her biggest curse. And Minjeong learnt this unfortunate and inescapable fact at a very young age.
For her eighth birthday, her grandfather had gifted her her very first guitar. It was a shiny red and white Harley Benton ST-20 CA. To Minjeong, the sequence of complex words had made no sense at the time. But just seeing how happy her grandpa looked giving her this guitar, made her immediately fall into a giddy smile.
Minjeong loves her grandpa. He used to be the guitarist of a famous rock band in Korea. Wherever you went, you would always hear the name of Kim Minsuk, the “guitar genius”.
But guitar had also taken so much away from him. Managing stardom is a different process for everyone. And for him, it had taken the shape of giving up everything to follow his love for music. Everything including love, and family.
Maybe this is why Minjeong’s mother hates music so much. And maybe why the first thing she did when she saw Minjeong’s birthday gift was to take it away from her, ignoring her pleas of despair.
But Minjeong had not given up, and every night, she would sneak into the attic to retrieve the guitar her mother had hidden away from her, to practice until dawn.
Sometimes, when she would visit her grandpa (against her parents’ wishes), he would lend her some of his old guitars so she could scratch a cord or two. She would spend hours fiddling with the tunings, pulling the strings and making music hers.
And when her grandpa had secretly gifted her her very first flatpick, Minjeong had been over the moon. It was a white pick, with a golden flake engraved on it. So simple yet meaningful to the young girl.
The artifact became her most prized possession, until her mother found out about it and took it away from her. Minjeong had once again been hit by music’s curse.
Everytime she would try to touch an instrument, everytime her gaze would linger for a bit too long on a music shop’s display, her mother would bring her back to reality, and keep her away from it.
It didn’t stop her from going over to her grandpa’s to practice though. And during those fleeting moments, Minjeong finally felt like herself. Surrounded by nothing but music, and the satisfying painful feeling of the thin cords pressing against her fingers.
Her dream was to become a famous guitarist, just like her grandfather. But alas, life had other plans for her, and she had no choice but to comply with her parents’ wishes.
So this is why instead, after graduating highschool, she enrolled in a law major.
Law clearly lacked the excitement music brought to her. It was nothing but an entanglement of big words, never ending articles and nonsensical cases. Law was dull, strict and suffocating.
However, music was like a breath of fresh air to her. It was everything she needed to function.
When Minjeong turned twenty, her grandfather gifted her another guitar. One she promised to make hers and keep away from her parents’ wrath. It was a Jackson Pro Series Signature Jeff Loomis Kelly Ash. A long name to describe a pure jewel. The instrument had been Minjeong’s dream guitar since the first time her eyes laid upon it on a music magazine, and she finally had it between her palms.
However, as rejoiced as she was, she immediately remembered how music became a secret for her. She simply doesn’t have a choice but to solely enjoy it by herself.
Music felt so free, yet so restricting. Something made to share with other people, but that she had to keep to herself.
Even her best friend Yizhuo knew nothing about it. And Minjeong would love to keep this as it is. The less people know about this, the less chances her parents have to discover her secret activity.
***
That morning had been quite the eventful one.
It all started when Minjeong got woken up by an overly excited Yizhuo who, quite literally, jumped on her bed, making Minjeong shriek and wake up in surprise.
“Minjeong!!”
Minjeong groaned and softly tried to push her friend away from her, to no success. Yizhuo was way stronger than her, and kept a firm clutch on Minjeong’s shoulder.
“Ning, I really hope that you have a good reason for barging into my room and waking me up so…” she looked at the alarm clock sitting on the side of her bed. It was seven in the morning. “So early…”
Yizhuo got up from the bed, and giddily started to jump in the room. Minjeong couldn’t help but to think that her friend had gone completely crazy. Well, it’s not like she had ever been normal before… But this was a whole new kind of crazy! Who even breaks into someone’s room, jumps on them to wake them up and then proceeds to do freaking jumping jacks on said person’s bedroom floor??
Minjeong loves Yizhuo, she truly does. She’s the first and only friend she made during high school, and they even got the opportunity to follow each other in college. Although the carefree girl chose an arts major, very much fitting for such a bright and colorful person. Quite the contrary from Minjeong’s gray and boring law major…
And they had even rented an apartment together, deciding to become roommates as soon as they both got accepted in the same university. But seeing the current situation Minjeong was in, maybe it hadn’t been that much of a great idea…
Overall, Minjeong is what can be called a loner. She finds herself enjoying her sole presence most of the time, and doesn’t really seek connections with other people. She doesn’t mind being around them, but it’s just not a necessity for her.
And Yizhuo is way more than enough for her to handle already anyways…
“It’s just that I was walking in the hallways and saw the flyer of a band saying they’re recruiting! And guess what…” Yizhuo marked a dramatic pause. “They agreed to meet me so I can show them my skills, isn’t it awesome??”
Oh yeah, Minjeong forgot to mention it but Yizhuo is also a drummer. And a very talented one too.
She always felt bad about hiding away her love for music from her best friend. Sometimes, knowing she’s keeping such an important part of herself away from the person she cares about the most keeps her awake at night because of how stressful and painful it is to her.
But she feels overjoyed to see that her friend can enjoy music as freely as she would have liked to be the case for her. When Yizhuo is in front of her set of drums, she looks the happiest. The way she carelessly hit the drums and cymbals flawlessly and never missing a note in the process always hypnotized Minjeong.
The fact that music could bring so much joy to someone was a foreign yet familiar feeling for her.
She groggily sat up against her bedframe and looked at her friend, registering what she had just said.
“Woah that’s…” she offered her friend a genuine smile. “That’s really good Ning, I’m happy for you.”
The other girl laughed, obviously excited about the recent turn of events, and very much obvious to the whirlwind of emotions happening in Minjeong’s mind. “Hehe, thank you!” She sent Minjeong a mischievous wink. “I won’t forget you when I become famous!”
Minjeong rolled her eyes at that and got up, making her way towards the bathroom. It was a bit early, but might as well start her day already.
***
“Jimin! You’ll never believe me!”
Jimin, who was busy cleaning her shiny black bass, looked up and saw Aeri pacing around the club room. “What’s up?”
“Someone contacted me to audition for the band!!”
Hearing this, Jimin jumped from the couch she had been sitting on and dashed towards her friend, shaking Aeri’s shoulders in the process.
“No way !”
“Yes way!!”
Both girls jumped and laughed together. “Her name is Ning Yizhuo, she’s a freshie and plays the drums!”
Jimin rejoiced. “Damn a drummer really?? Is it our lucky day or something?”
Aeri giggled in return, but sounded just as excited as her friend. “Yup!” she said, popping the ‘p’. “We’re gonna meet her today actually.”
Jimin couldn’t believe it. Finally, they will maybe be able to form a real band!
Truth be told, Aeri and her had always wanted to be part of a band. They met at a record store during their middle school days, and have been inseparable ever since then. Music united them, and they wanted nothing more than to share this joyful feeling with the whole world.
But finding bandmates had been quite the hard task… In high school, they had already tried but it was always just the two of them in this. They even thought about officially playing as a duo at some point! Aeri on the guitar, and Jimin on the bass. They would be unstoppable.
But what is a bass without its drums, and a lonely guitar without its rhythm or lead guitar…
They needed to be four, or none. And they had been forced to come to terms with this sad reality when they were faced with the empty sound they were making with only two people playing.
So hearing that they might finally get a new bandmate was such a joy!
Aeri told her that they would meet with Yizhuo after classes, inside the clubroom. And this was all Jimin could think about throughout the day. If they could acquire a new bandmate, it would be a very great start to form an actual and functioning band in the end! Their dreams might actually come true!
So Jimin sat through her long and boring lectures, not bothering to pay any attention to them. Only the upcoming meeting with Yizhuo mattered.
But life had other plans for her. As soon as her lecture ended, she packed her stuff, shoved it into her bag and attempted to dash out of the room. But before she could even stand up, her teacher approached her, asking if she could bring some papers to the teachers’ office. Talk about bad luck…
But Jimin is a good student, so of course she will do it. So she sent a text to Aeri, saying that she’ll be late, took the stack of paper from the teacher’s desk, and made her way towards the office.
She really hopes Aeri won’t mess up the audition, and make the girl run away. She can be… quite intense sometimes after all…
***
Teachers can be such a handful sometimes.
What was supposed to be a quick detour to the teachers’ office ended up becoming a whole animated discussion on school matters. Jimin couldn’t know though, she completely tuned out what the teachers excitedly yapped about. She did stay in the room though, waiting for the teachers to finally send her off. The perks of being a polite and well-behaved student…
And by the time they finally freed her, Yizhuo was already half-way done with her audition. And this frustrated Jimin to no end! She wanted to meet the drummer as well, and it was simply not fair that only Aeri got to do it!
Huffing in frustration, Jimin got out of the room and stomped through the hallway. To other people, the usually charismatic student looked like an angry cat.
But Jimin could not care less. Can anyone really blame her though? She’s really pissed!
But as she walked through the corridors, a faint melody caught her attention. It was coming from a classroom somewhere on her floor. But who in their right mind could possibly be playing music in this part of the building and at this hour? Hell, the sun was already fully set!
But Jimin is curious. Extremely curious.
So she swiftly made her way towards the suspicious room, and peek through the half opened room.
There, sat on a lonely chair a young woman with dashing blonde hair. The way she carried herself made Jimin’s breath get stuck in her throat. The girl was… breathtaking. She looked like a human-sized doll.
Jimin noticed how peaceful she looked with her guitar safely nestled in between her arms. She was strumming chords, and humming a soft melody along with it. And the sight simply hypnotized Jimin.
The whole picture was incredible. But as Jimin admired the scene, her eyes eventually landed on the girl’s hands. Calloused, veiny and extremely attractive. Jimin blushed at the thought. Come on, get a grip Yu Jimin!
It seemed like the mysterious woman hadn’t noticed her presence though. And Jimin being herself… forgot that she was supposed to be snooping around. And without even thinking about it, she slammed the door open, ran towards the girl and stopped in front of her.
“Hey, do you wanna join my band?”
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