The Dawn Dreamers

You and Me, Secretly

Baekhyun parks his car nearby and gets off. He just stands there for a while, inhaling the nice cold air tonight. He can still smell the rain as he makes his way towards his corner, even though it has stopped mere minutes ago. This place isn't such a secret anymore since he released his song, vaguely describing it. His fans have managed to guess the approximate spot - he expected it. This hill is so precious that he just had to share his feelings and memories of being here, but he made sure to not mention anything specific about his corner. He always wants to share his feelings with his fans. To a certain extent, they're like his good friends. But you gotta keep some things to yourself, still. He thinks to himself. And I'm glad I did.

He's watching the night view below from as he walks towards his corner, behind some unassuming trees that make the park looks like it ends there. Little did anyone knows, it doesn't. 

His last few steps stops abruptly when he hears something behind those trees. A voice? He thinks. No, a song. It's just a soft hum but I think know this song from somewhere. He peeks carefully into the direction of the voice. On the bench where he would usually sit, he sees a hooded figure sitting down. She, he assumes from the voice coming out of the person, is looking out to the city lights below - just like he would had he be the one sitting there. Something is faintly lit up on the bench beside her. A phone? And a wire connected that phone to the head underneath the hoodie. She's listening to something from her phone. Ah, damnit. Baekhyun curses to himself. Now someone has found out about this corner too. He's about to quietly turns around and leave in disappointment when it clicks on him. This is a game soundtrack. That's why he knows this melody. Which game was it again? He leans on the tree he's been hiding behind and listens more intently. The girl is still humming. Accidentally, his keys fell out of his hand and the keychains jangles. Shit, shit. He curses internally. But there's no reaction. He peeks again and sees a faint smoke coming out of the hooded head. She's smoking, perhaps. And clearly all noise-cancelled by her headphones. Phew. Then, very quietly, he sits himself down behind the tree. She sounds nice. It's a nice voice. Soothing, he would say. She misses some notes, as you sometimes do when you sing along to a song without being able to hear yourself, but it remains a nice and soothing voice. He can hear the song that he now remembers coming to an end, and within a minute she starts humming a new song. Baekhyun realizes it's another game soundtrack - in fact, this time it's one of his personal favorites. He chuckles. What the hell am I doing right now.

_______________________________

"Seriously, you need to get a date or something," She hears her sister's laughter from the other end of the phone. "Why are you calling me at this hour on a Saturday night instead of enjoying the weekend outside. The company is wasting their money providing you an apartment in the heart of Seoul." 

"Jokes on you, you little shit. I am outside right now." She snickers. "Let me guess, sitting somewhere quiet on your own. Smoking and drinking beer on your own. Jana, the party animal." Her sister's familiar mockery is not lost on her. "BE FUN!"

"Excuse me, I'm so fun." Jana complains. "Anyways, I'm just here listening to some Chrono Chross soundtrack and I remember you. But now that you've proven to still be such a little shit, I'd rather join my private party. Gotta hang up, super busy." Her sister laughs again and Jana misses her even more. "Fine, fine. Love you, Beautiful. BYES!"

She hangs up and goes back into being lost in her own little world.

Her favorite song comes on and she can't help but smile. Back when they were young, she would play this game a lot with her sister and this is their favorite song. She starts humming along the soothing guitar melody. Her fingers dances in the air, a habit she has when enjoying her favorite songs.

She thinks about what her sister said and sighs. She probably does need to get back into socializing a little. Just a little, to balance out her introvert tendencies. Not that she thinks it's wrong being an introvert. But she finds herself getting lazier and lazier to spend time talking to people and that can't be good for her work. Her line of work demands her to collaborate and exchange ideas with varieties of people. 

Zelda's Ocarina of Time comes into play and she continues humming the melody. 

This is one of her all-time favorites, but the previous one from Chrono Chross, a cult-classic RPG she used to spend whole days and nights playing... Yasunori Mitsuda, who composed the music, was THE composer that made her want to become one herself. Before that she was just a music lover who played tons of games. But after listening to this song, it dawned on her that there are people making a living creating these gorgeous music for the games she loved playing. It kickstarted her obsession over game soundtracks. She began to spend her time learning the music more than playing the games. And then she moved into film scores. And suddenly she started getting into all kinds of different music. Without realizing, life has brought her to the path she now walks on. Over a decade of staying up late getting to understand different music and instruments, underpaid projects, and a long list of solid portfolio later; she's here. In South Korea, thousand miles away from home, composing and producing all kinds of game music. Her works might've not been very big in the mainstream area. But she's big in the indie game scene. She's the J. Schmidt  that gamers would almost always see in the credits of many successful indie games OST. The offer she took up from the company six months ago was her break into the mainstream industry. 

Yeah, maybe her sister's right. She needs to brush up on her social skills. Things are different now. Being a shut-in and geeking out on music and games alone won't be enough to get her anywhere in the mainstream industry. 

"Haaaaa....!" She exhales loudly and stretches her arms. Her wristwatch tells her it's an hour past midnight. Guess it's time to go home and try to sleep. She takes off her headphones and reaches out to the phone beside her when she notices something sitting right next to it. A napkin. With some writing. Wait, was it here before? What's that written in the napkin?

Chrono Chross - Guldove Home World. Didn't wanna disturb you and swear I'm not a creepy stalker. But feel free to never reach out to me if you don't trust this message. -B

And some numbers are written under the message. SOMEONE WAS HERE AND APPROACHED ME WITHOUT ME NOTICING?!

She feels the hairs on the back of her neck standing as she looks around anxiously. Without wasting anymore second, she half-runs out of there - clutching the pepper spray she keeps in the pocket of her hoodie.