Yooji: Love is War [Winrina]

10: Rightfully Mine

          My eyes focused themselves on the sheet music placed securely on the shelf as my fingers grazed the ivory keys of my keyboard from side to side as if to estimate the distance of one chord to another while both my feet hovering over the pedal in case some notes needed to be sustained.

          The sharps, minims, semibreves, crotchets, and other music notes seemed to come to life the more I immersed myself in my own world. They danced perfectly in sync, hopping to a certain tune, and made it easier for me to imprint them in my memory.

          Memorizing the chords of a song or piece had always been fun especially if I was doing it inside the music club filled with people who would never pressure me and would smile understandingly if I make a mistake.

          It was refreshing to know that I don’t have to be the best around them.

          “Man, you’ve only been at it for around thirty minutes but you’re already halfway through mastering the song,” said Yeji who was most likely peeking from behind me.

          “It doesn’t have a lot of chords,” I replied without looking, adamant about playing half of the song before I proceed to practice the remaining half. “It is easier than learning symphonies.”

          I plan on finishing this before my next class starts so I wouldn’t have to worry about this later and just focus on my academics.

          Time management.

          If you were good at this, then you would never find yourself cramming. Fortunately, I happen to be one of the people blessed with such useful skill.

          A familiar bass riff suddenly resonated across the enclosed room, coaxing me to abandon the keyboard and turned around to pay close attention to Yeji who was playing her instrument with great expertise.

          The way her fingers swiftly plucked the strings while the other was pressing down some chords in quick succession to create a deep-toned sound that was so pleasing in the ears rendered me in awe.

          Everyone including myself gave her a round of applause after her mini-performance. Some were even voicing their adoration out loud with praises here and there.

          Yeji bowed a bit and gave them a tight-lipped smile before her gaze moved to meet mine.

          “How was it?”

          “It was great.” I gave her a thumbs up. “For a second there, I thought I was watching a professional bassist performing in front of a large audience.”

          “That’s a lie.” She chuckled as she carefully placed her bass down on the stand. “But I appreciate the compliment, cupcake.”

          My ears perked up at the unexpected way she addressed me.

          “Cupcake?” I repeated, eyeing her curiously. “Since when do you use cringy pet names?”

          As far as I could remember, Yeji only calls me by either my first or last name. This sudden change was honestly amusing. I didn’t expect that to come out of her mouth.

          “I usually use them with my friends.” Her sly grin had a tinge of shyness on it. “I’ve gotten used to it now I called you that without thinking.”

          Oh?

          That’s interesting.

          “Does that mean you consider me as your friend?” I said it with the purpose of poking fun at her but she merely responded indifferently.